Project-Based Lesson Plan
Project Title: Do You Know How? A Technical Manual for Using Highly Technical 21st Century Devices
Course: Commerce Communication
Unit: Unit 1 Written and Oral Communication
Content Standards: Commerce Communication
1. Utilize reading strategies to acquire the meaning of technical concepts and to follow directions in the business industry.
• Interpreting reading materials related to the business industry to apply and communicate information learned from reading to actual practice
2. Demonstrate effective use of written and oral language by using coherent paragraphs and correct grammar.
Examples: using parallel structure, using correct punctuation and sentence structure
3. Demonstrate effective writing techniques used to communicate in the business environment, including enhancing vocabulary and composing concise documents with clarity.
4. Create business documents, including analytical and informational reports, letters, memorandums, minutes, and electronic correspondence to disseminate information.
Overview/Annotation: Students willwrite in a technical genre. "Technical writing conveys specific information about a technical subject to a specific audience for a specific purpose. The words and graphics of technical writing are meant to be practical: that is, to communicate a body of factual information that will help an audience understand a subject or carry out a task." —Michael H. Markel Director of Technical Communication Boise State University Portions of this lesson were adapted from Micron - Writing in the Workplace. This is a Commerce and Information Technology Project-Based Lesson Plan.
Approximate Duration of Time: Greater than 120 minutes
Essential Question: (from POI) – How has 21st century technology impacted the use of technical writing.
Procedures/Activities: (for the student) This project will be completed in cooperative learning groups with no more than 3-4 students per group. Teacher may assign groups or may permit students to group themselves. The purpose of this document is to instruct readers how to use various types of highly technical, 21st Century devices. The teacher and students should determine the most up-to-date devices for which research should be conducted and a manual including such devices should be developed. Complete instructions for this project are included in attachment "Writing a Technical Manual for a Highly Technical Device" This project will be evaluated using the attachment "GRADING RUBRIC FOR EVALUATING Writing a Technical Manual for a Highly Technical Device"
Materials, Equipment, and Technology Resources: (for the teacher) Magazines and books describing or advertising highly technical devices.
Paper and pencil or voice recording device for recording interviews.
· Background Preparation: (for the teacher) White bread, peanut butter, jelly plastic knives
· Review prior knowledge of elements of a manual to include table of contents, layout, page setup, citing sources, etc.
· Emphasize grammar, punctuation, and concise writing skills.
· Encourage students to organize, use logic, and pay attention to detail.
· Encourageconsistent use of graphic organizers such as bullets, numbers, bold, italics, and color.
· Encourage use of visual tools to present information
· Remediate students concerning citations of resources using a standard format
· Prior to beginning project students should already know how to conduct research, format an unbound report,
Assessment Strategies: rubric attached to ALEX lesson plan
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