Gen Y - Program and Curriculum Guide

Section II: Curriculum Guide
The second section of the Gen Y Curriculum Guide consists of 10 units that cover the technology and pedagogy skills of the Gen Y course. Click on the links below to see what each unit contains.

In Each Unit
Each extensive unit in the curriculum guide includes:

• Unit Overview
• The Gen Y View
• Terms to Know
• List of InfoPages
• Standards
• Activities with Prioritized Objectives
• Activities (each unit contains from three to five activities)
  • Materials
  • Before Beginning
  • Background Information
  • Procedures
  • Assessment
  • Related Issues
  • Activity Extensions
• Unit Extensions

The Gen Y Starter Kit
The printed curriculum guide, video, and CD-ROM are available for purchase separately to evaluate the Gen Y program. Click here for more details.

Brief descriptions of the sections found in each Unit

Unit Overview and the Gen Y View
The Unit Overview provides a brief summarized rationale for including the unit of study in the curriculum. It very generally describes the content. Conversely, the Gen Y View specifically addresses the importance of this unit of study to the Gen Y student and the ways this knowledge or these skills or competencies will be used by the Gen Y students in their potential projects. The Gen Y View also includes a reference to helpful tips or projects that can be found on the Gen Y Web Site.

Terms to Know
The Terms to Know section introduces technology vocabulary unique to this unit of study. It also presents general vocabulary related to the unit�s learning objectives. Commonly, these terms will be explained during the instruction or group demonstration section of the lesson or during the students� work time.

List of Infopages
The List of InfoPages section encompasses the entire body of pages needed to teach the unit. InfoPages present information in a variety of ways for Gen Y teachers and students. They are crucial components of the lessons and activities described in the guide.

InfoPages present information to the students in simple, yet organized ways. They may provide more background on topics or procedures unfamiliar to the Gen Y teacher or students. In other cases, the teacher may wish to present the entire contents of the InfoPage to the students during the instructional presentation, or to make copies of the InfoPage for students to file in their Gen Y Student Notebooks, where they will serve as useful reference material. InfoPages also reside on the Gen Y Web Site so that they can be continually updated. InfoPages may contain URLs pertinent to the lesson. The URLs will be updated frequently. Sometimes, an InfoPage may require action or completion by students, for example, a worksheet, quiz or graphic organizer.

For your convenience, a teacher can download InfoPages to a local server for access from student workstations, or students can download the InfoPages directly from the Generation Y Web Site. Remember that these InfoPages will change as new information and technologies are developed.

Standards
This section contains unit correlations to the ISTE National Education Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Students and the National Education Technology Standards for Teachers.

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Activities with Prioritized Objectives
A complete list of activities is included for each unit. Each activity is constructed around a particular set of skills or objectives. One activity does not necessarily constitute one day or class session. Prioritized objectives are listed in order of importance to help teachers structure the lesson for their own purposes and situation. If time limits the amount of content covered in any given unit, those objectives appearing farther down the prioritized list are of lesser significance. These objectives are also generally listed in the order in which they are addressed in the activity itself.

Activities
Following these introductory unit pages, the activities are presented. An activity could also be called a lesson. The Materials, Before Beginning, and Background Information sections are intended to prepare teachers for the activities. Directions are presented in the Procedures section. Assessment, Related Issues, and Activity Extensions provide supplemental information for the activities. Each activity contains all of these sections.

Materials: All tools and resources needed to support the learning activity are listed. Each activity is specifically designed to be free of platform constraints and not software specific. It is assumed that Gen Y teachers will become familiar with the network configuration and procedures of the school, and with the software applications to be used in the activities. As always, printed (books and manuals) or online resources and tutorials may be available.

Before Beginning: Lists prerequisite actions a teacher should complete before the lesson begins. These are the steps a teacher would take to prepare for delivering the lesson.

Background Information: The teacher will find general information about the lesson topic in this section. This knowledge will help the teacher present the activity to the students in a larger context. This information is intended to make that teacher more comfortable about the content of the lesson and may be imparted to the students during the delivery of the actual lesson.

Procedures: Step-by-step actions that describe the delivery of the lesson, beginning with an estimate of the time allocated to the activity.

Assessment: The Assessment component for each activity provides the Gen Y teacher with specific examples of how to assess whether students have met each objective. Checklists for technical skills and project implementations are contained in the units to give students and teachers another way to evaluate progress.

Generation Y strongly believes that authentic assessment is invaluable and integral to the Gen Y curriculum. (Chapter 2 of the curriculum guide offers a full explanation of authentic assessment and evaluation as related to Generation Y.) Authentic assessment often relies upon teacher monitoring and observations in addition to the provided checklists and rubrics. Many Gen Y class sessions begin with whole-group demonstrations or discussions and proceed into work time on the computer. Assessment for the objectives met by meetings and work sessions would include teacher observations and anecdotal records.

Related Issues: Reminders, links and tips about related topics are found here. These issues include copyright, student safety, acceptable use policy (AUP) forms, and web publishing policies. Teachers might be alerted to check the Teacher Toolkit on the Gen Y Web Site for up to date links and recommendations for related activities.

Activity Extensions: The Activity Extensions provide additional possibilities for further study. They offer the teacher and students a chance to extend or jigsaw the learning opportunities.

Unit Extensions
The Unit Extensions provide ideas for alternative activities in lieu of the outlined activities in the unit. Students could also use these suggestions as additional practice or projects. Remember to also check out the Web Site and the Gen Y forums for more inspiration and ideas.

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