Planning Page

Action Plan

Grade: 8th

Subject: Science

Topic: Plate tectonics, weather patterns, weather impacts

Staff Development:

Teachers will attend staff development session geared towards blogs, podcasts, and videos/vodcast. This will take more than 1 session. Teachers will create podcast, vodcast and blog in trainings. To evaluate learning they will go back to academic team and create podcast, and vodcast relating to project lesson to use as example for students. They will also create a project blog to post assignment requirements and updates for students, parents, and the principal. Teachers can be exempted from a session if they can submit a self created example of the session topic that meets the session objectives.

The teachers should (as a “pre-assignment”) develop a list of requirements that, if/when observed, demonstrates mastery over a particular area. Then, they already have the framework for assessment in implementing the project within their classroom. For example: the student understands the cause and effect relationship between continental drift and geologic phenomena, i.e.- earthquakes. The question to ask would be, “What would demonstrate to me as a teacher that the student understands this relationship?” Then, have them bring the answer to that question to the training(s) and develop around those key points.

Teachers will also create a wiki where they could cross-collaborate outside of the official training times and then be able to use as they develop and implement their projects. Also, they will place the standards on the wiki, essentially that would become their lesson planning tool, allowing them to work collaboratively to develop it, enabling teachers from other content areas to not only see what was taking place, but also a way that they could adapt the content for their own (different) classrooms. Further, with a dynamic web page with which to point both students and parents, it very quickly becomes an “open source” subject, allowing the free exchange of information from one class to the next and between the school and the home.

Assignment outline:

Visual project will be created as a:

  • eBook
  • Glog (edu.glogster.com; allows integration of video, audio, links, etc)
  • PowerPoint (non-linear)
  • Video
    • Animoto
    • PhotoStory 3
    • Windows Movie Maker
  • Vodcast (video podcast)
  • Wordle, only incorporated into other visual techniques
  • Interpretive dance

Audio project will be created as a:

  • Podcast
  • Interview (finding an expert in the field to interview OR creating a fictional character to represent the expert and source information)
  • Informational radio show (think: NPR or talk radio)
  • Sensory experience (close your eyes, etc; implement other techniques such as wind or water to illustrate mental picture of what is taking place)
  • Song (original)

GROUPS

Group 1

Comprised of : 1 gifted and talented student

4 general education students

Project: Intro to Plate tectonics podcast

Group 2

Comprised of: 1 gifted and talented students

4 general education students

Project: Intro to Plate tectonics visual project

Group 3

Comprised of : 1 visually impaired student

2 gifted and talented students

2 general education students

Project: How plate tectonics and tsunamis audio project

Group 4

Comprised of: 1 hearing impaired student

2 gifted and talented students

2 general education students

Project: How plate tectonics and tsunamis visual project

Group 5

Comprised of : 2 gifted and talented students

3 general education students

Project: Plate tectonics and earthquakes audio project

Group 6

Comprised of: 2 gifted and talented students

3 general education students

Project: Plate tectonics and earthquakes visual project

Technology support: projector, speakers, microphone(s), Microsoft Office Suite (or Open Office), Audacity, video camera, minimum 6 computers and/or mobile devices

Specific teaching/learning techniques for each group:

Gifted & talented: computer simulations that allow for trial-and-error scenarios and "above-and-beyond" activities/experimentation, socratic forum

Blind student: text-to-speech, audiobooks, hands-on demonstrations that allow student to actually feel and manipulate models

Deaf student: Transcript of video(s) provided, interactive simulations (visual), hands-on activities (spatial)

Remaining students: Interactive demonstrations, peer assessment, question and answer

Assessment: formative, on-going, summative; variety of methods including quizzes, checks for understanding, and an evaluation of work completed

During project: Review of group interactions/participation

          • Each member must be able to document participation in the creation of the project
          • Each member of the group ensures the others understand concepts being used/achieved (no one left out or sitting idle)
          • Each member will offer encouragement when a good job is being done and thoughtful, constructive criticism when improvements can/should be made
          • When disagreements arise, conflict resolution/compromise techniques will be employed successfully by the group with all voices being heard
          • At end of project, ‘thorns and roses’ session... what could have been done better with ideas of how it could have been achieved and what worked great that they are proud of

Review of group wiki on progress of project

Daily update by member(s) of each group:

            • What steps, in order, are needed to complete the job (this list can and should be modified as needed)
            • Which member is doing what job for the day
            • Status update of each steps progress
            • Projected timeline/completion of each step (can and should be updated as needed)

Final projects (Rubric)

Students will include 10-20 scientific facts in their presentation

Students will describe how their topic impacts earth/nature.

Students will describe their topic impacts citizens.

Students will describe the impact on society (financial and industrial).

Students will submit a written script of the project.

Standards/Benchmarks:

NETS: Students will utilize all six (6) NETS standards for students; creativity and innovation; Communication and Collaboration; Research and Information Fluency; Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, Digital Citizenship; and Technology Operations and Concepts

TEA TEKS

1§110.20 English Language Arts and Reading

§112.18 Science, Grade 6

§112.19 Science, Grade 7

§112.20 Science, Grade 8

§113.24 Social Studies, Grade 8

§113.34 World Geography Studies

§126.12 Technology Applications (Computer Literacy)

(Full standards can be viewed on the Resource Page)

Research based info: see “resources” page of website

*Earth/sun relationships - for 8th graders, this is the weakest area statewide. they really struggle because it’s so much theory and hard for them to really grasp the concepts. Technology probably has the most to gain in this area of study

*Plate Tectonics they could use software to rearrange plates and manipulate the geography to see how it impacts other areas of the world. I think I remember seeing some article saying that hands-on is more effective than demonstration technology (i.e.- better to build a physical plate and actually experience tectonics vs just seeing them on the screen) but I could be wrong...

Also could incorporate a virtual tour of plate tectonics

*Any Regional area (Africa, South America, Asia etc.) they look at the cultural, aspects, the physical aspects (landscape, water sources) This topic also allows a virtual field trip, we would just need to se if we could find one that does a narattive for the blind student and possibly a written narrative for the deaf student.

*Weather systems - this would be a good one to use technology with. to show patterns in water currents, weather patterns, weather systems and maybe the climate zones and/or the shift of the climate patterns over the years. I know this sounds like science, but it is part of Physical Geography. Janette & Greg can you envision some options for the blind and deaf stuent? since both VI and HI students have heightened touch sensory experiences, I’m thinking something along those lines would be beneficial? maybe using hot/cold “zones” to represent the climate areas (air and/or water; heat and/or dye could be added to water to show the flow/current, air jets for weather patterns, fog machines that can create relative humidity... just throwing some ideas out there? for the HI student specifically, there are some great apps for iPod Touch/iPad that would help them (and all students, really) visualize the weather patterns

And.... if we used the weather systems for the topic, it could be considered ‘cross curricular’ with science (as Lauri points out). So, bonus too... what about something like mentioned in this week’s readings (Web 2.0 Tools book)? I’m thinking specifically of how the students could use an iPod (voice recorder included on iPod Touch) to document their learning (ipad for the deaf student to record via text), conduct interviews, consume new content tied to the subject, and interface with different applications offered through the App Store (Schrum, 2006). Title 1 funding (if school meets Title 1 criteria) could even pay for any costs incurred (hardware would be severely discounted if e-rate and the remainder paid for through Title 1, software would be paid for through Title 1) if aligned with CIP... having the students document their learning as they go will really help them in the curation of their knowledge and understanding of the topics.

View Plate tectonics and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

View Earthquake and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

View Tsunami and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

Tip: Working with forms