EDU 690 Masters’ Project Spring 2013
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
~ Dr. Maria Montessori ~
v Lisa Barnett
http://awesomeancientegyptians.wordpress.com/home/
Using Hands-on Learning to Teach Students about Ancient Egypt
This website focuses on an Ancient Egyptian project that can be used in sixth grade classes. The project will use hands-on and interactive learning, along with more traditional forms of presenting information to the students such as guided note-taking, and using the assigned social studies textbook as a reference and tool. This social studies project will align with the Common Core Standards, as well as National Social Studies Standards, and Standards for the Arts.
v Ginger Bidell
Finding Your Voice Through Online Discussion
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” Ludwig Wittgenstein
In this Action Research Project, students will utilize online discussion boards to interact with one another in order engage in critical literacy practices. Online discussions will be utilized to provide students with an opportunity to be “heard” in a manner that is often difficult in classroom discussions. Students will have an opportunity to think and compose thoughtful responses to texts. In addition, they will be able to read the responses of classmates to consider multiple perspectives. Most importantly, online discussions will allow students who are reluctant to participate in classroom discussions an opportunity to find their voice.
v Allison Bracikowski
http://abracikowski.wordpress.com/
Exploring the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad played an important role in our country’s history. Many textbooks cannot adequately describe the hardships that many of the people who were part of the Underground Railroad experienced. I have created a project about the Underground Railroad using a hands-on approach. This project is targeted for Grades Three through Five. Research has proven that students learn concepts better when they are taught using a hands-on approach, rather than simply reading from a textbook. Students will look at real photographs, take a journey through the Underground Railroad, listen to music, read diary entries, stories and newspaper clips, visit a real safe house, re-enact what it was like to live through the Underground Railroad and much more. The students will also compare and contrast how times were living during the Underground Railroad, compared to their life in today’s world. This project will help students better understand what the people went through on the Underground Railroad and how they felt during this crucial time in our history.
v Samantha Kessler
http://samanthalkessler.wordpress.com
Sink or Float?
Throughout this project students will participate in a series of lessons focusing on Science Inquiry: “Sink or Float”. This concept can be taught grades K-12, however these lessons were designed for a 3rd grade class, and for this reason the standards that are listed will focus on this grade level. This project has a focus on objects that sink or float, but the ideas that students are taught throughout about observing, predicting, creating a hypothesis and writing conclusion statements will be valuable for future science experiments and other life situations.
v Lindsey Marrano
Life Cycles
Developing and implementing effective science instruction needs to become a priority for teachers in the elementary classroom. The project provides students the opportunity to explore the butterfly life cycle through a hands-on learning approach. Teachers can use the lessons designed or adapt them to fit the needs of the students in their classrooms.
Using live caterpillars the students can observe and record the changes seen in the butterfly life cycle right inside their very own classrooms. The lessons in the unit have been aligned to the English Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core Learning Standards as well as the Science Standards. Throughout this unit of study, the students will learn about the butterfly life cycle by making and recording observations, researching using books and the internet, and will continue to improve their writing skills by writing essays. At the closure of the unit, students will present all they have learned to their peers by creating a PowerPoint presentation.
v Paige Nigh
First Grade Algebraic Reasoning
This research-based project has been created to justify why it is important to teach algebra in a first grade classroom. It also addresses how teachers can adopt new instructional strategies that expose children to algebraic reasoning. This change will take much time and effort, but proves to be a crucial component to the future success of young learners.
This website was created to identify the importance of algebraic thinking skills at the elementary level. Through research, teachers can find many ways to incorporate this important mathematical concept into their daily instructional routine. Furthermore, algebraic thinking aligns directly with the New York State Common Core Learning Standards and the NCTM Standards for first grade. Mathematics is an area that is imperative to master and develop at a young age. These algebraic thinking skills will serve as a foundation for first grade students as they move through each grade level.
v Cassandra Orffeo
funkyfractionsforfifthgrade.wordpress.com
Funky Fractions For Fifth Grade
An Interactive Project for Learning Fractions in Fifth Grade
Being in a fifth grade classroom has proven that fractions are a topic with difficulty for students. Constant struggle causes anxiety among students leaving them frustrated and disappointed in themselves. Teachers, as well, become equally frustrated, as they cannot spend extra time on topics due to the demanding common core standards and pace.
This project has been derived to give teachers a new outlook on a different approach to teaching fractions. With a focus on active learning, small group instruction, and hands on learning activities, this project focuses completely upon the successful mastery of fractions within each and every individual student. Multiple adaptations are also included to include all ability levels and needs of students. The goal of this project is to assist in taking a difficult and tricky topic and turn it into something easily achievable and simple to understand.
v Katherine Queen
Human Body
An Elementary (Grades 3-5) Masters Project
My topic is the Human Body for Elementary Education, which can be used for grades 3 to 5. My project will contain detailed lesson plans and any handouts needed to conduct the lesson plan, which will follow the guidelines of the New York State Learning Standards and Core Curriculum. Also, since I have worked with special needs for most of my career, I will also provide modifications for all my lessons and activities. This project will help students understand how the human body works and how its organs function. I will also include my science project in other content areas, especially in language arts. In order for students to decode the science language, they will need a strong foundation in content area reading. Most of my lessons will have a form of hands-on activities, posted is my literature review exploring different approaches tailored to different learning styles to benefit your students’ mastery of science.
v David Ring
http://mrdavidring.wordpress.com
Electricity: When Science and Social Studies Collide
This project focuses on the contribution that electricity has made throughout Western New York. Learning is primarily based on how the development and implementation of electricity has contributed to society. Social studies and science are the vehicles being used to study this topic. The goal is to show students how people and technology have changed the world in which we live.
It is only fitting that these two core subjects, social studies and science, are intertwined. Studying the very scientists that have made electricity possible will lead into experiments of our own. Once students are able to have a firm understanding of why this field of science is possible and how it works, then they will be able to look into the social impact on our community.
v Kimberly Vaughn
kimvaughn.wordpress.com/alphabet-lessons/
Alphabet Letters
Teachers need to provide students with a print rich environment as well as consistently reinforce the idea that letters, words, and print that surround us carry meaning. Students in this project are first given a pre-assessment to gauge where they are in learning the alphabet. This project also consists of lessons using fun and engaging high quality literature. Students will be introduced to the letters and how to write them. Students depending on their level and knowledge of the letters may be instructed to less or more writing than other students. Students often identify first with the letters in their own name. Students who already know how to identify and write the letters of their name will continue on to other letters. Students will also develop ways to remember what sounds they make, and what words begin with each letter throughout the lessons. Each lesson contains a listening, writing, reading and creative arts activity. Students will be creating their own alphabet books throughout the unit. The students, teachers, and parents will work together through activities to add alphabet letters and words to the book pages each week. Students will be expected to review the alphabet letters each to reinforce the learning of previous lessons . Students will learn a specific alphabet song as a way of remembering the sounds and alphabet letters. One last assessment will be given to the student at the end of the project to assess their acquired alphabet knowledge.
v Erica Lindsey
Fractions – Teaching Students Now
The purpose of this curriculum project is to present ideas to help teach fractions to elementary students. To some children, mathematics can be a hard concept to learn. This particular project is designed for a fifth grade mathematics classroom. It is based on a literature review of current research pertaining to the mathematical concept of fractions using a variety of operations. Within this project, there is a curriculum map, and a 15-day unit lesson which is all designed to help teach and assess fractions. All lessons are based according to New York State Common Core Learning Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards. When planning this project it was very important to me that students were given the opportunity of adequate time to think through their problem solving strategies and to explain their thinking. Not all students learn at the same pace, so teachers need to be patient, supportive and consistent in their teachings. The objective of this curriculum project was to help students to be able to identify how fractions are used in everyday real-life situations, be able to compute them and be able to transfer that knowledge back. I hope you find this curriculum project of great use.
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
~ Dr. Maria Montessori ~
v Zachary Stewart
http://zachsfirst.wordpress.com
This Cross Curricular Project now contains lessons, activities, assessment rubrics and curriculum maps for ELA, Math, Science and Art all with a overarching theme of Ancient Egypt. All lessons were designed to utilize the New York State Common Core Curriculum Standards. When creating these lessons a project based approach was kept in mind. At the end of each two week unit all students are expected to give presentation of the materials that they worked on or created over the course of the unit be it Math, ELA, Science or Art. These presentations should serve as a culminating event one in which the students showcase the materials that they worked on. The culminating events for ELA are a book report on a chosen book about Ancient Egypt and a presentation of a research paper on a chosen Pharaoh. The culminating event for Math is a presentation of two model pyramids created that represent real world pyramids. These pyramids should be accurately measured and expressed in ratios. These measurements should also be utilized to calculate the surface area and volume of the pyramid.
In the science unit a presentation of an experiment designed by the student to test a hypothesis regarding some aspect of Ancient Egypt should be presented at the conclusion these lessons. These hypothesis and experiments could take the form of testing to see what agent best mummifies a chosen sample material, how long a chosen material takes to mummify, what flooding did to the areas around the Nile River, how simple machines worked or helped Ancient Egyptians or some other student chosen investigation. Finally the five days of Art plans call for the creation of a art project that emulates or reflects some aspect of Ancient Egyptian art. Because many of these projects are student centered they can go in many directions allowing students to learn at their own rate and work at their own level. I hope that this Cross Curricular Project can be a source of ideas and materials for anyone interested in using Ancient Egypt as a theme for multiple curricular units.