From These
Mountains...
National Leaders Emerge
Grade Level:
8
Subjects: Social Studies,
English/Language Arts, Mathematics, and Vocational/Technical Skills
Learner Outcomes:
-
The students will demonstrate skills
in using a Microsoft Word table of hyperlinks and Netscape browser to locate
sites on the Internet for research.
-
The students will gather information
online about provisions for our national representatives in the West
Virginia Constitution, statistics regarding population distribution
and apportionment from the U.
S. Census Bureau, and data from web sites of current
U. S. Senators Robert C. Byrd and
John D. Rockefeller IV and
Representatives from West Virginia, Alan
B. Mollohan, Shelley Moore Capito,
and Nick Rahall.
-
The students will examine information
online and identify answers to their questions generated by personalized
inquiry, as well as research guided by the teacher.
-
The students will demonstrate an understanding
of the location of West Virginia's congressional districts following online
research by creating a map
of West Virginia with its three congressional
districts specified.
-
The students will create a Microsoft
Word table utilizing information obtained through their research.
-
The students will demonstrate an understanding
of equal representation following online research of congressional
apportionment by answering questions on their worksheet about apportionment,
by calculating geometric mean, and by using the "Method
of Equal Proportion" applied to West Virginia's ranking
in the 2000 census.
-
The students will demonstrate skills
in using a desktop calculator to determine the square root of a number,
in understanding "The Method of Equal Proportion" used by our national
government to determine equitable representation of the states.
-
Students will read to learn more about
equal representation from a historical
perspective as well as current points of view and create a Microsoft
Word essay to explain what apportionment is, its history, how it's done,
how it's used, and why or why not it provides fair and equal representation
of our nation's citizens.
-
The students will create a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel graphs, and a map
of West Virginia showing population distribution to demonstrate an
understanding of West
Virginia's equal representation in our national government.
-
The students will create a Microsoft
Word table to communicate information obtained through their research
to show the qualifications, duties, and information about senators
and representatives from West Virginia who currently hold those offices.
Duration of Lesson: 6 days
Materials:
Technology Tools/Courseware:
Teacher Notes:
-
Schedule computer lab, according to school procedures (Lesson
can be adapted for one classroom computer to view as a group or schedule
for peer partners).
-
Review computer use agreement with students.
-
Assign students to computer stations, considering personal
dynamics and peer tutoring.
-
Create seating chart for lab.
-
Install Microsoft Word table with hyperlinks to teacher-selected
web sites on individual computers.
Procedures:
-
Brainstorm through class discussion and display collection
of responses on overhead to learn what the students know about West Virginia's
Government and questions they have.
-
Using overhead projector, organize questions generated with
a graphic organizer into categories: national level, executive, judicial,
legislative, elections, and other.
-
Instruct students to complete an individual "What
I Want to Learn About West Virginia Government worksheet, personalizing
their questions to research.
-
Using teacher-selected web sites, instruct students to use
the hyperlinks in Word table "West
Virginia's Representation in Congress"
to find answers to questions in "West Virginia's Representation in
Congress" worksheet and for their personalized questions on their worksheet
"What I Want to Learn About West Virginia Government".
-
Encourage students to add new questions that arise during
their research, as well as new vocabulary words they encounter that they
need to study further.
-
Using data obtained through online research, instruct students
to compare/contrast information by creating a table titled "From These
Mountains...National Leaders Emerge" in Microsoft Word organizing for each
of the five national representatives: name of office, name of current
official, which counties are included in the area of the state they represent,
term of office, qualifications for the office, salary, duties, political
party affiliation, and other interesting facts.
-
Create a bulletin board, displaying students' tables and
share.
-
Instruct students to complete "Equal Representation" section
of worksheet, using resources table and calculator.
-
Instruct students to complete Microsoft Excel spreadsheet,
using resources table and calculations from "Equal Representation" worksheet.
Save to disk and turn in to teacher.
-
Instruct students to complete search of sites on research
table to learn about apportionment and write a brief essay explaining what
apportionment is, how it is calculated, and how fair the method is in determining
equal representation.
Modifications: For students with special
needs identified, be sure to follow modifications specified in student's
IEP. For students with reading difficulties, extend time explain
verbally, or implement peer partnering. For students with visual
difficulties, use large text in printed materials and non-glare, blue paper
or blue transparency to place over materials to read.
Enrichment Activities:
-
Students could select areas of the lesson of special interest
to them to research and study further, using the additional links provided
in the table of links.
-
Students could revisit the official sites of our current
senators and representatives to collect information for biographies of
those officials, write a biography, and publish it in Microsoft Word.
-
Students could write a letter to their Congressmen (or e-mail
from home).
-
Students could write a speech they might give if they were
running for one of the national offices, after reading the selection of
speeches provided at Senator Robert C. Byrd's official site, that is included
in the table of links that the students research.
Evaluation/Assessment:
|
Personalized Graphic Organizer
|
Worksheets Guiding Research
|
Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and Excel graphs of Apportionment of
Congressional Districts in West Virginia
|
Microsoft Word Table of Information About Our Senators and Representatives
|
Microsoft Word Essay Explaining Apportionment
|
|
20 points
|
20 points
|
20 points
|
20 points
|
20 points
|
National Standards
|
Technology
|
Mathematics
|
Historical
Understanding
|
Civics
|
Geography
|
Economics
|
Life Work
|
|
3,4,6
|
3,6,9
|
1,2
|
1,3,4,7,17,22,
23,27,28,29
|
1,2,3,4,5,9,15,17
|
1,2
|
2
|
|
Language Arts Writing
|
Language Arts Reading
|
Language Arts Listening
|
Language Arts Viewing
|
Language Arts Media
|
Thinking and
Reasoning
|
Working With Others
|
Self Regulation
|
|
1,3,4
|
5,7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
1,2,3
|
3
|
1,2,4,6
|
West Virginia Job/Career Clusters: Human
Services
Engineering/Technical
Fine Arts/Humanities
West Virginia Process/Workplace Objectives:
|
Problem Solving
|
Communication
|
Working with Others
|
Technology
|
Self Management
|
Career Development
|
|
2,3,6,7,8
|
9,10,11,12
|
18
|
27,28,30,31,32,33
|
34,35,38,44
|
46
|
West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives:
(Boldface IGO indicates
inclusion on state-wide Stanford test for that grade level)
|
English/Language Arts
|
Social Studies
|
Mathematics
|
|
Listening/Speaking
|
8.5
|
Civics
|
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.13
8.15
|
Number Theory/
Number Sense
|
8.1
8.2
8.4
8.7
|
|
Reading Comprehension
|
8.16
8.18
8.19
9.21
8.22
|
Economics
|
8.18
8.19
8.22
|
Computation/
Estimation
|
8.9
8.10
8.12
8.13
|
|
Reading Vocabulary
|
8.38
|
History
|
8.49
8.54
8.55
|
Patterns/
Functions/
Algebra
|
8.14
8.15
8.16
8.17
8.18
8.19
8.22
|
|
Writing
|
8.49
8.50
8.51
8.53
8.58
8.59
8.63
8.64
|
Geography
|
8.30
8.31
8.34
8.35
8.37
|
Probability/
Statistics
|
8.24
8.26
8.28
8.30
|
|
Spelling
|
8.73
8.75
8.82
8.83
8.85
8.86
8.88
8.101
|
Review for
Assessment
|
8.56
|
Geometry
with
Measurement
|
8.38
|
|
Language
|
8.83
8.84
8.89
8.25
8.127
|
Computer/
Technology
|
8.59
8.60
8.61
8.62
8.63
8.64
8.65
8.67
8.68
8.69
8.70
|
|
|
|
Study Skills
|
8.133
8.141
8.143
8.144
|
|
|
|
|
Computer/
Technology
|
8.146
8.147
8.150
8.151
8.153
8.154
|
|
|
|
|
References:
3DFlags.com
West Virginia Main Page
U.
S. Census Bureau
Robert C. Byrd
John
D. Rockefeller IV
Alan
B. Mollohan
Shelley
Moore Capito
Nick Rahall
W. Va. Secretary of State
WV Department of Education - IGOs
National Standards
WV Dept. of Environmental Protection
Authors:
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