- Team Name: [email protected]
- Project URL: http://etc.sccoe.org/i99/kndrtn.html
- TCP's name: Katherine McMurry
- TCP's home street address: [removed]
- TCP's home city, state, and zip: [removed]
- TCP's home fax (optional): not applicable
- Subject(s), discipline(s) addressed in Team's Unit: For Kindergarten the subject areas addressed are: art, math, science, social studies, and technology. For the 11th Grade the subject areas addressed are: art, desktop publishing, graphic design, and technology. For both groups the focus area is Language Arts.
- Grade level(s) addressed by Team's Unit: kindergarten and 11th and 12th grades
- Total number of Team members applying for the SCCOE Internet Innovator Awards (including TCP): 2
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Complete the following information for each member of the Unit Team who are applying for this Award:
- Name: Katherine McMurry
- Preferred e-mail address: [email protected]
- Subject(s) taught: multiple subjects
- Grade level(s) taught: kindergarten
- Number of students involved in the Unit: 19
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School: Luther Burbank School
- -district: Luther Burbank School District
- -county: Santa Clara
- -principal: Dr. Paul Madarang
- -superintendent: Dr. Paul Madarang
- Name: Linda Sparling
- Preferred e-mail address: [email protected]
- Subject(s) taught: Desktop Publishing, DIS Keyboarding, and Computer Applications
- Grade level(s) taught: 9 - 12
- Total number of students involved in the Unit: 60
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School: Santa Teresa High School
- -district: East Side Union High School District
- -county: Santa Clara
- -principal: Mrs. Fredella Stewart
- -superintendent: Mr. Joe Coto
Application Questions: Please respond to the following questions. Responses to each item should not exceed 500 words.
1. Explain the purpose of the Unit and the online and offline activities of the Unit.
Purpose:
The purpose of the unit is to help students understand and appreciate more fully the experience of the Alaskan Iditarod Dogsled Race including its participants and their struggle "to win."
Online/Offline Activities:
- Introduce students to the technology/resources of the Alaskan Iditarod through lecture, demonstration, and multimedia presentation.
- To set the collaborative working base for the two classes, the students will exchange e-mail, video clips, and digital images.
- To raise the awareness level about the Alaskan environment, students will study its history and especially the Iditarod Alaskan Dogsled Race through authentic, Alaskan children's books, novels, storytelling, and internet research
- Specifics of the race will be studied through map reading, letter writing, journalizing with an Alaskan journalist, singing songs, reading, musher communications, and exploring the internet for information about the Alaskan terrain and dogsledding.
- All students will pick a musher to follow during the race, they will collect daily updates and standings via the internet. Classes will communicate by e-mail regarding the standings of their mushers.
- Students will create a video presentation of student work and activities during the race.
- Classes will come together to celebrate the unit and view the student work.
- Sample student work and video clips will be posted to the web site.
2. What is the current stage of implementation of the Unit?
Instructors are introducing the topic of collaborative study (the Alaskan Iditarod Dogsled Race) at the different locations. Classes will get to know each other by communicating via e-mail. Students will soon be introduced to the Alaskan wilderness and dogsledding as a sport.
3. Explain the role of the teacher in the Unit.
As students explore this Alaskan adventure instructors will act as facilitators and learners, supporting all students according to their needs and actively listening to or processing all information.
4. Explain the ways in which the Unit is student-centered.
Students, from both classes, will assume leadership roles in communication between classes, journalistic entries to Alaska, e-mail to mushers, and filming the multimedia presentations. All students will support the above activities through self-directed research, and completion of appropriate activities.
5. Explain how the Unit is collaborative and how the Unit integrates the Internet to facilitate collaboration among teachers, among students, and among teachers and students.
The unit is collaborative because of its nature, there are two teachers from different levels working together towards the same goal. Teachers planned and wrote the curriculum together and will both teach it at the same time, at the kindergarten and high school level. Since the Internet Institute, the teachers have been collaborating primarily via e-mail regarding the planning and implementation of the Unit.
The students will communicate with each other (passing on research and musher standings daily) through the use of e-mail and attachments. Collaboration among students will occur at the kindergarten level when they are composing their e-mails and likewise on the secondary level. Students on the secondary level will also collaborate during their work sessions at the computer and during peer reviews.
Teachers plan to communicate with students via the Internet. Students will be communicating with the musher centers in Alaska during the race (we view the mushers as teachers in this project).
6. Identify the learning outcomes of the Unit and explain the connections of those outcomes to specific Curriculum Content Standards.
Secondary Level - Desktop Publishing II
- Students will read and understand grade-level appropriate material.
Outcome -- Students will understand the difference between fact and fiction in reading by expanding their vocabulary and reading comprehension to include Alaskan terminology/concepts through reading related publications, including reading on the internet.
Standards -- Reading Comprehension 2.3 (English/Language Arts Content Standards) Verify and clarify facts presented in other types of expository texts by using a variety of consumer, workplace, and public documents.
Business Communications 1 (Business Education Standards) Students will communicate in a clear, courteous, concise, and correct manner on personal and professional levels.
- Students will write/journalize historical or reflective information.
Outcome -- Students will use correct grammar punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, and proofreading skills to outline and facilitate logical and understandable written documents. Writing pieces will exhibit the skills of proper content and usage, style, contrast, a center of interest, strong unity, and asymmetrical or symmetrical balance while crafting memorable, original and convincing documents.
Standards -- 2.4 Write historical investigation reports that use exposition, narrative, description, argumentation, exposition, or some combination of rhetorical strategies to support the main proposition.
- Students will deliver coherent presentations.
Outcome -- Students will pay attention, their comments reflecting understanding and interest. Students will respond voluntarily and make connections easily through oral, written, and multimedia film presentations. They will perform the technology skills necessary to do so.
Standards -- 2.4 Deliver multimedia presentations that combine text, images, and sound. Standard 3 Students will select and use appropriate software programs for technology communications.
- Students will attend and participate in activities regularly with a cooperative, enthusiastic attitude.
Outcome -- During the teaching unit, students will be composed and respectful with patience for the learning process. The student will acknowledge all participants and go by the class rules - always prepared.
Standards -- Standard 2 (East Side Union High School District Standards) Students will be able to apply basic social communication skills in personal and professional situations.
Kindergarten - the Standards listed come from the California Language Arts Content Standards Grade K
- Students will read and understand grade-level appropriate material.
Outcome -- Students will be able to listen to and discuss a variety of materials (books, poems, songs, and internet web site articles) related to Alaska and the Alaskan Iditarod.
Standards -- Reading 1.1 identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book. Reading 1.3 explain that printed materials provide information. Reading 1.18 describe common objects and events in both general and specific language. Reading 2.2 use pictures and context to make predictions about story content. Reading 2.3 connect to life experiences the information and events in text. Reading 2.5 ask and answer questions about essential elements of text. Reading 3.1 distinguish fantasy from realistic text. Reading 3.2 identify different genres, including everyday print materials.
- Students will write/journalize historical or reflective compositions.
Outcome -- Students will reflect on their experiences of following the Alaskan Iditarod in daily journals. Students will write about historically relevant events.
Standards -- Writing 1.1 use letters and phonetically-spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects, or events. Writing 1.3 write by moving from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Writing 1.4 write upper-and lower-case letters. Written and Oral English Language Conventions 1.2 spell independently using pre- to early-phonetic knowledge, sounds of the alphabet, and knowledge of letter names.
- Students will deliver coherent presentations.
Outcome -- Students will be able to express their ideas to others about what they have learned throughout the project.
Standards -- Written and Oral English Language Conventions 1.1 recognize and use complete and coherent sentences when speaking. Listening and Speaking 1.2 share information and ideas, speaking audibly in coherent, complete sentences.
- Students will attend and participate in activities regularly with a cooperative, enthusiastic attitude.
Outcome -- Students will be able to attend to directions given to be able to perform the tasks included in this unit.
Standards -- Listening and Speaking 1.1 understand and follow one- and two-step oral directions.
7. Explain the strategies that have been used to assess the learning outcomes and the overall learning effectiveness of the Unit.
- Assessment strategies: All of the activities in this project will be evaluated by students and by teachers, based on the rubric scale developed and posted on the web site. Students will participate in peer coaching and critiquing.
- Assessment results: The race activities begin March 4th, 2000. Assessment results will be posted on the web site in April, 2000.
8. Each team member should describe how the development and implementation of the Unit have influenced their teaching strategies.
Through the writing and teaching of this Alaskan Iditarod Unit with passion, I have learned and been reinforced with what it is like to move forward, teaching and running with a team, sometimes alone with students and teachers in public education forum of restructured, integrated curriculum. I know, too, that the longer I work at teaching in this new arena, the more clear my vision of classroom instruction and the better classroom teacher I have become. Curriculum delivery through three teachers and the planning done on one topic help students to experience even more depth, expertise, sincerity, and feelings of accomplishment. With a short supply of the technology resources I need to implement the instruction, I have learned how to "make do" with what I have and still be effective, especially in the field of technology. Often my teaching team doesn't know what the future will bring to our program, but inside there is a trust and a "lead dog." That lead dog can be one of three or all, and we have learned to "run with" as long and as hard as we need to reach our final goal, desperately trying but not overly anxious. My fellow teachers and my students have helped me along the way by showing and practicing their strengths, by believing in what it was I was trying to teach and most importantly believing in me. Part of the educator I have grown to be I owe to these teachers and the Alaskan Iditarod.
- -- Linda Sparling
For myself this project has made me aware of how valuable and exciting working collaboratively can be. My students are very excited by the idea of communicating with students from another school, especially high school students. I would like to continue using partnerships like this in the future. The students are learning valuable skills by using the internet as the communication link to their older partners. I think that giving students more control and responsibility for their learning creates greater buy in to learning. I think that even students who are not stand out contributors still can have a role in projects of this kind. I would like to include more of these projects during the school year. I also reflect on how fortunate I am to be able to have the tools to participate in such a project. My hope is that I come away with additional insights into my teaching style as this project concludes in April.
- -- Katherine McMurry
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