Week 1:  Project Introduction

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Students will be introduced to the project purpose through a sharing of the project overview and requirements. 

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Students will select one folktale they have read from the Using Your Wits unit in the 5th grade Treasures Reading Program.  Students will analyze the story to determine story elements, country associated with the folktale, and theme.  These elements will be recorded on a student created Thinking Map (Tree Map). 

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Students will use their Thinking Maps to generalize about folktales and collaboratively created a large thinking map on a classroom bulletin board to identify common elements of folktales.

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Students will also review elements of good digital citizenship by completing Anne Arundel County Nettiquette lessons available on the county's network server.

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Homework:  Complete a worksheet answering questions about your culture and daily life.

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Week 2:  Preparation for Cultural Exchange and Partnership Building Activities

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​​Students will be provided with the name and email address of the telecollaboration partner.

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Students use their homework responses to create an Edublog that briefly introduces them to their telecollaborative partner.  The Edublog must contain information pertaining to all the homework questions and a photograph of themselves.  Students will use a classroom digital camera and ask a classmate to take a photo of them that can be uploaded to their Edublog.

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Students will compose an friendly email to their telecollaborative partner that briefly introduces themselves and provides a link to their Edublog. 

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(Partner class will be asked to complete the same assignment and prepare to respond to their partners with an email containing a link to their Edublog.

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Homework: Choose a traditional folktale commonly told in student's country to share with  telecollaborative partner.

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Week 3:  Folktale Sharing and Discussion of Story Elements and Theme

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Students will create a Thinking Map (Multi-Flow Map) to compare their life and culture with what they've learned about the culture and daily life of their partner students. 

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Students will use classroom Flip cameras to videotape themselves reading their chosen story and upload it to the project website.  They will email their partner a link to their video and ask them to identify the story elements and theme.

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(Partner class will be asked to complete the samea ssignment and upload their videos during the same week)

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Homework:  Watch your partner's video and identify the story elements and theme.

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Week 4:  Story Elements and Theme Discussion

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​​Ideally this should take place through simultaneous discussion using web cameras and online chat.  However this will need to be carefully orchestrated in the event of impractical time differences and the potential for noise when several people are chatting at the same time. 

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As an alternative this sharing could be done through email with each student composing a response to the shared story that identifies story elements and theme.

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Students will participate in an in-class discussion about the folktales shared with them to determine whether the themes and elements are influenced by a particular culture.  They will also identify universal ideas and themes.  A list of universal elements and themes will be posted on the classroom bulletin board.

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Homework:  Log on to www.storybird.com and practice creating stories to become familiar with using the website.  Students who do not have computer access at home will be given in school time explore the Storybird website.

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Week 5:  Collaborative Story Writing

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​​Students will work with classroom teacher to collaboratively write a brief story contianing universal elements of folktales using Storybird (www.storybird.com).

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Students will use the website www.storybird.com to begin a shared folktale with their telecollaborative partner.  This folktale must contain story elements and a universal theme identified the previous week.  Completed stories/folktales will be assessed using the rubric provided in the materials section of this website.  Although normally students would be required to complete a pre-writing assignment, in Storybird the illustrations often guide the direction the story takes.

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Weeks 6-7:  Continued Story Collaboration

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Students will continue to work collaboratively on their stories.

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Weeks 8-9:  Story Sharing and Final Email

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Students will share stories with classmates and compose a final email to their telecollaborative partners thanking them for their assistance with the project

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​Contingency Lesson 1

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​​Students will use media materials such as books and magazines to research the country of their telecollaborative partner and create a brochure that identifies information about their geography and culture

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Contingency Lesson 2

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Students will create a Thinking Map (flow map) to organize ideas for a story that incorporates story elements and universal themes  that are common to the country of their telecollaborative partner. 

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