A Model for Integrating Technology and Literacy

Here's an example of one of Carol's themes, Disasters in History, and how technology is integrated into the learning process.

Introduction: I introduced the theme by having the students dress in costume to re-enact the story of the Titanic.

1. Research paper: Each student chose a disaster to study and researched it through the Internet, books, magazine articles, CDs, etc. and then wrote a research paper using at least five different sources. This was done in Apple Works (word processing). They found pictures on the Internet and/or scanned them to incorporate in their paper.

2. Inspiration Web: Before they began their research, students used Inspiration (a software tool for visually organizing information into outlines, graphic organizers, etc.) to make an Inspiration Web to write what they knew. They then added to it as they researched.

3. Database: The information students gathered was organized in a class database (using Appleworks software) that was printed for everyone to have.

4. Journal: One of the things that students seemed to really enjoy was making five journal entries on the computer (in Appleworks) as though they were a person living in the disaster they were studying.

5. Map: Following a rubric, students drew a clear, legible map of the location of their disaster.

6. Reading a novel: They read The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt and did related writing activities.

7. Multimedia presentation: They made a six-card Hyperstudio multimedia show about their disaster (using a rubric) and then presented it to the class. Rubrics were used for instruction and evaluation for most of the projects.

8. 3-D model: They made a 3-D model of their disaster to display at the academic fair.

9. Presentation: They presented all their work to the class and taught what they had learned in their research.

Students show off their work for the Disasters in History project: A 3-D model of the Mt. Saint Helens disaster and a cover illustration for research on the Titanic.

We also studied humor and clowning this year and the students read a biography of a comedian, researched and wrote a paper, drew a poster of the comedian, made a Hyperstudio multimedia show, wrote a comedy routine and then presented the comedy routine and research information to the class dressed as the comedian. It was great fun! Some of our other themes have been: the study of Space, National Parks, Endangered Species, Countries, Inventors/Inventions, Alaska, Photography, Business, The Orient, Mysteries, Criminology, Holocaust, Presidents, Maya Civilization, and Natural Disasters.

A student teaches the class about Charlie Chaplin.		A student dressed as Lucille Ball does her "Vitameatavegamin" routine.

The students become clowns for the day while studying clowning.