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.)

Submitted by: Allison Maupin
School: Varina High School

Summary

The students were given an assignment to write a bill about something they wanted changed or improved at school. The students were to write their bill just as a bill that would go to Congress would be presented. As the students finished their bills, my 3rd block became the House of Representatives, and my 7th block became the Senate. Each block was then divided into committees based on the topics of their bills (safety, school lunches, senior privileges, etc.) and the bills from 3rd went to 7th and vice versa. The students uploaded their bills into Google Docs and dragged them into the correct folder for the committees. Then, each house broke into committees and began to analyze their bills. They read the bills, commented on them, and changed them within Google Docs. Once the committees were done looking at bills, they presented to the class which bills they thought were most effective. The students then voted on bills through ActivEngage. At this point, the bills that passed with correct percentages, were sent to the other house of Congress. The next class, the same process took place except all students looked at the bills, they were debated on the floor and voted on again with ActivEngage. The bills that passed with correct percentages were sent to the instructor who played the role of president and could veto bills. The final bills that were chosen were given to the principal with hopes the changes could actually be made around the school.

Submitted by: Allison Maupin
Collaborators:School Librarians
School: Varina High School

Summary

Students are divided into campaign teams with each holding a specific position on the team (Campaign Manager, Media Advisor,Finance Manager, Speech Writer, Manager of Volunteers, etc.) and will produce all components of what an actual campaign team would do during an election. Each member is responsible for creating all individual portions that their campaign position requires. Collectively, as a group, the students will create a campaign commercial focusing on a specific strategy learned from a campaign commercial analysis. The commercials were shown to a different Government class who voted for the winning candidate and campaign team. The project information is given to students at the beginning of the elections unit, so as content is learned, the students can take notes for their specific position. For example, the Media Advisor is responsible for editing the campaign commercial using MovieMaker, creating a Facebook page for their candidate using a Word Document Template, a newspaper advertisement (some used Publisher), and a radio advertisement (some used MP3 files). Each student is graded not only on the work that present individually, but they are also given a group grade, and the students grade their peers on their work ethic.

Submitted by: JaNee Jones & Sarah Billups
Collaborators:School Librarians
School: Varina High School

Summary

The objective of the “Can you hear me now?” unit is to provide students with the tools to effectively and powerfully express themselves. This creative and informational unit will develop student centered learning as the students discover and explore a variety of nonfiction texts and produce unique works within the nonfiction genre. Through the unit, students will continue practicing the fundamentals of English, reinforcing SOL and SAT test taking strategies, and collaborating for a common goal. From 6 word memoirs, impromptu debates and persuasive letters, this lesson does it all with the student as the creator after understanding the concepts. As a goal of nonfiction is to entertain while informing, there is nothing more powerful than providing students with tools to share their voice at such a pivotal age.
This specific part of the unit focuses on independent, collaborative, and creative research and critical thinking. Students are challenged with developing a “How to Video” to teach their peers a skill that is pertinent to their generation. It extends beyond the simplicity of “How to walk,” as students create age-appropriate, high-interest, and audience focused videos, which requires advanced research skills, creative questioning, communication, and complete interest in a topic.

Submitted by: Caroline Wheeler
School: Varina High School

Summary

Urban legends fascinate, disturb, and ultimately entertain all of us—students and teachers alike. The Urban Legends lesson bridges the study of legends, one of the major tenets of world literature, and modern folklore. For many students, the stuff of literature and the stuff of real life seem worlds apart.  An extension from traditional legends and mythology units of study, this online research based lesson plan provides students with an opportunity to connect literature to everyday life and enables students to use technological skills and approaches to explore, understand, and evaluate the different types and purposes of modern, urban legends. Students will gain deeper insight into the similarities of literature of different cultures and eras and will develop more relevant understandings of the cultural and social functions of oral literature. The Urban Legends lesson is designed to foster and promote students’ approaching and ideal information fluency skills. In addition, this 21st Century lesson also promotes group communication and collaboration. Using understandings gained during from their research, students will create an innovative 21st Century product to showcase understandings and criticisms to less informed, more gullible peers.

The Urban Legends lesson, inspired creative thinking, by allowing them to discover that it is OK not to believe everything they hear and encourage creative risk taking. Students had to go outside of their comfort zones to create a 21st Century product to showcase their findings.

Submitted by: Dana Dabney
School: Varina High School

Summary

This lesson is based on the topic of masks and how they have affected our lives in the past and the present day. In a group, students chose some sort of mask that they are interested in and research the topic further. They share their found information via a Prezi presentation that is then shared on our class blog. After learning about many different aspects of masks and mask making by reading other class’ blog posts, student then create their own original clay mask in the classroom.

Submitted by: Paul Cassimus
Collaborators:Renee Balch, Mike Dunavant, Sam Peterson, Lisa Hand, Anne Dillon.
School: Varina High School

Summary

(INTRO VIDEO) Using their laptops, students will create instructional videos in which they teach the basics of Spanish to others. They must have at least two characters, a student character and a teacher character. A major part of the grade will come from the dialogue and interaction between the characters. The teacher character will teach all the grammar we have learned so far. The student character must act appropriately like a student; asking questions, wanting explanations for difficult concepts, etc. The teacher character will explain each concept and share with the student helpful tips, advice, study strategies, mnemonic devices and others that will help the student learn. Students will act as researchers and teachers to discover the best methods and strategies in learning the basics of Spanish. Google docs will provide a platform for collaborating with upper-level Spanish students to get strategies and methods in learning the basics of Spanish. They will reflect on this information, their notes, and from their own experiences as a Spanish student to create the video, the dialogue and the content. The videos will be forwarded to middle school Spanish teachers to show and make available to their students. Then, my classes and the middle school classes will have a discussion board set up to discuss any tips or advice to learning Spanish. Essentially, my students will take on the role of the upper-level students to pass on their knowledge to the middle school students to bring the scenario of the project full circle.

Submitted by: Beth Lewis and Allison Maltby-Neely
School: Holman Middle School

Summary

The lessons contained in this unit plan are designed to teach students about the theme of heroes. Students will explore topics and terminology associated with the difference between idols and heroes. Students will be exposed to a variety of arts experiences, including, music and song, film, theatre and script writing, interpretive movement and individual reflection. Although the unit is designed to be used for any middle school student, it can be adapted for any level learner. The culminating project, the students will create a digital story about a hero that demonstrates the knowledge that they have attained throughout the course of the unit.

Submitted by: Jason Burke
School: Holman Middle School

Summary

Mr. Burke’s 7th grade life science classes will be involved in an in-depth project dealing with a variety of Biomes & Ecosystems. For this project, the students will actually be the teachers! Each group will do research on a specific biome given to them. Research must include specific examples of ecosystems, communities, populations, and all the interaction that takes place among those groups within their biome. The students will be required to speak with an expert on their biome. This interaction can be through blogging, email, or video conferencing. They will teach the material to the class using appropriate digital media choices. The students will assess each group by the amount of knowledge they have gained from viewing the presentations.

Submitted by: Diana Hundley
Collaborators: Kadie English-Student Teacher, Merle James- Art, Kathy Vick- Librarian, Jessica DelMonte-ITRT, Parent Volunteers
School: Echo Lake Elementary

Summary

The students will work collaboratively in 5 groups that they have chosen and will be in charge of one of Virginia’s 5 regions of Virginia. Directly prior to today’s culminating lesson, the students’ developed questions the would like to find out about each region as well as what they wanted to learn about the moon. The students each used a graphic organizer and chose from three web-sites to research information about all five regions in class. They also utilized the library in a lesson about searching the web. (Kids Link) They were able to add to their research with this information. The art teacher worked with the students to paint white t-shirts with the map of Virginia for us to wear as Jr. Virginia Trekkers. Today, I will video-conference with the students from the “moon” (to bring in our school-wide theme of “Echo Lake is Out of his World”) and to tell them they have got to visit the moon with me! I will let them know I am on my way back to pick them up so we can compare the physical characteristics of the regions of Virginia to that of the moon. However, we will need to each bring a few things with us about the regions.