Online Collaboration/Social Networking Lesson Plan
Brian Aldridge
Lesson Title:Tweeting Africa Vocabulary Words
Related Lessons: African Issues Summit
Grade Level: 6-8
Unit:Africa
GOALS
Content Standards (Colorado Academic Standards for Social Studies, Seventh Grade):
2.1 Geography: Use geographic tools to gather data and make geographic inferences and predictions
2.2 Geography: Regions have different issues and perspectives
4.1 Civics: The different forms of government and international organizations and their influence in the world community
ISTE NETS-S
1. Creativity and Innovation:
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
Instructional Objective(s): The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students’ learning of the content vocabulary words for the unit on Africa through writing sentences and sharing the words’ usages through social networking and micro-blogging. Each week and each unit will focus on a different set of new words and different strategies. We will be using a similar online tool to Twitter called Twiducate.
ACTION
Before-Class Preparation: Students will be given a list of all of the vocabulary words for the upcoming unit on Africa for which they will be learning the definitions. They will also sign up for their own Twiducate account which will be linked with my teacher account and each student will be set up as a part of their own class.
Date
Schedule of Lessons
Materials and Resources
Day 1
Remainder of the Unit
To introduce the need for learning content specific vocabulary, as a class we will discuss why it is important to know the meaning of new words in social studies. We will review some of the strategies that have been used in the past both in our class and other classes. We will then discuss the ways in which people today communicate with each other and how there is an increasing trend towards shorter forms of communication like text messaging and micro-blogging. We will discuss Twitter, what it is and how it is being used to communicate in the world today. Students will then spend some time searching on Twitter using some words specific to social studies and as a class we will discuss if their conclusions about why we learn new words helps when they use technologies such as these. After we have done some work on background, students will navigate to the website __www.twiducate.com__ to sign up for an account to be used with the class. Twiducate is just like Twitter, except students’ tweets will not be public and the teacher has much more control over what is posted. Students will be given the rubric showing how their content vocabulary tweets will be evaluated and we will then move on to the next part of the day’s lesson.
Each week that we study Africa, students will be given a list of 5-10 vocabulary words for which they must tweet a sentence for each. Each sentence must contain the word and the word must be used in a way which accurately shows the student understands the words meaning.. As the weeks go on, there may be more requirements such as tweeting a picture or video which helps explain the meaning of the word, or finding a current news article where the world is used prominently.
Computer with Internet access for each student
MONITOR
Ongoing Assessment(s): Students will be required to continue their use of Twiducate after the unit on Africa is completed; there will be occasional assignments but the online communication and collaboration will become a regular part of the class.
Accommodations and Extensions: Students who struggle with using technology for this purpose will be allowed to turn in their sentences in written form to be evaluated that way. Students who need a more challenging activity will be given the opportunity to write in the form of an individual from our learning (such as an ancient Egyptian like Kind Tutankhamen or a current figure such as Nelson Mandela) and use their voice to express the vocabulary words. Their tweets should relate in some way to the person’s historical or present situation, and the use of humor or imaginary writing is encouraged.
Back-up Plan: If this lesson proves to be too complex or complicated for students, there are a number of more traditional strategies I will use to work on my students development of content vocabulary such as graphic organizers or word associations.
EVALUATION
Peer Re-tweets: Students will re-tweet the tweets that they think were most helpful in their understanding of each weeks’ content vocabulary words. Students’ tweets which are re-tweeted most will receive special recognition on the classroom website as well as be used on the upcoming assessment for the unit.
Teacher Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate each student’s work based on the requirements specified in the initial day’s instruction and on the evaluation rubric.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
The formatting for this lesson plan did not convert when it was transferred from Google Docs to this wiki; to access and view the original document click __here__.
Brian- Interesting and simple idea. I like the intentional study and application of content vocabulary inan engaging and creative way. I especially like some of your extension ideas using pictures or connecting the words to current events. Is there a way students could create quiz questions that would encourage students to reply back to the tweets and result in more back and forth interaction between students? Cheers, Aaron
Online Collaboration/Social Networking Lesson Plan
Brian Aldridge
2.1 Geography: Use geographic tools to gather data and make geographic inferences and predictions
2.2 Geography: Regions have different issues and perspectives
4.1 Civics: The different forms of government and international organizations and their influence in the world community
1. Creativity and Innovation:
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
Instructional Objective(s): The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students’ learning of the content vocabulary words for the unit on Africa through writing sentences and sharing the words’ usages through social networking and micro-blogging. Each week and each unit will focus on a different set of new words and different strategies. We will be using a similar online tool to Twitter called Twiducate.
Remainder of the Unit
Each week that we study Africa, students will be given a list of 5-10 vocabulary words for which they must tweet a sentence for each. Each sentence must contain the word and the word must be used in a way which accurately shows the student understands the words meaning.. As the weeks go on, there may be more requirements such as tweeting a picture or video which helps explain the meaning of the word, or finding a current news article where the world is used prominently.
Accommodations and Extensions: Students who struggle with using technology for this purpose will be allowed to turn in their sentences in written form to be evaluated that way. Students who need a more challenging activity will be given the opportunity to write in the form of an individual from our learning (such as an ancient Egyptian like Kind Tutankhamen or a current figure such as Nelson Mandela) and use their voice to express the vocabulary words. Their tweets should relate in some way to the person’s historical or present situation, and the use of humor or imaginary writing is encouraged.
Back-up Plan: If this lesson proves to be too complex or complicated for students, there are a number of more traditional strategies I will use to work on my students development of content vocabulary such as graphic organizers or word associations.
Teacher Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate each student’s work based on the requirements specified in the initial day’s instruction and on the evaluation rubric.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES. (n.d.). Colorado Department of Education Home Page. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/OSA/standards/hist.htm
STE | NETS Student Standards 2007. (n.d.). International Society for Technology in Education | Home. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from __http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx__
Note:
The formatting for this lesson plan did not convert when it was transferred from Google Docs to this wiki; to access and view the original document click __here__.
Brian-
Interesting and simple idea. I like the intentional study and application of content vocabulary in an engaging and creative way. I especially like some of your extension ideas using pictures or connecting the words to current events. Is there a way students could create quiz questions that would encourage students to reply back to the tweets and result in more back and forth interaction between students?
Cheers,
Aaron