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Travel Through Time with a
Family Member and Me
Project URL: http://teachersnetwork.org/teachnet-lab/donovan/travel/overview.htm
How it works:
This project enables students to create
an electronic history book that can be burned on a CD, uploaded to the Web,
or remain on a hard drive for other students to enjoy. Language arts,
social studies, and technology skills are incorporated in order for
students to work in "media literacy." The lessons include
interviewing a family member, finding out about four significant events in
that person's life, writing a narrative account, creating a timeline, and
packaging it in a slide presentation.
Standards
addressed:
The students use general writing skills as
well as listening and speaking strategies by creating meaningful interview
questions, conducting an interview session, and editing the results into a
narrative account. By creating a timeline, students learn how to
chronologically set up a historical map while using technology in new
ways. They use a variety of strategies to edit and publish written work
(e.g., editing for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling;
proofreading and editing for clarity, word choice, and language usage; and
using a word processor or other technology to publish written work). They
organize and display data using tables; and identify and use key concepts such as chronology,
causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show
connections among patterns of historical change and continuity.
Materials
used:
Required materials include a computer with Internet
connection, a scanner, and a word processing and slide presentation
program, such as PowerPoint or HyperStudio.
The students:
The students are middle school students
in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. This project can be used in language
arts, social studies, and any other curriculum area in conjunction with
technology. It can also be adapted for elementary and high school. Once
students have completed the preliminary writing stages and are ready to
input their information onto the computer, their ability may vary as far
as their keyboarding skills. More time may be needed in order to complete
the specific tasks that are a part of the project. It is advisable to plan
for additional computer lab time.
Overall
value:
Most of the students have not previously combined so many elements or
parts into one presentation. Travel Through Time with a Family
Member and Me gives them the opportunity to work constructively
and see how a project can be broken down into smaller pieces and combined
to create a final presentation. Once the students complete this hands-on
long-term project, they can creatively plan other projects expanding on
the use of technology. For example, the next project may utilize video in
the slide presentation.
Tips:
After the students interview a family
member and you determine the time period in question, you can extend the
lesson by having them ask their subjects if they were affected by an
important historical event that occurred during that period. Find books
that list events chronologically and look at different timelines on the
Internet, e.g., the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil War, and World War
II. Explore how these events overlap with some of the students' relatives.
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About the teacher:
Robin Donovan is in her second year of teaching at the New Preparatory
Middle School in Jamaica, New York. Prior to teaching, Robin worked in
advertising. She has a B.A. in Fine Art from Santa Clara University in
Santa Clara, California, a B.F.A. in
Advertising Design from the Art Center College of Design, and is currently
working on her Masters in Education at Queens College, CUNY.
E-mail:
RDonova@nycboe.net
Subject
Areas:
Social Studies
English
Technology
Grade
Levels:
6-8
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