Create a Website For A German Musician
Designer: Jeffery Skonier
The objective of the lesson is to provide students with knowledge of German musicians. The students will be doing their own research, collecting information, and presenting it in the form of a website (all in German). The websites will then by self-evaluated, evaluated by the students’ peers, and finally by the teacher using a provided rubric.
Students will learn how to use multimedia-related resources (i.e. internet, web logs, power point) in collecting information and presenting that information in a readily available format. Students will learn how to properly research and organize material from numerous resources. The most important learning need, will be that the students can display the information in a logical pattern that anyone would be able to understand who their musician is and follow the method of thinking the student used in presenting the most salient information.
Target Population
The target population will be level 1 German speaking students, who are relatively technological savvy (assistance will be offered as project is completed). The students will differ in grade level, but all are first year German high school students. Special considerations will be noted since students will differ in regards to existing knowledge/skill of technology, use of technology, special needs, gender, learning styles, and socioeconomic status (some students may not have computers at home, and therefore need one provided at school).
Each student will need be able to complete the project, therefore an acceptable place (i.e. computer lab or library) needs to be assessable for students without computers.Teaching Standards
The learning standards addressed in this activity, based on the Pennsylvania State Standards for a foreign language would be (1) Communicating the target language, (2) The Role of Culture in World Language Acquisition, and (3) World Languages in the Community.
(1) The students would be creating their websites in German using new vocabulary, basic sentence structures and combining their information across the curriculum (able to use knowledge in a history class).
(2) The students will learn about the culture of Germany through their musician and how he/she influenced the German culture. The student will also discuss any similarities or differences noticed between German and American culture.
(3) The students will compare the findings of their musician and compare them with American musicians. They will determine how society changed for the German musician and how America’s society was changing at the same time.
Teaching & Learning Theory
As the students develop their websites, they will use a combination of Information Processing and Constructivism.
Through information processing, the students will learn how to organize new information and link that information with existing knowledge. The process will require the students to be attentive in selecting the information for their website, then encoding the information on their website in a meaningful and logical form. The student will accomplish this with imagery, analogies and the way the text is presented (bold, italics, highlighting).
Through constructivism, the students will be working in collaboration with each other, developing and perfecting their websites. The idea of a web log would allow students to collaborate with another high school in the district, where they worked together on a German musician. The teacher would model and guide the students in developing their website. The students would be exploring the web in search of useful information to enhance their website. They would take a realistic approach in presenting their German musician and see how he/she affected the rest of the world and the progression of music today.
Products
Multimedia Design Tools
- MS Word
- Blogger weblog software