Major Learning Activities

As of September 30, 2005, the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium is no longer in operation.

Major Learning Activities

Activity One: Picture Description and Comparison (1 class period of 40 minutes)

Materials:

Internet site: The Amazing Picture Machine
Chart paper and markers
Projection device and computer with Internet access

Instructional Plan
The teacher will begin this activity by showing picture one from the two listed below. These two pictures are very different pictures with similar content and themes. The students will generate a list of phrases describing this first picture, and the teacher will record the phrases on the chart paper. The students will be asked to address the following questions as they generate the descriptive phrases about the picture:

What do you see?
What would you hear if you were in this picture?
What would you smell if you were in this picture?
What could the people in this picture be feeling with their hands? with their feet?
What emotions do you feel as you view this picture?

Once a list has been generated, the students will be asked to work individually to write a short description for the picture using as many of the phrases generated to make their description clear and concise, containing the specific details to identify this picture.

When they have completed their descriptions, the teacher will show them picture two from the list below, asking the following questions:

Does your description also fit this picture?
How are these two pictures alike?
How are these two pictures different?
What would you need in your description to be able to distinguish between the two pictures?
What could you add to your original description that would make your description better?

Working with a partner, the students will write a description for each of the two pictures. Be sure the two descriptions are concise enough to distinguish the two pictures. Pairs will read their descriptions to the rest of the class and the class will decide whether the descriptions have the necessary clarity.

Picture One:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/monet/first/le-havre.jpg

Picture Two:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/monet/later/monet.seine-argenteuil.jpg

Activity Two: Scavenger Hunt.(2 class periods of 20 minutes each)

Materials:
Computer lab or computer with Internet access for each student.

Instructional Plan
Students will begin this activity working alone and finish in pairs. Provide each student with a list of the guiding questions (found in activity one) as well as the conference question (from below) before beginning this activity.

The student will choose the picture they like best from the Museum listed in activity three and write a complete description of the picture. Students will use the same guiding questions they used in activity one to write their complete description. These descriptions will be passed to a partner who will search the Museum and try to locate the picture in the students description. The students will conference with each other to answer the following questions:

Did you locate the correct pictures?
If not, why not?
What clues in the description were particularly valuable as you were looking for the picture?
Was there any information in the description that was distracting?
What information could the author have added to help you find the picture easier?

Activity Three: Create a Museum Catalog. (This is a writers' workshop assignment that will take five 60 minute classes to complete.)

Materials:

Internet site: The Amazing Picture Machine
Projection device
Computer lab or computer access
Index cards

The students will create a museum catalog entry for each of the pictures in the Museum. The students will use the five steps in the writing process to publish the catalog. Students will work in pairs to complete peer-editing and proofreading. Teacher will conduct a writing conference with each student.

The entry will include a suggested title of the picture and a complete description of the picture. The description will answer the following questions:

What do you see?
What would you hear if you were in this picture?
What would you smell if you were in this picture?
What emotions do you feel as you view this picture?

The teacher will project the pictures from the Museum one at a time while students brainstorm descriptive phrases to be used in the writing process. These phrases will be recorded on index cards that have been numbered for future reference. Once the prewriting is done, the students will work on the writing in the computer lab. They will have access to the pictures on The Amazing Picture Machine if they need to look at the pictures again.

The students will use the following questions at the completion of the writing to begin the revising stage of the process:

Does my draft give a vivid image of each picture?
Did I use sensory details?
Did I organize my thoughts well?

Student will complete self-revising and proofreading and work with a partner to do peer revising and proofreading. Students publish the catalog using a word processing program.

Teacher will conduct a writing conference with each student to allow the students to reflect on their learning while engaged in this process. The questions addressed in this conference will be: