What does race mean to you?
Google Notebook, Blogger, Docs, Picasa, Earth, Podcast, Poetry and a Wiki
The "heritage project" takes on a rich new meaning when students work together to build a deeper understanding of themselves in relation to global views of race, heritage, and family. Using online collaborative tools to support research, writing, and the publication of poetry in a podcast, students will begin to make meaning of how their personal stories are the road map that makes up who they are today.
Start by setting up a Wiki or Google Sites
http://sites.google.com/Start by setting up a Wiki or Google Sites
Teacher sets up a wiki or Google Sites with specific directions, links, project calendar, and team pages to monitor team progress. Working in teams will help foster collaborative skills essential for 21st century learners. See this example: http://ctap4poetry.pbwiki.com/
Activity 1 Who Has Influenced My Life?
Brainstorm and Blog
Following the brainstorm students capture their thinking in a personal blog. They blog about the memories and the cultural heritage they spoke to their partner about. Students prepare for a interview from a living relation and blog that interview.
Students update their team progress on these activities on the class wiki
Activity 2 Deep Thinking About Race
Notebook Research, Compare, Google Earth, Blog, Picasa
Students work in pairs, and use the wiki as a home base to keep track of project directions, deadlines, and to document and update their team's progress on various assignments as they work through the following steps of this project:
- Research and citation: Research "race" and how this concept is treated by others from the web. Pay attention to perspective, bias, point of view from the authors and sites. Keep track of research in Google notebook and share the results with partner and teacher.
- Blog and comment: Write about what it means to use the word "race". Students read a partner's blog and leave a thoughtful comment. They write and publish daily in their individual blogs to reflect and share their ideas with a world audience as they formulate their understandings throughout the project.
- Compare: Students access Wikipedia to get an idea of the English speaking world's definition of race. Based on this and additional reading, students discuss ideas with their partner and blog about what they think race means based on comparative research and discussion. They comment on classmates blogs.
- Google Earth: Class creates a cultural heritage overlay in Google Earth. They each Placemarks important places from their family heritage. Students share the Google Earth kmz files with teacher to create a classroom view of the locations of race, family, and heritage.
- Images: Students use Picasa to build slideshows for their blogs, and as a repository for images they will use in their enhanced podcast.
Activity 3 Write Race In Me Poem
Blogger, Google Docs
Activity 4 Collect Images and Podcast or make Video for Race In Me Poem
Blogger, Docs Earth, Picasa, YouTube, iTunes, Google Video or Podomatic
Students refine poem and create a podcast script. They use Picasa to gather images from family albums that will provide visualization for their poetry. The student poems and images are combined in an enhanced podcast using Garage Band or Podomatic or published as a movie to YouTube or Google Video.
These tools working together offer continuous opportunities for formative assessment, student to student collaboration and accountability, as well as sharing a new understanding of race with others.
Adapted from the original lesson by, Sandra Oliver, California Technology Assistance Project, CTAP IV