The Integration of Reading with Technology and Social Studies

Morton Middle School
Fayette County Public Schools
Lexington, Kentucky

Prepared by: Steve Dokken, Dana Gregory, Jennifer Stephan

With the Assistance of: Amy Ford and Stephen Holthaus

Organizer

Given a world region, how can I convince others to make an educated decision on where and what to tour during their vacation?

Essential Questions

1. Describe the unique and interesting cultural characteristics of a country or area that would entice others to visit.

2. Identify the physical characteristics that others will encounter on their tour.

3. What political and economic considerations are important to their well being when traveling?

4. How will the cost of goods and services affect their travel choices?

5. How can a country’s attributes be represented in a booth to best display information and entice tourists to visit?

6. How can a travel brochure effectively communicate the results of your research?

Academic Expectations/Demonstrators

2.18 Students understand economic principles and are able to make economic decisions that have consequences in daily living.

Analyze the effects of economic factors (e.g., political structure, natural resources, populations, technology) on decision making

2.19 Students recognize and understand the relationship between people and geography and apply their knowledge in real-life situations.

Evaluate the influence of geographical factors in real-life decisions.

1.2 Students make sense of the variety of materials they read.

Analyze appropriate print materials (e.g., literary, informative, persuasive, and practical) for a variety of purposes (e.g., pleasure, information and practical application).

1.16 Students use computers and other kinds of technology to collect, organize and communicate information and ideas.

Expand knowledge by identifying and using technology for a specific purpose.

Express information and ideas creatively using technology.

1.1 Students use reference tools such as dictionaries, almanacs, encyclopedias, and computer reference programs and research tools such as interviews and surveys to find the information they need to meet specific demands, explore interests, or solve specific problems.

Use a variety of research tools and evaluate the effectiveness of each relevant to a specific need or problem.

Culminating Performance

As a demonstration of your research and learning about a world region, you will produce a travel booth of your country that will inform and/or entice your classmates and teachers to visit that country or area, and will include a travel brochure created using a computer application.

Rubric

Five Star Travel Agent:

Your brochure should:	Your booth should:
show four ways of how the people make and spend their money (Column A - Principles)	show four ways of how the people make and spend money (Column A - Principles)
show evidence of five adaptations made by humans to their environment (Column B - Principles)	show evidence of five adaptations made by humans to their environment (Column B - Principles)
be made with at least three columns	clearly make your area or country name obvious
contain at least two illustrations (e.g., map, flag, picture, table etc.)
cite the Internet references

Four Star Travel Agent:

Your brochure should:	Your booth should:
show three ways of how the people make and spend their money (Column A - Principles)	show three ways of how the people make and spend money (Column A - Principles)
show evidence of four adaptations made by humans to their environment (Column B - Principles)	show evidence of four adaptations made by humans to their environment (Column B - Principles)
be made with at least three columns	clearly make your area or country name obvious
contain one illustration (e.g., map, flag, picture, table etc.)
cite the Internet references

Column A - Principles (economic/political)	Column B - Principles (geographic)
Name of the currency and exchange rates with the U. S.	Climate
Technology	Physical Geography
Transportation systems	Religion
Government	Food
Lodging and transportation costs	Dress
	Customs / Festivals
	Entertainment / Points of Interests

Content Knowledge	Skills/Procedures
economic and political factors	question, summarize, skim, scan to construct meaning
cultural aspects of a society	basic keyboarding
geographical features	word processing and editing using
reading and interpreting graphs, charts	effective Internet research
ethical citings	persuasive writing skills
	organizational skills

Lesson Goals

Lesson Goals for the Booth:

Lesson Goal I

Introduction of organizer to class through a whole group discussion.

Lesson Goal II

Review five themes of geography of social studies the students will be researching.

Break groups into heterogeneous groups of 3, 4 or 5 students giving each group one theme from geography. Discuss placemat strategy and why it is used. Then using the placemat strategy, the students come up with main subjects that are investigated for their theme, and an example of each. Examples:

geography/mountain/Mt. McKinley
culture/religion/Christianity
economics/currency/U.S. dollar
government/democracy (republic)/U.S.A.

As a group students are told to choose the best five from their team’s ideas, which they then share with the class. The class has the opportunity to edit the list. The list is saved for Lesson Goal IV.

Lesson Goal III

How to Research on the Internet

Lesson Goal IV

Student do Internet research and complete the Activity Sheet #1

Lesson Goal V

Prep work for booths

Lesson Goal IV

Traveling to booths and collect information for Activity Sheet #2 and for Activity Sheet #3.

Lesson Goals for the Brochure

Lesson Goal I (three to four days)

Goal: Introduce unit of study and enhance keyboarding skills via Ultra Key.

1. Introduce the unit by showing brochures from a travel agency. Discuss culminating activity and have students decide what world region each will research.

2. Introduction of Ultra Key. Students will become familiar with opening the program, accessing the lessons and practice keyboarding skills. A 10 minute practice at the beginning of each day will be held.

Lesson Goal II (two days)

Goal: Introduction to Microsoft Windows

1. Explore desktop, setup student folder on the hard drive, technology/computer/hardware/software terms, access and save in their folder and other basic navigation skills of Windows.

2. Investigate the following terms or skills: (Week 2)

Hardware Terms	Window Terms
CPU	Desktop
Monitor	Clicking
Hard Drive	Double Clicking
Keyboard	Accessing
Mouse	Saving
CD ROM	Minimizing
Floppy	Maximizing
	Windowing
Printer	Find
	Logging on
	Closing Programs
	Opening Programs

Lesson III (one day)

Goals: Create a word document. Save to a folder and retrieve their document. Edit document and save.

Students will open MS Word and type their name. The student will then save their document to their folder. Close all programs then access their folder by going to My Computer and finding their folder on the C drive. The students will then open their document, add the name of their brochure topic. Discuss a “catchy title” to entice visitors.

Lesson IV (three days)

Goals: Discuss toolbars, minimize, Internet

1. Discuss font, paragraphing, cut and past, edit, undo, back button, multitasking between 2 documents, spell checking, setting up columns, bullets and numbering, centering, left and right alignment, adding toolbars by right clicking.

2. Students will type a paragraph on a new document summarizing their prior knowledge on their topic. Student will insert a clipart object illustrating their topic. Save document in their folder.

3. Teacher will give an introduction to the World Wide Web and vocabulary terms and navigational skills. Talk about URL’s, toolbars (compare and contrast Office toolbars to Internet toolbars). Introduce search engines. Students will research their topic via search engine and save with bookmarks. Show difference between search engines and their results.

Lesson V (one day)

Goals: Explore different search engines and evaluate their results.

Students will explore 2 search engines and bookmark their findings into favorites. Optional: Students can search for search engines. (http://www.yahoo.com , http://www.dogpile.com , http://www.800go.com , http://www.altavista.com )

Lesson VI (4 days)

Goals: Students will research and record data on their worksheets relating to their topic and save illustrations from the web to their folder. Students will read and summarize information from the Web and record appropriate information on their worksheets.

Teacher will introduce the activity sheets (sheet 1 deals with the subject, sheet 2 deals with ethical citings on the Internet)

Lesson VII (4 days)

Goals: Students will create a brochure using a template.

1. Teacher will introduce templates in Word and how to complete their brochure using the Smart Board. Teacher will do each step with the students.

2. Students will create their brochures placing the information in appropriate places and cite the Internet references.

Lesson VIII (1 day)

Goals: proofread, edit, save to server, and print a final copy

1. Students will proofread, edit, save to server and print their final copy of their brochure.

Lesson IX (2 days)

Goals: Present student brochures using Smart Board

1. Students will present and discuss their brochures using the Smart Board to the entire class.

2. At the end of each presentation, students will discuss what was enticing about the brochure. Questions including:

What makes me want to visit this area?
What would deter me visiting this area?
What caught your eye?

3. Audience will fill out a worksheet that will critique each presentation.

Instructional Resources:

Research Information Sheet

Activity Sheet #1

Name __________________________________________

Country _________________________________________

Your Task: To better understand other countries, their people and culture, their geography and adaptations to their environment

Your Assignment:

A. Research your country and complete the activity sheet

B. Share what you have learned with your classmates and help them appreciate people of diverse cultures

C. Visit the countries of your classmates to learn about them and develop and appreciation for diverse cultures

Locate the following site on the Internet:

/trt8/Africa/africa.htm

This site will take you to seven other sites to find information about your country of Africa. Important: Remember to use the back arrow to back out of sites you have visited, so that you will easily return to the original page with the seven sites listed.

Your goal is to become the "expert" on your chosen country. You must find the following information, and, hopefully, you will find more interesting information to share with others in your class about your chosen country.

Look over all the questions before beginning your research. You will not find all the information in one site, and the information may not be in the same order as listed below. Use additional paper if you need more room to record your answers.

1. What type of government does your country have? Who are its important leaders, if any? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2a. What type of religions does your country have? To which religion do most of its people belong? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2b. What are the main languages or dialects of your country? ______________________________________________

______________________________________________

3. What events have occurred in your country's history? How was the country formed? What have you learned about your country's immigration and colonization?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4a. What is the currency of this country and what is its exchange rate with the United States? ____________________________________________________________________________________________

4b. What are features of your country's economy? What are its chief resources. What is its main export and its main import? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What are some interesting habits or customs of your country's people? What kind of leisure activities are available in your country? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the population of your country and how is the population distributed? ______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What are the major means of transportation available in your country? What kind of roads does your country have? What major rivers are used for transportation in your country? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What are the major geographical features of your country? What distinguishing landforms are located in your country? What major cities are found in your country? What is your country's capital?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. What is your country's typical climate and weather? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. What is your country's flag? What do the colors and/or symbols on the flag represent? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Flag Drawing

Color is very important in a flag. If you don't have colored pencils or crayons today, bring them next time!!

11. What are five other items of particular interest about your country?

A. ______________________________________

B. ______________________________________

C. ______________________________________

D. ______________________________________

E. ______________________________________

ACTIVITY SHEET #2

Name________________________________

1. What is the name of the country?

__________________________________________

2. Based on two economic/political reasons and one geographical reason explain why you would or would not like to travel to this country? ________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

1. What is the name of the country?

_____________________________________

2. Based on two economic/political reasons and one geographical reason explain why you would or would not like to travel to this country?

________________________________________________________

1. What is the name of the country?

_____________________________________

2. Based on two economic/political reasons and one geographical reason explain why you would or would not like to travel to this country?

________________________________________________________

Activity Sheet #3

Name_______________________________

1. What similarities were seen in the countries you visited?

________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

2. What remarkable differences were seen among the countries you visited?

_________________________________________________________

3. What are some of the different religions found in this region?

__________________________________________________________

4. What are some of the different languages found in this region?

_________________________________________________________

5. Of the countries you visited, which appears to be the most prosperous?

_______________________________________________________

6. What factors about the country above help it to be so prosperous?

_______________________________________________________

7. Of the countries you visited, which appears to be the most impoverished?

_________________________________________________________

8. What factors about the country above cause it to be so impoverished?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

9. What is the most important thing that you have learned about this region of the world?

__________________________________________________________

Back to Morton

Back to PET Project

Column A - Principles (economic/political)

Content Knowledge

Skills/Procedures

Lesson Goals

Lesson Goals for the Booth:

Lesson Goal I

Lesson Goal II

Lesson Goal III

Lesson Goal IV

Lesson Goal V

Lesson Goal IV

Lesson Goals for the Brochure

Instructional Resources:

Research Information Sheet