Dawn Tush Final Portfolio – Lesson Plan & Documentation for Project

Authors: Chris Frey (Chrispy), Dawn Tush (Dawn), Butch Cynberg (Butch), Linda Bradford (Eva)

Lesson Plan Title: ROMA - Tour Guide

Content area to be covered: Tour Roma in Second Life

Learning outcomes:

A. Students will use http://www.authorstream.com/ to upload PowerPoint presentation using voice over narration 100% of
the time.

B. Students will answer the question: “What were two major parts of Rome’s successful military?” with 80% accuracy.

C. Students will answer the question: “What lessons can we learn from Rome’s military success, naming at least four
lessons,” with 80% accuracy.

D. Students will name and describe at least three parts of our US culture that are similar to Rome’s coliseum with 80%
accuracy.

Description/characteristics of your learners:

Adult learners or any one interested in learning about the Roman Empire, using Second Life.

Location of instructional delivery: Second Life/Roma

http://world.secondlife.com/region/efeebb86-8049-466c-a173-80fa6a251708
Justification for choice of location:
This is a SL world that explores Roma and the questions: What were two major parts of Rome’s successful military? What
lessons can we learn from Rome’s military success, naming at least four lessons? Can you name at least three parts of
our US culture that are similar to Rome’s coliseum?

Technology mix to support learning outcomes:

Technology needed: Internet connections, Mac or PC, Second Life, Bandwidth suitable for SL

Justification for choices

Second Life is a representation of the world as we know it. Roma was created by humans and people create what is real
to them, therefore Roma is as real as the creator could make it. Second Life and Roma are interactive, informative,
thought provoking, and an excellent way to learn about the Roman Empire.

Procedures/Activities/Discussion and Resources:

1.) Students log into Second Life.
2.) Students will be asked to get a notecard from the "giver" containing a list of questions to think about as they tour
Roma.
3.) Students open link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=641n8U3f1L0 – Par 1 (low rez)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEWxZLzaQG8 - Par 2 (low rez)
4.) Students begin tour and are given 45 minutes to finish the tour and explore ROMA.
5.) The teacher explains criteria for the rubric-based assignment on student created teaching presentation.
6.) Students begin working on teaching presentation and teacher answers questions about ROMA and assignment.

Assessment:
Students will use http://www.authorstream.com/ to upload PowerPoint presentation and voice over narration.

Presentation must answer the posed questions and meet the requirements.
Questions:
1. What were two major parts of Rome’s successful military?
2. What lessons can we learn from Rome’s military success?
3. Are there parts of our US culture that are similar to Rome’s coliseum?
4. Student can answer any question of their choosing from ROMA or the guide.

Lesson Plan:
Link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AafDw5P_2kzoZGY3dmhzZmdfMTQ1ZnhmajdrZDc&hl=en
Student Lesson Rubric:
Lesson/Instructional Presentation Rubric:
Link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tIPQXNsikPjLq6FEJT3HEeQ&output=html
Justification for Rubric Assessments
 Rubrics improve student performance by clearly showing the student how their work will be evaluated and what is
expected.
 Rubrics help students become better judges of the quality of their own work.
 Rubrics allow assessment to be more objective and consistent.
 Rubrics force the teacher to clarify his/her criteria in specific terms.
 Rubrics reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating student work.
 Rubrics promote student awareness about the criteria to use in assessing peer performance.
 Rubrics provide useful feedback to the teacher regarding the effectiveness of the instruction.
 Rubrics provide students with more informative feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement.
 Rubrics accommodate heterogeneous classes by offering a range of quality levels.
 Rubrics are easy to use and easy to explain.
Information retrieved on August 2, 2009 from http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm
Instructional evaluation – questionnaire given to learners:
Questions:

1. What were two major parts of Rome’s successful military?

2. What lessons can we learn from Rome’s military success?

3. Are there parts of our US culture that are similar to Rome’s coliseum?

4. Do you think that Second Life will, at some point in the future, use "Bots" (virtual tour guides) to provide audio tours that
include a variety of options within that area of the world, letting the explorer choose where to go?

5. What advantages would you anticipate with the possibility of using "Bots"?

6. What issues, from a designers perspective, do you see in including "Bots"?

7. What advantages or disadvantages are there in using places like Roma to teach about historical events?

Personal reflection about what you learned about yourself as a teacher.

I will write my personal reflection after I have done my teaching, on the 12th.

Other Final Portfolio Projects

Social Networking # 1
The first social networking assignment was the pre-made presentation that you made a few weeks back. For this activity, I
learned how to build a prim and upload textures. I was able to make it viewable by the class.
Here are the steps that I took:
1. Right click the ground or on another object.
2. Select Create.
 3. Decide what textures, colors and size you want.
4. Upload textures to the prim and In World video player.
This was a great learning experience for me and the first time I had ever created a prim and slideshow.

Social Networking #2
The second social networking assignment is my work with a group to create the Stoplight Assessment. For this activity,
the group had to build four, colored blocks, each representing how student’s felt about their understanding of particular
concept. Each block was labeled with appropriate captions, enabling the participants the ability to rate themselves.

Stoplight Assessment Tool

Description - Use this assessment tool to help gauge the level of understanding of a certain task. Just have the students
stand on the block that best describes their level of understanding.

Green - Means that the student(s) understand the concept very well and feel comfortable teaching the concept to other
students.

Yellow - Means that the student(s) can do it on their own but might need a little help and a little more practice.

Orange - Means that the student(s) understand the task but having a little trouble.

Red - Means "Stop! Help me! I am having a lot of trouble and need help"

Example - Please stand on the block that best describes your comfort level with changing your avatar's appearance.

Idea: Have "green" students peer coach "red" students, and pair "yellow" and "orange" students for peer coaching as well.

Gardening Activity
I also added items to the gardening activity including flowers, dandelions and other items (I’m still searching and adding
and will continue until the activity is done).

Microteaching with Lesson Plan - Roma

The group microteaching is a 15-minute teaching: Our group chose to create a lesson on using Roma to teach about
historical events. Each member of the group was assigned a task: Chrispy created the YouTube video and initial lesson
plan, Butch created and built the vase and stand to be used as a “giver”. Eva created the notecard and linked the video
and lesson plan to it and I created the questions to think about while taking a tour of Roma, created the lesson
presentation rubric and collaborated on the student lesson rubric.
EVERYONE collaborated on both rubrics, making additions/edits to them.

Meetings
We met as a group for 30 minutes after a Wednesday night class, then met again as a group on a different day for an hour
or more to tie the project together. We plan to get together the day of our presentation to run through the project, check for
group cohesiveness and ‘tweak’ things if necessary.

The lesson plan containing the student lesson rubric is posted in the social forum, in the Final Project Portfolios thread. It
is the lesson plan for the microteaching presentation. The link for the plan is:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AafDw5P_2kzoZGY3dmhzZmdfMTQ1ZnhmajdrZDc&hl=en

The lesson evaluation rubric is posted in the social forum:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ai4KFacCpirgdElQUVhOc2lrUGpMcTZGRUpUM0hFZVE&hl=en

The rubric ID # for viewing the lesson presentation rubric is: 1773140 at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php