Web 2.0 Unit for Middle School

[Kelly Farrow]

Hello, teachers! Ryan Goble and I worked collaboratively to develop a
new unit this year for 6th grade that was focused around 2 main topics:
literary genres (the content of the unit) and Web 2.0 apps (the product
they created). It was an ambitious project that spanned about 8 weeks
(with about 45 min. of instruction per week). As a library teacher, I
only see the kids once a week, so if you were a classroom teacher doing
this unit, you could complete it much more quickly. I also believe this
unit would work well with 7th or 8th grade.

This project came about b/c I wanted to create a unit that would force
the kids to figure out a program or app entirely on their own. I was
very disappointed with how much hand-holding they need with pretty much
every tech project we do, so I wanted something where even I wasn't
familiar with the apps they were using, so just asking me for help
wasn't an option! (Of course I familiarized myself to some extent with
each app, but I didn't tell them that!) They would have to work as a
team, read whatever resources the app creators gave to explain how to
use the app, and basically just use trial and error.

I’ve attached 3 documents that we used: the main handout explaining the
entire assignment, a list of the web apps we used (with varying
degrees of success), and the criteria we expected of them in the Word
document part of the project.

Here are some EXCELLENT finished products from two of our groups. The
final project was a group assignment; they’d been assigned a Web 2.0
app and a genre earlier in the unit. After researching the genre
throughout the unit, they had to meet certain standards in their Web
app, such as 3 facts about the genre and at least 1 example.

An Xtranormal movie:  http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6457159/

A Zimmer Twins movie:  http://www.zimmertwins.com/node/969672

NOTES AND POINTERS:
-I gave the kids a lot of leeway in their final presentation b/c many
of them had difficulty saving in these apps. I don’t know if that’s b/c
we’re a Mac district and some of these apps don’t play nicely w/ Macs
or if they just didn’t save properly. If they had major problems, I let
them present their facts/examples orally and tell us what had happened
with their apps.

-Before beginning this unit, I’d spent a lot of time exploring possible
apps and choosing what I believed to be the best ones for our purposes.
I also created accounts for each one in advance (with names like
fairmountstudents and passwords like fairmount2010).

-We tried mixed-ability groups. Some groups were better than others at
including kids with special needs. One kid with special needs just
didn’t work well w/ his group at all, so we had to come up w/ an
alternative assignment for him. You’d want to be better prepared for
this than I was! Overall, however, this assignment almost
differentiates itself. Certain kids who are more able with the
technology may take on roles of entering the data and figuring out how
to overcome challenges with the apps, while those more skilled in
writing content will take that on, and other kids will be the idea
generators.


If you have any questions about this unit or any of its particulars,
please do let me know. I look forward to doing this unit again and
really working out some of the bugs next year!

-Kelly Farrow
LRC Director
Downers Grove, IL

[Helen]

The videos are great! Love the xtranormal one, and will pass this on to our literacy group.

[Andrea Haws]

This is a great lesson and explanation! I like how there are many tech options for students to explore and try!

Andrea
7th Grade Core Teacher
San Ramon, CA

[Annie Vickery]

The list of apps can't be opened - I don't have compatible software. Can it be posted in another software? Thanks!

[Kelly Farrow]

Thanks for letting me know, Annie. They're just run-of-the-mill Word documents; do you not run Windows on your computer? If not, if you feel comfortable sending me your e-mail (contact me at [e-mail]), I can just send you the text of those docs.

[Shirley Miller]

Hi Kelly,

First I'd like to say thank you for sharing your project! It looks interesting to me. I like to give my students choice in their projects/final products and this seems to fit the bill. I cannot open the "list of apps." What program did you use?
Thanks again for being willing to share what you've done. ~Shirley

[Kelly Farrow]

Thanks so much for the kind words. It was a great unit! You're not the only one who's had issues opening that file. I can't imagine what the problem is, but here it is again in a .txt file. Hope that works for everyone!