Brief Description

This lesson is designed for kindergarten students to develop safety and responsibility rules for computer use.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 2T-R1.  Work cooperatively and collaboratively when using technology in the classroom.

• VP-R3. Create visual representations of personal experiences through media such as drawing, painting, acting and puppeteering.

Academic

Students will develop a set of rules that will serve as guidelines for classroom computer use.

Technological

After developing guidelines, students will use MS Word and clipart to illustrate these rules.

Pre-Requisite Technology Skills

None

Materials

• Classroom computer with a projection device
• Microsoft Word
• Clipart files loaded or on available CD-ROM
• Printer

This project is a teacher guided lesson.  Students will be working in a large group with opportunities for small group interactions.  This should balance the needs of the classroom.  Gifted students could be asked to illustrate their own set of rules for the class.

Procedures

Day 1 (20 minutes)

1.  Gather students on the rug.  Explain to them you need their help in deciding what rules and procedures you should have for using the classroom computer.  Tell them you will come up with the rules together and then will make signs for the computer area.
2.  Have children brainstorm ideas with each other for about 2 – 3 minutes.  Record the class ideas on chart paper.  Ask students to explain their ideas.  What is the reason they think they should have certain rules?
3.  If needed, guide them towards any rules you feel are necessary that they are not reaching on their own.
4.  After the class has developed a substantial list, go back and review the list with the class.  Ask them if they think there are any rules that need to be removed or changed.  Ask if there are any rules that are the same and need to be removed.
5.  Have students vote on the top 5 rules that are most important.

1.  Explain to students that today you are going to take the rules they created yesterday and make them into signs for the computer area.
2.  Open MS Word on a computer attached to a projection device.  Go through the steps you use to get to a new document.  Ask the kids to tell you the first rule.  If you have children who can come up and type in the rule then do that.  Otherwise, the teacher may type in the rule.  For example, do not bang on the keyboard.  Other possible rules: leave computer mouse and headphones in correct place, raise your hand if you need help, do not eat or drink near the computer.
3.  Explain to the class that you are going to add a picture to the rule to make sure everyone understands the rule.  Demonstrate how you insert a picture with clip art.
4.  Have the students decide what type of picture you should insert.  Ask them to think about what type of picture would make people understand this rule?
5.  Show them how to search through the clip art files using the search command.  Show them the choices and have them vote on which picture to insert.
6.  Continue the above procedure for the rest of the rules.
7.  Print out the signs and ask the children to help you hang them up.

The assessment for this lesson is class participation only.  The teacher will try to ensure that each student participates in the design of this lesson by calling on everyone in the group for their input at least once.

Teacher Name: Karen Gutierrez
Site: Keeling
Date Submitted: May 2, 2003