Photo Story 3 adapated Science Lesson Plan

Content Area and Grade Level

Setting

      The setting is a 6th grade inclusive general education classroom. This class module will occur over 4 weeks and lessons will be an hour and a half long, 3 times a week. The focus will be on learning marine animal biology and computer technology. This classroom is unique in that it has 4 PC computers to be shared by 12 students. With this arrangement, students will benefit from reciprocal teaching, group activities and cooperative learning arrangements. Learning is dynamic and the application of computer technology can support the subject’s content, while also providing multiple instructional resources. Using a computer-based lesson allows students to continue their class work into their home settings.

       Early education about the Earth’s oceans and its resources is vital to establishing an appreciation and understanding of our impact on the world we live in. Children need to learn about global life-support systems. Oceans are life sustaining systems which provide us with food, minerals, and is a source of energy. Teaching science and computer technology is the part of the wave of the future and necessary for global management.

Student

      The adaptations to the class lesson will accommodate Simone a 12 year old boy who is diagnosed with high functioning Asperger Syndrome and ADHD. Due to his developmental disorder, Simone has poor handwriting from deficits in fine motor coordination and he often utilizes a computer station with an enlarged adaptive keyboard. Occasionally Simone exhibits frustration with the classroom organization and maintenance which can lead to aggressive behavioral outbursts. However, he is fairly self-suffiecient with regards to recognizing his warning signs.  If he feels an outbursts coming on he will typically relocate himself to his active seat, a giant bouncy medicine ball. This method allows him to release some built up energy and decreases cognitive disengagement.                               

      Simone’s ADHD makes sitting still difficult, but he shows an intense interest in computers and loves creating computer artifacts. While he exhibits delays in his understanding of receptive language, he has a good vocabulary and an amazing affinity to learning and memorizing random facts. Simone has some difficulty generalizing classroom content into other areas of life, shows marked deficits in social interactions, and exhibits visual-spatial and conceptual learning difficulties. Yet often all he need is a little extra time to channel his mind and redirect his thoughts. He does incredibly well when he is provided with small social scripts, or prompts, for new group learning activities.

Lesson Topic, Goals and Objectives

      Students will learn about ocean ecosystems and aquatic life via the integration of computer technology in the classroom curriculum. The teacher will provide direct instruction on how to conduct efficient internet researches, construct photo story 3 audio/videos, about how to create graphic organizers through the use of Inspiration 8 software, and will provide power point lectures about marine life.  The class content will use Photo Story 3 and Inspiration 8 to facilitate technology integration into their elementary classroom.  Inspiration software allows students to use video, sound and pictorial writing prompts to guide them through, "planning, organizing and structuring of any learning task in a visual and linear fashion...an alternative method of accessing and processing information" (Grant, K., 2009).  While Photo story 3 allows students to create text and/or audio video class presentations in a fun and interactive way.  Photo story can be, "useful for promoting independent learning, motivating students, extending/enriching the curriculum, and promoting explanation, interpretation, and personal viewpoint" (Karan-Miyar, D., 2009).  Both of the methods allow easy adaptations to curricular content for special populations.

     Students will be dispersed into groups of three, where they will learn to create graphic organizers which will serve as outlines for their group presentations.  The group presentations will be produced in Photo story 3 format and will provide detailed information about their group selected oceanic organism.  The focus of this lesson will be to educate students about the role of the earth’s oceans and resources. The hidden and underlying lesson will teach students about the links between science and technology. The assignment also involves the use of a wiki page as a collaborative technology tool for their science based-project. This class module will serve as a cross-curricular learning which focuses on animal biology and computer technology. These online projects will allow students to collaborate and work together even when they are absent from school.

Lesson Goals:

a) Computer technology will enhance and support the student’s writing process and facilitate learning of life science

b) To gain and learn methods and knowledge that will support future research methods

c) To teach alternative methods of learning, expression, and organizing class content

d) Gain insight to human impact on marine life and explore ways we can protect the ocean environments

e) Students will learn to use a multimedia approach to present class content

f) They will create endangered species educational videos

g) To learn science through cooperative learning strategies

Learning objectives:

a) Students will be introduced to aquatic habitats/ecosystems (salt and fresh water)

b) Introduced to taxonomy and scientific classification systems of oceanic plants and animals

c) Develop new vocabulary

d) Impacts of humans on ocean life and pollution- cause and effect

e) Identify endangered species and marine mammals and their role on oceanic systems

f) To identify behavioral, physical characteristics and adaptive mechanisms of various species (i.e. blowhole and echolocation)

g) Food chains and interdependencies

h) Be able to cut and paste web photographs onto their own wiki pages

i) Create photo story 3 videos

Materials Needed

• Computer

• Photo story 3 download

• Windows and windows media player

• Microphone and speakers

• Webcam (optional)

• Mouse • KWL handouts

• Power point presentation of marine mammals, web links, photo story 3 and wiki creations

• National Geographic Videos and teacher made web link resource list

• Inspiration software to create graphic organizers

• Snag-It

Adaptive Technology and Materials 

• Online KWL

• Alternative enlarged keyboard, or touch screen

• Written social script or prompt questions for group activity work, produced by instructor to aid or facilitate initial interactions

• Inspiration graphic organizers

• Large medicine therapy ball

Student Activities and procedures

Activity I (link to existing knowledge)

      Prior to this course module student’s have taken a fieldtrip to the Baltimore Sea Aquarium and have had some prior instruction about marine life. In order for the instructor to become acquainted with the children’s prior knowledge, she will handout KWL worksheets (What do I know?, What do I Want to know?, and What did I learn?) to be completed by the students. They will be given 20-30 minutes to write down their answers. This worksheet will gather information about their individual interests and knowledge of using computers as well as their knowledge about marine life. Students will be prompted with questions like: 

Did you like the trip to the Sea Aquarium?  What is your favorite sea creature?

What kinds of animals, fish, and plants do you find in the sea?

What is a mammal? What kinds of mammals live in the sea? How do they breathe?

Do you have a computer at home? Do you have email? Have you ever watched U-Tube videos? What is your favorite thing to do on a computer?

After students have filled out their KWL worksheets, they will be given a worksheet with the names of living marine organisms. The teacher will allow the students to independently pair off and search the web for various organisms and vocabulary terms:

Marine Life:

Marine mammals- orca, manatee, dolphins, whales, sea otter, polar bear Fish- clowns fish, lion fish, sea dragon Sharks- great white, tiger shark, reef shark Plants and algae- kelp, seaweed, algae Invertebrates: sea anemone, octopus, sea urchin & crustaceans- crabs, shrimp, lobster, crayfish, starfish Reptiles- sea turtle, sea snakes, saltwater crocodile

Vocabulary: 

Marine mammals Extinct, Endangered, &Threatened species Habitats, Conservation vibrissae, nares, blowhole, flipper, fluke, buoyancy, dorsal herbivore, omnivore, carnivore food chains symbiotic relationships, predator mutualism, commensalism, parasitism

Students will not be expected to memorize all of the terms. The exercise is just to introduce them to marine life biology terms, as well as internet web searching. Classmates will be expected to guide each other during lab time, so that those less familiar with the internet can learn from the others. While they explore, the instructor will examine their KWL handouts and select project pairs based on topics of interest.

      In this area of the course, Simone will fill out his KWL handout using an enlarged computer keyboard. His poor fine motor skills make writing a challenge and this accommodation can help him maintain equal participation in the class. In this initial stage of freely exploring the classrooms content, Simone will be allowed to self explore independently. This will reduce anxiety and frustration that he sometimes experiences with new learning situations.

Activity II (Direct Instruction)

      Classroom science content will be given via power point lecture and teacher’s handouts. Students will be directly taught how to create a generic visual organizer, by using Inspiration software. They will also make a class-wide Photo story 3 video to ensure that everybody has some familiarity with the different multimedia tools. The instructor will also provide students with a working list of websites for their research projects (see appendix A). Then before pairing the students into groups, the instructor will discuss computer technology and some of its positive applications (i.e. conducting research and worldwide communication).

      The groups will be chosen by the instructor, to ensure that Simone is not excluded. He will also be placed in one of the larger groups to facilitate social interactions and communication. Simone will be provided, in advance, with a few socially scripted questions to guide him through the intro phase of the group project.

Photo Story 3 Manatee lesson Video: teachertube.com/viewVideo.php

 (appendix C)

Sample Inspiration Graphic Organizer: (see appendix B)

Activity III (Guided Discovery)

      Students will choose endangered or threatened marine organism to write reports about and will be expected to construct a group project about their organism. Groups will use begin by using Inspiration as a method to create graphic organizers for their selected marine organism (appendix B). Their organizers will include information about their food source, where they live, lifespan, behavioral and physical characteristics, and adaptations (i.e. how they hear, smell, taste, breathe, eat, see, etc). The instructor will provide handouts with recommended web sites and will take turns showing the groups how to collect and save web images using snag-it. Students will collect these photo images from the web and save them as jpeg files in group folders.

Activity IV (Group and/or Individual Activity)

      Once the groups have been chosen and content has been taught, the individual groups can disperse and collaborate on how they choose to construct their projects. The motto of the groups will be “think, pair, and share”. The groups will divide the duties into three categories: graphic designer (who will collect the pictures and videos), the researcher (who will construct the graphic organizer and gather the required information), and editor/presenter (who decides how the information is arranged and is responsible for sharing it with the rest of the class). The use of a group multimedia presentation allows students to benefit from each other’s shared perspectives; while also allowing them to independently process and formulate new perspectives about the academic content from home.  

      In this project Simone is given the duty of the graphic designer. This task allows him to access an alternative mode of communication in which he doesn’t have to continuously interpret and generalize the actions of his group-mates. By reducing his anxiety, he is afforded the opportunity to focus on self-management and the task at hand. This adaptation allows Simone to equally participate in the group project. It appeals to his interests and his strengths and allows him to independently gather visual supports that are needed for the Photo story 3 assignment. His role promotes visual learning and allows animal biology concepts to be broken down into multiple picture formats and representations which ultimately facilitate the generalization of new concepts.

Activity V (Reflection)

       By intermingling diverse learners into a single group, they will unknowingly and effortlessly absorb new modes of learning. Each student brings a different perspective and interpretation of information. While they may hold separate functional roles for the piecing together of the project; in the end they must coordinate and collaborate to create a successful and interactive learning experience. Although some groups may have more elaborate and tidy creations than others, the hope is that all will walk away with at least one new approach or perspective. For a student with restricted ranges of thinking, understanding, and processing this can make all the difference in the world.

Activity VI (Link Forward)

       Our personalities are shaped by what we have and have not been exposed too. Learning is dynamic and cannot only be derived from approved textbooks and by preferred teaching methods. Who we are is uniquely shaped by not only what we have been taught, but also the choices and experiences we have lived.

      For those who experience life with even broader distinctions between what they know and what we know it should be deemed essential to facilitate a multifaceted method of learning. One which will allow them then benefit of cooperative learning and reciprocal teaching, hands on demonstrations, multiple visual representations and alternative methods of assessments. Some students thrive when given an opportunity to write an essay, while others may hold ingenious architectural visions for the building of an underwater Atlantis.

Explanation of Computer-Based Artifact

      The application of using Photo story 3 for a science presentation allows the student to convey the topic and content in a manner that is relevant to their likes and interests, while highlighting their strengths. Students with poor attention spans, low confidence and motivation can construct projects that appeal to them both visually and structurally. They are afforded some degree of leeway as to how the information is conveyed. The rules of beginning, middle, and end are a bit more flexible when visual and audio representations are applied together.

     The use of Inspiration is a wonderful tool for students who lack organization. They can be designed in a fun and colorful way to outline the class content. Visual aids like this, support and improve task attention, help to clarify the course expectations and can encourage participation. They can also serve as a tool to break down concepts into their separate and distinct parts, a form of high functioning task analysis. The use of visual supports aids in the coding and categorizing of new information, support learning new vocabulary, and can promote learning in students with multiple cognitive and sensory distortions.

Lesson Adaptations/Differentiating

      This lesson format allows Simone to use multimedia sources and explore the web at his own pace. He is able to learn the content because it is presented with multiple visual supports and he has a role in actively collecting and creating the projects content.

Cognitive

      His ADHD makes sitting still a challenge, so the instructor allows Simone to sit on a large therapy ball while working on the computer. This method helps to regulate his senses and minimizes his cognitive disengagement. Photo story 3 is an inexpensive and fun way to construct video-modeling scripts. It is an excellent resource to promote generalization of different scenarios by using visual and auditory supports.  Inspiration offers a wide array of visual and graphics supports (i.e.cycle diagrams, timelines, outlines, comparisons, tree diagrams, notes, graphic organizers and many more).  These tools can be extremely useful for learners who struggle with attention, organization and fine motor difficulties.  Inspiration software is flexible and allows educators to construct learning tools that begin and build from the individual strengths of the student.

Physical

      Individuals with impaired fine motor coordination, can efficiently learn to use computer technology with various minor adaptations. There is an abundance of software that can enable, individuals like Simone, to live independently and possibly self-sufficiently. Trackballs, joysticks, mouse emulators, head pointers and sip-&-puffs are all adaptive devices that allow efficient computer use.

Sensory

      Photo Story 3 is a multisensory technique that involves, visual and auditory processing of new information. Tactile manipulation of computer keys and/or its adaptations and an alternative method for expression and communication. It also requires the learner to focus on their hand-eye coordination.

Communication

      The application of computer technology allows Simone to actively create and establish his perspective on marine life. He is enabled and empowered to participate and create a product that suites his comfort level. Navigating through computer websites allows Simone to experience multiple visual representations of information while also building his vocabulary. For individuals who lack communicative intent, Photo story 3, provides a fun way to mix music and typed text into meaningful content.

Learning/Emotional disabilities

      Photo Story videos allow students to arrange thoughts and ideas into powerful and meaningful content. Its applications can be both educational and therapeutic. Creatively allowing a person to express themselves can be both enlightening and rehabilitating. Individuals with dyslexia and ADHD can benefit from the different learning modalities it offers.  Inspiration can assist students with reading disabilities by offering hyperlinks which allow "scan/read" programs or by simply restructuring the reading material into formats that are easier to analyze (Grant et al., 2009).  Having a tool that organizes and outlines a learner's thoughts can support attention to task and enhance their motivation and self-confidence.

References

Grant, K.  (January, 2009).  Beyond graphic organizers: why Inspiration is a quintessential UDL tool.  Special Education Technology Practice, 11(1), 28-37.  Retrieved  on July 18, 2009, from Education Research Complete Database (AN 36577770).

Irving, M.M., Nti, M., & Johnson, Wilfred. (2007). Meeting the needs of the special learner in science. International Journal of Special Education, 22(3), 109-118. Retrieved on July 10, 2009.

Karan-Miyar, D.  (2009).  Digital storytelling.  Distance Learning, 6(1), 27-29.  Retrieved on July 18, 2009, from Education Research Complete Database (AN 39749159).

LD Online: Strategies for Teaching Youth with ADD and ADHD. (2009). http://www.ldonline.org/article/Strategies_for_Teaching_Youth_with_ADD_and_ADHD Retrieved on July 14, 2009.

Mullen, R., & Wedwick. (2008). Avoiding the digital abyss: getting started in the classroom with youtube, digital stories, and blogs. Clearing House, 82(2), 66-69. Retrieved on June 29, 2009.

The National Geographic. (2009). http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/West-indian-manatee. Retrieved on July, 18, 2009. Save The Manatee Club. (2009). http://www.savethemanatee.org/default.html. Retrieved July 18, 2009.

Save The Manatee Club.  (2009).  http://www.savethemanatee.org/default.html.  Retrieved July 18, 2009.