INCORPORATING WV CSO’S IN GLOBALORIA CLASSROOM TO TO LEVERAGE DEEP-CONTENT LEARNING AND ONGOING RESEARCH WITHIN CONTENT AREA CLASSROOMS Ingrida Barker, Sandy River Middle School

Civics: SRMS Games Content  Addressing Social Studies content standards by creating the games dealing with various civics topics.  Reasons for topic choice:  Teacher: Providing students with the resources, engaging instruction, and relevant learning opportunities to increase motivation, civics awareness, and personal application of social studies skills to their lives.  Students: Identifying civics topics to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts/ideas the students felt were never taught to them in a meaningful manner. (example: Heather’s power point)

 “The Branch Game will be made for children in elementary school for grade levels 4 th and 5 th. We’re making this game for these grade levels because this was the years that we struggled most with social studies. I would have loved to have games like this to play to help me.” (Heather, SRMS 7 th grade student)

Social Studies and Language Arts Content Delivery  Blogging as a reflective tool about content as well as a teaching strategy to activate prior knowledge;  Relevance of discussions on copyright and plagiarism issues being addressed from RLA and SS perspectives;  Development of critical thinking skills throughout student reflections on game development as well a collaboration in teams to identify key concepts for fun learning through games.

 Students are exposed to a variety of informational texts that they have to explore, evaluate for relevancy, and critique the usefulness of the sources (both Flash content as well as the sources relevant to the civics topics chosen for the game)  Creation of the game development plan requires thoughtful collaboration resulting in thorough description of game scenes, creation of the scene outlines, setting up the schedule, as well as developing written and oral presentations of the product.

Blogging as a reflection on content  Learning about civics enhanced by reflection.  Cassie’s blog Cassie’s blog  Development of critical thinking and analytical skills as a result of blogging  Kaitlyn’s blog Kaitlyn’s blog  Engagement in a dialogue about the content and revision  Brooke’s blog Brooke’s blog  Reflection on Research  Garrett’s blog Garrett’s blog

Work on the Wiki reflecting the mastery of the content.  Game development process evident through the team pages:  FOX RACERS’ Page FOX RACERS’ Page  Critical Thinking and Evaluation Skills hones through Playing to Learn Unit:  Kaitlyn’s Projects Page Kaitlyn’s Projects Page  Activating background knowledge and identifying possible resources for the game topic:  Cassie’s Projects Page Cassie’s Projects Page

 Angel: Building a Portfolio of her progress in Globaloria;  Chuckie’s Wiki Pages to reflect his growth in Globaloria as a Flash as well as Civics learner. Chuckie’s Wiki Pages  Heather’s work Heather’s work

Successes  Student engagement in reflection about civics and consequent meaningful learning about this concept;  Development of writing skills through blogging and developing the narratives on their game development as well as game presentations;  Ability to reflect on the skills learned and provide feedback to others.