EXPLANATION+OF+HOW+UNIT+WILL+BE+TAUGHT

During team meeting time, all of the sixth grade Advisory teachers will receive the lesson plans for this unit. The creators of this unit will give a short presentation on the topic, so that all teachers will feel comfortable teaching the lesson plans. The rationale behind why it is important to teach this unit and why students need to be educated and protected will be discussed. It will be highly encouraged that teachers read the websites, articles, and watch the videos on the subject to gain a background knowledge of internet safety. Also, all teachers will review the Illinois State mandate for Internet Safety curriculum. The Illinois law states that the curriculum topics are to be "incorporated into the current courses of study regularly taught in the district's schools...," and the team teachers will be asked to think about if and how they could extend or reinforce these topics in their subject area classes. For example, in a class creating a multimedia project for history, the teacher may want to reinforce the rules of copyright and fair use, so that students know and are able to practice appropriate use of Internet resources in their projects.

Unit will be taught through the Advisory teachers in 30 minute increments. We will spend approximately two weeks of advisory time to complete this unit (See Timeline of Activities for more details), although these topics will not be covered every day of the week. The kickoff event will involve the students completing an online [|CyberSafety Survey] asking them about their computer usage and online activities. The first discussion, therefore, will center on the types of activities the students are currently participating in online, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of Internet usage.

Each of the ten lessons focuses on a different aspect of internet safety (See the Lesson Plans section for details). Students will follow each lesson closely in order to learn what to leave, what to take and what you should do on the internet. These are the three guiding "Essential" questions for this unit of study, and each lesson should begin and end with these questions and therefore bring focus to the lessons. At the end of the lesson, teachers are asked to solicit responses to these questions based on the topic covered that day.

During the course of these lessons, students will participate in discussions, watch videos, and complete handouts and activities that will address the seven topics listed in the Illinois law. Parents of students will also be encouraged to participate, by extending lessons into the home, initiating discussions on the lesson topics, and taking greater care to monitor their child's computer usage. Each lesson will include a letter for parents that will give idea for extending the lesson into the home. See the Parent Letter for more details.

The closing event will consist of the students creating posters for a public service announcement. They are to use what they learned from the lessons to create a poster about internet safety, reinforcing appropriate Internet usage and what to watch out for. A group of 4-6 students (depending on class size) will work on a different lesson learned in advisory, coming up with slogans or phrases that will catch the attention of other middle school students. The posters will be displayed throughout the school, and students and faculty will vote for the best poster. Those students who receive the most votes will receive an award for their hard work.

After the completion of this unit, the teachers will again meet as a team to access how the students responded to the lesson plans, and unit as a whole. The teachers will then make recommendations on how the unit could be improved, and rate the success of the program. Since this is mandated curriculum, the teachers will take the recommendation into consideration for the unit for the next school year.