Final Project: Effective Use of Computers as

Mindtools in the Classroom

Misti Holloway and Katherine Jones

Digital Technologies in EducationITC 5220-375Spring 2012

The Civil Rights Movement Collaborative Group Projects

Cross-Curricular Project: The Help novel, the Civil Rights Movement, & 21st Century

Skills Junior Honors Classes

2012-2013

Overview of Cross-curricular project: The Civil Rights

Movement & The Help• Teachers from different curricular areas plan a unit implementing

English, History, and Technology into a research project.

• The students are placed in groups of three to four students to complete work assignments for ten different work stations.

• Each assignment topic is related to an important event that took place during the Civil Rights movement.

• For each station, students read background information, research, and produce a product.

• All ten products will be put together into one presentation incorporating technology, collaboration, and creative thinking.

• Knowledge Construction Tools, Social Mediating, Dynamic Modeling Tools, and Semantic Tools are used throughout the process.

Project Goals• Students will construct knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement

while locating, organizing, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information from a variety of sources during research.

• Students will demonstrate creative thinking while developing innovative products using technology.

• Students will interact, collaborate, and publish with peers employing a variety of digital environments and media.

• Students will create original works as means of personal expression.

• Students will demonstrate a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

Source: The ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Students

SOCIAL MEDIATING IN EDUCATION used with the class website

Class Websites for Social Mediating

Wiki Assignment Number and Technology Requirements for

Final Presentation (in red)• Assignment One: Harlem Renaissance

• (Design a timeline using Microsoft word.)• Use http://

www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/how-to/Pages/creating-timeline.aspx

• Assignment Two: Segregation • (Create an infomercial using Flip Video.)

• Assignment Three: School Desegregation • (Design graph using Excel.) • See http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

• Assignment Four: The Montgomery Bus Boycott • (Compose a news article and illustrate with clip art or

graphic.)

• Assignment Five: Sit-Ins • (Create “blogs” for famous people involved in sit-ins. What

do you think they would they write in their blog?)

Wiki Assignment Number and Technology Requirements for

Final Presentation (in red) cont.

• Assignment Six: Freedom Riders • (Recreate a newscast to explain detail of events.)• Use Flip Video to film and save.

• Assignment Seven: Desegregating Southern Universities

• (Create your own Museum Box to describing this event in history.)• Use http://museumbox.e2bn.org/.

• Assignment Eight: The March on Washington • (Each student collect highlights of event from The Library of Congress

American Memory website. Explain why you selected that article.)

• Assignment Nine: Voter Registration• (Create a collaborative Google map of historic events.)• See Google Maps mash-ups.

• Assignment Ten: The End of the Movement• (Create Madlibs to summarize the end of the movement as well as

main ideas from all ten stations.)• See Madlibs example.

Harlem Renaissance Time Line Station

Groups will participating in group work stations.

There are ten stations in all each focused on an important event that took place during the Civil Rights Movement.

Teacher teams will set up work stations in their classes and allow time for groups to work on research and product production.

Example of Group Work Station Set-up

Group Work Stations 1-3 in English Class

Group Work Stations

4-6 in Social Studies

Group Work Stations 7-10 in technology or

exploratory wheel

Group Work Station Procedure

Start at assigned

group work

station number.

Open The Help forum. Go to Civil

Rights Movement link. Find

the PowerPoint

for your station.

Read background information

.

Review rubric for the group work

station.

Research topic and

collaborate with group to complete

assigned task.

Assignment One: Harlem Renaissance

Knowledge Construction

Tools Hyperlinks in

PowerPoint used to build

background information

.

Video linked into

PowerPoint for building background information.

Additional research to

topic by students using assigned links.

Social Mediating

Discussion using blog

on teacher’s website.

Collaboration using

Wiki page.

Students will share personal forms of

expression such as poetry,, art, and

music on blog post.

Dynamic Modeling Tools

Create a timeline

using Microsoft

Word 2010

Use Microsoft drawing tools to create a timeline . Insert into

presentation

Design flow map

for of major events

Design circle

maps for research.

Semantic Tools

Click link below to open PowerPoint for Assignment One.

Rubric for Group’s Presentation

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1

Presentation Well-rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience

attention.

Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time.

Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the

audience most of the time.

Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost.

Sources Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. All documented in

desired format.

Source information collected for all graphics, facts and

quotes. Most documented in desired format.

Source information collected for graphics, facts and quotes, but not documented in desired

format.

Very little or no source information was collected.

Content Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject

knowledge is excellent.

Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject

knowledge appears to be good.

Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-

2 factual errors.

Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.

Organization Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists

to group related material.

Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall

organization of topics appears flawed.

Content is logically organized for the most part.

There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just

lots of facts.

Requirements All requirements are met and exceeded.

All requirements are met. One requirement was not completely met.

More than one requirement was not completely met.

Workload The workload is divided and shared equally by all team

members.

The workload is divided and shared fairly by all team

members, though workloads may vary from person to

person.

The workload was divided, but one person in the group is

viewed as not doing his/her fair share of the work.

The workload was not divided OR several people in the

group are viewed as not doing their fair share of the work.

Overview of The Help Unit

• Students will comprehend the Civil Rights Movement and The Help novel while analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing the plot and historical events in the book.

• Students will interact, collaborate, and publish with peers through answering blog questions on the English teacher’s webpage.

• Students will create blog posts, a character analysis thinking map, and a plot diagram timeline as means of personal expression and novel comprehension.

• Students will demonstrate increased reading comprehension and plot analysis through using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.

The Help Social Mediating

Students will consider and answer weekly blog questions located on the English teacher’s website.

Blogging about the novel encourages students to collaborate with classmates while increasing comprehension of the book.

The Help Semantic Organization Tools

• Students will create a character analysis thinking map on a character from the novel to demonstrate comprehension.

The Help Dynamic Modeling Tools

• Students will create a timeline of important events from the novel using the ReadWriteThink online interactive resource.

Resources http

://www.boxoftricks.net/2008/08/top-ten-tips-for-using-technology-in-the-classroom/ Resources Tab

http://www.classroomtech.org/integration/50ways.htm 50 Ways to Use Technology

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html http://www.iste.org http://

www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/how-to/Pages/creating-timeline.aspx

http://museumbox.e2bn.org/ http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-intera

ctives/

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/

http://www.rubistar.4teachers.org