As a teacher, i hope to inspire and bring to the classroom a new meaning on how we look at the world, the people of the past can help us change the way we live today. That learning can be creative and fun. Students should be learning independence, researching and developing questions and gaining self-assurance and knowing that branching out from being apart of the crowd and not always fitting in can be a good thing throughout the course of history. Teaching the students the efficiencys that there are time requirements, that methods in the learning world, are just a guideline... learning happens in many different lights. And history is rich, and literature brings about the history into todays light.
Introduction
During this project. Students will create a letter to a well known person from a past era. They will explore history from that time period and gain information about the person they intend their letter to go to. They will make the letter from scratch, creating what would look like as old parchment, and they will use feathered pens to make the writing experience seen more authentic, and that of the time period. They will heat up wax from a crayon and use a stamp to seal the evelope in which they will place their letter.
They will then explain to the class, the history of the person and the information they obtained about the person in which they chose to write to... George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Queen of Scots...etc. They will share with the students the broad information about the basic knowledge most people receive from the text books, and then they will share further about the other information about their interests and things in which were not put into the text books, that they found to be interesting.
Students, will generate a since of Literature, History, Social Culture of the period, and Art, and along with the independent project, they can share their ideas and help other students work productively on their projects as well.
Students will be graded on how well they work, how much thought and effort went into their projects, and how much research and information they were able to receive and educate the other students. The questions they obtain in their search, and be able to answer a personal opinion question at the end... "If that person was bring forward into the present day, what do you think their role or status would be in this era? Would it be the same, or would if be different?"
Task
The task within this topic is to have students work Independently and be able to obtain research themselves, using multiple resources. They will inquire about the past eras, and people in which they are researching. The culture and differences of the time then, and the present day that we live in. The students will ontain a grasp of how our society came to come about, and the people in which shaped it, or made a contribution to the world we live in today.
Students will be writing a letter to a famous or well known person from another era of the past. They will explore the text, web, and other refereneces that obtain information on the person. They will encounter information about the time and the location that the person lived in, the people they were surrounded by, the challenges that those people had to face and overcome, and the most important contributions they left behind to be remembered by.
Students will gain a moral and a sense of value within the society that we live in today. That the changes within the past made the world we live in today, that the challenges they faced years ago are still connected to the challenges we face throughout our society and culture today. Leaving the students to question even further what they can do to or would have done back then if they were to face those challenges and what they can do today to help decrease the challenges they see.
In a letter that the students will create they will express their feelings to the person of their choice. They will make it personal, give the person advice, admiration, thoughts, or tell them about how the choice of the persons decision affected the students today in the present time for the better or worse and why.
The students will then inform the class about what they learned on the person, culture of the time period, and interesting facts they already knew about the person and knew information that they learned. They will seal and send the letters in a time capsel box for a later date assignment on freezing time and being remembererd.
Students will answer a question for the final assessment on what they learned and they will need to varify and clearly state why they feel this way, with supporting evidence on their research and information they obtained.
Process
1. Students will choose a famous person from another era.
2. They will need to make sure they have the materials needed for this project including: White paper, a paint-brush, ink, a feather, crayons, a stamp, use of the web, textbooks and reading materials on the person of research, coffee, and hot water.
3. Students will reseach the person of their choice and obtain enough information and materials required to present and write their letter. Using the site to find the person of their choice:
http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-influential-people-of-a…
4. Students will make the parchment of paper to write the letter. Using the paintbrushes, coffee, hot water, and white paper. They will tear the sides of the paper, and they will paint the coffee to stain the paper an authentic look to their letter. Once dried they will use the ink wells and the feather to write the letters. Then they will fold the letters in which they created, heat up the wax from the crayons and have it drip onto the fold of the parchment letters. They will then use their stamps to seal the letter.
5. They will present to the class their handwritten letter that they had sealed, on their final hard copy draft, they will also present all the information and research about the person they reseached.
6. The students will then answer the final question to their assessment. And they will be graded on the material and effort put forth into the project, how they spent their time, the material and research they found, their presentation, and their answers and creativity they used throughout the project.
7. Their peers in the classroom will also be evaluating the presenter, and writing down notes and information learned about the projects of their peers, and grading them on their projects and creativity, and the amount of information they were able to ontain throughout their project, and how clearly they presented the presentation to the class.
Evaluation
Evaluation Rubric
| Beginning | Developing | Accomplished | Score | |
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Students Work |
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Visual |
0 points There are few or no graphic elements. No variation in layout.
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2 points Graphic elements sometimes, but not always, contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships. There is some variation in type size, color, and layout.
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4 points Appropriate visual connections that contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships. Differences in type size and/or color are used well and consistently.
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| Navigation & Flow |
0 points Getting through the lesson is confusing and unconventional. |
2 points There are a few places where the learner can get lost when communicating the students project |
4 points Navigation is seamless. It is always clear to the learner what all the pieces are and how to get to them. |
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| Mechanical |
0 points missing images, badly sized tables, misspellings and/or grammatical errors. |
1 point misplaced or missing images, badly sized tables, misspellings and/or grammatical errors. |
2 points No mechanical problems noted.
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Research |
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Information about the person being reseached |
0 points The introduction is purely factual, with no appeal to relevance or social importance
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1 point The material relates somewhat to the learner's topic and describes a compelling question or problem. |
2 points The research draws the topic and all the information is used to help the lesson by relating to the learner's interests or goals and/or engagingly describing a compelling question or problem. |
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Cognitive Effectiveness of the Introduction |
0 points The introduction doesn't prepare the reader for what is to come, or build on what the learner already knows. |
1 point The introduction makes some reference to learner's prior knowledge and previews to some extent what the lesson is about. |
2 points The introduction builds on learner's prior knowledge and effectively prepares the learner by foreshadowing what the lesson is about. |
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Task |
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Task |
0 points The task is not related to standards. |
2 point The task is referenced to standards but is not clearly connected to what students must know and be able to do to achieve proficiency of those standards. |
4 points The task is referenced to standards and is clearly connected to what students must know and be able to do to achieve proficiency of those standards. |
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Cognitive Level of the Task |
0 points Task requires simply comprehending or retelling of information found on web pages and answering factual questions. |
3 points Task is doable but is limited in its significance to students' lives. The task requires analysis of information and/or putting together information from several sources. |
6 points Task is doable and engaging, and comprehendable. The task requires synthesis of multiple sources of information, and/or taking a position, and/or going beyond the data given and making a generalization or creative product.
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Process (The process is the step-by-step description of how students will accomplish the task.) |
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Clarity of Process the student goes through |
0 points Time and work management is poor. |
2 points Some directions are not taken and time is not used effectively. |
4 points Time is used effectively and the directions were completely followed. |
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Process |
0 points Did not finish the assignment and or did not put any effort into the assignment in following directions. |
3 points Completed the assignments but did not use time effectively, and students did not put any creativity into the project. |
Students used time well, were creative, and completed the project in a timely fashion. |
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Richness of Process |
0 points Few steps, no separate roles assigned. |
1 points Some separate tasks or roles assigned. More complex activities required. |
2 points Different roles are assigned to help students understand different perspectives and/or share responsibility in accomplishing the task. |
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Resources |
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Relevance & Quantity of Resources |
0 points Resources provided are not sufficient for students to accomplish the task.
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2 point There is some connection between the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task. Some resources don't add anything new. |
4 points There is a clear and meaningful connection between all the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task. Every resource carries its weight. |
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Quality of |
0 points Links are limited, if any reasearch was done. They lead to information that could be found in a classroom encyclopedia. |
2 points Some links carry information not ordinarily found in a classroom. |
4 points Links make excellent use of the Web's timeliness and colorfulness.
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Student Assesment |
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Clarity of Evaluation Criteria |
0 points Presentation of topic was broad and needs more work on the information to the class. |
3 points Presentation to the class was clear, but not enough information was given on independent research |
6 points Students went above and beyond the information needed for the classs, presented clearly, and other students were able to clearily obtain the material and information about the reseached person and era of the students choice.
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Total Score |
/50 |
Conclusion
The Students are going to obtain a sense of history, learning from the past, bringing about topics of todays issues into perspective, and trying to come up with ways that it created the society that we live in today, and what we can do about the issues we face today. They will learn literature, in which the culture of the time on the person they are researching. Such as the way they dressed, spoke, write, and their moral and ethical values of the time.
The aspect of this project is to try and deepen the roots of the American culture, and the history on which it comes from. To show that the people that the students are researching are the same people that stood out against all odds, and other beliefs, and spoke against the community on topics in which they new morally they belived to be right. How their Independence and vioce changed society, and how the students themselves need to raise their own questions and voices to things that they dont understand. That they need to question things that they do not know the answer too. Otherwise, they will be a product of a never changing society, in which growth and outcome are kept at a time still. Students need to know that Independence or being different is not always a bad thing, and that actions have conciquences. That letters can be a good output to one another, other than technology to communicate, and that things of the past will always come in a loop- like that of the fashion world, what happens as a trend one year, will wait a decade and then be back in style.
Credits
Reference Page: