Return to my page 

~comments in green ~jk

Crista's Project Plan

General Information:

• Teacher(s) name: Crista Lawson 

   

• Contact info: lawson@4j.lane.edu

   

• Title: Kids Decision

   

• Grade Level(s): 5

   

• Content Area: Social Studies

   

• Time line: 8 weeks

   

   

Standards (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills, strategies do you expect students to gain?):

• Content Standards:

  Social Sciences: Civics and Government

  • Understand participatory responsibilities of citizens in the community (voluntarism) and in the political process (becoming informed about public issues and candidates, joining political parties/interest groups/associations, communicating with public officials, voting, influencing lawmaking through such processes as petitions/initiatives)
  • Understand the roles of the three branches of government and explain how their powers are distributed and shared

   

• NETS*S Standards (21st C. Skills):

  Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

  • communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
  • contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
   

  Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

  • locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

   

  Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:
  • collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

Overview (a short summary or project sketch including assignment or expected or possible products):

My fifth grade students study the branches of government and citizenship/voting. Since this is a presidential election year, I want to expand this unit so students can compare, and analyze political stances.  Students are going to form news reporting teams. Each groups will be able to choose a piece of election/government to explore and report on, examples: history of voting, presidential history, functions of government, importance of voting, campaign commercials, local voice (where is your voice heard). Students will report findings through a news broadcast using video, podcast, web page. Other students from around the United States will share and collaborate their research findings with my students on wikispaces. As well as conduct straw polls on survey monkey to compare and contrast our community/state with other classrooms. We are hoping to have representation from all regions. Students will explore current candidates and issues. As a culminating activity, students decide which political candidate they wish to vote for in a mock election. It seems the project culminates with analysis of voting patterns - class to other student voters, class to city and state and country.

Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students care or want to know about the topic? What are some questions or activities you can use to get students thinking about the topic or to generate interest about the topic? What questions can you ask students to help them focus on important aspects of the topic?): 

How do you know if you live in a democracy? What is democracy? What are the origins of democracy? What is government? What is the function of government? Why is voting important? In the past, who didn’t have the oppportunity to vote?  [or- How has the right to vote changed over time?]

Assessment Plan (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to generate new knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative assessment)? How will you assess what they produce or do?):

Before project begins:

-a class discussion about essential questions surrounding this project.

-complete a KWL chart

-journaling: Students will use a composition book to record questions and ideas about the essential questions.

 great

Students work on projects and complete tasks:

-project rubric: Students will refer to their rubric throughout their work on this  project

-questioning: Students will use a composition book to record research, write down questions, and ideas

-conferences: I will meet bi-weekly with students to discuss their projects and progress

Formative Assessment

-Daily monitoring student work

-Students will reflect on learning and discoveries on a class blog.  Topics: process? what is working? What would they do differently? is technology enhancing project. What are they learning about democracy, voting and government? What have they learned personally about democracy and government?

-Participating class discussion

Final Assessment

Students will share their learning with other students who are studying  similar topics and are a part of this democracy project.

Students will vote in an mock election and reflect on how they made their informed decision.

Resources (What do you need in order to carry out this project? Think: Human resources, material resources, technologies- How does technology support students learning? What technology tools and resources—online student tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or explain the content or allow students to interact with the content?):  

Human Resources

students and teachers from other schools, tech specialist, registered voters, politicians, government officials

Material Resources

Composition books, magazines, newspapers, books, highlighters, pencils, etc.

Technology Resources

research websites, news Web site for kids such as CCN Student, primary sources, class blog, class wiki, web 2.0 tools, survey monkey, video cameras, cameras, iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, COW

Instructional Plan

• Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning are a foundation for this lesson? How can you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students have?)

  Foundations for this learning:

  Student interests: voting, presidential election, American citizenship, freedom and rights 

   

   

  Prior Learning: knowledge of internet research, basic knowledge of government, experience with cameras, iPhoto, and class blog

   

   

  Student needs: group work experience

   

  I will assess this knowledge of these foundations through class discussions and journal reflections. Students may have difficulties finding information that is at their reading levels and to discrimanate between fact and opinion as it relates to current election information.  I'd narrow their searching with a Google Custom Search, or with Kidzui  (free) or with Nettrekker.

   

   

• Management (How and where will your students work? Classroom, lab, groups, etc?):

  Students will work in groups. Each person in the group will have a different role. They will begin each work session with a short planning/focus meeting and end each work session with a reflection. In the reflection, a rubric will help students assess their performance for each group work session. Great. here's one sample. Students will access their calendar to stay on track during research process and see what deadlines they need to meet. Group work will happen in the classroom where students have access to laptops and various resource materials. A small portion of this project will be completed in the computer lab.

   

• Instruction and Activities (What instructional practices will you use with this lesson? How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your role? What are the students' roles in the lesson? How can the technology support your teaching? What engaged and worthwhile learning activities and tasks will your students complete? How will they build knowledge and skills?):

  Instructional Practices: jigsaw, whole group, mini lessons,Think Pair Share, conferencing, small group work, teacher modeling

   

  Teacher role: facilitate learning and class discussions, help students stay on timeline, provide resources and answer questions, assessing

   

  Students' roles: learners as well as teachers, fulfill their specific group role, complete assigned tasks and participate in group discussions

  Technology: assessment, reasearch, modeling, collaboration

  Activites: KWL, journaling, conferencing, write reflections, explore current candidates and issues, discussions, conduct and analyze straw poll, mock election

  Build Knowlegde and Skills: research, group work, class discussions, teacher modeling, student sharing

   

• Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various learning styles and abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others? How will you provide extensions and opportunities for enrichment?  What assistive technologies will you need to provide?):

  Teach through different learning styles, students brings strength to their group work (ie. if good at technology that is the group role),

  Learn independently: teach calendar, self evaluation, time management skills. SUPER.

   

  Learn with others: peers reviews, reflection on group work and a rubric, problem solving skills

  Enrichment: explore a topic more in depth, bring in more/different technology, be an expert in some area (ie. technology, math (graphing, analyzing data), etc.)  SUPER- Keep having them talking at home, bringing in ideas. Oh, the places you'll go.

   

   

   

Closure and Reflection: (What lessons did you learn? What can you do better next time?  What went well and why?  What did not go well and why? How would you approach this project differently?  Ideas from the NCRTEC lesson plan:TBA in November

• In what ways was this project effective?

• What evidence do you have for your conclusion?

• How would you change this project for teaching it again?

• What did you observe your students doing and learning?

• Did your students find the project meaningful and worth completing?

   

  This looks great, very thorough even though there are some 'unknowns'. I can see some discrete lessons to be taught that you won't recognize until you assess prior knowledge.  If kids come away knowing a bit about the electoral process and rights and responsibilities of voters, you'll have done more for their civic education than they may get in their LIVES. I feel like I got you into the whole collaborating classrooms thing, so let me help with that.

 Create your own educational wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS