The lesson plan involves 7th grade students researching and creating projects on different body systems over 14 days. The library media specialist and science teacher will collaborate, with the specialist teaching research skills using the Big 6 method. On the first day, the specialist will introduce the Big 6 framework and teach website evaluation. Students will then conduct research and create presentations to share their findings. The collaborative planning process helped define each teacher's roles and timing. Some challenges included limited planning time due to different schedules. Student learning was assessed through quizzes before and after on research skills and sources.

1. Collaborative Lesson Plan<br />Library Media Specialist’s name:________Joe Tedesco________Teacher’s name:___Carlos Salinas___Title of Lesson:___Body System Project: research, create project and present to class. Intended Grade Level(s):__7th grade_____Number of Students Involved:__27 per class and six classes_TEKS: ELA 7:22A & B; & 23A Length of Lesson (Number of periods, days, minutes, etc.):__14 days total and the collaborative teaching portion will be: Six periods/classes and 50 minutes per class/period and for one full day AASL 21st-Century Learner Standard(s) addressed: Standards 1.1.1-1.1.4, & 1.2.2 & 1.2.4 Goals and Objectives of the Lesson: For the students to learn the Big 6 method of research and then apply their skills in researching information on a specific topic –a body system. With the two pages of notes gathered from research students are to create a project via a method of their choosing: cartoon, PowerPoint, poster, etc., and then present what project and what they have learned to the class. The goal of teaching the Big 6 research method is: We want the students to be able have a basic foundation of understanding that you need skills to effectively conduct a research on the internet and how to evaluate the reliability of a website in internet researching. We also want the students to understand the various sources that are available to them for research other than Google or Wikipedia.Proposed Learning Activities and Products: For the first 3 steps of the Big 6 lesson:<br /> - For the first step of the Big 6: Students will refine their topic by constructing a KWL chart in their groups. I will first model one with the participation of the class. - For the second step of the Big 6: Students brainstorm as a class for resources available to them for research and will take notes as a class as we construct a list together as a class of available resources and of URL domain names, such as: .edu and .gov.<br /> -For the third step of the Big 6: Students will review as a class the criteria on the Website Evaluation sheet each student will be provided. Students will then participate in a class game of evaluating websites from our list of 5 websites in order to show them the challenges/obstacles of internet research. - Students will take a quiz.-Students will be shown an online encyclopedia.<br />-Students will have 5 minutes or more for actual research. List of Materials and Technology Needed for Lesson: - Computer Lab and Projector - Paper and pencil for each student<br /> Responsibilities of Each Team Member (What will each of you do/teach in the lesson?) : Day 1- Mr. Salinas will have students working in groups and decide in groups which topic/body system they wish to research and complete a presentation on. Day 2 - Mr. Tedesco will teach the first 3 steps of the Big 6 in the computer lab. While Mr. Tedesco is teaching Mr. Salinas will work with challenged students who may need extra assistance. Day 3 &4 – Mr. Salinas will bring the students into the Computer lab to conduct research.<br /> Day 5-14 - Students will synthesize information and design a presentation ( within 8 days) and present their information to the class on the last two days –Day 13 & 14.<br />Description of Information Literacy Skills Integrated into the Lesson: Using prior knowledge to narrow topic choice and essential questions. How to evaluate websites for trustworthiness. Knowledge and use of a variety of resources – databases and internet searching.<br />Description of How Student Learning Will Be Assessed: - Via a quiz of selecting reliable resources and websites. -Informal observation during researching in computer lab. -By bibliography students provide along with their final product and presentation.<br />Description of How the Collaborative Planning Process Was Beneficial: It helped me to know where to begin my lesson on introducing the Big 6 method. – So if the students have already decided on their topic I would not have to cover that step.<br /> Description of the Biggest Challenges to Collaborative Planning: Find the time to come together and collaborate as I am an eighth grade teacher and Mr. Salinas is a 7th grade teacher and we have different planning periods.<br />How Will You Evaluate the Success of the Collaborative Planning Process? Via informal observation of sites students are taking notes from during research. And in the bibliographies that the students present along with their final project/product.<br />Collaborative Lesson Essay<br /> At the very beginning of the lesson I had the students view a website via the projector and screen about vampires and zombies (which was on the screen as they walked in) that claimed to be an official U.S. government website. I used this website to get their attention for they love zombies and vampires and also to impress the point that there are misleading and hoax websites on the internet. This worked well. During the lesson I showed the students several websites both reliable and misleading (or just plain horrible) and they followed along. However in planning and in presenting to the first period I went over with the students the sheet for evaluating websites and then I had 5 websites that the students were to evaluate as a class using what they had just learned. As the day went on I learned that it was more effective if I displayed on the projector a few of the websites in conjunction with reviewing the criteria sheet to help illustrate the various criteria for evaluating a website. And then following that exercise just using two-three websites to evaluate as a class worked much better than my prior method. For displaying the websites or examples along with reading the criteria helped both to illustrate my point and to keep their attention. Giving the students a list of both trusted and questionable URL domain names went well. Several groups of students during their free search period were searching out domain names such as: .edu and .gov -when selecting from the search results in order to take notes for their actual research/project. Prior to my presenting my lesson I went to each student computer and brought up my webpage I constructed the day before containing all the links for the websites the students would be needing for the quiz. I also had the two links numbered for ease of locating. This worked well as students could quickly locate the link on the page and the lesson moved on smoothly. What didn’t work well during the planning and performance was the selection of and usage of the evaluation of websites sheet. During the planning process I choose an evaluation sheet created by Kathleen Schrock and that was designated for the Middle School level which I thought would be fine. However in implementing this evaluation sheet in the lesson, by the second period/class, I realized that many of the criteria were not necessary or redundant and when working with middle school aged students the more clear and streamlined the standards the better. Therefore by the 3rd period class I had checked off and stated only the criteria I believed essential for the 7th graders. However this made some of them confused in following the list. Next time I will create my own evaluation sheet that is simpler and clearer and therefore more effective. To assess the learning at the start of the lesson I gave a short quiz of two questions: A. What sources do you use to research? B. How can you tell if you can trust a source and/or website? -The overwhelming student responses for what source do you use were: Google, Wikipedia, and Ask.com -For the second question most students did not respond at all.<br /> At the conclusion of the lesson I gave the students a quiz by my posting on my webpage links to two websites and asking the students to evaluate the websites for whether the site is trustworthy or not, using their evaluation sheets and what they learned in class. I also asked them to respond to the question again of what resources they would use for research and who could they tell is a website is trustworthy. The two websites I gave them were: 1. http://www.smokingsection.com/issues1.html#smoke <br />http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm#factors

2. -For the first website: 27 students took the quiz and the 24 students that responded stated that they would not use the first website.-For the second website: 27 students took the quiz and the 24 students that responded stated that they would use the site.

3. In responding to the quiz question: ‘what sources they would use’ -most students responded with: the list of sources I had previously listed on the board: databases, encyclopedias –both print and online, internet, books from our library, and science textbook. In responding to the quiz question: ‘how can you evaluate a website’ -the majority of students responded with: check website for date, name, and email address or contact info. Three students responses had date, contact, and name, but also included: good facts. Two students responded with: name and how it looks. And two students responded with good facts and authors/”writers” information. Based on these results I know that some student learning took place and that most students paid attention and took good notes. I also know that by their following along in this lesson and their using the evaluation sheet for their quiz –this practice alone has helped them become more information literate.

4. What I would do differently next time for the assessment portion is to allow the students to take the quiz individually using their evaluation sheets instead of as class. For this quiz, I had the students look up at the projector as I went through each of the websites and I asked them to evaluate each of the websites for its reliability. This is a fine method; however while going through the websites I could not help but make comments in attempts to help the students which probably affected their responses to the questions. However I do know that student learning did take place as Mr. Salinas mentioned to me very excitedly that our lesson is the best lesson he has been involved in all year based on the actions of his students during research. While observing some of his students researching the last 5 minutes of class for taking notes on their actual project he observed several groups discussing their selection of only the websites from their search results from Google with web addresses that ended in ‘.edu’ or ‘.gov’. Mister Salinas was very excited upon his observation of these certain student’s behavior and newly learned skills and how they were utilizing their newly learned skills so adeptly. I believe the spirit of inquiry was sparked for when I showed the students how to use the online encyclopedia almost everyone was fully engaged and taking notes. The students were also running over to each other’s computers to see the videos of various body systems available in the encyclopedia. Many students were also excited about the fact that they did not have to rush and take incomplete notes with only five minutes left in class because there is an ‘email the article’ feature in Britannica’s online encyclopedia.<br />