The Curriculum Overview describes the components of
a project and helps you make the most of the resources in the Secondary Language
Arts & Social Studies kit. Each project provides ideas for integrating the
Secondary Language Arts & Social Studies kit software and Apple technologies,
helping your students make new connections and gain new insights.
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THEME-BASED PROJECTS
Space
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Language Arts
Into
the Unknown: Writing Science Fiction
Using the unique features
of The Writing Trek, students become familiar with the science
fiction genre of literature and practice descriptive writing and
problem-solving skills. Groups brainstorm alien worlds, exchange
descriptions of those settings, and outline plots and characters
for stories set in the alien environments. Individual students
then rely on their creativity and resourcefulness to write their
own versions of these science fiction stories, which are edited
with the help of the group and published as AppleWorks books.
Social Studies
Humans in Space: Envisioning the Future as History
Students create TimeLiner
slideshows that depict the "history" of space exploration and
colonization, as seen from the point of view of the year 2057,
one hundred years after the launch of Sputnik 1. These slideshows
are based on research of the actual history of space exploration,
virtual experiences of a future scenario in Decisions, Decisions:
Colonization, and thoughtful consideration of experts' prognoses
on the future of humans in space.
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Colonization
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Language Arts
Colonial
Lives: Writing Historical Fiction
Students research the colonial
period, invent fictional colonists, and write short biographies
of them. Then, after learning about historical fiction in The
Writing Trek, they write first-person, day-in-the-life fictional
narratives of the imagined colonists, assemble their histories
of colonial life as Web pages, and link these to headstones in
a "virtual cemetery."
Social Studies
Versions
of History: Building Perspective on Colonialism
Students participate in a
software-based role-play simulation that introduces issues of colonialism
in the context of space exploration. They then explore the history
of European colonization of the Americas and elsewhere, capturing
the points of view of both the colonizers and the colonized in multimedia
timelines. To complete the project, students return to the initial
scenario, debating alternative approaches to the human colonization
of space. |
The Environment
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Language Arts
Natural
Imagery in Poetry: Analyzing Poetic Technique
Students work in small groups
to sample a variety of poems from In My Own Voice. They analyze
the use of natural imagery in two of them, and then apply what
they've learned by locating poems rich in natural imagery and
analyzing those. After delving into a poem through its natural
images, each group builds and then presents an mPOWER slideshow
that communicates the group's insights about the poem's natural
imagery.
Social Studies
A
Day of Life: Exploring the Imprint of Environment on Culture
Working in small groups,
students begin this project with Talking Walls, choosing one of
the cultures it explores as their focus for the rest of the project.
They research the culture and place they've chosen, and then—with
the assistance of The Writing Trek—write stories that illustrate
the local environment's affect on that culture, through the description
of a day-in-the-life account of a fictional character.
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LANGUAGE ARTS
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The
Write Recipe: Stimulating Poetic Creativity
Students learn about modern
poetry by exploring the lessons in the Poetry Corner of The Writing
Trek, and then read, listen to, and discuss the poems in In My
Own Voice. With this background, they work in groups to craft
their own poems, assembled from couplets inspired by randomly
generated words. By using language in unexpected and creative
ways in poems, students gain invaluable confidence as writers.
Rhyme and Reason: Exploring Dramatic Language in Romeo and
Juliet
Students use
an interactive, multimedia application to further their understanding
of Romeo and Juliet. Then, after learning about rhyme and
meter, they explore in depth a scene in which Shakespeare has
the characters speak in rhyming verse. Finally, students use The
Writing Trek to learn about writing dramatic dialogue, and apply
this knowledge in writing their own dramatic scenes, which they
convert into rhyme, perform, and record as desktop movies to be
shared with the class.
Being
John Steinbeck: Linking History and Literature in the Lives of
Authors
The class works together
to create a list of great American authors of the twentieth century,
and then students work individually to research authors chosen
from the list. They create timelines of their authors' lives,
and build the knowledge they need to step into the shoes of their
subjects and write "autobiographies," focusing on the connections
between the authors' lives, the periods in which they lived, and
their creative work.
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SOCIAL STUDIES
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Walls
in Our Community: Investigating Local History and Culture
Students
investigate the walls in Talking Walls as a way of focusing on
the study of worldwide cultures and history. Then they apply this
concept to their own community, researching local "walls" and
making interactive, multimedia desktop presentations on these
walls using mPOWER.
Eyewitness Time Travel: Comparing Ancient Civilizations
In small groups, students
plan imaginary time travel tours in which each group visits a number
of ancient cities during a specific year between about 3000 B.C.
and 500 A.D. After researching the civilizations on their itineraries,
students write accounts of their time-traveling visits, using the
eyewitness reporting model presented in The Writing Trek. After
these eyewitness accounts are shared with the class, groups prepare
them for publication on the Internet.
On
Whose Shoulders Are We Standing? Meeting Important People of the
Past
This project asks students to become familiar with some of the
key Americans of the twentieth century and determine how these
individuals' contributions have affected contemporary life in
the United States. Working in pairs, students choose a person
to research, give speeches about the person's impact, and then
create a class Web site featuring these influential Americans
of the last century.
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