Aligning An Internet Project
With State Standards

In September/October 2001, my first grade class participated in a collaborative online project hosted by Susan Silverman and Patti Knox.

Cinderella Around the World

Over a period of about 3 weeks, the students engaged in a variety of highly motivating activities that helped them understand and respond to literature.  Listening, reading, writing, speaking, and using technology were involved.

This web page demonstrates how an Internet Project is aligned to state standards.  Although the emphasis in this example is on literacy standards, other subject areas such as art, social studies, mathematics, health, and technology are integrated in the project.   The specific stories chosen for the project were selected with these standards in mind.

Some of our NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards were revised in the summmer of 2002.  Standards referenced on this page are current and changed from the original webpage posted at the project site.

  Marci McGowan  Feb. 2003

Oh, how we all love Cinderella! Our class of 13 first graders shared two versions of this wonderful tale: the classic Cinderella by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Marcia Brown, and John Steptoe's Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale.

We used these stories in our Back-to-School unit on "Friendship", The children listened for ways the characters showed or were given friendship.

Language and Literacy - 3.1 (READING) All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers, and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.

G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text
*Draw simple conclusions from information gathered from pictures, print, and people.
*Demonstrate familiarity with genres of text, including storybooks, expository texts, poetry, and newspapers.

Language and Literacy - 3.4 (LISTENING)All students will listen actively in a variety of situations to information from a variety of sources.

Comprehensive Health and Physical Education -  2.2: All Students Will Learn Health-Enhancing Personal, Interpersonal, And Life Skills.

One important thing we noticed was that friends often help each other. The fairy godmother helped Cinderella get to the ball in that tale, and in the other, Nyasha helped a little boy and was kind to the other characters as well. Our students showed how they help each other in class:

First Grade Friends

Language and Literacy - 3.2 (WRITING) All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

While reading Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters we found Africa on our big world map.

Zimbabwe is in southern Africa

Students learned about story elements, particularly about the setting in  Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  They learned that Zimbabwe is a country in Africa.  We viewed a website that showed pictures of the land and people living there in real life.

Language and Literacy - 3.1 (READING)

G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text
*Identify, describe, compare, and contrast the elements of plot, setting, and characters.

Social Studies - 6.7: All Students Will Acquire Geographical Understanding By Studying The World In Spatial Terms

Use maps, globes, graphs, diagrams, and computer-based references and information systems to generate and interpret information.

After listening to both stories, the children contributed comments to be used in our first Venn Diagram of the year. Mrs. McGowan wrote them on sentence strips. Later the students read the comments again and placed them on our chalkboard diagram.

Language and Literacy - 3.1 (READING)

A. Concepts About Print
*Interpret simple graphs, charts, and diagrams
* Use graphic organizers to build on experiences and extend learning.

G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text
*Identify, describe, compare, and contrast the elements of plot, setting, and characters.

Mathematics 4.4 All students will develop an understanding of the concepts and techniques of data analysis, probability, and discrete mathematics, and will use them to model situations, solve problems, and analyze and draw appropriate inferences from data.

The children chose a character to feature in their drawings and writing. We enjoyed this project and look forward to reading more Cinderella stories this year!

Language and Literacy - 3.2 (WRITING) All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting)
* Attempt to put ideas into writing using pictures, developmental spelling, or conventional text.

Hannah: Nyasha and the Snake

CHARACTER POEMS

Nyasha: African Cinderella

by Hannah, Anna, Ayse, Annie, Amy, Thomas

· nice

· young, pretty

· gave food to the boy

· nice to the old lady

· wanted to be queen

· wanted to be the King's wife

· wanted to be nice to her sister

________________________________________

Manyara

by Annie

· Nyasha's sister

· She was nasty to people but not to her dad, Mufaro.

· She didn't give food to the hungry boy who had nothing.

· She wanted to marry the King, but she didn't know he was the hungry boy.

________________________________________

Nyoka

by Scott, Brian, T. E., Dominique, Ryan, Anthony, Caitlin

· a green snake

· watched Nyasha

· wanted to see what she was like

· watched Nyasha to see if she was good

· made friends with Nyasha and saw she was nice.

· turned from the snake, to the boy, to the old lady, and back to the King

· wanted to marry her when he was the king

· really was the king

Summary: The class activities published here primarily are aligned with our state literacy and NETS technology standards:

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards

Language and Literacy (revised 2002)

3.1 (READING) All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers, and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.

3.2 (WRITING) All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

3.3 (SPEAKING) All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

3.4 (LISTENING) All students will listen actively to information from a variety of sources in a variety of situations.

3.5 (VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY) All students will access, view, evaluate, and respond to print, nonprint, and electronic texts and resources.

National Educational Technology Standards for Students. (NETS)
We published our work on Internet, viewed and read other students work in this project, and sent email responses to selected classes.

Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.

2. Social, ethical, and human issues
·          Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

4. Technology communications tools
·          Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.