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Students create a Photo Story 3 biography of Abraham Lincoln here focusing on the Civil War years
Subjects:
Computers & Internet, Social Studies
Grade:
8
Title – Abraham Lincoln Photo Story 3 Biographies
By – Jenna Springfield
Primary Subject – Social Studies
Secondary Subjects – Computers / Internet
Grade Level – 8th
Estimated Time – 1 to 2 weeks (depending on depth)
Texas Standards (TEKS):
- Social Studies Grade 8 Part B:
- Section 8: The student understands individuals, issues, and events of the Civil War. The student is expected to explain the roles played by significant individuals during the Civil War, including Abraham Lincoln.
- Technology Applications Grades 6-8 Part C:
- Section 4: The student uses a variety of strategies to acquire information from electronic resources, with appropriate supervision.
- Section 10: The student formats digital information for appropriate and effective communication.
General Goals:
- The students will demonstrate their knowledge of the life of Abraham Lincoln.
- The students will demonstrate an understanding of Photo Story 3.
Specific Objectives:
- The students will gather information (including photos) about the life of Abraham Lincoln through texts and electronic formats being sure to cite all sources.
- The students will write a brief biography of Lincoln focusing on his role during the Civil War.
- The students will use Photo Story 3 to create a presentation using photos and an original written biography of Abraham Lincoln to be presented to the class.
Materials Needed:
- Books on Abraham Lincoln
- Internet access for students (computer lab)
- Photo Story 3 software downloaded on computers
- Computer microphones
- Paper and pencil for each student
Anticipatory Set:
- This lesson should be carried out in a computer lab with a teacher projector.
- The teacher should play a brief Photo Story of questions about Abraham Lincoln with dialogue from the teacher and background music.
- This will get the students thinking about possible answers to the questions while viewing an end product of Photo Story 3.
- This also helps the teacher familiarize themselves with the software.
Procedures:
- Using a computer projector in a lab, the teacher will direct the students to a website about a historical figure/event.
- The teacher will remind students how to copy 2 or 3 photos (and ensure proper citation) into a pre-established folder.
- Next, the teacher will demonstrate how to import the copied photos into a new Photo Story while the students do the same on their computers.
- The teacher will then show how to add dialogue to the photos followed by the students adding dialogue to their individual stories.
- Volunteers will be asked to show their finished 20-30 second sample stories.
Independent Practice:
- Students will research the life of Abraham Lincoln and write a 2-page handwritten paper highlighting important events.
- Students will gather photos (digital or scanned) that relate to those events highlighted in the written paper.
- Students will create a new story in Photo Story where they will import their photos and record dialogue from their written paper.
- Students will save their story to a class folder for class presentations.
Closure:
- The class will watch each student’s Photo Story.
- The teacher will then ask the students to discuss the major points of Abraham Lincoln’s life and why they were important.
- Next, the teacher will ask the students to give examples of how Photo Stories could be use for other purposes.
Assessment:
- The student presentations will be assessed using the following rubric.





