McDowell+County+Schools

 **Content Area Scenarios**


 * English **

The English department chairperson, Mrs. Jane Smith, has met with you to talk about incorporating more technology into language arts instruction. Mrs. Smith would like for you to plan a series of professional development sessions to help the English teachers within the school use the student laptops to their full potential.

According to Mrs. Smith, some of the general responsibilities of the English department include the English I EOC, the 10th Grade Writing Test, and Graduation Projects. Several English teachers mentioned they would like to learn how to use the laptops for writing instruction. Mrs. Smith has shared two lesson plans needing technology integration, and outlines of the classroom activities from these lesson plans are listed below:

Day 1 Choosing a topic, browsing for resources Day 2 Creating a bibliography, writing a thesis statement, taking notes Day 3 Brainstorming, outlining, developing a Works Cited page Day 4 Paragraph structure, incorporating quotations and in-text citations Day 5 Drafting body paragraphs Day 6 Grammar mini-lessons (based on skills--as needed) Day 7 Writing an introduction and conclusion Day 8 Improving style mini-lessons, creating a title page Day 9 Peer Editing Day 10 Submission of final draft
 * Writing a Research Paper Unit Activities**


 * //Some of the teachers expressed concerns that students were having trouble selecting appropriate resources from the Internet. Teachers also shared that they were concerned about students' summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting skills during the note-taking process. Finally, many teachers were worried about Internet plagiarism.//

Day 1 Introduction to Shakespeare, background on the play //Macbeth// Day 2 //Macbeth// anticipation guide, reading of Act I, Scenes 1-2; mood activity Day 3 Read Act I, Scenes 3-4; close reading activity Day 4 Read Act I, Scenes 5-7; character activity Day 5 Act I quiz, Act I review activity
 * //Macbeth//, Act I Activities**


 * History**

U.S. History Teacher, Charles Beard comes to you and expresses frustration in the fact that his annual Washington, D.C. Field trip was canceled due to Budget Issues. He wants to know if "these new laptop things" can be used to give students a sense of the history and culture preserved in the Smithsonian Museum, Capitol Building, and National Archives. He has allotted three class periods for the "trip" and would like to supplement as many of the NCDPI Goal 1 Objectives as possible. In addition he has not trained on a computer since his MS Office 2003 workshop (In 2005).


 * Math**

Geometry Teacher, Scott Avett is ready to go paperless in his classroom. He'd like to distribute and collect all student work, give assessments in a digital environment, and use some type of polling system (for his warm up exercises) to determine who is eligible for after school tutoring. He has a background with using computers in the corporate world, but is unfamiliar with Content Management Systems (CMS).

Biology teacher Mrs. Mary Ann Winkle is also the school-wide Writing Across the Curriculum chairperson. She would like to see how technology can be used to incorporate more writing in the science curriculum.
 * Science**

Mrs. Winkle needs your help. The science department is facing several crises. First, the department's EOC scores have been low, and Mrs. Winkle is feeling some pressure to help the department raise their scores as a group. In her own classes (which are much larger than usual), there are several "repeaters" mixed in with students taking the course for the first time. Many of the students in her classes have limited reading skills, and student attendance is poor. A large number of her students have IEP's. Mrs. Winkle is a caring, devoted teacher, and she would like to learn how to use the laptops to differentiate instruction in science courses throughout her department to help keep students engaged.

The science department is also dealing with quite a few budget restrictions. The department has been warned about excessive copy machine use. Supplies are limited, and teachers are often forced to buy their own lab materials or find alternative activities. Mrs. Winkle is beginning a lesson on osmosis, and she cannot afford to buy enough lab materials for her 108 students out of her own pocket. She is wondering how laptops can help her teach the objectives for this particular unit.

SOLUTIONS