Tag: social studies

Did Colonists Code During Colonial Times?

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One of my absolute favorite projects has made a comeback for a 2nd year in a row! Last year, a 5th grade teacher approached me to inquire about changing up the engagement level of her Colonial Times unit. After some pondering and this aligning perfectly to the Hour of Code, I stumbled upon a lesson on the Sphero Education Website. Many of our students have previously been exposed to coding and the basic vocabulary of coding, but we wanted another avenue to go beyond. I wish I could find the original lesson, so I apologize to the author.

This particular project breaks down into three parts.
Phase 1: Research
Phase 2: Build, Code, Create
Phase 3: Present

Phase 1: The Research
The research portion is always modified year to year depending on the goals and objectives of the teacher. In the past, and still in some present classrooms, teachers have used this time for students to work in small groups of 4-5 students and jigsaw the original 13 colonies. Each group focuses on the colony to research and answer questions that will help inform the rest of the class what living in their colony was like. Last year we had students who were assigned to the “researcher” role, but this year we used a collaborative slideshow for all group members to be involved. This year, one room slightly changed their plan by focusing on the careers of colonists. We supplemented with classroom materials and online resources. This is also a great time to insert digital citizenship mini lessons.

Phase 2: Build, Code, and Create
This is the portion that students absolutely love! Each group member selects a leadership role: Architect, Presenter, or Coding Engineer. Usually we double up on each role. During this time, when the research has concluded, the architects work on collecting recycled materials to build and iconic landmark or business from their colony. I’ve always been quite impressed with how creative the students get. The presenters are those who take the lead on arranging the media. We focus a lot on what a good presentation looks like and the importance of identifying sources. The coding engineers work with the Sphero robotics. Their job is to pair program and code their robot to travel through our colonial town, which is mapped out on the floor. The tricky part is that they must program their robot to stop at their colony and pause for the exact amount of time it takes their teammates to present, before continuing on it’s journey. Again…I am always impressed by how well they do with this portion too.

Phase 3: Presentation Day
So, what exactly does the presentation look like? We try, the best we can, to clear the furniture from the center of the room. This allows all of the class to sit around our colonial map. Then, students are usually jumping at the gun to have their group go first. The presenters stand where comfortable and airplay to our projector, the architects provide support to the presenters, and the engineers are ready to start their program. One the engineers start, the presenters wait for their turn, and then the code concludes. Students provide feedback and ask questions, which leads into so many great classroom discussions.

If you are interested in this lesson and would like additional resources, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

The Power of Video Conferencing

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I’ve been working with a 7th grade jr. high social studies teacher on a presidential book project. This idea was modified from another jr. high teacher and coach in the district. The goal of this particular project was to cover the importance of the Executive Branch, but students would be doing this by creating a non-fiction digital book.

When we met to plan out our lessons, once again, this was a great way to incorporate mini lessons on research and digital citizenship topics… like copyrights. To provide this project even greater meaning, we partnered with a 2nd grade class at one of our primary schools. The media specialist there was immediately on board!

Through inter-office mail, 7th grade students were able to browse primary level text in order to brainstorm questions to inquire how they could make their book appeal to a 2nd grader. 2nd grade spent time preparing by reviewing non-fiction text features, and different ways non-fiction can be published.

On the day of our actual video conference, the students were so excited to see one another. This gave our 7th graders a great boost in confidence, but also that authentic audience that they knew their published pieces would be viewed by.

We are still waiting on the final drafts, but we are eager for the epubs to be displayed in the library!

Templates in Numbers & Book Creator

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If there are two apps that I have completely fallen in love with for templates, it has to be Numbers and Book Creator. While I also love giving students the freedom to create, both of these resources enhance the organizational process for students when a template is needed.

Numbers, I often feel is overlooked for its data stereotype. However, once you erase the tables if they aren’t needed, it provides a wide, blank canvas, that can be transformed into whatever your imagination creates.

For this particular example, I had a 3rd grade teacher who approached me with a goal of having her students research a variety of countries around the world. She wanted to eliminate paper packets and keep the project digital. Knowing her goals through our discussion, I suggested Numbers. The students loved the picture placeholders and the text box placement. We discussed researching ethics and copyrights. The students even used Numbers as their presentation tool when sharing their research with their class.

As I mentioned above, another great resource to build templates in is using Book Creator. One trick that I recently learned as well, is that images from Keynote copy and paste well to Book Creator. It’s a great way to give students another library of shapes to use!

This particular template I’m referencing was for 3rd grade as well. They had been learning about the continents in social studies and planned to jigsaw them in the classroom. During our prelesson conversation, I brought up the idea of a rotation schedule. There happened to be 7, 3rd grade classrooms, so this worked out perfectly. My team was very open to trying this idea, so on the day of an early release, each 3rd grade teacher was responsible for a continent specific activity in their classrooms. The students rotated into each classroom, taking notes and photographs to document their learning. All of this was completed inside of their digital passport.

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