As educators, we want to promote reflective, independent thinking. We believe that education is an active process by which students engage in experiences both in the context of a larger community and as individuals (Dewey, 1938). We believe that learning is an ongoing process that does not reach a finite end. It is our aim to promote a desire and pursuit of lifelong learning in each student. We feel that teaching students to use the power of the Internet we are helping them to realize that the wealth of information available to them opens the doors to learning. By fostering a desire to continue to be readers, writers, thinkers, and problem solvers, we hope to prepare students to become active citizens in a democracy. Through this topical unit on Latin America, we would like to promote multicultural awareness and an appreciation for diversity in both our local community and the world at large.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs influenced us in our decision to pursue Latin America as our topic because of what she said in our recent class with her: "Fifth grade is the only time students in this country get to study Latin America."(H.H.Jacobs, lecture July 2000) Those words weighed heavy on us so we decided to take live up to her challenge. Also,we decided to take a topical approach to this curricular unit because our fifth grade students have not had the opportunity to study Latin America before so we did not feel it was appropriate to try a thematic, issues, or problem approach (H.H.Jacobs, lecture July 2000) .

Maria and Regina chose to work together on this unit of study for several reasons. The first being related to collaboration; we ask our students to collaborate with one another, but often as teachers we don't collaborate ourselves. We need to practice collaboration in our professional lives so that we can better understand the process, pitfalls, and successes that our students might have while working with one another. The second reason being that Regina is the technology staff developer for the district and felt that she could help integrate technology with the unit. While Regina and Maria work together quite often during the school year, there is never enough time to work on an entire unit together; our collaborations tend to be short and shallow. This gave us an opportunity to explore a topic in-depth and look for natural places to integrate technology. The last reason is that Regina can now share this unit and some of the Internet-based activities with other 5th grade teachers throughout the district since she sees them on a weekly basis unlike Maria, who may only see her 5th grade colleagues a few times a year. A study published by the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations in 1999, found that

To a large degree, teaching students to use computer resources such as the Internet remains a specialized province of the "computer teacher" rather than having been integrated into the instructional repertoire of teachers across all subjects. (Becker, 1999, p. 13)

We hope that these activities and lessons will become valuable resources and models of Internet-infused lessons for the other fifth grade teachers in our district as they explore the topic of Latin America with their students.

Why is this project a web site? We consciously chose to use the web as our project medium rather than use traditional print medium for three reasons. One is that since there are several Internet-based activities for the students, it seemed natural to put these activities on the Web. The second reason is that more teachers can have access to our resources and activities we've created by putting them up on a Web Site rather than having them hidden in our file cabinets where no one would find them. The third (selfish) reason was that it gave Regina a way to practice some of the things she had learned at another Teachers College class earlier this summer and it seemed like an interesting challenge.

We want to develop students who are critical thinkers able to comprehend, apply, interpret, analyze, synthesize and evaluate (Bloom, 1956). We have designed a variety of lessons as a way to address this need. We also recognize that we need to teach students how to deal and think with the loads of information available on the Internet (Caves) and that being literate means more than just being able to read words.

"The learner must be able to translate data and information into knowledge, insight and understanding. The learner must be skilled at interpretation. Huge number sets have little value if we do not know how to "crunch" the data and convert it into charts or other forms which show relationships and help us to resolve issues and questions." (McKenzie,1998).

We live in a time when information multiplies exponentially and we must begin to teach our students how to sort and sift information while at the same time learning something about a particular topic. Therefore we created activities to help students analyze numerical data about countries in our Population Data Activity; we also teach a variety of note taking and organizational skills in the Guatemalan Market Place , Three Regions of Latin America, and Newspaper Lessons.

We believe that individuals do not all learn in the same way. We have incorporated literature, math, visual skills, writing skills, and speaking skills as a way to tap into a variety of learning styles. Students are unique beings, possessing special talents and strengths. We want to teach students to value, validate, and celebrate differences and choices made by individuals in a large community. As educators, we would like to develop students who are motivated and willing to share thoughts and ideas within a larger community. We want to foster students' confidence and trust in their own abilities and ideas so that they are eager to offer insight and learn from others.

Assessment should not only take place at the end of a study or inquiry, but simultaneously throughout the learning process. It works to inform instruction allowing the teacher to individualize his/her teaching based on students' needs, whether they are strengths or weaknesses (Darling-Hammond, 1997) Along with facilitating the progress of a student, assessment serves as a tool with which to inform parents and administrators of children's progress. Assessment is also an evaluative measure used to determine the success and effectiveness of the teaching. In order for assessment to be authentic, the tasks must mirror real world work. These tasks must involve students in actually doing what people do in the field: writing, reading, speaking, listening, drawing conclusions, researching, analyzing material, etc. The teacher works to connect assessment to overarching content and skills based on a set of essential questions. (H.H.Jacobs, lecture July 2000). We believe that we have incorporated assessment throughout our activities as a means of monitoring our students and our teaching; we have also spent a great deal of time looking at our skills and making sure our skills match our activities and assessments. Our framework gives an overview of the essential questions, skills, content and assessments. We value and welcome feedback on how we met our goal of aligning skills, content, assessment and essential questions.

Student Target Population and Setting:

John Philip Sousa Elementary School, a Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school in Port Washington, NY is a modern suburban building nestled amid a sea of green. It houses approximately six hundred and fifty students, and over one hundred staff members. Inside however, one does not feel the impact of its large size. Classrooms are not overcrowded, and hallways, though plentiful, are respectfully quiet. There is a large amount of student work displayed both in the hallways, and in the classrooms.

Port Washington is a diverse school district. There are a wide variety of socioeconomic levels and ethnic backgrounds within the community. Some Sousa students are immigrants to the united States. They have emigrated from Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Japan, Chile, and other countries. This unit is designed for a self-contained fifth grade class of approximately twenty-three students with access to the Internet both in the classroom and a computer lab. Due to the cultural diversity in the class, the topic is pertinent in terms of local issues children address in their daily lives.

Timing:

This unit will take approximately 10 weeks. Although the scope is broad, it will encompass many of the geography skills students will need to learn as well as the cultural connection that will heighten their sensitivity to issues in their own community.