Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Best Practice Modeled: Students research a community helper and user a Power Point template to create a report on their subjects.
Teacher: First Grade Teachers 
School: Rashkis Elementary
Grade: First
Content Areas: Social Studies, Language Arts, and Computer Skills
Standard Course of Study Objective(s) Met:

Social Studies Competency Goal #2   The learner will identify and exhibit qualities of good citizenship in the classroom, school, and other social environments.

Objectives:

2.01 Develop and exhibit citizenship traits in the classroom, school, and other social environments.

2.02 Identify the roles of leaders in the home, school, and community such as parents, mayor, police officers, principal, and teacher.

Social Studies Competency Goal #7 The learner will recognize how technology is used at home, school, and in the community.

Objective 7.03 Use the computer and other technological tools to gather, organize, and display data.


Language Arts Competency Goal #3  The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.

Objective 3.04  Share personal experiences and responses to experiences with text: publishing non-print texts. discussing interpretations. recording personal responses


Technology Objectives:

Competency Goal 2: The learner will demonstrate knowledge and skills in the use of computer and other technologies.

Objectives:

2.04 Identify and use basic word processing terms (e.g., file, open, close, menu bar, save, print).

2.07 Use multimedia software to illustrate words/phrases/concepts.

2.08 Explore Internet resources and information using teacher-created bookmarks/favorites and discuss the variety and types of information found as a class activity.

  Description of Lesson and/or Unit:  

First grade teachers help students choose a community helper to research and write about. Student then check out books on their community helper, do research, then write their first draft (sloppy copy) on paper formatted like their final project. Students edit their first draft with teacher and peer assistance, then keyboard their final draft in word processing.

Students then open a Power Point  "community helper" template created by their teachers that has been saved either to the teacher's Shared folder or in each student's "My Documents" folder. They open the document template and type their final draft into the seven slides.

After students have keyed in their information, the teacher demonstrates using the Internet to go to Clusty the Clustering Search Engine to find images of their community helper. Students then do the same, using a saved bookmark to access the site. They select and save one or more images (depending on the teacher's requiremetns for each student)  into their "My Pictures" folder.

Back in Power Point, students insert their saved picture(s) into their Community Helper report.