Office of Instructional Technology

Multi-disciplinary Inquiry-based Projects for the 21st Century Collaborative Classroom

iSite: Elementary Grade Global Communication and Collaboration Project - Creating, Publishing, and Sharing Online Multimedia Word Walls

Pacing

I. Preparing to Start

- Plan what subject area you will use to create the multimedia word wall.

- Decide how you will group students and organize the project.  Look at the Differentiated Learning section for ideas.
- If you are choosing the words, look at the curriculum and find the words you will use for the word wall
- Download the template from the Resources section and add to it as needed or create your own.
- Find and organize your resources: the hardware you will need, the clip art or sound libraries you may use and how you will make them accessible in the classroom.
- Enlist school support:
Art teacher- may be able to assist with illustrations
Computer teacher- can support students with using PowerPoint and help you get tendencies resources
Librarian- can compile books about the content being studied
Parents- may be able to provide primary source information or come and work with students
- Begin to plan the celebration and buy resources or download software as necessary. If you will put the books online, have parents sign the DOE consent form.

II. Starting the Project

- Introduce the multimedia word wall project.

- Model how the word wall works and what the students will be doing to complete
- Model populating the pages first with text, then with images and lastly with sound clips if you choose.
- Train a student, or several students, to be a monitor or troubleshooter when you are not available.
- Have students begin working on paper while waiting for computer time or while planning work.
- Model recording sound for students.
- Have students record themselves reading the words and definitions.

- Make the completed multimedia word walls available on all of the computer in your classroom.

III. Reflection and Next Steps

- Reflect on the organization and process of the project. What would you have changed?
- Consider your next steps. Will you make this project global? If so, go the the Next Steps section. Will you create Multimedia Word Walls with your class again in another content area?  What can you do to give the students more ownership of the project?