Friday, December 30, 2011

Happy New Year !

I would like to wish you an early Happy New Year ! I was very busy last semester. I started a new part time job. I took two courses at a community college and did not post often to the blog. I will post more often this semester.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

WEBQUEST

Webquest : Colonial America... Please click on the links below to navigate to that section of the Webquest. A WebQuest for 4th Grade Designed by {Gabriella Robinson}Email address: grobinson@greenville.k12.sc.us Original webquest template
Please leave this credit line in your webquest so that others can find the original template. Thanks!
design by Dan Schellenberg using valid XHTML and CSS. Task2 Introduction This webquest will allow you to take a virtual journey to the time of Colonial America. You will explore Jamestown, Virginia and Colonial South Carolina during this activity. Please read all of the directions carefully and work independently. You may consult with the other students in your group. But do not seek help from your teacher or students who are not working in your group. Your teacher will monitor your group and assist and evaluate your while you work on this activity. Good Luck!
Essential Questions to Answer During This Activity:
Compare your family to a family in Colonial America. How is your family the same? How is your family different ?
Original webquest template design by Dan Schellenberg using valid XHTML and CS Task3 Colonial America Task Visit the website below and identify contemporary ideas about the New World and leadership.
http://www.virtualjamestown.org/
1. Identify origins, compositions and goals of the Virginia Company.
Task4 Visit this link while you are at the site.
http://www.teachingushistory.org/lessons/pdfs_and_docs/documents/LessonPlanSoutheasternNativeAmericansLifestyles.html
Follow the directions at this link.
Task5 Process Grouping Time:
The teacher will assign you to groups.
Assignment Time In your new groups each member will have a topic to explore on the internet. The topics are
Family Life
School
Clothing
Games
Computer Time
Once you have your job –visit the two websites above to learn more about your topic.
Presentation Time
Task6 Your group will present the information from your research to the class. Task7 Evaluation
The students will be evaluated using the rubric below
Teacher:
Name: _____________________
Visit the website
http://www.knowitall.org/index.cfm
Click on the link Colonial Dorchester Webquest.
Introduction
Task
Process
Evaluation
Teachers:

Visit www.classwiki45.wikispaces.com in order to see this webquest in a webquest format. Visit the webquest page at this site. In order to publish I had to publish using HTML.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

24/7 Technology Workshop

Professional Development Session
Produced by  SCET/ITV in ETV Streamline SC
24/7 -  Best Practices and Resources, January 2009









Gabriella Robinson
Glogs in the Elementary Classroom
August 19,  2011









Introduction of  the Lesson
     This lesson has been written for the  24/7”  SC ETV  Streamline SC, Best Practices  and Resources.     In this lesson,  the students will  create an online virtual poster at  http://edu.glogster.com/what-is-glogster-edu .  The students will learn how to use multimedia and how to create an interactive by using Glogster.   During this lesson, the students will research our Solar System.   Their final projects will be a Glog based on their research on the Solar System.

     The Teacher will use NASA Images to introduce the students to the unit.  The teacher will ask a series of questions to determine the student’s familiarity with the information to be covered in the unit.   The teacher will then show the students the learning centers.  The teacher will introduce the students to the books, videos, and posters that will help them to  gather information about the planets.  The teacher will also show the students the computer and a list of internet sites to visit to look for information.        
The  students will watch the DVD, The Story of the Solar System.



SC Curriculum Standards for 4th Grade Science

4-1 Understanding of Scientific Inquiry-understands the nature of scientific knowledge.
4-2 The Universe and the Solar System, Earth and Space Science-Understands the composition and structure of the universe and the Earth’s place in it.
4-3 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the properties, movements, and locations of objects in the solar system.
4-3.1- Recall that Earth is one of many planets in the solar system that orbit the Sun.
4-3.2– Explain how the Sun affects Earth.
4-3.4-Explain how the tilt of Earth’s axis and the revolution around the Sun results in the seasons of the year.
4-3.5- Explain how the rotation of Earth results in day and night.
 
 SC Technology Standards for 4th Grade

Basic operations and concepts (Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operations of technology systems).

Technology Research Tools (Students use technology to locate, evaluate and collect information from a variety of sources).


INSTRUCTION

Goals:  The students will:

·         Demonstrate an understanding of the Sun and the planets in our solar system.
·         Develop an understanding of earth in the solar system.
·         Identify the smaller celestial bodies found in space.
·         Be able to describe in detail the characteristics of the planets, sun and stars of our solar system.
·         Develop an understanding of the history, size and elements of the solar system.

Description: This is a lesson on the Solar System.  Students will learn about the Solar System.  Specifically, they will discuss what kinds of objects orbit the sun?  What are the smaller celestial bodies found in space?    In this lesspm, the students will learn the characteristics of each planet, the sun and stars.  The students discuss the size, distance, and features of each planet .

Teacher Strategies:
The teacher will:

 Visual Aids- The teacher will provide students with Posters, Wall Charts and Bulletin Boards , photos and images of our solar system.
The teacher will place a model of the solar system in the Learning Center for this unit.
Cooperative Groups- The teacher will have students work in groups of 4-5 to research materials online ,as well as in the school library, for this unit.
Class Discussion – The teacher will have the students to read an article from NASA and conduct a class discussion  using the questions associated with the reading to clarify student understanding and expand on the information provided.
A Content Reading Selection- The teacher will discuss the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words prior to have students read this selection.
An Engagement Activity-  The teacher will  propose a question, such as ‘Why do you think scientist would want to send a spacecraft to Pluto?”  The teacher will have students read the NASA article, “Pluto is No Longer  A Planet”.
Online Activities- The teacher will have the students to engage in online activities and to will provide them with a list of websites to conduct their online research.  
In addition, each student will create a virtual poster  at http://edu.glogster.com/what-is-glogster-edu .



Materials:
Internet, Informational Books, NASA Handouts, Model of the Solar System, Charts, Posters, Graphs, Graphic Organizers, Video ( The Story of Our Solar System) Computer, Internet Access, Telescopes,   NASA Images and Handouts, Evaluation Worksheets for Glogs,  SMART Board.

The students will need to be aware of the materials available.  Also, the class will need a planned trip to the media center.  Students will also need to read books on their planet or other research topics.

Introduction of  the Unit
The Teacher will use NASA Images to introduce the students to the unit.  The teacher will ask a series of questions to determine the student’s familiarity with the information to be covered in the unit.   The teacher will then show the students the learning centers.  The teacher will introduce the students to the books, videos, and posters that will help them to  gather information about the planets.  The teacher will also show the students the computer and a list of internet sites to visit to look for information.
        
The  students will watch the DVD, The Story of the Solar System.  The children will participate in discussion activities. During this unit, the learners  will then participate in small group activities in which they make  virtual posters. At the conclusion of research activities, students will give a 5 minute presentation with their  virtual  posters to the rest of the class.

  Research Activities

The students will work in groups: Group 1- Mercury, Group 2-Venus, Group 3- Mars, Group 4- Jupiter, Group 5 – Saturn, Group 6- Uranus, Group 7- Neptune and  Group 8- Pluto (Dwarf Planet)
  • The students will  be assigned to groups to research  planets. Some groups may chose to also research other celestial bodies.
  • The students will find interesting facts about their planets and begin to work on their posters.
  • The students will generate a list of questions to which they will like to find the answer. ( Scientific inquiry)
  • The students will use encyclopedias, magazines, and astronomy texts to research this project.
  • The students will also use these websites to research the project: www.nasa.gov
  
Online Activities- Class 6

 Groups - 6,7, and 8 will complete  these activities

Dur ing this class all groups will conduct activities on the computers.
Groups will rotate using the computers in 20 minutes intervals.
While other groups are using the computers students will read  library books.
The students will view/listen to videos and podcasts , photo galleries at the following sites :
The students will be encouraged to visit www.wikepdia.org, and www.wikibooks.org and to leave comments.(leaving comments is optional)

Glogs
 Each student will complete his or her research activities.  The students will then create virtual posters which use videos, images, drawings, text or other tools to create an interactive.    The students will then evaluate their fellow students Glogs as they  evaluate the Glogs of the students in their groups .

Below are examples of Glogs the students can use as models:

                                                   
These tutorials and videos will also be helpful to you:



Suggested Books to Read:
The Star Witness
The Kingfisher Young People’s Book of Space
The Universe by Seymour Simon
Galaxies by Seymour Simon
Visual Dictionary of the Universe
The New York Public Library Amazing Space: A Book of Answers for Kids


Assessment:

The final assessment will be based on this criteria:
Students were highly engaged in class discussion; worked well in their research groups;
produced colorful and creative Glogs,  viewed  other Glogs.

Below a sample rubric for multimedia assessment can be found at http://www.4teachers.org/




Multimedia Project Rubric
by Dan Senstock, Winner Multimedia Mania, Middle Grades Division
Evaluator:
Project Name:
Students:


Preliminary Work
Inc.
Poor
Avg.
Good
Excellent
Students completed storyboards prior to computer creation.
1
3
5
7
10
Students used primary and secondary research which included factual and interesting information.
1
3
5
7
10
Students included a minimum of _____ different resources.
1
3
5
7
10
Students created a running bibliography.
1
3
5
7
10
Students asked for permission of any copyrighted material.
1
3
5
7
10
Students focused topic into workable subtopics.
1
3
5
7
10
Design
Students showed evidence presentation synthesis.
1
3
5
7
10
Stack contains all elements. . .text, graphics, sound, video, animation
1
3
5
7
10
Stack contains all presentation elements. . .introduction body, conclusion.
1
3
5
7
10
Students show design elements. . .contrast between text and background, graphics, video are not obtrusive and enhance the presentation.
1
3
5
7
10
Multimedia elements are visible, adequate font choices, color schemes, sizes and styles are appropriate.
1
3
5
7
10
Navigation is easy and understandable.
1
3
5
7
10
Content
Information is relevant and interesting
1
3
5
7
10
Students have used creativity in the design.
1
3
5
7
10
Students have used correct punctuation, complete sentences, grammar and spelling.
1
3
5
7
10
Students showed complete understanding of presented material.
1
3
5
7
10
Students used knowledge of file size manipulation to control the size of the presentation.
1
3
5
7
10
Students have labeled necessary video, graphics, maps for further understanding.
1
3
5
7
10
Students have used a majority of original artwork, animations, video, graphics, sounds etc.
1
3
5
7
10
Presentation
The presentation is fluent from beginning to end.
1
3
5
7
10
Students understand presentation media such as LCD panels, projectors, sound equipment, video equipment, etc.
1
3
5
7
10
Students prepared and checked equipment prior to
1
3
5
7
10
Overall synthesis of the presentation.
1
3
5
7
10
Total: ________


Last Updated on 8/31/98