1

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

MONTEREY BAY
Santa Clara County Pioneers: A Community History
CAPSTONE PROPOSAL
Submitted in partial satisfaction of requirements of the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE in
Instructional Science and Technology
Juliette Marie Bettencourt
October 3, 2015

Capstone Approvals: (At least one advisor and capstone instructor should approve)
Dr. Rosalie Strong_________________________ ___________________________
Advisor Name
Signature
Date
___________________________ ___________________________ _____________
Capstone Instructor Name
Signature
Date
Y

Table of Contents
YExecutive Summa
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background............................................................................................................................4
Problem description...............................................................................................................4
Literature Survey...................................................................................................................5
Target Audience.....................................................................................................................6
Solution Description..................................................................................................................7
Goals......................................................................................................................................7
Proposed Solution..................................................................................................................8
Learning Theories and Instructional Strategies.....................................................................8
Challenges and Constraints..................................................................................................10
Media...................................................................................................................................10
Methods and Procedures..........................................................................................................11
Resources.................................................................................................................................12
Timeline...................................................................................................................................12
Evaluation................................................................................................................................13
Formative Evaluation...........................................................................................................13
Summative Evaluation.........................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................14

Executive Summary
California's third grade social studies standards, now part of the language arts category
of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), call for the study of local community and how
it evolved over time (CCSS, 2011). School districts identify county lines as a reasonable
equivalent of a local community. Changes in the local community through different cultural
periods include the study of the local Native American population, the arrival of foreign
explorers, the American westward movement, statehood, and modern-day conditions. Stateadopted textbooks for social studies address these themes in generic terms, focusing on
broad concepts and highlighting nationally known landmarks and historical points instead of
providing accurate information for local communities. The curriculum does not provide
information specific to local communities. Facts about the Santa Clara valley and its rancho
era under Spanish and Mexican rule are omitted; a brief mention of California's gold rush and
life after statehood are presented instead. To fill this gap, local teachers must develop units
and uncover material to adequately address the mandated community-related standards.
Teachers and students need readily available material to supplement the state-adopted
textbooks. Utilizing modern technology to present this information in a digital format would
reduce costs, increase accessibility, and provide increased learner engagement.
This capstone product will provide teachers, parents, and students with interactive
lessons about the rancho era in Santa Clara County. As part of a larger unit about pioneer life
and societal changes from the 1800s to present day, this unit will highlight childrens daily
lives during the those pioneer days under Spanish and Mexican rule in the 1800s. This lesson
will help children understand what a childs daily life was like in pioneer days through

4
experiential learning in order to understand some of the changes and challenges young
Californians faced in the Santa Clara valley over 100 years ago.

Introduction
Background
For almost 20 years, California state standards for third grade social studies called for
the study of a local community (a city, county, or regional area) and its evolution over time,
as delineated in the California State History-Social Science Content Standards adopted by the
California State Board of Education on October 9, 1998. In 2011, the State Board noted that
the recently adopted CCSS include standards for literacy in history/social studies[that]
do not replace the history-social science content standards but supplement them by setting
specific requirements for reading and writing informational texts, (CCSS, 2011). Subtitled
Continuity and Change, the standards include studying the local Native American
population, other regional tribes, local geography and how it shaped the communitys
growth, the interaction of foreign explorers with the Native Americans, the usage of local
natural resources, the American westward movement, and evolving economic conditions in
the local community. Many of these standards are extended in fourth grade while studying
California history.
Problem description
In July, 2014, the California State Board of Education noted in the ELA/ELD
Framework that, The reciprocal relationship between the language arts and content learning
is apparent throughout Californias subject matter content standards (ELA/ELD Framework,

5
2014). Despite all these reinforcing statements about the importance of learning about change
within a community, resources and materials highlighting local history and social science
have not been provided to schools and teachers. Instead, third grade teachers must research
and collect their own curriculum and materials to teach these standards. State-adopted
textbooks address Native American history in broad generalities, focusing on the larger, wellknown tribes in California and across the nation, ignoring lesser-known tribes, offering brief
vignettes before shifting focus to the discovery of gold and the gold rush of 1849. Facts
about the Rancho era under Spanish and Mexican rule are mentioned in a few sentences. This
lack of local curricular resources is problematic in todays information-rich, fact-centric shift
to align the educational establishment with CCSS. Neither textbook publishers nor school
districts will devote the time or money necessary to produce curriculum to meet this localized
need. The Santa Clara County parks system maintains several historic sites that promote
community history, but many classroom teachers and schools lack the funds needed to
organize and participate in field trips to visit these sites.
Literature Survey
Currently, textbooks, approved curriculum, or specialized material available about
local county and valley history were published or produced approximately 25 years ago. The
California Department of Education suspended the adoption of new K-8 social studies
textbooks in 2009 per legislative fiat, with a possible reinstatement in the 2015-2016 school
year. The Santa Clara County Park system published guides/teacher manuals for a few of
their historic sites over 10 years ago, with a focus on preparing students to visit specific sites,
and are not intended as textbook replacements.

6
Increasingly, elementary social studies teachers access Internet resources (the World
Wide Web, You Tube, newspaper archives, university archives, historical museums) to
retrieve information to develop engaging lessons. Integrating technology with non-fiction
reading and research are core CCSS components, but electronic curriculum aimed at the
community/county level is not available. Classroom teachers face the choice of expending
time and energy to create specialized lessons, spending scarce money for adequate resources,
or providing minimal attention to those standards.
Target Audience
The target audience for this capstone proposal is third grade students in the Santa Clara
valley, including Californias 32 public school districts, private schools, and homeschools.
Learners throughout California could benefit from this unit, since Santa Clara valley history
is entwined with California history. Fourth grade students (especially those new to the Santa
Clara valley) would also benefit from this unit. These video lessons will highlight the local
county park, local historical and/or economic landmarks, notable historical and political
figures, and provide a timeline to connect local community history with accompanying
chronologies of the United States and the world. While this unit will be produced to appeal
to third and fourth graders, teachers and home schooling parents may also use it as a study
guide for themselves.

Solution Description
Goals
The primary goal of this capstone project is to provide teachers in Santa Clara valley
with the tools to teach lessons about one era in the Santa Clara Valley. This capstone proposal
would provide a unit about Santa Clara valley history that teachers could use as a stand-alone
unit, or in conjunction with their own material to provide differentiation and enrichment in
their social studies and language arts curriculum. Studying local community history helps
foster understanding of the diverse population in what is now called Silicon Valley.
Another goal of this unit is to encourage students, teachers, and their families to visit
the historical landmarks profiled in each lesson. County parks and museums rely on visitors
to prove their viability and value to the public. Digitizing these historical treasures will also
preserve them for future generations.
Digital curricula will allow schools to save money (videos on a website or LMS will
cost less than print resources) while standardizing the curriculum and addressing
overlapping, intersecting needs for meeting curricular requirements and promoting social
learning. Teachers will have easy access to modern, relevant materials and information about
local community history. Learning and reflecting upon the changing demographics, societal
pressures, and blending of cultures over the last 300 years would be key concepts to promote
citizenship and teamwork, as well as examining history from different cultural perspectives.

8
Proposed Solution
This capstone proposal would engage students by providing park experiences and
information in a digital format to make this living history available to all Santa Clara valley
students, teachers, and families. The unit includes historical photos and a recorded virtual
field trip to a location that highlights the Rancho era, the Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch in the
Santa Teresa County Historic Park, also known as Rancho Santa Teresa. The Santa Clara
County Parks System, a unit of the Santa Clara County government, is an underutilized
resource for presenting community history. Time pressures and budgetary constraints
prevent many teachers from visiting these historical parks with their students. Historical
profiles of selected landmarks and people on cascading webpages would allow students and
their families the convenience of learning about the Santa Clara valley in their own homes or
classrooms. Santa Clara valley history would be available as a digital connection, which
would be fitting for Silicon Valley. Learners will need a computer and an Internet connection
to participate in the lessons and basic computer knowledge about keyboarding and online
instruction.
Learning Theories and Instructional Strategies
Using a storyteller theme to engage students, the multimedia lessons will deepen meaning
by utilizing schema theory to facilitate comprehension. Combining videos, photos, drawings,
mind maps, newspaper articles, and historical maps will allow learners to conduct historical
research and synthesize content by completing creative assignments. Cognitivism and
constructivism will be underlying theories as learners use the different parts of the lessons to

9
create replica toys or write diary entries as formative and summative assessments. Most of
Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction will be used to format the lessons:
1. Gain attention
2. Inform learners of objectives
3. Stimulate recall of prior learning
4. Present the content
5. Provide learning guidance
6. Elicit performance (practice)
7. Provide feedback
8. Assess performance
The lessons will feature a site that learners may visit -- a county park open to the public:
Rancho Santa Teresa (Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Historical Area). Profiles of some historical
figures and local landmarks will be included with the lessons. The unit will contain videos
describing or demonstrating key points associated with the topic. Lessons will be
personalized and appeal to students because videos will show students visiting sites,
explaining concepts, and using period tools and toys. The Hook (Lemov, 2010) to engage
students in learning about history will be the common theme of toys and games. Embedded
quizzes, narrations, and glossaries will assist unit learners to master the stated objectives of
each lesson. References and suggestions for further study, as well as contact information for
the profiled location, and worksheets in PDF format that teachers can use for review or
extensions will be included. A Google survey will solicit feedback about the unit. Varied
assessments will require students to upload their products. Students will reconstruct
childhood experiences at the site to compare and contrast yesteryear and modern times.

10
Challenges and Constraints
Challenges for this project will include acquiring the permissions and media release
forms for a few people (including students) who have participated in the site visits. Media
release permission will be required from parents so that their children can participate in the
video recordings. Working and consulting with the Santa Clara County Park system has been
fruitful and is almost complete. Time constraints are still a concern; editing footage and
creating and debugging Adobe Captivate 7 modules are time-intensive. Using research
libraries is important for historical research and is in progress. The video and interactive
portions are under construction. The designer will review all versions to assure functionality.
Changes will be made as needed to ensure that all versions run smoothly, both in flash and
HTML5 versions. Lessons will be used with students in the designers third grade classroom
as one portion of the usability testing. Three third grade colleagues will also evaluate the
lessons with their classes, and the lessons will be modified after their feedback is recorded.
Media
The digital curriculum will be uploaded to ITCDLAND and the free LMS service,
Canvas, which was recommended by the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
Appropriate bandwidth and computer equipment will be necessary to assure viewers optimal
viewing of the lessons.

Methods and Procedures

This project will be designed using a Weebly template-based website. On this website
the designer will initially develop all of the main pages which are linked to the anchor area

11
for the local community history. Each of the pages will have subpages in a standardized
template of information for each era: 1) toys and games, 2) tools, 3) culture and customs, 4)
language and vocabulary, 5) unusual facts, 6) a timeline, and 7) where to learn more
(references, books, links, physical sites).
Once the structure for the site has been developed the designer will begin working on
the era and site. Research and acquired video footage will combine to form the basis for a
video with scripted narration. Video footage contains students and adults practicing skills and
exploring outdoor areas in the profiled county park. County park docents have graciously
allowed video recordings as they were working and interacting with students. Videos are
being produced using iMovie software on an Apple laptop and Apple iPads. Some of the
completed videos are already on You Tube, and as others are completed they will also be
uploaded to You Tube. Learning modules will be created using Adobe Captivate 7. The
learning modules will include assessments to gauge their effectiveness and usability. Each
module will be tested to ensure that it works smoothly in all versions. The products will be
uploaded to the servers using Fetch software. Each webpage will include a beginning Google
survey (pre-test) and an exit Google survey (post-test) measuring learner feedback about
usability, adherence to standards, and information acquisition and retention.

Resources
This project will require four to six months to complete. The time will be spent
researching facts via scholarly websites and libraries, visiting historical sites to record,
writing scripts, developing historical chronologies and assessments for each lesson, learningmodule creation, editing, and testing, and writing the pacing guide. Preliminary recording at

12
target historical sites has already finished, with a few more visits to re-record a few selected
scenes scheduled. The website will be revised and updated as each lesson is completed. Costs
include a $50 membership to History San Jose for archival access, monthly subscription cost
of $20 for Adobe Captivate 7, and $90 for an external hard drive to back up video footage,
digital images, and Captivate modules.
Equipment for this project will include a MacBook Pro laptop, Flip cameras,
an iPad 4, an iPad mini, a Sony digital camera, a Nikon digital camera, Adobe Captivate 7,
Google Apps for Education, Microsoft Office Suite, Apple iWorks, and a Seagate external
hard drive. Additional subject matter experts will be consulted at History San Jose, the
California Pioneer Society, Bancroft library at UC Berkeley, Santa Clara County Office of
Education, and the Santa Clara County Parks System. Software questions for Adobe
Captivate, and other editing software will be researched using their tutorials, the tutorial
service Lynda.com, and posing questions to experienced users.

Timeline

Date
July 30, 2015
August 14, 2015

Deliverable
Weebly Website Skeleton complete
Research on all standards complete

September 26, 2015

September 30, 2015
October 22, 2015
October 29, 2015
November 2, 2015

Scripting for era videos complete

Creation of Google Surveys for website
Filming complete
Captivate videos for era complete
Adobe Captivate assessments complete

November 4, 2015

All Captivate editing complete

November 8, 2015

Upload to Weebly, test

November 10, 2015

Usability test with class #1

13
November 12, 2015
November 13, 2015
November 19, 2015
November 20, 2015
November 23, 2015
December 2, 2015
December 8, 2015

Usability test with class #2

Usability test with class #3
Revisions based on usability test results
Usability test with class #4
Additional revisions, final interviews
Summative Evaluation
Testing, final website revisions

December 9, 2015

Publish

Evaluation
Formative Evaluation
The designer's third-grade colleagues have agreed to act as SMEs for this project.
Pre- and post-tests will be vetted by the teachers for accuracy and alignment of content to
standards. Several students from two third-grade classes will complete the unit. Third-grade
teachers and the designer will observe the students as they work through the unit. Students
will then complete a Google survey to determine functionality, ease of use, applicability of
the content, and effectiveness of the unit.
Summative Evaluation
After revisions have been implemented in accordance with the data collected from the
students who have completed the unit, two more sets of students will complete the unit. Data
collected from pre- and post-tests will determine if mastery of the desired objectives was
achieved.

14

References
California Department of Education, (2011). Third grade in California Public Schools
and the Common Core State Standards. Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional
Resources Division, California Department of Education
California Department of Education, (2000). HistorySocial Science Content Standards
for California Public Schools Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve
California Department of Education. (2014). SBE-Adopted ELA/ELD Framework,
Chapter 4: Content and Pedagogy: Grades Two and Three, retrieved from
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/cf/documents/chapter4sbeadopted.pdf

15
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to
College. San Francisco, Ca: John Wiley & Sons Inc.