Lesson Title: Communicating with European Students - ePALS
Curriculum Area: Information Skills
Technology Strand: Telecommunications
Grade Level: 6
 
Essential Question: How can I use email to communicate with European students?
 
A Activity Summary Students will learn how to use ePALs to communicate with a school class in the European country they have researched. They will obtain information that is of interest to them such as Holidays, Favorite Foods, Traditions, Sports, Music, Pets, etc. They will then add additional slides to their European country multimedia presentations to reflect this new information.
C Curriculum Information Skills
3.01 Describe personal cultural heritage and environment.
3.02 Collect and compare information about diverse cultures, environments, and peoples.
3.04 Relate cultural similarities and differences to personal heritage and environments.
4.01 Identify information needs and formulate questions about those needs.
4.04 Follow acceptable use guidelines (AUP/IUP) in accessing information.
4.05 Gather information from the most effective resources.
4.07 Organize and use information.
4.08 Credit sources of information.
4.09 Produce and present findings in various formats print, graphical, audio, video, multimedia).
5.04 Collaborate with others, both in person and through technologies, to identify information problems and to design, develop and evaluate information products and solutions.
T Technology Telecommunications
2.09 Select and justify the use of appropriate online collaborative tools (e.g., surveys, email, discussion forums, webpages) to develop content area presentations for the intended audience and purpose.  
 
Activating Strategies
Prior to conducting this activity, teachers must send home with students the "ePALS SchoolMail" notice and consent form to be read and signed by parents. The student will not be able to use ePALS or participate in this activity until this form is returned.
Prior to participating in this activity, have students record information about themselves on the "All About My New Friend" data collection sheet. In the "Other" area of the data sheet have students list additional bits of information they would like to collect and compare, such as Favorite Vocalist or Group.
 
Technology Vocabulary: Telecommunications Vocabulary
Detailed Technology Instructions:
 
Cognitive Teaching Strategies
Day 1 (45 minutes)

1. The teacher will collect all consent forms from students. An alternate activity should be implemented with students who do not return the form.

2. The teacher or Technology Facilitator will have arranged for communications with a class of students in Europe.

3. Have students activate Internet Explorer.

4. On the GCS homepage have students select "RESOURCES".

5. On the RESOURCES page have students select ePALS.

6. On the ePALS page, log students log in with their username and password. Their username is in the form of firstnamelastintial@schoolname.guilford.epals.com i.e. maryp@kiser.guilford.epals.com

7. Tempass is the password the first time you login. You will be prompted to change your password to something unique.

8. Press Login.

9. Group students by country and have them pose their "All About My New Friend" data sheet questions to the students in the assigned classes in that country using ePALS email.

10. Students will now wait for a response to their emailed questions.

Day 2 (45 minutes)

11. Students will check their ePALS mailboxes to retrieve the responses to the questions asked of the European students.

12. Have students record the answers to the questions on the "All About My New Friend collection data sheet.

13. Then have students use the "All About My New Friend" storyboard sheet to design four new slides to show this new information.

Day 3 (45 minutes)

14. Students will then open the slide presentation they have created about a European country. They will add four new slides to this presentation. These new slides will show the information that is on the "All About My New Friend" storyboard.
 
Summary Strategies
Discuss with students the advantages of using email to communicate with the European students versus the traditional strategy of letter writing. Discuss any problems encountered with the emailing process and how these problems were overcome.

Follow this lesson with
 
Resources
Click for directions on how to download files on a Windows computer. 
ePALS telecommunications tool available on the GCS web site
ePALS SchoolMail letter and consent form (Filename: AUP_EPALS)
usernames and email addresses for European classmates (provided by teachers)
ePALS information for teachers (Filename: EPALS_Teacher)
"All About My New Friend" data collection sheet (Filename: New_Friend)
"All About Me and My New Friend" storyboard sheet (Filename: Friends_Storyboard
ePALS PowerPoint Presentation: EPALS_SlideShow.ppt>
Microsoft Word Files
AUP_EPALS.doc
EPALS_Teacher.doc
New_Friend.doc
Friends_Storyboard.doc
 
 
Re-teaching and Enrichment Activities
Have students extend this project one step further by having them compare the data collected thus far about the European country to North Carolina and adding that information to their European country slide show. For details go to: Compare and Contrast European Countries to North Carolina

The concept for this lesson plan was submitted by
Gwen  Varsamis
Kiser Middle, Data last modified: 2/1/2002