Summary
This culminating activity helps students understand the contributions of all the Famous People we have learned. First graders selected their own groups and chose a person. In groups, students became experts on their person and discussed the facts and contributions made by their person. They used a planning document to discuss their person within their groups. Students were given a choice of digital products to record their clues about their Famous American; such as, computers, Photo Booth, Pixie, and iPads. In addition to choice, students were allotted planning and scripting time for their version of “charades.” At the completion of this lesson, students viewed each project and guessed the Famous American. Lastly, they reflected on the lesson, the process of working with a group, and made plans to make improvements for the next charades opportunity.
TIPC Ratings
Research and information fluency was not the focus of this lesson. Students were required to utilize prior knowledge to create clues about their famous person and therefore this area was not scored.
This lesson falls into the Approaching range for Communication and Collaboration.
Students worked collaboratively while discussing solutions to the proposed questions. Students were engaged in great discussion and were able to clearly share their ideas and thoughts with each other. They were also excited when their peers came up with great ideas. They also had to present their project to the class. These projects will be sent to our second grade classes and they can guess the famous people.
This lesson falls into the Approaching range for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Students had to become producers and come up with a product together to sell to their classmates (consumers). They created a project to present with the many different clues of their famous person. They had to think critically about the best way to present the information without giving their classmates the answer. In addition to coming up with clues that made sense, each group had to tell why their famous person was important. Also, students had to problem solve when they came to a disagreement during the process of creating the videos. Students had to make choices that were the best for their group and for their project.
This lesson falls into the Ideal/Target range for Creativity and Innovation. Students were extremely creative with the way they presented their information/clues about their famous people. While walking around during their planning time, students were engaged in deep discussion on which facts to choose and what they have learned about each famous person. I found the reflection piece to be fascinating. Students were able to express their thoughts about the lesson and they were able to connect this lesson the real world.
