Famous American Unit

TIPC Ratings

Approaching: Students used digital tools to find resources, as well as applicable library books. They did require some teacher support to find and evaluate certain resources. They used their resources and information to apply the knowledge to their own lives/real-world situations.

Target: Groups for this project were self-directed; students chose someone to work with and they started. This really provided students with opportunities to communicate and work together in teams to create original works for their specific Famous American. The discussions the students had about their person, their ideas, their projects, and their accomplishments were much more in-depth and meaningful. Also, they shared their knowledge on our blog, so it was available for others to view. Many of the parents visited the blog to see their students’ work; and we visit it daily to discuss posts and comments. Because the students were invested in creating the final product, they figured out how to solve problems that occurred during the course of the project.

Target: In order for students to apply the information they learned about their Famous American to their own lives, students had to think outside of the box; and use higher level thinking skills. They clearly used their research and information to produce new understandings and develop and answer open-ended questions (student blog posts).

Approaching: The students definitely produced original work samples/products for this project. The groups created the multimedia component on their own with minimal teacher support. In the future, I will encourage students to use other formats to present their information – many of the groups gravitated toward Pixie, which is a program with which they are most comfortable.