Lessons
After the computers were installed, the transition to the use of online
materials came very quickly. For example, the students read part of a
newspaper every morning when they arrive. Existing lessons were also
modified to make use of newly accessible information resources. However,
many topics that were previously difficult to teach, or which were not
taught at all, can now be taught effectively. We are designing new lessons
for that purpose, some of which are presented below.
Some of these lessons are taught in class, while others are taught in
after-school technical sessions. Some, like the lesson on Outlines and
Hierarchies, broach sophisticated concepts such as the idea that complicated
structures are easier to understand when you break them into simpler parts,
and that the representations you chose affect your understanding. Some of
these lessons, like the Computer Citizenship lesson, are also presented to
the parents in evening training sessions, so that they can learn to guide
their children in managing new and powerful capabilities.
Since the children are under 12, they have an extraordinary capability to
absorb information. We have had no discipline or attendence problems, and
their achievement is a constant reward to the project staff.
Study Unit: Exploration
- on the nature of curiosity and exploration
Study Unit: Computer Citizenship
- making ethical decisions
Study Unit: Critical Literacy
- is seeing believing?
Study Unit: Sentence Combining
- making sentences interesting
Study Unit: Outlines and Hierarchies
- managing complexity through decomposition
Study Unit: What is a Journal?
- writing exercise
Study Unit: Reading Fiction and Nonfiction
- what's special about nonfictional literature?
Study Unit: Measuring Things
with Lab Report
- the foundation of scientific method
Study Unit:
Learning About the Oceans
- reports on ocean life
Study Unit: The
Civil War Project
- diaries of our forefathers
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