Presentation # 1:

 

 

"The One Computer Classroom"

 

Presentation by Hui Laio, Denise Suhr,Brian Wahl and Roy H. Wilhite, Jr.

Our lesson centers around the subject of floods and flooding. Because each of the four presenters comes from a different curriculum or grade level background, we have created a multi-curriculum lesson. This lesson has been designed for a classroom consisting of 15 students, but can, of course, be adapted for classrooms with more students.

The classroom is to be divided into 3 groups with 5 students per group. Each of these groups will investigate a separate topic related to flooding. Group One will concern itself with the causes of flooding. Group Two will concern itself with the effects of flooding. Group Three will look into flood safety and preparation. All three groups will take turns using the following centers: Library Resources, Computer Resources and Current Events Resources. The Library Resource Center includes Almanacs, Encyclopedias and other such reference books. The Current Events Center includes newspaper articles, magazines and other periodicals. Finally, the Computer Resource Center will include, obviously, the computer and online resources.

The following is the lesson plan we created for use with this presentation.

Helpful Links:

The following are some links which you might find helpful in regards to flooding, flood related topics or Haiku writing.

- The following link gave me much of my technical information regarding Haiku poems:

- Another Place with tons of links regarding Haiku poems is:

As an introduction to the topic of floods and flooding, we would show pictures and read books about floods and flooding. These can be required reading such as a short story or novel which has a flood as a major plot device or nay be a short picture book or short story you, as the teacher, read/share with the class. After the sharing of the book or the reading of the story/novel, a class discussion revolving around floods should take place. The discussion should both relate to the story/novel and then to more personal experiences that the students have had with flooding.

It is here that you would introduce the concept of using e-mail to interact with another school classroom in an area that is prone to flooding. To do this you may either search the Internet to find school sites or, probably more easily done, call some schools you know of that might be in such areas. If you need to teach the students how to use e-mail, this can be done either via large group instruction or in small groups. Finding a school classroom to share e-mails with should be done in advance fo beginning this lesson. The actual e-mailing should begin as soon as possible after the beginning of the lesson.

• Map Study:

For preliminary study of areas prone to flooding in the U. S., use the Internet to search for such areas. Once you have discovered what areas in the U. S. are prone to flooding, have the students mark those locations on the U. S. map located in your classroom. This will not only help them with geography but give them a visualization of how prominent flooding is in the U. S.

• E-Mail Interaction:

The lesson involving floods can take anywhere from a week to much longer depending on the class that is being taught and what other activities you must take care of, as such the e-mail interaction should be ongoing. Using the information shared by the other school via e-mail, you should have a pretty good idea of those students feelings about flooding and quite a bit of information regarding the area they love in. As such, you may also want to make a map of the flooding in the particular area those students are from. Now that you have some valuable information from the other school's students, you are ready to have your students go on to the next step.

• Center Work:

This is where the balancing act comes into play. You have three groups of five students. While Group One is studying the causes of flooding, Group Two will look for the effects of flooding and Group Three will look into flood safety and preparation. All three groups will take turns using the centers so while one group is looking over the Library Resources, another group will be looking for Current Events Resources and the final group will be using the Computer Resources. This not only allows all three groups access to the one computer in your classroom but also requires each group to take responsibility for all three centers even though they are only concentrating on one topic (cause, effect or preparation).

• Sharing:

After all three groups have had a chance to use all three centers, it is time for whole classroom interaction again. Each group should share what they learned regarding their topic and discussion regarding what they share should occur. This not only gives everyone a chance to talk but also to be involved in the journey of learning and teaching. After the discussions have run their course, a bringing together of all the information discovered should take place - this includes all three centers for all three groups and any information gathered via e-mail or outside the group.

• Haiku Writing:

After this has occurred, another activity involving the whole class that can be undertaken is the writing of Haiku poetry.

A. Rationale:

One might wonder what Flooding and Haiku have to do with one another. The connection, although seemingly slight, does exist. If we are teaching the children about flooding, what causes it and what effect it has on land, property and people, then it is not a stretch to tap the creative and "spiritual" side of such tragedy. Since the class will have contact via e-mail with other students in flood-prone areas, some connection may have occurred between the two groups of students. Not to mention the experiences the children we are teaching likely already have with flooding.

When we know about different people or cultures, we are bound to think about ourselves further. That's the amazement and pleasure of personal revelation. It not only gives us some more understanding of others but also of ourselves. This exercise gives the students a chance to touch upon the emotions they have about such an experience (flooding). Using Haiku (or any written expression) to get in touch with the emotions and creativity of the students and have them grow from this technical learning into "spiritual" learning seems, to me anyway, a legitimate and worthwhile endeavor.

B. Background Information:

What is Haiku? Haiku is a classic form of Japanese poetry. Traditionally, it is a very short poetic form, consisting of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each. It also typically deals with nature or evokes a season. In the case of this lesson, it will deal with a particular event caused by nature. It is probably the shortest poetic form in the world.

The poet must be concise because of the brevity of the medium and should concentrate on conveying a deep "spiritual" understanding into the poem. This may sound like a lot to ask of your students, but is not as difficult a task as it may seem at first. The Haiku poet usually writes about the changes in nature which have impressed him in order to express the intangible world of the spirit. Thus we have a great connection between flooding and Haiku right there.

C. Writing Haiku:

Follow these simple rules:

3-short lines

nature

no rhyme or metaphor

17 syllables: 5-7-5

In writing Haiku, one should use simple words and describe the situation clearly. The interpretation of Haiku depends upon the readers. The best Haiku is clearly written with simple, clear images written in their shortest form but arranged so that the words last long after in the mind of the reader. This is the power of Haiku. It can be easily understood, but the words should contain a strong message that has to be searched for. A significant image is produced.

D. Some Examples:

The sea at springtime.

All day it rises and falls,

yes, rises and falls.

- Buson

(as you read this poem aloud do you feel the rise and fall of the waves ? )

In summer one day

When the sun shone very brightly

His eyes were golden

- Morishige Nobusato

E. Conclusion:

After all the Haiku poems have been written, critiqued, edited and shared within the class itself, a brochure about flooding will be made. It will include all the technical specifics discussed elsewhere in this lesson. At the end of the brochure will be the Haiku poems - an essential part of the lesson and of the experience the students have had with "flooding." We will also create our own webpage to display the information we have about flooding, including the Haiku poems. This website can be used for this lesson plan and any other lesson plan in the future.

F. Connections to Computer Technology and/or The Internet:

1.) First and foremost, we can search the Internet for websites on Haiku poems. Simply by using Yahoo!, we can find many sites. This can be accomplished using the one computer and a device to display the computer screen either on a television or the filmstrip screen on the wall.

2.) We will compose our Haiku poems on paper. After we have critiqued and edited the poems, the students will take turns typing them into a word-processing program (such as ClarisWorks) on the computer. This will encourage them to better their typing and further their editing skills. Since they will likely finish editing at different times, the staggering of the typing shouldn't be too difficult.

3.) Next, we will create a brochure using the computer. This can also be done using either ClarisWorks or some other word-processing program. The use of graphics and columns will challenge the students learning. They can do this project both in groups and separately as each student will be responsible for different aspects of the project.

4.) Finally, we may also create a website for our classroom and incorporate the information we have on flooding, including the Haiku poems. This may be done either by following simple HTML instructions (which can also be found on the net) or via a word-processing program which translates into HTML (such as, again, ClarisWorks).

• Brochure/Website Creation:

As stated above, as the concluding exercise to this flood lesson, you can have the students create, write, edit and publish a brochure about flooding. This brochure can be created using computer software and can be given out to the other classrooms in your school (and to the classroom/school you had e-mail interaction with). You may also want to create a webpage using the information that you have gathered. If you have a site on which to store this webpage, this can be a valuable source for this information and can be used by others using teh Internet. Both of these (the brochure and webpage) should include both the general and specific information that each of the three groups (cause, effect and preparation) learned regarding floods/flooding and the Haiku poetry your students wrote.