Brief Description

Students will choose a topic from a teacher created list of topics specific to each Spanish-speaking country of Central and South America.   Students will then research these topics and create a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish to present and summarize the information they found.  The teacher will then post their presentations on a web page entitled Viaje por Centroamérica y Suramérica. The teacher will create this web page using Netscape Composer, Front Page or any other web page making software available. The teacher will invite other teachers in the district/region to send their student work to be posted on this 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

• 3 FL-P2.  Present a research project orally or publish it in writing or in a video
• 5 FL-P3. Use a variety of authentic sources in the target language to prepare reports for other content subject areas
• 7 FL-P1  Students use Spanish within and beyond the school setting.

Academic

• Students will research and create a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish about a specific topic from a country specific list according to the rubric given.
• Students will post their presentation on the teacher created website (Viaje por Centroamérica y Suramérica).
• The teacher will seek other teachers to post their student work on the web page.

• Students will research the internet and other sources to create a PowerPoint presentation.
• The teacher will create a website to post the student work.

Students will need to be able to research on the web.  They will need to be able to create a PowerPoint presentation which they save to a disk or CD.  The teacher will need access to software program that will enable the building of a website for posting student work.

Materials

Computer access with internet capability
Floppy disks or CD
Scanner for pictures or maps

Accommodations for Special Needs

Special Ed students may do this project in pairs.  Teacher may provide print media information specific to the topic they are researching.  The teacher may require 3 sources instead of 5 sources for the information.

Gifted students will be asked to offer a conclusion in which the student explains why the person or event was important to the history and development of the target country.  They can offer opinions as to what might have changed in the course of events if that person or event had not occurred.

SEI students who are Spanish-speaking will have an advantage in doing the research and writing part of this project because they can more easily access information in Spanish language articles and, of course, in the writing process.  Special teacher monitoring may be necessary for the PowerPoint creation itself.

Procedures

1. The teacher needs to first create the list of topics specific to the desired target country.  Topics need to be outstanding people or events in the course of the history and development of that country.
2. The teacher needs to create the documentation to pace the students in this task.   For example, the bibliography documentation in the research stage should require the student to write in the topic and the time period.  On this document the teacher should list the suggested places to go for the research, like periodical indices, encyclopedia, etc.  Also, the teacher should provide a model for writing bibliographical material for an article, a book and for an electronic source. For example:  Author, John.  The Life of Dr. Pedro Albizú Campos.  Publisher.  City, Year, pages. This document will require 5 sources consulted. The teacher needs to determine  how many points this stage is worth and print it on the document along with the due date. The next document will require the students to summarize the information they have found.  The teacher will need to determine a due date and how many  points this stage of the process should be worth. The final document will indicate to the teacher that the PowerPoint presentation has been created and is ready for teacher review.
3. The teacher needs to make the necessary arrangements to bring the class to library to begin the research and fill in the bibliography document.  The research stage usually takes two class periods.
4. The teacher makes the arrangements to bring the class to the computer lab for several days.  The summarizing/writing stage usually takes 2 to 4 class periods, depending on the abilities of the students.  Spanish-English dictionaries will aid this process.  The summarizing document will be required  at the end of this process. Again, the teacher will determine how many points the summarizing document is worth. The students will create their PowerPoint presentations using their summaries and adding any pictures, maps or visuals that they may find on the internet or have scanned on to a disk to add to the instructional attractiveness of the lesson.  The final document inviting teacher review will be required at the end of this time period. The teacher should also determine how many points this stage of the process is worth.
5. The teacher will solicit the written parent /guardian permission to publish the student work on the teacher website.
6. The teacher will assist the students in editing the PowerPoint presentation.
7. The teacher will post the finished PowerPoint presentations on the teacher created website.  The teacher must take care to post the presentations as “slide shows” so that no one can tamper with the student work.
8. The teacher will invite other teachers in the school, district or region to send similar student presentations in Spanish for posting on the website.

• The assessment of the student project will be based on a rubric for final product and on the documentation which paced the students in this process.
• The assessment of the teacher web page will be based on the success in creating the website for posting the student work.