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Our colleagues used to call us "the couple with the cart." For
the first few years, we shuttled our Apple SE and a laserdisc
player -- all the equipment we had -- between our two classrooms.
Nine years and a bond issue later, all classrooms at James Logan
High School in the New Haven Unified School District, Union City,
Calif., have at least six computers. During that time, we've designed
and refined an integrated English and history curriculum using
an Apple application called HyperCard. In the process, we've been
able to help our colleagues and students make use of the new technology
tools available to us.
Our idea to integrate the two subjects came before the technology.
Dave, a history teacher, was looking for ways to have his students
read literature as part of his history lessons. When he approached
Marilyn, an English teacher, for ideas, he sparked both a professional
and a personal relationship. We set up two classes that use the
same curriculum: The 60 sophomores, both regular and honors students,
in Marilyn's English class also take Dave's history class.
Our students learn about the history and literature of the times
covered in these units: the French Revolution, the Industrial
Revolution, European imperialism and the fight for independence,
World War I, World War II and the Holocaust, China and the rise
of Communism, Latin America, and, if we have time, the Middle
East, the Cold War, or the Russian Revolution.
For example, the students read All Quiet on the Western Front
and the World War I poets in English class while they're learning
about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and trench
warfare in history class. During the unit on China, they read
The Good Earth.
Make your own
The challenge when you create a class like this is, of course,
finding curriculum materials that match your content. It was this
search for materials that led us to consider technology-based
multimedia curriculum products. The programs looked flashy, but
when we delved into them, they didn't have much content. So we
decided to design our own.
Along the way, we got married. After the birth of our first
daughter, Dave taught himself to use HyperCard. We chose HyperCard
for a practical reason. The program came bundled with the Apples
we had in school. HyperCard is a presentation application, with
electronic "cards" or screens that can be linked. Unlike other
presentation programs that follow in chronological order, HyperCard
allows you to create links that jump from subject to subject.
By using the application, we easily integrate our subjects and
make the material accessible to our students. Our students use
HyperCard for assignments and for class projects.
Another advantage to creating our own multimedia presentations:
We are able to make the application fit with what we wanted our
students to learn, rather than following a set curriculum in a
store-bought product.
In English class, we use HyperCard to get our students to revisit
the text of the books they're reading, consider it in different
ways, and answer open-ended questions. It's an accessible and
interesting way to show students the different parts of literature
so they can understand the whole.
When teaching the China unit, for example, we've prepared a
HyperCard stack with passages on themes in The Good Earth:
The Role of Women, Religion and the Gods, Wang Lung's Deeds versus
Thoughts, Wang's Children, and His Love of the Land. Students
use the information to complete a variety of written and project-based
assignments. Lessons are assigned at key points during the reading
of the novel. The history portion of the HyperCard stack contains
information on the culture of China and the historical events
prior to and following the revolution of 1949.
We've heard comments from other teachers that we could get the
same results by marking the passages in the book and have the
students reread them. Yes, we could -- but often it's hard enough
to get the students to read the book the first time. If we can
make revisiting the text interesting, students will respond more
fully, be more likely to participate, and end up understanding
the books better than if they'd just read them once. We find they
don't mind digging deeper or analyzing language when they do it
on the computer.
We also found that computers and our HyperCard stacks give regular
students an even playing field with honors students. Computers
attract students of all ability levels. The HyperCard stacks allow
students to work at their own pace. The honors students can rush
ahead; the others take as long as they need to understand the
themes.
Students get a chance to develop their own HyperCard stacks
when they work on projects. They form teams, each member with
a role to play. When we're lucky enough to have the classes scheduled
back to back, we alternate from room to room during project time,
allowing students to ask both of us questions while they work.
An example of a student HyperCard assignment is "Eyes of War:
Perspectives on World War II." Assigned novels are Rumors of
Peace, A Separate Peace, Black Rain, Lord
of the Flies, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Without
Seeing the Dawn, and Tree of Heaven.
Each member of the group contributes an analysis of some aspect
of the novel and a symbolic visual to accompany the analysis.
We assign students roles with production deadlines and calendars
with due dates. The student who is assigned to be managing editor
proofreads all drafts of writing and consults with us about potential
problems or corrections. The computer technicians design and create
the HyperCard stack. They link cards, scan and insert pictures,
and insert text. The artist consults with group members about
the title page, individual artwork, color, slide-show visuals,
and the overall look of the stack. Researchers visit the library
to do research on the area of the world in which the novel was
set. They look for pictures to use for the slide show. The research
also involves going to the Internet to find information.
Students write a script as a group to reflect the theme of their
assigned novel and its perspective on war. This script is performed
with their slide shows in front of the class. At the end of the
project, each student fills out an evaluation of each member's
contribution to the group effort. Students receive both an individual
grade for the quality of their individual card and a group grade
determined by the evaluations and the performance to the class.
For the students who are novices in HyperCard, we start out
with a template of five cards with the requirement that they must
create a sixth card and learn how to link that card with the others.
Before we used this technology, we often had trouble getting
some students to even complete class projects. Every year, about
20 percent of students wouldn't turn anything in. Now, they all
finish their work. Some students become quite sophisticated in
their projects, and they include audio and video clips and Internet
links. We don't take up much class time teaching the application.
Students began expressing interest in more advanced computer multimedia
design, including web page design, so Dave now teaches an elective
class in HyperCard and web design.
Other technologies
Computers and HyperCard aren't the only technologies we use
in the classroom. Another tool we find extremely useful is our
laserdisc player. Marilyn began using it to teach Romeo and
Juliet to her freshman class.
Usually, teachers have students read the play then show them
the film as a reward for getting through the play. Marilyn decided
to use the film to teach the play. Using a videodisc of the film,
she taught a lesson on dramatic foils. The lesson was based on
three scenes featuring characters in opposition to each other.
With the laserdisc player, she was able to display the scenes
in the order and at the speed she wanted without losing the students'
attention by pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding.
Marilyn taught half a dozen lessons on different themes in the
play using the laserdisc player. After a while, the scenes overlapped,
and the students were able to understand the complexities of the
play.
During the World War I unit, we show scenes from "Hamburger
Hill," a movie about the Vietnam War. Using the laserdisc player,
we turn the audio off and have the students write descriptions
of what they see. Then we turn off the video, and the students
write about what they hear. By comparing the two wars, the students
learn a powerful lesson about the universal plight of the soldier.
Marilyn has also used the player when teaching To Kill A
Mockingbird. Her students act as jurors during the courtroom
scenes, taking notes as they listen to the testimony of the characters
and the arguments of the lawyers on film. Students then write
about the conclusions they reach from the evidence and also about
the experience of being a juror.
The laserdisc player has been helpful teaching history, as well.
Before the advent of the videodiscs, Dave used to go to the library
with a 35mm camera and take slides of the photos in coffee-table
books. The photos were beautiful, but there weren't many books
and the process was cumbersome. Students seldom had the opportunity
to look at them individually. Laserdiscs, on the other hand, can
store thousands of images, including cartoons, artwork, and photos,
that are invaluable to teaching history.
Laserdiscs also are an advantage when you want to teach a subject
that doesn't have a great deal of curriculum material available.
For example, because we have a large Hispanic population, we often
teach the Mexican revolution, which isn't included in most history
textbooks. But laserdiscs hold thousands of images on a wide variety
of subjects, making it easier for us to bring this information
to our students.
We use the Internet extensively to help students do research.
For example, during the "Eyes of War Project" students used Internet
links in history class to research the historical background of
the novel they were reading. In addition, the projects that students
do in history class include designing web pages. Marilyn uses
our school web pages to publish excellent student work from her
English class.
From classroom to lab
We were the first teachers at our school to begin integrating
technology with our curriculum in the classroom. However, as our
district and community's commitment to technology grew, equipment
flooded into our schools and classrooms. In 1993, the voters of
Union City passed a $55 million bond issue. The money was earmarked
for the construction of a large-area computer and video network
throughout the district.
The district's technology plan also called for putting six computers
in every high school classroom. Each machine is loaded with an
integrated software program (ClarisWorks) and HyperCard and can
access e-mail and the Internet.
That same year, Logan received a grant for $100,000 from the
state of California. We used the money to establish a Multimedia
Laboratory. This computer lab is available for teachers to bring
their classes to when they are working on multimedia projects.
As you might imagine, this influx of technology has sparked
our teachers to want to learn about what we do and explore their
own ideas. We serve as technology mentors in our building. We've
produced lots of support materials so others can easily use our
curriculum. For teachers who want to develop their own curriculum
ideas using technology, we offer, with the help of state grant
money, a summer multimedia institute. Teachers get paid to attend,
with the requirement that they must share their ideas and new
knowledge with their colleagues.
We've come a long way from those days when we were that couple
with the cart. Though our technology is more sophisticated, our
sound academic grounding has not changed. Technology in the classroom
can be more than games or distractions, as long as content is
your first priority.
Dave
Forrest is a social science and multimedia
teacher at James Logan High School in Union City, Calif. Marilyn
Forrest is a language arts teacher at James Logan High School.
For more information, check out these links: One
Teacher's Odyssey with Technology; Integrating
Technology into the Classroom: A Teachers' Perspective;
World
Studies.
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