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.
|  | 
Writing
Postcard Stories:
Writing Letter-Based Fiction
Students work in pairs to write short stories that are
told through a series of iCards, or Internet "postcards." Each pair begins by
defining the parameters of its story (who, what, where, when, and why) and
creating a chronology of events. Each student in the pair then takes on the role
of one of the characters, and the two write the story by sending iCards to each
other. After the stories have been written, they are set up as mPOWER
presentations on computers for all the students in the class to view and
discuss.
Web Ballads: Collaborating Poetically Through the Internet
Students learn about the ballad form
as a way of telling stories in verse, and then they write their own ballads, in
partnership with students in a distant classroom. Throughout the project, the
Internet provides a communication link, and a class Web site (created ahead of
time by the teacher) serves as a collaborative workspace and publishing
forum.
Literature and
Poetry
A
Story Too Simple? Creating a Subplot for Romeo and
Juliet
Students
learn about plots and subplots and analyze the plot and characters of Romeo
and Juliet using AppleWorks and Inspiration. They then invent subplots for
the play, select single scenes from these subplots, script them, and produce the
scenes as iMovies published on the Internet.
In
My Own iMovie: Creating Performance Art From Multicultural Poetry
Students read a
variety of multicultural poems in In My Own Voice, and from these choose six
class favorites. In groups formed around each favorite, students study their
poems intensively, using the full suite of features offered by In My Own Voice,
and write essays expressing their interpretations of the poems. Then groups
create performance art pieces around their poems, stage these performances, and
produce them as iMovies to be shared with a wide audience.
Vocabulary
Wise
Words: Making Meaning, Building Vocabulary
In this ongoing, low-intensity project, students
learn new words with Get A Clue during otherwise unscheduled class time
and collect unfamiliar words from their reading outside of class. All
these words are added to a class database that includes the words and
their definitions, derivations, synonyms, antonyms, and related forms.
The database continues to grow throughout the quarter, semester, or
year, and then students work in groups to create multimedia presentations
about the words in different segments of the class database.
Business Writing
Down
to Business: Writing and Posting a Multimedia Resume
After an introduction to the form
and function of resumes, students prepare to write resumes of their
own by writing down basic information about themselves, including activities
and interests. In small groups, they assist each other in identifying
potentially valuable skills, and then in pairs they use Inspiration
to create Resume Planning Maps. Using resumes that others have written
for guidance, students draft their own resumes in AppleWorks. Students
return to their groups for peer review of their drafts, incorporate
suggestions in a revision, and then post their resumes, complete with
multimedia elements, on the Internet.
United States History
Our
Community in the 20th Century: Putting Local History in a National Context
Groups of
students research five different facets of twentieth-century American history and
construct banner timelines to portray the developments in each area. Students
then research the history of their community (or region or state) during the same
time period, construct a single banner timeline documenting this local history,
and then align all six timelines in a museum-type display in a public
place. On
the Home Front: Comparing Life in America During Two War
Eras
Half the
class studies life in the United States during World War II, while the other half
examines life in America during the Vietnam conflict. To find out about those
times, students do research on their own, learn interviewing techniques, and then
interview friends and family who spent those war years at home. Once teams have
completed their research, students share discoveries in panel presentations,
participate in a moderated class discussion, and write essays comparing and
contrasting these two important eras in American history.
World History and World Cultures
Civil
Wars In the Former Yugoslavia: Tracing the Historical Roots of Present-Day
Conflict
Student
groups research and discuss the history of the religious, ethnic, political, and
economic tensions that contributed to civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and the
"ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo. They then form new groups, each creating a
slideshow presentation about the causes of conflict in a different historical
period. Multicultural
Travel: Exploring World Cultures
Students imagine themselves
as employees of an adventure travel company that promises to immerse its
customers in the cultures they visit. As trip leaders, students are charged with
the task of preparing background presentations that introduce trip participants
to the destinations they will be visiting. These destinations, coincidentally,
are the same as those featured in Talking Walls, and so groups begin their
research with this software, and then branch off from there to gather the
information they need to build mPOWER presentations on the historical, cultural,
religious, and social contexts of the sites (and sights) that will be the
highlight of each trip.
Civics and Economics
Paths
of Public Policy: Analyzing Decision Making in Times of Crisis
Students begin
this project by taking on the role of a U.S. president who must respond to a
simulated crisis set in the future. After brainstorming ideas for similar
scenarios, groups each select and develop a scenario, and then create simulations
that allow others to respond to their scenarios by making a series of decisions.
The simulations, created in mPOWER, require the students who create them to
analyze their scenarios, and the underlying real-world issues, in
depth.
Green Economics: Planning Environmentally Friendly
Businesses
Students work in groups to plan the development of an enterprise that
combines sound business practices with protection or enhancement of the
environment. Groups create business plans and marketing materials, and then
present their plans in an effort to persuade their classmates to invest
venture-capital "greenbacks" in their ideas.
|
