Showing posts with label SIR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SIR. Show all posts

Friday, October 8, 2010

October 12, 2010

1. Bell-Ringer:
a. Work on the handout about some internet vocabulary words.
b. Work on the handout about the CelebrityQuest Assignment. Fill in the names of three celebrities you'd like to learn more about.

2.  Introduction to our class blog:  Look through this blog.
          We have assigned seating for classroom and for the computer lab (computer lab for when you will not be working in pairs).
3.  Introduction to reading the internet and our internet assignment.
      Learning from  BBC
Bring your thumb drive on October 18 and October 20.  Bring it to class every time.

Today we will learn about searching the Internet using an interactive tutorial at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/course
Go to the above web address (URL) and then  
click on START
then click on 06 Searching 




          Do each guide followed by its quiz
then do the Weakest Link quiz,  

and if you have time play with the other games.


4. Internet project: Celebrity Webquest   Link to our blog about the webquest: http://afcelebritywebquest.blogspot.com/
Look through the assignment to get acquainted with what you will need to do. 

To select a celebrity, you will fill out this document: WebQuest Assignment Work-Sheet compatibleQ2.doc



Why this project?  Internet Literacy is  an important part of  our modern world.  We are practicing reading strategies while gathering knowledge and skills for doing research online and off.

______________________________________If you have time, read the information below.
Internet and other computer vocabulary
Thanks to Oprah:  http://oprahgoesonline.blackhammer.com/glossary/glossary_pop.html

URL
Simply put, a Web page's address. In the alphabet soup that is Internet-ese, URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Just as every person on the Net has a unique e-mail address, every file and page on the Web has a unique URL. You can see the URL for the Web page you're on in that thin white horizontal box at the top of your browser. The first part of the URL (http) tells the browser it's looking for a Web page written (most likely) in HTML. The rest gives the name of the computer, then the directory that holds the page, and last but not least, the name of the file that makes up that particular Web page. (The file name typically ends with the .html or .htm suffix, which tells you and your computer it's an HTML file.) You can instantly swing over to any page on the Web by typing the page's URL into the white box and hitting the "Return" key.


Domain
The last two parts of an Internet address. Just as file extensions (such as .gif for GIF files) give some indication of what kind of file it is, the suffix at the end of an Internet site's domain name tells what kind of site it is. For example, .com means it's a commercial site, while other common ones include .edu, for educational institutions, .gov for government, .org for organizations and .org, for non-profit sites. For sites based outside the U.S., there are many others; .ca means the site originates in Canada, .au means the server's in Australia, while .uk means it comes from, well, you know.


Search engine
Your tireless cyber bloodhounds are your guides to the Web. The term search engine is usually used to include three different types of guides: true search engines, directories, and search agents. A "true" search engine uses a program (sometimes called a spider) to search the Internet for information and collate it in a database. A directory (Yahoo, for example) uses a database too, but the information in the database is researched by people, not programs. And an agent (Metacrawler) searches existing databases. There are also specialist directories and agents that search only shopping sites, for example.


About Primary and Secondary Sources (These are lesson materials for teachers, but reading through them gives you a good understanding about the difference between primary and secondary sources.)
http://www.cgrove417.org/cghs/KASL/sources.html

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October 8, 2010



to Ms. Dorsey's part of your Reading 7 class!

We want to create a great door for Red Ribbon Week.  
Here's the information I received: We will be doing a door decoration contest with your B-2 class.  They can start decorating this week and the judging will be done on Oct 12th.  The 3 top doors will win a prize for the class.  They can decorate before school, CAVETIME, or after school.  We do have the late bus on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 4:00pm. that your students can use if they stay after to decorate.


Today's activities:
1. (B2 only) Bell-Ringer:  Ideas for the door for Ribbon Week.
2. Read articles from the internet and notice your inner voices.  
3. Supported Individual Reading Time
4. Fluency Practice
5. (B2 only) Work on the door

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September 3, 2010

September 3, 2010

If you didn't sign up for your celebrity, please do it as soon as possible.  Please check Skyward for my records of who is doing which celebrity.  Some of you still need to select a celebrity, or select a different one. 

1. Bell-Ringer:  Read the article about" Dad's Bionic Hand" (found on the Internet),  noticing your inner voices:  conversational (What's the conversation?) or  Waste-of-Time?

Interesting article:  Dad's Bionic Hand!   Dad's Bionic Hand Handout


2. Students were introduced to their major project for the term.  
The project may be found at http://celebrityquest.webs.com/


I have made some adaptations, including point values for grading.

The instructions are  available here:
Reading 7 WebQuest Assignment Instructions.docx
or 
Reading 7 WebQuest Assignment Instructions compatible.doc

For those who do not have access to the Internet  at home, copies of the assignment instructions are available in class.

Today the students received a worksheet to get started.  If you need a copy, you may upload it from either of these: 


WebQuest Assignment Work-Sheet.docx
or 
WebQuest Assignment Work-Sheet compatible.doc

The completed project is due by  September 28.  We will be in the computer lab to do research on two days, and will have one day to put together the  PowerPoint Presentations.  Once you have sufficient understanding of what we are doing, you are welcome to also work on this at home.



3. Students did Independent Reading and we continued individual testing.

Monday, August 30, 2010

September 1, 2010

1. We went to the computer lab to take a survey for class. 


If you weren't here, you nay take the surveys at  
and 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J6ZSQ5D
 
  1. Click on the link for the first survey.
  2. Make sure you type your name and period information in the box at the top of the page.
  3. Answer each question only in the first column.  (Do not mark in any other column.)
  4. When you are finished click on “Done.”
  5. Go back to cavereading.blogspot.com and click on  the other survey, following the same directions.

 
2. We read/listened to an article about "phonagnosia" at
 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128412201&sc=fb&cc=fp

3. We learned about noticing our inner voices as we read.  Students  read an article about  Truth in Research and noticed (and wrote about) their inner voices as they read. 
A Conversational voice interacts with the story.  It is a Useful voice when you are trying to read.  A Waste-of-Time Voice is Fake Reading and is going on when you are not really reading, but are thinking about different things.   See Stop #1 in the article below.

4. Students did Independent Reading and we continued individual testing. (in B2)

For #3 -- Article for Truth in Research: 

SIRS Discoverer ® on the Web
Copyright © 2010 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.
Read
(Vol. 59, No. 3)
Oct 2, 2009, pp. 30-31

Copyright © Weekly Reader Corporation. Oct 2, 2009. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Truth in Research

By Craig Nadler

• How to find the facts you need online
You've just been assigned a research project. You have the deadline and the topic. What's next? That's right--the research! Although it may seem daunting at first, thorough investigation into a topic can make or break your project. In the 21st century, we often head straight to the computer to begin our research online, where there are literally millions of places to cruise to for information. But while the Internet provides a fast and easy medium through which to gather data, you should always use caution when maneuvering along the electronic information superhighway. Anyone can publish a Web page, and there's no one policing cyberspace to verify that the content is the truth.

Take time to examine each site with care. Remember that Web pages are susceptible to change, and they can move or disappear without warning. Print out any pages that contribute to your research in order to ensure that your bibliography is complete and accurate. You can also call on the help of librarians, who can guide you to trusted research sites.
Stop #1  Stop reading and notice what your mind has been doing as you read.  Has it been paying attention or wandering?  Were you using any strategies to focus or to help yourself understand?  Be honest.  Minds wander.  It will help you if you can notice what's going on in your own thinking.  Write down a couple of sentences about what was going on in your mind as you read the first part.  Do the same for the other three parts of this article. 

I recently came across an article on the Web that claimed a man named John Hanson was the first president of the United States. Hanson had been the first president of Congress in 1781, but could he really be considered the first president of the United States? I thought, "I really need to check out this source?" I used an online research checklist to analyze the credibility of the article. I looked beyond the text to see whether the site's information was reliable. Here's what I discovered.

Content with the content?

As I read the article that defended John Hanson as the first president of the United States, I kept an eye out for citations or hyperlinks in the text that supported the information provided. There were none. I also took note of opinion words, such as definitely, which took away from the serious tone of the article: "George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United States."

Who has the right to write?

After reading the article, I scanned the page for the author's name. The piece was an excerpt from a book. This excerpt's Web site was not controlled by George Grant, who penned the original piece the site referenced. I knew I had to be careful because I didn't have the original source in front of me.
Stop #2

Purpose shmurpose

The Web site--www.marshallhall.org--where I found the article was "[dedicated to the Preservation and Restoration of Historic Marshall Hall in Charles County, Maryland." What exactly does that have to do with the first president of the United States? It didn't seem that my goal matched the site's goal. I needed to rethink its reliability.

Who's in charge?

I could not find any contact information for the Web site's director, a mysterious Peggy Marshall. No information about her life or credentials is provided!

Link me where?

I checked out the provided links, but none of them steered me toward information about the identity of the first president. They were either dead or irrelevant to my topic.

After some online digging, it was clear that this site was not a reliable source of information. It failed too many points on the checklist. I wasn't going to trust this source.
Stop #3

Vocab

SUSCEPTIBLE: subject to some influence

CREDENTIALS: evidence of authority or status

Check a Web Site's Credibility

• AUTHOR: Search for the author's name somewhere on the Web site. Look for a link to his or her home page. Maybe you can find a biography or a list of credentials.

• PURPOSE: Find the goals of the site or the motives behind its creation.

• ACCURACY: Try to verify the material on the page, either with your own knowledge or with alternate sources. Look for primary sources--letters, records, or other documents created during the period that is being studied. Also, check the site for grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors.

• OBJECTIVITY: Try to find the author's point of view, and determine whether the Web site is fact (supported by other sources) or opinion (uses emotion-rousing words).

• CURRENTNESS: Find out when the page was last updated to ensure that its material is current.
• LINKS: Check out the links provided to see whether they are current and relevant to your research.

Stop #4

Great site for showing how some sites can be unreliable: 
http://allaboutexplorers.com/home
For instance, read about Lewis and Clark.  Can you believe it?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

August 30, 2010

August 30, 2010
 

1. Bell-Ringer/Roll:  

Can You Believe Everything You Read?

Students read an article and answer questions.

2. Computer Lab  --  IN CLASS you will come to this blog post, then take the survey at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F9752TD  
Oops!  The survey didn't work.  We teachers will tweak it and try again next time.

3. We discussed the article about believing everything we read. 

4.  Supported Independent Reading time and Reading Assessments


Next time: Reading information from the Internet:  Do you have phonagnosia?