Project Activities:
Students in groups of three
to four children will design a mini-lesson for second language learners
to help them improve and acquire the English language.
Student projects will be completed by December 1, 2004. Since
we are using several technology standards, the teacher will design a brief
survey of the technology skills to determine the prior technology experience
students already have that will be valuable to the teams. Alice Packard,
my teammate and collaborator, and I will work together throughout this project
to ensure the development and success of the project
· Initially, students
will brainstorm the original list of potential topics for mini-lessons.
They will decide what topic their group will work on. They will determine
their method of instruction to design their lesson. They will
choose what technology they want to use to construct the project. They
will have opportunities for assessing their progress and determine what
revisions and editions need to take place. They
will have opportunities to use their creative talents to enhance their projects.
· The
first milestone or short-term goal will be for the students to create a
story board or poster that will explain their project. (Roughdraft). To accomplish this first goal, students will have
collaborated with their teams, researched information,
developed their lesson plan, and recorded their plans on the storyboard
or poster. This first milestone will be
accomplished by the third week of September. · The
second milestone or short term goal for this project will be to actually
teach the lesson and record it with video or digital cameras. To accomplish this task, the teacher will have to
have taught some students to be “experts” on using the digital camera or
the video camera. These tasks will be accomplished
by the third week of October.
·
Additional milestones will include taking the video or digital photographs,
music, graphics, etc. to create the iMovie or Power Point presentation. These presentations will be due by the end of November. The iMovies and Power Point presentations will then
be linked to the El Toro Web Site by January 1, 2005.
·
The final project will be Power Point or iMovie mini-lessons for second
language learners that will be linked to a website. Students
will complete their mini-lessons by the third week of October. Final
projects, linked with the web site, will be completed by January 1, 2005.
· Student
posters and storyboards will be displayed in class throughout the duration
of project. Once the web site is complete, parents and students will
have access to this on their computers at home, in the classroom, and in
the lab. We will use a projector to display this to the whole class
at one time, as well as show it during Open House.
We will invite the fourth grade classes into our room to view the
projects. Our teacher for second language learners
will also have the opportunity to share this with all of her students in
the computer lab so that they are all aware of what is available to them
on the El Toro Web Site.
· We will have an evening celebration in January
and invite the students, their families, district level administration,
our school board members, and our Home and School club leadership to attend
and celebrate our success together!