Using Technology to Enhance a Social Studies Unit

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Using Technology to Enhance a Social Studies Unit

• Second Grade Country Reports
• and Comparisons
• By Kristin Hines

Lesson Overview Students will learn how people
in the United States are different and how they
are the same as those they study in another
country. They will be able to compare after they
find out facts about a country of their choice
though Electronic and Text Encyclopedias, the
Internet, library books and asking adults.
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State Standards Covered in the Unit

• California State Standards
• Language Arts
• 2.0 Reading Comprehension
• 2.5 Restate facts and details in the text
  to clarify and organize ideas.2.6 Recognize
  cause-and-effect relationships in a text.2.7
  Interpret information from diagrams, charts, and
  graphs.2.8 Follow two-step written instructions.
• 1.0 Writing Strategies Students write clear and
  coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a
  central idea. Their writing shows they consider
  the audience and purpose. Students progress
  through the stages of the writing process (e.g.,
  prewriting, drafting, revising, editing
  successive versions. Organization and Focus
• 1.1 Group related ideas and maintain a
  consistent focus. Penmanship
• 1.2 Create readable documents with legible
  handwriting. Research
• 1.3 Understand the purposes of various
  reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus,
  atlas). Evaluation and Revision
• 1.4 Revise original drafts to improve
  sequence and provide more descriptive detail.
• Listening and Speaking Strategies
• Students listen critically and respond
  appropriately to oral communication. They speak
  in a manner that guides the listener to
  understand important ideas by using proper
  phrasing, pitch, and modulation. Organization and
  Delivery of Oral Communication 1.5 Organize
  presentations to maintain a clear focus.1.6
  Speak clearly and at an appropriate pace for the
  type of communication (e.g., informal discussion,
  report to class).
• 1.9 Report on a topic with supportive facts
  and details.
• 2.2 Report on a topic with facts and
  details, drawing from several sources of
  information.
• Social Studies
• 2.2 Students demonstrate map skills by
  describing the absolute and relative locations of
  people, places, and environments.

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Technology Used

• Internet sites
• The World Fact Book- http//www.cia.gov/cia/public
  ations/factbook/index.html
• Yahooligans Countries- http//www.yahooligans.com/
  Around_the_World/Countries/
• Electronic Encyclopedias Grolier and Encarta
• Microsoft Word
• Inspiration or Kidspiration
• Karaoke Machine with a Microphone
• Video Camera and Digital Camera

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Management/Computer Access/Time Frame

• Three computers in the classroom that are
  Internet connected and have an Electronic
  Encyclopedia.
• The whole unit, including the presentation of
  reports to parents, takes 12 one hour Social
  Studies blocks of time.

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Materials

• Three Internet connected Computers with
  electronic encyclopedias and Inspiration software
  and a printer
• Large poster paper for each student
• Markers, scissors and glue
• Library books on countries and Encyclopedias
• World maps, a globe and atlases
• A Karaoke Machine with a microphone and video or
  digital camera
• Book Children Just Like Me by Susan Elizabeth
  Copsey, Barnabas Kindersley, Anabel Kindersley
  and Harry Belafonte http//www.amazon.com/exec/obi
  dos/ASIN/0789402017/qid1046641710/sr2-1/refsr_2
  _1/002-6515609-0818452

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Unit Introduction to Students

• Lesson Day One With a large world map, globe,
  atlas and the book called Just Like Me list
  countries on a white board and point them out on
  these three resources while briefly looking at
  each child from each country in the book.
• Talk about the 7 continents and each has many
  countries in them and that the United States is
  just one of many countries. Once you have the
  list completed, have students come up and sign up
  next to a country they are interested in learning
  more about.
• I let more than one student do the same country
  and encouraged lower students to pair up with a
  stronger student (without telling them I was
  doing this.) This helped in having a buddy to
  search the resources for information but they all
  made their own posters with their view of the
  country.
• After the Introduction, I go over the rubric and
  the Country Report Check List with them and
  explain my expectations and how we will go about
  researching this report.
• During our library time, I check out 2-3 books
  (that I put in two bins to keep them separate
  from other classroom books) on each of the
  countries the students picked.

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Day Two and Three

• I hand out the library books and explain that
  they need to take care of them and put them away
  in the bins each day to keep them from getting
  lost. Then I tell them about how to get ideas
  out of the book without copying word for word
  what the author wrote.
• I explain plagiarism, that if they just copy out
  of the book that is stealing the authors work
  and it is wrong. They will have to rewrite their
  work if they do this. Then I model a sentence
  out of a library book that I put in my own words
  and then have them try it a few times on other
  sentences and write in on the overhead projector.
  
• Then I pass out the Check List sheet and
  explain it again. Then I have them begin reading
  and suggest that they are on a scavenger hunt,
  looking for the items on the list. I will be
  taking students, 3 at a time, over to the
  computers to search for facts on The World Fact
  Book http//www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
  /index.html and Yahooligans Countries
  http//www.yahooligans.com/Around_the_World/Countr
  ies/ to fill in their facts sheets.
• Also, we will take pictures off the sites into
  Microsoft Word to print out. (I also put the site
  where we get the picture by copying and pasting
  the URL on the top of the Word document (to give
  credit to the site we used.) If they are doing
  the same country, the two will work on one
  computer.
• The rest of the students use regular
  encyclopedias, library books and atlases to begin
  their research.
• I plan an hour of Social Studies time for two
  days to rotate all the students on the Internet
  and to help them print out 2-3 pictures for their
  poster including a map, a flag and famous place
  or landscape.

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• Name ___________________________________________
  
• Country Report Check List (Gathering
  Information!)
• Pictures from the Internet or Drawings from a
  Book for your Poster
• Flag of the Country
• Map of the Country

• Animal from the Country
• Plant from the Country
• Famous Place
• Population __________________________________
• Continent Name ____________________________

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Day Four and Five

• I then have them type in the name of their
  country or something they found out is from that
  county such as a kangaroo in Australia and then I
  let them print out 2-3 more pictures for their
  poster. They know how to do this from a previous
  lesson so this will go faster and I have two
  students that are my computer experts that help
  trouble shoot on the electronic encyclopedias.
  (I trained them how to do it and then they teach
  the others, I pick students who have home
  computers and have used them before.)
• I am working with the rest of the students on
  writing and proof reading their work so they can
  revise it and then rewrite it for a final copy.
  If I find they copied out of a book I work with
  them on writing it in their own words or if the
  facts they state are incorrect or unclear we
  rework these too. I also check for all the items
  I asked them to put into their report from the
  check list. They are drawing pictures for the
  poster from books.
• Some students start gluing photos and drawings on
  their posters at this time too. (I told them they
  can do this if they have their final report
  written.) They have a writing folder in their
  desk that I have them store all research,
  drawings, writings and photos for their report.

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Day Six and Seven

• Students continue to work on posters and
  finishing their final drafts. I help edit and
  find any final photos or text off the computer
  encyclopedias that they need to fill a space on
  their poster or add to their report. I also have
  them write all the resources they used on their
  report on the back of their poster (books,
  Internet, electronic encyclopedias, regular
  encyclopedias or adults.)
• Students who are finished first (I check their
  final poster before they are considered done)
  become helpers to those who are slower. They
  help the students find more information in books
  or encyclopedias and photos. They also help cut
  and glue for them.
• I also have them begin practicing reading their
  own posters out loud.

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Day Eight

• The students practice reading their report to
  themselves and with the Karaoke machine
  microphone.
• I start video taping four or five of the reports
  (those that practiced the most already.)
• If they had an artifact from that country to show
  in their report, they get one extra bonus point
  on their assessment rubric.

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Photos of Students Telling about their countries
with the microphone.
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Photos of Students Telling about their countries
with the microphone.
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Day Nine

• The rest of the students read their reports to
  the class and finish video taping them.
• I also take photos to put on the class website.
  (I only put photos of students that have signed a
  permission slip I made to post student photos and
  work on the Internet.) http//www.muroc.k12.ca.us/
  Bailey/BaileyWeb6/Social20Studies.htm

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Day Ten and Eleven

• The students look over their posters and then I
  have them write about how they are the same as
  those in the country they studied and how they
  are different.
• Then they fill out the Venn Diagram and then they
  rotate on the computers with an Inspiration
  template made already to fill in and find
  graphics to go with their comparisons along with
  a flag of their country.
• I rotate three at a time and I trained my two
  experts to help trouble shoot. They have used
  this software before so this helps too. The
  students waiting to go on the computer also make
  an Invitation for parents to come to our Country
  Report Presentation Day at their desks. I write
  the information on the board and they design a
  card.

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Venn Diagram
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This student compared the United States with
Japan.
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Using Inspiration Software, Students Compared
themselves to their country.
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Day Twelve and the Presentation

• The students arrange the room for parents to come
  to class to hear their reports. They moved the
  desks and line up the chairs.
• They planned how they would rotate from one
  student to the next and they set up the posters
  on the Read Aloud chart in order, starting in
  Asia and moving from one continent to the next.
• The parents came the last 45 minutes of school
  and we just finished when the bell rang. It was
  a big success!
• I also post some photos of students on our
  website to show grandparents and those who
  couldnt come what we are doing.
• I send the video from home to home as a
  Traveling Video so families can look at it at
  home. The Traveling Video has a check off list
  of student names and they put it in the next
  students mail box when they bring it back to
  school.

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Assessments

• The rubric on how their poster looked, if it had
  all the requirements, neatness, grammar in the
  report, and on their oral presentation. They are
  also graded on how many resources they used.
• Their Inspiration product comparing themselves to
  the country. I put these on the wall for parents
  to see when they come in for the report
  presentations.
• Teacher observation
• Planning Check off sheet, rough draft and final
  draft

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Results Students are proud of their work. They
request to work on these reports. Even if it is
challenging, it doesnt seem like work because
they are so engaged and interested. They also
learn from listening to each others reports and
comparing themselves with the other country.
They gain research skills with Computer research
tools and using encyclopedias, atlases, globes,
maps and non-fiction library books.