Grade: 7
Subjects: Science (Structures) and Language Arts (Oral, Media Literacy)

In this unit, students design and construct a bridge from rudimentary materials that must withstand a specified amount of force. This activity is based on the Ontario Grade 7 Science curriculum expectation and the reporting requirements for the project address Language Arts curriculum expectations. It also addresses the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards.

Students have to follow a project plan to build a bridge and at the end of each phase, they need to report on their progress using either a video recording, audio recording, slideshow with photos and text, a blog with photos/videos, or PDF with photos and text of what they have done and what they are thinking about their project. Audio and Video recordings should be edited to include introductory and closing titles, etc. If students choose to do a blog, pdf or slideshow, they will need to present them to the class as the assessment of the language components is based on the Oral strand curriculum expectations.

There are multiple phases to the lesson; design and budget, prototype construction, prototype design review, redesign and construction, testing, final report creation. While this lesson plan covers eight, 1-hour classes, because it is cross curricular with Language Arts, more time could be allocated to facilitate a more in-depth report generation process and a higher quality product.

Building Bridges to Language Arts OER

Includes:

• Teacher's Lesson Slide Show
• Student Handout
• Detailed Lesson Plan

Grade: 7 (could be adapted to other grades)
Subjects: Language Arts (Writing, Oral, Media Literacy)

In this unit, students work independently to compose and perform a slam poem (spoken word) and then record and edit a video of their performance. It includes lessons that address multiple strands in the Ontario Language Arts curriculum and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards.

Once students have completed their composition and videoed the final version of their slam, they will edit the video to include a starting title screen and closing screen. This is an introduction to video editing which will prepare them for their next project which is a more extensive video production project

This activity engages students in crafting a text in the form of a slam poem using a variety of literary devices and performing that poem using non-literary devices to make the performance compelling.

Slam + Video Lesson Plan

Includes:

• Teacher's sesson slide show
• Student hand-out
• Lesson plan