February’s Featured Article The Internet Takes Cooperative Learning to a New Level
JoAnn Marshall, ITRT Trevilians Elementary
Spotlight on Schools
2-3
Feature Article Continued
4
February Lesson Plan
5
Black History Month Quiz
6-7
Inside this issue:
February 2009
Louisa County Public Schools
2008-09 School Year
Tech Talk
Instructional Technology
The Internet was created to allow scientists to collaborate
across the barriers of time and space. It continues to be a high
speed information highway that affords users the opportunity to
communicate with others on an endless array of topics. Cooperative
learning is a teaching technique that encourages students to work
together to solve problems as they learn. When the Internet and
Cooperative learning are combined, the collaboration possibilities are
endless.
It is important that we prepare our students to live in the 21st
century. Using the Internet, students can reach out to other classes,
interact with subject matter experts, exchange information and
data, express opinions, and access current information almost
instantly. Entering the “online” collaborative environment will allow
students to build knowledge with information taken from many
sources that reflect differing perspectives. Now, for example,
instead of researching how climate affects agriculture, students
can learn first-hand by having “conversations” with peers around
the world and sharing data.
Continued on page ….4
Trevilians Elementary
Fourth graders use Kidspiration organize
research for an upcoming research project.
Jouett Elementary
Thomas Jefferson Elementary
Page 2 LCPS Tech Talk
5th grade students work
cooperatively to complete a project.
Kidspiration software uses the philosophies of
visual learning to support students as they
think creatively and organize ideas to write,
comprehend and communicate successfully.
TJES Technology Club members work together to
create a PhotoStory project.
Download PhotoStory software FREE and follow
step-by-step screencast tutorials here:
http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm
Technology in our schools...
Patrick Janovick attended a
LCHS staff development session
on PhotoStory.
LC High School
7th grade science students use
the Internet to answer ques-
tions on Evolution
LC Middle School
Page 3 2008-09 School Year
educating each student for life long learning!
953 Davis Highway Mineral, VA 23117 Phone: 540-894-5115 Fax: 540-894-5436
Louisa County Public Schools
Creative Commons Copyright Jennifer Downey, Louisa County Public Schools February 2009
Cooperative Learning cont… JoAnn Marshall, ITRT Trevilians Elementary
Sites for Internet Collaboration
Find a Project
www.gsn.org/project/index.html
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic1a.htm
www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/projects.html
Ask an Expert
www.yahooligans.com/content/tg/expert
www.telementor.org/
www.askascientist.org
Find KeyPals
epals.com
www. kidlink.org/English/index
www.iecc.org
Create a Project (advanced)
These require accounts and administers
www.google.com/apps/
LCPS has an account with:
www.thinkquest.com
(see your ITRT for assistance)
As safety concerns increase, it is
important to teach our students how to
communicate using the Internet in a safe
manner. Many safe Internet learning
environments have been created with
students of all ages in mind. Look for sites
that require accounts. allow monitoring by an
administrator and are password protected.
You may want to create your own project or
join someone else’s. Existing projects are a
good way to start. It requires some time on
the teacher’s part to investigate and make
the most appropriate choice. Examples of
sites are provided in the inset.
Engaged students are happy students.
Take a leap of faith! Your ITRT will help get
you started and develop meaningful projects.
It is time to move our students from class-
room cooperative learning groups to online
collaborative learning communities.
Before—use clickers to assess prior knowledge
Plan ahead...enter pre-test quiz questions into the CPS software. When the stu-
dents “click” their answer it will be automatically recorded in the software.
Show the students a graph of what they know about the topic!
Integrating technology Before...During...After your lesson with Clickers!
During—Keep students attention with a mid-class pop quiz.
Arrange students into small learning communities and allow groups to choose a
person from the pretest to research (Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas, etc). Provide
books from the library, articles, or internet access for research. Students should
share what they learn before the close of class.
In the meantime don’t forget you have those clickers!! Throw up an impromptu
pop quiz: Are you paying attention?
Is your group socializing or on task?
Do you need help?
You can plot their answers and even create some healthy competition by compar-
ing the results of each group!
Black History Month Activity—resources on next page
After—use clickers to assess student learning
Reuse the pre-test quiz after students have explored facts about Black History.
Compare and Contrast the graphs of their responses before and after the lesson.
By: Jennifer Downey
Okay, so it is really called a Classroom Response System but you know everyone calls
them “clickers”!
Black History Month QUIZ ~ Grade 4+
www.teachervision.com Answers in Bold
1. Which former slave and noted abolitionist edited and published "The North Star," an abolition-
ist newspaper?
Phillis Wheatley
Benjamin Banneker
Frederick Douglass
2. The 15th Amendment, which granted African-Americans the right to vote, was passed on which
date?
February 3, 1870
July 14, 1889
November 19, 1910
3. Which civil rights activist gained notoriety in the late 19th century for her scathing editorials
denouncing racial injustice?
Sojourner Truth
Zora Neale Hurston
Ida B. Wells
4.Noted African-American intellectual and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois was a founding
member of which organization in 1910?
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
The National Negro Business League
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
5.Which landmark Supreme Court case represented an important victory for the civil rights move-
ment in 1954?
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka
6. Who is generally considered the mother of the civil rights movement?
Harriet Tubman
Susan B. Anthony
Rosa Parks
7. Which of the following propelled Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence as a leader of
the civil rights movement?
He led the boycott (1955–56) by African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, against the
segregated city bus lines.
He organized the massive March on Washington (1963), at which he gave his famous "I Have a
Dream" speech.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1964) for his philosophy of nonviolent resistance.
8. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy ordered the National Guard to ensure the enrollment of
two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, at which university?
University of Mississippi
University of Chicago
University of Alabama
9. What key event in the civil rights movement happened in 1964?
Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.
The Black Panther Party was formed.
10. The National Rainbow Coalition, a political organization uniting various minority groups, was
formed in 1986 by which African-American political leader?
General Colin Powell
Louis Farrakhan
Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.