It's a Rat's Life

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It's a Rat's Life
The Black Death Celia Sertich Antelope
Crossing Middle School
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Who am I Why am I Doing This?

• My name is Celia Sertich and I teach 7th grade
  Language Arts and Social Studies at Antelope
  Crossing Middle School.

• This is a seventh grade History/Social Science
  lesson on the Bubonic Plague.

• I decided to create this lesson because I have
  been looking for a way to teach the Plague that
  would be student directed and would engage the
  students interest.

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EXPECTATIONS
I decided to join CTAP for a number of reasons

• To learn how to put a lesson on a web page.

• To improve my computer knowledge and skills.

• To create a lesson to be used in my classroom.

• To meet and work with a group of creative people.

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OUTCOMES
From this experience I learned

• How to create a web page.

• How to graph with Excel.

• How to communicate in a chat group.

• How to FTP files

• How to use a search engine.

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SUCCESSES

• Meets multiple standards

• Students self-directed

• High interest

• Students learned subject

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SHORTCOMINGS

• Lack of numerous computers.

• Time for all students to work on computers.

• Lack of internet connection in classroom for
  research.

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RESULTS
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RESULTS

• Students had little knowledge of the plague as
  shown by pretest.

• The map and timeline assignments gave the
  students information for the final two projects.

• The majority of students successfully completed
  both the paper and the Power Point presentation.

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ASSESSMENT
After reviewing the data I decided that the
students needed more time to complete all the
projects adequately. Most students did well but
could have done better.
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ASSESSMENT
This rubric was used to assess the editorial.
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ASSESSMENT
This rubric was used to assess the Power Point
presentation.
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REVISIONS
What I would change next time

• I would give all assignments at the beginning of
  the lesson so the students knew what to expect.

• I would book mark links that were helpful so the
  students have easy access to them.

• I would take more time for this unit or allow
  students to do more work at home.

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REVISIONS
Finally

• Instead of each student creating a Power Point
  presentation I would have the students work in
  groups of two to four. This would give the
  students a chance to combine their knowledge as
  well as solve the problem for finding time for so
  many presentations.

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CONCLUSION
Working on this web lesson was a challenge. I
loved writing the curriculum and working within
the standards. Will I do it again? I did learn
an amazing amount (by trial and error) and I am
contemplating doing another. I am looking forward
to seeing and using lessons created by my peers.
I have a better understanding of all that goes
into creating lessons for the web.