Unit Objectives: Students will be able to:
1. implement various stages of the writing process.
2. revise manuscripts to improve effectiveness.
3. edit final copies for correct spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
4. use available technology in editing and revising.
5. use technology to share work with others.
6. read to acquire information for different purposes.
7. use reference tools to retrieve and manage information.
1. As a class, read The Magic Schoolbus on the Ocean Floor. Point out the variety of questions that the students ask, such as
a. How is a coral reef built?
b. Why is the ocean salty?
c. What makes waves?
d. How is food made at a hot water vent?
2. As a class, brainstorm several more questions about the ocean.
3. As a class, brainstorm a list of plants and animals that live in the ocean.
4. Assign each student to a question and to a plant or animal. Discuss how to develop research questions and to decide where to look for information.
5. Reserve a time in the library and in the computer lab when students can research both online and offline research. The following URL is a safe search engine for students to use: www.safekids.com/search.htm. Discuss with students about copyrights and plagiarism. Encourage students to download pictures that are related to their topics, but are copyright free.
6. During individual computer time or during lab time, your students can take their research and write a short paper on each topic. During this time, you can also implement a peer review process.
7. Once students have edited their reports, it is time to publish their reports in an electronic bulletin board. This can be done either through a web site or through PowerPoint. Each student is responsible for creating the pages associated with their reports. As the instructor, you will need to either build the first page of the bulletin board or have some of your students who finish early help you with it. The first page needs to be a picture of the ocean floor with the appropriate plants and animals. Each plant and animal is a hotspot link to a report. The questions about the ocean can be linked to the first page or given a page of their own.
8. You can post this electronic bulletin board online or on your school network so that another class can view the information. If you would like to work with this project with another class outside of your district, you can use www.epals.com to link to another classroom.
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