Brief Description

In this lesson, students will be creating a “photo essay” depicting their experiences at the Grand Canyon. (A similar type of field trip can be done.)  They will do this by placing photos of class activities placed into Power Point, adding summaries of the lesson, and then they will find music that is free public domain.  This lesson can be done as a yearlong project that would result in a great classroom memory, or it can also be a one-experience lesson.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 1T-E2. Demonstrate increasingly sophisticated operation of technology components
• 1T-E3. When a system is not working properly, demonstrate an understanding ofnhardware, software and connectivity problem solving processes
• 2T-E1. Discuss basic issues related to responsible use of technology and information and describe personal consequences of inappropriate use
• 2T-E2. Exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using technology and information and discuss consequences of misuse
• 3T-E1. Use formatting capabilities of technology tools for communicating and illustrating
• 3T-E3. Publish and present information using technology tools
• 3T-E4. Use technology tools to support system analysis and modeling

• 2SC-E6. Demonstrate how Science is an ongoing process of gathering and evaluating information, assessing evidence for and against theories and hypotheses, looking for patterns, and then devising and testing possible explanations.
• 6SC-E3. Describe the composition (including the formation of minerals, rocks and soil) and the structure of the earth
• 6SC-E4. Provide evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed
• 6SC-E5. Explain how earth processes seen today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past
• 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-E2. Write a personal experience narrative or creative story that includes a plot and shows the reader what happens through well-developed characters, setting, dialog, and themes and uses figurative language, descriptive words and phrases
• W-E4. Write an expository essay that contains effective introductory and summary statements and fully develops the ideas with details, facts, examples and descriptions

Academic

Students will:

• Evaluate the information that they have gained during this fieldtrip and present it in a personal narrative.  The essay will follow the requirements presented in the Six Traits of Writing.
• Evaluate the scientific knowledge gained throughout the adventure
• Describe the composition of the Earth as taught at the Grand Canyon
• Explain how the Earth’s processes shaped the natural wonders visited along the journey.

Students will:

• Demonstrate their ability to use Power Point
• Create a slide show that depicts their learning during our Grand Canyon adventure.
• Select music that is free domain to accompany their slide show
• Insert photos, music, and apply custom animation to each slide in the show

• Knowledge of Power Point
• Ability to insert information into Power Point or another slide show program
• Understanding of copyright issues
• Some ability to troubleshoot

• Photos on a disc or CD Rom
• Computer with CD Rom writer abilities as well as Microsoft products or similar programs
• Music that is free public domain (Gary Lamb)

Students who are not very computer literate should be paired with students who are patient and willing to teach while they learn. They should be required to go through each of the processes for the project.

REACH students will love the creativity involved in this; especially if they are verbal/linguistic learners.  Adding more to their slide show from Internet sources can also challenge them.

SEI Students can be paired with another student and write their narrative together.  They can share in the typing and animation of the slide show.

ADD/ADHD students will need to have this project broken down into steps for them.  They will do better with a few steps at a time.  They may want to record their essay and play it back using headphones as they type.

Special Ed students- having the pictures inserted into the Power Point before any of the writing takes place will really help these students to organize their thoughts about the trip.  Pairing those who have difficulty writing and having their buddy work with them can help as well. Possibly these students can create an Inspiration web to help organize their thoughts.

Procedures

http://www.pdinfo.com Public domain music site

Preparation:

1. Decide if you want this activity to be done in a lab setting or on one computer.
2. Have photo discs prepared for either situation as well as music that is public domain – meaning that you will need to find songs that are free to use.
3. Whatever your adventure may be, have web addresses available for students to find information they need.  In this lesson, we used various sites related to the Grand Canyon.
4. Day 1 – Teach your students how to insert the photos and set them into a Power Point.
a. When you open Power Point, you will have a slide already set up to work on, make this your title page.
b. First, insert a new slide by going to insert at the top of the screen and then clicking on insert new slide.  A prompt will come up asking you to choose a slide layout.  Choose whichever layout you like; keeping in mind that you will be inserting a photo.
c. Next, insert a photo by going to insert at the top of the screen and then click on insert photo from file.  You will have to select the disc drive, or CD Rom drive (which ever your pictures are on.) Now, select the photo you would like to insert into the slide.
d. Now it is time to size the photo and place it where you would like on the slide.  To move the photo, click on it and then move it where you want.  To resize the photo, click on the corner and slide the mouse to make the photo larger or smaller.  It is important to resize the photo using only the corner so that the picture doesn’t become distorted.
e. Repeat steps b-d until all of the photos are entered.
f. Save your work!
5. Day 2 and 3 – Now it is time to add in the text.  Remind students that too much text in a slide show is difficult to read. To remedy this problem, they can always add slides by following the directions in day one and then add more information to the slide chosen.
a. When adding text, you want to make sure that your students tell a story about their pictures.  They should focus on the six traits of writing.  Some students have difficulty actually typing into Power Point.  Permit them to use Word and then copy and paste their story into their slide show.
b. Give students criteria for writing: for example, on this project, my students had to have at least 3 connections to classroom learning, 3 facts that were science related, 3 facts that were history related, and they had to meet at least a level 4 on the 6 traits of writing.
c. As your students write, monitor them to see that they are spending time just adding text.
d. Save your work.
6. Day 4 – Today you will adjust the text by changing the font size and color. Some of the text will blend into the photos and be difficult to read – other parts of the slide show may be too small to read.  You will also animate the text,
a. To change the font, highlight the selection you would like to change, and then right click on it.  Now, select font.  At this point, you can change the type of font, the color and the size.
b. Once your text is adjusted to your liking, it is time to animate it. To do this, start on your first slide. You can navigate through your slide show by scrolling on the left or right side and you can also use the arrow keys.
c. Now that you are on your first slide, you will choose slide show from the menu at the top – now go to custom animation. Here you will choose the effects tab.  In the box above, select your text.  Now there is an arrow near the effects tab, select that arrow to choose what you want your words to do.  You can adjust the way the words move by clicking all at once or word-by-word etc.
d. Now, click the preview button to see if you like what the words do.  You may find that students choose disappear, or flash – these options will not allow the viewer to read the slide show.  This will have to be adjusted by following the steps above.
e. Continue to animate the words on each slide.  Remind students not to use the sounds because they are going to insert a song.
f. Save your work.
7. Day 5 – Today you will add a song to your show and as well as transitions and timing.
a. First, take your selected music and insert it into your show.  To do this, put the music in the computer. (I am assuming you have music on a disc.)
b. Now select Insert from the menu bar. Select movies and sounds.  Now select sound from file.  Choose the location of your music and insert it into your show.  A message will appear and you can select yes.
c. Know how many slides are in your show.  Now select slide show from the menu bar and go to custom animation.  Here you will select multi media settings tab.  Now, click on your music select continue through slide show and after __ slides – enter in the number of slides in your show.  Next, select other options and then select loop until finished.
d. Now your timing and transitions need to be set. Select slide show from the menu. Go down to transitions.  A box will appear that will allow you to select fast or slow transitions – choose what you wish.  Next you must apply this to all slides. Select OK.
e. Now you will use the same menu option to add timing into your Power Point.  This time, you will check the box that says to time the show automatically.  Write a number into the box that automatically after.  Choose a time interval that you think will work for your show. Then click apply to all.  You can always go back and change the timing for individual slides by going through the process above and choosing apply instead of apply to all.  By doing this, you can give the viewer more time to read the text on specific slides.
8. Day 6 – View each other’s slide shows.

See attached rubric.  Your assessment should be taking place over each day as well as on the final project.

Teacher Name: Niki Tilicki
Site: Wilson K-8
Date Submitted: November 19, 2003