1. Lesson Description 2. Classroom and Time Management 3. Materials and Teacher Preparation 4. Assessment 5. Technical Skills Guide  1. Lesson Description Period of time required for lesson: 6 days, 55-minute each day Overall goal of the lesson: The goal is for students to understand the underlying principles of the Bill of Rights. They will also research, examine, an discuss the issues that lead to writing and adding the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. In investigating the development of the Bill of Rights and how it shaped a nation, students will replicate the process used by the founding fathers by creating their own composition of their school and collaborate in teams to use problem solving skills and expository writing to create their Bill of Rights. Each student will assume a delegate position and justify his or her position and contribution to the student Bill of Rights. It will be published as a manifesto attached to the newsletter. Rationale for the lesson: This lesson addresses the social studies standard for eighth grade. The standard states that students must understand the formation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as why the delegates became involved in writing them. Students will also address the language arts standard for the eighth grade in creating a newsletter, specifically, standard 1.0. Student academic outcome objectives: Students will be able to: examine and understand the historical events that led to the creation of the Bill of Rights discuss and appraise the underlying concerns of the Constitutional Convention delegates and their reasons for supplementing the Constitution with the Bill of Rights. explore and discuss the underlying principles of the Bill of Rights and defend their choices for their own Bill of Rights. demonstrate their understanding of the underlying principles of the Bill of Rights by publishing a newsletter that is persuasive and justifies their own Bill of Rights. Student social outcome objectives: Students will be able to: learn how to listen and respect different spectives and negotiate to arrive at a consensus practice writing for a particular audience as well as giving and receiving constructive criticism Student technical skills outcome objectives: Students will learn how to: create a title or (Main Menu) line page for their group's writing. develop hyperlinks to pages on their own site as well as to remote sites format a document in a way appropriate for Web publishing tiling a background image create a "Webography" (Web bibliography) to share their research sites changing font and size use spell check use color and graphics for emphasis upload files to their school intranet or Internet Web site Prerequisite Academic Skills: Students should: know how to create a grammatically correct paragraph, which presents clear and supported ideas understand the major ideas of the enlightenment and origins of self government found in the Magna Carta know the six basic underlying principles of the U.S. Constitution Prerequisite Social Skills: Students should know how to: work in cooperative group setting brainstorm and to contribute to a groups setting ask relevant questions Prerequisite Technical Skills: Students should know how to: recognize basic interface features of StarOffice 5.2 log on to their computer network reboot in case of system failure create a new text document and save it to the appropriate folder open an existing document from the appropriate folder print a document navigate in a document by using the keyboard use the basic purposes of the mouse such as left and right clicking use basic pull-down menu commands under File and Edit use the basics of word processing software, including importing images, cutting and pasting text, and anchoring images use email Back to Top  2. Classroom and Time Management Group Management: Students will work in heterogeneous groups. Each group will be responsible for the overall layout and content of its website. The group will be responsible for feedback and peer editing of the bill of rights and supporting documents. Technology Management: Students should have a common work folder where they can read and write privileges for collaboration. They should collect URLs for their webography and coordinate their web site on one computer. Students will edit work and design their web site on paper first to map it out most effectively. Students will choose file names for each article being developed and graphics can be placed in it. Time Management: Day Event 1-2 Students receive instructions for the assignment. Students form groups, assign role, receive directions on research procedures. Students should outline the main page of the web site. Students follow up previous research and write down the following: The URL of any site used in research. A formal bibliography example can be found in the MLA. 3 Students compose email to the authors/Web masters of the sites they are using in the Webography. The teacher reviews the letters before they are sent. They include: A description of the project, an introduction to the school and classroom, as well as requests for permission to use the website as a link for their website. They should also request permission to use graphics found on their site. An explanation of how long the site will be online and who will utilize it. 4-5 Students create their web pages using StarOffice 5.2. They upload their web pages to the school Internet web site. 6 Students ask parents, other students, and community members to give feedback on the web sit. Students respond to the email sent to them. The Teacher must review the email before it is sent. Back to Top  3. Materials and Teacher Preparation As included with the Technical Skills Guide. Teachers must have a scanner available for students to import graphics to slides. Back to Top  4. Assessment Students will be graded on both their individual and group work. Content of the web site, group participation, and individual contribution should be assessed. Back to Top  5. Technical Skills Guide -StarOffice (zipped - 400 Kb) Back to Top