Brief Description

Using the library print resources and Internet resources, students will research and write a report in Spanish about a person, event or economic product important to the history and development of Puerto Rico.  Using this report as a basic resource, students will create a PowerPoint presentation highlighting and summarizing the importance of a particular person, event or economic product important to the history and development of Puerto Rico.  These PowerPoint presentations will be published on the teacher’s web page.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 3T-P1. Communicate to a variety of audiences using professional level technology tools
• 3T-P3. Use technology tools to publish and present information with interactive features
• 4T-P1. Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration and communications

• Standard 2: Students will engage in oral and written exchanges which include providing and obtaining information, expressig feelings and preferences, and exchanging ideas and opinions in  the target language.
• Standard 3: Students present information and ideas in the target language on a variety of topics to listeners and readers.
• Standard 5: Students use the target language and athletic sources to reinforce and/or learn other content from the other subject areas.
• Standard 7: Students use the target language within and beyond the school setting.

Academic

• Using the data collected from print and Internet resources and assembled in their two page report in Spanish, students will highlight and summarize their information in a PowerPoint presentation which will be posted on a teacher web page. Students need to produce a presentation with an attractive format that enhances it.  The information will be well-organized and enhanced by symbol or picture pertaining to the topic as outlined in the rubric provided.

• Students create a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish, including pictures, maps and other pertinent graphics from the Internet. They will demonstrate skills like, choosing an attractive format, copying and pasting information (from the report) as well as copying and inserting creative and meaningful symbols, pictures, maps or graphs from the Internet.

Students need to have collected data and Internet photos or visuals pertinent to their topic and to have written a report in Spanish using these. The students also need to know how to create a PowerPoint presentation by copying and pasting the desired information from the paper they have written and to arrange it in a logical yet visually attractive fashion.

Materials

Students will need access to print media, Internet search engines and the paper that they have developed in Spanish from these sources and saved to floppy disk.  Students will then need access to the PowerPoint program that will allow them to create a presentation based on these materials.

Accommodations for Special Needs

SEI students may need to access sites written in their target language or may need assistance in reading and interpreting articles and sites written in English. They may benefit by working in pairs to accomplish this task.

The ADD/ADHD students will be given a shortened list of criteria to research and help in assembling their information in a logical fashion.  They will also need more direction in the translating process.

Special Education students will be given a shortened list of criteria to research and help in assembling their information in a logical fashion. They will also need more direction in the translating process.

The Gifted students will be asked to write a conclusion in which they present and defend a judgment or opinion as to the importance of their topic in the history and development of Puerto Rico.

Procedures

Students will choose a topic from a list of names, places or economic products that are part of the Puerto Rican story that the teacher has assembled. Then the students will spend time in the school library using the periodical indices, the encyclopedia, Who’s Who, Current Biography and other reference materials as well as books that may be available on the student’s topic. They may also use Internet search engines such as google.com, infoplease.com, etc. They may not use Internet sources exclusively. They must have at least one print media source. The must students document their bibliographical data on a bibliography document provided  that  contains the correct format information for writing bibliographical information.  The students must turn this in at the end of their library research time. Usually this requires more than one class period in the library.

Armed with their information the students then begin to write their reports in the computer lab using Word and saving to disks. Before printing their papers the teacher will edit or have them peer edit the Spanish to eliminate gross errors and make sure the students have said what they mean to say.  It usually takes at least three class periods in the computer lab to accomplish this.

Using the disk that now contains the finished paper, the students will go back to the computer lab to create the PowerPoint presentation.  The rubric will help assist the students on how their presentation will be graded. For example, they need to choose an attractive but not distracting format for their presentation and to copy and paste the important information from the paper on their disk.  The information should be organized. Students should further enhance their presentations by inserting pertinent photos, maps or symbols to make them interesting as well as informative. Lastly, they need to include their bibliography to document their sources.

The next step is to create the links on the teacher’s web page that will connect to individual student presentations. This can be accomplished by first creating a link to a page which contains the list of topics and their student authors. Each of those topics must be linked to an html copy of the presentation. The teacher will also need to document parent/guardian permission to publish their student’s work on the web.   You can see a sample at my web page http://www.amphi.com/~gdiazpet

The rubric, which the student will use to create their PowerPoint presentations, is the basis for the assessment of their product.