In the past, I have assigned students to read an introductory section prior to beginning a unit of literary study. The introductory section provided students with the historical and social background of the literary period to be studied. This project gave me the perfect opportunity to try something new. I teach in a technical high school, and I know that students are very proud of their chosen trades. I hope to motivate students to learn something new about Colonial American trades as a way to provide background information about Colonial American society for our study of Colonial American literature.
The class I wrote this unit for is my grade eleven honors English class. They come with a host of learning deficits, which I know I must address before next year when they will take the Early College Experience class for senior English. Following a pre-unit survey, I realized that this unit would need to have a lot of remediation built in, as students lack even the most basic research skills. Much difficulty lay in trying to create activities that would allow students to acquire missing skills quickly, as we have only ninety days with our students, half as many as traditional high schools.
Unit Plan
Goal: What is the process for creating a research-based multi-media presentation?
Standards Alignment:
Production and Distribution of Writing
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Research to Build or Present Knowledge
W.11-12.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
W.11-12.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitationsof each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas; avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
SL.11-12.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing
perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
SL.11-12.5. Make strategic use of digital media in presentations to enhance understanding of
findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
Conventions of Standard English
L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Unit Outcomes:
Content Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- evaluate sources for reliability;
- avoid plagiarism;
- integrate multiple sources of information to create a cohesive presentation that is written in academic style, well organized and developed, and appropriate for audience, purpose, and task; and
- present findings to a small group.
Technology Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- access assignments and materials in Google Classroom;
- conduct research on the Internet;
- evaluate digital resources and use only credible websites for research;
- use BibMe or EasyBib to keep track of electronic resources and write a bibliography;
- take online quizzes;
- use Google Slides to create a presentation based on this Internet research; and
- use the Smart board to share this presentation with the class.
Timeline: I expect this unit to take approximately two to three weeks.
Students will be moving from initial use of Google Classroom and Google Docs to more sophisticated uses of both of these programs, along with introducing new technology, for example BibMe (or Easy Bib), Quiz Star, Google Slides, and Grammarly. This unit will introduce our study of Colonial American literature by allowing students the opportunity to learn about Colonial American society in a way that will make the study of Colonial American literature more relevant.
Prior Knowledge: Students have limited knowledge of conducting research and avoiding plagiarism, although they have used the Internet to search for information. Students have used Power Point, but not Google Slides. Students have taken online quizzes. Students have mediocre skills in organizing and developing their ideas. Students are quick to learn technology; although Google Classroom is very new to them, they are eager to use it more often. They have engaged in social networking through Facebook and Twitter, but not using Google Docs.
Lessons One through Three: 3-5 days
W.11-12.8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge
Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas; avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
Learning Tasks: The learning tasks will provide students with explicit instruction and practice in: evaluating digital sources; recording sources and bibliographic information effectively while conducting internet research; paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting directly; using in-text citations and creating references list.
Prior Knowledge: Data collected from a pre-unit knowledge assessment tool, as well as on prior learning activities involving internet research and integration of research material into student writing indicated that students have had very little instruction in conducting formal research. Most students have been inadvertently plagiarising for years. They are capable of using a variety of devices to access the internet; however, they have no idea how to choose digital sources that are appropriate for formal research, or how to record, cite, or create reference lists. Most have never heard of MLA format.
Learning Objectives:
- The student will be able to evaluate digital resources for credibility with 90% accuracy.
- The student will be able to paraphrase, summarize, or use direct quotations with 90% accuracy.
- The student will be able to use BibMe or EasyBib to record digital sources with 90% accuracy.
Vocabulary: credible digital resources, domain, source, bias, paraphrase, summary, cite, BibMe, Easy Bib, bibiography, bibliographic
Assessment
Essential Key Question: What is the process for conducting academic research using reliable internet resources and avoiding plagiarism?
Informal Assessment:
- Practice exercises
- Quizzes using Quiz Star
- Informal observation and redirection during class
Formal Assessment:
- Students will apply this knowledge when they conduct research for and create their
Google Slide presentation of their research findings
- A co-authored rubric generated in Rubistar will be used to assess the final Slide presentation
Lesson One
Learning Objective #1: The student will be able to evaluate digital resources for credibility with 90% accuracy.
Materials/Resources:
- copies of video note-taking exercise, practice exercise, and end of lesson quiz
Technological resources:
- Unit content pre-quiz prepared on Quiz Star and posted in Google Classroom
- Post-lesson Quiz Star quiz posted in Google Classroom
- List of student user names and passwords for Quiz Star (teacher created accounts)
- Video note-taking exercise and practice exercise posted in Google Classroom
- Reliable Internet Resources Video posted in Google Classroom
- Smartboard for showing videos and for modelling practice exercises
- Reserve Library Computer Lab or chrome books
Learning Activities:
Instructional Strategies: These skills will be taught in workshop style, with students conducting activities on devices so that they can have hands on practice with the skills being introduced. Each student will have his/her own device to ensure that each individual student understands the concepts and can apply the skills to be taught.
Grouping Strategies: The lesson will begin with whole group instruction, using the Smartboard to show a reliable resources video. Students will then work individually on practice
exercises. Students are allowed to choose their work style from this point; they may work on their own, or they may choose to work with a partner or a small group of three students. In this way, students will reinforce their own understandings as they work together to solve problems that emerge with either content or technology.
Initiation: Knowing that students have conducted research without proper guidance in the past, I plan to access their prior experiences by asking how they chose internet sources for research in the past. Then, I will share lesson objectives, as well as the activities students will be engaging in following the lesson. I will reiterate again, or use a short video to reinforce, the importance of conducting credible research and correctly citing sources.
Lesson Procedures: I will begin by using the Smartboard to show a short video about reliable internet sources. Students will then each be given a paper copy of a worksheet with questions from the video. Students will be able to access the video via Google Classroom and then watch the video independently as many times as they need to in order to answer the questions on the worksheet. I will facilitate student learning, circulating, redirecting, and checking student accuracy during this work time.
Next, students will be given the practice exercise worksheet, which they can also access on Google Classroom to easily access embedded links to websites they will evaluate. Again, students practice either independently or with a partner, guided by the worksheet questions to evaluate the credibility of each given website. Following this activity, which will be graded by the instructor, students will access Quiz Star through a link in Google Classrom to take a post-lesson quiz about evaluating internet resources.
Closure: In Google Classroom, the student will complete an Exit Ticket as a final, informal check for understanding. The student will submit this Exit Ticket in Google Classroom.
Intervention: One student still does not have access to the Google Classroom through which I deliver most of the learning activities and teaching materials. I am able to provide him with materials through his personal Gmail. My pre-unit survey revealed that many students do not have either internet access or an appropriate device for learning to use at home, therefore I will provide computers and/or chrome books for student use during class as necessary for each lesson.
Enrichment: Students who complete all activities early will be encouraged to begin looking for reliable websites that they can use for their upcoming research project that is the culminating learning activitiy for this unit.
Reflection: Students and teacher were able to troubleshoot a few technology glitches that came up. We used the Chrome books for this lesson. One thing I should do is join my Google Classroom as a student, so that I can see what things look like from the student’s perspective, particularly when it comes to submitting completed work. Having hard copies of worksheets while accessing internet resources embedded in documents in Google Classroom worked smoothly; however, students need to be reminded to click “Done” as they become very concerned when an assignment has been marked “Late” by the program. Overall, everything went very smoothly, students were excited to use technology, and far more engaged in watching the video independently while answering the questions than when I am presenting using only the Smartboard and my lecture. Students were very excited when they had completed their work early and could begin looking for websites for their upcoming research project. Post-lesson quiz grades were all above 85%, far better than I had anticipated.
Lesson Two
Learning Objective #2: The student will be able to paraphrase, summarize, or use direct quotations with 90% accuracy.
Materials/Resources:
- copies of practice exercise, and end of lesson quiz
Technological resources:
- Post-lesson Quiz Star quiz posted in Google Classroom
- List of student user names and passwords for Quiz Star
- Practice exercise posted in Google Classroom
- Avoiding Plagiarism Workshop video series posted in Google Classroom
- Paraphrasing instructional video posted in Google Classroom
- Smartboard for showing videos and for modelling practice exercises
- Reserve Library Computer Lab or chrome books
Learning Activities:
Instructional Strategies: Again, these skills will be taught in workshop style, with students conducting activities on devices so that they can have hands on practice with the skills being introduced. Each student will have his/her own device to ensure that each individual student understands the concepts and can apply the skills to be taught.
Grouping Strategies: The lesson will begin with whole group instruction, using the Smartboard for demonstrating either a model or a video. Students will then work individually on practice exercises. Students are allowed to choose their work style at this point; they may work on their own, or they may choose to work with a partner or a small group of three students.
Initiation: I will begin by asking students how they avoided plagiarism in the past. Then, I will share lesson objectives, as well as the activities students will be engaging in following the lesson.
Lesson Procedures: I will begin by using the Smartboard to show the first three videos in the video workshop series (seven short videos in all) about avoiding plagiarism. Students will practice listening skills by taking notes during the videos; I will stop the videos and point out pertinent information that students should record into their notes. The videos are also available in Google Classroom if students wish to review.
Students will then be directed to watch the remainder of the videos in the series, taking notes independently as they watch each video. Following this activity, students will access Quiz Star to take a post-lesson quiz about avoiding plagiarism.
Closure: Students will complete an Exit Ticket in Google Classroom in which they will identify one thing they learned today and one thing they still want to know about avoiding plagiarism.
Intervention: If I am unable to resolve the problem for the student who still does not have access to the Google Classroom I will continue to provide him with materials through his personal Gmail and/or by providing him with the URL’s of internet videos.
Enrichment: Students who completed all activities early may continue looking for reliable websites that they can use for their upcoming research project.
Reflection: I actually began this lesson a little sooner than I had anticipated; and I would have repeated the note-taking worksheet as that strategy worked well for the first lesson. However, students were just as happy to use their chrome books to take notes during the videos, so engagement was one hundred percent. I gave students the option of taking notes with pen and paper or using Google Docs either on the chrome book or on their cell phones. The class was split roughly three ways, with one third using traditional paper and pen, one third using Google Docs on the chrome books, and one third using Google Docs on their cell phones.
Lesson Three
Learning Objective #3: The student will be able to use BibMe (or Easy Bib) to record digital sources with 90% accuracy.
I will not include this lesson as it is a lesson to teach a specific technological skill to students and as such does not meet the criteria for this assignment. This lesson would be followed by Lesson Four: integrating multiple research sources into student writing. For the purposes of this paper, I will move ahead to the application portion of the unit, which is the Google Slides presentation.
Lessons Five Through Eight: 3-5 days
Production and Distribution of Writing
W.11-12.4.Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.11-12. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Conventions of Standard English
L.11-12.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Learning Tasks: The learning task for this unit is to create a Google slide presentation based on research findings. Students will use spell and grammar check tools, along with peer editing and online dictionary and thesaurus to ensure that they have used Standard English correctly. Students will need to apply what they learn about task, purpose, and audience to create an appropriate presentation. Because this will be a small group or partnered project, students will share the project back and forth electronically using Google Docs; this should lead to revisions and changes as students apply what they have learned about academic writing to the creation of their presentation. Students will use this slide presentation to teach their classmates what they learned from their research.
Prior Knowledge: Students will have demonstrated mastery in evaluating, recording, citing, and integrating digital resources for research and they will have completed the research component of this unit. They will have completed the lesson about integrating research into their own writing. Students are becoming more comfortable using Google Classroom and sharing files in Google Docs. Students are weak in basic grammar skills; they may require explicit instruction in the use of spell check, Grammarly, peer editing and perhaps a review of basic punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Learning Objectives:
The student will be able to outline the audience, task, and purpose for the culminating project.
The student will be able to organize and develop the research findings to create a well-organized, academic presentation using Google Slides.
The student will be able to collaborate with at least one other student online and face-to-face in order to revise and improve the presentation so that it will be at least 90% correct in Standard English punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Vocabulary: audience, task, purpose, development, organization, style, background, layout, theme, transition, spell check, grammar check, online dictionary, online thesaurus, Grammarly
Assessment
Essential Key Question: What elements go into the creation of a research-based multi-media presentation?
Informal Assessment:
- Practice exercises
- Informal observation and redirection during class
Formal Assessment:
- Google Slide presentation
- A co-authored rubric generated in Rubistar will be used to assess the Google Slide presentation
Lesson Five
Learning Objectives:
The student will be able to outline audience, task, and purpose for the culminating project.
The student will be able to organize and develop the research findings to create a well-organized, academic Google slide presentation.
Materials/Resources:
- copies of practice exercises
Technological resources:
- Teacher created Google Slide presentation: Audience, Purpose, Task posted in Google Classroom
- Link to Presentation (Development & Organization) website posted in Google Classroom
- Smartboard for showing Google Slides presentation
- Reserve Library Computer Lab or chrome books
Learning Activities:
Instructional Strategies: These skills will be taught in workshop style, with students conducting activities on devices so that they can have hands on practice with the skills being introduced. Each student will have his/her own device to ensure that each individual student understands the concepts and can apply the skills to be taught.
Grouping Strategies: I will begin with whole group initiation, followed by practice; students may work collaboratively during practice.
Initiation: I will begin by sharing several different pieces of writing, and ask students leading questions about the intended audience for each piece, the purpose for each piece, and the reason each author had for writing the piece (task). Then, I will share lesson objectives, as well as the activities in which students will be engaging.
Lesson Procedures: First, I will share the Google Slide presentation which I wrote to explain audience, purpose, and task. Following this activity, students will individually use Google Classroom to access the same Google Slide presentation, then read through the presentation independently and take notes as they read. Students may take notes with pen and paper, or on Google Docs. When all students have completed the reading, I will check for understanding and facilitate discussion.
Students will then be directed to the Presentation website. Their assignment, communicated on Google Classroom, is to read six of the links on the website and to take notes while reading. Students will be directed to conduct this reading independently, so that they can go through the readings at their own pace, in the order that they choose. Following reading, the teacher will facilitate discussion and check for understanding.
Closure: Students will access Google Classroom to complete an Exit Ticket upon which they must write their understanding of the audience, purpose, and task of the research presentation project. Students will further identify the four most important things they learned about presentations from the presentation website.
Intervention: If access issues have not been resolved for the student who is unable to access Google Classroom I will e-mail resources to him via his Gmail.
Enrichment: Students who finish early may work on their actual research.
In Lesson Six, students will use a New England University website as part of learning about academic writing style. In Lesson Seven, students will learn how to use Google Slides, followed by mini lessons in using spell and grammar checks, Grammarly, and how to engage in online collaboration using Google Classroom. Because these are primarily technology training, I have not included the lessons for these sections. I will teach a concept or two each day, and provide workshop time for students to create their presentations. Students will co-author a presentation rubric with me using Rubistar, projected on the Smartboard, and ultimately, students will use their Google Slideshow presentations to teach the rest of the class about trades in Colonial America.