Amber+C

** 7-4.3 ** Create multiple- paragraph compositions that include a **central idea** with supporting details and use appropriate transitions between paragraphs. ** 7-4.4 ** Use grammatical conventions of written **Standard American English**, including the reinforcement of conventions previously taught. //(See Instructional Appendix: Composite Writing Matrix.)// ** 7-5.1 ** Create informational pieces (for example, book, movie, or product reviews and news reports) that use language appropriate for a specific **audience**. ** 7-6.1 ** Clarify and refine a research topic. ** 7-6.5 ** Use appropriate organizational strategies to prepare written works, oral and auditory presentations, and visual presentation. ** 7-6.7 ** Use a variety of print and electronic reference materials. ** 7-6.8 ** Design and carry out research projects by selecting a topic, constructing inquiry questions, accessing resources, and selecting and organizing information. ** Procedures (steps) ** : ** Differentiation ** : I differentiate my classroom according to reading and writing levels. I also include interests and abilities when it applies. For this activity their abilities do not apply because they will be working in groups. I will have my low readers and writers paired with my high and middle readers and writers. I will choose their groups by putting one high reader and writer in each group and no more than two low readers and writers. The students never know which category their fellow group members fall under. This grouping allows all of my students to have constant help and will help create interdependence in the groups. For my students who are visual learners I have given them the instructions for this activity on paper. For my auditory learners I explained the steps and directions orally. For my kinesthetic learners I modeled the activity on the Promethean Board. For my ESOL student I have paired him with a friend who speaks Spanish and English. He also has a Spanish to English Dictionary. ** Assessment ** : The students will be assessed by:
 * Lesson Title**: Problem Solving in the 21st Century
 * Subject**: 7th ELA
 * Brief Description**: This lesson is a problem-solution activity. In this lesson the students will take the given problem (bullying in middle schools) and research to find a solution. They will then create a presentation to present their solution to the problem with the class.
 * Objective**:
 * The students will identify information and resources needed to solve a given problem
 * The students will develop solutions to the problem
 * The students will analyze and revise the solution they developed
 * The students will create a presentation to present their final solution to the class
 * South Carolina** **Standards**:
 * 7-4.2 ** Use complete sentences in a variety of types (including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex).
 * 7-4.7 ** Spell correctly using **Standard American English**.
 * 1)  Problem: How can middle school students stop bullying in their middle school? This is relevant to my students because our school has a lot of bullying issues. Just recently one of their classmates transferred schools because she was being bullied for being smart. She was punched in the back of the head while she was walking to class. The students have been upset about this incident.
 * 2)  Students will take the problem and use the Internet to research ways they can help rid our school of bullying. They will be required to find five sources. They will cite the sources in a bibliography with a short description of what they learned from that website. They will also use two book resources, and they will cite these in their bibliography as well.
 * 3)  The students will use these resources to create the first part of their digital story. This will be “How We Can Stop Bullying from Happening.”
 * 4)  The students will create a short presentation to summarize their solution.
 * Bibliography with five web sources and at least two book sources
 * Presentation of their solution and how well their solution was backed by the research they completed.

** 7-4.3 ** Create multiple- paragraph compositions that include a **central idea** with supporting details and use appropriate transitions between paragraphs. ** 7-4.4 ** Use grammatical conventions of written **Standard American English**, including the reinforcement of conventions previously taught. //(See Instructional Appendix: Composite Writing Matrix.)// ** 7-5.1 ** Create informational pieces (for example, book, movie, or product reviews and news reports) that use language appropriate for a specific **audience**. ** 7-6.1 ** Clarify and refine a research topic. ** 7-6.5 ** Use appropriate organizational strategies to prepare written works, oral and auditory presentations, and visual presentation. ** 7-6.7 ** Use a variety of print and electronic reference materials. ** 7-6.8 ** Design and carry out research projects by selecting a topic, constructing inquiry questions, accessing resources, and selecting and organizing information. ** Procedures (steps) ** : ** Differentiation ** : For this lesson I had to differentiate according to access to a computer, and abilities of using technology. For the students who are not able to create a blog alone, and who had a hard time trying to post an entry I created a small group. In this small group I went step by step over the processes until they understood. For the students who understood the steps and have used a blog before, I let them complete these steps on their own. I gave my visual learners a copy of the directions, for my auditory learners I explained the directions orally, and for the kinesthetic learners they followed along as I modeled the steps on the Promethean Board. For my students who do not have a computer at home I have given them more time to complete the steps. They are the first to get the computers daily. My ESOL students will have partners to help, and a Spanish to English dictionary. ** Assessment ** : The students will be assessed by:
 * Lesson Title**: Problem Solving in the 21st Century through Social Networking and Online Collaboration
 * Subject**: 7th ELA
 * Brief Description**: This lesson is a problem-solution activity. This is the second lesson in a unit on informational text (non-print). In this lesson the students will set up a Blog account on edublog.org, and they will all join my page. In their blog they will write a testimonial about bullying. This can be a personal experience, made up, or something they have witnessed second hand. They will then comment on each others blogs and create a follow-up blog entry that outlines their solution to the bullying problem.
 * Objective**:
 * The students will create a blog that gives a testimonial about bullying and a solution to the bullying problem.
 * South Carolina** **Standards**:
 * 7-4.2 ** Use complete sentences in a variety of types (including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex).
 * 7-4.7 ** Spell correctly using **Standard American English**.
 * 1)  The students will create a blog using the site edublog.org. After they have created their blog (which we will do in class with the lap top cart) the students will join my page.
 * 2)  The students will then write a testimonial from the point of view of some one who has been bullied. The students will have the option to choose a personal experience, make up a person and his/her story, or to use a testimonial of some one else. Of course names would not be mentioned.
 * 3)  The student will take the next few days to comment on each others blog entries.
 * 4)  Then the students will write a follow-up blog entry that outlines how they would solve the problem of bullying and what we can do to help. They will have to use the resources they found while researching in the first lesson to support their solution.
 * 5)  They will be required to comment on each others solutions to give feedback, suggestions, and make connections.
 * Blog entries
 * The testimonial has to be relevant to bullying
 * The solution has to be backed by references on the bibliography.
 * Comments on entries
 * The bibliography from lesson one (if revisions were needed)

**7-4.2** Use complete sentences in a variety of types (including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex). ** 7-4.3 ** Create multiple- paragraph compositions that include a **central idea** with supporting details and use appropriate transitions between paragraphs. ** 7-4.4 ** Use grammatical conventions of written **Standard American English**, including the reinforcement of conventions previously taught. //(See Instructional Appendix: Composite Writing Matrix.)// ** 7-5.1 ** Create informational pieces (for example, book, movie, or product reviews and news reports) that use language appropriate for a specific **audience**. ** 7-6.1 ** Clarify and refine a research topic. ** 7-6.5 ** Use appropriate organizational strategies to prepare written works, oral and auditory presentations, and visual presentation. ** 7-6.7 ** Use a variety of print and electronic reference materials. ** 7-6.8 ** Design and carry out research projects by selecting a topic, constructing inquiry questions, accessing resources, and selecting and organizing information. ** Procedures (steps) ** : ** Differentiation ** : I gave my visual learners a copy of the directions, for my auditory learners I explained the directions orally, and for the kinesthetic learners they followed along as I modeled the steps on the Promethean Board. For my ESOL student he will use an App that allows him to type in his report instead of saying it. The students will work independently, and I will conference with individuals as needed. ** Assessment ** : The students will be assessed by:
 * Lesson Title**: Problem Solving in the 21st Century through Digital Story Telling
 * Subject**: 7th ELA
 * Brief Description**: This lesson is a problem-solution activity. This lesson is the final lesson in the unit. In this lesson the students will turn the testimonial into a story. This story will be about a specific example of bullying, and not about the general signs and habits of bullies. This story will be told in first person point of view. They will take the story and the solution they have created to write a script for the digital story, and then they will record it using a digital camcorder or voice thread.
 * Objective**:
 * The students will develop a story about a bullying victim based on the testimonial from lesson two.
 * The students will create a script for a digital story.
 * The students will create a digital story that includes the story of a bullying victim and how we can stop bullying from happening in out schools.
 * South Carolina** **Standards**:
 * 7-4.7 ** Spell correctly using **Standard American English**.
 * 1)  The students will take the testimonial that they created and they will create a story about a victim who was bullied. Their story will be very serious and there will be serious consequences at the end. I have 18 students in all of my classes. The students draw from a basket what their consequence will be. There is three of each consequence. The consequences include: homicide, suicide, quitting school, turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with the pain, the parents moving the student to a new town, and becoming very depressed. At the end of the story the students will say “all bullying does not lead to these consequences, but we have to remember that some do. It is our obligation to stop this from happening.”
 * 2)  The students will then create a script to follow while recording their digital story.
 * 3)  The students will revise and edit the script
 * 4)  The students will record their story and post them on their blog (with parent permission).
 * 5)  We will also ask to put a few in the weekly buzz.
 * Script (Completion)
 * Digital Story (Rubric)