Literacy
Information
Technology
Education
About Julie Coiro

Science, New Literacies, and Higher Level Thinking In Grades 4 and 5:
Preparing Clinton's Students for the 21st Century

Facilitated by members of the
New Literacies Research Team from the University of Connecticut

Julie Coiro and Donald J. Leu

Home  |  Internet Workshop |  Internet Project |  Webquests & Internet Inquiry  |   Other Tips

Purpose and Overview

The purpose of this professional development day is to spark conversations about strategies for integrating effective instruction with new technologies while empowering you to begin where you are most comfortable.  We encourage you to network with other teachers at your grade level, in your subject area and across comfort levels with technology as you explore, critique and reflect on the resources provided throughout the day.  

These activities are designed to introduce four important instructional models for integrating the Internet into literacy and learning.  These include

Internet Workshop
 Internet Project
 Webquest
 Internet Inquiry

We will cover Internet Workshop and Internet Inquiry in more depth to encourage thinking about how these models can enhance student learning in science, especially, but also in each of your content areas.  Webquest and Internet Project resources will be outlined more broadly for you to explore at your leisure. 

It is our hope that you become familiar with these models as you...
  • share resources and develop ideas for classroom application relevant to your grade level;
  • discuss logistical concerns about exploring these ideas in the classroom; and
  • develop a realistic action plan for exploring with your students at least one of the ideas gained from today's experiences.

Linking New Literacies and Science: “Scientific inquiry progresses through a continuous process of questioning, data collection, analysis, and interpretation”

Ask: Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigation; design appropriate investigations to answer different questions

Locate: Use appropriate tools and techniques to make observations and gather data

Evaluate: Read, interpret and examine the credibility of scientific claims in different sources of information (scientific literacy)

Synthesize: Identify and present relationships between variables in appropriate graphs; use mathematical operations to analyze and interpret data

Communicate: Scientific inquiry requires the sharing of findings and ideas for critical review by colleagues and other scientists. It also demands that scientists provide explanations to the problems or questions they have investigated and to be able to communicate about science in different formats.

Internet Workshop

Internet Workshop (Leu, 2002; Leu, Leu, & Coiro, 2004) is an instructional model for quickly integrating the Internet into the curriculum. Internet Workshop is especially useful to introduce students to sites for an upcoming unit and develop useful background knowledge. It is also useful to develop important understandings as you work through a unit. 
Internet Workshop has many variations.  Generally, though, it contains these steps: 
  1. Locate a site, or several sites, on the Internet with content related to a classroom unit of instruction and set a bookmark for the location(s).
  2. Develop an activity requiring students to use the site(s).
  3. Assign this activity to be completed during the week.
  4. Have students share their work, questions, and new insights at the end of the week during a workshop session.
Several topics are appropriate for workshop sessions. 
  • Navigation (e.g., What are the best strategies when using a search engine?)
  • Content (e.g., What did you learn about volcanoes?)
  • Critical evaluation (e.g., How can I determine how a site might be biased?)
  • Synthesis (e.g., How can I use an outline, graphic organizer, or software tool like Inspiration to organize the information I have discovered?)
The workshop session is a critical element of Internet Workshop. The purpose of this workshop session includes:
  • supporting students' ability to acquire information from the Internet;
  • learning content information about the topic that students are studying;
  • thinking critically about the information they, and others, obtain; and
  • developing new navigational strategies on the Internet.
Internet Workshop Examples

Students at the elementary level are participating in all types of Internet Workshops as they access content at their level on the Internet.

To begin a unit on Food Chains, you may try this idea as a hands-on approach to learning: 
  • For example, if you set a bookmark to Food Chains and Webs, have students read and review the nature of food chains and food webs, and then have them create at least one on their own, print it out, and bring it to Internet Workshop prepared to explain it.
  • Higher level thinking: You may also set a bookmark for What’s it Like Where You Live?  From here, your students can select one or more of the biomes of the world, explore the plants and animals that live in that biome, and generate an example of two food chains that would exist in that biome.  During Internet workshop, have students share their food chains as well as three facts about the biome within which they exist.
  • For a set of workshops, you may wish to set a bookmark for the Food Chain Tutorial from BBC and invite students to explore the interactive activities there as an introduction to the food chain. Here's a sample set of tasks: Explore the online activity, take the online quiz, and complete the "What's Eating You?" activity with two partners to make the longest food chain you can.  Come to workshop meeting with two original examples of producers and two examples of consumers that are different from your partners' examples.  Compile the food chain examples into a class book and have students label the predators and the prey in each situation.
Informational websites with higher level content provide exciting opportunities for exploring curriculum topics through simulation, photographs, and interactive tours. 
Try It Out: Clinton's Science Themes Grades 4 and 5

Explore at least one or two of the websites related to a theme you study.  For each site, develop two short activities that you would ask your students to answer as they engage in Internet Workshop back in your classroom.   This activity should be open-ended enough to encourage students to bring back different information to share
during the workshop session. 





Internet Project

This activity will provide an opportunity to explore different ways that students and their teachers are connecting and communicating with others from around the world through email, listervs, electronic discussion boards and central curricular web sites.
  • Internet Project may take place as you work with another class on a common learning activity, with students and teachers communicating extensively about the topic that both classes are exploring. 
  • Internet Project may also take place when many classes contribute data to a common site and then, after the data are analyzed, see how their data compare with others.  Often there will also be discussion between participating classes about the meaning of the results and even opportunities to use the data for further analyses.  Each leads to rich opportunities.

More information about this instructional model is available at Leu, D.J. Jr. (2001). Internet project: Preparing students for new literacies in a global village. Reading Online. Article reprtined from The Reading Teacher, 54, 585-586]. [Online Serial].  More examples are available in Leu, Leu, & Coiro (2004), Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times, 4th Edition, Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
Internet Project Examples

Students at the elementary level are being exposed to all kinds of exciting Internet Projects.
There are also large project indexes to search for, join, and advertise new Internet projects.
A first step...Collaborative Science Experiments 
When you are ready...More Extensive Science Projects
Try It Out: Clinton's Science Themes Grades 4 and 5

Explore at least one of the Internet Project ideas above or in one of the themes below, noting the overall goal, the expected timeline, particular tasks, methods of assessment and important hardware and software needs.  How might a project like this impact your instruction?  You may also explore some of the Internet Project Registry Sites listed above. 

Back to Top

Home  |  Internet Workshop |  Internet Project |  Internet Webquests & Inquiry  |   Other Tips

Designed by Julie Coiro, August, 2005