Webquests - a great adventure

I created a webquest about ancient Greeks to follow up on my concept map from the last assignment. I think I would have fun doing it, so hopefully students would too! Here is the address

http://teacherweb.com/WQ/ElementarySchool/Ancient_Greece3/

The incestuous relationships of ancient Greek concepts and how they apply to grade 6 Social Studies

To show how a concept map may be used in a classroom, I looked at the grade 6 social studies program of studies. I dealt with the “Greece: an ancient civilization” topic. I thought that a concept map would be a great fit for this topic in 2 situations. The first would involve group brainstorming for paper topics. We could all work together (on a Smartboard?) to add all the information we have studied over the unit to get a clear picture of what we know (the Pre-writing stage of the Writing Process). Similarly, if a paper was not on the agenda, we could work together to create a study sheet for an upcoming test. I added a note to the “Olympics” arm of my map to show how more information can be added (and then collapsed as necessary) to the standard concept map design. The concept map loans itself to studying ancient Greece especially because many of the ideas represented are connected (Philosophers were scientists, writers wrote about the myths and legends of the time, etc.). An extension of the use of the inspiration program while studying this unit could be to use the tree function to do a family tree of the Greek Pantheon (very confusing).

The ICT outcomes that are touched upon on this exercise are to “record group brainstorming, planning and sharing of ideas by using technology” and to “use selected presentation tools to demonstrate connections among various pieces of information”.

Concept mapping could alternatively be used in classrooms for personal journal entries (using words and pictures), individual planning for writing, summaries of texts and important information, and relational diagrams wherever relationships appear across the curriculum (which is virtually everywhere).

Die Tagesereignisse....or my eye opening effort at finding resources for high school German

Title of Activity: Die Tagesereignisse (Current Events)

Resources:
ZDF - Heute Nachrichten (2007, October 1). Retrieved October 1, 2007, from
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/20/0,3672,20,00.html

Das Wetter Uebung (2007, February). Retrieved October 1, 2007, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syiFvdwMLEs

German Newspapers (2007). Retrieved October 1, 2007, from
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/germany.htm

European radio stations streaming live on the internet (2007). Retrieved October 1, 2007, from
http://www.listenlive.eu/germany.html

LEO German-English Dictionary (2006). Retrieved October 1, 2007, from
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=en&lp=ende&search=current%20events

Grade Level: German as a Second Language 30 (3 year program)

Activity: Throughout the term, students will listen to varied radio broadcasts, watch different newscasts and read multiple newspapers in German briefly at the beginning of each class. They will discuss with the class the meanings of the media items (identifying main ideas and specific details). This will require them to look up any words they may not know. They will also discuss consuming German news as a Canadian Audience (analyzing how our lives are changed by the fact that we can access news from Germany).

General Outcomes:
Language Competence: Students will understand and produce German effectively and competently in spoken and written forms

Specific Outcomes:
Aural Interpretation: understand the main points and specific details of oral texts on familiar topics
Written Interpretation: understand short written texts on a variety of topics, and understand the main points and specific details of written texts on familiar topics

ICT Outcomes:
Communication: Students will use electronic research techniques to construct personal knowledge and meaning (General)/ use appropriate strategies to locate information to meet personal needs (Specific)
Foundational Knowledge: Students will understand the role of technology as it applies to self, work and society (General)/identify technologies used in everyday life (Specific)

Why use technology?: Basically, these exercises would not be possible without technology (specifically the Internet, streaming video, streaming sound, and audio-visual technology). Technology connects us worldwide by bringing the German media to our classrooms. In this case, it especially allows students to hear native speakers speaking German, it offers useful vocabulary (that is largely conveniently repetitive) and exposes them to new points of view and ways of doing things.