WHERE IS MONTPELIER? And How Do You Get There? Sandra Gustafson Dool School Fifth Grade

ACTIVITIES Day 1 and 2 – Pre-Tests Day 3, 4 and 5 – Online Activities Day 6 and 7 – Post-Tests Day 8 Culminating Activity

STANDARD ADDRESSED Fifth Grade Social Science 5.9 – Students know the location of the current 50 states and the names of their capitals.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES Students will learn the location of the 50 states Students will learn the names of the capitals of each of the 50 states

ASSESSMENTS AND RUBRICS Percentage grades for Pre and Post Tests Points given for each day’s online activities when completed Grades from these activities combined with grades from other class activities in this unit

INTERNET INTEGRATION Online activities were used to enhance the teaching of the concepts to be learned in the unit of States and Capitals being taught. These online activities served as an added and fun practice in the learning of the state facts. Through the use of the internet, students were able to get practice learning the needed skills beyond the usual “paper/pencil” activities.

OTHER TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION VCR to view movie(s) of United States to see geographical features Computers and word processors to type research papers about states Overhead projector to present information to whole class CD player for music and songs about states, such as “States and Capitals Rap”

LESSON PLAN REVISIONS New test for matching states and capitals Reword Instructional Objectives Reword description of Culminating Activity Made font on pages uniform

LESSON IMPLEMENTATION Students worked on these online activities during our computer rotations during the morning. In the afternoon, during the Social Science time they worked on writing and gathering information for their 5-10 page research paper on their chosen state. By doing these online activities students became more aware of the location of their chosen state in relation to the whole country. They also had practice in learning the 50 states and capitals.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE Most students did better on the Post-test of the locations of the 50 states than on the Pre-test There was a problem with the test of matching the states and capitals, so a new test was made. Therefore, data could not be compared because this test was not accurate. Participation points only were given for completion of the online activities.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE DATA The graph at the right shows that most students made an improvement from the Pre-test to the Post-test on State Locations

STUDENT PERFORMANCE DATA Comparing Pre and Post Test of State Location

WHAT I LEARNED How to more effectively use technology in the classroom How to guide the students’ use of the internet How to create hyper-links, so internet sites are more readily available for use How to use the Excel and Powerpoint programs more effectively

SUMMARY The making and implementation of this website has been quite an experience!! It was a lot more work than I bargained for when I signed up for this course. The use of the technology and internet activities in the classroom was very beneficial since I teach this unit every year. I will use this website and these internet activities when teaching this unit in future years. I hope that I will be able to update it to keep it current and useful for myself and others.