Brief Description

Students will join the “Grandmother and Me” project to celebrate stories from around the world on the Web about their own grandmothers. The teacher will register the class on Kidlink’s KidSpace. Each member of the class will write a narrative about their grandmother that answers the following questions: (1) What is the best advice that your grandmother ever gave you? (2) Did you follow the advice? (3) What piece of advice do you think you will give to your grandchild when you are a grandparent? From these narratives the class will select responses and compile a collaborative document to be posted on Kidlink’s KidSpace.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 3T-E1. Use formatting capabilities of technology tools for communicating and illustrating
• 4T-E2. Use technology tools for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create curricular related products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
• 4T-E3. collaboratively use telecommunications and online resources

• 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 that includes a plot an shows the reader what happens through well-developed characters, setting, dialog, and themes and uses figurative language descriptive words and phrases.
• 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 accurately record in their journals a sentence containing the best advice their grandmother gave them.
• Students will accurately record in their journals several sentences stating whether they followed their grandmother’s advice answering why or why not.
• Students will accurately record in their journals several sentences answering the question: “What piece of advice do you think you will give to your grandchild when you are a grandparent?”
• Students will effectively write a narrative on their grandmother and the best advice she ever gave them. Included in the narrative will be whether the advice was followed and future advice the writer would give to their grandchildren.

• Students will accurately place a collaborative essay on Kidlink’s KidSpace website.

• Students must have the ability to locate a website by using a URL address.
• Students must be able to navigate through a website to locate specific information.

• Students will need journals to record responses to grandmother advice questions.
• Students will need the classroom materials for writing.

Gifted students will assemble the class narratives and write a final collaborative summary to be posted on the website.

Special needs students will record the three journal entries. They will write a reflective paragraph on the circumstances surrounding the best advice their grandmother gave them.

Procedures

Step #1: In class introduce the website “Grandmother& Me.” http://www.eduplace.com/projects/grandmother.html Show and discuss the book Friends On-Line  by Carla Hurchalla that inspired the “Grandmother& Me” project.

Step #2: Take your students to the computer lab and have them explore the site “Grandmother& Me." Have students record in their journals at least 10 entries they especially like. Only two of these should be from the United States.

Step #3: In class have your students record in their journals answers to three separate entries:

 (1) What was the best advice that your grandmother ever gave you?
 (2) Did you follow the advice?
 (3) What piece of advice do you think you will give to your grandchild when you  are a grandparent?

Step #5: Have students complete their rough draft. Pair the students and have them peer-edit the stories.

Step #6: Students should next complete their final drafts and submit to the teacher. The teacher should select the highest quality narratives for oral reading.

Step # 7: Provide class time for students to read the selected narratives.

Step # 8: The teacher should select students to compile the narratives into a final product to be submitted to Kidslink Kidspace.

Step #9: Go to Kidslink Kidspace to join as a class and be able to submit the product. http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPRO/grandmother/join.html.

Step #10: Submit the product for publishing.

Assessment

This assignment will be assessed using a rubric.