Analyzing Project Proposals: Activity 2

Proposal 1: Life During the Great Depression

 
BEFORE:

Grade Level: 5

Subject: Social Studies

Learner Outcomes:

Assessment: Students will create and post a Web page to reflect their learning.

Authentic Student Task: Students will develop Web pages about the United States and the Great Depression.

Hook: Students are fascinated with history. They will be excited about creating Web pages to be posted on the Internet. They may have grandparents who lived during this time.

Student Direction: Students will be allowed to select historical figures, events or places to have as the focus of their research.

Best Use of Technology: The Internet will be used to find information about the Great Depression. Pictures of the projects will be scanned and put on our school's home page.

 

ANALYSIS:

Assessment:

Authentic Student Task:

Hook:

Student Direction:

Best Use of Technology:

 

AFTER:

Grade Level: 5

Subject: Social Studies, Math, Art, Language Arts

Learner Outcomes:

Assessment Students will create a Web page to demonstrate what they have learned. They will be assessed on their ability to scan pictures and use e-mail. Each day, in small groups, they will conference with the facilitator to share their progress, ask questions, and share data gathered as well as their hypotheses. Students will journal each day sharing their progress, reflections, and next steps.

Authentic Student Task: Students will interview people who lived during the Great Depression to understand what life for a 10- to 12-year-old was like during that era. They will collaborate with other schools to create an Internet database of these real-life experiences.

Hook: Our local college professor invites our students to participate in a "Kids through History" Project. Research has shown that kids understand history best from their own age perspective. She wants us to help her find out what it was like to be a 10- to 12-year-old during the Great Depression. She invites us to create our own plan for gathering our data and create our own procedure for recording it. Her only request is that we share our learning with her when we are done so that she can include it in the book she is writing.

Student Direction: Students will be allowed to select historical figures, events or places to have as the focus of their research. Students will brainstorm the questions/topic areas that each student will use in his/her interview. They will determine who will be interviewed, with which schools they will collaborate, and which experts to contact to help them understand the events, people, and lifestyles related to this period in history. They will also create the process they will use to collect the information.

Best Use of Technology: Students will use the Internet to research and investigate their topics and to e-mail students in classrooms throughout the U.S. to invite them to collaborate on this investigation. They will contact experts with their questions and contact organizations to determine if any primary source data has been collected that might be of value in this project. The students will also have the opportunity to create online databases of information and author Web pages to explain and share their learning.

 

Proposal 2: Endangered Animals in Our State

 
BEFORE:

Grade Level: 5

Subject: Science/Art

Learner Outcomes:

Assessment: Students will be assessed on their poster and the Web page they create.

Authentic Student Task: Students will learn about the environment of Illinois by gathering facts about endangered animals native to Illinois and create an endangered animal poster. They will compile their research with others in the class to create an endangered animal database for the school district.

Hook: Students will submit their endangered animal posters to the Fifth-Grade Wildlife Poster Contest. Students this age are interested in wild animals and are very concerned about their well-being.

Student Direction: Students will select an animal from a list the teacher has created and be able to create their own poster.

Best Use of Technology: The Internet will be used to find information about the environment and endangered animals. We will create a HyperStudio stack of the class's wildlife posters.

 

ANALYSIS:

Assessment:

Authentic Student Task:

Hook:

Student Direction:

Best Use of Technology:

 

AFTER:

Grade Level: 5

Subject: Science/Language Arts/Math

Learner Outcomes:.

Assessment: Students will be assessed on their Web pages, their plan to manage the wildlife populations, and their plan to communicate their learning to the community.  Students will be assessed on their journal entries and reflections as they share what they learned through collaboration, how they analyzed the data, and the conclusions they drew based on the information they gathered.

Authentic Student Task: Students will research the problem of expanding wildlife populations in rural and suburban settings. Working with the local forest preserve rangers and other experts, students will explore the causes of this overpopulation. Students will collaborate with classes and experts in different parts of the country to discover what solutions other communities have attempted and then analyze the successes and problems. Students then will create a database of the information collected and post it to the Internet. Students will devise a plan to manage wildlife populations and materials to inform the community of the need to manage wildlife populations.

Hook: The teacher presents students with two recent newspaper articles that report on the deer and raccoon overpopulation in the region. One article explains that due to the dropping price paid for raccoon pelts, this animal is no longer being harvested, thus creating an overpopulation. The other article describes how the overgrazing in forest preserves and local woods is causing the large deer population to leave these sanctuaries. What can be done to solve this problem?

Student Direction: Students are free to frame the problem and investigate a solution to it. Students may choose from a large number of local animals to research. Students determine the framework, audience and process to solve the problem. Students will plan and design an end product of their own choice to reflect their learning.

Best Use of Technology: Students will use the Internet to research and investigate their topics. Students will work with experts via e-mail and chat software as they select their focus problem, collect and analyze data, and develop a solution plan. The students will also use e-mail and chat software as they collaborate with other classrooms. Lastly, students will post their data, plan and conclusions for others to use.