Unit Overview



INQUIRY BASED UNIT PLAN

APP7: Inquiry-based Unit Plan

Alicia Anderson

Walden University

Instructor: Theresa Pepe

6712: Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

October 25, 2009

|Grade Level(s): |2nd grade FILLIN "[Complete week 2.]" |

|Subject(s): |Reading/Language Arts |

|Standard(s) or Outcome(s): | |

| |Tennessee State Standards: |

| |2.2.01e: Participate in creative responses to text |

| |2.1.01.f: Respond to questions from teachers and other group |

| |members |

| |2.1.09.b: Check for understanding after reading by: recalling |

| |sequence of events in a story; restating story events in order |

| |to clarify and organize ideas; recognizing the main idea in the|

| |text |

| |2.2.06.a.: Prepare a variety of written work |

| | |

| |SPI’s (State Performance Indicators) addressed: |

| |0201.3.1- Write to describe, entertain, and inform |

| |0201.3.2- Write in response to literature |

| |0201.3.3- Brainstorm ideas with teachers and peers, use graphic|

| |organizers independently and use a variety of resources to |

| |gather information |

| |0201.2.9- Retell a story describing the plot, characters and |

| |setting. |

| |0201.3.7- Arrange events in a logical and sequential order when|

| |writing |

| |0201.3.13- Incorporate photographs or illustrations in written |

| |work |

| |0201.7.4- Begin to utilize technology to create publications |

| |and presentations |

| | |

| |New literacy skills which will be addressed in this lesson: |

| |Developing good essential questions |

| |Searching for and locating internet resources |

| |Evaluating resources and information on the internet |

| |Synthesizing information from multiple resources |

| |Communicating effectively in multiple modalities |

|Time allotted: |This unit will take place over a two-week (10 days) period. |

| |This time will consist of ten 30-minute class periods |

| |throughout the unit. |

|Short description of unit: |This unit plan is designed to encourage students to participate|

| |in creative responses to the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless |

| |Friends, and apply the new literacy skills that are mentioned |

| |in the standards section of the unit plan. Another purpose of |

| |this unit plan is to integrate technology into the curriculum |

| |by having students communicate what they have learned through |

| |various Web 2.0 applications. |

|Customization or adaptation for diverse or special needs |In order to meet the needs of diverse and/or special needs |

|students: |students the following modifications will be made: |

| |-The teacher will assist the student throughout the unit as |

| |needed. |

| |- The student will be given extra time to complete each section|

| |of the unit plan as needed. |

| |- The student will be grouped with a peer who will help guide |

| |him/her throughout the completion of the unit plan as needed. |

| |-The teacher will modify the rubric as needed to assess the |

| |student on the skills he/she is capable of according to their |

| |IEP (Individualized Educational Plan). |

|Formative and Summative |The learning outcomes of this unit plan will be assessed |

|Assessment Strategies: |through completion of a rubric (which will be teacher-created) |

| |for each student. Each student will be assessed in the |

| |following categories: |

| |Developing Essential Questions (30 percent of the grade) |

| |Locating an Evaluating Internet Resources (20 percent of the |

| |grade) |

| |Synthesizing and Communicating Effectively (40 percent of the |

| |grade) |

| |Crediting Resources (10 percent of the grade) |

|Student Products: |Each student will complete one of the following Web 2.0 |

| |applications as their inquiry-based project: |

| |Blog- is short for weblog that you can write entries into, add |

| |material to, and maintain over an extended period of time |

| |Voice Thread- a powerful way to share your images, documents |

| |and videos with others around the world. |

| |Wiki- A collaborative website whose content can be edited by |

| |anyone who has access to it. |

Materials, Resources, Technology and logistics: | The materials that will be used throughout this inquiry-based unit are as follows:

Scott Foresman Reading Street teacher edition and student edition- the teacher will guide students before, during, and after the reading of the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends using the teacher edition, and students will read the story using the student edition.

A teacher-created rubric-, which will be used to assist students throughout the completion of this inquiry-based unit plan.

A teacher-created handout- students will complete this handout by rating the website they choose to find out information from for their inquiry-based project.

Brainstorming Web- this will assist students in developing the good essential questions, which will guide them in creating their inquiry-based projects.

Bubble Map- students will use this map to assist them in stating the main idea and details from the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends.

Jeopardy game- this game will be created by the teacher to pose questions to students about the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends, this game will also guide students into developing good essential questions of their own.

HYPERLINK ""

a free educational blogging site where teachers can create blogs for their students. The students who choose to complete the weblog inquiry-based project will create a posting, which will state the story events and the student’s opinion, and/or rating of the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends.

HYPERLINK ""

a free website that allows user to have conversations around media using images, audio and and text. The students who choose the voice thread inquiry-based project will post a picture of a scene from the story that they have drawn, write about that particular scene of the story using the text option of the voice thread application, or tell about the scene using the voiceover option of the voice thread application.

HYPERLINK ""

|Other considerations: |None |

|Introducing the Big Idea, Theme or Hook: | In order to captivate the students’ attention the teacher |

| |must carefully plan a motivating and engaging opening to the |

| |project that is being presented. To introduce this project the|

| |class will participate in a discussion of heroes. The teacher |

| |will display a picture of someone doing something heroic, such |

| |as helping someone out of a dangerous situation. The teacher |

| |will initiate discussion by asking children what they know |

| |about heroes. Next, the teacher will create a T-chart, which |

| |will be labeled Hero/Not a Hero. The teacher will call on |

| |students to list the characteristics of heroes and non-heroes. |

| |These activities will connect to the selection story titled |

| |Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends, which is a story about two |

| |dogs that rescue someone from a dangerous situation (Foresman, |

| |2008). |

|Learning Objectives: |The student will participate in creative responses to text. |

| |The student will respond to questions from teachers and other |

| |group members. |

| |The student will recall sequence of events in the story |

| |The student will recognize the main idea and details |

| |The student will prepare a variety of written work to show the |

| |objectives have been met. |

|Developing questions: | A well-crafted inquiry-based project must first begin with|

| |good essential questions. During the introduction of the big |

| |idea of this unit plan, the students participated in a |

| |discussion of heroes. The purpose of this discussion is to |

| |pose questions to the students that will provoke thought, |

| |inspire deep thinking (Canter, 2009) lead to conversation, and |

| |eventually lead them to creating their own questions. In order|

| |to guide students in developing good essential questions |

| |Essential questions should stimulate thought and lively |

| |discussions, provoke inquiry, and spark meaningful connections |

| |to prior learning (Wiggins & McTighee, 2007). |

| |To assist students in creating good essential questions the |

| |teacher will display questions, which are created around the |

| |story content for students to answer. This will be done |

| |through use of a class jeopardy game, in which the answers will|

| |be in the form of a question. This will help students in |

| |understanding that the story content should be the answers to |

| |the questions that they develop. According to Eagleton & Dobler|

| |(2005) the most compelling inquiry questions are |

| |student-generated. Therefore, students will be required to |

| |develop five questions from the story content for their |

| |inquiry-based project. The questions that they develop must be|

| |in sequence of the story content, two questions from the |

| |beginning, two from the middle, and one from the end. Each |

| |student will be given a sufficient amount of time in developing|

| |the questions (Wiggins & McTighee, 2007), and making sure they |

| |fall within the guidelines that the teacher presented. |

| |The time allotted for developing the good essential questions |

| |will be three class periods of 30 minutes each. During the |

| |first 30-minute period, the teacher will display examples of |

| |good essential questions and model how the students should |

| |develop their good questions. The students will brainstorm |

| |ideas for the questions they wish to create with the teacher |

| |acting as a facilitator during the second 30-minute period. |

| |The third 30-minute period will consist of students developing |

| |good essential questions for their inquiry-based project. |

|Grouping of Students: | Students will be placed in cooperative groups of four. |

| |Students who are involved in cooperative learning activities |

| |(groups) in which their efforts produce benefits for peers as |

| |well as for themselves perform higher on standardized tests and|

| |also do better on tasks involving higher-level thinking than |

| |when they study alone (Allen & Plax, 1999). The groups will |

| |consist of students who range in ability levels and display |

| |variety in intelligences. Therefore if one student in the |

| |group lacks in a specific area other students in the group can |

| |assist and vice-versa. Each student must develop their own |

| |good essential questions, however during the completion of the |

| |project group members may assist each other when needed, and as|

| |instructed by the teacher. |

|Student Products: | During this activity, the students will produce three good |

| |essential questions that will become the central focus of their|

| |inquiry- based project. |

|Activity | The content and the development of the new literacy skill |

|Assessment Strategies: |of developing good essential questions will be assessed during |

| |this portion of unit by completion of a teacher-created rubric.|

| |This rubric will address each new literacy skill for this |

| |particular unit of study. The overall student product scores |

| |from the rubric will factor into the formative and summative |

| |assessment plans. |

|Materials, Resources, Technology and logistics: | The materials that will be used for this portion of the |

| |inquiry-based unit plan are as follows: |

| | |

| |A teacher-created rubric-, which will be used to assist |

| |students throughout the completion of this inquiry-based unit |

| |plan. |

| | |

| |Scott Foresman Reading Street teacher edition and student |

| |edition- the teacher will guide students before, during, and |

| |after the reading of the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends|

| |using the teacher edition, and students will read the story |

| |using the student edition. |

| | |

| |Brainstorming Web- this will assist students in developing the |

| |good essential questions, which will guide them in creating |

| |their inquiry-based projects. |

| | |

| |Bubble Map- students will use this map to assist them in |

| |stating the main idea and details from the story Tara and |

| |Tiree, Fearless Friends. |

| | |

| |Jeopardy game- this game will be created by the teacher to pose|

| |questions to students about the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless |

| |Friends, this game will also guide students into developing |

| |good essential questions of their own. |

|Other considerations: |None |

|Introducing the activities: | The teacher will begin this part of the unit plan by |

| |teaching students how to evaluate information online. The |

| |teacher will introduce students to the ABC’s of a website as |

| |explained by David Warlick (Canter, 2009). The ABC’s pertain |

| |to the author, bias, content, dates, and editor. The students|

| |will be introduced to the activity of locating and evaluating |

| |internet resources through navigation of various websites |

| |presented by the teacher. The teacher will display four |

| |websites (two which are reliable, and two which are not) to the|

| |students and ask which websites contain the ABC’s of a website.|

| |The teacher will briefly navigate through the websites with the|

| |students to identify which web sites contain this useful |

| |information, and which do not. Once students have successfully|

| |completed this activity by correctly identifying the reliable |

| |web sites they are ready search the internet and locate the |

| |resources for their inquiry-based project. |

|Learning Objectives: |1. The student will successfully locate three reliable web |

| |sites, which pertain to their topic. |

| |2. The student will evaluate information found on the three |

| |reliable web sites, which they have chosen. |

|Searching the internet and locating resources: | Many children and struggling learners have a limited |

| |understanding of how to best utilize digital resources for |

| |inquiry, and lack of strategies for efficiently and effectively|

| |locating information on the web (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). |

| |That is why teaching students to properly search the internet |

| |to locate reliable sources is so important. In order for |

| |students to learn how to effectively search the internet for |

| |this particular unit plan, they will be taught how to examine |

| |features of web sites. The teacher will present various web |

| |sites and show how color is used to prioritize or differentiate|

| |information, how size and color are used to identify key words |

| |or links, and how to use navigation bars, menus and indexes |

| |(Canter, 2007). These features are especially important to |

| |study to the young learner who may be very limited in knowledge|

| |about how the internet functions. This portion of the unit |

| |plan will be allotted one 30-minute class period. |

|Evaluating resources and information on the internet: | In this portion of the unit plan the teacher will explain |

| |the three areas of evaluation in determining a good web site |

| |from a bad one as described by Kathy Schrock (2009). The three|

| |areas that students will be lead to explore are those of |

| |navigation and usability, authorship, and content validity. |

| |The teacher will create a handout in which the students will |

| |rate each of the websites they choose for their inquiry-based |

| |projects in theses three areas. The students will use a scale |

| |of 1 to 5 (1 being the worst, 5 being the best) to determine |

| |which web sites were easy to navigate, were user-friendly, if |

| |the site provided information about the author as well as |

| |credentials supporting the information, and if the content was |

| |valid for the type of information they were seeking to find on |

| |the topic. As students explore the web sites and evaluate each|

| |of them, the teacher will assist as needed in completion of the|

| |handout. This portion of the unit plan will be allotted two |

| |30-minute class periods |

|Grouping of Students: | Students will be partnered for this portion of the unit |

| |plan. Each student will have a partner with whom they will |

| |explore various web sties relating to their inquiry-based |

| |project, and complete the rating handout. Students who are |

| |strong readers will be partnered with weak readers to help them|

| |determine web sites that may be a good match for their topic. |

| |When a search engine returns a hit list of potential web sites |

| |weak readers sometimes click on all the hits in numerical |

| |order, whereas stronger readers are more selective in |

| |determining the likelihood of a good match (Eagleton & Dobler, |

| |2007). |

|Student Products: | During this activity, the students will complete the |

| |handout in which they will rate the web sites that they choose |

| |to find information for their inquiry-based project. |

|Activity Assessment Strategies: |The content and the development of the new literacy skills of |

| |searching the internet and locating resources, and evaluating |

| |resources and information on the internet will be assessed |

| |during this portion of unit by completion of a teacher-created |

| |rubric. This rubric will address each new literacy skill for |

| |this particular unit of study. The overall student product |

| |scores from the rubric will factor into the formative and |

| |summative assessment plans. |

Materials, Resources, Technology and logistics: |The materials that will be used for this portion of the inquiry-based unit plan are as follows:

A teacher-created rubric-, which will be used to assist students throughout the completion of this inquiry-based unit plan.

A teacher-created handout in which students will evaluate their chosen web sites.

Various websites that will be presented to the students during the introduction of this portion of the unit plan. These web sites include, but are not limited to the following:

HYPERLINK ""

HYPERLINK ""

HYPERLINK ""

HYPERLINK "" treeoctopus/

|Other considerations: |None |

|Activity: Synthesizing Resources and Communicating Effectively |

Introducing the activities: |To introduce this portion of the unit plan the teacher will present each of the project/product options to the students. The teacher will present each option by giving an overview of what the project/product is, and how they will use it to communicate what they have learned. All students will view the web site HYPERLINK "" to view the webisode about blogs to build background knowledge on blogs. All students will view a voice thread tutorial on HYPERLINK "" to build background knowledge on voice threads. To build background knowledge on wikis the teacher will display the class wikispace (which was previously created) at HYPERLINK "" andersonaliciar. the teacher will navigate through the wiki to show students what the wiki contains and how to build pages within the wiki.

|Learning Objectives: |Students will utilize technology to create a Web 2.0 |

| |application of their choice (blog, wiki, or voice thread) to |

| |communicate story events and information researched around the |

| |story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends. |

|Synthesizing information from multiple resources: | When students have located reliable and accurate |

| |information and resources for their inquiry based projects, |

| |they must then make sense of this information (Canter, 2009). |

| |The information, which they will use for their inquiry-based |

| |project, must also make sense to those who will evaluate their |

| |project. Eagleton and Dobler (2007, pg. 38) state that |

| |synthesizing is thought to be the most challenging of the |

| |comprehension strategies because it requires the reader to |

| |bring together an awareness of the reading process and an |

| |understanding of the text. In order to assist students in |

| |overcoming this challenge the teacher must present ways for the|

| |student to accurately present information they have acquired |

| |from the text. This will be done through completion of concept|

| |mapping. The teacher will model, guide, and assist students |

| |through the process of creating a bubble map. Through use of |

| |concept maps such as the bubble map, students can list the |

| |project title or topic in the center, and state the guiding |

| |questions or main ideas and details around that topic. Using a |

| |concept map will help students gather their ideas, which in |

| |turn will help them communicate them more effectively. |

| | |

| |In order for students to learn how to properly credit sources, |

| |the teacher will cite any books, web pages, and photos used |

| |throughout this unit plan. This will help students understand |

| |that the work created by others should be respected (Canter, |

| |2009). The teacher will also inform students of the reasons |

| |why they should credit sources they use throughout the unit. |

| |Those reasons being that it shows how the work of others has |

| |influenced their own, it acknowledges others hard work, it is a|

| |sign of professionalism, and not doing so could result in |

| |negative consequences (Canter, 2009). The teacher will discuss|

| |each of these reasons with the students and inform them that |

| |properly crediting their sources will be assessed into their |

| |final project grade. |

| | |

| |The time allotted for synthesizing information from multiple |

| |resources will be two class periods of 30 minutes each. During |

| |these periods the teacher will model, guide, and assist |

| |students through developing a concept map to effectively |

| |organize their ideas in order to transfer them into a written |

| |format. |

|Communicating effectively in multiple modalities: | The new literacy skill of communicating effectively is one|

| |in which the teacher acts fully as the facilitator in the |

| |classroom. The steps of questioning, searching, locating, |

| |evaluating, and synthesizing have been completed and the |

| |information is ready to be presented. In today’s digital age |

| |there are multiple ways to present a variety of written work. |

| |Powerful web tools for classrooms such as blogs, wikis, and |

| |voice threads allow students to communicate, with not only |

| |classmates, but also people around the world. Without question|

| |our ability to easily publish content online and to connect to |

| |vast networks of passionate learners will force us to rethink |

| |the way we deliver our curriculum, and the expectations we have|

| |of our students (Richardson, 2009). When educators allow |

| |students to share their ideas, present information they have |

| |learned, and express their opinions using various forms of |

| |technology they are preparing them for the unpredictable future|

| |that David Warlick (Canter, 2009) speaks of, one in which |

| |students will be prepared for whatever may come their way. |

| | |

| |In this portion of the unit plan, each student will choose |

| |which type of product/project they would like to use to present|

| |the information they have obtained throughout the unit plan. |

| |The student may choose to create a blog, create a wikispace, or|

| |create a voice thread to present their information. The student|

| |will have the freedom to compose text and create pictures (clip|

| |art or hand-drawn) to embed into their product/project. |

| |However, the teacher will review the text and pictures before |

| |they are published on the web site to ensure the text is an |

| |accurate account of the information, proper grammar is used, |

| |and the pictures correlate with the information. To ensure that|

| |students |

| |give proper credit to the resources they used throughout the |

| |unit the teacher will display the rubric for the students. The|

| |teacher will focus on the crediting sources section of the |

| |rubric and explain that this must be done to obtain full credit|

| |for this portion of the unit plan. |

| | |

| |The time allotted for communicating effectively in multiple |

| |modalities will be five class periods of 30 minutes each. |

| |During these time periods the students will type their |

| |information (which was taken from the concept map and |

| |transferred into written form) into a draft form in a word |

| |document. The students will use spell check, grammar check, |

| |thesaurus, and the dictionary in the word document to edit and |

| |revise their information. Once completed the teacher will |

| |review all word documents to ensure accuracy, correct |

| |information and properly credited sources, then upload each |

| |students’ word document into the web 2.0 application he/she has|

| |chosen as their inquiry-based product/project. If the student |

| |completed hand-drawn artwork to be embedded into the product |

| |the teacher will assist the student in scanning the picture, |

| |uploading it to a flash drive, and uploading it into the |

| |product. |

|Grouping of Students: |There will be three groups for this portion of the unit plan |

| |(one for each type of product/project). Students will be |

| |grouped according to the project/product they chose to |

| |complete. |

|Student Products: |The student will choose one of the following products/projects |

| |to create for this portion of the unit plan: |

| |Blog- is short for weblog that you can write entries into, add |

| |material to, and maintain over an extended period of time |

| |Voice Thread- a powerful way to share your images, documents |

| |and videos with others around the world. |

| |Wiki- A collaborative website whose content can be edited by |

| |anyone who has access to it. |

|Assessment Strategies: |The content and the development of the new literacy skills of |

| |synthesizing information from multiple modalities, and |

| |communicating effectively in multiple modalities will be |

| |assessed during this portion of unit by completion of a |

| |teacher-created rubric. This rubric will address each new |

| |literacy skill for this particular unit of study. The overall |

| |student product scores from the rubric will factor into the |

| |formative and summative assessment plans. |

Materials, Resources, Technology and logistics: |A teacher-created rubric-, which will be used to assist students throughout the completion of this inquiry-based unit plan.

Bubble Map- students will use this map to assist them in stating the main idea and details from the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends.

HYPERLINK ""

a free educational blogging site where teachers can create blogs for their students. The students who choose to complete the weblog inquiry-based project will create a posting, which will state the story events and the student’s opinion, and/or rating of the story Tara and Tiree, Fearless Friends.

HYPERLINK ""

a free website that allows user to have conversations around media using images, audio and and text. The students who choose the voice thread inquiry-based project will post a picture of a scene from the story that they have drawn, write about that particular scene of the story using the text option of the voice thread application, or tell about the scene using the voiceover option of the voice thread application.

HYPERLINK ""

|Other considerations: |None |

References

Allan, T., & Plax, T. (1999). Group communications in the formal educational context. In F.R.

Lawrence (Ed.), /the handbook of group communication theory & research (pp.493-515).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Canter, L. (Director). (2009). Program 1: Supporting Information Literature and Online Inquiry in the Classroom [Motion picture]. In Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer), Skills for the future. Los Angeles: Solution Tree.

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Foresman, Scott (2008). Reading Street: Grade 2, Unit 2: Working Together. Glenview, IL: Pearson

Education, Inc.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.

California: Corwin Press.

Schrock, Kathy (2009). Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators. Retrieved from

.

Wiggins, G, & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development.

[Integrating Technology into the Classroom through use of Web 2.0 Applications]: An Inquiry-based Unit Plan PAGE 1

By: Alicia Anderson

EDUC 6712: | Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

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