The Black Death Celia Sertich Antelope Crossing Middle School

Who am I & Why am I Doing This? My name is Celia Sertich and I teach 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies at Antelope Crossing Middle School. This is a seventh grade History/Social Science lesson on the Bubonic Plague. I decided to create this lesson because I have been looking for a way to teach the Plague that would be student directed and would engage the student’s interest.

EXPECTATIONS I decided to join CTAP for a number of reasons: To learn how to put a lesson on a web page. To improve my computer knowledge and skills. To create a lesson to be used in my classroom. To meet and work with a group of creative people.

OUTCOMES From this experience I learned: How to create a web page. How to graph with Excel. How to communicate in a chat group. How to FTP files How to use a search engine.

SUCCESSES Meets multiple standards Students self-directed High interest Students learned subject

SHORTCOMINGS Lack of numerous computers. Time for all students to work on computers. Lack of internet connection in classroom for research.

RESULTS

Students had little knowledge of the plague as shown by pretest. RESULTS The map and timeline assignments gave the students information for the final two projects. The majority of students successfully completed both the paper and the Power Point presentation.

ASSESSMENT After reviewing the data I decided that the students needed more time to complete all the projects adequately. Most students did well but could have done better.

ASSESSMENT This rubric was used to assess the editorial.

ASSESSMENT This rubric was used to assess the Power Point presentation.

REVISIONS What I would change next time: I would give all assignments at the beginning of the lesson so the students knew what to expect. I would book mark links that were helpful so the students have easy access to them. I would take more time for this unit or allow students to do more work at home.

REVISIONS Finally: Instead of each student creating a Power Point presentation I would have the students work in groups of two to four. This would give the students a chance to combine their knowledge as well as solve the problem for finding time for so many presentations.

CONCLUSION Working on this web lesson was a challenge. I loved writing the curriculum and working within the standards. Will I do it again? I did learn an amazing amount (by trial and error) and I am contemplating doing another. I am looking forward to seeing and using lessons created by my peers. I have a better understanding of all that goes into creating lessons for the web.