How My Class Will Participate in the “Westward HO!” Project

I found this tellecollaborative project on the Internet Projects Registry, http://www.gsn.org/gsh/pr/GetDetail.cfm?StartRow=1821&view=3&projtype=Archived&sortby=Start%20Date&fAge=9&tAge=11&pID=3470 . The project site is at http://www.cyberbee.com/wwho/index.html .

Registration will open in September 2010 and close in early December for the 2011 trip.

Objectives

The Westward HO! project correlates nicely with unit 5 in language arts, Going West. During this unit, students read and write about frontier life, pioneers, westward expansion, etc. There are a number of standards in the Reading/ELA Maryland State Curriculum that the project provides practice with- Writing, Controlling Language, and Listening.

4.0 Writing

2. Compose oral, written, and visual presentations that express personal ideas, inform, and persuade

a. Compose to express personal ideas by experimenting with a variety of forms and techniques suited to topic, audience, and purpose

d. Compose to persuade using significant reasons and relevant support to agree or disagree with an idea

• Take a position and generate convincing reasons to support it
• Consider the effectiveness of form, diction, audience appeal, and organization

e. Use writing-to-learn strategies such as learning logs, dialogue journals, and quickwrites to connect ideas and thinking about lesson content

These writing objectives are met during the online Trail Meeting chat, the diary of the daily events from the Travel and Fates, and the Wiki Fireside Stories page. I included the objective about persuasion because each week the classes will meet online to make a collective wagon train decision. Use of persuasive techniques will be applied.

5.0 Controlling Language

A. Grammar

B. Usage

C. Mechanics

D. Spelling

These language objectives are met during the writing activities mentioned above. Students will receive mini-lessons as needed to teach these standards and enable them to demonstrate grade level appropriate control of language.

6.0 Listening

1. Demonstrate active listening strategies

2. Comprehend and analyze what is being heard

This project involves listening to your wagon family in class, as well as with the collective wagon online. During discussion, students are expected to attend to the speaker, ask appropriate questions, contribute relevant comments, relate prior knowledge, and elaborate on the information and ideas presented.

Technical Needs

Technologies Used: Blogs; Discussion Forum; Live Text Conference: IRC; Chat; IM

According to last year’s schedule, there are three weeks of class chat, occurring on Tuesdays at 12:30 P.M. during weeks 2-4. This IRC lasts thirty minutes and is conducted through Chatzy, a free private chat room. It doesn’t require any installation and “works on all major browsers, with any language and through corporate firewalls.” http://www.chatzy.com/  Our class would be scheduled in the computer lab from 12:15-1:15. This would allow students time to get logged on to the computers and for the teacher to log in to Chatzy for each wagon group. The project coordinator suggests having each wagon group (4-5 students) at one computer. The Chatzy password is not to be shared with students in order to ensure privacy. In the fifteen minutes following the chat, students could spend time on a “Side trip,” or typing their daily journal entry if they prefer that to handwriting it. There is a bulletin board on the Wiki where students can share stories about their adventures on the trail. I am unclear about how the students post on the wiki; you must be a member to post comments. Perhaps the teacher posts comments for the students.

Students would need parent permission to access the Wiki and Chatzy before they could participate in the trail meeting. If they did not have parent permission, they could still participate in the project with decision making and group discussion, but sit out on the class chat.

Detailed Plan

As teacher, before the project begins there are a few things I need to do. Obviously, I need to register to participate in the project. Once I receive log in information and passwords, I need to test them out. I would also need to send home permission slips for my students to participate in the trail meeting chat room, Chatzy. I would reserve the computer lab for five Tuesdays (according to the meeting schedule) from 12:15-1:15 P.M. Finally, I will create a bulletin board in the classroom where the Travel and Fates cards will be posted throughout the project. As wagon groups are formed, I will add a cut-out wagon to the board with each group member’s names.

Contingency Plans

Closure

After the final chat on Tuesday of week 5 (Trail Meeting Reunion in Oregon), students will turn in all six of their individual journal entries, a self-evaluation form, a group evaluation form, and a completed group budget ledger. During the Trail Meeting Reunion celebration, we will eat “old-time” snacks, watch “The Oregon Trail” (2002), and share our reflections on the project. Snacks will include apple candy, muffins, Johnny cake, hardtack, etc. from http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Friend/1975.htm/friend%20july%201975.htm/pioneer%20recipes.htm?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0 .

Evaluation

I will evaluate the project according to how students score on the rubric. I created the rubric, so if most students score well, then they are accomplishing what I want them to get out of the project and I’ll do it again. I will also consider comments on the self and group evaluation forms.

View the rubric at https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=11xUjMH4mblsHjHdgtCOfm8brTmeQImJc84BakVkIxR4&hl=en&authkey=CJfRyKIH .