HCPS Middle School

Mrs. Martin’s science class created Facebook reports on African American scientist and inventors. Once they completed their research, they posted the information on the Facebook template to share. They included important facts and a  picture of the person they researched.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Mrs. Jones’ 7th grade history classes created posters of various artists of the Harlem Renaissance.  They used iPhoto and Microsoft Word to make their creations.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ms. Landis 8th grade Creative Writing Class created their own magazine publications, which included a variety articles along with other basic magazine fillers such as horoscopes, book reviews, star interviews, and games.  This lesson reinforced English Standard’s of Learning that student’s cover in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade as well as giving students a real world experience of creating their own magazine.  Allowing the students to be creative and design the theme of the magazine and relate all of its contents to that theme develop creativity skills and give students a personal connection to the assignment.

The articles were created by the magazine’s authors and then edited by other students in the class, which also enhances student’s collaboration and grammar skills.  Research was done through a variety of sites and personal information.  Graphics were also located and downloaded from the Internet for student’s to organize into a power point presentation that was later printed and bound just as a magazine would look.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Miss Foley’s 7th grade social studies classes created talk shows and interviewed special guests, Andrew Carnegie or John Rockefeller (USII3.d).  This assignment strengthened their research skills as they found information on their “special guest.”  (research & information fluency)  The students worked in groups and each assigned a different task.  They had to learn to collaborate and rely on each other to get the job done in a timely manner.  The roles included a web designer, video editor, and writer. (communication & collaboration)

The talkshows were video taped, uploaded on the student laptops, and edited by the students using iMovie.  Once complete the videos then embedded onto a web page created using iWeb.

Popularity: 10% [?]

In conjunction with their unit on The Diary of Anne Frank, Mrs. Hunnicutt’s advanced 8th grade English students researched and studied The Holocaust and other instances of genocide as a way to bring to life the idea of promoting dignity and respect among all people. For this unit, students completed a learning contract that offered a wide variety of topics of study topics and a wide variety of ways to demonstrate learning. Students were asked to utilize critical thinking and reading skills as well as a myriad of tools to create traditional as well as multimedia artifacts that demonstrated their knowledge and creativity.

Mrs. Hunicutt was consistently amazed and impressed by the depth of knowledge and feeling that students  demonstrated in their projects from vodcasts about The Trail of Tears to original songs composed and recorded on Garageband, to scripted chapters of Elie Wiesel’s Night, to interviews with Holocaust survivors, to community service projects, to paintings and collages that profoundly communicate the pain and suffering caused by intolerance.

The SOLs covered by this project are as follows: 8.1, 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 8.5 8.7

My Own Memory – Original Music Score

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Why? – Original Music Score

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Popularity: 8% [?]