1.)Show the Gauging Student Needs presentation and complete the KWL chart, as well as the concept map of ways area can be used in real life. Use the information gained here to judge how much instruction the students will need in step 2.
2.)Teach students how to use the formulas for areas of triangles, rectangles, parallelograms, regular polygons, and circles using direct instruction (or other method).
3.)Provide opportunity for students to practice using the formulas.
4.)Assign students to groups of 2 or 3. Explain the area podcast activity and go over the podcast rubric so that students will know what is expected.
5.)Assign each group a real-life area problem to work. Have them work it, and check their work to be sure it is correct.
6.)After students have the steps correct, allow them to work the problem out on an interactive whiteboard and save this file as an image to be used later when they create the podcast. They may need to save separate steps of the problem as separate image slides. This will become evident to the students as they work on their short story. Save the files so that they can be edited later if necessary.
7.)Students will then write a short story that revolves around their real-life area problem. They should have the same number of characters in the story as people in the group so that everyone can participate in the recording.
8.)Have students swap stories with another group and read them for clarity. Revise as necessary.
9.)Students will then choose pictures from Clip Art or other free image sites to illustrate their short story. They will insert each picture into its own slide in the presentation software so that they coincide with the order of the story.
10.)Follow the steps on the Creating a Podcast Using Photo Story handout to save the presentation slides as images and load them into Photo Story.
11.)Record the narration for the slides in Photo Story using the script that the students wrote.
12.)Save the project and then convert it to a movie file following the directions on the handout.
13.)Upload the podcasts to the teacher's blog or website. Present them to the entire class and perhaps a middle school math class as well.