STUDENT WORK SAMPLES
MISSISSIPPI TRIAL (Chris Crowe) Cyberlesson Project Description
Graduate students enrolled in two sections of RDG. 589, Creative Language Arts, participated in this project. They were asked to study the Civil Rights Movement through the vehicle of the Mississippi Trial Cyberlesson. The cyberlesson was designed so that much of the work would be completed at home- the reading of the book Mississippi Trial by Chris Crowe, in sections, accessing designated websites as part of the Before, During and After and Beyond activities, the KWL in preparation for class work. In class students engaged in whole class discussions and participated in literature circles bringing to bear their work on the cyberlessons. They participated in activities such as the creation of poems for two voices, Hot Seat activities in which they were asked to question characters in the book and speculate how they might respond, and the like.
In the 4PM class (4 PM) students went beyond the cyberlesson and worked with a music professor, Dr. Carlotta Parr, in singing and in listening to versions of "We Shall Overcome", and experimenting with musical instruments. Through this they learned musical ideas and were asked to transform poetry written in response to Mississippi Trial into musical compositions. They also worked with an art teacher, Ms. Leslie Flowers, viewing and discussing artistic elements of art work in response to the Civil Rights Movement and then created their own collages. They then were asked to perform their work as a culminating event. Their reading focused on using multiple sign systems.
In the 6PM class were engaged in class activities. For example, they read about and created powerful poems for two voices and then created their own poems for two voices in response to Mississippi Trial. They also engaged in dramatic activities in which they posed questions to characters, speculated on the way the character might respond and then took on a persona of the character and fielded questions from the class. They also had the opportunity to read a variety of children's books focused on the Civil Rights Movement. This group read articles related to literacy strategies and research based practices.
Each class was asked to create their own unit and develop a cyberlesson to support the unit. The 6PM class was asked to actually implement their lesson in the context of their own classrooms and reflect on what they learned. These cyberlessons and reflections and student work samples are posted on the Internet Project Showcase.
REFLECTIONS
Most of my students seemed to benefit from using the book in a cyberlesson
format. As I review their responses in class, culminating performance (4PM
class), poetry and other artifacts from the cyberlesson they demonstrate that
they thought and responded deeply to the book and to the issues of social
justice of the Civil Rights Movement.
As part of the Before Reading Activity I asked students to create a visual of the K part of the KWL (in an electronic format) to share what the Civil Rights Movement meant to them and to express what they already knew. They did this at home and then did a "Save the Last Word" activity in class sharing their work in small groups. Creating a visual representation of what they knew and sharing it in this way with classmates was intriguing to some. A few students actually tried it out with their own students. Some students, however, struggled with the electronic format of creating the visual representations. They were not able to express their understandings because they had limited experience in using an electronic format.
Some students reported that they were
curious about the aspects of the books and were very motivated to view the related
websites to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement. Generally, however,
many preferred NOT do RRJ's in response to the websites they viewed.
The Before, During, After and
Beyond format of the cyberlesson provided more structure in reading
and responding of the text. It helped provide a focused shared frame of
reference among students in class. For example, students were
assigned to read a section of the book in preparation for literature circles
with a certain focus in mind. For one segment they were asked to select "golden
lines" to share during literature circles. For another segment of the text they
were asked to track a character through the book in preparation for literature
circle discussions. While the circle discussions were open ended, students
could use their "during reading notes" as a resource. The out of class
preparation paved the way for in class response activities. Certainly this could
be done without the cyberlesson format, but the format facilitated the process.
It also facilitated the reading/viewing of related informational texts on the
Internet such as newspaper articles, civil rights music and lyrics, photographs,
and interviews of people who suffered Jim Crow Laws.
If I were to do this again I might offer more ways in which to respond than just through RRJ's. I would be less concerned about insuring accountability and trust that my students would access information that they considered meaningful to them. I might also include video clips and more multimedia to support the reading of the book. I would still have students do Visual Representations of their K for the KWL, but would give students more options as to how they would do that. I would not limit them to an electronic format. If at all possible I would meet my classes in a lab setting so that some of the out of class work could be done in class in a social forum. Still, the cyberlesson format lent itself nicely to a classroom equipped with a computer and projector.