Egypt Studies Online :
Net Notes to Artwork

Egypt Studies Online

How it works:

History and social studies can and should, be fascinating to students when it is minds that are changed for years to come. Being able to make that engagement can be challenging to a teacher. Given the English Language learning needs of many students, text learning skills like strategic textbook reading, outlining, etc., are done in social studies rather than language arts. In addition, online resources are especially rich for social studies and science.

I used this unit to build student skills in 3 important general areas, while they learn and communicate specifically about Ancient Egypt. The 3 general skills areas in the unit which can be applied to any online work are:
1. Targeted use of subject specific resources, both text and web.
2. Taking online notes quickly and efficiently for later reuse in new ways.
3. Reflecting on and evaluating interactive learning websites.

Lesson 1- Making History Visible- A Scroll : Students need to find graphical representations of artifacts for use in creating a large Scroll about ancient Egypt. They use both texts and selected online resources, which leads to the following tech skills-online notes.

Lesson 2- Online notes- A list of websites to access are given, and a model for note-taking online is demonstrated. Students capture text, graphics, captions.... and the all important URL for attribution, for later printing and reuse in class.

Lesson 3: Art on paper- This is strictly off-line..... or rather, students now use their printed notes to work on representing what they found on a 3 ft. long piece of poster paper. They return to online resources as needed to supplement.

Lesson 4- Evaluating Online Activities- The previous work is in many ways broad and superficial. Although they do work closely with certain artifacts, in this activity, they use excellent online interactions from the British Museum to learn more in depth on an area and to then reflect on the value of the online learning tool by writing a brief evaluation of the interactive learning.

Assessment:

The unit includes a rubric for the scroll making activity, with the notes capture from the web included. The evaluation of online interactions is notational answers on a question sheet- teacher interaction with students during their activities online is important in observing how they engage with the materials independently.

Standards:  

Social Studies- several areas of enhancement for ancient civilizations-Egypt- with artifacts represented key cultural elements. Technology- Use of research tools online, productivity software (Appleworks or Word) and practice in evaluating the quality of online information.

Art- Visual arts are used in a variety of contexts, and the historical
and cultural context of art.

Software or Materials Used:

Internet access, and a browser that has Flash plugins

Appleworks(Clarisworks),Word, or any text editor for copying text and
images from the net.
Basic art materials- butcher paper, crayons, markers, paints, etc.

Keywords: 

Egypt, social studies, sixth grade, ancient civilization, note-taking

The Students: 

The students who did this project are 6th graders. All intermediate level English Language Learners, engaged in a reading intervention curriculum because their reading levels run between 2.5-4.5 grade levels. They have shown great interest and ability in using a variety of computer and technology tools previously. 

This unit is appropriate for students 3-12 grade in that the skills are "generic". For higher grades, expectations for quantity of writing could be higher, and the evaluation tool for the British Museum interactions would be more complex. The same essential outline of activities could be used for other topics in most subject areas. The activity can be done individually, but 2-4 students per team is recommended because of the discussions about information, and design are fruitful.

Overall Value:

The overall value is high. It provides for solid grounding in essential skills needed to make good use of the internet, and to assist students in understanding how to blend textual and graphical information found both online and in books. The items/artifacts they work with in their searching/notetaking/artistic representation could be replaced by other historical or scientific items, and the results would be similar.

The interactive content on the British Museum website is excellent, but
subject specific (other civilizations found in unit resources). However, the technology and style of the materials is similar to simulations found in many science and math websites, so the idea of students evaluating the activity is useful.

Details:

Subject Area: Social Studies

 Starting Grade Level:   3rd

 Ending Grade Level: 12th

Tips for the Teacher:

Basic Management- The unit describes students using both texts and the web for information, so management will be flexible depending on the teacher's access to computers, textbooks, and the library... lots of options. The materials are really very simple, and the intent is to have students work in 3 different modes: The hunter/gatherer, the Expressive Artist, and the Thinker. Web based research needs all three at some point, and this unit tries to somewhat compartmentalize the activities so that students and teacher can spend some time getting a feel for each. It is important to let students work at different paces, and to make choices within the parameters of the challenge. Ideally, the teacher is able to walk around observing, questioning, suggesting, and enjoying the choices and representations the students make.

Jeff Foote
School: Kermit McKenzie Jr. High, Guadalupe, CA
e-mail: jfoote@sbceo.org

Jeff Foote has been a middle school teacher for 11 years. In his second year of teaching a university partnership led to work with regional teachers where telecommunications and "new media" were important aspects of students sharing work between schools on common science projects. Science, English Language Development, and uses of various technologies to engage students more fully are the focus areas of his teaching. He has been a technology mentor for Santa Barbara County Schools for 9 years, develops curriculum and works in project management for technology and science projects both regionally and with state level groups. Presently, student produced video, and more
recently, the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) have been the challenge areas for stretching his own management skills in order to provide the best possible experiences for students. Indoor and tech work is balanced with many outdoor explorations and projects. In 2002-2003 he has been teaching a self-contained 6th grade class at the jr. high, so this TeachNet unit is focused on Social Studies... a new area of
instruction!