What Did George Post Today? Learning About People of the American Revolution Through Facebook

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Creating Facebook-like presentations via Microsoft PowerPoint will engage and motivate students to learn about famous people of the American Revolution.  To gain background knowledge prior to their study of the Revolutionary War, students will research people who played an important role during this time period.  While sharing their research in their PowerPoint presentations, students provide written feedback.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

• Note-Taking Sheet:  Students use this sheet to take notes for their faux Facebook presentation.
• PowerPoint Facebook-like Template: Students will use this to create their own faux Facebook PowerPoint.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

In “Creating a Classroom Ning:  Developing an Environment for Social Networking,” in Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies, Abigail Kennedy points out that teachers need to be “in tune of how to best reach” their students who communicate using different methods than those of past generations.  For example, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, nearly three quarters of the teens communicate through social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace (Lenhart).  This lesson plan combines this popular form of communication for many teens with research skills by having students create faux Facebook PowerPoint presentations for famous people of the American Revolution.

 

Further Reading

Lenhart, Amanda, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, and Kathyrn Zickuhr. "Social Media and Young Adults." PewInternet. Pew Research Center, 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx.

Christel, Mary, and Scott Sullivan, eds. 2010. Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

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