Update main activity page and activity corollary pages

Author: kalanicraig

pages/activities.md

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 #
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-### Classroom Activities
+## Classroom Activities
 
-While any research team or classroom can take advantage of Net.Create's simultaneous editing and visualization structure, the primary activity structure Net.Create supports is a two-day activity that sets students up to read a long historical source (primary or secondary) more effectively.
+While any research team or classroom can take advantage of Net.Create's simultaneous editing and visualization structure, we have several activity templates that work for different classroom sizes and age groups.
 
-It works like this:
+### Higher-Ed/College Classrooms
 
-- Day 1
-	- Divide students into groups of 3-5 (3 in a fixed-seating lecture hall; 5 if you have tables).
-	- Divide a long source that the students haven't read yet into shorter excerpts and give each group 1 excerpt.
-	- Guide students through entering nodes and edges.
-	- End class with a discussion about betweenness and centrality as guides for helping identify and understand historical significance.
-	- Give students a short reading from the source between days 1 and 2 (12-15 pages max)
-- Day 2
-	- Divide students into the same groups, but give them a different excerpt.
-	- Ask them to revise, correct, and add to their classmates' entries for that set of pages.
-	- End class with a discussion about networks as both note-taking and analysis tools for historians.
+- [College Classroom Joint Reading Activity](/activities/collegeprimarysource/). Have a complex text students struggle to understand? This activity uses a co-reading activity to help individual students in a large classroom engage with 1 or 2 pages of unfamiliar text. Net.Create helps the whole class take their new familiarity with a short excerpt and combine that expertise into a whole-class generated set of interactions and notes that students can use as an entry point to independent reading of the whole text.
 
-After both days, students leave class equipped with a historical framework they built--with all of the notes they took and Net.Create's visualization of the interactions in the source you assigned--that serve as a reference while they read the remainder of the source.
+### Middle School Classrooms
 
-This version of Net.Create needs a computer running MacOS and a little command-line skill. If you've got that (or you're willing to learn), we're happy to share the software, along with our slide deck, a list of shared features for the 7 primary and secondary sources we've used with this activity, and whatever help we can offer you and your students.
+The 1-pager lesson plans here are aligned with some common activities built into English-language-arts and social-studies state standards across the US.
+
+#### Social Studies
+
+- [Greek Mythology Network Overview](greekmyth). In this 8th-grade World History lesson plan, students will read Greek Myths and write 6 word biographies of themselves. Students then build onto a network visualization, demonstrating connections among gods, locations, mortals, and characteristics. Students will add themselves to the network, indicating gods, mortals, locations, or characteristics they identify with and analyze the interactions among the Greek nodes and their classmates’ nodes.
+- [Greek voting Network Overview](/activities/greekvoting/). In this 8th-grade World History lesson plan, students will read Greek Myths and write 6 word biographies of themselves. Students then build onto a network visualization, demonstrating connections among gods, locations, mortals, and characteristics. Students will add themselves to the network, indicating gods, mortals, locations, or characteristics they identify with and analyze the interactions among the Greek nodes and their classmates’ nodes.
+
+#### English Language Arts
+
+- [Fact/Fiction network](/activities/factfiction/). In this ELA lesson plan, students will explore a network centered on the novel 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak, which blends fictional characters and events with real history. Students will interact with and add to network visualizations that represent connections between factual and fictional events, places, and people from the novel.
+
+We're happy to share information about how to run Net.Create in your classroom, along with our slide deck, a list of shared features for the primary and secondary sources we've used with this activity, and whatever help we can offer you and your students.
 

pages/activities/collegeprimarysource.md

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+layout: page
+#
+# Content
+#
+permalink: /activities/collegeprimarysource/
+subheadline: "Net.Create Higher-Ed Activities"
+title: "College Classroom Joint Reading Activity"
+teaser: "Have a complex text students struggle to understand? This activity uses a co-reading activity to help individual students in a large classroom engage with 1 or 2 pages of unfamiliar text. Net.Create helps the whole class take their new familiarity with a short excerpt and combine that expertise into a whole-class generated set of interactions and notes that students can use as an entry point to independent reading of the whole text."
+categories:
+#  - design
+tags:
+#  - audio player
+#  - video player
+#  - streaming music
+#
+# Styling
+#
+---
+
+## Co-Reading a Complex Source In A Large Lecture Classroom
+
+This two-day activity sets students up to read a long historical source (primary or secondary) more effectively.
+
+- Day 1
+	- Divide students into groups of 3-5 (3 in a fixed-seating lecture hall; 5 if you have tables).
+	- Divide a long source that the students haven't read yet into shorter excerpts and give each group 1 excerpt.
+	- Guide students through entering nodes and edges.
+	- End class with a discussion about betweenness and centrality as guides for helping identify and understand historical significance.
+	- Give students a short reading from the source between days 1 and 2 (12-15 pages max)
+- Day 2
+	- Divide students into the same groups, but give them a different excerpt.
+	- Ask them to revise, correct, and add to their classmates' entries for that set of pages.
+	- End class with a discussion about networks as both note-taking and analysis tools for historians.
+
+After both days, students leave class equipped with a historical framework they built--with all of the notes they took and Net.Create's visualization of the interactions in the source you assigned--that serve as a reference while they read the remainder of the source.

pages/activities/factfiction.md

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+---
+layout: page
+##
+## Content
+##
+permalink: /activities/factfiction/
+subheadline: "Net.Create Middle School Activities"
+title: "Fact/Fiction Network Overview"
+teaser: "In this 7th-grade lesson plan, students will be introduced to the novel 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. Students will interact with and add to network visualizations that represent connections between factual and fictional events, places, and people from the novel."
+categories:
+##  - design
+tags:
+##  - audio player
+##  - video player
+##  - streaming music
+##
+## Styling
+##
+---
+
+## Lesson Overview
+
+### Resources
+
+- Net Create: Fact/Fiction Network
+<!-- Explanation video https://iu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_wehrtqts re-produce-->
+
+### Learning Target/Goal
+
+Students will identify and analyze the difference between historical facts and fictional events during World War 2 using the novel *The Book Thief* by Markus Zusak.
+
+### Standards
+
+Make inferences and draw logical conclusions from the content and structures of informational texts, including comparison and contrast, problem and solution, claims and evidence, cause and effect, description, and sequencing. 
+ [Aligns with (6th grade "Critical Literacy Reception" standards in Alabama](https://www.alabamaachieves.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-Alabama-English-Language-Arts-Course-of-Study.pdf)
+
+## Lesson Background
+
+In this 7th-grade lesson plan, students will be introduced to the novel 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. Students will interact with and add to network visualizations that represent connections between factual and fictional events, places, and people from the novel.
+
+### Lesson Plan: Section 1: Prologue
+
+#### Before
+
+The templated version of the Fact/Fiction Network includes factual events, people, places, and general knowledge that appear in the opening sections of *The Book Thief*. The network will be presented to students with the factual content in the network as nodes.
+
+Before presenting the students with the network, check the included nodes and add/remove nodes as appropriate for your students. 
+- If World War 2 has been previously taught to students, connect with the previous history teacher to get a list of events, people, places, general knowledge, etc. that student might already be familiar with (5-10 additional nodes recommended) 
+- Add/remove nodes from the sample network based on which portions of The Book Thief will be covered in class. Add factual events, people, places, and general knowledge from the portions of the book that will be covered. 
+
+#### During
+
+Give students the opportunity to explore the nodes that are currently in the network and the connections. Discuss:
+- What do you notice about this network?
+	- Prompts: 
+		- Aggregation: What is central to the network? Remember you can look at the nodes table as well as the graph.
+		- Variability:  What variation is there in what specific characters do / don’t know?
+		- What attributes does each node have? What do these attributes tell us? 
+		- Review the parts of The Book Thief that students have already read, discussing key events, places, and characters. 
+		- Use the “Fade” filter to filter for whether “In the Book?” contains “Yes” and invite students to share what they remember about a person, place, event, or thing that has appeared in the book.
+		- Also ask what it might mean that some things are not in the book - are they still relevant?
+- Based on the previous discussion, demonstrate adding a few fiction nodes to the network (e.g., Liesel, Himmel Street). 
+	- Resource: Our team put together this table of fact and fiction elements by section of the book.
+- In pairs or small groups, have students add fictional elements from the book to the network as nodes. 
+- As a full class, discuss connections that exist between the nodes pre-existing within the network and that have been added by the research team. Demonstrate adding edges to connect the nodes.
+	- Note: edges can and should connect fact and fiction elements.
+- Demonstrate how attributes and filtering can be used to see what is fact and fiction.
+- In pairs or small groups, have students use edges to connect nodes that are related to each other (whether or not they are fact or fiction). 
+- As a whole class discussion, allow for each group to explain the outcomes of their fact vs fiction exploration. Consider discussing: 
+	- Aggregation: Were there any connections or patterns in the network that surprised you?
+	- In what ways did exploring the fact/fiction network deepen your understanding of the novel so far? What about how history, data, and language arts are connected?
+	- Context: Think about a news story you've seen recently. How can you tell if the information is true, or if it might be exaggerated? 
+
+#### After
+
+- Exit Ticket: What are three examples of how The Book Thief adds fictional elements to historical events, people, and places?
+
+
+
+

pages/activities/greekmyth.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+layout: page
+##
+## Content
+##
+permalink: /activities/greekmyth/
+subheadline: "Net.Create Middle School Activities"
+title: "Greek Mythology Network Overview"
+teaser: "In this 8th-grade World History lesson plan, students will read Greek Myths and write 6 word biographies of themselves. Students then build onto a network visualization, demonstrating connections among gods, locations, mortals, and characteristics. Students will add themselves to the network, indicating gods, mortals, locations, or characteristics they identify with and analyze the interactions among the Greek nodes and their classmates’ nodes."
+categories:
+##  - design
+tags:
+##  - audio player
+##  - video player
+##  - streaming music
+##
+## Styling
+##
+---
+
+## Lesson Overview
+
+### Resources
+
+- Greek Mythology Network Example
+- Greek Mythology Network with sample student responses
+- D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
+
+### Learning Target/Goal
+
+Students will create a network visualization of Greek gods, mortals, locations, and characteristics and make connections to aspects of the stories they feel connected to.
+
+### Standards
+
+Identify cultural contributions of Classical Greece, including politics, intellectual life, arts, literature, architecture, and science. [Aligns with (8th grade "World History to 1500" in Alabama](https://www.alabamaachieves.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2010-Alabama-Social-Studies-Course-of-Study.pdf)
+
+## Lesson Background
+
+In this 8th-grade World History lesson plan, students will read passages from D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths and write 6 word biographies of themselves. Based on the stories selected, students build onto a network visualization, demonstrating connections among gods, locations, mortals, and characteristics. Students will add themselves to the network, indicating gods, mortals, locations, or characteristics they identify with and analyze the interactions among the Greek nodes and their classmates’ nodes.
+
+### Lesson Plan
+
+#### Before
+
+- Prior lessons should build background knowledge about Ancient Greece
+- 1-2 days before this lesson, students compose a 6 word biography about themselves. The teacher uses these biographies to assign pairs of students to stories from D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths that represent one of their words.
+
+#### During
+
+In pairs, students read one Greek myth 
+- Introduce data visualizations if students are not yet familiar with Net.Create
+- Students add edges to the mythology network to show connections within and between myths, based on interactions between gods, mortals, locations to the mythology network
+- Have students briefly analyze the Greek Mythology network. 
+	- Suggested prompts:
+		- What information about our data is readily visible in the graph view?
+		- Who or what has the most connections? Why do you think that is?
+		- Who or what has the least connections? Why do you think that is?
+		- What patterns do we see in our data as a whole?
+		- How do individual data points (Gods or goddesses) look similar or different from that pattern? What might that mean?
+	- Encourage students to use these Net.Create features to analyze the network:
+		- Clicking on a node to learn more about it
+		- Using the table view (including sorting columns)
+		- Using filters (including fading)
+		- Ask students: How do the different ways of looking at this data (graph, tables, individual data points) change what we see?
+- Students add a node for themselves with their six words in the notes and connect themselves to the character in the story they worked with that most closely matches these characteristics.
+- Students connect themselves to a character NOT in their story based on their six words and the themes/characteristics that have been added in the network.
+- Do a second round of analysis focused on values
+	- Suggested prompts:
+		- What could you say about Ancient Greek values based on this network? Do you think that is accurate?
+		- Where do you fit in this network? Which Greek-myth figure would you be?
+		- What might this network be leaving out?