Outline, Skills and Activities for:

A Technology Integration Project

My Community in the Past- Life as a Pioneer- Grade 3

Developed by: Linda Melnyk

The following is the outline for the activities developed for this project. Following the outline are the list of skills needed and a layout of the activities for the unit.

 

 Home Page

1)       Overview- home page

2)       Learning Objectives-

3)       Spreadsheet Outcomes

a)       Information and Technology Outcomes

b)       Social Studies Outcomes-

c)        Mathematics Outcomes-

4)       Outcomes for Multimedia Projects

a)       Information and Technology Outcomes

b)       Social Studies Outcomes

c)        Language Arts Outcomes

5)       Skills needed for project Success

a)       Student Pre-requisite skills

b)       Teacher  Pre-requisite skills

6)       Process

7)       Opening Activities

8)       Developmental Activities

9)       The Culminating Activities

10)    Evaluation

11)    Why Use Technology?

12)    Appendix

13)    Spreadsheet  example #1

14)    Spreadsheet example #2 with Graph

15)     Teacher Resources

16)    Packing Your Wagon- Student Sheet

17)    PowerPoint Planning Sheet

18)    Evaluation

19)    Presentation Rubric

20)    Pioneer Journal Rubric

21)    Multimedia Checklist

22)    Web

23)    Rubric for Chart and Graph

 

Skills Needed for Project Success

Student Pre-requisite Skills- *
bullet Have some basic computer skills: logging on, saving to their file, locating saved files, and naming a file.
bullet Have some of the basic word processing skills for their paragraph on interesting facts about their family.
bullet Has used the internet to acquire information.
bullet For the second spread sheet assignment they will need to know how to create a spread sheet with minimal assistance and then graph the information.
bullet For the PowerPoint they will need to access pictures from file and from clip art.
bullet For the bridging activity they will need to access clip art and use word.
*The grade 3 students will need basic computer skills.  The grade 6 and enrichment students who will assist with the teaching will need the following skills:

bullet Word processing skills.
bullet Know how to create a spreadsheet.
bullet Know how to use excel to create graphs from the spreadsheet.
bullet Expert skills in the area of PowerPoint.
bullet Can insert graphics, sounds, backgrounds, etc. into PowerPoint.
bullet Can locate graphics and sounds from file and from the internet.

 Teacher Pre-requisite Skills-

bullet Good word processing skills.
bullet Has created a web page and is able to use FrontPage or Word to create the web page.
bullet Is familiar with using FTP and able to post information to the web using FTP or FrontPage.
bullet Has knowledge and skills in developing spread sheets and graphs.
bullet Has knowledge and skills in using PowerPoint.

Process:

Opening Activities:

  1. The unit will begin with a discussion of pioneer life.  Students will list the information that they already possess about life as a pioneer.  Next they will list what they want to know about life as a pioneer.                                                                                                        
  2. Next the teacher will discuss her family history, sharing stories and pictures of how and when her family came to Canada.
  3. The students will be given a questionnaire to take home asking about their family's history in coming to and settling in Canada.
  4. The questionnaires will be shared with the students and family names will be plotted on a map of the world showing where each child's family originated from and the community they settled in when they moved to Canada.
  5. Children will use word and type a few sentences concerning interesting facts about their families' settlement in Canada. They will then add an illustration to the paragraph and display it in the classroom.

Developmental Activities

  1. The class will then read from handouts and discuss the reasons for coming to Canada.  They will use the netsteps posted on the school website to look at pictures of immigrants as they arrived in North America.  Conditions on the boats and possessions will be discussed.  The teacher will read a story about a family who decides to come to Canada and their journey by boat.  Title of the book: A Pioneer Story The Daily Life of a Canadian Family in 1840 by Barbara Greenwood.

  2. Students will then be given some time to explore the netsteps to see what they can discover about pioneers.  They will periodically stop and  discuss their discoveries.

  3. The teacher will read a book to the class- Joshua's Westward Journal by Joan Anderson. The book is written as a journal and the students will use this book as a model for their own journal.

Writing Process

4.    Students will begin their journal writing as an immigrant traveling from somewhere in Europe to Canada. Journal entries will be made through out the unit of study as the children learn about life as a pioneer.

Inquiry and Decision Making

5.     The students will then be given the "Packing Your Wagon" sheet.  They will after an introduction and discussion work with a partner participating in decision making by deciding what to buy to for the trip from Winnipeg to Edmonton.

Problem Solving

    6.        After making their decisions they will insert their information into a spreadsheet with assistance from grade 6 students.  They will be able to adjust their choices according to the restrictions. The restrictions involve problem solving- the students have $265 to spend on their supplies.  The wagon can only carry 500 kg.  They must adjust their choices if they are too far under or over the criteria.  When they are satisfied that they have made the right decisions they will print their charts.

Comparing

   7.        The students will then compare their charts with other students and together, using a tally chart, the class will decide on the 10 most common supplies.  .

Application

  8.        When the 10 most common supplies have been chosen the students will again return to the computer room and chart these supplies and the numbers from the tally.  They will then use the chart wizard to construct a chart for the most common supplies.  The grade 3A class will compare their charts with the 3B class to see if they are similar or different and discuss the reasons for the similarities and differences.

Explore and Analyze

9.
a)       The students will have a guest speaker who will guide them through a cooking activity- making bannock, a craft activity- making a candle and wooden candle holder, and a discovery activity where they examine, hold and discuss items from the pioneer area.   Pictures of the items will be taken with the digital camera for insertion into the student's PowerPoint.  Pictures of the students involved in the activities will also be taken and used later in their PowerPoint presentations.

b)       The rest of the unit will involve the gathering of information through the reading of the netstep   pages, the handouts, and from teacher reading.  The students will learn about pioneer homes, travel, food, schools, fun, etc. They will look at photographs that I have put together into a file - moments in pioneer time captured on film. The students will write in their journal once a week reviewing the topics they have covered that week.

Writing Process and Synthesis

10.
a)       When the unit is completed the students will use their PowerPoint planning sheet to compile the slides for their presentation.

b)       Once the students have gathered the information they will use the PowerPoint template to put together a presentation on pioneer life.  They will have the assistance of the enrichment students to complete the first 4 slides.  The second 4 slides will be completed on their own with assistance from the teacher as needed.

c)       When the PowerPoint is completed they will use the Multimedia Checklist sheet to check their presentation

d)       .Students will fill in a web with the topics covered in this part of the unit of study.

e)       The students will then take part in an activity bridging the past to the present.  We will discuss these activities from the past- entertainment, transportation of goods, travel, school, bathing, laundry, the kitchen, clothes and communication.  We will compare them to today.  Students will then choose two pictures from the past and using clip art find pictures to illustrate these activities today.

The Culminating Activities

The students from 3A and 3B will share their PowerPoint with each other in partner groups.  They will then share their presentations, charts, graph, pictures, and journals with their parents on an evening.

Evaluation

1.    The second chart and graph will be evaluated using a simple rubric.

2.    Students will do a self-evaluation on their PowerPoint using a checklist.

3.    The students PowerPoint's will be evaluated using a simple rubric.

4.    They will use a graphic organizer to write down what they have learned about the various aspects of aspects of pioneer life.  This will help them  to      review and prepare for their test.

5.    The students will write a test covering life as a pioneer.

6.    Their journals will also be evaluated according to a simple rubric.

Why use technology?

1.       Students will be able to use the strategy of guess and check when packing their wagon.  Excel allows the grade 3 student to add a long column of numbers easily using the auto sum function.  They would not be able to do this activity without excel.  The activity has two variables money and mass that they must keep track of.  The excel program allows them to do this.

2.       Data from both classrooms can easily be compared visually using a graph.  Students are able to see differences and similarities easily and quickly.

3.       Children will have the chance to strengthen the computer skills they were introduced to in grades 1 and 2- logging on, saving to their file, opening programs etc.  They will be developing new skills - inserting pictures from file, from clipart and from the internet.

4.       Creating PowerPoint presentations and using the program Excel is highly motivating for children. High motivation contributes to success as a learner.

5.       The internet allowed the teacher to find information written by other students on the topic of study.  This information was written at a level students could easily understand.  It also allowed for us to compare information on the internet with information in the text book or reference material.  The information on the internet was not always accurate and students will be led into making this discovery.

6.       The internet also allowed the teacher to have easy access to real photographs of people captured in time.  The students were then able to get a real picture of the crowded boats, the clothing styles, the homes, etc.

Appendix: 

Teacher Resources:

 Elementary Social Studies Program of Studies

A pioneer Story -The Daily life of a Canadian Family in 1840 by Barbara Greenwood

Joshua's Westward Journal by Joan Anderson

One Room School by Laurence Pringle

 

Learning Objectives

Netsteps

Packing Your Wagon- Spreadsheet Activities

Multimedia

Pictures

Web

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