This lesson is for : Grade 4,Grade 5:
Summary
There is a need to increase engagement in reading and writing for the advanced students. The teacher has the students read three books and develop a theme that is common among those books. They will then write a story with the same theme. After students write their stories they will Skype with an author and meet with marketing experts to better their stories and their marketing techniques. Finally students will market their stories and create presentations to persuade other students to “buy” their story.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students were required to choose their own group of three chapter books and synthesize the information in order to determine a connection among the three books. They then personalized this connection by including it in a story of their own. In order to effectively revise and market their stories, the students had to combine all the information they learned from the experts and display it in a way that was engaging to others.
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Developing – Explanation: Although the students had the opportunity to ask questions to John David Anderson as well as Andy Jenks and Chris OBrion, the work was done on a more individual basis. The Title I teacher communicated with the students through Google document comments, but the students did not work in collaborative groups for this project.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: The students displayed critical thinking and problem solving skills when they reflected on and revised their stories based on the comments from author John David Anderson. The students also took the advice from Andy Jenks and Chris O’Brion in order to create the most effective marketing strategies for selling their stories. This provided an authentic purpose for the students’ stories and marketing.
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: This project began with students having an existing knowledge of the fact that connections are made among books. Students also began to realize that these themes are the basis for how authors organize their books and the detail and revisions that go into this process. As the students were able to organize and synthesize their previous information with the new information they learned from the experts, the created a new product – their own story. They also devised ideas for marketing this project, with choice of the tools and resources they wanted to use.
Student Artifact
Lesson Materials
