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Jay Brown - EDU 6502 – Summer 06

Case Studies – Integrating Technology

Summary of instructions: Assume the role of technology coordinator and brainstorm ideas together with a classroom teacher for integrating technology into a particular subject area. Suggest hardware, software, and how it may assist differentiated instruction.

Case Study Three

Grade: Fourth

Population: Heterogeneous class

Topic: Underground Railroad: Story elements from the book Come Morning by Leslie Guccione

Skills/Objective: Identify, interpret, and create examples of story elements.

Additional skills: Reading comprehension, critical thinking, math graphing and scale, written expression, oral expression.

Procedure: The teacher and technology coordinator work together to brainstorm and create Web-based instructions to use as a guide for a project-based learning activity.

Differentiated Instruction: The teacher and the technology coordinator team-teach a project-based learning activity in a computer lab setting. Students share and discuss projected images of completed work with the class.

Brainstorm: Students use Microsoft Excel to create behavior over time line graphs to chart specific themes for Free and Liza, two main characters in the book. Suggested themes for students to follow are levels of knowledge and commitment, however the class may wish to brainstorm other themes to trace. Students will use a numerical scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) to rate character levels of knowledge and commitment for each chapter in the book.

Students will insert completed line graphs into Microsoft Word and write a summary paragraph to describe the graph. Students should attempt to explain any fluctuations in their graph that rise or fall more than one point on the scale, and be prepared to share their work at the Teamboard for class discussion purposes.

Hardware: 20 computers in lab setting with a Teamboard and projector.

Software: Microsoft Explorer, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, KidPix

Learning extension: Students may use KidPix to illustrate a scene from the book.

References

Brown, J (2006). Behavior Over Time: Character Graph – A follow-up to Come Morning.

            https://www.angelfire.com/bug/brownjay/botgcmorning.htm. Available: August 2006.

Guccione, L.D. (1995). Come Morning. The Learner Publishing Group. Minneapolis, MN.