NETS Project

NETS Standard Project:
Civics Lesson: Child Labor (one fifty minute class period)

Rationale:

Prior to the unionization of the American Labor force, the average factory conditions during the early stages of the Industrial revolution could be described as ‘sweat shops’, that employed women and young children, demanding long work hours. In attempt to promote a sense of harmony throughout the different union industries. The repetitive work often involved only one small step in the manufacturing process, so the worker did not see or appreciate what was being made; the work was often dangerous and performed in unsanitary conditions. Some women entered the work force, as did many children. Child labor became a major issue. Dangerous working conditions, long hours, and concern over wages and child labor contributed to the growth of labor unions.

NETS Standard:
Research and Information Fluency - Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students will;

1. plan strategies to guide inquiry,
2. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media,
3. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks,
4. process data and report results.

Washington State Technology Standards:
EALR 1 – Integration: Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems.

Components:
1.3: Investigate and Think Critically: Research, manage and evaluate information and solve problems using digital tools and resources.

Students will use the images projected on the document camera to research and evaluate what they observe in the primary photos. They will then compare and contrast their findings with their peers, allowing for a sense of evaluation, regarding the entire class’s documented information.

Civic EALRs incorporated into the lesson:

1.2: Understands the purpose, organization, and function of governments, laws, and political systems.

1.4: Understands civic involvement.

Lesson Objectives:
- Students will analyze how a position on an issue attempts to balance individual rights and the
common good.
- Students will be able to evaluate primary documents (photographs).
-  Students will analyze how science, technology and economic activity has developed, changed
and affected societies throughout American history.
-  Students will be able to evaluate the analyze the outcomes and consequences of the Industrial
period.

Materials Needed:
-  Document Camera & projector screen.
-  “Primary Source Analysis Tool”.
-  Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing        Company,
1880-1920.
-  The New Civics: A textbooks for Secondary Schools. 

Anticipatory Set (10 mins):
- Students will be presented with ‘Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company’, a compilation of primary photographs from the Industrial Revolution era, some of which will be projected onto a screen using a document camera. With a partner, students will analyze and record their findings based off the photographs onto their ‘Primary Analysis Tool’. The students will answer questions provided by the teacher.

Activities/Procedures (25 min) :
-  Shorts Discussion: Teacher will ask students about any previous knowledge they have on child
labor. Answers will be recorded on the whiteboard. (4-5 mins)
- Teacher will distribute or project the image of Coal Breaker Boys from Touring Turn-of-the-
Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920, on a large
projector screen. (8 mins)
- Students will record their findings on the “Primary Source Analysis Tool”. Prior to students
working. (5 mins)
- The teacher will select 4-6 questions that focus and prompt analysis and discussion, with the
intent of discussing the experience of investigating the photographs (8-10 mins): What do you notice first?
What do you notice that you didn’t expect?
What did you notice that you can’t explain?
What did you notice now that you didn’t earlier?


Closure/Assessment (15-20 min):
- The teacher will ask further questions pertinent to the photographs, to develop additional
information the students can utilize in their essays (Remainder of class period):

          - How are photographs used by historians?

          - What is the importance of using primary sources in understanding history?
        
- How would history be different if there were no photographs of these children?
- The students will have the remainder of the class period to construct a hand-written, one-page essay on Child Labor, utilizing their findings from the primary documents. If they do not complete the essay by the end of the class period, they will take it home and finish it as homework, and will submit it at the beginning of class the next day.
-  The teacher will use the essay as a form of assessment.

Journey to the Past

A WebQuery for 11^th Grade US History

Kyle Hjelm

Kevin Robichaux

Hjelmk@cwu.edu

Robichauxk@cwu.edu

Introduction

You and your best friend have been struggling throughout the year in US History, and if you do not pass this next project you two will fail the course. The problem you guys have with history is that it’s not personal enough and you cannot relate to the material. However, your mind is about to be blown because you’ve discovered a phone booth that allows you to travel back into time. You will have the chance to expand upon your knowledge regarding the content that you’ve been missing in my class.

Task

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel back in time and visit at least 4 historical figures/events. This will give you the opportunity to meet historical figures. For this task you will take the notes, which will be submitted for a grade, from your time travels to construct your final project, but what will it be?

            In the past students have done:

·      Papers

·      Presentations

·      Posters

·      And even skits

If you choose to do a paper it must be at least 4-pages, if you choose to do a presentation it must be at least 5-minutes, or if you choose to do a poster it must include a timeline of your trip, pictures of what you visited, and descriptions of what you visited. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but I must clear your idea.

The Process

For this mission, consider the following:

·      Where should you start?

·      Is your project “idea” possible to complete?

·      What kinds of information will you need?

·      Do you have enough information to complete the task, if not, what else is needed?

·      Where might you be headed? Why?

·      What problems might occur along the way?

·      Have you developed questions to ask during the trip?

·      What are the biggest social problems you will face during your stop?

·      Will there be any connections between your stops?

·      Once you have all the information you need what is the best way to use this information to complete your task?

·      Have you checked the rubric and task information to ensure that you have met the requirement?

·      How do you plan to utilize the resources provided?

These are not questions that need to be answered, but they are to help guide you through your travels.

Resources

The following will help you complete your mission, however, you are not only restricted to the following sources:

·      http://www.americanrevolutionarywar.net/ This website contains an extended amount of information on the American Revolution. It's not put together in the best way, but if your are willing to read through then you will be able to find almost all of your information here.

·      http://www.civil-war.net/ This website is to help research for the Civil War. It has combined numerous links onto one page and has a massive amount of information. This site also contains primary sources from the Civil War.

·      http://www.firstworldwar.com/ From looking at the website name you can determine that this website covers World War I. This is a great website that covers World War I from multiple perspectives. It has links to numerous articles and other sources of information, one stop shop.

·      http://www.secondworldwar.com/ As the link just before, this website does a great job compiling other links and information into one ea sy spot. This link is another great tool to find all the information you need about World War II.

·      http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history This is a great website to use when you need to find information on Civil Rights movements. It has an interactive time line that is very fun to use and makes looking through the information an easy task.

·      http://www.loc.gov/index.html This is another "one stop shop" website. It is the Library of Congress' digital collection of documents. The website is very easy to use even though it has such a vast amount of information.

·      http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ This website contains a very in-depth look at the history of the United States. It Covers from the settlement at Roanoke to present day events. It is a very interactive website and it is fun to use.

·      http://www.eric.ed.gov/ This is another digital collection website that is sponsored by the United States Department of Education. It is a great way to find articles to refer to when writing papers. It claims to be the largest digital library of educational literature in the world.

Evaluation

Research Report : Journey to the Past

---

Teacher Name: Mr. Hjelm and Mr. Robichaux


Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	10	8	6	4
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the desired format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.
Notes	Notes are recorded and organized in an extremely neat and orderly fashion.	Notes are recorded legibly and are somewhat organized.	Notes are recorded.	Notes are recorded only with peer/teacher assistance and reminders.
Diagrams & Illustrations	Diagrams and illustrations are neat, accurate and add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are accurate and add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are neat and accurate and sometimes add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are not accurate OR do not add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Creativity	Totally original project, no element is an exact copy of information found in source material.	Most of the project elements are unique, but 1 element may be copied from source material.	Some aspects of the project are unique, but several areas are copied from the source material or other students.	The project is a duplicate that was taken from the source material (80% or more of the project has been copied).

Conclusion

Now that your journey is complete you now have successfully made history more personal. Before, when you were struggling with the class, you could not relate to history and it was never interesting to you. However, this project let you dive in to the past and create a better understanding of historical events. A wise man once said “I believe your journey through time has taken a most serious turn.” Will your successful journey to the past allow you to excel in the future?

Article #2 - iBooks

Article #2 - iBooks

As a perspective teacher, I realize that technology is developing at a rate that is unaccustomed to most people my age and older. Technology is becoming a prevalent addition into the field of education, something that teachers should not only become familiar with, they should lerrn to properly utilize and implement this technology into their classrooms. There is no longer a reason for students to lug around multiple textbooks in ones’ backpack. The world is developing and so are our students.

As observed in the Apple introduction video “iBooks, textbooks video”, the iBook allows for students to purchase all of their required textbooks for much less than half of the price they would regularly pay for the hardcopies. Walt Overbay, an English teacher and Lexington High School, mentioned in the video these iBooks have proven to stimulate the minds of his students, something that he was previously unable to do with a select few. Mr. Overbay continued to say that if a ‘spark for learning’ is prevalent in the minds of his students, those students will not only want to attend school, they will want to continue to learn.

Arguably one of the best features offered through the iBook is that it builds an interest in visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners; something that a printed textbook is not capable of doing. The iBooks provides engaging activities that allow students to have fun, another feature not offered in printed textbooks – and if students are having fun they will continue to want to attend class, as previously mentioned.

Towards the beginning of the Apple video, a U.S. high school history teacher brought up a tremendous argument in that once a textbook is printed, it is almost immediately outdated. With that said, her argument has the backing of the CEO of the McGraw-Hill and Pearson printing presses. The CEO of McGraw-Hill printing press stated that these iBooks are the ‘opportunity of the century’, and that both teachers and students need to take full advantage of this opportunity.

Originally, I was skeptical as to how difficult it would be for students and teachers to master these iBooks. However, to my delight the video explained the note taking process, and how easy it is for students to construct their own personal notes by simply highlighting the important readings with their finger, and adding additional notes they can use for their examinations.

That said, I can acknowledge and understand the drawbacks to these iBooks in that not every school district will be able to afford enough to provide for each student. In addition, it is a tremendous risk that each student will take in that they have a largely expensive piece of technology that they need to properly take care of throughout the entire school year. However, I think this is a risk worth taking in that it will benefit student.

Face-to-Face Education

Face-to-Face Education

            I agree with Ralph Maltese in that it is imperative for students to have face-to-face interaction with not only their teachers, but their peers as well. Group work is essential for student learning as it allows for other student opinions to be included into that student’s assignments. Essentially, students will be able to learn from their peers, as their fellow peers demonstrate and contribute their own ideas and opinions not previously thought of by that specific single student; conflicting interests allows for beneficial student learning.  In addition, I believe that students need to be interacting with peers of their age group or else they will not be able to develop socially. Social skills are crucial throughout every points of one’s life, and being inadequate would only harm one as they entered the workforce. As Maltese stated in his writing, “Studies on adolescent thinking reveal that students have not yet developed the facility to read irony or sarcasm.”

            Numerous times in the past I have encountered bad situations that were derived from emails from myself to my professors. The professor would not adequately respond to my question, leaving me on ‘another page’ and ultimately I performed poorly on the assignment or the exam. In addition, in the past I have been enrolled in courses such as Current World Problems or college level Geology in which I started the class with a bad mindset of not wanting to attend the class because I originally thought it would be boring, or a ‘waste of my time’. However, it did not take long for the teacher to inspire me by showing me the essentials of the course and how it related to present day life – this was something that had me hooked in the class which allowed me to excel.

            I feel that there is a strong possibility that students would cheat on their online examinations or, they would find all of the answers on the Internet without even having to read the required articles. Furthermore, it would not necessarily be plausible for a student to complete a science (i.e. chemistry) or a physical education course online. In sum, if online courses became a state requirement, it would truly depend on the parents to encourage their student to complete the coursework without cutting any corners.