Four Documents That Rocked Our Nation – 5680

TIPC Ratings

IDEAL/TARGET – Students researched four primary documents using OneSearch or GaleSearch. Students shared their finding with their team and with their teacher using a Google doc.  Students synthesized the information gathered to produce an informative and interesting presentation that could be used by other students.  Guiding questions were given back to students via Google docs in real time. Students published their projects internet and their work can now be seen by others throughout the United States. We will be using some of the best work for SOL review at the end of the year. Students used their own project work to review for the Constitution Test.

IDEAL/TARGET –

Teams were student formed based on their choices and surveyed interest in learning how to use a particular presentation web tool. A variety of tools were presented for use. Any appropriate web tool that offered a free student account and was appropriate for school use was allowed.  Students collaborated on shared accounts for the presentation tools and on their Google doc. Some could work at home or in the library during directed study in BRIM. Students reflected on their work and on the work completed by their team members by completing both a self-evaluation and a peer evaluation. (See evaluation sheets.)

IDEAL/TARGET – Students (teams) selected the digital tool that they felt was most appropriate for creatively presenting information on the four documents. Students were tasked with taking four documents all written at different times by different authors and then making connections between those documents and the writing of the Constitution. Students discussed what their team members recorded on the Google doc.  As teams discussed their findings and developed their scripts for making their presentation they made a group decision on what should be included in their product. Students reflected on their roles as critical thinkers and problem solvers while filling out a self –evaluation and a peer evaluation.

APPROACHING – I designed a project that allowed my students to work together collaboratively on self-constructed teams. Students synthesized their research and created an authentic product that was published and shared by students within the classroom and with students on the web. Students were required to use a tool that they had never used before. No power points allowed. Students gained expertise on presentation tools that they could use throughout the year. Students demonstrated through their project that they could take what they had come to understand about the documents and then put that knowledge into a product in a creative way. No two products, out of the 60 presented were alike. Students were exposed to a wide variety of presentation tools along with a the idea that that was more than one way to both view the impact of the four documents and to present that information to an audience in an original and creative way.