Welcome to the Best Practice home page for T. W. Hunter Middle School. We are very proud of our program and the teachers who have implemented strategies to enhance student learning through the use of technology. Many long hours have been spent developing these lessons. Professional development activities have been on-going in an attempt to meet the needs of our faculty. Workshops have been held throughout the year to provide Òjust in timeÓ technology techniques. This would not have been ----without the EdTech Launch2 grant. As part of our grant application, we asked teachers to submit a technology-rich lesson each semester.

Best Practices is defined as an innovative project-based learning activities which utilize any form of technology, are easily replicated by other educators, produce the desired educational outcomes, and are effective toward meeting standards of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) curriculum and the State of Tennessee curriculum.

It is our hope that these lessons will be replicated and prove to be a source of inspiration for those who want to create lessons that will engage the learner with project based, student centered learning.

	Spotlight on Ms. Shoesmith Best Practice Winner
	Fall 2004

	Mrs. Shoesmith is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in education and a master's degree as a reading consultant. She taught two years in Michigan before moving to Tennessee. She served one year as a reading consultant at Bethpage Elementary. This is her 15^th year as a sixth grade Language Arts teacher at TW Hunter Middle School. I was thrilled when I learned that Hunter had been awarded the technology grant. Teachers today have to compete with T. V., movies, and video games. Technology makes it possible for us to develop the kind of lessons that will create interest and hold the students attention. When technology is fully integrated into our curriculum at Hunter, teachers will be more effective, and students will become more involved. In this project, students reinforced their understanding of prepositions in a meaningful and creative way. At the same time, they were using technology to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers and other audiences.

BRIGHT

Suggested Lesson Plan Format

Lesson Title:

Making a Booklet: Understanding Prepositions

By:

Karen Shoesmith

Timeline: One week

Grade Level: 6th

Subject: English

TN Curriculum Standards Applied:

6.3.01g; 6.3.02a and b

NETS:

Indicators 1, 3, and 4

Learning Objective:

The student will compose a correct sentence including a prepositional phrase, correct capitalization, and punctuation.

Project Narrative/Goal:

The students use technology to produce a creative booklet teaching prepositions.

Materials/Resources Needed:

Digital camera	laminator	book binding machine
iPhoto	Word	color printer

Procedures (in detail):

	Students create a pose that will illustrate a prepositional phrase. Pictures are taken on a digital camera and downloaded to iPhoto. Students drag picture from iPhoto onto a Word document. They type their grammatically correct sentence on the document. Sentences must contain a prepositional phrase, correct capitalization, and correct punctuation. They also enlarge font and underline the prepositional phrase. They then print their page with a color printer. Teacher laminates book pages and binds the book on a book binding machine.

Student Authentic Assessment: Copy included

(Attach copy of rubric)

Sample(s) of Student Work: Submitted

Teacher Reflection piece: Copy included

(attach)

BRIGHT Teacher Reflection Checklist

Teacher: Karen Shoesmith

Date of Lesson: 12/02/04-12/07/04

Subject: English Period: 2

No. of Computers Used in Lesson: one

No. of Students: 25

Length of class: 65 mins.

NETS

Indicators 1, 3, and 4

Curriculum Standards Applied

6.3.01g; 6.3.02a and b

Lesson Objective:

TLW: The student will compose a correct sentence including a prepositional phrase, correct capitalization, and punctuation.

Engaged Learning Indicators:

Indicator

Evidence

Did your students take responsibility for their learning? Did they meet, exceed, or not meet your expectations?

___x__Yes

The booklet

_____No

Did your students develop, define and/or modify problem-solving strategies using the technology basics you gave them?

___x__Yes

Teacher observation

_____No

Did learning with technology energize students? Did they remain motivated? Did they take pride in their work?

___x__Yes

Teacher observation

_____No

Did your students work collaboratively to understand the technology task to plan, implement, and evaluate their assignment?

___x_Yes

The booklet

_____No

Did the tasks your students accomplished bear resemblance to real world problems?

___x__Yes

The booklet

_____No

Were the tasks challenging to the students? Did they need to stretch their thinking skills to be successful?

___x__Yes

Teacher observation

_____No

Were skills other than those using technology required to accomplish this technology lesson?

___x__Yes Knowledge of prepositions,

capitalization, punctuation

_____No

Assessment:

What type of assessment did you plan to use to evaluate mastery of the objective:

Rubric

Teacher Observation

Evaluation of Booklet

Future Planning:

If you were to teach this lesson again, what would you change? _____ Remain as is

or
I give them the assignment a week ahead of time so they could come up with more creative poses.

Additional Comments:

Making A Booklet : Understanding Prepositions

Teacher Name: Karen Shoesmith

Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Writing - Grammar	There are no grammatical mistakes in the booklet.	There are no grammatical mistakes in the booklet after feedback from an adult.	There are 1-2 grammatical mistakes in the booklet even after feedback from an adult.	There are several grammatical mistakes in the booklet even after feedback from an adult.
Writing - Mechanics	Capitalization and punctuation are correct throughout the booklet	Capitalization and punctuation are correct throughout the booklet after feedback from an adult.	There are 1-2 capitalization and/or punctuation errors in the booklet even after feedback from an adult.	There are several capitalization or punctuation errors in the booklet even after feedback from an adult.
Knowledge Gained	All students in the group can accurately answer all questions related to facts in the booklet and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	All students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the booklet and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	Most students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the booklet and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	Several students in the group appear to have little knowledge about the facts or technical processes used in the booklet.
Graphics/Pictures	Graphics were independently imported from an iPhoto to a Word document	Graphics were imported with verbal assistance from an iPhoto to a Word document	Graphics were imported from an iPhoto to a Word document with manual assistance.	Facilitator imported graphics from iPhoto to Word docuent for student.
Spelling & Proofreading	No spelling errors remain after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the booklets.	No more than 1 spelling error remains after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the booklets.	No more than 3 spelling errors remain after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the booklets	Several spelling errors in the booklets.

Return to T.W.Hunter Home