Lesson Title: Student Autobiography
Topic/Focus Area: Word process a document with clip art/digital camera pictures

Lesson Overview

Students will write about themselves using pre-writing activities. Students will edit their work by typing out their autobiography on a word processor and using spell check. Documents will be enriched with clip art and/or digital pictures.

Student Learning Objectives

• Students will create and edit a 100 word autobiography. Students will use wordprocessing software to correct spelling and grammar.
  
  Students will use a digital camera to take pictures of each other. Students may use clip art or their pictures to enhance their autobiographies.

Activities

1. First Class
   Activity 3: This culminating activity will actually take place about 3 days later to allow time for students to receive more direction about the requirements of the research paper and to do some initial research of their chosen topics. Students will submit disks with a paragraph of information pasted to a Word document above their paraphrasing attempt. Teacher will randomly select samples to display before the class for evaluation and possible editing.
2. First Class (Cont)
   Next, the teacher will model writing an essay. She will use a "think aloud" process to discuss choosing which topics she would use for a personal essay. All of the spider web legs would not be used. Instead, the ones she knows the most about or is the most interested in would be the ones to choose.Using an outline form the teacher will model writing an essay. She will write a topic sentence and use three ideas from the spider web for a simple 5-paragraph essay.Students will be given a worksheet on writing autobiographies to complete in class. For homework, the students will be instructed to interview a relative. The relative will be asked to tell a story about the student when they were young. The student will write down what their relative said and have them sign it to verify their participation in the interview.At this time, students may be given an anonymous pre-test to determine knowledge about clip art and digital cameras. A question to gauge student attitudes about computers is also included.
3. Second Class
   Second Class:Students will complete the writing prompt: "In the future..." as part of a daily writing activity. This can be a journal entry or part of a dialog diary with the teacher.The teacher will discuss with the class how they have all the components written for an autobiography: something from the past, present, and future. Their interview was about something from their past, their first "quick write" was about the present, and the current quick write was about the future.Using this information and sequencing the teacher may model writing an autobiography similar to the previous lesson. This time students should be able to contribute more about what to do. The teacher will discuss how autobiographies often become important documents even though they may have a humble beginning. Examples from history may be discussed (Diary of Anne Frank for example).Students will be assigned to write their own 100 word autobiographical essay using previous written work as needed.Students will create a Microsoft word document using spell and grammar check (if available). To personalize their autobiographies students will use a digital camera to take class pictures and/or students may enhance their work with clip art. After the assignment is completed, students should be given an anonymous (or non-graded) post-test on clip art and digital camera use. This will be used to determine if student skills and perceptions changed after the lesson.

Resources

File Attachments

Power Point presentation with student work & results
  — Mary Reisman.ppt   (471 KB)

Quick Write assignment sample
  — quick write.bmp   (3.38 MB)

Clip Art instructions
  — clip-art instructions.bmp   (821 KB)

Student work # 2 (proficient)
  — Joe.bmp   (1016 KB)

Student work # 3 (advanced)
  — just.doc   (104 KB)

Student interview assignment sample
  — interview.bmp   (4.67 MB)

Spider web assignment sample
  — spider web.bmp   (1.83 MB)

Student work # 1 (basic)
  — Student work # 1.bmp   (4.58 MB)

Quick Write & spider web assignment sample
  — quick write spider.bmp   (4.12 MB)

Student self-report technology survey
  — technology survey.bmp   (4.26 MB)

Performance assessment: Completion of all writing assignments.
Rubric: Comparison of student writing length and quality with last year's autobiography (if available) or another writing assignment on a personal experience.
Self-report survey: pre and post tests on computer knowledge and attitudes.

Lesson needs to be modified according to access to computers and student abilities. Students with few skills can do this lesson but need additional time. To implement this lesson effectively all the computers should be the same to allow for uniform instruction to all students with the least amount of support required.