Shila Hodgins, Derek Hanson, and Brittney Wynn

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

IT 544
Lesson Plan Integration
Context:
The lesson will be following the previous unit that focused on civil
rights activists and each student will already have a activists as well as
cause that they are experts on and have done research on. This project will
now be focused on actively using that information through different activist
sites to reach out to others in the cause. For 12th grade students, they will
be actively utilizing their first amendment rights. (right of assembly, freedom
of speech, press). They will be looking into Change.org to look into current
petitions, www.govtrack.us to look into current bills throughout Congress,
and then finally to Crowdvoice.com to post a blog article about their issue.
They will specifically be reporting on activist groups and ideals that
they personally care about, which is going to make the lessons more relevant
and enjoyable overall. The reason this lesson is important is because it is
taking information they care about and have worked on, and is making them
informed, active, and engaged citizens.
EALR 1.4.1: Analyzes and evaluates ways of influencing local, state, and
national governments and international organizations to establish or
preserve individual rights and/or promote the common good.
WHST-6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and
update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing
feedback, including new arguments or information.
Rationale:
This assignment is incredibly active and engaging and could not be
done without technology. Students are already comfortable in their topics
and have an idea of what current issue they want to look into. The reason
that this assignment is so different is because it is one thing to read about
bills becoming laws, but another to be an active participant. Going to the
various websites is going to give students to engage in politics, not just read
about it in the newspapers. The tech is redefining how students can look into
current events and issues, and not only read about them, but actively involve
themselves in the political process. They will be signing petitions as well as
tracking local politicians and bill that they can track and support. Technology

is the only way they could accomplish these things. There is no other way to
access this much information and be able to actively participate in it.
The first part is looking into petitions on Change.org. This site is really
easy to use and you can do quick searches for any and all petitions that are
out there right now. Students will get a chance to look throughout the
website, see petitions, and even look into starting their own if they have the
time.
The second tool is using Govtrack.us which is the online database for
all of the bills floating around in Congress that are in the middle of the
political process. This website is less fun than Change.org, but it is a great
resource for students and is a fantastic visual so that they can see the
political process and just how slow our government moves when passing
laws. This shows them a different side of the political process that cant be
seen in the newspaper headlines. Govtrack also alerts you what issues are
currently being voted on and discussed in Congress, so this is better than
reading newspaper headlines with bias. It is simply the fact of what is being
voted on.
The final part to this assignment is using CrowdVoice.org. It is an online
blog where people all over the world discuss world issues and I will require
students to create a (free) account and then post their knowledge. I would
require at least 1 Blog post (Add a Voice) where they have to construct their
own posting about the issue they chose.
At the end of the class, we can possibly decide to start our own petition on
Change.org, but this would depend on their cooperation as a group and time
constraints.
Teaching the Tool:
Day1 Intro:
We will focus on reviewing our civil rights activists and discuss different
styles of protest throughout US History. We will have a group discussion and
watch a short segment from Howard Zinns documentary describing the
history of the people and protest. (DVD-The People Speak)
[For teaching reference and information to provide in discussion,
(http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR357-Using-Technology-inNonviolent-Activism-against-Repression.pdf)
http://mashable.com/2011/07/15/online-tools-activism/]
After our discussion and watching the video on protests and public assembly,
I will explain the different sites we are going to visit in the next couple of

days in which they will be able to actively participate in their chosen political
issue.
Students will be informed of what the sites are and how to access them
in class the following day in the computer lab. Every school I have worked at
has been a 1 computer classroom, so I am going to assume that this is the
case and plan for computer lab time.
Students will be able to see my screen in the lab and navigate with me
throughout the project.
Day2 Creating Informed Students:
Students will meet in the computer lab and I will demonstrate going
through the sites.
We will start with Change.Org. I will show them in person how to sign up with
their email accounts and then give one example of looking into a petition
and signing it.
Example: Browse>Human Trafficking>Stop Human Trafficking at Sporting
Events.
Then students will be given 20 minutes of class time to sign and search
through all the different petitions.
Next we will be visiting www.govtrack.us. This will be demonstrated by
myself entering the site. I will again demonstrate how to navigate the site
and search for a Bill that is relevant to their issue. Before I let the students
go on their own to search for Bills, we will look at the current Bills being
discussed and voted on in Congress.
Browse>Bills and Resolutions>Search for Keywords OR Advanced Search for
Keywords
Browse>Bills and Resolutions> Search by Subject
Students will look through the bills for 10 minutes (they are not as fun as the
petitions).
Students will submit an exit slip through Padlet. This exit slip requires
them to reflect on what petitions they signed and why. What they thought
about the different bills after looking at the petitions? Were they similar or
different?
Day3 Creating Active Students:
In the past 2 days students have become accustomed to the different
styles of writing from local petitions to Federal Bills and have become more
informed about the realities of political process. Now students will be using
CrowdVoice.org to create their own voice in the political activist world.

We will still be in the Computer Lab and I will demonstrate how to get
to the website and how to sign up to post a blog. First we will look into
current posts so students have an idea of what other people are saying. Then
I will show them how to post their thoughts.
CrowdVoice>Sign In> Add a Voice> Post
Students will have the entire class period to post one blog voice that
they will submit when finished. Then they will send me a link to their posting
so that I can track their participation assignment. I will only require students
to post one blog. They have the option to post their blog to our classroom
Facebook site, or they can personally email me the link if they dont want
their classmates to see. There is the option of adding video, which I will show
the students examples from the site, but we will not be doing it do to lacking
technology resources as well as time. But I will leave it to students to know
that it is an option.
[At the end of class, students will have the opportunity to discuss a
possible petition that our class will design and publish through Change.org.
This will be a possible option, but depends on time availability and group
participation and focus.]
Supports:
Teaching Aids for student support begin with the rubric that lays out
the plan for the lessons so that students understand the context and endgoal for this particular lesson, therefore giving students who need
organization help a rough plan to work with. For referencing and
understanding the context of the lesson, we will provide the primary sources
for historical context and the source from Day 1 regarding safe activism
through online sources. For those with reading difficulty, we can find easier
sources of activist groups. For those students who need a greater challenge,
we could look into more international activist groups rather than simply US
groups, which could incorporate language differences as well as cultural
differences. Other sources of support is the computer lab staff, who can help
me help the students with the assignment. All of this assignment is done in
class, so students should not have issues with support being available.

Submission: Students will submit their exit slip through Padlet on Day
2, which is a reflection focused on what they saw throughout the petitions
and on the government Bill site. [This exit slip requires them to reflect on
what petitions they signed and why. What they thought about the different
bills after looking at the petitions? Were they similar or different?]

The final submission is their blog post on Crowd Voice. They will submit
a link to their posting either to me directly through my email, or they will
post it to our Facebook page. I will demonstrate towards the end of class how
to do both options. Facebook has a quick link set up already, and then
sending through email only requires copying and pasting the link into the
email. Student will be allowed to look at each others postings and comment
on them, but this would be dependent on class time and computer lab
availability.