Teacher(s) Name: Mrs. Coleman
School: Brookland MS
Grade Level(s): Grade 8
Content Area(s): US History
Lesson Summary
In this lesson students choose a topic from World History, prehistory through the Renaissance. This could be a person, place, thing, or event. Students then conducted research using a KWL chart and wrote an article about their topic. Using Microsoft Publisher, they developed at two page magazine page that incorporated their research and images. Those pages were then combined by the teacher to create “The Medieval Times Dispatch” magazine.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating:Ideal – Explanation: The teacher gives students the opportunity to choose their own topic of interest, create research questions, and conduct their research in order to answer their self generated questions.
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Developing – Explanation: While this is an independent assignment, students have the ability to communicate with the teacher, both in class and out, in their google doc with any questions they have.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Because students are required to create their own questions, they really have to think critically about what they don’t know. They have to generate questions based on what they think could be important and then re-evaluate to see if they have enough pertinent information. They also have to decide what information furthers their article and leave out that which doesn’t.
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: While students do have to utilize Microsoft Publisher to create their articles, they are free to design it in any way they wish. They are able to learn new skills (such as setting images as the background, creating textboxes, using color, formatting subtitles, etc). Every student has the ability to make their article look as unique as they do!
Student Artifact
Lesson Materials
