During this learning sequence, students will:

• Locate countries and cities on a world map
• Recall physical features of those countries and where they are in relation to other countries i.e. Australia far away from Canada; Indonesia is in the tropics
• Categorise countries according to their continent
• Compare and contrast two separate locations on the basis of their physical features i.e. “I would prefer to visit ____  over _____ because_____.”
• Use Microsoft Word to create a multi modal journal of where their Flat Stanley character has visited that includes factual information about the locations as well as photos to add interest and visual information:
  • Plan the journal layout using Microsoft Word features such as font, background, tables, word art
  • Locate saved emails
  • Locate photographs to use as illustrations of the multimodal journal
• Communicate with students from other countries via email to:
  •  Exchange information
  • Collaborate with others to work toward a shared goal

These curriculum goals utilize ‘ICTs for learning,’ rather than ‘learning to use ICTs’ (Bligh, 2003) and fulfil the four dimensions of productive pedagogies: Intellectual quality, Connectedness, Supportive classroom environment and Recognition of Difference (Farrington, nd) by providing a learning activities that can be tailored to individual intellectual needs, connecting learners with others, activities that are relevant in the ‘real world,’ support that extends beyond the Parklands classroom to classrooms around the world with a community of individuals who are actively working to support students while recognising and respecting individual differences.

Because the students at Parklands have prior experience in the curriculum areas of Geography, English and ICT, the curriculum goals for this unit of work aim to build on and extend on students existing knowledges and understandings, using Higher Order Thinking (Bloom, 1956) within a social constructivist pedagogical framework (Vygotsky, 1978), as students work with classmates, their teacher and students from around the world in order to share their Flat visitors. 

Note-Before beginning this sequence, teacher to register with the Flat Stanley exchange, learn about participating classes, and choose classrooms in different countries to send Parklands students Flat Stanley’s; set up email addresses for each student with Gaggle.net   

Lesson 1:

Read chapters 1&2 of ‘Flat Stanley’ by Jeff Brown, discuss his adventures and where students would choose to go if they too were flat like Stanley. Explain the Flat Stanley Project; students to create their own individual Flat Stanley Characters- scan and save to student’s individual folders on their notebook computers.

Lesson 2:

Before the lesson, hang the completed ‘Flat Stanley’s’ created by the students on the wall. Read the third chapter of Flat Stanley. Students open Word on their notebook computers. Ask students to type a response to: “Imagining that you are your flat character; how did you become flat?”  Write a story about what would happen to you.*

*this will be the background stories they will use for their own Stanley’s when they email them to the partner schools. Save to students individual folders.

Lesson 3:

Read fourth chapter of Flat Stanley, watch You Tube clip ‘Hi, my name is Flat Stanley,’ available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbkLNwZmxA on the Interactive Whiteboard. Students locate Australia on the World map, and think about where they would like their characters to visit and why. Students type in the questions they would like their character to find out about the location. Students give the teacher a shortlist of three countries, teacher to set up exchanges via Flat Stanley website.

Lesson 4:

Read final Flat Stanley chapter; discuss plotline. Watch You Tube Gaggle video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6bkfqgsXPU&feature=related. Discuss what makes a good email e.g. grammar/syntax/spelling/content- topics (Digital Etiquette) Students open notebook computers, log in to Gaggle and practice sending emails to each other and the teacher (Digital Communication).

Lesson 5:

Teacher to model attaching a photo to a Gaggle email on the interactive whiteboard. Students write practice email to the teacher or classmates and insert image. Once each student is competent sending and receiving emails with attachments, students the email participating Flat Stanley students, using copy and paste to add their background stories and questions. Attach digital image of flat Stanley, send (Digital Communication).

Lesson 6:

Class discussion: what if students did not agree with a message sent from a fellow Flat Stanley participant? E.g. if the participant said that living in a snowy country was wonderful, or that eating escargot was great. Would it be polite to respond that they (the other student) is silly? Why/Why not? (Digital Etiquette) Ask students what they would do if someone asked for their address, or other personal information in an email (Digital Security)  Students open Word, create and save a new document titled, ‘My Flat Characters Adventures.’ Students and check their mail; read the responses to the questions they asked; copy and paste these answers into their new Word Document. Google Search- students to find one interesting piece of information about the location that their Flat Stanley character has visited to add to their Word Document. Locate and mark the destinations of the Stanley’s on the world map. Several students go to Google Earth on IWB and show the class locations their Stanley has visited.

Note- Before lesson 7, 8 & 9, teacher to have reviewed emails and printed out the Stanley’s sent by worldwide participants

Lesson 7, 8 and 9:

Class discussion- where has their Flat Stanley been so far? What have they learned about these places? Can they show on the world map the locations their Stanley’s have been to? One at a time, students tell the class where they have received a Stanley from, locate on the world map and discuss what we know about these locations. Teacher to hand out the visiting Stanley’s; students take the visiting Stanley’s to various places within the school setting and take digital photos, then save photos to their individual folders. Students respond to emails from other participants and attach digital photos. Record information for the ‘My Flat Characters Adventures’ Word document. Mark on Word map each time a classroom Stanley goes to a new place. Several students go to Google Earth on IWB and show the class locations their Stanley has visited.

Lesson 10:

Students open their ‘My Flat Characters Adventures’ Word document and, using the information they have collected, write a one page story about what happened to their character, focusing on the places that their character has been to, and use their knowledge of these locations to add depth to their narrative.

Lesson 11:

Students present their Flat characters adventures to the class, using the information they collected and the World map to tell the class the story of their Flat Stanley character, focusing on the geographical features finishing off by telling the class which location they would prefer to visit and why out of two possible options, based on the knowledge they learned during the lesson sequence.