Fall 2014 SED 464 Signature Assignment
Monica Olloren
Arizona State University
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Environment Narrative
Located in Tempe, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic elementary school first opened its doors in 1945 with a student population of 80 students from 1 st
-5 th
grade with the mission to “provide a holistic Catholic Christian environment that serves the soul, mind, and body of each child” (Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission). 59 years later, the school has expanded to include a library, multiple sports fields, state-of-the-art technology, and 19 classrooms. The student population is now up to 400 students, but class size is small, maintaining an average size of 20 students per classroom with the purpose of ensuring a high-quality education for every student. There are only two classes for each grade (K-8 th
). Student backgrounds range from middle to high-income households but there are a handful of students who come from low-income households. Whites and Hispanics are the predominant student groups followed by Asian/Pacific Islanders and American Indians. Tuition is obligatory to attend with scholarships readily available.
The school has the technological sources needed to prepare students for the demands of
21 st
century. The library has a computer lab and is utilized by grades 1 through 3 for computer sessions. 4 th
and 5 th
grade classes have laptops while each student from 6 th
through 8 th
grade is given their own Google Chromebook. Interactive SMART Slates are available for teachers use and SMART boards have been installed in some classrooms. Online programs like Accelerated
Reader and Khan Academy are incorporated in the curriculum to ensure a nearly book-less classroom. The school is committed to investing in the necessary programs and resources to help their students succeed, but they are still in the process of effectively incorporating technology into the curriculum. 8 th graders at OLMC have Chromebooks, but do not know how to use the
Internet to find credible sources. They have learned how to distinguish between primary and

3 secondary sources. Now they must learn how to determine the credibility and bias of primary and secondary sources. To help them obtain this skill, I am requesting funds to purchase a digital subscription to the New York Times Archives, which would give students centralized access to more than 13 million articles from 1851 to today.
The Need: New York Times Digital Subscription
The New York Times is an example of one of the many media outlets that students will obtain their information from and have to make meaning of. Because of its longevity, it has the ability to complement the curriculum concerning historic events from the 19 th
century by offering additional insight. In the classroom, I envision my students comparing New York Times articles with the textbook through active class discussion. They pinpoint differences between the two sources and attempt to explain why events are represented differently. They discuss the author’s background, the period the articles are written, the limitations they have, and their meaning. And although they might find limitations in the articles, they can appreciate what they have to offer. What’s most important is that this resource teaches the class to not be complacent with the information they are given - to question their sources and cross-reference others in order to get a more wholesome picture.
Introduction
As an end-of-the year-project, students will create a digital story presentation that encompasses their learned knowledge and skills to answer the question: What are some reasons that have people immigrated to the United States?
In the first part of the project, students will interview an immigrant about their immigration story and record it in a transcript. In the second part of the project, students will analyze their transcripts to pinpoint push and pull factors and historical events that influenced the person’s decision to immigrate. They will compare and

4 contrast their interview findings with secondary and primary sources from the New York Times
Archive. During this stage, students will apply their analytical skills to determine what is true, what it false, and what is biased in order to create a complete narrative of the person’s immigration experience. In the final stage of the project, students will create a digital story of their individual’s immigration story to share with their classmates.
I am a second year teacher at Our Lady of Mount of Carmel teaching 7 th
and 8 th
grade history. In my classroom I emphasize group collaboration and empathy in order to create an open cooperative classroom environment. For this reason, group collaboration and empathy will be key factors in the successful completion of the PBL project. Group collaboration instills selflessness, commitment, and innovation within in students. When students utilize their strengths, support each other’s weaknesses, and partake in joint ideation, they achieve more than they could alone. One of the biggest benefits of group collaboration is that it teaches students how to resolve group conflict. With every group project, there will always be conflict that arises, and in order to resolve those conflicts, team members will need to exhibit the ability to communicate in a respectful manner and a willingness to understand contrasting views.
Resolving conflict is one of the hardest skills to attain, but one of the most valuable skills to have. If students can successfully resolve conflict without intervention of authority, they will have mastered an important 21 st
century skill.
As for empathy, students will have to empathize with their teammates in other to be successful in the project. However, they also need to be empathetic in order to reflect on the immigration experience and make it relevant to their own lives. As the group forms their person’s story, they will place themselves in the person’s shoes in order to understand the emotions that surrounded their decision to immigrate. To leave one’s home in order to pursue

5 better opportunity is not always easy, even if it’s willing – something must always given up. This is what I want my students to understand and appreciate. After all, knowing how people felt is important to knowing history. History is not just about the facts, but also about the people.
Narrative (Part 1)
Goals and Outcomes
My goal for my students during this project is to become authors of history. Anytime the class has done historic research, it has been on events that were already taken apart and studied by scholars. With this PBL project, students will be researching on untouched material: a common person’s story. They will be the ones to take apart the story, study it, and make meaning of it.
Like authors they will bring a story to life and preserve it in a medium that will continue to tell the story. They will make history using the skills and knowledge they learned throughout the year and realize that they can apply these skills to any personal pursuit.
The outcome of this project will be the digital story. Completion of this project will serve as an indicator that the students have succeeded in differentiating between primary and secondary sources, analyzing and evaluating source credibility, forming personal judgment, and in presenting the information in a meaningful manner. Mastery will be determined by a rubric and group evaluation.
Standards
ACCRS Standards

8.S4.C4.PO 1.
Identify the push and pull factors (e.g., economic conditions, human rights conditions, famines, political strife/wars, natural disasters, changes in technology) that drive human migrations.

8.S1.C1. PO 6.
Determine the credibility and bias of primary and secondary sources.

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
8.S1.C1.PO 7. Analyze cause effect relationships between and among individuals and/or historical events.

8.S1.C1.PO 8. Analyze two points of view on the same historical event.

8.S1.C1.PO 1. Construct a narrative using historical data.
Technology Standards

NETS S3. Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
a) Plan strategies to guide inquiry b) Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and medi.
c) Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. d) Process data and report results.
Narrative (Part 2)
Project Based Learning Project: The Story of US
Introduction.
By the end of the year, students in eight grade social studies will have covered the required content as mandated by the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards. As an end-ofthe year-project students will create a digital storytelling presentation that encompasses their learned knowledge and skills to answer the question: What are some reasons that have people immigrated to the United States?
The fact is many of the historic events covered in the eighth grade curriculum have influenced migration to the US. In addition, many students come from a family of immigrants or know somebody that is an immigrant who may come from a family of immigrants. My goal with this project is to transform students into people who make and preserve history, authors.

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Standard: 8.S4.C4.PO 1.
Identify the push and pull factors (e.g., economic conditions, human rights conditions, famines, political strife/wars, natural disasters, changes in technology) that drive human migrations.
Objectives

Identify reasons people have immigrated to the US.

Compare and contrast various sources to form a wholesome immigration narrative.

Create and present an immigration narrative through digital storytelling
Instruction.
This is a group project and collaboration is necessary to succeed. In stage one of the project, groups will conduct oral interviews to discover people’s reasons for immigrating to the
US. Groups can interview family members, friends, neighbors, or whomever to obtain this information. For the sake of time, the teacher will request groups to interview only one person about their immigration story. During the interview, students will record and take notes. After the interview, students will create a transcript of the interview.
In stage 2 of the project, students will analyze their transcripts to pinpoint push and pull factors and historical events that influenced the person’s decision to immigrate. This stage is the most important part of the project because groups will compare and contrast their interview findings with secondary and primary sources to create a complete narrative of the person’s immigration experience. During this stage, students will use the New York Times to find articles about the events that influenced their person’s decision to study (Reference Appendix A). They will use these articles to fill in gaps of the story and to identify any contradictions between what the article describes and what the interviewee said. If there are contradictions, the group must work together to make sense of the contradictions and determine which source(s) is right. A diagram/chart will be made to reflect the group’s analysis.

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In stage 3 of the project, students will create and present their narrative through digital storytelling. After all groups have presented, written individual reflections and group evaluations will be turned in.
Key Vocabulary.
Ravenstein’s Laws of Immigration (push and pull factors), internal and external migration, emigration, immigration, forced migration, step migration, chain migration, circular migration, seasonal migration, refugee, internally displaced person, intercontinental migration, intracontinental migration, interregional migration, rural to urban migration
Student Product :

Research Packet (original notes, recordings, and transcript of interview)

Analytical Diagram and Chart

Digital Storytelling Video

Individual Reflection

Group Member Evaluations
Timeframe:

1 st
Week: Choosing interviewees and creating interview questions

2 nd
week: Conduct oral interview

3 rd
and 4 th
week: Research and analysis (2 nd
Part)

5 th
and 6 th
Week: Create digital story

7 th
week: Presentations

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Narrative (Part 3)
PBL Assessment
Throughout this project, there will be two mini formative assessments to check group progress and understanding and one summative assessment. In the first stage, the groups must conduct an interview of a person’s of immigration journey. Before hand they must prepare indepth and factual questions to ask that must be approved by the teacher. After the interview, the group must edit and organize interview notes into a clear, objective transcript (Look in Appendix
B).
Students must create a transcript of the interview because they must be able to understand the interview in order to analyze it for the second stage of the group project. In the second stage of the project, the group must be able to identify the push and pull factors that motivated their interviewee to immigrate and compare their findings with primary and secondary sources in order to make a wholesome narrative. This analysis will be assessed in a chart/diagram format.
How students represent it is their choice, but it must be clear, organized, and comprehensible
(Look in Appendix B).
In the last stage of the project, the students will create a digital story for their summative assessment because it will encompass their entire research and analysis. I chose digital storytelling as the medium because storytelling engages the students to think, recreate, imagine, and reflect all that is given to them in order to form one coherent narrative. The process of doing so involves a higher level of thinking as students not only have to make a narrative that makes sense to them, but makes sense to others. While grading their digital stories, I will be looking to see if their images and audios (voice) complement the narrative and if the student can explain why this one’s person story is relevant to our own lives (Look in Appendix C).

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Budget
Product
New York
Times Digital
Subscription
Cost
$2990/year
Budget Sheet
Description
School wide access - with registration and log-in required. Students and teachers have access from anywhere in the world on the web and via mobile apps. They activate a pass giving them full access to NYTimes.com
for a designated period of time.
The process requires them to complete a free registration and create a username and password.
This product offers these additional features:
- It includes access via smartphone apps.
- It includes access to five articles per day for each user from the restricted archives (1923-1980).
In an age where students are surrounded by multiple facets of information, the ability to analyze and evaluate information has become a crucial skill to have for the 21 st century learner.
In order to develop this critical thinking skill in our students, practice is necessary in the classroom. With the New York Times digital subscription, students will master this skill before high school.
With obtainment of a New York Times digital subscription, students will have unlimited access to current New York Times articles and videos. In addition, students will have access to the online archive, the Times Machine, which contains 129 years of journalism as it originally appeared. This is a valuable resource to have because it allows students to compare and contrast articles with the content they learn from class textbooks, which usually summarize the content.
The acquirement of this digital subscription is a good investment for many reasons.
Firstly, the digital format allows itself to be preserved unlike regular textbooks that get worn out.
Secondly, the comparing and contrasting of sources from the New York Times with the textbooks teaches the value and limitations of both these types of sources. Finally, it would be a valuable resource to have during the PBL project since it is required to compare oral interview

11 findings with additional primary and secondary sources. It is sustainable, economical, and valuable. Most importantly they equip students with the critical thinking skills needed for the 21 st century
.

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Appendix A
PBL Lesson Plan
Teacher(s): Ms.Olloren
Subject: 8 th Grade American History
Standard(s):

8.S1.C1. PO 6.Determine the credibility and bias of primary and secondary sources.
Objectives (Explicit):

Students will evaluate their oral interview and secondary sources from the New York Times by using the OPVL method to assess their value and limitations.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):
On a piece of paper, write out the origins, purpose, value, and limitations for your oral interview transcript and secondary source from the
New York Times. The teacher will use
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex):
 The purpose of the OPVL method is…
 Origins means…Purpose means…Value means…Limitations means…

OPVL their oral interview as a group

Compare and Contrast
Key vocabulary:
Origins, Purpose, Value, Limitations (OPVL)
Materials/Technology Resources to be Used:

OPVL Chart

Oral Interview Transcript

One New York Times Article

Pencil and Paper
Opening
Now that we’ve completed the first step of the PBL project, we will transition to the second state of the project, which involves evaluating your oral interview for credibility and limitation. But before you evaluate your oral interview, we will review how to evaluate primary and secondary sources.
Teacher Will:

Give students an OPVL chart to fill out during the lecture

Review the OPVL method and instruct students on what to look for in a primary or secondary source.
Regular Student Will:

Fill in the OPVL chart given by teacher in order to differentiate between O (origins), P (purpose), V
(value), and L (Limitations).
Differentiation
Make available OPVL charts that are already partially filled.
Teacher Will:

Do a guided practice of the OPVL method with entire class using teacher example.
Regular Students Will:

In groups of 4, students will OPVL their oral interview. They will discuss and on a piece of paper write down
Differentiation
During the teach part of the guided practice, give students a checklist to guide them during the class discussion. Check to see if students are completing the checklist during class discussion and group work.
Teacher Will:

Students will have acquired and made meaning of how to assess the credibility of sources. Now they will transfer their knowledge by choosing an article from the New York Times to OPVL.
Regular Student Will:

OPVL an article from the New York Times Archive.
Differentiation

Provide an OPVL checklist as well as a cheat sheet that explains common limitations and biases found in primary and secondary sources.
Closing/Student Reflection/Real-life connections: You have successfully evaluated your oral interview and one NYT article. In the next class, we will compare the two sources to determine if there are contradictions in information about the same event.

Appendix B
Part 1 and Part 2 Formal Assessment Rubric
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Appendix C
Part 3 Summative Assessment Rubric
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