Room One

 

Room One Student Project Possibilities:

Verbal/Linguistic

List the names of Nebraska towns that are in the novel. Make a word find to share with a friend.

List some vivid words that you found throughout this novel. Find out their meanings and record them in your word book or somewhere to use in your writing.

Write a different ending to the novel.

Research the mystery genre. Use Nancy Sharp's mystery story graphic organizer to write a mystery of your own. Remember to use the 6 traits of writing. The district's writing rubric will be used to assess your work.

Compare and Contrast pros and cons of one room schools vs. regular public schools. Report your findings to the classroom or school. Present your story using multimedia of your choice. (eg. Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie,etc.)

Select at least 2 mystery book series (eg. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc) Compare and contrast their mystery elements. Share your findings with someone else through email, blogging, iChat, Skype, etc.

Job shadow the process of delivering the newspaper with someone you know. Make sure to document notes and take photographs.  Use the information and photos obtained to compose a multimedia story of your findings. Make sure to include interactions with the community as you are job shadowing (similar to the ones that were done in the story)

Interview someone at the Grand Island Independent (or another paper that is published of choice)
Find out information such as:
     How many people it takes to run the paper?
     How you go about getting a subscription to the paper?
     How much is a subscription?
     Is there assistance for people who can not afford the paper?
     What other ways can you access the paper?
     What type of education do you need to get a job at the paper?
     What is the process start to finish of putting a paper together?
Compose Digital photo story to report your findings.

Organize a debate about whether one room schools should remain open or closed. Create questions as the mediator to ask so that each side may respond with their stance on the issue.

Imagine yourself as a student in a one-room school such as Ted. Take a side and justify why you think the school should remain open or why it should close. Give at least 5 strong justifiable reasons.

Visual/Spatial

Ted compares the one room school to an aquarium of fish. Make a similar comparison to a one room school or your classroom and give reasoning to support your comparison. Include photographs or illustrations to assist with your comparison.

Use the description on page 27 to analyse the character. Develop a character sketch to match the description. Compare/Contrast your interepretation with others through some other form of multimedia (such as iChat, Skype, email, letters. etc.)

Design a model, diorama, or detailed layout of a one room school as mentioned in the story. Be sure to include details which reflect the time period of a one room school, such as items that would be found in the room, students wardrobe, etc. You must include a detailed description that will guide the viewer through your design. (If you are familiar with sketch up you may try this multimedia tool)

Design an advertisement for the Omaha World Herald, The Grand Island Independent, or another local paper of choice. Make sure to include: an illustration, the price, contact information, remember who your audience is and how that affects the way you communicate your information and ideas.

Investigate the process of a newspaper route. Design a board game around your findings.

Create a storyboard to retell the main events in the story. Use keynote, Kidspiration or another form of multimedia to tell your story.

Logical/Mathematical

Outline the parts of the newspaper. Record your results (Use Pages, Kidspiration, etc)

Identify the Nebraska towns that were referenced in the story. Record them on a map of Nebraska so others will be able to make a connection to the geographic locations mentioned in this novel.

Research one room schools in Nebraska. Create a graph of the past 50 years to show the decline in these types of schools. Include reasons for the the declining trend shown.

Use the grocery lists Ted made to look prices up in grocery ads. Make a meal plan and decide how much money it would take to feed a family of 3 for one week.

Naturalist 

Research the badges that the Boy Scouts earn and how they are earned. Create an exhibit to show off your findings. Make sure to include badges or photos of badges, and detailed descriptions in your exhibit so others will be able to learn from your research.

Choose more than two novels written by Andrew Clements. Give them a rating.

Musical 

Compose a jingle to promote your local Boy Scouts.

Compose a jingle to promote your local newspaper.

Create a slogan for a campaign to keep the one room school open. Use comic life to create your work.
Make a radio commercial using Garageband to advertise your slogan for your school.

Bodily/Kinesthetic 

Invent something to make the job a newspaper carrier easier.

Design a commercial to promote your school/classroom newspaper. 

Use Videocue Pro program to report on the story of Ted and his good deeds and create movie project of interview.

Act out the scene when Ted gets interviewed by the TV reporter.

Intrapersonal 

Assist a friend on his/her paper route. Summarize your experience in a journal entry.

Paraphrase in a paragraph what this comparison statement means to you. "Close the school and it'll be like slamming the lid on a coffin." p. 67

Write an editorial for the newspaper. State your critique and opinion of a one room school and its educational benefits or downfalls.

Interpersonal 

Investigate the process of supporting military troops and their families. Design a service learning project that you could perform that could increase awareness of military patronage and increase support for their families.

Survey your school about recycling newspapers. Make sure to record your results (ex. use Numbers,...)Then investigate your local landfill/s. You may want to be specific in finding out an average amount of space newspapers fill up in one year. Design a service learning project that your school, or a small group, could perform to enhance the need to recycle. A good connection may be to work with your local Habitat for Humanity.

Investigate the parts of the newspaper. In a small group compose a school or classroom newspaper utilizing the information learned from your investigation.

This novel mentions interlibrary loans. Investigate what they are and how to use them. Design a service learning project for a small group (teachers, PTO members, integration specialists, or students ) to teach them more about this process.

Interview the director of a local food pantry or homeless shelter. Write a report about what you find most interesting. Include your interview questions and summarize your information learned.

Research homelessness in your area. Ask for someone who works at the local shelter to speak to your class. Volunteer with a friend or family member to serve a meal at the local homeless shelter.

Additional Resources of Interest:

PBS and One Room School http://www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse/frontierlife/essay10_3.html

Omaha World Herold http://www.owh.com/

Grand Island Daily Independent http://www.theindependent.com/

School life in the 1700s http://library.thinkquest.org/J002611F/school.htm

Nebraska Counties and Towns http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/bestofweb/statisticsnebraska.asp

Boy Scouts http://www.mac-bsa.org/

How newspapers work http://www.howstuffworks.com/newspaper.htm

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/recycle.htm

Nebraska State Recycling Association http://recyclenebraska.org/index.php?id=182




Possible student poll questions for unique topics uncovered in the book:

Was this a mistake for Ted to try and solve this mystery on his own? Why or why not?
How else could Ted have handled this situation?
If you were the paper boy in this situation. What would you do? Where would you go for help?
How might this look if this family was hiding out in a bigger city?
Ted wrote about why he liked mysteries so much. Do you like mysteries? Why do you like mysteries so much?
Have you ever known someone who was homeless?
Have you ever known someone who was running away like April's family?


Possible articles of news events for student interest available on the web (current event or historical event):

One Room School Shrinks to the Point of Closure http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5524946
ETV and One room school http://www.current.org/local/Lo523net.html
Blogging Possibilities:

Intrests:
Nebraska History of schools, one room schools, Boy Scouts, Mystery genre, Community Involvement.
Student Interaction Possibilities:

Skype or iChat:

Skype or iChat character analysis from page 27.
Skype or iChat with a newspaper carrier from another school

Real World Connections:

Link to Omaha World Harold http://www.omaha.com/
US Troop Support websites http://troopssupport.com/
America Supports you website http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/index.aspx

Teacher Resources:
Using the website http://kids.mysterynet.com as a resource, teachers can find several short mysteries for students to solve. Before tackling any of these mysteries, discuss the observation, note-taking and problem-solving skills that helped Ted solve his big mystery. Follow up by asking students to read short mysteries for details that can be recorded on an event map or on a cause/effect map. After analyzing the details collected, ask your students to draw a specific conclusion. From Scholastic

Creating a Classroom Newspaper by Read Write Think http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=249

Starting a classroom newspaper http://lesson-plans-materials.suite101.com/article.cfm/fun_writing_standards

Classroom newspaper graphic organizers etc http://www.enchantedlearning.com/newspaper/

Current Events via Newspaper, magazines, and TV http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/cevents.html

Newspapers in Education http://nieonline.com/

Support learning through newspapers http://kidbibs.com/learningtips/lt40.htm

Teach kids how to be media smart. Then use the advertising ideas. http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/

 

Student Resources:

Learn about Andrew Clements at his website http://www.andrewclements.com/

Social Studies Alive connection/ book (1st Grade curriculum) One Room School by Raymond Bial (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)

Nebraska History database: search one room school http://www.nebraskahistory.org/

One Room School house Center http://www2.johnstown.k12.oh.us/cornell/states.html

Grand Island Public Library http://www.gi.lib.ne.us/