LEARNING CONNECTIONS
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Ryder McEntyre, a ninth grader
at Sonoraville High School in
Calhoun, Georgia, created this
image (far left) about the Dominican Republic, and Meghan
Twietmeyer, also a ninth grader,
created the Guatemala image
(left). The students used these
images to write a script in Spanish to describe the countries’
history, geography, economy,
and art, as well as at least one
notable person.
how engaged they were in each of
the activities using the heat factor of
peppers. They chose a range of sweet
peppers to habaneros and so became
familiar with an essential ingredient in
Spanish and Latin American cooking.
The students consistently rated their
engagement as either jalapeño (very
hot) or habanero (extremely hot).
We used a checklist to evaluate the
presentations. We allowed students several chances to improve their final oral
and visual presentations. Students used
self-evaluation and peer evaluation in
verbal and written form, so we had
evidence of how well they understood
the assignment.
We have the oral and visual presentations in a DVD format to use as examples for other classes. Photo Story
allowed us to listen to and evaluate the
students’ oral Spanish language skills
at our convenience. We also used the
DVD of the final presentations to
evaluate the students’ oral skills as well
as their knowledge of the cultures and
people of their chosen countries.
We required the students to take
notes while watching the final presentation. Each student selected two
questions from their presentations,
and the teacher combined these to
create a knowledge assessment for
the class.
Overall the evaluations were very
positive, and we look forward to using
the skills we learned with other classes.
Resources
Culturegrams: http://online.culturegrams.
com//world/ index.php
ePals: www.epals.com
Grolier Online: http://auth.grolier.com/login/
go_login_page.html?bffs=N
Modern Language Association: mla.org/style
PBwiki: http://pbwiki.com
—Cawood Cornelius is a library media specialist
at Sonoraville High School in Calhoun, Georgia.
He is working on his EdD from the University of
Alabama.
—Terri Vest is a Spanish teacher at Sonoraville
High School. A teacher since 1987, she has taught
in Peru, Chile, Croatia, and the United States.
2008 ISTE SIG Media Specialist Technology Innovation Award
Cawood Cornelius and Terri Vest are the high school winners of the 2008 SIGMS award.
This annual ISTE award, sponsored by Linworth Publishing Inc. and Follett Software
Company, is presented to two teams of a school librarian and collaborating teacher
who have conducted an exemplary technology program extending beyond the library
to meet the needs of classroom students and teachers. The purpose of this award is
to identify, promote, and sustain excellence in collaborative and innovative technology-based projects driven by the school library media center in support of curricular and
instructional needs in elementary, middle, and high schools.
For more information go to
www.iste.org/awards.
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SANDRALEEPHOTOGRAPHY