Title / Content Area(s) / Grade Level(s)

Character Traits/ Technology, Language Arts/ Grade 5

Brief Description

The purpose of this unit is to use writing, technological, and organizational skills to develop a Kid Pix Slide Show about one of the 6 Pillars of Character. (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship)

This unit will take 15 to 20 30-min. class periods.

Goal/Standard/Grade Level/Benchmark

STATE GOAL 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

STATE GOAL 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information

Benchmark

.
2.B.2a Respond to literary material by making inferences, drawing conclusions and comparing it to their own experience, prior knowledge and other texts.

3.A.2 Write paragraphs that include a variety of sentence types; appropriate use of the eight parts of speech; and accurate spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
3.B.2b Establish central idea, organization, elaboration and unity in relation to purpose and audience.
3.B.2d Edit documents for clarity, subjectivity, pronoun-antecedent agreement, adverb and adjective agreement and verb tense; proofread for spelling, capitalization and punctuation; and ensure that documents are formatted in final form for submission and/or publication.
3.C.2b Produce and format compositions for specified audiences using available technology.
5.A.2b Organize and integrate information from a variety of sources

 KRSP 

K(nowledge)

R(easoning)

S(kills)

P(roducts)

Assessments

Checklist
    Students will complete a checklist that breaks down the project into steps at the end of each week of the project.  This will help both the teacher and the students to know where they are at in the project.

 Rubric


Instruction

Activity: Introduction

Duration: 2 – 30 min. class periods                                                                      

Procedure:

  1. Copy and paste Inspiration Template from the server to their 5th grade folder.
  2. Explore the websites on the template.

Next day:
  1. Pass out checklist for the project.
  2. As a class, develop a rubric to evaluate the project or use the one here.
  3. Decide whether they want to work by themselves or with a partner.
  4. Take three cups. Label them “Partner Group 1”, “Partner Group 2” and the other one “Alone”.  Put a strip of paper with each character trait in the “Alone” cup.  In the other 2 cups, put 2 strips of each character trait.  Students who want to work alone will draw a strip from the “Alone” cup.  Students will draw a strip from Group 1 first to determine their partner.  If less than 12 students left, remove some strips from the second cup.  There may need to be one group of three.

Activity:  Inspiration and Research
This has been changed from the bubble diagram to an outline format that can be saved in html.

Duration:  5 to 8  30-min. class periods

Procedure:

  1. Create a new folder inside their 5th grade folder to save everything for this project.  Call it the name of their character trait.  For example, "Respect Project".
  2. Open the Inspiration diagram (in their folder).  Save it as “respect”, “caring”, etc. in their character project folder.
  3. Research the sites and add a bubble to each section planning what they are going to put on each page of their Kid Pix project.
  4. Using the digital camera, take a picture to go with their example of how they can show this trait in their life.  Save it to their project folder and copy it on to the Inspiration diagram.
  5. Find a book that describes their trait using websites on the Inspiration diagram.  Use Quad-LINC to see if the book is in  our library.  If not find a book that we do have. 
  6. Read the book.  Find the parts that show the characters displaying the character trait.  Fill in the bubble on the Inspiration diagram describing this.
  7. Write the essays that they will use in their project.
  8. Find pictures to go on the pages.  Put picture and source in their Inspiration diagram.

Activity:  Kid Pix Slide Show

Duration:  5 to 7 30-min periods

Procedure: 

  1. Using Kid Pix 3, begin Title Page with character trait and student names.  Save as “title”.
  2. Make the page that describes their trait.  Save as “description”.
  3. Make the page that has a quote to go with their trait.  Add the picture and put the source under it. Save it as “quote”.
  4. Make the page that has an essay describing how they can show this trait in their life.  Insert digital picture.  Save as “example”.
  5. Make the page that tells about a book that shows the trait.  Insert picture and put source under it.  Save as “book”.
  6. Put slide show together and add transitions and sounds.

Resources for Character Traits

Character Pillars
http://www.alt.wcboe.k12.md.us/mainfold/technolog/techsat/schaepage/Character%20Pillars_files/v3_document.htm

Good Character.com
http://www.goodcharacter.com/EStopics.html

Character Counts - The Six Pillars of Character
http://www.charactercounts.org/defsix.htm

Resources to Find Quotes

Quotations on Character
http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/char_ed/pubs/icare/appen6.html

Quotes to Inspire
http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/quotes/quotetoc.htm


Examples of How to Use Digital Pictures with Character Traits

On the Road to Good Character
http://www.griswoldschool.org/character/default.html 

 Books that Show Character Traits


Children's Books that Illustrate the 6 Pillars
http://charactercounts.org/booklist1.htm

Libraries in a Topic
http://www.perfectionlearning.com/explorer/librintopic.adp?topic=CHARCNT

 

Quad-LINC Web Catalog

http://qls.rbls.lib.il.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/DgpsU2NbBL/66680006/60/1180/X


Potential Accommodations

IEP-  can work with partner

Gifted- can develop more elaborate Kid Pix pages, more use of digital photography, animation,  and sound

Follow-up

Rotate around the room and view all the slideshows.  Answer the reflection questions.