Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description

• Grade Level: High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

     Students revise the in-depth project based on the suggestions they receive from their peer editors and their N/R expert contacts for publication on a class Web page.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Learn about the value of revision in preparing work.
• Become more critical of their own work by having the opportunity to compare first and second "drafts" of the N/R project.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: Storage and publishing space for completed N/R projects.
2. Special software requirements: Multimedia design application such as ClarisWorks, HyperCard, or Director; software application such as SoundEdit.
3. Internet access: Medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem) or High-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network).

Activity Description

    Pre-Activity Preparation:

• Pair students together so that each student edits the work of and is edited by the same student.

• Prior to the lesson, have students request feedback on their projects from members of an e-mail discussion list they have joined or an N/R expert they have contacted. Students should have access to this feedback during this lesson.

    Activity:

• Discuss with the students the purpose of revision. It is rare that the first draft of any paper or project is the final draft. Scholars, authors, and other professionals who are required to express themselves coherently find it necessary to revise their work.

• Provide students with time to consider the feedback they received on their projects in Lesson Four.

• Provide students with time to revise their projects.

• Where appropriate, have students post their projects, or selected parts of them, to a Web page designed specifically for this purpose. Have students notify N/R experts, e-mail discussion lists, and their parents of the new, unique resource, and have them request feedback. This feedback can eventually serve as annotation for the individual projects and for the site itself.