Gayle+Reed's+Page

**Daily Lesson GAME Plan** Lesson Title: Healthy body, healthy mind Grade Level: Grade 10 Class: Science Unit: Biology: Tissues, Organs, and Systems of Living Things
 * Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use**

**__GOALS__** Curriculum Standards - Academic Science - Biology B3 Understanding Basic Concepts B3.4 explain the primary functions of a variety of systems in animals (e.g., the circulatory system transports materials through the organism; the respiratory system supplies oxygen to and removes carbon dioxide from the body) B3.5 explain the interaction of different systems within an organism (e.g., the respiratory system brings oxygen into the body, and the circulatory system transports the oxygen to cells) and why such interactions. Curriculum Standards - Academic Science -Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration Communicating [C]* A1.11 communicate ideas, plans, procedures, results, and conclusions orally, in writing, and/or in electronic presentations, using appropriate language and a variety of formats (e.g., data tables, laboratory reports, presentations, debates, simulations, models) A1.12 use appropriate numeric, symbolic, and graphic modes of representation, and appropriate units of measurement (e.g., SI and imperial units) A1.13 express the results of any calculations

**__ACTIONS__** Before class preparation: Prepare memo to the students from the Ministry of Health asking them to create a plan based on what they learned on their field trip to the Medical University that will help them create healthy bodies and healthy minds. The letter will tell students that they are to create this plan, have it approved by their teacher and then implement the plan and record results. The results will be used by the ministry to help create a plan for the nation to become healthier in both mind and body. Students will have one week to create their plan and must detail the following
 * areas that they need to improve on both physically and mentally
 * research/proof from their field trip to demonstrate a personal weakness in this area
 * an outline of daily/weekly activities that will be used to improve upon these areas of weakness
 * research/proof from various sources to support their chosen activities
 * a method of observing and recording their results
 * plan of how they will share their findings with their classmates and the Ministry of Health

During Class Minutes || Hand out memo from Ministry detailing what students must do. Read through memo together (project a copy onto screen) and discuss what needs to be done. As a class create a checklist of all steps that need to be completed. || Copies of memo, projector, laptop || Minutes || Students review information that they recorded from their field trip to determine the areas that they wish to focus on. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students use this time to create their plan based on their personal areas of weakness. They can begin to research the best methods for improvement in this area via the internet. All sources must be cited. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students are to log onto Wiki and create their homepage as well as an introduction of themselves. Students can use the chart provided on the Wiki to record their observations or they are free to create another method that better suits their needs. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students must hand in their plan for approval by the teacher. Teacher will have a private meeting with each students discussing the plan before giving approval. || Laptop Computers ||
 * Time || Instructional Activities || Materials ||
 * 20
 * 20
 * 80
 * 40
 * 40
 * ongoing || Students will post their results a minimum of every other day. They will also be responsible for posting comments on a minimum of two other students homepages each week. || Laptop Computers ||

**__MONITOR__** **Ongoing Assessment(s)**: During the initial brainstorming process I will be available to all students for conferencing and support and will be sure to talk to each student to see if they are on the right track at least twice before they hand in their plan. Once the plans are posted on the Wiki, I will check daily for updates and grade students based on their postings (detail of information posted, work posted on time).

**Backup plan:** Students with physical limitations can focus on areas that they wil be able improve upon. Students will be assessed on an individual basis. All students should be recording their progress with pencil and paper as well in case the Wiki does not save their work or there is some other technical failure. **__EVALUATION__** **Lesson Reflections and Notes:** Students will be evaluated in the following areas based on a rubric I create:
 * Accommodations and Extensions**: If students are unable to post due to power or internet outages I will allow them time to do so at school as long as they let me know when the problems are occurring. If students are unable to carry out their plan due to illness or personal reasons, again I will allow them extra time to do so as long as they let me know when and why the problems are occurring. If students are having difficulty posting productive comments (i.e. not just "great job") I will dedicate class time to scaffolding this.
 * personal effort and dedication to project
 * use of information gained during field trip to pinpoint areas that need improvement
 * plan is based on sound research of how areas of weakness may be improved
 * sources are cited correctly
 * wiki homepage is created and personalized
 * results are posted to wiki a minimum of every other day and are a reflection of actual work
 * plan to share information with class and with Minister of Health is reasonable and is carried out within timeframe of unit

Suggestions: Gayle, I appreciate how your plan encompasses so many different aspects, including the field trip, your course content, students' personal well-being, as well as integrating technology. A few suggestions I have are: You could possibly present students with a sample plan before they go on the trip and begin their project. This might help them keep in mind what to be looking for when experiencing the trip as well as something to give them guidance for where to begin. Also, instead of keeping pencil/paper copies, students could save to a jump-drive, or copy/paste to a word document and either save it on a computer, or even emailing it to themselves as a safe copy, which would be faster and save resources. One more question, do your students have wiki experience? If not, extra time may be need to be added to ensure your project's success. Overall it sounds like a great, well-organized plan. Dustin Dustin, Thank you so much for your very productive suggestions. I like the idea of presenting the students with a sample plan before they begin their project. I agree that this will help them to know what needs to be done and provide guidance along the way. I also would like to change the pencil and paper recording to that of jump-drives, that would be a much better technology friendly way to keep a backup file just in case. Yes, my students do have Wiki experience that is why I decided to incorporate it into my lesson. Gayle

Gayle, I know that if I were a student, I would probably love this assignment. I believe that peopel need to do more of this and starting them off young and getting them into a habit of self evaluation is a great idea! This is a great opportunity for them to really evaluate themselves. With all of the health issues the world faces today, peopel need to be more aware of themsleves at an earlier age. By having them monitor their own health by having it written down, they will be able to see their thoughts or findings right in front of their eyes. This typically will be a powerful tool. I can say though, that some students be a little more unhealthy or shy about certain things that they need to improve on and may be hesitant to present their finds in front of the class or on their wiki page. I really am not sure how to get around that unfortunately. Also, when you have them research the best methods for improvement, you may want to help guidethem with some helpful web pages. I can only imagine how many hookie web sites there are out there giving health "advice". Over all though, I really love the idea.

Karl Karl, Thank you for your comments and encouragement. I agree that some students will be more hesitant to share their findings in front of the class and I have been thinking about how I would accomodate this. I know that there are various aspects to this project as in mind and body and I am hoping they will be able to share at least one of those areas with their classmates. I will work with each student on making sure they are comfortable with the process. I will also include some helpful web pages as a starting point because you are right there are lots of websites out there trying to sell health. Thanks again, Gayle

**Online collaboration lesson** Lesson Title: Healthy body, healthy mind Grade Level: Grade 10 Subject: Science Unit: Biology: Tissues, Organs, and Systems of Living Things

**__Goals__** **Curriculum Standards - Academic Science - Biology** **B3 Understanding Basic Concepts** **B3.4** explain the primary functions of a variety of systems in animals (e.g., the circulatory system transports materials through the organism; the respiratory system supplies oxygen to and removes carbon dioxide from the body) **B3.5** explain the interaction of different systems within an organism (e.g., the respiratory system brings oxygen into the body, and the circulatory system transports the oxygen to cells) and why such interactions are necessary for the organism’s survival. **Curriculum Standards - Academic Science -Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration** **Communicating [C]*** **A1.11** communicate ideas, plans, procedures, results, and conclusions orally, in writing, and/or in electronic presentations, using appropriate language and a variety of formats (e.g., data tables, laboratory reports, presentations, debates, simulations, models)

**__Actions__** Before class preparation:
 * Create handout outlining next step in the unit.
 * Provide a sample email/letter to send to professionals in the field

Lesson plan outline: Students will have created their personal plans for improving their minds and bodies which they will be working on over the next month and recording on their Wiki. Students will now be asked to contact a professional from whom they would like to gain more information. These professionals may include physical education teachers, personal trainers, fitness experts, nutritionists, psychologists, yoga/meditation instructors or any other people who may be able to contribute to the idea of a healthier body and or mind. Students are to contact this person and ask questions regarding their personal improvement plan. Students must record the interaction they have with this professional in some way whether it be a video, skype conference, chat forum or recording of a telephone conversation. Students must then post this to the Wiki for their classmates to access. Once all have posted each student must comment on a minimum of two other students postings.

During Class Minutes || Hand out instructions for the next step of the unit and read through with the students (have a copy projected onto the screen in class). Answer any questions pertaining to what must be done. || Copies of handout, projector, laptop || Minutes || Students review their plan and decide which area they would like to focus on for the next part of the unit. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students will use this time to go online to discover whom they might contact as a professional and to compose a letter or a telephone script that they will use when contacting said professional. Students must submit a copy of the letter or the script to the teacher for approval before contacting anyone. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students will use this time to plan a meeting with their professional of choice or to locate someone else if their original contact is not able or willing to work with them. || Laptop Computers ||
 * Time || Instructional Activities || Materials ||
 * 20
 * 20
 * 80
 * 40
 * ongoing || Students will post their conversations on the Wiki and respond to a minimum of two of their classmates postings. || Laptop Computers ||

**__Monitor__** Ongoing Assessment(s): During the initial brainstorming process I will be available to all students for conferencing and support and to guide them towards professionals I think will be available to help them. Students can contact me at any point for assistance with how they will record their conversation and place it on their Wiki. I will then be checking the Wiki for the uploads of the conversations and the online discussions that happen between the students. Students grades will be based on their postings (detail of information posted, work posted on time).

Accommodations and Extensions: If students are having difficulty contacting a professional in the area they wish to, I will work with them to find a suitable person for them to meet with. I will look to professionals available at a local level for students who are not able to utilize Skype or other internet based discussion forums. Timelines will be adjusted according to the availability of the people the students are working with (within reason). If students are unable to carry out their plan due to illness or personal reasons, I will allow them extra time to do so as long as they let me know when and why the problems are occurring. If students are having difficulty posting productive comments (i.e. not just "great job") I will dedicate class time to scaffolding this. Gifted students will be asked to expand on the lesson minimum requirements in ways that they feel are appropriate and will be evaluated accordingly. Students who are on IEP’s or on ESL stages will be evaluated according to their individual needs and expectations.

Backup plan**:** If students are unable to carry out their conversations due to lack of power or internet we will try to access local professionals to talk with instead. All students should be saving copies of their work in case the Wiki does not save their work or there is some other technical failure.

**__Evaluation__** Assessment of learning: Students will be evaluated in the following areas based on a rubric I create:
 * Effort and energy put in to contacting professional
 * Quality of letter/phone script used when speaking with professional
 * Questions prepared for conversation
 * Quality of recording of conversation
 * Ability to upload conversation to the Wiki
 * Comments given to fellow classmates – both quantity and quality of comments made

Management in the classroom: As each student will be thinking creatively in terms of what they would like to learn more about, whom they contact and how they record their conversations there will be a lot of individual monitoring required of me as the teacher. With my small class size this will be doable but I will be organized and prepared with a check list that I will consult daily for each student so that I have a running record of each students progress.

**__References__** Curriculum standards are from the Ontario Curriculum Grade 9 and 10 Science document found at: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/science910_2008.pdf

Gayle, Is there a lot of access to the local medical community there? Would any local doctor or nurse consider coming to yoru school as a guest speaker? It seems as though this could be a great opportunity to really expand their knowledge across the curriculum. Your students would not only be educating themsleves on your curriculum, but also they could find a possible career path, a way to help out in the community, or just simple ways to betetr their own personal health. Plus, allowing them to create their own critical thinking questions, they may get a lot more out of it.

Karl

Karl, Thanks so much for bringing up this suggestion. We are very lucky on the island because we have four medical universities here and a nursing university so there are plenty of students who would be willing to come in and be a guest speaker as well as lots of professors who are very supportive of education so I am sure we would be able to find a few guest speakers who could speak with the students. I will add this to my plan for sure. Gayle

Gayle, I admire your creativity and your plan seems well thought out with valuable real-world experiences, but I couldn't help having red flags go up in my head when reading about the project. I would be nervous to assign my students to meet with a complete stranger outside of my classroom and supervision. I know they should be contacting a professional, and a professional is someone who wouldn't take advantage of a student/child, but the pessimist in me felt a little uncomfortable. I'm sure a Teacher in a school or Dr. in a hospital would be a trustworthy resource, yet the news sometimes shows us that those are not always reliable resources. I am not trying to rain on your parade/plan, I think it is a great idea to get real-world valuable input into your class and students lives. Maybe if students worked in pairs or had adult supervision? Dustin

Dustin, Thanks for bringing up this point, I forget that we live on a small island and I would know the people that the students would be contacting and that I have a very small classroom so I would be able to supervise all of the contact that the students have quite easily. I forget that this situation is very different from your typical classroom environment where you are right you would need to be very cautious of this. Also we do have internet protocol in place as far as students sharing personal information. I appreciate thought that the safety of the students shoudl always be at the forefront of everything we do. Gayle

Gayle, I would agree with Karl. I believe that this would be a great opportunity for you to have a class speaker from a local hospital or even a professor from a local college to come speak with the class. It would be a great way for students to relate to individuals within the community as well as a great way for you to network with professionals who may be able to help out with projects or even funding of projects in the future.

Susie

Susie, I agree it would be a great opportunity to have a guess speaker as well as lots of other conversations happening via the internet. Thanks for your support. Gayle

**Digital storytelling lesson** Lesson Title: Healthy body, healthy mind Grade Level: Grade 10 Subject: Science Unit: Biology: Tissues, Organs, and Systems of Living Things

**__GOALS__** **Curriculum Standards - Academic Science - Biology** **B3 Understanding Basic Concepts** **B3.4** explain the primary functions of a variety of systems in animals (e.g., the circulatory system transports materials through the organism; the respiratory system supplies oxygen to and removes carbon dioxide from the body) **B3.5** explain the interaction of different systems within an organism (e.g., the respiratory system brings oxygen into the body, and the circulatory system transports the oxygen to cells) and why such interactions are necessary for the organism’s survival. **Curriculum Standards - Academic Science -Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration** **Communicating [C]*** **A1.11** communicate ideas, plans, procedures, results, and conclusions orally, in writing, and/or in electronic presentations, using appropriate language and a variety of formats (e.g., data tables, laboratory reports, presentations, debates, simulations, models)

**__Actions__**

Before class preparation:
 * Create a basic story telling video using still photographs and voice over as an example of the type of work children should be aiming for
 * Create a handout detailing the steps to be taken for this lesson
 * Create a rubric for grading the lesson

Lesson plan outline: Based on the previous two lessons, students should now have a good understanding of the various systems at work in the body and how these systems interact. Now their project is to create a digital story explaining one of these systems. They will be allowed to decide which system they will focus on, how they will create their digital story and which technology/technologies they will use to share their stories with their fellow classmates. Digital storytelling is a new concept in my classroom so I will encourage students to begin using still images and music or voiceovers and as they get comfortable with this they can progress to more complicated animations or videos as they see appropriate

During Class Minutes || Hand out instructions for the next step of the unit and read through with the students (have a copy projected onto the screen in class). Answer any questions pertaining to what must be done. || Copies of handout, projector, laptop || Minutes || Watch the digital story that I have created with the students and discuss how it was created and how it reflects the rubric requirements. Also discuss other options that the students have in terms of video etc. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students will use this time to determine which system they would like to focus on and how they will go about creating their digital story. We will discuss creating a script and storyboard as an outline. Students will need to get their script and storyboard approved before they can begin working on their digital story. || Laptop Computers || Minutes || Students will use this time to create their digital story on their individual computers being sure to save them both to the Wiki and to their personal flash drives. || Laptop Computers ||
 * Time || Instructional Activities || Materials ||
 * 20
 * 20
 * 80
 * 80
 * ongoing || Students will post their stories on the Wiki and respond to a minimum of two of their classmates postings. || Laptop Computers ||

**__Monitor__** Ongoing Assessment(s): I will approve students scripts and storyboards for the stories before they can begin working on their actual stories, I will also be able to provide all still photos taken during our original field trip should students wish to use this in their stories. I will also help with students understanding and use of various formats they may like to use to present their stories. I will be checking the Wiki for the uploads of the students digital stoires and the online discussions that happen between the students. Students grades will be based on their postings (detail of information posted, work posted on time).

Accommodations and Extensions: If students are having difficulty at any point in this process I will work with them to overcome their difficulties whether it be content, technology or direction for their stories. Again as this is the first time we will be doing this type of project I will encourage students to begin with a basic outline and only get more complicated when they are comfortable with all that digital storytelling entails. If students are unable to carry out their plan due to illness or personal reasons, I will allow them extra time to do so as long as they let me know when and why the problems are occurring. If students are having difficulty posting productive comments (i.e. not just "great job") I will dedicate class time to scaffolding this. Gifted students will be asked to expand on the lesson minimum requirements in ways that they feel are appropriate and will be evaluated accordingly. Students who are on IEP’s or on ESL stages will be evaluated according to their individual needs and expectations.

Backup plan**:** If students are unable to create their digital stories due to lack of power or internet we will try to provide more in class time to do this and or to extend timelines. All students should be saving copies of their work in case the Wiki does not save their work or there is some other technical failure.

**__Evaluation__**

Assessment of learning: Students will be evaluated in the following areas based on a rubric I create: Management in the classroom: As each student will be thinking creatively in terms of what system they would like to create a digital story for, how they will create their digital story, and which tools they would like to use to create their story there will be a lot of individual monitoring required of me as the teacher. With my small class size this will be doable but I will be organized and prepared with a check list that I will consult daily for each student so that I have a running record of each students progress.
 * Effort and energy put in to creating their script
 * Effort and energy put in to creating the storyboard
 * Understanding and use of technology tools to create digital story
 * Use of resources to help when they are facing challenges
 * Final digital story quality and content
 * Ability to upload story to the Wiki
 * Comments given to fellow classmates – both quantity and quality of comments made

**__References__** Curriculum standards are from the Ontario Curriculum Grade 9 and 10 Science document found at: []

Gayle, While I was reading your post, I had a great idea for not necessarily your class, but almost any class. This would be a big undertaking and teachers could start smaller, but it might be a possibility. As I was thinking about digital storytelling this week, I basically started calling them infomercials or commercials in my head. As I thought about academic classes, I thought about different units or chapters in a book. This is my idea: At the beginning of a chapter in a book, there is usually some kind of page that says what students will learn in this chapter, why it is important, and how it relates to past, present, and future subject-matter of this subject and life. These pages are sometimes boring and I would bet that very few students absorb anything from these pages. What if at the end of each unit or chapter, after the test (or as part of their assessments) you have students create a commercial, 3-5 minutes, that describes what they have learned in that chapter, except the commercial would be for next year's students. Like a movie preview, telling what's to come or what to look out for, and why it is exciting or interesting. It would be a lot of digital stories, but maybe two or three students could do each chapter, so that each group goes once or twice throughout the year. Not only would the current students benefit from the learning process, but the future classes would have an archive of information. Just an idea, Thanks for your great unit plan and good luck with your new baby! Dustin