Summary
Students were placed in groups and assigned a European explorer to research. They investigated the explorers’ motivation, obstacles, and accomplishments. They placed their information and citations on a shared GoogleDoc. The students used their research to create a Storymap as if they were taking part of the explorer’s journey. They embedded facts and pictures into their Storymap. The map they used was a map of Holman Middle School, and placed facts in their Storymap as if Holman was the world during the Age of Exploration. Students were also taken outside and encouraged to take pictures on the Holman grounds in order to heighten the creativity and authenticity of their project. In addition, a Google Site was created housing instructions and examples and a location to embed their projects for others to view.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching: There is a vast amount of information online pertaining to each of the explorers. Students used Google Advanced Search options applied through the Research Tool in Google Docs in order to sort through this sea of information. Students also formulated purposeful questions relating to the experiences that Early Explorers might have encountered on their way to the New World. These questions helped to guide student research, as they assembled the information in order to address an authentic task.
Ideal: Students worked in self selected groups. Each group was responsible for determining group norms and setting up group member roles such as photographer, researcher, web master, cartographer & fact checker. Students had a vast number of of digital tools at their disposal to enhance communication and to assist with sharing their work with a broader audience. These tools included, but were not limited to, Google Docs, StoryBuilder, Google Drive, and Google Sites. Once the student project was complete, students reflected and evaluated the other groups’ projects in comparison to their own.
Approaching: The students were tasked with solving the problem of where key locations would situated in relation to Early exploration based on the Holman Middle School grounds. Students had to decide where these key locations would be situated in comparison to the world as a whole and each had to justify their decision making using the most appropriate digital tools.
Approaching: Creativity was not lacking in this project. Students modeled creativity and craftsmanship as witnessed in their final Storyboard projects, hereby allowing for students to create meaningful, original work. At the conclusion of this lesson, groups assessed and reflected on one another’s final products.
Student Artifact
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Contents:
- Lesson Plan
- Link to Websites
- Rubric
- Student Artifacts
