Content Standards (Colorado Academic Standards for Social Studies, Seventh Grade):
1.1 History: Seek and evaluate multiple historical sources with different points of view to investigate a historical question and to formulate and defend a thesis with evidence
2.1 Geography: Use geographic tools to gather data and make geographic inferences and predictions
2.2 Geography: Regions have different issues and perspectives
3.1 Economy: Supply and demand influence price and profit in a market economy
4.1 Civics: The different forms of government and international organizations and their influence in the world community
4.2 Civics: Compare how various nations define the rights, responsibilities and roles of citizens
ISTE NETS-S
1. Creativity and Innovation:
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
Instructional Objective(s): The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in learning about the many issues and crises facing the people of the continent of Africa and to engage them in the debate and discussion on what is currently being done and/or what could be done by the international community to help the people facing these issues. Students will be participate in multiple phases of this project including research, product creation, and group presentation and discussion; all of these phases will place a deep emphasis on using and implementing new technologies.
ACTION
Before-Class Preparation: Before attempting to discuss the major issues facing the continent of Africa, it is of critical importance that students have a good background on the physical and human geography of the region. By the time our classes attempt the African Issues Summit, we will have gone over the history of Africa as well as many of the countries’ current political, social and economic situations. Students will also have had extensive training in many of the technologies the will be using for the research, collaborative project creation and presentation phases; these technologies include but are not limited to
Date
Schedule of Lessons
Materials and Resources
Day 1
Days 2-3
Days 4-5
Days 6-7
Before we begin the initial phase of topic selection and group research, students and I will spend a day in the computer lab brainstorming and developing some of the topics which they will be focusing on for their research. Many students can already approach the topic of Africa with the vague idea that it is a place with many problems, so I hope to tap into some of their prior knowledge to begin soliciting enthusiasm and interest in the upcoming project. In the computer lab I will ask students the question, “What is the single most important issue facing Africa today?” Using the program Inspiration, students will develop web diagrams as they brainstorm all the possible answers to this question. As an entire class, we will look at a few of the commonalities between what each student came up with and then try to distill the possible topics down to 8 major issues (major issues could be things such as disease, water resources, government corruption, human rights, etc.). Once we have decided on these issues, students will then use the Global Awareness layer in Google Earth to begin preliminary research and interest development in these issues. At the end of this phase, students will choose their groups and as well as their topics.
Research Phase: Using guiding questions that will be provided by me, each group will do their best to research their chosen topic through specific websites as well as current periodicals and print media. Groups will divide up the questions and create a single online Google document which they will share with each group member as well as with me. By the end of the research phase, all answers to the guiding questions should have been found and a general argument should have been constructed in preparation for the product development phase.
Product/Presentation Development Phase:Each group will have a choice between developing either a slide show presentation or a short video podcast, each in the form of a public service announcement on their topic. Products must include all relevant research and must be persuasive with the goal of convincing the rest of the summit that this topic is the most pressing issue facing Africa today. Students creating slide shows must use their Google Docs account and share the presentation with each of their group members and with me. Students creating podcasts will use Garage Band or iMovie to mix and edit their video content.
The Summit:The final phase of the project will be for each group to present their research through their chosen media type, either a slide show presentation or a public service advertisement. Students will give their short presentation (2-4 minutes each) on their issue, and the entire project will culminate in a vote for which issue is most deserving of the world’s attention and resources based off the presentations given.
Computer with the programs Inspiration and Google Earth for each student
Computers with Internet access for Google Docs and research websites
Text resources
News and print resources
Computers with Internet access for Google Docs, Garage Band, and/or iMovie
Computer with speakers and projector
Evaluation rubrics
MONITOR
Ongoing Assessment(s):Both the research process and the product development phases will be highly collaborative, during which I will check each group’s progress to evaluate whether they are on the right track or whether they are in need of help and guidance.
Accommodations and Extensions: For students with limited abilities or without regular access to technology, I have graphic organizers which the can use to help them organize a lessened amount of information that they will be required to research. There is also a very helpful tool on the National Geographic website which goes into depth on many of the issues the groups will be researching, students may find this interesting and helpful as they begin to grapple with topics which can be both difficult and challenging to them. Students who need more of a challenge will be encouraged to chose to do more than just create a presentation on their topic, their skills can be better used through the creation of a podcast or an interactive website through which they can get their message across.
Back-up Plan:If for some reason the technology that is required to do this project is not available, students will create advertisement posters using butcher paper and markers. If time becomes an issue, the requirements for the group presentations and the summit will be significantly shortened or the summit will adopt more of a fair approach where students visit tables representing the various issues and they leave feedback in a comment journal.
EVALUATION
Peer Evaluation: Students will be assigned a group to evaluate based on how well their topics were researched, how creative the product they produced was, and how convincing their argument was in persuading the other groups at the summit to choose their issue as the most pressing issue facing Africa.
Teacher Evaluation: I will evaluate each group as a whole and each student individually using two separate rubrics. I will collaborate and share each groups’ Google Doc so that I can evaluate how much each student contributed to the research process.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
The formatting for this lesson plan did not convert when it was transferred from Google Docs to this wiki; to access and view the original document click __here__. Brian, I liked your accommodations concerning those that need more of a challenge. The website was a great idea and you may think about having them post the other students’ messages, creating a group site.
Problem-Based Learning Lesson Plan
Brian Aldridge
1.1 History: Seek and evaluate multiple historical sources with different points of view to investigate a historical question and to formulate and defend a thesis with evidence
2.1 Geography: Use geographic tools to gather data and make geographic inferences and predictions
2.2 Geography: Regions have different issues and perspectives
3.1 Economy: Supply and demand influence price and profit in a market economy
4.1 Civics: The different forms of government and international organizations and their influence in the world community
4.2 Civics: Compare how various nations define the rights, responsibilities and roles of citizens
1. Creativity and Innovation:
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
Instructional Objective(s): The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in learning about the many issues and crises facing the people of the continent of Africa and to engage them in the debate and discussion on what is currently being done and/or what could be done by the international community to help the people facing these issues. Students will be participate in multiple phases of this project including research, product creation, and group presentation and discussion; all of these phases will place a deep emphasis on using and implementing new technologies.
Days 2-3
Days 4-5
Days 6-7
Research Phase: Using guiding questions that will be provided by me, each group will do their best to research their chosen topic through specific websites as well as current periodicals and print media. Groups will divide up the questions and create a single online Google document which they will share with each group member as well as with me. By the end of the research phase, all answers to the guiding questions should have been found and a general argument should have been constructed in preparation for the product development phase.
Product/Presentation Development Phase: Each group will have a choice between developing either a slide show presentation or a short video podcast, each in the form of a public service announcement on their topic. Products must include all relevant research and must be persuasive with the goal of convincing the rest of the summit that this topic is the most pressing issue facing Africa today. Students creating slide shows must use their Google Docs account and share the presentation with each of their group members and with me. Students creating podcasts will use Garage Band or iMovie to mix and edit their video content.
The Summit: The final phase of the project will be for each group to present their research through their chosen media type, either a slide show presentation or a public service advertisement. Students will give their short presentation (2-4 minutes each) on their issue, and the entire project will culminate in a vote for which issue is most deserving of the world’s attention and resources based off the presentations given.
Computers with Internet access for Google Docs and research websites
Text resources
News and print resources
Computers with Internet access for Google Docs, Garage Band, and/or iMovie
Computer with speakers and projector
Evaluation rubrics
Accommodations and Extensions: For students with limited abilities or without regular access to technology, I have graphic organizers which the can use to help them organize a lessened amount of information that they will be required to research. There is also a very helpful tool on the National Geographic website which goes into depth on many of the issues the groups will be researching, students may find this interesting and helpful as they begin to grapple with topics which can be both difficult and challenging to them. Students who need more of a challenge will be encouraged to chose to do more than just create a presentation on their topic, their skills can be better used through the creation of a podcast or an interactive website through which they can get their message across.
Back-up Plan: If for some reason the technology that is required to do this project is not available, students will create advertisement posters using butcher paper and markers. If time becomes an issue, the requirements for the group presentations and the summit will be significantly shortened or the summit will adopt more of a fair approach where students visit tables representing the various issues and they leave feedback in a comment journal.
Teacher Evaluation: I will evaluate each group as a whole and each student individually using two separate rubrics. I will collaborate and share each groups’ Google Doc so that I can evaluate how much each student contributed to the research process.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES. (n.d.). Colorado Department of Education Home Page. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/OSA/standards/hist.htm
STE | NETS Student Standards 2007. (n.d.). International Society for Technology in Education | Home. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from __http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx__
Note:
The formatting for this lesson plan did not convert when it was transferred from Google Docs to this wiki; to access and view the original document click __here__.
Brian,
I liked your accommodations concerning those that need more of a challenge. The website was a great idea and you may think about having them post the other students’ messages, creating a group site.