B.+Step-by-Step+Instructional+Strategies

** Academic: ** ELA9RC1: Students will understand that reading from a variety of subject disciplines will enhance learning. ELA9RC2: Students will understand that discussions can lead to connections for texts in all subject areas. ** Technology:  ** Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. **Essential Question(s): ** ELA9RC1: How do texts in various subject areas connect with each other? ELA9RC2: How does one evaluate the merits of texts? How do writers and readers connect? What is the author’s purpose in writing?
 * Goals and Objectives: **

Each group of students will share independently read texts, and comment on other's reactions to literature. In this way, each reader becomes a writer responding to content, reading what others share, responding in writing to other's responses. This is a very cohesive method of connecting to both text, literary content, and peers asynchronously. Students evaluate the positive features of what others write in their comments to others' response to literature. Finally, the story starter exercise provides ample practice in reading to comprehend meaning, responding with appropriate content which continues a storyline in a logical cohesion of ideas. Here, students demonstrate the skills of reading, making connections by evaluating what is read, and strategically composing a continuation of the story. Asynchronous response time allows for greater flexibility among students at a distance.
 * The three classrooms' collaboration activity: **


 * Each classroom’s collaboration: **

Andy’s students will work in groups of three to four to collect information and facts for the story. Groups will work within individual paragraphs ( Introduction, information and the conclusion) to help create a total story with alternate endings. Students may use research from previous stories and ideas along with a picture to add color and eye appeal. The groups will collect and determine the best storyline based on their experiences and research along with alternate endings. Students will collaborate to produce no more than 3 alternate endings and be able to discuss the “why” of each. Students will comment on the other classes idea, post at least 2 times a week and be able to develop questions which deepen the learning experience.

Students will collaborate on the peer review of classmate's Response to Literature prior to publishing on the edublog. Collaboration will further deepen the storyline composition, as each contributes a sentence or more to a cohesive storyline. All students will participate in the final project to complete the storyline by offering comment and feedback. The students will take the published product and present it to their class to seek feedback from a different set of peers.

One common literacy goal for all students in Georgia is the need to connect to reading texts, to recognize connections among texts, and to respond to texts on various topics. The collaborative assignments for our three groups allow students to interact in a real-world manner of discussing books they’ve read independently and/or as a class by responding to one another’s postings about the texts, and by adding a sentence to a story in order to develop a story together. These tasks enable students to connect to the texts they read, and also to texts read by fellow classmates. Students must understand a story’s focus, and direction in order to add something which is relevant and in-line with the storyline. Both of these literacy skills are pertinent to younger and more advanced students.

Teachers and students will be collaborating on different areas of the project. Teachers will collaborate on the project before the students begin their work in order to discuss the outcome and assessment methods. Teachers will arrange a book for each class to read for response. Questions will be posted concerning the story and response will be returned by the students in other classes. The students will have a chance to post questions and add to the story. As additions are completed, students will have the opportunity to offer feedback to create a story based on all three classes cooperation. In doing so, students will incorporate their own experiences both past and present along with their creativity to enhance the story. By implementing these skills, students will create a story which connects to their own experiences or create new ones.

**Equipment: ** 1- Students will read or have read a novel or short story. The amount of reading guidance will depend on the needs of the student according to age group and ability level. See Equipment for Assistive Technology needed. 2 - Response to Literature - each student will create a Response to Literature in the form of a multimedia presentation. As a formative assessment (see Formative Assessment, Rubric 1), peers will review each other's multimedia presentations, providing comments, and suggestions for improvements, and they will be reviewed by the teacher as an observation with commentary. The student then will submit the product for summative assessment based on the rubric over the content (see Summative Assessment, Rubric 2), as required by the teacher. 3- The Response to Literature multimedia presentation will be posted to the Edublog. Students will review the multimedia tutorials located on the edublog (see left sidebar: "Blogrolling") in order to create their response and blog posts. 4 - Commenting on student multimedia presentations (titled Response to Literature on the edublog) - The student will respond to two different posts in the form of a positive question or comment. This serves as a second formative assessment (see Formative Assessment, Rubric 3). 5 - Story Starter - Each student must choose one of the story starters to add a new sentence or paragraph to. The blog provides one sample story starter for guided instructional purposes, and several story starters that the students choose for creating an original one sentence response. These story starters are open ended sentences that stimulate the students’ senses. The teacher will assess each student with a checklist based on contribution (see Summative Assessment, Rubric 4).
 * Computer with internet access ||  Novel: text and/or audio format  ||  Headphone for audio  ||
 * Microphone for vocal recording ||   ||   ||
 * Step-by-step instructional strategies: **

Peer review will be used diligently to provide ample opportunity for revision and editing of student response to literature: first, among classroom peers who will provide feedback to one another using a checklist, and also among the three collaborative classrooms where students will give peer feedback (comments) to others' Response to Literature. This provides a real-world method of checks and balances in a literacy classroom.
 * Formative assessment strategies: **

Summative assessment strategies will include a rubric over content of the response to literature, as well as a checklist for contribution to the story starter.
 * Summative assessment strategies: **

** Resources: ** (see Resources page)

** Assessments and rubrics: **  (see Assessment and rubric page for formative and summative assessment rubrics)