| Summary | Student Pages | Index of Projects |
It's Monday morning and the students have just entered the class. Maria
is distraught and is relating to a group of girls how she had difficulty
finding information/resources for her science fair project at the local
library. For the last month, students have been preparing for the Science
Fair. The teacher overhears the conversation and initiates a discussion
of resources found within the community. A couple of students who are new
to the class this year talked about some of the resources they had in their
former communities. One of the students related to the class that in his
previous school in California they had emailed other students to find out
what other kids where thinking about different issues. Roberto asked if
it was possible for the class to search the Internet in the computer Lab
(Learning Resource Center). The teacher thought it was a wonderful idea
since they will be going there after lunch and she would ask the Learning
Resource Center teacher if they could search for sites where students could
send email to other students and where children could learn about other
communities.
While in the lab, one group found a site, Email classroom Exchange or Key
Pals, where teachers presented a topic and students could give their input
or opinions in a response by email. Another group found the Global School
House Network site where various school have show cased interesting things
in their own communities. The students enjoyed reading all about them.
Once back in the classroom, students wanted to share what they found interesting
about other communities. Laura commented,"We have many good things
in our community, we should enter information about our Little Village Community
in the Global School House Network" . The teacher responds, "That's
a great idea but how are we going to really find out about all the things
in our community?" Roberto suggest that the class go out for a walk
to identify the important resources and points of interest in the community.
The teacher and class plan the walk for the following Friday. She sends
permission slips home with the students and asks for parent volunteers to
accompany them on the walk.
While on their walk the students were given a community check list to follow.
After the students return from a five block walk of the neighborhood, the
teacher begins a discussion about what was observed during the walk. Students
started to point out what they read about in the Global School House site
. After a ten minute discussion of the observations, she uses the overhead
to project a visual display (venn diagram) of similarities and differences
between other communities and the Little Village community. Many students
noticed that other communities had different resources than their community.
Maria again made mention of how frustrated she was in trying to find information
for her Science Fair Project at the neighborhood library. The teacher responds
by saying,"That is something we definitely need in this community".
Roberto says, "How could we get a better library?" At this time,
the teacher begins to make another chart to list the suggestions the students
feel our community is lacking. This is the focus the teacher is using to
engage her students in the development of this project. This question causes
interaction among the students because of the various view points that arise.
One student remembers the email network she saw in the lab and suggested
that the class email other students to find out what they feel is needed
in their community. Four students volunteer that they would be willing to
do this. The teacher said," check the student page on the computer
for some email guidelines. The class begins to organize themselves into
the following groups.
Fourth Grade Activities: One group decided to work on a web page to enter
the Global School House Network Another group is posting messages on the
email .While the third group is searching the Internet to find out what
other students in other areas of the country think of their communities.
During the next two weeks, students are busy researching, compiling and
organizing the information found. Maria has noticed that many communities
have modern up to date libraries. She and other students begin to ask,"What
can we do to get the same service in our library?" Roberto says, "My
sister, Alicia, who is in eight grade, is studying about city government,
she says our Alderman is our community representative for city government.
Eighth Grade Activities:The eighth grade has just spent the last six weeks
studying the constitution of the United States. At the end of the unit many
students still had several questions regarding our political system. Juanita
wanted to know what the difference was between the Democratic and Republican
parties. Armando wanted to know who his representatives were in Congress
and Alicia said she also wanted to know who her other representatives were
but at the state levels. Due to the fact that these answers cannot be found
in the text book, the class realized that they would have to look elsewhere
to find this information which leads to the following activities.
The first weeks activities revolve around the discovery of information on
the democratic and republican parties. The students will visit the site
of each party to find out historical information on each. Next, students
will research important issues to each part as they read information published
by each party on their site. As the students read this information they
will pay close attention to the loaded language used to persuade the reader
to agree with their side.
The next weeks activities will allow the students to research who their
Congress person is. They will use the search engine The Zipper to find this
information. Once they locate this information they can also find out their
political party affiliation, background information, years served etc. Another
important aspect students want to know is how their representative feels
towards different issues and students will have the opportunity to research
issues important to them and match it with their rep to see if they agree
or disagree. The students will even go a step farther by researching the
same topic to see what current legislation is being considered. While they
are doing this, they can find out where the legislation began (House or
Senate), who sponsored the bill and where it stand currently. The students
will be able to use this information to write an e-mail letter expressing
their concerns.
The last activity will have the students research the Illinois Legislature.
This component will be similar to the information gathered for their rep
in Congress. The students will locate the political party affiliation, background
information, years served and issues that are important to their state representative
and senator. They will be able to compare and contrast this information
to that of their Congress person as well as to their personal views. The
students will once again compose a letter stating their opinions and concerns
and send it to their state representatives via e-mail.
After the students have gathered all of this information, they will put
together a packet of information to share with their fourth grade partners.
They will also prepare questions for their visit with their elected official
in Washington, D.C. or Springfield, depended which trip they are taking.
They will also begin to work on researching local government officials and
services that are offered.
The teacher said, "Let's contact Miss. Langes' class". Both classroom
teachers decide that the students will meet. The next day the fourth and
eighth grade students meet to discuss and share the activities that they
have been working for the last few weeks. The eight grade will relate information
on how all levels of government work to help build background for the fourth
grade on representative governnment. The fourth grade students convey the
information that they have gathered from searching the Internet. They tell
about what resources other communities have and what they feel are important
resources in their own community. After all groups have shared their information
students will focus on what action should be taken in order to bring needed
resources to their community, for example improved library services. Some
students realize the importance of contacting local government representatives
to express their concern for improved community resources. Other students
want to get the local school council involved in their cause of improving
community resources. Alicia expresses that the class should present information
to the local school council and ask parents to participate in a the letter
writing campaign.
During the next few days, fourth and eight grade students begin to organize
themselves into different groups to work on various tasks. Three groups
have decided that they would like to work on a technology presentation that
will be given to the local school council. They are using two presentation
programs. Some are using HyperStudio, while others are using Claris Slide
Show. Another group has decided to develop a survey to be sent home so that
the parents can respond to what they feel are important concerns in the
community. The survey will be used for feedback on what is the most important
concern of the local community at this time. Students will graph the results
and information will be included in the presentation programs. Another group
of students is working on writing persuasive letters to be sent to the community's
alderman. Some students have decided to invite the alderman to the local
school council meeting. Another groups is designing a flyer which will be
sent to all parents inviting them to the next local school council.The teacher
sets a time limit for two weeks to work on all of the projects. After the
presentations are completed each group will show their presentation to the
other members of the class in a rehearsal. Students will evaluate the presentations
using the rubric. The group receiving the highest evaluation will present
to the local school council at the monthly meeting.
After the presentations at the local school council, the two classes and
parents will continue with a letter writing campaign to elected representatives
and working with the local elected officials to help improve needs in their
community.