Some Rights Reserved

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides free copyright licenses that give you permission to share your work with others in the way that you like.  These licenses allow you to change the terms of your work from "all rights reserved" to "some rights reserved" so that you may easily share your work with others. Creative Commons provides licenses that come in several different flavors. From least restrictive to most restrictive they are:

Attribution (CC BY) "This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) "This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Attribution-NonDerivs (CC BY-ND) "This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passes along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) "This license lets others temix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don't have to license their derivative works on the same terms." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) "This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon you work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Attribution-NonCommercial-NonDerivis (CC BY-NC-ND) "This license only allows other to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can't change them in any way or use them commercially." (About the Licenses, n.d.)

Here is a clever info-graphic to help you understand which license you need (click info-graphic to go to it's creators home and see it full size).

As you can see Creative Commons is a new way to think about Copyright for the current day.  With computers and the Internet sharing has become ubiquitous. Without an equally current way to protect the rights of creative people and their property we will continue to move toward an ever more litigious culture where accidental or innocent use of easily obtained media could cause more and more problems.  Creative Commons seeks to remedy this with its idea that this is a world where we share things on a daily basis, and as long as one is willing to give credit where credit is due, permission is granted.  And after all, isn't sharing what we teach our kids at an early age?  This make great sense to me!  

Creative Commons (n.d.). About the Licenses. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/

Missfeldt, Martin (2012) What means Creative Commons [infographic] Retrieved March 29, 2013 from http://www.tagseoblog.com/what-means-creative-commons-infographic

Fair Use for Teachers

Contrary to popular belief, Copyright law is not merely a tool to help people make money.  Originally “it gives copyright holders a set of exclusive rights for a limited time period as an incentive to create works that ultimately enrich society as a whole.” (Fair Use FAQ, n.d.)  It protects the original content creator, but it is also meant to improve the culture of people as a whole.  As a result there are some ways to use copyrighted content legally.  These ways are generally referred to as Fair-Use.

Fair use can be separated into four different areas.

1. What is the purpose of your copyrighted work?
2. What is the nature of your copyrighted work?
3. How much of the work are you going to use?
4. Will you harm the market for this product by using the material?

(Wright, n.d.)

These four elements form a sort of test.  The first element is the purpose.  If it is intended as a comment, criticism or parody it may be allowed. The second element is the nature of the original work.  If the work is fact-based then your chances of fair use go up, if the work is creative in nature then your chances of fair use go down.  The third element is how much you are going to use.  If you copy and paste most of the original work then this is a problem, if you choose only the heart of the work this is also a problem, but if you only use a very minor part of the whole you may be safe. The final element deals with harming the original creator’s ability to make money with the product.  If the reuse you undertake will harm the original author’s ability to make money this is a no go!

As you can see there is very little cut and dry in the Fair Use provisions of Copyright law.  “Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.” (Fair Use, 2012)  This is the original text of the law, and if the original spirit of the law is adhered to, then the conscientious educator should not have big problems using copyrighted works for educational purposes.  But care should be taken to understand the law and one should always consider the four areas listed above as a sort of basic test, or use this test.  If your use passes the test then proceed with caution.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (n.d.). Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from http://www.teachingcopyright.org/

U.S. Copyright Office (2012). Fair Use. Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/

Wright, Vivian (n.d.). Fair Use Simply Explained. Retrieved from http://www.thecopyrightsite.org/

Stage 3 Draft

Unit Topic: By the Great Horn Spoon by: Sid Fleischman

Subject: History Social Studies

Grade: 4th

Time Frame to complete: 1 - 2 months

Stage 3 - Learning Plan

Learning Activities: Coded using W.H.E.R.E.T.O. and A.M.T

1. H Begin with the teacher dressing up as Captain Swain.  Perform a monologue describing the situation that happened after the Lady Wilma docked in Yerba Buena harbor.  Incorporate the Essential Questions from stage 1 into the monologue in authentic ship captain speak.  (Use a visual Keynote Presentation [video or images only, NO TEXT] and or visual aides). A

2. W In a separate session, perhaps adjacent to #1 present each student with a prepared and attractive high quality copy of the Essential Questions, and Big Idea’s and have a KWL discussion.  Also discuss that a class portfolio that will be constructed and show examples, or tell that they are the first and will be providing excellent examples for students to come!  M

3. E Students will be reading By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman throughout the project to both drive the relevance of the activities, and to create examples to relate the activities to. A/M/T

4. E Students will learn key vocabulary as needed and post artifacts of understanding (definitions, images, video’s) on the project Wiki. A/M

5. E/R Each student will comment on teacher created blog posts (after being taught correct blogging etiquette) related to transfer, understanding and essential element goals in Stage 1. M/T

6. E/R Students will work collaboratively (groups of no more than 3) to create historical fiction narrative stories that use the theme, “you are a 10 year old from Hartford, Connecticut in 1849, and you decide to book passage on a clipper ship bound for California to seek your fortune in the gold-fields.”  They will use Google Drive both synchronously and asynchronously to create the stories. Published stories will be posted to the project wiki.M/T

6a. E-2 Stories will be peer reviewed and commented on by other groups upon completion of first several drafts.  Using comment feature in Google Drive, but not edited! Students will make edits to their own stories as needed. M

7.   E Students will research the differences in the value of money around the world and how gold relates to this value.  They will also learn about the ethical problem of price fixing and price gouging based on cultural events such as the Gold Rush or the 1994 Northridge earthquake. M

8. E/E-2 Students will research (find images and stories) about miners from several different cultural groups (group will be assigned by the teacher, one per student) and look for reasons why they left home, and how they were treated in California and why.  They will present their findings in a mostly visual Google Presentation to the class.  These will also be put on the wiki. M

9. T Students will research current day California towns (towns will be assigned by the teacher, one per student) and they will answer two leading questions, “What kind of mining happened in this town during the gold rush, who settled here after the gold rush, and has this legacy affected the town today?”  Students will present their findings as a 1 page poster created using Smore.com to be shared on the wiki. T

Stage 2 Draft

Unit Topic: By the Great Horn Spoon by: Sid Fleischman
Subject: History Social Studies
Grade: 4th
Time Frame to complete: 1 - 2 months

Stage 2 - Evidence

Evaluative Criteria:

• Participation in collaboration
• Accuracy
• Quality of products
• Clear explanations
• Historicity

PERFORMANCE TASK(S)

These tasks will show understanding through collaborative and social interactions through:

• engaging in teacher prompted blog posts relating to the impacts the California Gold Rush had on both the people and land of California, and how those legacies are still impacting life today.  Performance will be determined via rubric.
• students writing letters (either physically or via digital means) to other 4th grade students studying By the Great Horn Spoon and the Gold Rush while they are in character as either a character in the novel, or by taking on the persona of a person during the Gold Rush (i.e. a miner, a shopkeeper, a Chinese immigrant miner, a native american, a californio, a former slave, etc.)  Performance will be determined via rubric.
• students engaging in a staged historical debate regarding the essential questions:
• Why would people leave their lives behind to seek Gold?
• Is it right for people to leave their lives to go to California to seek gold?
• Do you think people intend to stay in California after they get their share of the rocks?
• students will throughout the unit create and contribute to a project wiki that will demonstrate the knowledge goals articulated in stage 1. This will serve as a project portfolio and performance will be determined via rubric.

OTHER EVIDENCE

• artwork and or artifacts included for the wiki
• vocabulary quizzes throughout the unit
• participation (physically and “getting into character”) in a Gold Rush simulation cumulative experience following the unit

Stage 1 Draft

Unit Topic: By the Great Horn Spoon by: Sid Fleischman
Subject: History Social Studies
Grade: 4th
Time Frame to complete: 1 - 2 months

Stage 1 - Desired Results

Established Goals:

All numerical references are for the History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools.

4.4.2  Explain how the Gold Rush transformed the economy of California, including the types of products produced and consumed, changes in towns (e.g., Sacramento, San Francisco), and economic conflicts between diverse groups of people.
4.4.3  Discuss immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, including the diverse composition of those who came; the countries of origin and their relative locations; and conflicts and accords among the diverse groups (e.g., the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act).

Transfer

TRANSFER
Students will be able to independently use their learning to . . .

T1  Discuss the impacts the California Gold Rush had on the state of California (the land and the people) and what affects it had on the state in the 1800’s, today, and what will it’s legacy continue to be into the future.

Meaning

UNDERSTANDINGS
Students will understand that . . .

U1  People left their homes and families to make a perilous journey with the overwhelming idea that they could create better lives for them and their families, and then return home to make that better life happen.
U2  The events and people that participated in the California Gold Rush wrote not only their own stories, but changed both the land and people of California forever.


ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Students will keep considering . . .

Q1  Why would people leave their lives behind to seek Gold?
Q2  Was it right for people to go to California and leave their lives behind for a period of time?
Q3  Do you think the Argonauts intended to change California as they did?

Acquisition

KNOWLEDGE
Students will know. . .

K1  When, from where, and in the most general sense why people went to CA for gold
K2  What mining was like, (ie. mining methods) how successful most miners were or were not.
K3  What the conditions were like for miners.
K4  What the outcomes were like for various cross sections of miners.
K5  What happened to miners after the Gold Rush was finished.


SKILL
Students will be skilled at. . .

S1  Working collaboratively to research the facts of the California Gold Rush
S2  Sharing orally, digitally, and in a written form what they have learned.

Initial Unit Plan sketch

This is my initial, very rough and basic, lesson plan for a novel unit based on the book By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman.


Unit Topic: By the Great Horn Spoon by: Sid Fleischman
Subject: English Language Arts & History Social Studies
Grade: 4th
Time Frame to complete: 1 - 2 months

Stage 1 - desired resultsWhat should students learn as a result of this unit?

1. Reasons for people going to CA for gold & how it changed their lives.
2. How the Gold Rush of 1849 changed CA.
3. How the Gold Rush is still shaping CA today.

Stage 2 - EvidenceWhat evidence will show that students have met the Stage 1 goals?

• students will understand & articulate a human's desire for gold vs. their current state (physically, emotionally,   financially, relationally)
• students can articulate the ethical (good & bad) positions of:
• leaving home (family, friends, community)
• traveling for more than a year
• finding gold, or not finding gold
• students will understand & articulate the ecological and human impacts the Gold Rush had.
• students will understand & articulate how the Gold Rush played a major role in the ethnic diversity in CA.

Stage 3 - Learning PlanWhat key learning events will help students reach the goals and be successful on the assessments?

• Read and discuss the novel By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
• discuss and act our basic human desires and motivations (age appropriate)
• group write a fiction story using Google Draw & Google Docs for collaboration about leaving home at age 10 for more than a year with one other person.  Share with other groups to peer review and rewrite as needed.
• discuss global differences of money
• how much people live on in a day
• how they compare to different people on the globe
• have a debate, choose some as "we need more $, and some as "we need less $"
• Webquest on ecological effects/human impact of the CA Gold Rush (web resources
• Create a wiki page posing as different groups and how they were affected by the rush of people coming to CA.