TE 831 Lesson Plan Template

Re-purposing Technology Lesson PlanTE 831: Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology

Summary Box

Lesson title: The Great Gatsby Obituary News AnnouncementPrepared by: Kathleen DavidsonSubject area: English Language ArtsTechnology used: Photostory 3 or Microsoft Movie MakerLength of lesson: One day in class and two days outside of class to workSuggested grade level: 10-12

Lesson Objectives: The student will be able to Demonstrate knowledge of characters and plot elements Use the appropriate voice for the genre Use the appropriate format for the genre

Student NETS Standards Alignment:

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

Materials:

Real life example of an obituary Fictional example of an obituary Planning handout for the obituary Obituary assignment rubric Example newscast Lesson Power Point Elmo document camera Computers Photostory 3 Software or Windows Movie Maker Software

Lesson Procedure:

Before

Students have just finished reading The Great Gatsby. To demonstrate their knowledge of characters and plot elements they are going to create an obituary or newscast announcement about a characters death.

1. Students will be introduced to the genre of an obituary. The teacher will provide a real life example of an obituary to read. We will read this together as a class. While reading, students are to annotate the obituary for things that they noticed should be included in the obituary. We will discuss these elements together after reading.

During

2. After making a list of things to include in the obituary, students will look at an example of an obituary created on a fictional character. We will read through the obituary together and students will again make notes of what is included. I will also ask them to use their knowledge of How the Grinch Stole Christmas to pick out details from the text as well as where I was able to get creative. We will discuss these elements together after reading.3. Students will then be shown an example of how to create a newscast about the death based off of their obituary. They will watch my news broadcast of the death announcement for the Grinch. After watching, I will ask students about what changes were made and what needs to be included in the newscast to make it effective.4. After the two examples, students will be given the project rubric to see how they will be evaluated and also a planning page they can use to create a rough draft of their project. Upon doing the lesson, I realized that students needed more explanation of how to use Photostory 3. I added that in before giving the students their rubric and having them work.

After

5. Students will present their obituary to a classmate either in the written format or in the digital format. Students will evaluate each others work using the rubric before turning the assignment in. They will record why they chose to give their peers the score for each category so that they can justify the grade given to their peer. They will then turn in their assignments for grading. I will look at what their peer scored them at, but I will also use the rubric myself to evaluate their work.

Additional Resources:

Opening ActivityLater today, you will be writing an obituary for one of Fitzgeralds characters in The Great Gatsby. Review the real world obituary below and annotate WHAT you should do for an obituary based on the sample. See my annotation example below

JANET BANTA Grand Rapids, MI

BANTA - Janet Banta, aged 88, easily and gently breathed her last on Monday, January 9th, 2012. She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, James Stuart Banta. Janet attended East Grand Rapids High School, earned her BA from the University of Michigan after which she completed her Master of Nursing degree at Western Reserve University, Francis Paine School of Nursing. Later she returned to Grand Valley State College for a Masters degree in Education. She and Jim raised five children on a farm in Cascade Township. Janet was an inspiring teacher, a loving mother, and a friend and partner to her husband. She held a distinguished career as a nurse, then as a professor of nursing at Grand Valley State University. At the time of her retirement GVSC school of Nursing established the Banta/Perkins Award which is awarded to the outstanding Senior Nursing student by their peers. In 1989 Janet was appointed Emeritis Faculty member at GVSC. She is survived by her five children, John (Linda) of New York; Mary (James Koert) of Massachusetts; Steven (Julia) of Texas, David (Maran) of Georgia, Ted (Beth) of Grand Rapids, fifteen grandchildren; and one great grandchild. We celebrate her life this Saturday, January 14th, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. in services held at Fountain Street Church. Visitation with the family will be held at Ofield Funeral Home, 4500 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Kentwood, on Friday, January 13, 2012 from 6 to 8 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Kirkoff College of Nursing at GVSU, University Development, PO Box 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501. Ofield Funeral Home

Published in Grand Rapids Press on January11,2012 http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=janet-banta&pid=155426355Brainstorm section

THE GRINCHWhoville, Snowflake

GRINCHThe Grinch, age 102, gently and peacefully went into the next life on Sunday, December 26th, 2012. He was preceded in death by his loyal dog, Max (who tried to fly like Rudolph last year and was unsuccessful). The Grinch did not attend school as a child, but later in life went to the Whoville Community College to study Christmas Cheer, with a minor in Tree Decorating. The Grinch was an outgoing friend, a Christmas lover, and a creature of extraordinary humor and wit.

The Grinchs early life was one of misery and deceit. The Grinch almost stole Christmas from the Whovillians many years ago, but in his shameful pursuit learned a valuable lesson which he passed on to Whoville; he helped the town of Whoville find the true meaning of Christmas. The Grinch (after his heart enlargement surgery) is remembered as a caring Whoville citizen, and a great Christmas party planner. He hosted the annual Christmas dinner with the rare Who Roast Beast. Later in life he found his passion with singing (his favorite song was Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day) and sharing presents such as: roller-skates, bicycles, popcorn and plums.

He is survived by the rest of Whoville who loved and adore him (after his heart enlargement surgery) and accepted him like family. He was especially close to little Cindy Lou Who and will be missed. We will celebrate his extraordinary life this Wednesday, December 29th, 2012 at 4pm at the Whoville Whoistian Church. Visitation will be held at the Whoville Funeral Home at 100 Whoville Street, Whoville, Snowflake Tuesday night from 5:00-8:00pm. In lieu of flowers (although poinsettias are happily accepted), memorial donations can be made to the Whoville Community College, Whoville Christmas Party Account, or Maxs Wish-I-Were-A-Reindeer fund.

Obituary Format:______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Great Gatsby Obituary PassageAs we conclude our discussion of The Great Gatsby, pick one of the characters from the novel and write an obituary for them, create a radio broadcast announcement of their death, or create a news broadcast of their death. Include specific details about their life, family, death, and life purpose. What did they accomplish? What would they have been proud of? Who/what will they have left behind? How old were they when they died?RubricScore: ____________/35pts My name is _____________________and ________________________review and graded my paper(Disclaimeryou must be upfront, honest, and fair in your grading. If you give someone an invalid grade; for example, I am going to give my BFF a perfect score because I love them, you and your partner are subject to a score of zero on the assignment).4=Awesome!3=Got It.2=Almost1=Not Quite

I have a thoughtful and creative format; I use the genre cleverly (10pts).

I thoughtfully reflect on my character with dynamic details and insight on their life (10pts).

I have great mechanics (5pts).

The pictures, tone of voice, and sound for my news broadcast/radio announcement is very effective(10pts).I have a solid format; I use the genre appropriately (8-9pts).

I solidly reflect on my character with clear details and insight on their life (8-9pts).

I have solid mechanics (4pts).

The pictures, tone of voice, and sound for my news broadcast/radio announcement is appropriate(8-9pts).I have a basic format; I use the genre, but it is simple (6-7pts).

I reflect on my character, but the details and insight are basic and expected (6-7pts).

I have basic mechanics; there are some distracting errors (3pts).

The pictures, tone of voice, and sound choices for my news broadcast/radio announcement are basic and sometimes ineffective(6-7pts).I fail to use the correct format; the genre is incomplete, weak, confusing, and underdeveloped (0-5pts).

I may attempt to reflect on my characters, but many details are missing, incorrect, and/or confusing (0-5pts).

I have weak mechanics; there are many distracting errors (0-2pts).

I fail to use appropriate pictures, tone of voice, and/or sound choices for my news broadcast/radio announcement(0-5pts).

Feedback:

Reflection

When beginning this assignment, I was excited because I knew it was an opportunity to take a lesson plan I have been doing and was going to do again and transform it into something new and more creative for my students. I decided to have my students use Photostory 3 or Windows Moviemaker software to complete this new lesson because we had recently worked with the software for the TE 831 class which meant that I could assist students when using it and creating their newscasts. I based my decision off of the TPAK model. I knew that I had the content knowledge about obituaries and The Great Gatsby to teach this lesson and the skills to teach about them pedagogical skills but I knew I needed to choose a technology where I had technological knowledge or else I wouldnt be able to assist the students. By having knowledge in all of these areas, I was able to create a lesson that integrated technology in a successful way.When implementing the lesson, I was surprised by how many students had little to no knowledge of the Photostory 3 or Windows Moviemaker software. All students in our school district have to take a computer education class their freshmen year where they learn about the different applications on the computers and how to use them. I thought that my students would have some knowledge of the application because of this class but I was wrong. This goes along with the idea of the SCOT theory. Our school has a lot of technology that is not being utilized and without a teacher or student giving meaning or purpose to a technology tool, it is not helpful. I knew that because my students didnt have experience with the tool I needed to not only show my students the example of turning the obituary into a newscast, but I also had to spend some time really explaining how to use the software. I had to alter my lesson at this point to include a step by step walk through of how to use Photostory 3. I am lucky enough to have a projector connected to my computer so I was able to show the students how to use the program on my projection screen. Because most of my knowledge is in using Photostory 3, that is what I showed to the class. I believe that for this reason, many students chose to use the Photostory 3 software for their projects instead of Windows Moviemaker.After familiarizing the students with the Photostory 3 software, I set the students to work creating their obituaries in our classroom using the portable laptop cart. All students had to first write a rough draft of their obituary to make sure that they had all the correct information regarding their character before they went on to make the newscast. The students were only allowed to move on to the newscast portion of the project after they checked their rough draft in with me. This allowed me to see that they really understood their character before continuing on to the next step. After writing a draft of their obituary, they were instructed to break down their obituary into segments for their newscast. This required them to break up information into sections that fit together. By doing this, students were able to decide what pictures they needed to find. This made the creation of the newscast easier as well. Some students struggled with finding pictures to fit their newscast. They wanted to the pictures to be relevant to the character and also what they were saying which turned out to be the hardest step for them. What made finding the pictures even more difficult was that they knew they needed to know the author of the picture in order to cite it. Some students became frustrated at this point, but I think it was an important learning lesson especially when moving into future research based lessons.Recording their newscast also turned out to be difficult. When deciding to do this lesson, I knew that students would be able to use the laptops from the portable laptop cart to record their voice. One thing I forgot to take into account was having a quiet place to record. Many students needed to come in after school to record their voice because they did not finish in class and they did not have access to voice recording software at home. When they came in after school, they had to find an area which was silent in order to record quality sound. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a silent spot in our school. A few students used the stairwell to record which resulted in a large echo on the recording. I now know that next time I do this lesson, I need to develop a plan for students to record their narration.After looking at some of the difficulties students ran into, I was able to focus more on the benefits of the lesson. Many of the students were very creative with their newscasts. They enjoyed adding voice into their narration but at the same time, included quality details regarding their character. Many even tried to take on a new newscaster persona when announcing the characters death. Many even made comments about how much they enjoyed making the newscast because they were allowed to add some of their own creative details into it. They were able to show that they understood the plot and character details through their writing but that they also understood voice which was important for our narrative unit.The students really seemed to enjoy the creative aspect of this lesson. The students were able to demonstrate their knowledge of the characters just like last semester, but the amount of students that turned in the project on time and the quality of the project showed me that they liked the addition of the technology into the lesson. For that reason, I know that I want to incorporate the digital story software into more lessons. I think that it could easily be applied into many lessons I teach. For example, I hope to have the students use this software to create Public Service Announcements for their final exam projects. Usually with the final exam projects we have students create an essay called The Six Things You Should Know. This project requires students to research a social issue and then write an essay about the top six things one should know about their issue. I think that we could transform this lesson by adding the Public Service Announcement portion to it. Students would write their essay just like before, but they could also create the public service announcement using the six things people should know about their social issue and pictures to support their writing. I think this would add another level of creativity to the project. I would also like to make it easier for students to share their work with each other. Unfortunately the website we are required to create does not allow for this to happen so I think I will have to find another way to have students post their videos where their peers can comment. I think students would take more pride in their research project if they knew other students/teachers were going to view these projects. This is an idea we could look at in other subject matters as well. Perhaps if students knew that their work was going to be published for others to see, they would take more pride and put more effort into their work.After implementing this lesson, I realized how adding a new element into a lesson that I have done before can really engage my students. This really relates back to the Davidson reading from this class. Our society has changed tremendously in regards to technology but many schools havent really changed with that. By adding technology into lessons, where it fits, we are making our classes more appealing to our digital immigrants. I also realized that when implementing technology, you cant assume that your students have experience with a tool just because it is in the school. As teachers, we need to be able to teach the content but also teach the use of that technology to our students. Overall I am glad that I transformed this lesson because it opened my eyes to how to continue to transform other lessons. I now know that I can transform lessons using digital story software and many other kinds of technology, as long as I plan well.