• Scenario One: Upon walking into the classroom of a new eighth grade English
language arts (ELA) teacher, the teacher informs you that she will be teaching a
lesson on fate versus free will the following week. She plans on using excerpts from
Oedipus Rex and Dante’s Inferno. She has not put the lesson plan together yet but
intends to have the students present examples from the readings to support their
case through a persuasive essay.
Dante's Inferno is not just an allegory of Hell and its torments. Dante was writing about the sins of upper-class Italian society. Many of the people and places in the book were real and definable. Using the World of Dante students can analyze the text of the Inferno and gain an understanding of the people and places in addition to learning about fate vs. free will. They can then use a Lit trip or GoogleMaps to visualize Dante's Italy. Afterward, they can use this Lit trip to construct a persuasive essay that is hyperlinked to their source information and detailed images and descriptions of their evidence. I am actively searching for a comparable resource for Oedipus Rex that will enable students to construct a parallel map and hyperlink resources for this text.
• Scenario Two: A high school science teacher is presenting a unit on astronomy,
specifically on how Polaris is no longer the central point of the northern sky. The
teacher is confident that he can teach it out of a book but is anxious to give the
students a better experience from the lesson. He is hoping that the technology
integration specialist will be able to help make a more authentic study for the
students.
Stellarium is an open source planetarium program that works on Windows, MAC, Linux and Mobile computers. It creates a fully functioning computerized planetarium that can be used to track star movement over time. With the use of a projector placed at extreme distance from a ceiling or wall Stellarium can be used to create a large-scale accurate and usable stellar map. On other devices the program would enable students to track stars through time and create computer simulations of stellar movement for use in experiments in class.
• Scenario Three: In a fourth grade social studies class, the class is discussing the
role of landscape and surroundings on early natives—what type of food they ate, the
type of dwellings they built, and of course defensive systems or escape routes. Many
of the students have never traveled out of their own state and are not familiar with
alternate surroundings. The social studies teacher has requested that the technology
integrator help her create a new lesson.
With each gmail account students get access to GoogleMaps and one of the functions of GoogleMaps is the my map button which allows the user to set specific pins and draw lines on maps that can be saved to the user's account. The pin tags have editable descriptions which can include images, paragraph text or video. If students use computers for research to explore the different native societies they can organize maps with pinned images and videos. They can also include descriptors about city architecture or even include food ways and recipes specific to cultural areas.
• Scenario Four: According to the math teacher, math is everywhere. The teacher is
concentrating on a geometry unit discussing area and volume. The teacher is hoping
to have the students design a home consisting of 1500 square feet of living space
with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room, and a kitchen. A playroom or
dining room are nice to have but are not needed. In the past, the teacher has asked
the students to draw it out with paper and pencil; however, this proved to be a poor
choice for reasons he has not given. The teacher is currently thinking of using craft
sticks and glue to have the students build models, but this does not fall within the
budget. The teacher is turning to the technology integrator for help.
Floorplanner for Google Drive is a great tool to create multiple level 3 dimensional plans. There are several different options to choose from. This is a great tool for awesome visuals and image manipulation. The teacher could allow the students to use this tool to design the geometric constructions to assemble a home and to be able to measure out floor spacing and whatever design is needed to meet the 1500 sqft requirement of the lesson.
• Scenario Three: In a fourth grade social studies class, the class is discussing the
role of landscape and surroundings on early natives—what type of food they ate, the
type of dwellings they built, and of course defensive systems or escape routes. Many
of the students have never traveled out of their own state and are not familiar with
alternate surroundings. The social studies teacher has requested that the technology
integrator help her create a new lesson.
With each gmail account students get access to GoogleMaps and one of the functions of GoogleMaps is the my map button which allows the user to set specific pins and draw lines on maps that can be saved to the user's account. The pin tags have editable descriptions which can include images, paragraph text or video. If students use computers for research to explore the different native societies they can organize maps with pinned images and videos. They can also include descriptors about city architecture or even include food ways and recipes specific to cultural areas.
• Scenario Four: According to the math teacher, math is everywhere. The teacher is
concentrating on a geometry unit discussing area and volume. The teacher is hoping
to have the students design a home consisting of 1500 square feet of living space
with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room, and a kitchen. A playroom or
dining room are nice to have but are not needed. In the past, the teacher has asked
the students to draw it out with paper and pencil; however, this proved to be a poor
choice for reasons he has not given. The teacher is currently thinking of using craft
sticks and glue to have the students build models, but this does not fall within the
budget. The teacher is turning to the technology integrator for help.
Floorplanner for Google Drive is a great tool to create multiple level 3 dimensional plans. There are several different options to choose from. This is a great tool for awesome visuals and image manipulation. The teacher could allow the students to use this tool to design the geometric constructions to assemble a home and to be able to measure out floor spacing and whatever design is needed to meet the 1500 sqft requirement of the lesson.
Windie, I love your ideas on the literature scenario. These are really great resources, which I had not heard of. Especially the lit trip on Google earth, what a great way to combine geography with literacy, as required in the CCSS. Thanks for the suggestions. I need to research these some more.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I am infamous for utilizing things that are cross-discipline based. I believe that students cannot get enough of any subject while in school and should see how things can affect one another or build onto something else. It is important as educators that we influence this rationale and understanding.
DeleteWindie,
ReplyDeleteThe World of Dante looks great. I sure wish there were some visual aids for that stuff when I had to read it in high school. I find that I look for sites that illustrate science and math concepts because they can be so abstract for kids, history sites that help kids put the history from which they feel so separate into perspective. I rarely look for sites that facilitate the study of literature and language arts.
Thanks!
Megan
Complex literature can be as alien to students as complex math. Literature from other cultures or from distant historic authors contains separate vernacular understanding and different frames of understandings. To truly understand a piece of literature students need to understand the history and context of the author. Sometimes when reading or listening to stories or songs from ancient or historic times we get a better understanding of what was happening or how the people felt under specific circumstances.
ReplyDelete