Spotlight on the 1995
SIGTel
Online Award Winners
Sharing
the Community Resources—From LAN to WAN
Nancy
Barkhouse
Atlantic View
Elementary
School
R.R. #2 Porter's Lake
Halifax
County, B0J
2S0 Canada
Paragraph Summary of
Lesson Plan
Students are developing web pages focusing on the local features of
our community,
activities, and local craftspeople. For example, so far they have
composed articles
on winter surfing, the school, our multicultural dance program, NS
International
Tattoo, and local author Lesley Choyce. Students work in small groups,
brainstorming
information and writing first drafts. Then clusters of students or the
whole
class works on devleoping a composite writeup. Using Netscape and
SimpleText,
the article is converted to HTML. (So far the teacher has done the
HTML version,
but students will soon be involved with this aspect, also.)
Objectives of
Lesson
- Writing for a purpose
- Cooperative learning groups
- Creating links to other countries/cultures
- Seeing ourselves as educators as well as learners
Hardware/Software
Needed
Students do initial typing of articles on the four LAN stations (1Mb
MacPlus
units) in our classroom using Microsoft Word 4 or Kidstime
Storywriter. We use
a Macintosh LC520 connected at 9600 baud dial-up connection, also in
our room.
Netscape/SimpleText are used for HTML. My personal NSTN account is
used.
Telecommunications
Resources Needed
or Recommended
Modem and phone line. A site for storing web pages is also needed.
Schoolnet
has offered to post any pages for teachers/schools. NSTN will also
post pages
for any teacher holding an account with them. Our URL is
HTTP://fox.nstn.ca/~nbarkhou/avshome.html.
[Note: This URL is no longer active.]
Importance (Role) of
Telecommunications
in this Plan
Without telecommunications, our project could not be seen by anyone
outside
our classroom, nor could we tap into resources throughout the world.
We have
links from our page to several others. We are receiving feedback (very
positive!)
from numerous sources.
Curriculum Area(s)
Involved
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, social studies
Grade Level(s)
Targeted
The class involved is a Grade 3/4 combined class. It could be done
with any
grades above Grade 2 following the method we use. With the teacher
assuming
more responsibility, younger classes could contribute.
Class Management
Strategies
The students work individually for some parts of the writing process,
in small
groups at times and as a large class when we view the finished product
on line
via the LC 575 in our room. After students interview a guest (author,
surfer,
craftsperson) or watch a performance (e.g., Razzmatazz), they work in
small
groups brainstorming and getting rough ideas on paper. There is a LOT
of discussion
at this stage. Later, students read what they've written to others.
Then we
wither continue as a large group or assign the final rewriting to a
small group.
The article is typed on one of the MacPlus stations on our school LAN.
Then
it is transferred to SimpleText and converted to HTML or pilled into
ClarisWorks
and saved as HTML. We (class) run Netscape and view our developing web
article,
refining as need be. Once we are satisfied with the version, we FTP it
to our
directory at NSTN. A link is also added to our home page and that
revised file
is also FTPd to NSTN.
Class Time
Required
Varies greatly, depending on whether we need to do other research or
can go
from brainstorm to completed rough draft straight away. On the
average, two
or three mornings are sufficient.
Print Materials
Needed
This depends on the topic. So far our sources of info have been
people or events.
We'll soon tackle a project on dinosaurs and anticipate uses library
resources,
books, videos, charts, as well as doing some web surfing after
conducting a
search (or searches) using YAHOO.
Procedures/Activities
- Select topic
- Collect information (interview, research, field trip)
- Follow the steps of the writing process (brainstorm, write,
conference,
revise, conference, self-edit, final edit). Typing could be at any
stage from
first draft to final stages depending on availability of computers
and authors'
preference.
- Convert to HTML
- FTP file
- Create link to home page
Method(s) for Evaluating
Student
Achievement of Objectives
Students are evaluated as they would be for any writing/group
activities. Participation
and effort are most important although skill development, information
synthesis,
and so on are noted as usual.
|
