Brief Description

Sixth grade students will write an essay in which they compare and contrast  two of the  following time periods: Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages. The final paragraph must evaluate the two cultures in regards to which culture the author would choose to travel back in time to visit.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

1T-E1. Communicate about technology using developmentally appropriate and accurate terminology.
1T-E2. Demonstrate increasingly sophisticated operation of technology components

W-E1.Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage, along with varied sentence structure and paragraph organization, to complete effectively a variety of writing tasks
W-E3.Write a summary that presents information clearly and accurately, contains the most significant details and preserves the position of the author

Academic

• Students will write an essay comparing and contrasting two different cultures.

• Students will word process the final document.

• None

Six Traits Rubric
Rough draft of essay
Time travel web sites

Accommodations for Special Needs

Extra time

Procedures

The teacher will determine an adequate amount of time needed for students to take notes regarding their two different cultures. The teacher may choose to limit the number of topics (form of governement, culture, sports, clothing, hairstyles, etc.) on which the students take notes.

The teacher will model a compare/contrast paragraph. Students might write a practice compare/contrast essay comparing a specific area (cafeteria food, after school sports, dances) of 5th grade with a specific area of 6th grade.

When the students have their essay in final rough draft form, they are ready to word process it on the computer.

Since many sixth graders come to school with a knowledge of word processing skills, the teacher will already have knowledge of who has these skills and who still needs to learn basic word processing.  The students with established word processing knowledge may begin while the rest of the class has a mini-lesson on word processing. After the mini-lesson, beginning typists will sit beside those students with established skills.

• Academic: Did the students write an esssay comparing and contrasting two different cultures?  If so, assess it according to the Six Traits Rubric. If this is their first paper of the year, this is baseline data.  If it is not their first paper, there should be evidence of growth according to the Six Traits.
• Technological: Did the students word process their document?????