This lesson is for : Grade 2:
Summary
I am a leader! “ Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.”- Dr. Stephen R. Covey. We are a Leader In Me school following the 7 Habits of Happy Kids. Famous American Leaders of the past and student leaders of the future are critical to the 21st century. Our class studied the contributions and characteristics of famous Americans of the past. We researched and created models of famous Americans using Children’s Engineering and a variety of digital technology. Our class incorporated the 7 Habits as they worked in self-selected groups and decided on a famous American to research. Students collaborated with their peers and shared informative presentations about their famous American on a class blog and during Leadership Day at school.
“If the famous American you researched was not influential or well-known, how would life be different today?” This was the authentic task students needed to address during this project. Students had a choice from the following programs for their final creation: Big Huge Lab’s Trading Card Creator website, Pixie Movie, or Chatterkid Movie.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students formed their own groups and selected the famous American they wanted to research. Members of the group used a variety of sources to study their famous American including non-fiction books, websites, and posters. Students collaborated together and compiled their research as well as formed questions. Students shared this information with members of their group as they designed their models using Children’s Engineering and gathered information utilizing digital technology.
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: As students worked together, they practiced the seven habits from the Leader In Me program. Conversations included phrases like “let’s be proactive …” or “did you synergize to …”. They internalized those seven habits and related them to their personal feelings of being a leader. Students empowered their own learning at the same time sent messages of “I am a leader” as they discovered the characteristics and qualities famous Americans. Using a choice of digital tools gave them a voice, opportunity to share their research and uncover leadership traits of famous Americans and themselves. Sharing their work on the class blog and during leadership day really promoted their leadership skills. Students also had the opportunity to reflect and set goals for future growth through their video reflections.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Through the Socratic Method , Children’s Engineering, and digital technology students used critical thinking and problem solving. They shared thoughts, feelings, ideas and were open-minded throughout the project. Understanding the qualities of a famous American leader , accepting the challenge to create a recognizable famous American and choosing the best digital tool gave students experience in learning to compromise and work together to create solutions. Students were actively learning as they used reasoning and logic skills to integrate solutions effectively for the authentic task: “If the famous American you researched was not influential or well-known, how would life be different today?”
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students used innovative ideas and designs to create their recognizable famous American leader in model representation and digital format. They infused their knowledge from their research into their creation and project. They explained the character traits of their famous American and used leadership skills to perform a task in digitized information and processing. Their ideas inspired one another and helped to generate new thoughts, opinions and conclusions from the beginning to the end of the project.
Lesson Materials
