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Creative and Language Arts Projects

WHAT'S HERE:

1001 Flat World Tales

Chain Stories
TABLE OF CONTENTS Digital Storytelling
Kindred (Family History) Project
Exchange 2.0 -
Laws of Life
Technology-enabled
Learning Circles
International Interaction
A Vision
Why International
Collaboration?
1001 FLAT WORLD TALES
Why Project-Based
Learning?
1001 Flat World Tales uses the story telling format of 1001 Nights to tell a new story, a story of our world. The format of 1001
Resources for
Nights is unique, with thousands of different stories embedded within the one main story. The hope is that student stories will
Collaborative Project
become "never ending tales," with links to different individual stories embedded within one overarching story. The story starts
Work
here! This project takes the traditional language arts "writing workshop" into the 21st century by replacing pencil and paper
Enhance World writing with a wiki; by expanding the options for peer response and peer editing beyond the walls of the classroom; and by
Language Skills replacing the "authentic" publishing of the 20th century classroom with authentic publishing in the 1001 Flat World Tales
Music and Graphic "blook": a potentially endless series of stories from students around the world, interlinked on individual student blogs. Since
Arts Project Examples the project is web-hosted, it is open 24/7/365—all year long. As long as two classrooms from around the world want to
Creative and collaborate, then "Flat World" collaboration is always possible. Add the name and time-frame, and another classroom will likely
Language Arts have the same timeframe in mind. Then classrooms connect via the wiki. After registering for the project using the Google
Projects Form, all participating schools will be listed on the wiki. Teachers of the same grade level and writing style join together to form
small cohorts to help make the peer review process more manageable. For more information, read the FAQ on the elementary
Science, Math, and
page.
Environment Projects
Social Studies Age Level: 5-10 and 11-18
Projects Curricular Areas: Language arts and creative writing
University Programs Types of Technology: Wikis, word processing, instant messaging, email, Skype, video conferencing
for Schools Timeline: Ongoing
Tutorials and Guides Webpage: http://es1001tales2010.wikispaces.com for elementary school, and http://ms1001tales2009.wikispaces.com
for previous years’ middle and high school projects and to register for the 2010-11 year.
Tips & Suggestions
Contact: Kim Cofino, elementary school, mscofino@gmail.com or Jeff Whipple, middle and high school,
Advice & Testimonials jeff.whipple@nbed.nb.ca
From Educators Supporting Organization: None
Credits and Language(s) of Communication: English, though others will be supported if there are enough contributing classes!
Acknowledgements

FIND A SCHOOL CHAIN STORIES

To tell a story about global

connections use any of Students from Europe and Asia write and illustrate collaborative stories. Chapters become like rings of chains built by different
the fields below to find the hands. Sets of ideas come from different places. These are stories from the global world. This project is a part of the Asia-
school involved. Europe Classroom Network.

Age Level: 12-17

City
Curriculum Areas: language arts and creative writing
Types of Technology: Ning, webpage, email, word processing, amd web publishing
State Timeline: September–May
Webpage: http://www.itiscannizzaro.net/chainstories/home.htm and http://chainstories.ning.com for communication
Contact: Daniela Ianni, danielaianni@alice.it or Helene Tind, helenefinn@stofanet.dk
Postal Code
Supporting Organization: Asia-Europe Classroom Network
Language(s) of communication: English, German, Danish, and Italian

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DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Students will learn about the age-old practice of storytelling and use 21st century tools to create their own digital story.
Students will explore digital storytelling as a way to tell a story, promote cross-cultural understanding, and build meaningful
connections with others. Students will participate in an email exchange to discuss the process. They will: 1) develop a story
topic; 2) write their story; 3) create or find appropriate images to support their story; and 4) share their story and reflect on their
work.

Age Level: 12-17

Curriculum Areas: Language arts and creative writing
Types of Technology: email, word processing, web publishing, online web forums, instant messaging, video conferencing,
and 3D animation
Timeline: Ongoing
Webpage: http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?DivID=Digital_overview
Contact: Join via the forum – Connect with Classrooms
Supporting Organization: ePals
Language(s) of communication: English, and some projects are in other languages like French.

KINDRED (FAMILY HISTORY) PROJECT

Students research events in their family membes lives or in their local communities to find the
impact of world or local history. They are asked to interview members of their immediate familes
(mother, father, brothers, sisters), extended families (grandparents, uncles, aunts), neighbors or
friends in the local community. Students should ask about life experiences that have been affected
by the events of world or local history. Events may include war, natural disasters, migration,
important discoveries, monuments, famous places and so on. Students should focus on family
impact. There have been four editions of the Kindred book published. The next production date is
not predetermined but is dependent on the number and variety of submissions. Each story that is
submitted is eligible for publication in the next edition of the book, and each student whose story is
published receives a complimentary copy of the book. The Kindred Project was recognized as a
"Commended Project" by the Cable & Wireless Childnet International Awards for 2000.

Age Level: K-12

Curricular Areas: Integrated studies, English, history, social studies, and language arts
Types of Technology: Email, newsgroups, websites, word processing, digital imaging
Timeline: Ongoing
Webpage: http://media.ieartn.org/projects/kindred for information; read archives at http://www.iearn.org.au/kindred
Contact: Judy Barr, judybarr@iearn.org.au
Sponsoring Organization: iEARN
Language(s) of communication: English; requests for other languages will be considered.

LAWS OF LIFE

An essay project in which students write about their personal values in life. The Laws of
Life Project invites young people to express in their own words what they value most in
life. Participants submit essays about their laws of life in which they describe the rules,
ideals, and principles by which they live and explain the sources of their laws of life
(reading, life experience, religion, culture, role models, etc.). Participants respond to each
other's essays and interact with each other electronically. They also report on any dialogue or events that occur in their
learning communities as they participate in the Laws of Life Project and are encouraged to use what they learned about values
to initiate change within the community through action projects. A teacher's guide is also available in the project languages
from iEARN.

Possible project/classroom activities: writing essays about one's laws of life; providing respectful yet open feedback on
another participant's essay; responding to feedback that one's essay generates reporting on any discussions that arise in
one's classroom or group from writing Laws of Life essays.

Age Level: 9-18

Types of Technology: Email, newsgroups, and web forums
Curricular Areas: Values education, language arts, and citizenship
Timeline: October-May
Webpage: http://media.iearn.org/projects/lawsoflife
Contact: lawsoflife@us.iearn.org
Supporting Organization: iEARN-USA
Language(s) of communication: Open to all languages. Support materials exist in Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
Hindi, Russian, and Spanish.

LEARNING CIRCLES

Learning Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small

number of schools located throughout the world. Each session is 14 weeks. To
join a Learning Circle, you must be a member of iEARN and complete a Learning
Circle placement form two weeks before the beginning of the session. Learning
Circle classrooms are grouped by general themes. Three are listed in the
Language Arts section, while another, Places and Perspectives, can be found in
the Social Studies section of the guide.

Computer Chronicles - This theme promotes writing across the curriculum.

Interaction online revolves around producing a newspaper called The Computer
Chronicles. Each class has the opportunity to sponsor one or more sections of
the newspaper as their Learning Circle project. They solicit articles from their
partner classes and edit them to create one section of the newspaper. This
section is combined with the other sections sponsored by Circles partners to form the completed newspaper, the
Circle publication.

MindWorks - MindWorks is a writing theme designed to enhance creative and expository writing as well as develop
different forms of self-expression. The goal is to help students learn how to communicate their thoughts and feelings
in writing, then share and compare them with other students from distant places. The Circle publication for MindWorks
is a literary magazine that might be called Creative Minds, MindWorks or a name selected by the group. The
sponsored projects could be a specific form of writing such as: personal narratives, place poetry, city dialogues,
school fables, local myths or personifications of local products. Alternatively, students can select a topic to sponsor
and request different forms of expression on subjects like the family, jobs, schools, or cities.

My Hero -- The mission of My Hero is to use media and technology to celebrate the best of humanity and to empower
young people to realize their own potential to effect positive change in the world. The freely accessible, not-for-profit
project is supported by visitors of all ages who share stories, art, and short films on our award-winning multimedia
journal and digital library. Students contribute writing, video, art, and more in telling their stories about their hero. A
guide for educators is included, including lesson plans and an organizer.

Age Levels: K-12

Curricular Areas: Language arts, geography, creative writing, social studies, and humanities
Types of Technology: Email, web forums, webpage creation, video creation, audio creation, word processing and Internet
research
End Product(s): Various publications, and in some cases webpages, video, audio, digital photography, essays, written
stories, visual art, or short films
 Timeline: September-January and January-May for most Circles; My Hero is ongoing
Webpages: http://media.iearn.org/projects/learningcircles and http://www.iearn.org/circles/ for overviews
Computer Chronicles http://www.iearn.org/circles/lcguide/cc/cc.html
Mind Works http://www.iearn.org/circles/lcguide/mw/mw.html
My Hero : http://www.myhero.com/go/home.asp and http://www.myhero.com/myhero/go/theteachersroom/

Contact: Barry S. Kramer, bskramer48@hotmail.com for most Circles and myhero@myheroproject.org for My Hero
Supporting Organization: iEARN, as well as various supporting government agencies, corporations, and nonprofit
organizations
Language(s) of Communication: English, Spanish, and French

A VISION

An anthology of students' writings in various literary genres- essays, stories, poems, and poetical
sketches- which aims to showcase the youths' thoughts, viewpoints and insights into the things
around them and across borders, regardless of cultural and racial diversity.

Age Levels: 12-18

Curricular Areas: Writing, language arts, and literature
Types of Technology: Email, web forums, newsgroups, and digital imaging
Timeline: September-June.
Webpage: http://media.iearn.org/projects/avision
Contact: Maria Luisa Larcena, maloularcena@yahoo.com or Michael Clunies-Ross, michaelclunieross@yahoo.com
Supporting Organization: iEARN

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