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Janis Friesler's 8th Grade at Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School
West Allis, WI
School Type: Public
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School Setting: Suburban
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Level: Middle
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School Design: Traditional
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Content Presented By:
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The Education Alliance at Brown University
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Design and Implementation
When you walk into Janis Friesler's language arts classroom at Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School in West Allis, Wisconsin, you do not see the traditional arrangement of rows of desks. Instead, her classroom is
arranged with seven long computer tables. On these tables are 28
computers and monitors with Internet access. The room is also equipped with two laser printers, an electronic projector linked to a computer for demonstration purposes, and a scanner. Groupwise software is used throughout the district so every teacher, administrator, and student can have his or her own e-mail account as well as a network file to store
work. This enables students to save large files such as graphics when
developing their projects. It also allows Friesler to create shared
files through which students can access information or directions.
Other software accessible in Friesler's classroom includes
Microsoft Word for word processing, PowerPoint and HyperStudio for
presentations, Excel for creating spreadsheets, Inspiration for creating
graphic organizers, supplemental software for language arts and science
textbooks, and A+ tutorials for reading, language arts, math, and social
studies practice.
Friesler has taken advantage of all of these resources in
redesigning her curriculum. To access one part of this
curriculum, her unit plan for An Investigation of Heroism
through the Holocaust and Underground Railroad, click here. This unit won first prize in Co-nect Schools' 2001 National Project Contest. To see samples of student work for the unit,
click on any of the links below:
Another unit Friesler has created, in conjunc tion with science and
social studies teachers at Wright Middle School, revolves around the
Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska. After reading Jack London's Call of
the Wild, her students use Internet resources to research the history of
this race and learn about the dogs, the equipment, the terrain, and the
human participants, or "mushers." This unit was awarded first place in Co-nect Schools' 2003 National Project Contest. For information about the unit and
samples of student work, visit http://home.wi.rr.com/friej/.
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