Tag Archive | "communication"
Posted on 14 May 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, Deep Run, High School
Submitted by: Rachel Lawrence
Collaborators: Patty Stockdale
School: Deep Run High School
Summary
Who discovered Calculus first? Sir Isaac Newton or Gottfried Leibniz? Calculus students study the backgrounds of these two mathematicians, what other discoveries they made, and their supporters in this controversy. Using the NPR show “A Moment in Time” as an exemplary model, student teams create podcasts to describe the many aspects surrounding this point in history, which are shared with other Calculus classes through a Glogster page.
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is at the approaching level as students respond to class assignnments that require them to analyze discovered information in terms of accuracy and authority. They then assemble and organize the information to create effective, engaging and entertaining audio files for others to critique and enjoy.
This lesson is developing as students work in teacher-selected groups to complete their research and create their podcasts.
This lesson is rated as developing to approaching as the teacher designs a series of challenges that allow students to provide solutions to questions that have long puzzled scientists and historians. The students elaborate on their research by providing unique insights into the issues surrounding the creation of calculus. 
This lesson is rated as approaching as there are many opportunities for students to synthesize knowledge and research while working collaboratively to create original meaningful works to share within and beyond the classroom.
Student Artifact
Download Files
Contents:
- Calculus Controversy Lesson Plan
Posted in Calculus, Comm/Collab - Dev, Creativity - App, Critical Thinking - App, Grade Level, High School, Math, Subject
Posted on 14 May 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, Deep Run, English, High School
Submitted by: Trish Lyons
Collaborators: Greg Metcalf
School: Deep Run High School
Summary
To supplement the school newspaper and provide an online presence for updated student news coverage, the Deep Run student newspaper (The Sentinel) staff wanted to build a website. This required students to research news websites and styles, define the purpose of the site, define the presentation method for the site, define the implementation timeline, design the material collection / workflow method, launch the site, and update it bi-weekly!
The Sentinel is now online via a WordPress blog and can be found at
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is rated as approaching as students self-selected the most appropriate digital tools and information resources in order to create an online version of the student newspaper. Students continually had to determine the authority and accuracy of information for only implementing the online blog but aslo in the posted content.
This lesson is rated as developing as students worked within the The Sentinel newspaper teams to accomplish the class and newspaper goals.
This lesson is rated as approaching as students generate and responded to a series of purposeful questions regarding the creation of the online version of the student newspaper. In addtion, students often had to justify their decision-making processes and engaged in a series of problem solving practices in order to make the online Sentinel work and probject an image of a high quality students news site.
This lesson is rated as developing to approaching because newspaper staff members continued to work on class assignments for the hard copy newspaper while implementing the online version.
Student Artifact
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Contents:
- Online Newspaper Lesson Plan
Posted in Comm/Collab - App, Creativity - Dev, Critical Thinking - App, English, Grade Level, High School, Info Fluency - App, Journalism, Subject, TIP Chart
Posted on 11 May 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, creativity, gahs, glen allen high school, High School, hs, jpmarshall, Rome, social studies
Submitted by: John Marshall
School: Glen Allen High School
Summary
Students will learn the similarities between the problems that face America today and those encountered by the Roman Empire just before its fall. They research information on both current events and Roman History and develop a method to share these ideas with the rest of the world with the goal of making people award of these problems using History to preview what could happen to America.
After a review of the factors that contributed to Rome’s fall and of the current events readings assigned for homework, students will work in small groups to decide the best method to share information with the rest of the world. (examples: create a website, a viral video, a twitter feed, etc.). They’ll then be asked to ‘pitch’ the idea to the instructor who will approve it and give them the assignment rubric and instructions, or be sent back for more project development.
The final product will show its audience the parallels between 3rd and 4th century Rome and 21st Century America with warnings about America’s situation. It will be appropriately published to the outside world for all to see.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching – Students are constructing their own questions to guide research and selecting the most appropriate tools and information to complete an authentic task.
Ideal/Target – Students are choosing and justifying effective means for collaborating and disseminating information with the outside world as well as the most effective tools for communicating within their group. Students are also asked to reflect on the effectiveness of their collaboration each class period as well as upon assignment completion, which is a part of the rubric and their grade.
Ideal/Target – Student are engaged in critical thinking as they apply lessons learned form ancient history to today’s world. They are also asked to evaluate and reflect as they choose which digital tools will be the most effective in disseminating this information. Making connections between history and current events is an authentic task that requires high-level thinking.
Approaching – Students are asked to create meaningful original work that make predictions based on the past. As a teacher, I’ve created parameters where students are required to synthesize information to create and original work
Student Artifact
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Posted in Comm/Collab - Target, Creativity - App, Critical Thinking - Target, High School, Info Fluency - App, World History
Posted on 20 April 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, English, Middle School, Pocahontas, project
Submitted by: Debbie Gilfillan
Collaborators:
School: Pocahontas Middle School
Summary
Students choose an individual who has faced and overcome adversity. While researching this individual, students design a presentation that incorporates a Word Wizard role, a Discussion Leader role, and a Summarizer role, as well as any other roles that the students would like to use. Students then use their research to write historical fiction interviews featuring the individual that they researched.
(This is part of a larger unit that begins with student reading, analyzing and interpreting “Hard as Nails” by Russell Baker, “Water” by Helen Keller, Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller, and “Zlata’s
Diary” by Zlata Filipovic.)
TIPC Ratings
Prior to the Overcoming Adversity Project, students work through the Entry and Developing phases of the chart. As they delve into creating their own presentation, they reach the Approaching stage of the chart. Strategies (using EasyBib, using OneSource as a database tool to locate verified sources) are modeled for students. The project designs challenges promoting synthesis of resources to address authentic tasks, and asks students to consider how they can make their project relevant to real world problems. Students are supported as they acquire, evaluate, and apply information. Some students may reach the Ideal/Target stage as the students independently engage in research and using information fluently as the teacher facilitates and formatively assesses authentic tasks.
This project models a range of communication methods and digital tools while designing challenges that promote collaboration within and beyond the classroom to address an authentic class. Students are taught how to collaborate purposefully without direct supervision (although they may require monitoring and are encouraged to bring problems to the teacher prior to the culmination of the project). The teacher facilitates and formatively assesses authentic tasks where students are engaged in meaningful communication and purposeful collaboration. The students select their own groups, establish group norms, and organize roles (with a structured framework provided), to address an authentic tasks. Students use appropriate digital tools to facilitate collaboration. In some situations, students also selected appropriate digital tools to communicate and collaborate with peers, regardless of time zone or physical differences. Students also reflected on their roles as communicators and collaborators and set goals for future growth.
This project could easily be implemented at the Ideal/Target stage. Since my students are sixth graders and are fairly new to research skills, they didn’t fully obtain the Ideal/Target stage, but they certainly made progress towards this level. A range of critical thinking and/or problem solving skills and digital tools were modeled, and instruction was designed that promoted solutions to authentic tasks. Students were supported as they engaged challenges and problems purposefully. Students generated and responded to purposeful questions, justified decision-making and/or problem solving practices, and applied digital tools to think critically, solving open-ended authentic tasks that require higher order thinking skills. Students also reflected on their roles as critical thinkers and/or problem solvers and set goals for future growth.
Strategic risk taking, creativity, and craftsmanship was modeled through the use of an ActivInspire Adversity flipchart and a variety of incorporated media throughout the project. Opportunities for students to synthesize research, communicate/collaborate, and apply critical thinking skills to address an authentic task were created. A learning environment where students are engaged in creativity and innovation was developed, facilitated, and assessed. Students analyzed trends by comparing different genres, media forms, and different individuals, inspiring new solutions to the authentic task of creating an interview to share a story of overcoming adversity. Students created meaningful, original work within the assignment parameters. The opportunity was given for some students to synthesize existing and self-generated knowledge to create new ideas and products within and beyond assignment parameters. Students were encouraged to choose strategic risks that supported innovation, and reflected on the creative/innovative process, setting goals for future growth.
Posted in Comm/Collab - Target, Creativity - Target, Critical Thinking - App, English, Info Fluency - App, Middle School
Posted on 19 April 2012. Tags: communication, Elko, math, Math 8, Poprik, Skype, Stacy, surface area, technology
Submitted by: Kate Poprik & Jeremy Stacy
Collaborators: Mr. Barlage, Engineer
School: Elko Middle School
Summary
Your students have been hired to develop a flooring estimate for two rooms in the home of a new client, Mr. Barlage. They will collaborate to create a proposal that fits within Mr. Barlage’s budget. The students are grouped based on their specialties and not all group members work in the same “office”. In the math class they specialize in finding area and perimeter while in the technology class, students specialize in finding materials needed to complete the job. The two classes will work together using discussion boards or GoogleChat to complete the task. At the end of the class, the groups will present their proposals to the client.
TIPC Ratings
Students will respond to class assignments that prompt analysis of information.
While working in groups, students will use digital tools to collaborate with group members in another classroom to complete their project.
Students generate and respond to purposeful questions and justify decision-making and/or problem solving practices.
Work on class assignments that blend technology and limited aspects of personal choice to generate new ideas and products.
Student Artifact
Posted in Comm/Collab - App, Creativity - Dev, Critical Thinking - App, Grade Level, Info Fluency - Dev, Math, Middle School, Subject
Posted on 05 April 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, Google Docs, Middle School, movie maker, Science
Submitted by: Karen Thomas
School: Brookland Middle School
Summary
Our world is an oasis filled with plants and animals of every species imaginable. Exotic plants, tropical fish, predatory birds, omnivorous mammals, and singing insects, all for us to discover and enjoy or are they? Is all this splendor friend or foe? In this lesson students will conduct research to learn about invasive species. They will collaborate as a class and in small groups using google and one search to locate information and create an America’s Most Wanted profile video detailing their research and making the public aware of this information by posting their products to the google site.
TIPC Ratings
In this lesson students are required to acquire, evaluate, and apply information researched on a specific invasive species in order to create the Public Service Announcement. They will review search strategies, site authenticity, and citations with the school Librarian during the course of the lesson to help strengthen their information fluency skills. In addition, students will construct their own questions to guide the research using the KWL chart.
In this lesson students will use a variety of resources for communication. They will utilize Google Docs as a class to generate a list of characteristics for invasive species as well as a list of invasive species that they can research. In small groups students will use Google Docs to create and complete a KWL chart on their selected topic. Those small groups will then select a digital tool to use for the presentation of that information in a PSA.
Students will be required to generate, research, and answer their own questions using the KWL chart (in google docs) on the invasive species they have selected.
Students were instructed to create a PSA using the presentation tool of their choice. At the end of the lesson students had created their presentations using MovieMaker, GoAnimate, and Prezi. They synthesized their research and created an original work.
Download Files
Contents:
- Lesson Plan
- Student KWl Example From GoogleDocs
- Class Generated Reserch From GoogleDocs
Posted in Comm/Collab - App, Creativity - App, Critical Thinking - App, Grade Level, Info Fluency - Target, Life Science, Middle School, Science
Posted on 02 April 2012. Tags: Collaboration, communication, critical thinking, Middle School, Pocahontas, research
Submitted by: Claiborne Snyder
Collaborators:
School: Pocahontas Middle School
Summary
Students are given $500 and asked to shop for clothing for a French family of 4. They are to convert their dollars to euros, select complete outfits for a mother, father, 13 year old boy, and 12 year old girl from an online French clothing store and still fall within the budget given. Students will also teach themselves 15 new vocabulary words from the French website, and present all of their findings in a digital format. They create a fashion show explaining the clothing items they purchased for each family member, why they chose the item, and the total cost of their shopping trip. They will learn to communicate as a group and work together to produce a fashion show video of their findings. They will also work to sharpen their verbal skills by producing a voice-over description of the fashion show.
TIPC Ratings
Although students were given the website, the students were heavily involved in researching the clothing options to purchase for the family.
Students worked in self-selected groups to make decisions and “buy” the clothing for the family. The groups also collaborated to create a presentation to display their shopping list, along with French narration.
The students attempted to solve real world problems by shopping for a needy family overseas.
Students created a presentation to show the results of their shopping experience.
Posted in Comm/Collab - App, Creativity - Dev, Critical Thinking - Target, French, Info Fluency - App, Middle School, World Languages
Posted on 02 April 2012. Tags: BMS, Byrd, byrd middle school, Collaboration, communication, critical thinking, earth science, Google Docs, Middle School, reflection, research
Submitted by: Kelly Smith
School: Byrd
Summary
This creative end-product lesson involves a high-level of collaboration among group members to conceptualize a “story” of a rock travelling through geologic time while describing the processes that occur along the way. Students are heavily invested in higher level thinking of Blooms Taxonomy as they apply and synthesize our entire first semester of geology while creating a “story” that reflects the students’ knowledge, creativity, and personalities. In this multi-phased project, students will be actively engaged in real world tasks of meeting deadlines, collaborative group management, and creating a novel product that will be shared and used in a variety of ways. The project opens with an introduction, partner selection, and establishing collaborative-management. Phase two includes rock personalization/character creation (either virtually or with an actual rock), brainstorming, and reflection. The storyline involves brainstorming, outlining, researching, and product creation. The final step is presenting and sharing. Students can communicate, assign tasks, and combine research on a Google Doc form. The students’ products will be shared both electronically for the class to use as a review study tool for SOL’s and their masterpieces will also be presented to the class. In addition, to add further authenticity that expands beyond the walls of our classroom, students will also share their knowledge and creativity with our neighboring elementary schools. The fourth and fifth grade SOL’s are very similar to our own, so the teachers can use our products as a fun way to introduce or teach their own students.
TIPC Ratings
The students are actively engaged in researching specific rock transformations and major events of geologic time. Students are using advanced searches as well as classroom resources such as books and magazines. Students have the freedom to choose which resources they prefer or to mix and match the resources.
Students have complete freedom to use any digital tool(s) that they would like and can try novel or familiar digital tools. Additionally, students will be able to contribute and communicate on a Google doc form. Students can clearly see other partners’ ideas and add to them or direct those ideas into a different direction. Students are then able to work on their own section while simultaneously commenting on another member’s ideas. Students will reflect three times in this project: first at the very beginning to become aware of group dynamics; secondly during peer review; and lastly at the end of the project for a final overall reflection. During the first reflection students are made aware of group dynamics of what worked and what didn’t work. During the second reflection, students are able to compare and contrast their story to another group’s during the story editing process. The final reflection will be done at the end where students may give me feedback on what worked or didn’t work for next year as well as what they gleaned from this exercise.
Students have complete freedom to incorporate tangible materials with digital or to use strictly digital tools. The groups may use whatever tool they would like for their presentation. The students will be creating a “story” that is very complex, and challenging. Students are not only having to incorporate time, but also having to simultaneously demonstrate geologic knowledge. Students are synthesizing an entire semester’s worth of information into a creative end-product. The students are heavily vested in an authentic task that serves each other as well as others in the same learning community. Many of these students have younger siblings have taken this challenge to heart to make it easy to understand, informative, and engaging.
Students are creating projects to facilitate their own understanding of geologic process and geologic time, to help each other, and to help others in the community. These “stories” are resources that will make SOL review engaging and enlightening at the end of the year when the students share their creations with each other. Additionally, the “stories” will also provide a valuable resource to younger students in the county to ignite interest in geology, and to expose them to higher level and creative concepts that extend beyond the SOL boundaries. Reflection is a key element in any field. With three reflection points, built into the lesson, the students should become more adept with each one at recognizing faults and successes. Student should learn from each of the opportunities and become stronger collaborative learners and students.
Posted in Comm/Collab - Target, Creativity - Target, Critical Thinking - Target, Earth Science, Grade Level, Info Fluency - Target, Middle School, Science, Subject
Posted on 30 March 2012. Tags: communication, critical thinking, High School, Highland Springs High School, Spanish
Submitted by: Brenda Witherspoon, Justin Beck
Collaborators: Tyra Pickering
School: Highland Springs High School
Summary
The goal, based on our pacing guides/course objectives, is to recognize conflicts that affect relationships among family and friends and to work together to find solutions. Students from level III will identify problems and ask for advice and the level IV/V students will provide advice plus useful websites and video clips that address the various conflicts. This will be conducted in the target language. The students will use technology to aid them in achieving the goal, specifically Google docs, Google sites, the internet, Movie Maker for video editing and a camcorder. The website will be in Spanish with an English translation available so that both Spanish and English speakers may benefit from the information. Then English translation will be done at a later date.
TIPC Ratings
Students spend a significant amount of time researching their conflict and resolutions. They share this information with each other and with those visiting their website.
Students communicate through the use of google docs to collaborate on this assignment. Upper level students help the lower level students through this communication. Also, students share their websites with organizations that can offer feedback.
Students are presented with a real-life issue and must determine situations that can come from that overarching issue as well as determine the best solutions for those problems.
This lesson allows students to create a product that can be used by others. They had the freedom to design and create their site to best accomplish their goal.
Posted in Critical Thinking - Target, High School, Info Fluency - Target, Spanish, World Languages
Posted on 27 January 2012. Tags: Art, Collaboration, communication, craft, English, prezi, Virginia Randolph
Submitted by: Deana Miller and Andrea Gooch
Collaborators: Katherine Kier
School: The Academy at Virginia Randolph
Summary
The Bizarre Bazaar Christmas Collection Craft Show is looking for fresh new vendors this year! Students are asked to come up with a fresh, new, innovative, crafty, idea that could hypothetically be sold at The Annual Bizzare Bazaar Christmas Collection Craft Show. Students will come up with a craft and collaborate with peers to create a presentation on how to create the craft. The student groups will be composed of at least one English student and one Art student. The students may choose any craft they want. The group will be responsible for mastering the craft and then decide on a way to share their instructions to an audience in a fun, easy-to-follow, accurate, how-to presentation.
TIPC Ratings
Although all strands of the TIPC are important in the development of a 21 Century lesson, this lesson does not focus on Research and Information Fluency.
Developing- Pairing of art and English students defined the roles in which the student were responsible for in the craft creation and the written instructions for creating the how-to presentation. The pair worked together in the selection and creating of the digital tool to demonstrate how-to create their craft.
Developing- Students used digital tools to present the directions for creating their craft. They had to consider what would be the best medium for the presentation and how to write their directions to make them accurate and easy to follow.
Developing- Students produced a craft and created a how-to presentation to model to a given audience how to make the craft. Students had to synthesize the directions for the creation of the final products into directions that would easy for an audience to follow in order to create the craft.
Posted in Art, Comm/Collab - Dev, Critical Thinking - Dev, Electives, English, High School
