Step+by+Step+Instructional+Strategies

= Step-by-Step Instructional Strategies =
 * ==Goals and Objectives: ==
 * ===To answer the essential question, "What makes your community a great place to live?", Students will produce a digital poster using Glogster to tell about important aspects of their communities. Students will be required to fulfill each of the objectives below: ===
 * **Students will examine other communities by viewing digital posters from 2 other classes across the country. **
 * **Students will Create an online digital poster or 'Glog' about their own community to share with their learning communities. **
 * **Students will include 3 important aspects from their own community in their poster. **
 * **Students will import their finished glogs into their learning communities blog. **
 * **Students will view glogs and comment upon them in their learning communities blog. **
 * **Students will post and reply to everyone in their learning community. **
 * **Students will learn how to create a blog and use it effectively. **
 * **Students will collaborate with a learning community across country utilizing blogger. **


 * ==Essential Question: ==
 * ==What makes your community a great place to live? ==


 * =Supporting Questions: =
 * **What makes a good town/city/community? **
 * **How could you make your town/city/Community better? **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What are 3 important aspects of your community? Why do you find these important? **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How do each of these aspects help your community? **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What is a difference between your community and the other 2 communities represented in your learning community? **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If these differences were implemented in your own community how might it change your community? **


 * ==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How are these authentic question for your learners? ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">According to Jamie McKenzie, Author of "Learning to Question, to wonder, to Learn...", essential questions have certain traits that make them ‘essential’. These traits include the following: **


 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The question probes a matter of considerable importance. **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The question requires movement beyond understanding and studying - some kind of action or resolve - pointing toward the settlement of a challenge, the making of a choice or the forming of a decision. **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The question cannot be answered by a quick and simple “yes” or “no” answer. **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The question probably endures, shifts, and evolves with time and changing conditions - offering a moving target in some respects. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">(@http://questioning.org/mar05/essential.htm) **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Essential question for this project has all of the traits of an essential question. Learning about communities and comparing them is a matter of considerable importance. Students will research their own communities and find out what they believe makes their community a great place to live. Through this students will understand much more than aspects of their community. They will go beyond just information formation into the upper levels of Blooms Taxonomy to really understand the implications of the essential question. Students will create, organize, analyze, evaluate, and apply the knowledge that they gain through out the project. The essential question must be pondered and cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. It is engaging and provokes evaluation because it deals with the learner’s world and how they not only perceive it but also how others perceive it. The essential question encourages students to compare and contrast different attributes of not only their communities but others as well. **

= =
 * =<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Three Classrooms' Collaboration Activity: How will your three classes collaborate in answering the essential question? (one-paragraph description) =
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Our classrooms will collaborate by utilizing blogger. Each learning community will have 6 students ( 2 from each school). Each learning community will set up a blog in which they will collectively comment upon each others community posters or 'Glogsters' that they created about their own community. Each group of 2 in the learning community will be responsible for posting an initial posting talking about their 'Glogster' that they created. Each individual person will then be responsible for commenting upon all other posts within their blog. Members will be responsible for asking questions about the other communities. **


 * =<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Each Classroom’s Collaboration: How will students within each class collaborate on different parts of the project? (one-paragraph description) =
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students within each class will collaborate with each other in groups of 2. Each group of 2 will be responsible for creating a community poster using Glogster. Each group of 2 must collaborate together to come up with an idea for their poster and also to create it. Groups of 2 must work together to create their glogster - agreeing upon each aspect. Each collaborative group will need to work together to research their community utilizing the internet and various other sources such as the community newspaper, school newsletter, and so on. **


 * =<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Equipment: List the equipment needed to teach your unit =
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Internet access **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Computers **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Glogster account **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">EduBlogs account **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Various tutorials **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Library materials such as community newspaper, books about their community, and school newsletter publications. **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Research databases **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Internet search sites such as Google **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Smart Board (not required but would be beneficial) **


 * ==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Step-by-Step Instructional Strategies: Describe each step you will follow in implementing your project, including a description of each activity. Describe them in sequential order and with enough detail that another teacher could pick up your instructional strategies and teach from them. ==


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Prior to starting the project: Day 0 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 1. A teacher will find willing teachers and classes to participate in this type of collaboration activity. Finding teachers to participate in collaboration activities may be found on the following websites. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> a. ePals – [|http://www.epals.com] **
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. Tapped In – [|http://tappedin.or] **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 2. Once communication has been established the initial teacher will make sure the collaborating teachers and classrooms understand the goals and objectives for this activity. Once the ground rules have been set, all teachers will locate and request use of computers for their classes. One computer for every 2 students will be needed for this collaboration activity. Computers should be equipped with web-cam's, speakers/microphones, Skype, and internet access. **


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Start of Project: Day 1 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 3. Each class will divide their students into pairs of 2 students each. These pairs will be the basis for the collaboration among the three different classes. Students with similar backgrounds and like/dislikes should not be paired together. This will not only increase awareness among classmates, but it will ensure that all collaboration groups will have a greater understanding of each culture, community, and ultimately an authentic experience. Each group of 2 will be assigned a color*. This color will be utilized later in the collaboration process. Once groups are created and colors are assigned a master list can be created of all the groups. The master list should be created by one teacher and distributed to the other two teachers involved in the project. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">* Note: Example: Let's say each class has 30 students. Within each class students will be divided into groups of 2 and each group of 2 will be assigned a color (the 15 colors to be used only once per classroom include - red, yellow, blue, green, grey, purple, magenta, pink, black, white, brown, silver, gold, orange, & teal = 30 students total - 15 groups of 2/class) Each class will assign one of these 15 colors to each group of 2. When students get together to collaborate their learning community will collaborate in their assigned color groups - each color group/learning community will have 6 students or 3 groups of 2 ( for example: the red group will have 2 red members from class 1, 2 red members from class 2, and 2 red members from class 3- these 6 students will form the red learning community- The same will be done with all of the other colors) **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 4. Each teacher will make contact with each class by utilizing a web-cam and Skype. Through this video conference each group of students will be able to meet the other students that have been assigned to their 'color' learning community. Also during this initial contact students in each group will each tell one thing that they like about their community. **


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Project Research: Day 2 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">5. Teachers will allow each group to brainstorm individually concerning their culture and community. Teachers will guide students through the process of how to brainstorm, to include any possible activities that will enable students to think creatively. Students should collaborate with their partner and come up with their specific ideas concerning people, places, and attractions that they might want to include in their glog; for example, local geographic features, favorite or unique restaurants, and local national parks or other places of historical significance in the area (tourist attractions). The computers may be utilized during this phase of the activity or students may use pen and paper or provided flowcharts or other brainstorming worksheets the teacher might want to provide. Computers may also be used during this phase if research needs to be completed by the individual groups. Teachers can also walk students through a quick introduction of how to complete research using the World Wide Web. Students might already understand how to use general search engines such as Google, but might need more direction in understanding if the information they find is relevant and credible. If teachers need ideas or templates they may find them on the following websites which are geared toward elementary level students. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">a. Eslflow - [] **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. In Our Write Minds - [|http://www.writeshop.com/blog/2008/11/04/brainstorming-with-5-to- 8-year-olds/] **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> c. Bright Hub - [] **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">6. Next each individual class will then brainstorm as a whole group activity. Each individual group will have a chance to add information that they have learned through their research concerning their culture and community. The teacher will facilitate the communication, but ultimately there will be a decision made on what 3 areas the classes will use to create their Glogs. For example: the classes may decide on food, tourist attractions and geographic features in their community. Once each group has added their input each class will vote on 3 significant areas that everyone Must include in their glogs. Once each class has chosen 3 areas then the 9 aspects will be listed and students will vote individually for the 3 they like most. After each student has voted the votes will be tallied and the 3 significant areas with the most votes will be the 3 areas that will be required for each group to include in their glog. Individual groups may choose to include up to 2 more items of their choosing but the 3 significant areas that were voted and decided upon by all classes MUST be included in each groups glogs. The teacher observations taken during the individual group sharing will also act as a formative assessment to see if the students understand the activity before any more steps are taken in the collaboration process. If the initial individual brainstorming activity did not yield the results the individual teachers were looking for then go back to Step 4 and provide more guidance to the students in their brainstorming process. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">7. While the students are brainstorming in the classrooms the teachers and media specialists need to familiarize themselves with the interactive poster tool of Glogster. Websites and totorials have been listed on the resources page and links to those are below: **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> a. What is Glogster EDU - [] **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. Detailed tutorial on Glogster EDU – Video **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">c. Discover Education recommends Glogster EDU - Video **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">8. The teacher will need to create a Glogster EDU account and “add” students for their free Glogster. How to do this is located on the Glogster EDU site and in some of the tutorials if it was missed while reading through the webpage and watching the videos. **


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Learning to use Glogster: Day 3 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">9. Once the individual brainstorming and class discussions have been completed it is time for the students to learn how to use Glogster to create their interactive poster. Media specialists in addition to the classroom teacher will help the students understand how to create, use, imbed, and upload their information concerning their specific culture, community, food, activities, etc. This will take some time for the students to understand how to use the website and move objects or learn to embed things into their interactive poster. *Note: Teachers need to make sure that both students in each of the groups understands how to use Glogster and that both students have equal time using the computer. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">10. The individual teachers will need to access each groups Glogster and grade them according to the rubric. The rubric will be utilized by the teacher to ensure that students understood the directions and used the new technology appropriately for the activity. This summative assessment can be done during class time or the teacher can access each student’s Glogster under their dashboard on Glogster. Again this information can be found on the Glogster website and in the videos. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">11. The teachers and media specialists will need to familiarize themselves with how to use a blog while students are creating their Glogster poster. An education friendly site to use for blogging is edublogs. Edublogs also has an extensive help section featuring PDFs and short videos. Use the following resources to become familiar with Edulblogs in preparation for teacher the students how to use them in the next step in this collaboration activity. **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">a. Edublogs Help Section: @http://help.edublogs.org/getting-started-with-edublogs/ **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">b. Getting started handout- pdf. Document **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">c. Writing your first post help section: @http://help.edublogs.org/2009/07/29/writing-your-first-post/ **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">d. Inserting images into your post help section: @http://help.edublogs.org/2009/07/29/inserting-images-into-your-posts/ **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">e. Inserting Glogster into your post help section: @http://edublogs.org/forums/topics.php?id=6531 **


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">12. Teachers and media specialists will walk the students in each class through how to create a blog page for this collaboration assignment. Each group will be assigned a specific title for their blog for the teachers to be able to keep track of and find each blog via the three classes participating in collaboration. Each group could be assigned a color as their distinction therefore blog names would be teacher’s last name followed by a pre-assigned color – ex. SmithYellow. Students will upload their Glogster to their blog page. **


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Viewing Glogsters: Day 4 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">13. Students will visit the blog pages from students in the collaboration classes. Students may not access student’s blog in their class. The pair of students will look at the Glogster posters and leave comments on the student’s blog pages telling them what they thought was interesting, different, and similar to their Glogster they created. Students will be scored according to the rubric for blog postings and comments. During this process of looking at various Glogster posters groups of students will also complete 2 Venn diagrams showing the similarities and differences between their own community and the other two communities. Each group of 2 will complete 2 Venn diagrams (1 per person) - comparing their community with each of the other 2 groups in their learning community. Students should think critically and have mindful reflection concerning the different cultures of the students in the different classes. Because students are paired they will be able to help each other think how their culture is different from the students who created the Glogster posters they will be observing. This task of reflecting on different Glogster posters may be difficult for some students in which case the teacher may need to help them create links in their thought processes. **


 * ==<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Final Reflection: Day 5 ==


 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">14. Finally students will read through the comments left on their personal blog page concerning their Glogster poster. The two students must submit individual final reflections of this collaboration activity. This reflection must include similarities and differences observed between the different cultures of the different classes. Also the students need to practice writing skills and good sentence structure as well as correct grammar and spelling. Students will be given a rubric for this summative assessment. **


 * =<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Formative Assessment Strategies: These should be identified as formative assessment, but should be integrated in your step-by-step instructional strategies. =


 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Questioning strategies within the lessons **
 * ****Self assessment****
 * ****Peer assessment****
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teacher observations **


 * =<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Summative Assessment Strategies: These should be identified as summative assessment, but should be integrated in your step-by-step instructional strategies. =


 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Product evaluation - scored by rubric **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Venn diagram to compare communities **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Blog postings and comments - scored by rubric **
 * **<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Final reflection - scored by rubric **