TitleIII Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

OVERVIEW

Students will discover their community and learn about another community through research, a presentation from the community historian, and e-mail exchange with a third grade class in another community. They will create a mascot and an accompanying journal with community questions to send to a third grade class in another community. The students will perform a service project to improve their community. The meaningful use task requires students to create a travel brochure that provides information and promotes their community.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How does your community compare to a community in another region?

What are some features of your community that might attract others to visit or live there?

How does the community you live in affect your lifestyle?

How can you improve your community?

CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS
List Standard # and Key Idea #: Write out related Performance Indicator(s) or Benchmark(s)

Social Studies Standard #3 Geography: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live- local, national, and global- including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth's surface.

Key idea #1: Geography can be divided into six essential elements that can be used to analyze important historic, geographic, economic, and environmental questions and issues. These six elements include: the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical settings (including natural resources), human systems, environment and society, and the use of geography.

Performance Indicator: Students identify and compare the physical, human, and cultural characteristics of different regions and people.

Key Idea #2: Geography requires the development and application of the skills of asking and answering geographic questions; analyzing theories of geography; and acquiring, organizing, and analyzing geographic information.

Performance Indicator: Students gather and organize geographic information from a variety of sources and display in a number of ways.

English Language Arts Standard #1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

Key Idea #2: Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one's own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensively.

Performance Indicator: Students use details, examples, anecdotes, or personal experience to explain or clarify information.

English Language Arts Standard #4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

Key Idea #2: Written communication for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.

Performance Indicator: Students exchange friendly notes, cards, and letters with friends, relatives, and pen pals to keep in touch and to commemorate special occasions.

INITIATING ACTIVITY

Launch: Students will fill out the "K" and "W" sections of a KWL chart with the question; "What do you know about Morristown?" The local historian will give a tour of the local museum giving us background information about the early settlements and people of Morristown. She will then answer questions from the "W" section of our charts. This information will be used to create a journal that will travel with our school mascot to another community. The journal will also ask similar questions of the other community to be answered by the students in the other third grade class.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In chronological order including acquisition experiences and extending/refining
experiences for all stated declarative and procedural knowledge.

Using textbook and other resources (Internet, maps, photos, books, interviews, data collected) students will:

Lesson One will allow students to evaluate what they have learned from the field trip and guest speaker by filling out the "L" portion of their graphic organizer. As a class we will discuss our findings and classify relevant information versus 'fun facts'.

Lesson Two has the students defining the term "community". The teacher will create a Web with the word community on the inside. Each student will come to the board and add words and phrases they associate with this term. Then the class will refer to the textbook section on community and add/delete items from the web. The class will then fill out a Key Term page and add it to their notebook.

Lesson Three explores the physical features of the community. The students will first define the term "physical features" as they did community in Lesson Two, again adding a Key Term page to their notebook. Then, the students will take a short walking tour of the community. On this tour, the students will be taking pictures using a digital camera, of the landscape, scenery, and general location. These pictures will incorporate the locales mentioned by the historian as well as some important geographic shots.

Lesson Four will require that the students Refine and Extend the information about their community by creating a map of the community. This map will become the first page of a journal to be sent to another community that documents this data and asks geographic, population, and lifestyle questions of another third grade class. For homework that night, students will interview a parent to answer the question, "Why did you choose to live in this community?"

Lesson Five takes the stories of why the parents chose to live in Morristown and classifies this information by creating a bar graph with the following four categories:

1. It's a nice place to live
2. Our family lives here
3. Our job is here
4. Other

Lesson Six has the students refine and extend the interview from parents to write an essay about how and why their parents chose to live in this community. (After going through the writing process, the final copies of the essays will be used in later lessons in this unit.)

Lesson Seven will require students to gather information about the school mascot to be used as an escort for the journal and "vicarious traveler" to the other community. The students will interview the athletic director to find out the mascot’s name, origin, and appearance. From this information the students will meet with the art teacher to discuss and plan the construction of a model school mascot.

Lesson Eight has students working in small groups to divide task of constructing a paper-mache Rocket. One group will use newspaper to construct three cylinders and one cone and then bind it together. The next group prepares the shredded newspaper and paste. The third group applies the mache to the model. The fourth group paints the model when the project has dried. When the Rocket is complete, the class brainstorms names for the mascot. The final choices are listed on the board and the students vote on their choice by secret ballot. The name is painted to the side of the Rocket and the journal is addressed as "Rocky’s Journal".

Lesson Nine brings all of the previous lessons into the personal realm as the students are given the name of their "e-pal" from another state. Given this name, the students will refine and extent the information gathered so far and compose a personal letter to their e-pal. This letter will require them to describe themselves, ask questions, and include one piece of information from the "L" portion of the KWL chart. They may also let the other class know that Rocky is on his way to their community.

Lesson Ten uses the Numbered Heads Strategy to pair students for using the computers, Internet, and e-mail account. Student Number One reads the directions for logging on, accessing the Internet, typing the password and account name, and various other procedures while Student Number Two listens and types, following the directions given without having to look at the list of directions. Once Number Two completes the e-mail and successfully sends it, the two switch places and proceed as before.

Lesson Eleven is a chance for students to use an author circle to share their family stories with the class. The author will receive feedback from the class and use this essay as a letter to their e-pal to elicit similar responses from their e-pals. Once the family stories from the other class are received, the students will again classify the information into a bar graph that will be used to compare to our bar graph with the same information.

Lesson Twelve uses the digital camera pictures of the community to e-mail the scenes to the e-pal. These pictures require captions written by the students as well as personal response to the pal.

Lesson Thirteen refines and extends the community study by discussing a worthwhile project that involves a service project to improve or assist the community. Students will contact the town board, the local historian, and other community members to find out if there are any ongoing or outstanding projects that the community needs support or assistance in carrying out. The class will also generate their own ideas through brainstorming ways to help our community. Once the class has several project ideas, they will vote on the one they wish to pursue. The teacher will organize the event, but the students can be in control of carrying out the fund-raiser to support the "gazebo project". A bake sale raffle is set up and the students contribute by making something, and working the table. Over $240.00 was raised and given to the fund. This project was chosen as one of the first in a series of service projects that the class has been inspired to join and work on to improve and appreciate their community. The local historian who launched the unit suggested the gazebo and the students valued her opinion since she showed such a deep commitment to preserving, appreciating, and improving the community. The gazebo will be built in an historic and scenic area and will host a variety of activities that the students and their families can enjoy.

Lessons Fourteen through? continues the e-pal exchange through e-mail correspondence developing personal relationships, commemorating holidays, and sharing school and community information.

Final Lesson allows students to receive the journal and mascot from the other school and respond to the questions using the information gained throughout the unit, and researching any additional as yet unknown information. The students will also respond by drawing pictures of our school, playground, fire hall, historic sites, etc. to share with the other class. The class will also refine and extend the data collected from Rocky’s journal to complete an Analogy graphic organizer to compare these two communities

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE
Include rubric(s)

 Using the information gathered the students would use information gleaned from the unit to construct support for the appeal of their community and create a travel brochure enticing visitors to our community. They will present their brochures to the local Chamber of Commerce for publication and or distribution at their office.

E-mail Rubric

Rubric for Brochure

Rubric for Presentation

Level 4- Excellent

• The student’s voice is clear and presentation flows to show preparation and poise.
• The student makes good eye contact with the audience and responds appropriately

Level 3- Good

• The student’s voice is mostly clear and presentation is smooth.
• The student makes some eye contact with the audience and responds appropriately some of the time.

Level 2- Fair

• The student’s voice is often difficult to hear and this hinders presentation.
• The student rarely makes eye contact with the audience and almost never responds to cues from the audience.

Level 1- Not Yet

• The student’s voice is inaudible or muffled and the information is not presented.
• The student makes no eye contact with the audience and is unable to respond.

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

Experience with using the Internet and e-mail.

Familiarity with graphic organizers.

Familiarity with form and content of a friendly letter.

MODIFICATIONS

 All lessons will follow individual I.E.P.

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

 Approximately 6 weeks to gather information, send journal, receive information back, and classify that information. Time must also be allowed to develop interpersonal relationships with students from another school so that comparisons may be made and understood.

TECHNOLOGY USE

 Internet for exploring community website and using e-mail. Computers and software for creating travel brochure.