Enhancing Education through Technology Successful Practices
Spice It
Up a Notch with Nutmeg!: A Grade 7 Language Arts Unit
Task
Discipline
CT Student Technology Standards
|
Submitted by |
Mary Blain |
|
Grade Level |
Grade 7 |
|
Subject |
Language Arts |
|
Email Address of primary author |
|
|
School / District |
|
|
RESC / Contact person and email |
EASTCONN/Jane Cook, Donna Drasch &
Rebecca Pilver jcook@eastconn.org,
ddrasch@eastconn.org & rpilver@eastconn.org
|
Task Title Spice It Up A Notch With Nutmeg!
Task Disciplines Language
Arts
Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg!, is a
collaborative project developed by EASTCONN Staff Development Specialists,
Each
year since 1993, Connecticut youth in grades 4-8 have had a unique opportunity
to participate in choosing “the best of the best” in children’s and
adolescent’s literature. The Nutmeg Book Award (http://www.nutmegaward.org/index.htm), jointly sponsored by
the Connecticut Library
Association (CLA) and the Connecticut Educational Media
Association (CEMA), encourages children to
read quality literature and to choose their favorite from a list of ten
nominated titles. Any child who has read
one or more books on the Nutmeg nominee list may vote for his or her favorite
book. Votes are compiled from students
across the State of
The Spice It Up a
Notch with Nutmeg! project began as a collaborative brainstorm. Gail Zeba, Children’s Librarian at Windham
Public Library, had purchased multiple copies of the 2006-07 Nutmeg Books but
she was having difficulty attracting students to the library and getting them
excited about reading the Nutmeg nominees.
At the same time, EASTCONN Staff Developers,
During the fall of 2006, Gail met with EASTCONN Staff
Developers,
Mary Blain, a gifted Language Arts teacher at WMS, is
constantly searching for high quality literature and resources that support teaching
and learning. Mary heard about the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! online collaborative
project and the possibilities of bringing the Nutmeg Award nominees to her
students and happily volunteered her class to participate. It was a perfect union.
The Lesson / Unit
·
Unit objectives
Spice It up a Notch with Nutmeg!:
- Develops
and builds Big
Ideas about effective persuasive arguments
- Promotes
discourse as a way to build knowledge and understanding
- Encourages
student voice through persuasive writing and dialogue
- Requires
students to defend/support a position citing evidence
- Requires
students to use a rubric to develop and evaluate a product for submission
- Includes
research-based effective teaching strategies
- Helps
prepare students for the new literacy skills required by information and
communication technologies such as participating in online discussion
boards, blogs, and monitored chats.
·
Task description
Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! began in Mary Blain’s class with book talks
to introduce students to the teen Nutmeg books.
Gail Zeba, Children’s Librarian at Windham Public Library, came to the
Mary asked students to rank order the
top 5 books that they would like to read from the Nutmeg Award nominee
list. She grouped them into Literature
Circles base on the books they selected, giving each child his or her first or
second choice so that the size of the Lit Circles would be roughly equal. The students divided their books into 7-8 sections
for reading. Longer books were 8
sections while shorter books were 7 sections.
As they read, they wrote in their reading journals. In their reading journals they included a
summary of what they had read as well as questions that would stimulate a discussion
in their
After the Lit Circles completed their
reading and discussions, the class brainstormed possible projects. In the individual Lit Circles, each group listed
those projects from the class list that their group might be interested in doing.
Mary had the students use a Decision-Making Matrix from her Kids as Planners materials. Each group established the criteria that they
would use to help them choose their particular group’s project.
Once they had chosen their project, they
used the Time Line tool from her Kids as Planners materials to plan their
project. This tool helped them set out
their target activities and assign group members responsibilities for the work
and deadlines for completing the work.
As they worked on their projects in their
groups, they had to keep a Record of Group Work. This
served as a record of their accomplishments along the way and as a formative
assessment of how well their group was working collaboratively.
When the projects were finished, each
group developed a class presentation of their project. After finishing their presentation, each
group completed the Reflection (assessment).
Include student work samples.
Once everyone had read at least 2
books, they also had the opportunity to go into the computer lab and log into
the Nutmeg Books eSchool Builder online course site and participate in the Discussion
Board. They jumped right into the
threaded discussions in ways that Mary didn’t expect. Instead of doing a formal written response,
they were looking at in a more conversational way. After Mary read their responses and talked
with them about it, she asked Donna and Rebecca if they could open up the blog
feature in eSchool Builder so that students could “blog” with each other about
the books they were reading. The Blog
was set up but unfortunately there were technical difficulties in the computer
lab on the day they were scheduled to use it.
However, some of the students have independently gone to the Blog and
made entries. Some still continue to use
the Discussion Board and the Blog on their own even though the Spice It Up a
Notch with Nutmeg! project has been officially completed.
Since the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! online collaborative project has a
student showcase section, some of the students converted their print materials
into electronic format, using the expertise of their Computer Teacher, Syndney
Gilbey. Once
·
Context within which the work was produced
Students in Mary Blain’s class are required
to read 2-3 books each marking period. The
Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! project was
incorporated as part of their regular class assignments. After completing the projects, each student
was required to read at least one more Nutmeg book and complete an Outside Reading Response.
·
Prior learning required
Mary had previously already reviewed
questioning and summarizing techniques using the Reciprocal Teaching techniques
that were presented in last year’s professional development sessions at
·
Types of groupings used in this task
Students worked in small groups that
were created based on interest in specific books. Students were asked to prioritize their top
five book choices. Mary gave all
students either their 1st or 2nd choice because she wanted to have fairly even sized
groups of no more than 5 or 6 students.
·
Any differentiated strategies used in this task
Content - Students were given choice in their
Nutmeg Book reading. Their book choices
then directed what content they would learn.
Each group focused reading and discussing their chosen book and then on
doing research on the topic of their book so that they could acquire the
background knowledge they needed to develop their final product.
Process – Though all
students engaged in Literature Circles and in developing a final product that
represented their learning, each group was given opportunities to design their
own discussion questions and to develop a final project that represented the
interests and learning styles of the group.
Products - Students were given choice in
their culminating projects. Each group
chose to approach the final product in its own unique way. Every product was different but each product
was a reflection of what the students had learned during the course of the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! project.
CT Curriculum Frameworks
English/Language Arts
Standard 1:
Standard 1.1 Students use appropriate strategies
before, during and after reading in order to construct.
-Select and organize relevant
information from text to summarize.
-Draw conclusions and use evidence to
substantiate them by using texts heard, read, and viewed.
-Make and justify inferences from
explicit and/or implicit information.
Standard 1.2 Students
interpret, analyze and evaluate text in order to extend understanding and
appreciation.
-Interpret information that is implied
in a text.
-Make and support judgments about
texts.
-Discuss and respond to texts by
making text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections.
Standard 1.4 Students
communicate with others to create interpretations of written, oral and visual
texts.
-Elicit, discuss and respect the
opinions of others about written, oral and visual texts.
-Persuade listeners about judgments
and opinions of works read, written and viewed.
Standard 2:
Exploring and Responding to Literature
Standard 2.2 Students
explore multiple responses to literature.
-Develop a critical stance and cite
evidence to support the stance.
Standard 3:
Communicating with Others
Standard 3.1 Students
use descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive and poetic modes
-Use the appropriate features of
persuasive writing.
Standard 3.2 Students
prepare, publish and/or present work appropriate to audience, purpose and task.
-Determine purpose, point of view and
audience, and choose an appropriate written, oral or visual format.
-Use strategies to generate and
develop ideas for speaking, writing and visual activities.
CT Student Technology Standards
Student Technology Competency Standard 3: Technology
Productivity Tools and Student Technology Competency Standard 4: Technology
Communications Tools
Educational
experiences in Grades 5-8 will assure that students:
·
Design,
develop, publish, and present products (e.g., Web pages, videotapes) using
technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to
audiences inside and outside the classroom
·
Collaborate
with peers, experts, and others using telecommunications and collaborative tools
to investigate curriculum-related problems, issues, and information, and to develop
solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom
·
Use
technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, Web tools, digital
cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and
publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and
outside the classroom
·
Use
telecommunications and online resources (e.g., e-mail, online discussions, Web
environments) to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities for
the purpose of developing solutions or products for audiences inside and
outside the classroom
Mary reviewed the students’ work during the Spice It Up a
Notch with Nutmeg! project
with both formative and summative
assessments. Students were assessed
while they were reading, while they were working on their projects and after
they had completed their projects.
While students were reading their
first Nutmeg Award nominee, they were required to show the written summaries of
their reading in their reading journals.
They were graded on their journals.
Mary set the expectation that all students would get an A as long as
they had written an adequate summary of the book they were reading and
appropriate questions that provoked stimulating discussions in their
While students were reading their second
(or more) Nutmeg Award nominees, they were required to write an Outside Reading Response.
This gave students a way of summarizing
and evaluating their Nutmeg Award nominee books based on a series of questions.
While students worked in their small
groups on their projects, they were required to complete a Record of Group Work sheet on a regular basis.
This encouraged groups to assess their progress along the way and to
evaluate the effectiveness of their group’s process and product.
After completing their projects,
students presented their small group’s work to the whole class. As students reviewed each others’ work, they
received feedback on their projects from their classmates and from their
teacher.
The summative assessment consisted of
a written Reflection on the
Nutmeg Book Project.
In these written pieces, students reflected on both their process and
their product. These reflections also gave Mary feedback to
inform her planning and preparation for the next year’s Spice It Up a Notch
with Nutmeg! project.
Mary reviewed all of the student work
as well as the formative and summative assessments and incorporated that into
each student’s final grade for the marking period.
Student Work (files attached)
Student Projects – All of the groups created print
materials as their final products. In
order to showcase their products on the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! Web site, those print materials needed to be
scanned and stored in an electronic format.
The following links
show examples of student final products from the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! project. These are PowerPoint presentations with
scanned images of the printed products:
Reflections on the Nutmeg
Book Project Student Work Samples
- The following links show examples of student reflections on the Spice It Up a
Notch with Nutmeg! project:
Reflections Student Work Sample 1
Reflections Student Work Sample 2
Reflections Student Work Sample 3
I think that the Spice It Up a Notch with Nutmeg! online
collaborative project is really
neat. Teachers in grades 4-8 can so
easily adapt the activities to whatever they’re doing within their classroom, yet
it gets kids connected to other classes and to other schools. When the students started participating in
the threaded discussions, they took off in a way that I never expected. I’ll definitely be doing it again next year.
It will be different next year because
of the time factor. We’ll get the books
earlier so we won’t have the same time pressure that we had this year. This year we got started on the day before
the Thanksgiving break and the students had to complete their reading and
projects by the end of January so they could participate in the Nutmeg Award
voting. Next year, I might choose to do
one book as a whole class reading and then do the Literature Circles and
outside readings afterwards. Since we
know what next year’s Nutmeg Award
nominees are, I’d like to find more resources for the topics to help
support the kids as they read and work on their projects. This will give them more background knowledge
about the topics of next year’s books.
I’ll also incorporate even more technology
next year by scheduling more time in the computer lab. I can anticipate now what the students’ reactions
will be when we go into the computer lab.
I’ll be better able to prepare them to use the different aspects of the eSchool
Builder online collaborative tools – the threaded discussions and the blog -
before we even go into the computer lab.
I’ll also encourage the kids to develop their products on the computer
to begin with rather than converting them to PowerPoint afterwards.
Another change I’m planning for next
year is to engage the students in developing a rubric for evaluating the final
products. This will encourage the
students to use higher order thinking skills when helping create the rubric and
when assessing each other’s work.
Material Resources
·
Poster
boards
·
Paper
·
Paints
·
Markers
·
Dictionaries
·
Thesauruses
Technology Resources and Web Links
·
Computers
·
Power
Point (part of the MS Office Professional Suite)
·
High
speed Internet access
·
eSchool
Builder Course site (www.eastconn.org/eschool)
