ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

The instructional need and rationale for my unit of instruction is to increase my students understanding of how technology assists in the learning process. By utilizing the ActivBook Reader program, my students will increase their knowledge of Canada by creating an electronic map with the use of Powerpoint. They will also collect data about location, climate, culture, and physical features of Canada and create a table with the information. Finally, they will write electronic postcards about their experiences traveling through Canada. The overall educational goal is to learn Canada through the assistance of researching on the internet and ultimately using PowerPoint, excel graphs, and word to display what the students had learned.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want my students to understand both geography and technology aspects of this lesson. First of all, I want my students to know the location of Canadian provinces, their climates, culture, and major physical features. In addition, I would like my students to know how to use Powerpoint, Word, and Internet Explorer long after they leave my classroom since these three items are used in the “real world.” They can utilize them in education and their careers. Goal(s): Students will learn how to access and utilize the abReader program. Students will learn how to gather information on the selected Canadian provinces and/or territories using the internet. Students will learn location, climate, culture, and physical features of Canadian provinces and/or territories. Students will learn how to create electronic map and postcards using Powerpoint. Students will learn how to save documents in their student folders and the geography server folders.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What climate(s) will you experience in Canada during your travels? 2. How are the local Canadian cultures similar to your culture? 3. How are the local Canadian cultures different to your culture? 4. Where are your province and/or territory located? 5. What is your province and/or territory’ capital? 6. How can you describe the natural features of your province and/or territory? Objectives: Students will be able to work in computer lab with a partner and with little assistance from teacher, they should be able to complete lesson using the abReader program (technology) and the instructions on the computer. Students will be able to navigate through internet explorer to gather information on their pre-selected Canadian provinces and/or territories. Students will identify specific information about their Canadian provinces and/or territories and record it on a table (graph). Students will be able to create an electronic map and postcards using Powerpoint. Students will be able to save their projects in their electronic folders and the shared geography server folders.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? 1. Locate the Canadian provinces and territories. 2. What are the capitals of the Canadian provinces and territories? 3. What are the general climates types of Canada? 4. Name a major natural feature of a province you selected. 5. Is Canada similar to the United States? What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? 1. How are the local Canadian cultures similar and different from your culture? 2. How can the electronic map, information table and postcards demonstrate your understanding of Canada? What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? Students will submit their information tables, electronic map, and postcards on the Geography server folder. The information was gathered to assist in creating the postcards and the electronic map was created to show the Canadian locations the students traveled. It also checks their understanding of where these places are in the real world and that they can actually travel to them someday. What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Students will work in computer lab with partners and I will observe them gathering information for their project. They should not need much assistance from me since the abReader program guides them with specific instructions. In addition, the final product will be saved on the Geography folder and I will be able to assess the map and postcards. Students will assist teacher in creation of rubric that will check for understanding of Canada and technology used. There are five categories that were created: Cooperation, Content-Accurancy, Canadian map, Postcards, and Timeliness. The rubric was decided to have the maximum point value as six and the minimum being three points. The total amount of points earned for this project would be thirty points.

Instructional Strategies

Project-based learning strategies will be used to involve student in learning about the location, climate, culture, and physical features of Canadian provinces and/or territories. This project is a “real world” lesson and will assist students to use their higher-order thinking skills by asking themselves, for instance: “How is the Canadian culture similar and different from mine?” By using a variety of technology tools, the students need to use their self-directedness to complete the end project. As the teacher in this particular activity, I am the facilitator and the students need to be able to gather information and produce the end product. In addition, the coopertive learning strategy is used in this project. Students are working together to achieve their learning goals and the final product to turn into the teacher to be graded.