Creating a Website

Name: Theresa Fanella Type of setting: Suburban Number of Students: 22 Special Needs: Autism & Dyslexia Grade Level: Fourth Grade Subject: Social Studies Topic: The 50 States I. Purpose: Students will be able to create a website on a state of their choosing using the Internet as a source for factual information. II. Student (Instructional) Objectives: A. Content/Skill/Concept: Students will be able to identify factual information for a specific state using the Internet as a resource. They will also be able to present this information to the class through their website. B. Behavior: Students will write and list important facts about the specific state on the website. C. Condition: Given that students watched the video, Tour of States, the students will choose the state they are most interested in via brainstorming. Given that students will be shown how to create a website and research information based on the given questions, the students will be able to list and write about their state and identify the important facts as well as unique facts about the given state. D. Criterion: After watching a YouTube video called Tour of States and brainstorming states of interest through a journal entry, students will be able to research a state of their choice and determine the important information based on proper Internet research. III. Common Core Standards W.4.6: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting. W.4.7: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic. SL.4.4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

IV. Procedures A. Introduction: This is an introduction lesson, not linked to anything previously learned. The students should know information about New Jersey from previous grades. The students will focus mostly on writing (typing) about the selected state as well as speaking about it based on the information on their website. They will also be listening to other students talk about their research website and be able to give feedback. By the end of the lesson, they should be able to know how to create a website and recall facts about the selected state. B. Anticipatory Set: The lesson will be introduced by telling the students that they will be watching a YouTube video, Tour of States, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg) which is a song about taking a trip somewhere they have never been and a man draws along with the song pointing out all the capitals on the map and drawing pictures significant to the state in order to help memorize information on each capital. Students will be told to pay attention to see how many capitals they know of. The video will be played and the students should take some notes based on what they are listening to. After the video, the teacher will lead a short discussion which will ask the following questions: o What is this video about? o What are some facts you remember from the video? o How are the pictures next to the capitals significant? o What were some of the pictures? C. Lesson: After the short discussion, the teacher will write the following questions on the board: If any, what states have you been too? What was it like? If you have not been to other states, write about New Jersey. What states would you like to visit and why? The students will brainstorm and write an outline to answer each question on one page in their journals. The students will partner up with their discussion buddy previously assigned in the beginning of the year and discuss their journal outline entry. They will be given about seven minutes with their partner to talk about it. Students will go back to their seats where they will be given laptops and told to go to www.weebly.com and wait for my instruction. The teacher will bring up a projection of the website and teach step by step instructions on how to make a website. o First, the student needs to put in their full name, school email address, and their password and click, Sign up. Its Free! (I am assuming that email addresses for students were done previously in the beginning of the year). Then they will need to verify that they are human. o Next, the students will click on add site where they will need to add a title for their website and select the type of site as education and class project as the category. o The students will move onto the next page where they will select a sub domain. The students will put in whatever they would like that is appropriate as an example. When the students are given the project, they will put in something creative for their state.

The Weebly editor will come up where instead of the teacher trying to explain the website while the students are distracted, the teacher will give the students some time to explore it on their own. The teacher will walk around and help students if needed. After fifteen minutes of exploring the website on their own, the students will be given the assignment that they will do over a period of a week in school. This is so that the students can get the help they need when they come across some difficulties. Some research can be done at home. The following instructions will be given to the students: Step 1: After brainstorming ideas of places you may want to visit, select a state you would like to research. Since there are 50 states, I am only allowing one student per state. New Jersey is not an option because we should know many facts about this state from previous grades. I will randomly select the students by pulling names out of a hat and when you are selected, you can tell me the state you have chosen. Make sure you have a few back up states just in case another student has already selected it. Step 2: Once you are assigned to your state, you will create a website about your state. The rubric is attached to the instructions. The website should be creative and have interesting and fun facts as well. Overall, be creative! Make sure your background is not too bright and that we can see the text. There should be a minimum of 4 tabs. The home page should have at least an introduction and a picture. Make sure you change your domain and title of your website to match your state. Also, make sure you have these facts about your state on your website: o The State Name o The State Nickname(s) o State Capital o State Motto o State Bird o State Flag o State Song o State Animal o State Fish o State Flower o History of the State o What the State is known for Step 3: You will present your website to the class by telling them the facts you found out about your state as well as why you chose to research the state presented. Examples: experiences, future travels, etc. The students will complete the website project in a weeks time during their Social Studies period in class. As a closing activity, the student will present their website based in the standard set in step 3. The teacher will do a summative assessment and grade the student by a rubric. V. Materials: YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2CNZIlVIg Website www.weebly.com Projector Laptops (23) Journal notebooks (22) Pencils (22) Rubric - http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

VI. Assessment: Formative assessment will be done throughout the anticipatory set to see how well students are absorbing the information given to them. Formative assessment will also be done while the students are working on their websites to see how they construct the website and what facts they find for the assigned state. Summative assessment will be done with the rubric which will be graded based on work ethics, learning of material, interest, content, layout, and spelling and grammar. The rubric is attached below. VII. Accommodation: For the student with autism, I would give the student an iPad to use that has the app Proloque2go which will allow the student to communicate with me through the iPad. The student is not able to speak and will able to use the iPad to speak for her. The student can also use AutismXpress which she can recognize and express her emotions by selecting a certain emotion they are feeling such as happy or sad to let the teacher know how she is feeling. The student with dyslexia can use the iPad as well. The app to use would be Read2Me which allows the student to import a text file and read it aloud. VII. Rubric:

Web Site Design : The 50 States

Teacher Name: Ms. Fanella

Student Name:

________________________________________

CATEGORY Work Ethic

4
Student always uses classroom project time well. Conversations are primarily focused on the project and things needed to get the work done and are held in a manner that typically does not disrupt others. The student has an exceptional understanding of the material included in the site and where to find additional information. Can easily answer questions about the content and procedures used to make the web site.

3
Student usually uses classroom project time well. Most conversations are focused on the project and things needed to get the work done and are held in a manner that typically does not disrupt others. The student has a good understanding of the material included in the site. Can easily answer questions about the content and procedures used to make the web site.

2
Student usually uses classroom project time well, but occasionally distracts others from their work.

1
Student does not use classroom project time well OR typically is disruptive to the work of others.

Learning of Material

The student has a fair understanding of the material included in the site. Can easily answer most questions about the content and procedures used to make the web site.

Student did not appear to learn much from this project. Cannot answer most questions about the content and the procedures used to make the web site.

Interest

The author has made an exceptional attempt to make the content of this Web site interesting to the people for whom it is intended.

The author has tried to make the content of this Web site interesting to the people for whom it is intended.

The author has put lots of information in the Web site but there is little evidence that the person tried to present the information in an interesting way.

The author has provided only the minimum amount of information and has not transformed the information to make it more interesting to the audience (e.g., has only provided a list of links to the content of others). The site lacks a purpose and theme.

Content

The site has a wellstated clear purpose and theme that is carried out throughout the site.

The site has a clearly stated purpose and theme, but may have one or two elements that do not seem to be related to it. The Web pages have an attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements.

The purpose and theme of the site is somewhat muddy or vague.

Layout

The Web site has an exceptionally attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements. White space, graphic elements and/or alignment are used effectively to organize material. There are no errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar in the final draft of the Web site.

The Web pages have a usable layout, but may appear busy or boring. It is easy to locate most of the important elements.

The Web pages are cluttered looking or confusing. It is often difficult to locate important elements.

Spelling and Grammar

There are 1-3 errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar in the final draft of the Web site.

There are 4-5 errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar in the final draft of the Web site.

There are more than 5 errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar in the final draft of the Web site.

Date Created: Mar 22, 2013 11:02 pm (CDT)