F E B R U A R Y
2 0 0 6
Using unitedstreaming for
Differentiated
Instruction
Creating
Multisensory
Classrooms
Civil Rights:
Visualize the Power
Fingerprint Forensics
for Middle School
PLUS
Jeff Corwin
Kathy Schrock
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T h i s
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2 0 0 6
Features
Outside the Box: SPECIAL CONNECTIONS 3
How one teacher engages her special-needs students with unitedstreaming
What Works: TEACHING EVERY CHILD 10
12
How teachers can use differentiated instruction and unitedstreaming to help
all students reach their potential
Integration Station: ACROSS THE SPECTRUM 12
Three different types of classrooms show how digital media can help
teachers differentiate instruction in a range of settings
20
The Big Picture: SHAKING UP THE CLASSROOM 20
Administrators offer advice on supporting differentiated instruction—and why
it can make a difference for all students
Cool Tools: CREATING MULTISENSORY CLASSROOMS 22
22
Media specialists share tips for using unitedstreaming with interactive whiteboards
Discovery Education
Tech Talk: ARE YOUR TECH TOOLS WELL USED? 26
Melanie Bowen
Senior Vice President
Business Planning and Operations
Coni Rechner
Vice President
Discovery Educator Network
Sharon Metcalf
Director, Training
William Kasper
Director, Implementation
Betsy Whalen
Manager, Discovery Educator Network
Tech directors offer surefire ways to use digital tools to improve student learning
Departments
CCI/Crosby Publishing
Judy Campbell
V.P., Publishing
Al Race
Executive Editor
Lucille Renwick
Editor
Pam Burchard
Managing Editor
Keri Callahan
Senior Associate Editor
The Winter Group
Design
Discovery Education is published four times per year on
behalf of Discovery Education by CCI/Crosby Publishing,
a partnership of Crosby Consulting and Connell
Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of International Data
Group. Entire contents © 2006 Discovery Education, Inc.
The publishers make every effort to assure the accuracy
of articles and information in this publication.
CCI/Crosby and Discovery Education, Inc. assume no
responsibility for damages due to errors and omissions.
For information or address changes write: Discovery
Education Classroom Resource Guide, CCI, 86 Elm St.,
Peterborough, NH 03458.
WELCOME 2
CLASSROOM POSTER 16
Your introduction to the largest online
multimedia library
Freedom on the Move: the history and
legacy of the Civil Rights movement
FIRST STEPS 5
DIGITAL RESOURCES 18
Connect, start searching, and begin
using unitedstreaming
A roundup of great resources for
Black History Month
TRAINING 6
QUICK CLIP 24
Staff development customized to meet
your school’s needs
Fingerprint Forensics: a lesson plan for
middle school
FULL SPEED 7
START IT UP 25
Interactive Training: lessons on
differentiation
A Commitment to Learning: a tech
director’s tips on sparking teachers’ use
of unitedstreaming
NEWS BYTES 8
Ideas, events, and Kathy Schrock’s
guide to Women’s History Month
DISCOVERY EDUCATOR
NETWORK 15
Join this dynamic community of educators for professional growth and sharing
www.unitedstreaming.com
SHOWCASE 28
A rich, grade-appropriate sampling of
unitedstreaming videos
DIGITAL NOTEPAD 32
Jeff Corwin: Learning in the Wild
FE B R UARY 2006
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TM
Questions or Comments about this issue?
Send us an email at resourceguide@discovery.com
We’d like your feedback!
Go to www.unitedstreaming.com/resourceguide
to complete a brief survey.
www.discoveryeducation.com
Coming Next Issue
New Ideas for Test Prep
Watch for powerful new ways to boost
your students’ achievement on tests.
Learn how to use unitedstreaming to:
• create interactive quizzes
• review and reinforce content
• build student confidence
PRSRT STD
U.S. Postage
PAID
Dallas, TX
Permit #1129
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Dear Educator,
Welcome to our third issue of the Discovery Education Classroom Resource
Guide. We hope you’ve found it to be a valuable tool to help integrate
unitedstreaming into your classroom. We appreciate the feedback you’ve
provided so far—keep it coming!
Steve Sidel
Executive Vice President
Discovery Education
One of the greatest challenges teachers face is meeting the varying needs of
their students. That’s why, for this issue, we’ve focused on helping teachers find
ways to address these individual needs and empower each student to be
successful. As an instructional tool, unitedstreaming has been designed to give
teachers the flexibility to help students with distinct needs and to allow students
to learn and explore at their own pace and in greater depth to address their
learning gaps.
Learning is not “one size fits all,” and inside this issue you will find plenty of
ideas for ensuring that your lessons are as unique as your students.
In order to better understand and serve our customers, we would appreciate
your feedback on this issue of the Discovery Education Classroom Resource
Guide. To participate, go to www.unitedstreaming.com/resourceguide to
complete our reader survey.
What is unitedstreaming?
unitedstreaming is the largest online, multimedia library of educational videos and images, appropriate for every age and learning level, correlated to state standards, and searchable by keyword, subject, topic, grade, and curriculum standard. Using unitedstreaming videos has been scientifically
proven to raise students’ test scores. Here are some of the many benefits of unitedstreaming:
• Videos and Video Clips: More than 4,500 full-length video programs, chaptered into more
than 50,000 content-specific video clips that can be streamed or downloaded directly into
the classroom.
• Image Library: An extensive educational, standards-based library of photographs and clip art,
searchable by keyword or subject.
• Learning Tools: An interactive calendar cross-referencing videos and images with daily historical
events; writing prompts to use with still images; and more.
• Teacher Center: An online center with training resources, lesson plans, video tutorials, tips for
integrating unitedstreaming material, a monthly newsletter, and much more.
To access unitedstreaming, go to www.unitedstreaming.com.
Online access is free and unlimited for schools or districts subscribing to the service.
Discovery Education offers annual subscriptions for K–12 schools or homeschoolers. Visit
www.unitedstreaming.com for a free 30-day trial. For more information on unitedstreaming
subscriptions, click Services and Pricing or call 1-800-323-9084. If your school already has a
unitedstreaming subscription, see page 5 for details on how to get started. See the inside front
cover of this resource guide for information about your regional or local providers of unitedstreaming.
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www.unitedstreaming.com
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pecial
Engaging special-needs students with unitedstreaming.
T
oday, one of my students, Sabrina,
asked to learn about penguins.
She specifically wanted to me to
search for and download a unitedstreaming video about penguins. This sounds like
a reasonable request from a six-year-old
girl, except that Sabrina not
only has cerebral palsy, but
Tracey Fertally has been working other problems that make
simply knowing what a
with special-needs children since penguin is, let alone
she was in high school. She has requesting to see a video
been teaching special-needs about the animal, a huge milechildren for the past 15 years, stone. Sabrina became so
engrossed in the video, called
including the past 11 years at Antarctic Antics , that she
Panther Valley Elementary in didn’t even realize how hard
eastern Pennsylvania. she was working on her
physical-therapy activities. She
recently had surgery on her
legs. While watching the
video, she sat on a regular
chair—instead of her special chair—which
helped her develop muscle strength in her
legs as well as regain the balance she
www.unitedstreaming.com
once had. It was very impressive.
Experiences like this have become
more commonplace for my students since
I began using unitedstreaming in my
lessons. While it is always a challenge to
come up with creative ideas to pique
students’ interests, I have a particular
challenge because I teach children in
grades K–2 in a special-education lifeskills classroom. My students may have
cognitive impairments, physical disabilities (such as cerebral palsy), a form of
autistic spectrum disorder, or any combination of these things. I’ve tried books,
manipulatives, and worksheets with
limited success. The unitedstreaming
videos hold my students’ attention and
inspire them to ask for more information.
Working with lower-functioning,
special-needs kids is not your average
day at school. Teaching these children in
any kind of conventional manner is usually not an option. Yet watching a video
is second nature to most of my students.
What they may lack in other areas, many
FE B R UARY 2006
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www.stephenpeiser.com
By Tracey Fertally
Special-education teacher,
Panther Valley (PA)
Elementary School
of them make up in their ability to play
video games, use computers, and, of
course, watch TV. These are not always
good things, but unitedstreaming allows me
to capitalize on these skills in a positive way.
The moment I heard about unitedstreaming —a year ago—I knew I would be
hooked. I love technology, especially technology that’s easy to use and extremely
helpful to my special-needs students. Here
are some of the ways unitedstreaming
works best for my students.
Teachable Moments
Out of the blue, eight-year-old John asked
me to download a video about tornadoes.
I’m not sure what prompted his interest, but
he had seen various videos and knew how
easy it was for me to search the site and
download a video clip. I was so impressed
with his interest in an important natural
event and his understanding of the ease in
using the site that I dropped everything to
grant his request. The video was a wonderful learning experience for John and his
classmates. John was engrossed the entire
time, often asking questions and pointing
out exciting moments.
Memory Skills
One of my favorite lessons is using the
video Animal ABCs, which reviews the
alphabet and teaches students about an
animal whose name begins with each letter. This video is not only enjoyable, but it
really extends the students’ learning. While
most letters in the video are for common
animals, such as bears and elephants, some
letters accompany unfamiliar animals such
as gibbons, jirds, and kestrels. My class
referred to this video to help us create our
alphabet word wall. The children worked
on associating beginning letter sounds
with appropriate words and also utilized
excellent memory skills, as they remembered these very strange animal names.
Active Mind/Body Engagement
Beyond helping to develop my lessons,
using multimedia and the unitedstreaming videos has also helped my students to
strengthen some of their weaker skills in
comprehension, attention, and even
physical therapy. Students are often able
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to become physically
involved in the lessons by
doing things such as helping
to set up the viewing area
and using the SMART Board.
Using this interactive whiteboard as a supplement to
unitedstreaming is a great
way to get the students
involved and also allow them
to act like little teachers. I
can create a PowerPoint
slide show, with coinciding
information, and students can review the
materials and physically control the
presentation while standing in front of the
SMART Board screen. The students love this
type of activity because they feel like they
are in charge and leading the class.
Focused Attention
In another situation, three new
kindergarten-age students in our classroom have had trouble sitting still in a chair
or even turning their heads toward a
computer screen or television. The unitedstreaming videos have been helpful
starting points to keep the kids’ attention
focused. As in mainstream classrooms, the
video clips have been invaluable as preparation tools. For example, to prepare for an
upcoming trip to a butterfly sanctuary, we
watched videos on butterflies and moths.
The videos helped the students learn how
to raise the caterpillars that we took back
to school and watched turn into beautiful
Painted Lady butterflies.
W
hether using the unitedstreaming
videos as part of a planned lesson
or because of a spontaneous student
request, I am always confident that I will be
able to easily find and access material that
is educational and engaging for the
students. Working with nonconventional
students hasn’t discouraged me from
trying new and exciting technology.
Special-needs children deserve the extra
effort to help them become the best people they can be and to have a great time
discovering and learning along the way.
For more on using unitedstreaming with
interactive whiteboards, see page 22.
FE B R UARY 2006
www.stephenpeiser.com
Te a c h e r s
Tips for Using
unitedstreaming in a
Nontraditional Classroom
1. Watch
a video related to an
upcoming activity. This helps students prepare for what they will be
experiencing and allows them to ask
questions that will help them be successful in the activity. When preparing for an event or activity, ask
students simple questions and share
experiences and information. After
watching the video, follow up with
questions and answers, worksheets,
or arts-and-crafts activities.
2. Use unitedstreaming videos to help
explain each student’s cultural background or the special activities a
student does with his or her family.
Send home a note asking parents to
share something special that they do
together or something unique about
their family’s culture. Each day, select
a video that helps explain a bit about
the information you’ve gathered on
one of your students’ families.
3. Have older students teach a skill
they have mastered to a younger
peer using unitedstreaming videos.
For example, view an alphabet video,
then practice matching upper and
lowercase letters.
Please share your experiences
using unitedstreaming in special-needs
classrooms. Visit the Discovery Educator
Network community pages at
www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com
www.unitedstreaming.com
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Getting started on unitedstreaming is as easy as 1,2, stream!
3. View
1. Log On
Stream It
Streaming means playing live or real-time video. The
quality of a stream will depend on the quality of your
Internet connection.
Go to www.unitedstreaming.com
Have a username and password? Log in and jump to Search!
If not, follow the steps below.
• Select your media-player type.
• Click the
Step 1. Enter your school’s eight-character passcode.
button next to a video clip.
(No passcode? E-mail support@unitedstreaming.com)
Download It
Downloading a video or clip saves a copy of the file on
your computer or network for later access.
Step 2. Create your own username and password.
Step 3. Log in with your username and password.
• Right Click (on a Mac: Ctrl + click) on the
button next to a video clip.
USERNAME
• Select “Save Target As...” (Explorer)
“Save Link Target As...” (Netscape/Mozilla)
“Save Link As...” (Firefox)
PASSWORD
• Save the Video where you can find it easily.
• Double-click it to play.
Add it to Your Playlist
You can create personal playlists of videos you like.
Create one for each class or unit you teach!
• Add a video to your personal playlist by
clicking on the
button and selecting the
appropriate playlist.
2. Search
• Click Playlist at the top of the page to view
the videos in your playlist.
Training Options
Search thousands of videos, images, and clips.
✁
Then select the video you would like to view, or
choose video clips or images.
www.unitedstreaming.com
unitedstreaming offers face-to-face and online training
options to meet the diverse needs of teachers, media
specialists, and technology staff. All training models
provide Discovery Education certificates, which may be
accepted by your state for staff-development credit hours.
See the unitedstreaming.com Teacher Center for details.
Interactive Training
• Self-paced lessons that demonstrate best practices
• Web-based, hands-on experience
• Practice questions and downloadable resources
Webinars
• Live WebEx sessions with Discovery Education trainers
• Flexible scheduling at different times each week
TM
TM
• Topics include use with PowerPoint and Inspiration
School-Based Workshops
• Presenter-led school-based sessions
• Teachers can create lesson plans with digital media
• Customizable for school computers (PC or Mac)
FE B R UARY 2006
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Customized Training:
Staff development gets connected with Webinars
customized to meet your school’s needs.
W
ith more than 500 teachers to train in all aspects of using technology and integrating tech resources into their curriculum, Sandra Hines,
the instructional-technology coordinator for the Burleson
Independent School District in Burleson, TX, needed
some way to provide quality staff development without
exhausting herself and her two employees. One soluSetting Up a Customized Webinar
tion she has discovered is unitedstreaming’s free
Set the goal of your Webinar based on the needs
Webinars—live, interactive, web-based training semiof your teachers. (e.g., using unitedstreaming with
nars that can be cusPowerPoint). Select a date and time for the
tomized
for
individual
EDUCATOR IN THIS ARTICLE:
Webinar and the number of teachers you expect.
district needs. After
Sandra Hines
conducting a pilot
Instructional technology coordinator
Coordinate the date(s) of the training, the number
session, Hines schedBurleson Independent School Disctrict
of participants, and the area of focus with Jaana
uled three sessions in
Burleson, TX
Narsipur at jaana_narsipur@discovery.com.
two weeks for teachNotify your teachers about the session time and
ers in her district and
topic. Be creative to get teachers excited about
prepared a Webinar tailored for principals on how to
coming to the session. In addition to offering
better use unitedstreaming.
credit for attendance (if that’s available in your
“This allows me to offer much more in terms of staffdistrict), bring treats to the session and make it a
development options without having to hire more
pleasant gathering for teachers. In addition, be
staff,” says Hines. “It involves very little preparation,
sure you have technology that will support the
and eventually I can have sessions that teachers can do
Webinar (a computer with high-speed Internet
from home, so I don’t even have to be present.”
access, a projection screen, and a speakerphone)
Setting up free, customized Webinars has been easy
if you are hosting the session at your school.
for Hines. She schedules a time for the session; tells
Use a speakerphone—or even set up speakers
Jaana Narsipur, training rep and coordinator of
with a microphone pointing to the speakerphone
Webinars at Discovery Education, the topic she would
for the best sound—and projection device to
like to cover and the number of participants; alerts
show the online session to a large group.
teachers of the Webinar time; and sets up her computer and a speakerphone to connect with Narsipur at the
If your teachers will receive credit for the Webinar,
scheduled time. Narsipur leads the session and teachbe sure to involve your district’s staff-development
ers in the room follow along, watching a webcast prooffice in putting together the Webinar topics.
jected with a multimedia projector on a large screen.
She responds to teachers’ questions and focuses on the
aspects of most interest to participants in the session.
For more information about Webinar topics,
schedules and registration, click on Webinars in
Teachers in Hines’ district can receive professionalthe Teacher Center at unitedstreaming.com.
development credits for the attending the hour-long
Webinars. But the real benefit, says Hines, is what the
teachers learn from these sessions: how to use aspects
of the unitedstreaming site; how to integrate other software with unitedstreaming; and losing the fear of working with technology.
“I’ve seen people leave the Webinar with such excitement about the one
more thing they can do with technology—they are really eager to try it out.
That helps me a lot,” says Hines. “It’s made a big difference so far with staff
development for us.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
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FEBRUARY 2006
www.unitedstreaming.com
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5.
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Interactive Training:
Lessons on Differentiation
How can you use digital media to differentiate
instruction? unitedstreaming’s Interactive Training
can show you how. Interactive Training is a collection
of self-paced, self-guided online courses that help
you to better integrate digital-media content into
your lessons. Lesson Three, on differentiated instruction, will help you learn how to use video and images
to respond to the learning styles, interests, and
readiness levels of your students. Here are some
dynamic examples of how unitedstreaming’s
resources can be used to differentiate instruction.
1. Include video clips in the delivery of content to students. Use them in
your direct instruction or in conjunction with written texts so students
can access the information in different ways.
2. Design learning centers with video clips, images, and clip art to
Interactive Training Module:
Embedding Video in PowerPoint
address the varied learning styles of individual students.
3. Use images and clip art to help second-language students better
understand concepts or instructions.
4. Download video of literary adaptations so students can practice reading along with the story.
Interactive Training Module:
Aiding Comprehension with
Images and Clip Art
To Access Interactive Training:
Go to the Teacher Center at
www.unitedstreaming.com.
P ass It
— All lessons are free.
— Training may be accessed anytime, anywhere
via the unitedstreaming website.
— Certificates for staff-development credit from
your school district may be available.
www.unitedstreaming.com
Along
The more people who know about and understand
differentiated learning, the better the education and
learning processes. Be sure to share any information,
tips, or strategies you gain from interactive training
with your colleagues, staff-development trainer, or
curriculum specialist in your school or district.
FEBRUARY 2006
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Size & Scale in Space
While teaching a unit on space and the solar system, I was trying to help
my students understand how far away the planets are from one another and
the true vastness of space. I had them draw the planets on paper and even did
a scale model of the solar system on our school’s football field. But it just boggled
my students’ minds that the solar system could be that big and that the planets could be so
incredibly far apart. To help them get a better grasp on the subject I showed them a unitedstreaming video, Size and Scale: Peoria and Beyond. In the video, astronomer Sheldon
Schafer takes kids on a tour of how far the planets are from one another by biking dozens of
miles from one point to another through Peoria, IL, to show how far the planets are from the
sun and from each other. It was really a great way for them to get perspective on how huge
the solar system really is. Anytime I use unitedstreaming, it’s such a different medium that it
makes things more realistic and helps the students make real connections to information.
—Cathy O’Callaghan
Sixth-grade science and language-arts teacher
Altavista (VA) Combined School
Research Corner
Freedom
Narrowing the Divide
on the Move
The wide gap of Internet access that once existed
between high-poverty, high-minority U.S. public
schools and wealthier suburban schools has nearly disappeared, according to recent statistics.
Internet access in all U.S. public schools has
steadily increased over the past decade, leading
to almost no difference in access between schools
in low- and high-income areas. But the divide still
exists. While low-income and minority schools
have made tremendous progress, the type of
equipment and level of Internet access they have
still lags behind wealthier, mostly white schools,
which are more likely to have wireless connections
and one-to-one computing versus limited access
to antiquated computers with slow connections.
100
80
60
40
20
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Shool Internet Access
Classroom Internet Access
Public Schools
Public Schools
High-poverty Schools
High-poverty Schools
Source: Education Week’s Technology
Counts 2005, “Electronic Transfer: Moving
Technology Dollars in New Directions.”
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FE B R UARY 2006
The passing of civil-rights icon Rosa
Parks and the anniversaries of several
landmarks in the civil rights movement are reminders of the extraordinary changes that ordinary people
have been able to inspire in this
country. As our nation continues to
struggle for true equal rights for
all, three organizations—The
Faith & Politics Institute, Freddie
Mac, and Discovery Education—
have developed Freedom on the Move:
Continuing the March Toward a More Perfect Union, a
cross-curricular program designed to educate young teens
about the vital lessons of the civil rights movement and how
teens can play a critical role in improving our nation’s future.
“The best possibilities of democracy are conveyed in the spirit
and wisdom of the civil rights movement,” says Rev. W.
Douglas Tanner, Jr., president of The Faith & Politics Institute.
“This curriculum kit is an extraordinary resource for stirring students across the nation to carry it into the 21st century.” All
15,000 U.S. middle schools received a Freedom on the Move
kit with a teacher’s guide, student magazines, a DVD, and classroom posters. Lessons follow academic standards, explore the
issues of the past, and ask students to research and role-play
choices they would have made in these situations, investigate
the current status of civil rights in America, and envision their
own civil-rights legacy for future generations.
• The documentary on the project’s DVD, Civil Rights: The
Long Road to Equality, is also available to unitedstreaming
users at www.unitedstreaming.com.
• The teacher’s guide and supporting materials are available to
download at www.discoveryschool.com/freedom.
• Find more information about Freedom on the Move, as well
as myriad civil-rights and Black History Month resources, on
pages 16–18.
www.unitedstreaming.com
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Kathy Schrock’s Tips
Women’s History Month Resources
March is Women’s History Month, and more than 200 great women currently stand as inductees in the
National Women’s Hall of Fame in New York (www.greatwomen.org). While the physical site is located in
Seneca Falls (near the site of the first Women’s Rights Convention, held in 1848), students can visit the website to learn about these women. Teachers can also use unitedstreaming videos about many of these women as an
introduction to a women’s history unit, or as an extension activity to a research report. Here is a sampling of the unitedstreaming video clips on some of the great women in history.
The Sky's the Limit:
Women Overcoming the Odds
“Amelia Earhart.” (Gr. 3–5; 1:11)
This clip highlights the contributions and
achievements of the first woman to fly solo
across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Sky's the Limit:
Women Overcoming the Odds
“Bessie Coleman and Lola Brown.”
(Gr. 3–5; 1:20)
This clip introduces Coleman, the first licensed AfricanAmerican female pilot, and Brown, who started the first
government-approved flight school for African Americans.
Elementary Video Adventures: Race
“Quiet Racism is Widespread: Maya Angelou Explains
Racial Bias.” (Gr. 3–5; 1:01)
In this short interview, author Maya Angelou speaks about
the sometimes irrational response to racial issues.
Speeches from History: Famous Women
“Betty Friedan, 1975.” (Gr. 6–8; 11:38)
This clip highlights Friedan’s speech during the International
Women’s Year dealing with the decade-old women’s movement in the United States.
Discovery Education
Conferences
Speeches from History: Famous Women
“Eleanor Roosevelt.” (Gr. 6–8; 3:16)
Eleanor Roosevelt speaks over video clips, in support of her husband serving as President of the
United States.
Speeches from History: Famous Women
“Elizabeth Stanton: Suffragette.” (Gr. 6–8; 2:14)
This video illustrates Stanton’s passion for the
cause of attaining the right for women to vote.
Mary Cassatt (Gr. 6–8; 10:00)
This four-part series covers the life and career of this
American-born painter.
American History: East Meets West: Americans on
the Move
“A Final Farewell to Sacagawea.” (Gr. 9–12; 3:25)
This clip showcases a present-day celebration of the life and
spirit of Sacagawea by her descendants, filmed during an
archaeological expedition.
Kathy Schrock is the technology administrator for Nauset Public
Schools in Orleans, MA. She created and maintains Kathy
Schrock’s Guide for Educators on www.discoveryschool.com.
She can be e-mailed at kathy@kathyschrock.net.
& Events
Look for the Discovery Education booth at these upcoming conferences.
Note: To learn about Discovery conference events, go to www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com.
February 6–10: TCEA 2006: Technology Gone Wild (Texas
Computer Education Association)
Austin, TX
www.tcea2006.org
February 19–21: PETE & C 2006 (Pennsylvania Educational
Technology Expo and Conference)
Hershey, PA
www.peteandc.org
March 9–11: CUE 2006 (Computer-Using Educators)
Palm Springs, CA
www.cue.org/conference
April 1–3: ASCD Annual Conference (Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development)
Chicago, IL
www.ascd.org
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
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Teaching
EveryChild
By Susan Keck
& Scott Kinney
I
n today’s classrooms, students possess a wide variety of
academic abilities and readiness levels, cultural and ethnic
backgrounds, learning experiences, interests, and styles of
learning. The National Center for Educational Statistics confirms what the majority of teachers already know—
America’s classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse. One in five students enters
school speaking a language other than
English, and 42 percent of publicschool students are considered
to be part of a racial or ethnic
minority. Students in today’s
classrooms also have wide range
of abilities: 40 percent of fourth
graders are reading below
basic, and eight percent of
all students are identified as
special education. This
increasing diversity of learning
abilities and languages in our
classrooms, coupled with higher
accountability, places greater
demands on classroom teachers.
Knowing this reality, the need for
teachers to have effective instructional tools
becomes ever more critical. When choosing materials to use in class, teachers must not only find
content that is accessible to students of varying readiness levels and abilities, but also to students with a wide range of cultural and linguistic foundations, on which their learning will be
based. Digital media resources such as unitedstreaming not only
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unitedstreaming can help all
engage students, but provide many more ways for students of
varying cultural, ethnic, and academic backgrounds to learn
required content.
Diverse Students,
Diverse Teaching Strategies
Let’s take a look at a typical classroom and
meet a few of the students as we consider
how unitedstreaming can best support each
student’s learning.
Multiple Formats: Meet Hall, a
seventh grader who enjoys school
and works hard to excel in all his
studies. Since Hall is at grade
level, his teacher can easily find
resources appropriate for him by
searching unitedstreaming by
grade-level standards in their
state. The resulting list of media
assets, including full-length videos,
brief video clips, still images, and
encyclopedia articles, are all
matched to specific state content
standards, and Hall’s teacher can select the
type of media that is most appropriate for the
lesson and for Hall.
Repetition: Coni, similar to Hall, also works at grade
level; however, she needs more repetition to support knowledge
building and understanding. The digital media incorporated in
unitedstreaming allows for teachers and students to replay a
clip as many times as needed or desired. By downloading clips
www.unitedstreaming.com
Getty Images
How differentiated instruction and
students reach their potential.
Te a c h e r s
and playing them through a stand-alone
media player, Coni can pause and replay
any segment within the clip. For example,
Coni is momentarily distracted and misses
about 30 seconds of the video. Rather
than replay the entire clip, Coni simply
moves the slide bar to repeat only the
information she needs to hear again. This
capacity empowers Coni as a learner by
giving her control to segment information
in any way that supports her learning.
Catch up: Joel has a different story. Due
to an ongoing illness, he has been out of
school for long periods of time over the
past two years and has missed large
portions of the curriculum. Joel’s teacher
knows that he has the cognitive ability to
catch up with his peers, but he has missed
some critical building blocks. In this case,
Joel’s teacher needs to help him fill in
the gaps of his learning, and she does this
by searching for resources at a grade level
that provide the background knowledge
he needs for future success. Joel’s teacher
is sensitive that some materials below
grade level are not age appropriate and
previews these clips before sharing them
with him.
Gifted/Enrichment: Conversely, Chris is
often bored. To engage and motivate
Chris, his teacher searches for clips that
extend his learning by introducing more
complex and sophisticated concepts
aligned with the curriculum. Not only does
his teacher preview and make these clips
available, Chris confers with his teacher
to indicate those topics in which he has
an interest.
Hearing Impairment: As a result of an
accident several years ago, Betsy has
significant hearing loss in both ears. To
compensate, Betsy’s teacher chooses
videos with closed captioning. Coupled
with the ability to replay clips as necessary, this additional support allows Betsy
access to the same curricular content as
her classmates.
ESL: Melanie is new to the school and
speaks Spanish as her first language.
Although Melanie is quickly learning
English, at times she finds it a challenge
to comprehend new topics. To provide
Melanie with access to the curriculum,
her teacher utilizes the Advanced Search
feature to locate clips narrated in Spanish. As Melanie’s English-language skills
improve, her teacher gradually reduces
the support of the Spanish clips.
Text Orientation: A bundle of energy,
Jannita reads every minute that she can.
In fact, she often prefers text in lieu of
other media formats. To honor and build
upon Jannita’s strength as a reader, her
teacher provides her with Funk & Wagnall’s
encyclopedia articles available in unitedstreaming rather than limit Jannita to
viewing a video. Jannita can also choose
to watch a video to help clarify ideas and
deepen her understanding of the topics
she reads about, such as videos in the
Great Books series.
Hands-on Learning: Lance has a passion
for science, especially in the area of
astronomy. He is also creative and often
prefers to demonstrate his learning
through special projects and presentations. The editable clips available through
unitedstreaming allow Lance to further
develop his creativity and express his
learning by combining and manipulating
clips into various multimedia presentations. Some of Lance’s projects include
clips that have been incorporated into
PowerPoint, Inspiration, and self-narrated
digital stories.
W
hile fictional, Melanie, Jannita,
Chris, and the others we met in
this article are typical of the
students who enter our classrooms every
day. Their teacher recognizes and embraces their differences as the first step
in designing learning opportunities. Like
her, skilled educators understand that
not all of our students are exactly the
same, and each requires a different
pathway to learning. As student diversity
continues to grow, unitedstreaming
delivers the tools that support teachers’
efforts to maximize the academic potential of all students.
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FE B R UARY 2006
Getting to
Know
You
Before design and delivery of instruction,
teachers who differentiate must first
develop a broad and thorough understanding of their students. Only after teachers gather a variety of data about their
students can they begin to make informed
instructional decisions, but gathering background information about students can
be time-consuming and cumbersome.
One quick way to gather baseline data
on students’ current skills, knowledge, and
understandings is by using unitedstreaming’s Quiz Center. This tool allows teachers to create a personalized quiz or survey
quickly, which students can link to directly.
Surveys can consist of a variety of questions, including multiple choice, true/false,
and those with open-ended responses.
Data is compiled automatically and is
delivered to the instructor via e-mail.
Using the power of this technology,
teachers can spend less time shuffling
papers and more time planning and
delivering instruction—which is, of course,
how it should be.
To access the Quiz Center, log onto
www.unitedstreaming.com and
click on Learning Tools.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Susan Keck, program director for the PA
High School Coaching Initiative, is a
former English teacher in the Northern
Lehigh School District. She continues to
develop, coordinate, and present training
at the local, state and national levels.
Scott Kinney, director of the Discovery
Educator Network, previously served as
director of educational technologies at the
Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit in PA.
He contributes frequently to the Discovery Educator Network blog, found at
discoveryeducation.typepad.com.
Keck and Kinney coauthored “Creating a
Differentiated Classroom” for Learning
and Leading with Technology (Sept. 2005).
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www.unitedstreaming.com
Te a c h e r s
How three
different classrooms
use unitedstreaming
to differentiate
instruction.
or Nora Cummings’ firstthrough third-grade students
with special needs, short unitedstreaming video clips integrated with
reading lessons have sparked their interest in everything from water to phonics,
prompting multiple discussions. Katie
Leach’s gifted high-school students spend
hours searching for unitedstreaming
videos on topics they love and soak up
all the information they can. In Julianne
Pennabaker’s inclusion classes, short video
clips help level the playing field among
her gifted students, traditional students,
and those with learning difficulties. For
each of these teachers, using unitedstreaming videos is what differentiated
instruction is all about—the videos, clips,
images, and articles help them create lessons that fit a range of learning needs and
increase student motivation, interest, and
retention. They offer these suggestions for
using unitedstreaming in every classroom
setting with every type of student.
F
Getty Images
Extra Support for
Special Needs
Nora Cummings has been teaching for
nearly 30 years—more than 12 of those
with special-needs children. At Incarnation
Catholic School in Tampa, FL, she oversees a developmental language-arts
program in which she helps about a dozen
first- to third-graders who need extra help
m
By Lucille Renwick
with grammar, reading, writing, spelling,
or all of these subjects.
For the majority of her time teaching,
Cummings used textbooks and cassette
tapes to help with phonics or other topics. Last year, she started incorporating
technology—the Internet, lessons on CDs,
and unitedstreaming—into her lessons.
The unitedstreaming videos have sparked
students’ interests and have helped them
retain more of the information and, ultimately, more of the lesson that Cummings is trying to get across, she says. It
“They’ll soak up what you give them and
remember it. If they really like it, they’ll go
searching for more information about it.”
Leach offers the following tips:
Launch investigations. For a lesson on oil,
Leach used the South America Today:
Venezuela (Gr. 6–8) video, which documents that country’s production of oil and
shows that the world’s oil supply is not
limited to the Middle East. Eighth graders
researched the countries and cultures
connected to the various languages they
“Seeing things visually really helps kids
grasp ideas of what we’re studying.
It takes them to another level.”
has also changed how she teaches. “It
makes me a little bit more creative,” says
Cummings. “I try to go beyond using a
book, especially since more children
nowadays are more visual learners.” She
offers this advice:
Use music and motion. For a lesson on
phonics, Cummings used a video clip of
a phonics lesson set to music. Though the
students were laughing and moving with
the video, Cummings says, at the end,
many of them had a stronger grasp of the
pronunciation of several words.
Spark discussions. “Even though the children are so young, they are very open,
after watching a video, to talk about what
they saw, what they understand, what
they learned,” she says. “In the end, they
are teaching each other and that’s such a
valuable lesson.”
Extra Challenge for Gifted
In Katie Leach’s gifted classes, students
gravitate toward many different subjects
and ways to learn about things. “They
love to learn—they’re like sponges,”
Leach says of the seventh- through 12thgrade students she teaches in the Weatherly Area School District in Weatherly, PA.
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
were studying, such as Latin American
countries for Spanish. “It’s a fun way for
them to learn languages and learn that the
people of the world also have so many
things in common,” says Leach.
Clarify and expand understanding.
Leach was initially concerned that she
wouldn’t find much information on unitedstreaming that would enhance her
students’ learning and pique their interests. Not so. Like most young teens,
Leach’s students were drawn to the visual
images and captivated by the information that they could see, hear, and
imagine. To help her high-schoolers
understand the distinctions between
different philosophers’ beliefs, Leach
showed videos on John Locke, ancient
Greek philosophers, and everyone in between. Using the videos has helped
Leach’s students come away with a different understanding and point of view
of cultures, customs, and the varying contributions different regions in the world
have made. “[The students’] understanding of the world has been expanded beyond their preconceptions,” Leach says.
“When they can see it, for some reason,
they get it even more.”
continued on next page
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history of 3,000 years ago and to help all
of her students grasp what she is teaching. She advises:
The students in Julianne Pennabaker’s
seventh-grade social-studies classes are
all the same—they are curious and they
want to learn. For some, learning comes
easier than for others, so Pennabaker tries
to devise lessons that will appeal to each
of her students and that all of them will
grasp. Pennabaker teaches the history of
western civilization in six inclusion classes
at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School in
New Tripoli, PA. The classes have a mix
of traditional and gifted students, Englishlanguage learners, students with learning
challenges, and those with emotional issues that make it difficult for them to
learn. Pennabaker has been using unitedstreaming for the past two years to bring
a sense of relevance to the lessons on the
Use visuals to create a common framework. Pennabaker tries to take the central issues of her subject and focus on
the big ideas. “The videos help me do that
because [the students] can picture in their
minds what something looks like,” she
says. That visual image is especially
important in her rural community located
90 miles, and a world away, from Philadelphia. “They don’t have a lot of experience
with the world,” explains Pennabaker, “so
the video helps when they’re discussing
issues of ancient Egypt.”
Support reading comprehension.The
visual connection also helps with
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(continued)
students’ reading comprehension. For
her ESL student, watching video clips
connected to a story the class is reading
has improved his comprehension and his
vocabulary. Students who struggle to
understand concepts are able to grasp the
big ideas of issues when Pennabaker
combines watching videos with reading
textbooks. Her gifted students tell her
the videos provide more information in a
short amount of time and have a lot more
facts than the textbooks they are reading
about the subject.
“Seeing things visually really helps the
kids grasp ideas of what we’re studying,”
Pennabaker says. “Students who need
extra support can view the videos repeatedly in the computer lab. It’s really
taken them to another level, and it’s so
great to see.”
EDUCATORS FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE:
Nora Cummings
Katie Leach
Julianne Pennabaker
Special-needs teacher
Gifted support teacher
Social-studies teacher
Grades 1–3
Grades 7–12
Grade 7
Incarnation Catholic School
Weatherly Area School District
Northwestern Lehigh Middle School
Tampa, FL
Weatherly, PA
New Tripoli, PA
Join these teachers and other members of the Discovery Educator Network at www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com
Tips for using unitedstreaming with:
Gifted Students
1. Create individualized playlists for students to challenge them in areas that are of particular interest. It heightens the
students’ motivation and desire to learn more about topics of interest to them.
2. Find out what each student is most interested in by asking them to write down the types of videos they’d like to watch.
Then let the students create short lessons about their videos of interest to deliver to the class or to younger students.
Special-Needs Students
1. If your classroom has a learning center, divide students into small groups and set up a short video clip on each computer station for the students to view and get a sense of a subject before the teacher begins working on it.
2. If there’s a student with an aggression problem, or if there is a child in your classroom who has been bullied, try showing a video on bullying, such as What We Learned About Bullying (Gr. K–2) to prompt discussion among students and
to help the aggressive student understand his or her actions.
Students in an Inclusion Classroom
1. For kids who are new to the subject, a video helps give them a frame of reference. Use videos or video clips to build
background knowledge and bring everyone on board. Students who know more can watch more carefully for visual
cues and new information. For ESL students, try using the closed-captioning feature on videos.
2. Even if you have only one computer in your classroom, a small group of students can break off to watch a selected
video together. Give the group graphic organizers or a detailed assignment to keep students focused on the video
they are watching. Have students work individually at first, taking notes; then have them share their work quietly. This
allows the teacher to work more closely with students than they could in a full-participation class.
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www.unitedstreaming.com
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Teachers Share the Learning
JOIN THE
network
For more information
about the Discovery
Educator Network
program, or if you
are interested in
applying to become a
Discovery Educator,
go to
www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com
for details.
“
While thousands of educators explored the
expo floor at the National School Boards Association’s T+L2 conference in Denver, CO,
Discovery Education hosted an energetic band
of teachers from across the country in a special digital-storytelling workshop with digitalstorytelling expert and author Bernajean Porter
(see Discovery Education Classroom Resource
Guide, Nov. 2005). Nine teachers, recognized
for their achievements in integrating technology into classroom curricula, received full
scholarships to attend T+L2 from the Discovery Educator Network. During the workshop,
scholarship recipients and selected educators
from Denver Public Schools used iMovie,
Adobe Premiere Elements, and Audacity
voiceover software to conceive, create, and edit
their own digital stories based on Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain!”
Later, Network members participated in an
exclusive presentation by T+L2 keynoter John
Kuglin about the visual representation of data,
such as “geo-referencing” unitedstreaming
clips with online geographic-satellite resources.
Whether over dinner or at a final get-together
on the last morning of the conference, Discovery Educator Network members enthusiastically
shared ideas, inspired each other, and made
plans for further collaboration.
Scholarship recipients didn’t let the learning end at the conference—some returned
home to conduct digital-storytelling workshops in their own schools, and others made
plans with the teachers they met in Denver to
continue the collaboration. Danielle Abernathy of South Carolina conducted a training
session for colleagues on advanced technologies based on what she learned at T+L2. Alan
Engle of Texas and RJ Stangherlin of Pennsylvania have been working on digital-storytelling
initiatives based on their experiences working
with Porter.
To read more about how you can join the
Discovery Educator Network, check out our
discussion boards, blogs, and resource repository at www.discoveryeducatornetwork.com.
Apply now, and be the first in your school to
join the Network!
“There was constant networking—in the hallways,
between sessions... It was awesome.”
California Connections
What could draw more than 100 teachers to a southern California elementary school
early on a Saturday morning? The first Discovery Educator Network Launch Event,
offering networking, idea-sharing, and tips on how to infuse technology into their lessons. “There was constant networking,” says Jannita Demian, manager of the California Discovery Educator Network, “in the hallways, between sessions…It was awesome.”
Teachers learned how to integrate unitedstreaming with Inspiration software, extend
their Internet activities with WebQuests, and capture themselves and their students in
easy-to-make movies. They also shared their ideas and challenges with projects they
were working on in their classes.
“A lot of this information has reinforced what we do,” says Kenneth Decroo, principal
at Dorothy Grant Elementary School, in Fontana, CA, “and helped us move further.”
To find out more about the event, check out Jannita Demian’s blog atdiscoveryeducatornetwork.com. Click on Blogs, then Southern California.
www.unitedstreaming.com
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Freedom
on the Move
We have been lucky to have incredible leaders, such as
Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Rosa Parks, fight for our civil
rights. But they are just a few of thousands of individuals—men, women, and
children; black and white—who have fought to make our country a better place to
live. Everyone can change our nation for the better.
Corbis
You, too, can make a difference.
• Get involved in your community.
• Take a stand for what you believe in.
• Go to www.discoveryschool.com/freedom for more ideas.
www.unitedstreaming.com
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Black History Month
In celebration of Black History Month in February, this list of unitedstreaming videos, clips, and images, as well as other
excellent educational websites, will help you plan enriching lessons about the important events, achievements, and people
in African-American history.
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Freedom on the Move
school.discovery.com/freedom
This cross-cultural multimedia program is designed to help middle-school
students learn about the Civil Rights movement of the past, the continued
struggle for civil rights today, and how they can further civil rights in the
future. Lesson plans can be found on this site. In addition, a 52-minute
downloadable video, Civil Rights: The Long Road to Equality, is available,
along with teaching materials, at www.unitedstreaming.com.
UNITEDSTREAMING VIDEOS
American Heroes and Heroines: Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. (14:43)
Traces King’s childhood in Atlanta to his college years, his role
as a minister and, finally, his rise as a major leader receiving
the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Explores how King came to
believe that love is the best way to fight discrimination. CC.
Editable. Grades: 3–5
The Playing Field (22:49)
Recounts the story of the Negro baseball league and its
importance to African Americans, weaving together various
moments in history to show the connections to the history of
race in baseball. CC. Grades: 6–8
Free at Last (49:00)
Explores stories of some of the unsung heroes of American
history: NAACP secretary Medgar Evers, and the many college students and activists of the Civil Rights movement.
Grades: 6–8
City Desk with Malcolm X (25:00)
Presents a rare in-depth interview of civil-rights activist
Malcolm X that explains his religious loyalties, his thoughts
on segregation, and his desire to strive for racial dignity for
blacks in America. CC. Grades: 9–12
Freedom Fighters (55:32)
Uses clips of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr., to
show their individual
battles for equality in
their countries.
Grades: 9–12
Regions of the World: Africa (39:00)
Reviews Africa’s major landforms, climates, ecosystems, and
geographic regions, as well as the continent’s rich cultural
diversity. Students are taken on a journey through Africa’s
long historical past, beginning with the famous “Lucy”
skeleton that helped identify Africa as the seat of human
evolution. CC. Grades: 6–8
American History:
Abolishing Slavery in
America (55:16)
Explores how a cotton
boom produced the
South’s dependence on
slavery. CC.
Grades: 9–12
UNITEDSTREAMING IMAGES
Searching for images on unitedstreaming.com is easy. Just
go to Keyword and type in any of the descriptions listed at
right. Then, hit Images to see a thumbnail of the photo.
When you double-click on the photo, a larger version of the
image will pop up.
First African-American members of Congress
African-American infantry band
The African-American leader Booker T. Washington
African American voting, Missouri, 1942
Wilma Rudolph wins three gold medals at 1960 Olympics
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974)
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UNITEDSTREAMING
CLIPS
How Right are Black and White?
(01:13)
The professor helps Isabella understand that skin color is not a true
measure of our identity, and that every
human being is of the same race. A
clip from the program Diversity
Elementary: Race. CC. Grades: K–2
African-American Soldiers in the
Military of the United States in the
20th Century (02:35)
Listen to the story of African-American
soldiers who fought against foreign
troops on American soil during the
Indian Wars between 1866 and 1891,
and whose bravery often went unrecognized in a prejudiced society. A clip
from the program Buffalo Soldiers. CC.
Editable. Grades: 6–8
The Role of African Americans in the
American Revolution (01:08)
Learn about the role of African
Americans during the American
Revolution. A clip from the program
The Revolutionary War: Winter at Valley
Forge. Grades: 6–8
American Slavery in the Early
Nineteenth Century (00:54)
An overview of slavery in the southern
U.S. A clip from the program America’s
Early Years, 1789-1816: American
Slavery: The Southern Plantation Way
of Life. CC. Editable. Grades: 6–8
African Americans (06:20)
Examines the African-American migration to the North and subsequent racial
tensions during World War I. A clip
from the program America in the 20th
Century: World War I: On the
Homefront. CC. Grades: 6–8
Education of African Americans
(01:25)
In one of his famous speeches, Robert
F. Kennedy talks about the education
effort needed for African Americans. A
clip from the program Speeches from
History: Robert F. Kennedy. Editable.
Grades: 6–8
African Americans on the Supreme
Court: Thurgood Marshall and
Clarence Thomas (00:41)
A brief look at the first two African
Americans appointed to the Supreme
Court. A clip from the program Our
Federal Government: The Supreme
Court. CC. Editable. Grades: 6–8
Race is History (06:12)
Become a part of the debate questioning whether race is an accurate biological identification or a subcategory
made up by humans to separate us. A
clip from the program Question of
Race. Grades: 9–12
BLACK-HISTORY
WEBSITES
Mighty Times: The Legacy of
Rosa Parks
www.tolerance.org/teach/resources/
mighty_times.jsp
This free teaching kit from Teaching
Tolerance and the Southern Poverty
Law Center retells the story of Rosa
Parks’ courageous stand against
segregated busing in 1955 in
Montgomery, AL. The kit includes a
teaching guide with activities tied to
the story of Rosa Parks.
Black History Month Resource Center
www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm
This site offers historical information,
activities, quizzes, and an annotated
timeline from 1619 to 2001. The
biography section features prominent
black men and women, and the literature section features summaries of
books from the Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture.
Kids Domain: Black History Links
www.kidsdomain.com/kids/links/
Black_History.html
This site provides a list of links to
help children celebrate Black History
Month. It includes online games,
activities, crafts, quizzes, and stories
about notable African Americans.
www.unitedstreaming.com
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African-American Odyssey
lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
exhibit/aointro.html
This Library of Congress exhibit is
divided into various sections: slavery;
abolition; the Civil War;
Reconstruction; the Booker T.
Washington era; WWI; the Great
Depression; the New Deal; World
War II; and civil rights.
African-American History and Culture
www.si.edu/history_and_culture/
african_american
This Smithsonian site features a
collection of articles on segregation,
slavery, Africa, and civil rights, as well
as links to the museum’s exhibitions.
CIVIL-RIGHTS
WEBSITES
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
bcri.bham.al.us
Provides views of the lessons of the
past considered crucial to
understanding our heritage and
defining our future.
National Civil Rights Museum
www.civilrightsmuseum.org
Dedicated to keeping the voices,
people, and stories of the Civil
Rights movement alive.
Civil Rights Teaching
www.civilrightsteaching.org
Lessons, handouts, and resources
about the Civil Rights movement.
Civil Rights Documentation Project
www.usm.edu/crdp
Oral-history interviews on the Civil
Rights movement. Site includes an
online tour.
Rosa Parks Library and Museum
montgomery.troy.edu/museum
Exhibits highlight stories of bravery
and courage of early civil-rights leaders, with a focus on Rosa Parks and
the Montgomery bus boycott.
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Shaking Upthe
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By Christina
Wood
How administrators
can support
differentiated
instruction—and
why it can make
a difference for
all students.
Jason Borawski has scrapped lectures
and chalkboards in his seventh-grade
math class. Instead, he uses a multimedia
projector with an interactive whiteboard
to introduce new material using a range
of media—text, images, video—that present different access points to the content
for students of different learning styles and
abilities. Borawski, who teaches at the
J.P. Case Middle School, in Flemington,
NJ, then breaks his students up into
mixed-ability groups—so that members
of each four-person group challenge each
other—to go over problems and review
homework. By observing students in the
groups, Borawski determines who needs
more help.
This process reflects a form of differentiated instruction—doing away with the
one-size-fits-all approach to teaching.
“Kids aren’t matched luggage. They come
with different backgrounds, dreams, agendas, and strengths,” explains Carol Anne
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Tomlinson, author of Fulfilling the Promise
of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies
and Tools for Responsive Teaching. In a
differentiated classroom, students’ varying levels of readiness and experience
are embraced and instruction is tailored
to fit. The teacher, flexible and adaptive,
is freed from the front of the room and
spends his or her time coaching, assessing, guiding, and reassessing to be sure
that no one gets left behind.
Differentiated instruction is not a new
idea, but rather a collection of best
practices from gifted, special, and traditional education, treated to a healthy
dose of common sense. “We used to
have special reading groups or pull kids
out for fast math groups,” explains Claire
Wurtzel, director of faculty development
for the New York City Board of Education’s
Schools Attuned program of the All Kinds
of Minds organization. “Those are all ways
of describing differentiation.” Now, rather
FE B R UARY 2006
than pulling students out at both ends of
the learning spectrum, the current thinking
is that all students benefit from mixing
things up.
Barry Haines, supervisor of educational
technology and a media specialist at the
Flemington-Raritan School District in Flemington, NJ, agrees. “You could argue that
traditional methods leave underserved
groups behind,” he says “But in truth,
everybody gets left out. A kid who only
gets lectured to might do fine on the test,
but he hasn’t really learned the material.”
Deeper learning happens when
students explore material, think about it,
approach it from different angles, access
it through different media; when students
see it, hear it, read it, touch it, and even
teach it. Even the way students are
assessed can affect the outcome: A
student who demonstrated poor
command of a subject when writing about
it suddenly becomes an expert when
www.unitedstreaming.com
Administrators
“Acknowledging that students learn at different speeds and that they
differ widely in their ability to understand complex ideas is like
acknowledging that students at any given age aren’t all the same height;
it is not a statement of worth, but of reality.”
MAKING IT HAPPEN
PICTUREQUEST
For many administrators, one of the
biggest challenges remains how to make
the changes that enable—and persuade—
teachers and other administrators to take
advantage of digital tools for differentiated instruction.
asked to talk about, illustrate, or create a
film on the subject.
There is extensive research to support
the idea that, by incorporating pictures,
sound, and animation, teachers can use
multimedia to help students understand
complex topics and better recall what
they have learned—probably because
digital media address each student’s individual learning style. “In a differentiated classroom, digital tools enable the
children to not only view video, but to incorporate it into their projects,” explains
Elliot Soloway, professor of education at
the University of Michigan’s Center for
Highly Interactive Computing in Education (Hi-CE). Interactive lessons, podcasts, blogs, and unitedstreaming’s digital
resources offer students the opportunity
to move at their own pace, allowing the
teacher to step back and match each
learner to the right tools.
Make the case: Wurtzel gets teachers
interested in differentiating by showing
them how it can solve their problems.
She begins by asking teachers to notice
a struggling student and to describe the
problem. After instructing the teacher on
the learning pathways described in the All
Kinds of Minds program, Wurtzel’s team
asks the teacher to take another look at
the same student. Now the teacher might
notice that the student has a strong
longterm memory, but weak language
skills—so, during a history lesson, the
teacher could put the student in a group
that’s building a diorama to understand a
lesson, rather than in a group that’s focused on reading. That way, the student
is using his or her strengths, rather than
battling weaknesses, to grasp the material. And once the teacher has identified
the student’s weaknesses, together they
can work on improving those abilities.
On-time, ongoing assessment: A
teacher must know students’ strengths
before settling on the right learning
tools—and then be able to immediately
assess how well that choice went. In this
context, assessment is not something that
happens at the end of term or on a test—
though it is also that—but instead
happens every day, many times a day. In
the differentiated classroom, “the teacher
becomes more of a facilitator of time and
space, an assessor of students, a person
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
—Carol Ann Tomlinson
who helps kids learn to plan and learn to
assess the effectiveness of their planning,” says Tomlinson. The Quiz Center at
unitedstreaming.com is one way teachers
can provide consistent assessment of students’ work and capabilities by enabling
teachers to create, save, and tabulate customized quizzes quickly and easily online.
Professional development: “If you
don’t release staff for development, these
tools will never get integrated into the
curriculum,” says Haines. “I can send out
e-mails full of resources but in order to
make systemic change happen, teachers
have to have time to use the tools. I get
substitutes in so we can work on this.”
Haines and other experts suggest teaching the teachers the same way teachers
introduce new concepts to students—
slowly. Introduce the concept, then
demonstrate it, then months later go into
more depth, then revisit it again. Or, in
a method often used in the classroom:
First, I do it. Then, we do it. Then, you
do it.
For more on using unitedstreaming to
support differentiated instruction, see
pages 10 and 12.
EDUCATORS FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE:
Jason Borawski
Math teacher
Grade 7
J.P. Case Middle School
Flemington, NJ
Barry Haines
Supervisor of educational technology and
media
Flemington-Raritan Regional Schools
Flemington, NJ
Claire Wurtzel
Director of faculty development
New York City Schools Attuned Initiative
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Creating Multisensory
Using unitedstreaming with interactive whiteboards.
What if your computer screen were as big as a chalkboard, so
all students could see it? What if you could use it to show
unitedstreaming clips stored on your hard drive, and students
could stop and start the clips by touching the screen? What if
you could write on the board and save your notes, or create
electronic flipcharts combining text, images, and minidocumentaries on whichever topic you choose?
In Forsyth County Public Schools, in Cumming, GA, our
teachers can do all that and more, using unitedstreaming and
interactive whiteboards that were installed in every classroom
in the district this school year. These innovative boards allow
teachers to create a truly interactive, multimedia learning environment for their students. The classroom package includes
the interactive whiteboard, a ceiling-mounted projector, and an
integrated sound and video system. “Of all the technology initiatives we have completed, these [whiteboards] will make the
greatest difference in transforming the learning environment,”
says Mark Klingler, director of educational technology.
TRANSFORMING TEACHERS
As media specialists for two middle schools, we’ve seen a radical transformation in our teachers. For the past several years,
classroom teachers have used laptop computers to project
streaming video through the classroom television. The interactive whiteboards have made streaming video a whole lot easier. Now, with just a few keystrokes and a touch of the screen,
the students can
watch a video clip
that reinforces a
concept being discussed in class. Having a large screen for classroom viewing and good sound quality—with two speakers on
either side of the board—are additional benefits.
Wendy Evilsizor, a sixth-grade health teacher at Riverwatch
Middle School in Swanee, GA, has created lessons on substance
abuse using Inspiration software. She believes that a creative
approach to connecting the curriculum with real-life situations
helps students understand better. She captures her students’
attention with hyperlinks to
unitedstreaming video clips to
reinforce talking points. Within
Inspiration, students may parI love the way you
ticipate in brainstorming and
can put a picture
organizing information. By
clicking the electronic pen and
from unitedstreaming
touching a heading on the
whiteboard, a video clip pops
on the whiteboard,
up to explain and reinforce the
lock it down, and
lesson. Evilsizor says she loves
hearing comments from her
use the whiteboard
students like, “Cool,” or “That
makes sense.”
tools to emphasize
“I love the way you can put
different points on
a picture from unitedstreaming on the whiteboard, lock it
the picture.
down, and use the whiteboard
tools to emphasize different
points on the picture,” says
Patti Grammens, an eighthgrade science teacher at South Forsyth Middle School in
Cumming, GA. “It makes using the resources much more
interactive and fits into lessons smoothly.” Students also
use the images in PowerPoint presentations and show
slide shows using the electronic pen on the whiteboard,
which means they don’t have to leave the front of the
classroom to click a mouse on a computer.
Several other features of unitedstreaming also
integrate well with the interactive whiteboards.
Teachers have used the calendar feature for various
lessons, the writing prompts to start class discussions,
“
”
Lou Dewberry is the media specialist for Riverwatch Middle School in Swanee, GA. She has been in education for
over 25 years, most of those as a media specialist.
Becky Hitch has been a media specialist for 22 years and
is one for South Forsyth Middle School in Cumming, GA.
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FE B R UARY 2006
www.unitedstreaming.com
Te a c h e r s
Library Media
Classrooms
Specialists
By Lou Dewberry and Becky Hitch
Media Specialists, Forsyth County (GA) Public Schools
and the image files and clip-art gallery as discussion starters
or supplemental information for lessons. The creativity that
teachers exhibit in connecting the various tools with their
whiteboards is promising for how we believe their teaching skills will grow for the future.
MOVING VISUAL LEARNERS
SMART Technologies Inc.
Jeff Whiting, an eighth-grade science teacher at Riverwatch Middle School, says that, while studying the Earth’s
crust, his students are more engaged when seeing movement through the earth’s core than when they see still images alone. The process prompts questions like, “Did they
really send a camera through the earth’s crust?” Whiting
says his students have enjoyed the interactive presentations
as well as creating interactive presentations of their own.
To get a message across about bullying, South Forsyth
Middle School’s sixth-grade guidance counselor Cindy
Babcock showed a unitedstreaming video. Not only did the
video and issue keep the students’ attention, but the fact
that it was shown on such a large screen seemed to have
a greater impact on the students because they weren’t
straining to see and hear the video from a small monitor.
Says Babcock, “I have noticed as soon as the board is activated, the kids get really interested.”
Much of the teachers’ know-how was accomplished with
comprehensive staff development that began in the summer and
has continued. As media specialists, we encourage teachers to
incorporate various instructional materials with the whiteboards
and other resources as well. And we provide one-to-one and
group training for using unitedstreaming, the whiteboards,
and other technology tools. The introduction of the whiteboards has greatly increased collaboration between the media
center and classroom teachers. We now have teachers actively
soliciting help in developing interactive lessons using unitedstreaming with the whiteboards.
Gone are the days of static images and struggles to find
creative ways to get students learning. Interactive whiteboards
have revolutionized teaching and learning in our district—and
this is just the start of incorporating 21st-century learning skills
for both teachers and students.
Inspiration Software, Inc. offers a free, downloadable 30-day trial of
their Kidspiration or Inspiration programs. For more information go to
www.inspiration.com/freetrial/index.cfm
For more information about SMART BoardTM interactive whiteboards,
visit www.smarttech.com
www.unitedstreaming.com
FLIPPING FOR FLIPCHARTS
Teachers in our district have become excited about using
the whiteboards with everything—but they are especially
excited about flipcharts, which several teachers have
made interactive. The flipcharts are part of the software
that comes with the whiteboards. They allow a teacher to
display an entire lesson about a subject on various slides,
doing away with the old easel and paper flipchart. By
linking to websites or videos, teachers can easily create an
interactive learning experience, which takes the students’
interest and learning to an entirely new level.
For example, eighth-grade science teacher Jeff Whiting
uses unitedstreaming embedded in his interactivewhiteboard flipchart. With one tap of the screen, the
flipchart transitions from a bulleted list of information to
showing a video clip. Patti Grammens, also an eighthgrade science teacher, plans to create a flipchart on the
water cycle, starting with a link to a unitedstreaming clip of
the parts of the cycle. She then can show another clip of
footage of rain, clouds, etc. On the following slides,
students can use the interactive whiteboard to diagram
the water cycle by filling missing information. —L.D., B.H.
FE B R UARY 2006
DISCOVE RY E DU CATION
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Fingerprint Forensics
While forensic science—the science of criminal investigation—has developed many new techniques over the last few years, one
of the most powerful clues that forensic scientists continue to use is that of fingerprinting. This lesson allows your students to
become forensic scientists and see how fingerprints are unique to each person. Use the video clip Using Forensic Evidence to
Solve Crimes (4:08) from the Life Science: Forensics video to introduce students to the three types of fingerprints. The video also
explains how the unique splits and branches of ridges on a fingerprint can be used to link a fingerprint to a specific person.
Lesson Plan
Grades 4–8
Curriculum Focus: Science
Curriculum Standard: This lesson is
correlated to state science standards.
Please go to www.unitedstreaming.com
and search for “Life Science: Forensics.”
Obtain the appropriate standard for
your state by clicking on Correlations.
Student Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students will
be able to:
• describe the three types of fingerprint
patterns; and
• give an example of the points on a
fingerprint that make it unique to
an individual.
Have students look closely at their fingers to observe their fingerprints.
Ask students to share with a partner what they know about using fingerprints to identify people. Then, have students share what they know with
the whole group. People who use fingerprints to identify criminals are
called forensic scientists.
On the board, write the words: Whorl, Loop, and Arch. Ask students
to look again at their fingers and to look for any particular pattern to the
shape of their fingerprints.
Tell students that by the end of the video clip, they should know what
patterns match the three words on the board. They should also pay
attention to how forensic scientists identify an individual print.
View the video. Review the three patterns, drawing a single line on
the board for each to show its shape. Ask students to examine their
fingers and, with a partner, share which of the types they have. Go
around and listen to the conversations briefly to be sure students
recognize the difference in the patterns.
Have students take out paper and a pencil, and pass out the
magnifying glasses (and soft graphite pencils, if available).
Demonstrate how to take a fingerprint (if using the overhead
projector, demonstrate on the transparency).
1. Place the pencil point on the paper at an angle.
2. Gently, but firmly, move the pencil tip back and forth to make a
patch of graphite a little larger than your fingerprint.
Materials Needed:
3. Press one finger firmly to the graphite patch and move it around to
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.
paper
#2 (or softer graphite) pencil
transparent tape (2 cm or wider)
magnifying glass
tissues or napkins for cleanup
overhead projector or microprojector
with TV monitor
5.
6.
pick up as much graphite as possible.
Take a piece of transparent tape and press the sticky side to the
finger with the graphite on it.
Gently remove the tape and stick it to an empty space on the paper
or transparency.
Demonstrate how to look for the ridges and the specific splits and
breaks that are used as individual identification points. Demonstrate
how to draw tiny circles around key identification points.
Have students practice, and go around checking and helping them.
7.
8. Ask students to select a good print, label it with the pattern type,
and mark at least five identification points on it.
Extension activity: In groups of five, have students place one of their fingers, used to make a print impression, in the center of the group. Have them place a matching fingerprint in front of them. Have the group try to match the fingerprints.
Assessment: Review the fingerprints produced by each student. Scoring tool: 3—Students correctly identify the pattern type of
the fingerprint and circle at least five correct identification points on it. 2—Students correctly identify the pattern type and circle
one to three correct identification points on one of them. 1—Students correctly identify the pattern types, but do not circle the
identification points, or they circle incorrect points.
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DISCOVE RY E DU CATION
FE B R UARY 2006
www.unitedstreaming.com
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A Commitment to Learning
Craig Nansen had a bumpy ride getting his teachers to
completely embrace unitedstreaming. It’s not that teachers at
Minot Public Schools in Minot, ND, did not like the resource.
“People were interested in it, and a few dove right in, but
most teachers said they didn’t want to get hooked and then
not have it anymore,” says Nansen, technology coordinator
for the 6,442-student district. He learned that many teachers
were waiting to see if the school district would commit
beyond its 30-, then 60-day free-trial period.
Nansen convinced school district officials that there was
one solid solution: after piloting the service in one middle
school for a year, the district made a four-year commitment to
use unitedstreaming. That has changed everything, he says.
Now, after a two-day staff-development boot camp to
explain the uses for unitedEDUCATOR IN THIS ARTICLE:
streaming, Nansen says teachers’
Craig Nansen
interest has increased tenfold.
Technology coordinator
“We’re trying to work with the
Minot Public Schools
Minot, ND
teachers as much as possible to
show them the wide variety of
lessons and how what’s available
can be tied to the standards,” says Nansen. “It’s all about
helping them recognize that this makes it a bit easier for
them, but still allows them to provide substantive lessons.”
Staff development has been Nansen’s key strategy to get
teachers to embrace technology and the resources available
to the district. Last month, he asked Discovery Education to
conduct an hour-long presentation with breakout sessions to
show teachers the variety of ways to use unitedstreaming.
Says Nansen, “Each time, we just want teachers to learn a little bit more and realize what they’ve got at their disposal.”
PunchStock
For help supporting unitedstreaming usage in your school,
e-mail: support@unitedstreaming.com
School Support
You can launch unitedstreaming in your
school, too! Discovery Education makes
it easy with a range of support services:
Advice
▼
&TIPS
FREE START-UP SUPPORT
Live assistance for your staff upon
request, handouts and informational
materials, and phone or e-mail support.
FROM CRAIG NANSEN
a clear and strong support infrastructure in place
1. Have
for teachers before dumping a lot of hardware and software
▼
on teachers without any information to help them use the
equipment and resources. This means having a dedicated
technology staff, if possible, to troubleshoot and help with
curriculum integration when necessary.
staff development to the individual schools to work
2. Take
with smaller groups of teachers. If possible, work with teach-
▼
ers on a one-to-one basis in the classroom. This has been
vital in getting our teachers to embrace technology and
really take off with it.
Make a longterm commitment to use unitedstreaming.
3. Teachers
want to know that the school or district is investing
time into the resource (for one year or more) before they
commit their limited time to learn how to use it and get
used to having the resource at their disposal.
www.unitedstreaming.com
ONLINE INTERACTIVE TRAINING
Self-directed, web-based lessons with
hands-on activities, e-Learning tutorials,
prescheduled Webinars on a variety of
topics, including integrating videos in
PowerPoint, Inspiration, and WebQuests.
SCHOOL-BASED WORKSHOPS
Face-to-face, presenter-led sessions with
a certified Discovery Education trainer.
For help getting started using unitedstreaming, contact your school building liaison, call 1-800-323-9084, or
e-mail support@unitedstreaming.com.
FE B R UARY 2006
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25
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ARE YOUR
TECH
TOOLS
?
WELL USED
By Christina Wood
S
PunchStock
3
ways technology directors
can ensure that digital tools
will be used to boost learning.
c o t t S m i t h , d i re c t o r o f i n s t r u c t i o n a l t e c h n o l o g y a t t h e V i s a l i a U n i f i e d S c h o o l
District in Califor nia, relates an experience that will resonate with most
a d m i n i s t r a t o r s : H e o rd e re d m u l t i m e d i a p ro j e c t o r s s o t e a c h e r s i n h i s d i s t r i c t c o u l d
s h o w s t re a m i n g v i d e o , d e m o n s t r a t e w e b s i t e s , a n d g e t s t u d e n t s f i re d u p u s i n g a l l
t y p e s o f m e d i a i n t h e c l a s s ro o m . We e k s l a t e r, h e w a l k e d i n t o a c l a s s t o f i n d a n
o l d t r a n s p a re n c y p ro j e c t o r s t i l l i n u s e . O n l y n o w i t w a s s i t t i n g o n a n e x p e n s i v e
new table—the unopened box of one of those new projectors.
It’s no secret to anyone in education that
buying technology and delivering it to
the classroom door does not always result
in teachers and students using it in meaningful ways. This lesson is often learned
at great expense. To change this, Smith’s
district developed a projector workshop
for teachers. “Now teachers get a projector only after they’ve taken a workshop,”
he explains. The workshop teaches
educators how to use the projector, how
to incorporate video clips from unitedstreaming to punctuate lessons for
students, and how media can enhance a
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lesson—not become the lesson. Getting
the teachers to see why they want to incorporate a new piece of technology into
their curricula, Smith says, is as important
as buying the technology in the first place.
“We want the teachers to see how the projectors can be used with good pedagogy.”
Lessons like these need not be learned
firsthand. To help you learn from the
experiences of others, we asked tech gurus
in school districts around the country for
their top tips on getting technology not
only into the classrooms, but into the
lesson plans.
FE B R UARY 2006
EDUCATORS FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE:
Shelli Elliot
Technology integration consultant
Maize High School
Maize, KS
selliott@usd266.com
Scott Smith
Director of instructional technology
Visalia School District
Visalia, CA
scott@visalia.k12.ca.us
Tony Vincent
Technology teacher, facilitator
Willowdale Elementary School
Omaha, NE
www.unitedstreaming.com
Te c h n o l o g y
Directors
1
Model Effective Teaching
with Technology
Tony Vincent, technology teacher and
facilitator at Willowdale Elementary
School, in Omaha, NE, believes teachers
need to see good technology use modeled with students, or they may miss the
reason the technology is there. “A lot of
times, teachers think they are supposed
to teach about the technology, not with
it,” says Vincent. “They will teach the students how to make movies or how to
make a PowerPoint presentation”—as
opposed to teaching the content by using
the technology. So Vincent helps teachers
by partner-teaching with them. He brings
the technology; they bring the curriculum.
“We may do a film project together,” he
explains. “One class might make the entire film but then we invite all the classes
in to watch it. That way the other teachers
see how much their students enjoyed
watching it, how impressive the product
was, and how much the students who
made the film learned.” Vincent also helps
classes make podcasts and then posts
them to the school’s website. If a class
makes a particularly good podcast,
Vincent plays a few minutes of it at staff
meetings. “Once the kids know it’s going
out to the public, they really kick it up a
notch,” he says. “And the teachers are
often surprised at what the kids can do.
That gets them interested in using it in
their own class.”
For help showing teachers how to use
unitedstreaming, check out the Teacher
Center’s Interactive Training section at
www.unitedstreaming.com.
2
Ramp Up Staff
Development
“In any other field, if the staff is given
new technology, they would get training
inside and out, but in schools, we often
think the teachers will be able to figure it
out,” says Shelli Elliot, a former teacher
and now a staff-development technology
integration consultant at Maize High
School in Maize, KS. Fortunately, Kansas
provides funding to districts for a
technology-integration specialist. So now,
says Elliot, rather than wasting money on
technology that isn’t used, districts train
teachers on how to use the technology
and how to integrate it into their daily
classroom work. Without someone like
Elliot, the teachers might not even know
that a resource like unitedstreaming is
available. But she locates a technology
teachers might like, models ways to
incorporate it into lessons, helps teachers transform their quizzes and tests into
digital formats, and plants the seeds for
future technology self-reliance. “I choose
one person at each school to do a trial of
a new technology,” says Elliot, who picks
a different person each time she launches
a new technology in order to spread the
technical expertise around. Once the
point person is trained, they then take on
the task of teaching the other teachers.
“This way,” explains Elliot, “I’m creating
technology leaders and in-house experts.”
For information about staff training, download the Trainer’s Toolkit in the Teacher
Center at www.unitedstreaming.com.
3
he or she is trying to teach. So now, Smith
schedules his staff development to help
schools that are not using technology as
much as they should. He works with them
to develop methods to help teachers
make the most of these tools. ”If the
teachers aren’t using what they have,
they’re not learning, and the kids aren’t
learning,” says Smith, “and that doesn’t
help anyone in the long run.”
How to
Create a
Summary Report
1) Log in to the unitedstreaming
administrator site at
www.unitedstreaming.com/admin.
2) Click on Summary Report (NEW).
3) If you want to run a report for all of your
Target Your Teacher
Training
When Scott Smith discovered a projector
being used as a table for an old piece of
equipment, he knew that teacher needed
more training. But he also knew that walking into every classroom at exactly the
right moment should not be the only way
to find out if the tools are being used. With
digital technologies such as unitedstreaming, for example, there are very precise
tools you can use to keep track of who is
using what. Smith visits the administrator
site at www.unitedstreaming.com each
month to create a Summary Report (see
sidebar), which allows him to know which
of his schools in the Visalia Unified School
District are and are not taking advantage
of the available digital resources.
“I can see that I have a dozen schools
that have not used it at all,” Smith says
as he scrolls through the website. That tells
him exactly where to focus his training efforts. If a teacher isn’t using the tools, it
is probably because he or she needs help,
maybe just getting the projector out of the
box and setting it up or, more likely, seeing how the tools fit into the coursework
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
schools and all users, skip to step 4.
a. If you would like to run a report for a
specific school, click on Choose next to
Department: and select the school.
b. If you would like to run a report for a
specific user, complete step 3a, then
click on Choose next to User: and select
the username.
4) To run a report for all schools and all
users, leave Department: and User:
blank —this is how Summary Report is
used most often.
5) Select your start and end dates for the
report.
6) Choose your view level:
a. Account will return a lump sum of the
number of views for the entire district.
b. Department will return a lump sum of
the number of views at each school.
c. User will break down the information
with the number of views for each user.
Select Show View Details if you would
like to see detailed information about
user logins.
7)
Order the report by your preference,
then click on Create Report.
DISCOVE RY E DU CATION
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Standards-Based Videos, Clips, and More
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Log into unitedstreaming and enter one of the most extensive digital video-based learning services. From
math and science to art and literature, the material in these videos and clips is captivating and engaging.
K-2
Animal Colors and Shapes
From the cheetah’s circles to the Arctic fox’s winter coat of white,
the animal kingdom is teeming with shapes and colors. This video
uses animals to introduce students to basic shapes, including lines,
circles, squares, triangles, and rhombi. It also explains the many
ways animals use color—for warning, camouflage, or showing off—
to provide a backdrop for looking at various colors.
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SUBJECT > Art
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER > Discovery Channel School
K-8
The Jeff Corwin Experience:
Morocco: Mysterious Desert
Ecosystem
Morocco holds its secrets closely. Jeff Corwin uncovers them, and
those secrets lead Corwin, and students, to the not-so-friendly
horned viper, the secretive “fish of the sand,” and the cobra, the
legendary predator that killed Cleopatra. Closed Captioned.
SUBJECT > Science
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER > Animal Planet
Clips for
National
Nutrition
Month in
March
Food and Nutrition 1
Grades: K–2 > 17:00
100% Educational Videos
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Managing Your Health: Weight Control
Grade 6–8 > 24:40
Discovery Channel School
FE B R UARY 2006
www.unitedstreaming.com
Nutrition and Digestive Health: Eating
for your Future
Grade 9–12 > 55:38
Discovery Channel School
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Learning
Tools
Math
Mastery:
Decimals
& Percents
A thorough introduction to
decimals, this program
progresses from how to read
and write decimal numbers
through multiplication and division of
decimals. A step-by-step, interactive format gives students a chance to try
out concepts themselves during the film.
SUBJECT > Math
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER > Math Mastery
at unitedstreaming.com
Writing Prompts:
Inspire students to write by using
these powerful composition tools that
combine photographic images with
text-based writing prompts.
Quiz Center:
Incorporate video clips into interactive assessments.
Calendar:
Find video clips that connect with
today—or any day in history.
Clip Art Gallery:
Choose from more than 1,200
images designed especially for
classroom use.
Incorporate high-quality imagery into
your lessons with this database that
includes thousands of standardsbased photos and illustrations.
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Image Library:
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K-4
Assignment Builder:
Swamp
Angel
An original tall tale about
Angelica Longstrider—
known as Swamp Angel
and the greatest
woodswoman in
Tennessee history—gets
a charming adaptation
that recounts such exploits as pulling rain from the clouds to fight a house
fire and defeating the meanest bear in the county. Closed Captioned.
SUBJECT > English
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER > Weston Woods
Use this online tool to create assignments for your students, save them in
a personal account, and view a library
of sample assignments.
Lesson Plans:
Tap into this archive of more than 200
lesson plans, arranged by subject and
grade level.
To learn more about these or other
resources available to your school with
unitedstreaming, please contact your
school’s unitedstreaming liaison, or
contact our Implementation Team at
1-800-323-9084.
Interested in more information on nutrition and health issues? Sign up now for a free 30-day trial of Discovery
Health Connection™, a new online resource that gives you access to 16 health and safety curriculum programs correlated to state standards, multiple-model programs, hundreds of literacy lessons, 500+ chaptered videos, 5,000 video
clips, and more! Visit www.discoveryhealthconnection.com or call 1-800-323-9084 today to learn more.
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
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Islam: History, Society, and
Civilization
This balanced program from Assignment Discovery covers past and
present-day philosophies, practices, and events that define Islam.
Segments on the prophet Mohammad, the Crusades, the sultan
Saladin, and Afghanistan’s Taliban paint a complex and enlightening
portrait of the world’s second-largest religion.
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SUBJECT > Social Studies
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER >Discovery Channel School
Geography Basics: Landforms and
Living Patterns
The earth’s surface constantly changes from factors as varied as earth
crust movement, volcanoes, the weather, glaciers, and human activities,
such as farming and building dams. The consequences—from natural
resource allocation to geographical features—affect a region’s population,
economy, and agriculture. Closed Captioned. Editable.
SUBJECT > Geography
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations, Blackline Masters
PRODUCER > Rainbow Educational Media
Clips for
Presidents
Day
Holiday Facts & Fun: Presidents’ Day
Grades: K–4 > 14:34
United Learning
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Our Federal Government: The Presidency
Grades: 6–8 > 26:38
Rainbow Educational Media
FE B R UARY 2006
American History: Portraits of Power:
American Presidents
Grades 9–12 > 55:24
Discovery Channel School
www.unitedstreaming.com
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9-12
American History: Foundations
of American Government
Investigate new findings from the night that helped bring America
into the Revolutionary War, witness the struggles faced by the
Constitution’s framers, and peruse the first 10 amendments that
were made to it. Closed Captioned.
SUBJECT > Social Studies
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
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PRODUCER > Discovery Channel School
9-12
Measure for Measure: Weight
and Energy
This program is a lively exploration into the concepts of
measurement of force and motion with real-world examples that
include how simple machines built the pyramids and what keeps
a rollercoaster on the tracks.
SUBJECT > Science
RESOURCES > Teachers’ Guides, Correlations
PRODUCER > Discovery Channel School
unitedstreaming Features in Focus
Teacher Feature: Each week, you’ll find a new topic covered in a teacher-friendly way at the top of the Learning
Tools area of unitedstreaming.com. A discussion guide, lesson plans for a range of different grade levels, student
activities, and video clips—all related to the weekly topic—are grouped in this feature for easy access. For example,
the theme of Scientific Discovery comes with video clips on discoveries such as DNA, planetary motion, and dinosaur
fossils; lesson plans for grades 3–5 and 6–8; a discussion guide on modern-day scientific discoveries; and student
activities such as a word puzzle.
Playlists: Bookmark video clips that you use often and make lesson-planning easier. At the top right of of the screen
at unitedstreaming.com, click on Playlist—there you’ll find some sample playlists to get you started. You can easily
add or delete playlists, create new ones on your own topics, and share your playlists with other teachers in your
school or district.
To learn more about these or other resources available to your school for unitedstreaming, please contact your
school’s unitedstreaming liaison, or contact our Implementation Team at 1-800-323-9084.
www.unitedstreaming.com
FE B R UARY 2006
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Jeff Corwin:in the
Learning
Interview by Carl Vogel
You have a master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries
Conservation and have spoken to the U.N. about conserving neotropical rainforests. When did your interest in
ecosystems begin?
I’ve always been fascinated by wildlife and habitat. When I
was six years old, I saw my first wild snake in my grandparents’ backyard—I remember that was a dramatic moment.
By the time I was eight, I had built a science museum in my
own backyard, with nests and animals and ecofacts, and I
tried to get the neighborhood kids to come through.
How did that lead to working in rainforests?
I was 11 when I started
working with a biologist
and herpetologist, who dangled over my
head the idea
that, when
I was old
enough, I
could go with
him on one of
his expeditions
to the jungles in
Central America. I
bussed tables and
mopped floors to
raise the money—my
parents said that
paying for the
trip myself
was a
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FE B R UARY 2006
Wild
litmus test for how
much I wanted to
go. I went when I
was 16, and the experience in the rainforest as a scientist, a
conservationist, and a biologist was wonderful. Later in my
career, I ended up running that same field station and
spending many thousands of hours there.
How do the opportunities kids have today to learn about
nature and habitats compare to when you were a boy?
Young people today have a lot more resources available to
them. Shows like mine and others explore nature, explore
habitats, explore animals. When I was a kid, we all played
around with stuff like melting the faces off army men! Today,
it’s bug kits and toys and games that teach about animals;
there’s entertainment designed to engage kids with science
and conservation. People are much more conscious of the
role of the environment.
What do you think your show provides for educators?
We’ve covered so much material. For example, I think we’ve
looked at most of the world’s venomous snakes. So you
could take the series and pull together something from
different episodes on broad global conservation, or get
myopic and focus on just reptiles. We’ve done some of that
ourselves, with shows like The Snakes, which look at a
species around the globe. I’d say, look at some shows, find
what’s of interest to you, and incorporate it into your
curriculum. We think the show can represent one part of
the educational process.
Have you thought about your show’s educational value?
With each episode, we start with a fun adventure and that
bridges into a conversation about the scientific qualities of the topic. I always knew
I was going to do something with
educating people about nature. If I
hadn’t begun work in television, I’d
probably be a teacher or a
curator in a zoo.
www.unitedstreaming.com
offers more than 40 Jeff
Corwin videos. To find
them, just log in, type
“Corwin” in the search
field, and click Go.
www.unitedstreaming.com
Discovery Channel
E
mmy Award-winner Jeff Corwin isn’t your
typical animal show host. For four seasons,
his series on Animal Planet has circled the
globe, looking at how wild animals interact with
their habitat and with local human societies. We
caught up with Jeff to talk about his love for
nature and how educators can use unitedstreaming’s library of more than 40 episodes of The Jeff
Corwin Experience.
Teachers,
connect with your
most valuable resource.
Each other.
When you join the Discovery Educator Network, you become part of a global
community that is excited by the power of digital media. Share your ideas with
l i k e - m i n d e d e d u c a t o r s . Ta p i n t o a w i d e r a n g e o f r e s o u r c e s a n d p r o f e s s i o n al
©2005DCI
d e v e l o p m e n t a c t i v i t i e s , a n d n e t w o r k a t e x c l u s i v e D i s c o v e r y E d u c a t o r e v e n t s.
FIND OUT MORE TODAY AT w w w . d i s c o v e r y e d u c a t o r n e t w o r k . c o m
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Coming Next Issue
New Ideas for Test Prep
Watch for powerful new ways to boost
your students’ achievement on tests.
Learn how to use unitedstreaming to:
• create interactive quizzes
• review and reinforce content
• build student confidence
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