Title: Real Estate Project

Subject(s): Language Arts (Reading and Writing), Math, Technology, Employability and Life Skills

Intended Grade Level(s): Developed for 6th , 7th , & 8th Grade Special Education Students, but could effectively be used with regular education students as well.

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Description:

This is a Unit Plan for a REAL ESTATE PROJECT. In class, students begin by brainstorming about what they like about their favorite room at home. They then incorporate these ideas into a paragraph (writing process). Using creative skills, they create "shoe box" houses which represent what they believe is ideal. Their houses include the "favorite room" described in the paragraph. When the house is finished, students glue the parts of the paragraph to their house: topic sentence is attached to roof, supporting ideas to the walls, and concluding sentence to the foundation (understanding paragraph writing).

 

Next, students will use the INTERNET to examine real estate ads. They will look carefully at what is included in the ad (total square feet, # of rooms, size of rooms, etc.). Following this activity, students will write paragraphs describing THEIR (created) houses. They discuss audience and try to determine who will be reading their ads. At home, they measure rooms to get ideas of room sizes.

Finally, they turn paragraphs into ads, replacing complete sentences with phrases, noting that words in ads cost money, and real estate agents are concerned about budgets.

Pictures are taken with a DIGITAL CAMERA of students (agents) and houses, and worked into a (WORD PROCESSING/DRAWING) real estate ad by student.

Curriculum Benchmarks:

1. MI.ELA.1. read and comprehend general and technical material
2. MI.ELA.2. demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions
3. MI.ELA.3. focus on meaning and communications - they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts
4. MI.ELA.4. use the English language effectively
5. MI.ELA.6. learn to communicate information accurately and effectively and demonstrate their expressive abilities by creating oral, written, and visual texts that enlighten and engage the audience
6. MI.ELA.7. demonstrate, analyze, and reflect upon the skills and processes used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing
7. MI.ELA.8. explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts, aesthetic elements, and mechanics - including text structure, figurative and descriptive language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar - to construct and convey meaning
8. MI.ELA.10. apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others
9. MI.MAT.I.1. recognize similarities and generalize patterns, use patterns to create models and make predictions, describe the nature of patterns and relationships, and construct representations of mathematical relationships;
10. MI.MAT.II.1. develop spatial sense, use shape as an analytic and descriptive tool, identify characteristics and define shapes, identify properties and describe relationships among shapes
11. MI.MAT.II.2. identify locations of objects, identify location relative to other objects, and describe the effects of transformations (e.g., sliding, flipping, turning, enlarging, reducing) on an object
12. MI.MAT.III.3. compare attributes of two objects, or of one object with a standard (unit), analyze situations to determine what measurement(s) should be made and to what level of precision
13. MI.MAT.III.1. collect and explore data, organize data into a useful form, and develop skill in representing and reading data displayed in different formulas
14. MI.MAT.IV.1. experience counting and measuring activities to develop intuitive sense about numbers, develop understanding about properties of numbers, understand the need for and existence of different sets of numbers, and investigate properties of special numbers
15. MI.MAT.IV.2. recognize that numbers are used in different ways such as counting, measuring, ordering and estimating, understand and produce multiple representations of a number, and translate among equivalent representations
16. MI.MAT.V.1. understand and use various types of operations (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) to solve problems

Materials/Hardware/Software:

• The Internet
• Digital Camera
• Word Processing Program (Claris Works was used, any word processing program can be used)
• Drawing Program (Claris Works Drawing was used, any drawing program can be used)

Activities/Procedures:

1. The activities/procedures were briefly explained in the description of the project.
2. The central question the teacher is asking is what type of writing is best suited to advertising?
3. Key questions for students in this project would be:
4. What is your favorite room in your house? What makes that room stand out from the rest?
5. If you were going to sell a house, what features do you think prospective buyers would be most interested in?
6. What descriptive word would attract buyers?
7. How can you condense paragraphs into phrases that catch the reader's
8. attention?
9. Activities listed in order:
10. Students brainstorm about their favorite room in their houses, about what makes that room special. Teacher does the same. Everyone writes a paragraph describing their favorite room. Class edits teacher's paragraph together, replacing boring, factual language with interesting, descriptive phrases.

     

1. Students plan a "dream house," including their favorite rooms. Then, they create their houses out of shoe boxes, including all features they think are important to a house.
2. Students attach the parts of their paragraphs to their houses, as described earlier (topic sentence to roof, etc.).
3. Next, students examine actual real estate ads on the Internet. They look at sizes of rooms, total square feet, and other features listed. They measure rooms of their own houses to compare sizes and get an idea of how rooms at home compare to the ones in the ads.

1. Now students write paragraphs describing the complete house they each created, remembering to write to keep the audience (buyers) interested.
2. Finally, students convert paragraphs to ads, replacing sentences with catchy phrases.
3. Using a digital camera, pictures of students and their houses are taken and put into a word processing real estate "ad", utilizing the descriptive phrases from paragraphs written earlier.

Assessment/Evaluation:

Each phase of the project will be evaluated, as well as the final project. (Example: paragraph writing - Is there a good topic sentence, supporting ideas, and a conclusion? house - Is it attractive? Complete?)

Follow-up Activities:

In class, students will informally evaluate houses and real estate ads.

Ads will be put on display, with houses, in the school showcases for everyone to see and provide feedback on.

Name: Colleen Schaeding

School District: Swan Valley School District

School: Swan Valley Middle School

Address: 453 Van Wormer, Saginaw, MI 48609