This lesson is for : Grade 6:
Summary
After reading the novel, Shakespeare’s Secret and gathering information about the life and times of William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era through studying Shakespeare’s influence on the etymology of the English Language and a field trip to Agecroft Hall, the students analyze the research process. Within their investigation on the various types of research, the students listen to a recent NPR segment, advertising Shakespeare’s Folio Tour to begin 2016. The students are then given their task of becoming interns for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.. Using their research, students must create a marketable, digital advertisement for the Folger Library to use as part of their own marketing campaign. The goal is to make Shakespeare marketable to a newer, younger audience, sparking interest about the Folio when it passes through University of Virginia in October 2016.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: This project required students to analyze information and synthesize their new knowledge. By providing students with a broad thought, the students were able to choose parts of the Elizabethan Era that were interesting to them and apply it to modern society. Using previous knowledge of appropriate digital tools, students selected their own resources and organized their information in a variety of digital ways. The experience of creating something for the Folger library was authentic an authentic task because the company is coming to the University of Virginia in 2016.
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: A major focus of this project centered on communication and collaboration. The teacher took a major step back and facilitated a classroom where students formed their own teams, developed team norms, and decided on group roles. They used digital tools such as Mind Mup to collaborate on vision boards and wrote scripts in Google Docs and used Padlet to classify their research. After researching and creating their product, students participated in a reflection where they thought about their organization, collaboration, their final product, and a takeaway.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: The task of creating an authentic product for the Folger library provided opportunities for teams to make decisions and justify their decision making. They used the anecdotal data from Padlet to form decisions about their research.
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students did not have any parameters on the products they created. They used the knowledge they gained in their research to create new products with a contemporary twist on the Elizabethan Era. They created a wide variety of products such as movies, ActivInspire flipcharts, and cartoons. Though their products were not perfect, the students took strategic risks by using unfamiliar, newer tools such as Adobe Premiere and adding green screen effects to their videos.
Student Artifact
Lesson Materials
