K-3 |
4-6 |
7-8 |
9-12 |
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Anchorage School District
Grades 4-6 Curriculum Examples
Scenario 1: American States Visitor Data
Students in the fifth grade class of Mr. Meyer have been preparing to study the regions of the United States. As an introduction to learning new Social Studies content, Mr. Meyer turns a prior knowledge-gathering activity into an exciting unit in itself.
The students will be collecting, inputting, analyzing, charting, and displaying the number of classmates, adults, and staff members who have visited the various states in our country. They will work individually at first, and with their parents' help, to list all of the states they have been to. They will also ask a parent or other adult to list the same information.
As a whole class activity, Mr. Meyer will tally the students' and adults' results by state by displaying an enlarged spreadsheet through his desktop computer through the wall mounted television monitor. Students will simultaneously record the same information on graph paper.
He will then instruct the students how to enter simple mathematical formulas on the spreadsheet to perform sum, minimum, maximum, mean, median, and mode functions while students take notes.
In the computer lab, the students then enter the student and adult data into their own spreadsheets and input the mathematical formulas to summarize the results.
While the students create the spreadsheets, Mr. Meyer e-mails the staff, soliciting their input for inclusion in the project.
In another lesson, Mr. Meyer demonstrates how to format the spreadsheet in color to enhance the visual display of information. In a followup trip to the computer lab, students personalize and print their spreadsheets for later display on posterboard.
Next, Mr. Meyer teaches the students how to turn the raw numbers into various charts, noting the strengths and weaknesses of different display formats. He also instructs the students to take the raw numbers and color code computer generated maps of the United States.
After the students have finished inputting, charting, analyzing, displaying, and reporting data for themselves, adults, and staff members, they will have performed a wide variety of individual, small group, and whole class activities using a wide variety of technology skills to enhance and launch Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts content.