Adapted
By:
Danielle Taylor & Rebecca Sacra P.S. 261
New York, NY
Principal: Zipporiah
Mills
Danielle Taylor is in her fourth
year of teaching as a fourth grade teacher. She has
a Masters degree in elementary education. Rebecca Sacra
graduated in 2004 from NYU with a Masters in Childhood Special
Education. Rebecca is a fourth grade CTT teachers at
PS 261.
Modifications
We
created several worksheets and homework sheets for students
to copy research information from the websites. We read A
Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple as
a shared reading. We did a historical fiction unit in
book clubs where the students read Dear America
and My America books. We watched video
clips on the laptops. We also read the New
York Studies Weekly, a student newspaper.
Instructional
Objectives
Students will:
Gain an understanding of the New World
Discover life as a colonist through their way of life
Use the laptops to help students do research
Technology Integration
During the
four week unit, students used the laptops twice a week with
a partner.
Assessment
Students
were evaluated based on their worksheets, homework, journal
entries, and work with their partners.
Tips
for Teachers
I had a lot of difficulty accessing certain links. The other difficulty
I encountered was that during many lessons students were just expected
to read pages and pages of information. I created guidelines and
worksheets so that students were active while reading. I supplemented
this unit with a read-aloud and the students read historical fiction
books from that time period. Some of the worksheets were also difficult
so I re-created them.
