Sample Lesson Plan

All About Me! A Digital Autobiography - Drafting, Editing, Revising, Sharing (Presenting)

Author: tom Hayward, hayward@4j.lane.edu
Corridor Elementary School
Eugene 4J School District

Target Grade Level(s): 4 5 6 7 8

Approximate Time Needed: Several mini lessons delivered over a 2-3 week period each followed by daily work on the project by students.

Prerequisites: •Students will need familiarity with Keynote-prior use
•Basic keyboarding and word processing skills
•Prior use of SmartBoard

Brief Overview: This portion of the Digital Autobiography project will take place during daily sessions over a 2-3 week period. Students will create slides for their autobiographies within Keynote. While traditional writing form such as paragraphing will be abandoned for this digital presentation, all essential writing, editing and revising skills will be practiced.

Additional Information

Resources:

Objectives: Students will learn how to use a powerful communication tool. Students will learn to prepare a digital presentation to communicate with a wide audience.
Instruction/Procedure: • Students open a keynote file and select a presentation format of their choice.

• Students begin by creating a “Title Page” slide.

• Students create slides using gathered information and digital images. All text must be written in complete sentence form. Paragraphs are to be avoided because of the nature of the Keynote presentation format. One or two sentence captions need to accompany digital images.

• Students focus initially on creating each of their slides for their autobiography, matching text with images used.

• After the “first draft” is completed, students will focus on editing and proofreading their text by using a teacher created editing sheet to direct their efforts. Spell check, grammar check and any available technological tools will be employed as well as conventional editing tools such as dictionaries, thesauruses and handheld spell checkers.

• Peer editing using the teacher provided editing checklist will be required and encouraged. Students must have at least two classmates sign off as having proofread the student’s presentation. Keynote presentations can be printed in PDF format for editing purposes.

• Because of the unique format of the Keynote presentations, students will insure that each of their slides present text in a sequential order appropriate to their autobiography.

• Features of the Keynote program such as transitions between slides and duration of slides and their transitions will be added and adjusted to each unique autobiography.

• Each student autobiography will be saved in Keynote format and will be exported and saved as a Quicktime video. Students will take with them a CD with their autobiography saved both in Keynote and Quicktime. Students will also be allowed to print a PDF version to keep.

• The final sharing of the autobiography will be scored by two teachers as a speaking work sample. Students will present their autobiography using a SmartBoard interactive whiteboard. Presentations will take place in front of all fellow 5th grade students and two teachers. Students will be given ample time to practice their keynote presentations using the SmartBoard.

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Modifications for special needs students: For students with special needs the autobiography project can be pared down to manageable chunks of information gathering. Contacting parents or caregivers and discussing manageable requirements with them will be beneficial to the student. Partnering the student with a peer mentor (buddy) will make parts of the project less daunting. The teacher can limit the number of slides required.
Modifications for TAG students: The gifted student can be challenged to add creative and innovative slides to her/his Keynote presentation. Challenge gifted students to research their family history in more depth.
Motivation:
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 Students will want to become engaged in these activities because everyone wants to celebrate their own life. It is very empowering to research oneself and look into one’s past. Special memories and keepsakes are enticing. The chance to present one’s life digitally rather than in the traditional written format is motivation.
How will student use the technology as a tool to enhance their learning?:
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 Students will gain essential knowledge about how to use various communication tools, will communicate with a wide audience, and will develop meaningful products.
Assessment: Assessment in this portion of the digital autobiography will be ongoing daily. The teacher will need to have kids show the slides while they are constructing them. Having due dates for small portions of the presentation will ease the burden of assessing and avoid the last minute pileup. Students will be required to show the results of their Keynote presentation file on an ongoing basis.

Post assessment will untimately be the Keynote presentation itself scored as a speaking work sample.

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Strand (sub-topic):
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 Writing
Common Curriculum Goal(s):
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 CCG: Planning, Evaluation, and Revision:
Pre-write, draft, revise, edit, and publish across the subject areas.
Academic Standards/Skills to Support the CCGs: EL.05.WR.03 Identify audience and purpose.
EL.05.WR.04 Choose the form of writing that best suits the intended purpose-personal letter, letter to the editor, review, poem, report, or narrative.
EL.05.WR.05 Use the writing process-prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing successive versions.
EL.05.WR.08 Revise drafts to improve the meaning and focus of writing by adding, deleting, combining, clarifying, and rearranging words and sentences.
EL.05.WR.09 Edit and proofread one’s own writing, as well as that of others, using the writing conventions, and, for example, an editing checklist or list of rules with specific examples of corrections of specific errors.
Benchmarks (Does not apply to all lessons.):

 
Instructional Technology CCG(s) Addressed:
(Ed Tech Units Only)

5. Design, prepare and present unique works using technology to communicate information and ideas.
6. Extend communication and collaboration with peers, experts and other audiences using telecommunications.
Career Related Learning Standards Addressed:
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 Demonstrate effective communication skills to give and receive information in school, community, and workplace.

 

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Required Hardware: •Digital cameras
•Computers
•Scanner
•Projector
•SmartBoard (optional)
•Printers
Required Software: •Keynote, iPhoto or simiar
•Appleworks, Word or similar
•SmartBoard Notebook & Tools
Preparation:
(Ed Tech Units Only)		 A teacher must be comfortable with using Keynote and iPhoto. A teacher must be practiced in using a SmartBoard and/or a projector. Make sure computers are available.
Web Sites and Other Technology:

 
Other Materials: •Teacher made editing checklists
•Dictionaries, Thesauruses