Class/Level: ESL or BE

Computer Time: One Hour

Objectives:

To learn (or practice) basic Internet navigation skills

To find and summarize information on a Web site

To learn about tenement life in the 19th and early 20th Century

Web Site:

Roadside America

http://www.roadsideamerica.com

Steps

Pre-computer classroom activity

1. Class Brainstorm/Mind Map:

a. What are some tourist attractions in NYC?

b. What are some of the largest, smallest, tallest, strangest and most amazing things you have seen in the United States?

Note: Additional preparatory activities might include a lesson on U.S. geography.

Computer/online activity

2. Go to Roadside America at
http://www.roadsideamerica.com
Explain to students that this is a Web site that features the most unusual tourist attractions in the U.S.

3. Click on The Electric Map

4. Instruct students (working in small groups or independently) to select three states. Students click on the state (from the map or the list) and read about the tourist attractions on that state. At each state instruct students to make a list of the largest, smallest, tallest, shortest and strangest attractions they read about. Depending on their ESL level they can also write descriptions of the attractions.

5. Ask students to report back to the class on the attractions they visited.

Follow-up Activities

For a family literacy activity, ask students to select one tourist attraction from Roadside America their children would find interesting, funny or weird and to write a detailed description of the selected attraction. Ask them to share the description with their children who will then draw a picture of the attraction above or beneath their parent's text. The next day, ask students to share the illustrations in class. For fun they can compare their child's drawing with the photograph of the attraction on the Web site.