FINAL PROJECT :
TECHNOLOGY-INFUSED CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
AND INSTRUCTION
Vaughn H. Columbine
College of Staten Island / CUNY
Teachers on Sabbatical Program
Prof. Susan Imberman and
Prof. Roberta Klibaner
Spring 2010 Semester
CSC 704
I was grateful that this class introduced me to Excel, which I had wanted to explore for quite some time, but did not have any opportunity to discover prior to this semester. It will come in handy as the Department of Education is encouraging us to use electronic grade books.
I had had limited training in Power Point in my school, but I was also glad that we had time to review and practice this program in the class as well.
Two years ago my school began a Robotics course in the math department. Although as a French instructor, I doubt that I will ever teach it, it was fun to play with the robots, learn how to do a basic program, and enable me to relate to and converse with students who are taking the class.
One of the most useful and impressive technological discoveries that I made through this class was the existence of meta-search engines, such as dogpile.com and clusty.com, that can simultaneously scan multiple data-bases and group findings by keywords or topics. This is useful to me for my own academic research, and I think it is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom and to teach to my own high school students. It could be utilized in assigning them an individual research topic in either English or French (according to the student’s proficiency level) on a cultural topic related to Francophone cultures, such as travel, tourism, art, music, film, theater, history, government, politics etc.
For my final project, I have chosen to do a technology-infused model lesson on the current Cannes Film Festival incorporating the meta-search engine, dogpile.com (which scans Bing, Google, Yahoo! and others). The only resource required is a personal computer, either in or out of the classroom (but preferably both!) with Internet access. This lesson is appropriate for any high school French student (grades nine through twelve), but I would probably do the search in English, and search for information sources in English, for first and second year students. Third year (Regents level) and fourth year (advanced placement) students could do the search in French and peruse found sources in the French language. Here is my sample lesson written in both languages:
LESSON PLAN
Vaughn H. Columbine, French Teacher Wednesday, May 19, 2010
William C. Bassell, Principal French 1,2,3, or 4
Ms. Ashaviah Fleming, A.P. Periods: 3,5,8
Long Island City High School Room 225
Aim: What is happening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival?
Motivation: To enrich the French language class with an infusion of contemporary culture.
I. Teacher writes the above aim and websites http://en.wikipedia.org and http:// www.dogpile.com on the board. Teacher takes attendance while students write down the key questions to be searched on the Internet.
A) What is the significance and historical background of the Cannes film festival?
B) Who are some of the important French stars and directors attending this year?
C) What are some of the major French films exhibiting this year and what are they about?
D) Who are some of the important American stars and directors attending this year?
E) What are some of the major American films exhibiting this year and what are they about?
F) What is something that you would like to know about this year’s festival?
II. Teacher models search of background history of the festival on Wikipedia using classroom computer projected on screen.
Various students take turns reading (volunteers and / or selected).
Discussion based upon teacher and student generated questions about the searched topics.
Teacher introduces and demonstrates the use of the meta-search engine dogpile.com to begin to explore the second question.
III. In small groups students use classroom or lab computers to continue searching the results to the above questions on meta-search engine dogpile.com.
Students record sources and takes notes on information found from them.
Students discuss the resource results and relevant information.
Students share their group results with the teacher and the entire class.
Comments, questions, suggestions, and summary.
Homework: Students write up their sources and found information into a written report of approximately two pages.
PROJET DE LEÇON
M. Vaughn H. COLUMBINE, Professeur mercredi, le 19 mai 2010
M. William C. BASSELL, Directeur français 5,6,7, ou 8
Mme Ashaviah FLEMING, Chef du dép. périodes: 3 et 9
Lycée Long Island City salle 213
Le but: Qu’est-ce qui se passe cette année au Festival de Cannes?
Motivation: Enrichir la classe de français avec une infusion de culture contemporaine.
I. Le prof écrit le but et les sites Internet http: // http://www.fr.wikipedia.org
http: // www.dogpile.com au tableau. Le prof fait l’appel pendant que les étudiants écrivent les questions à enquêter sur Internet.
A) Qu’est-ce que c’est que le Festival de Cannes et quelle est sa signification historique?
B) Quels grands stars et metteurs-en-scène français vont y assister cette année?
C) Quels sont quelques titres principaux des films français attendus cette année?
D) Quels grands stars et metteurs-en-scène américains vont y
assister cette année?
E) Quels sont quelques titres principaux des films américains attendus cette année?
F) Que voulez-vous savoir à propos du festival cette année?
II. Le prof fait une enquête sur l’histoire du festival de Cannes sur le site de Wikipedia en français. On projette les résultats à l’écran de la classe.
Des étudiants (volontaires et / ou sélectionnés) lisent des résultats.
Discussion basée sur des questions du prof et des étudiants.
Le prof fait une introduction du site Internet dogpile.com et fait une démonstration des techniques pour lancer la seconde enquête.
III. En petits groupes les étudiants continuent leurs méta-enquêtes avec dogpile.com en cherchant des sources et des informations ci-dessus.
Les étudiants notent des sources et explorent leurs contenus.
Les étudiants discutent les résultats et les informations.
Des étudiants partagent des renseignements avec le prof et la classe entière.
Petits commentaries, des questions, des suggestions et un résumé de la leçon.
Les devoirs: Les étudiants préparent un essai formel de deux pages environ, répondant aux questions ci-dessus et notant leurs sources.