Learner Description - 2 combined classes consisting of 40 regular education students and 3 special education students.

Overview - The students will receive whole class instruction in their own classroom while receiving background information on The Revolutionary War. The students from both classes will then come together to brainstorm possible topics to research in the library and create projects that will incorporate various technological tools. Some of the forms of technology that may be used are the scanner, digital/video camera, iBook, and the Internet. The topics will vary in categories from people, places, battles, and events. A heterogeneous group including students from both classes will create each project. The students were given the opportunity to help create the rubric with the aid of the technology teacher to use for the project assessment. In the end, these groups will provide the class with a presentation, and the students as well as the teacher will grade the projects using the created rubric.

What will be taught?

Students will explore the importance of the Revolutionary War through in-depth research on a particular aspect of the war. In addition to reading the textbook in class, the students will be doing individual research on the Internet, in the school library, and the public library. The students will also learn about other aspects of the War that they did not individually research through the presentations of their peers.

 What will students do and learn?

A social studies research project was implemented for the Revolutionary War. The students received background information with direct instruction. By reading from the class textbook, the students were able to get an overview of the important people, places, and events that took place during the war. They were then able to use this information to brainstorm topics and create a project. The main strategy used for this project was the Engaged Learning approach. The students were able to determine the topic to research, means of assessment, the end product, and form their own cooperative learning groups. Here is an overview of what took place before each group began their research project:

1. Reading for background information.

2. Brainstorm categories to research

a. People

b. Places

c. Battles

d. Events

3. Determine groups

a. Combine similar categories

b. Create cooperative learning groups with students from both classes in each group

4. Determine resources (minimum of 3 with at least 1 book and 1 internet source

a. Textbook

b. Internet

c. Encyclopedia

d. Magazine

e. Book

5. Assessment/rubric

a. Writing

b. Presentation

c. Project

6. Performance assessment

a. Slide show

b. iMovie

c. Brochure using scanner

d. Movie using video camera/digital video camera 

Rationale - Purpose for the unit as a whole. The WHY questions.

Why would you teach this unit?

The Revolutionary War is part of the 5th grade curriculum, and a major event that is important to understanding our country today. It is also important that the students be able to continue to practice the important skills of being able to do research, choose the main ideas of a particular topic, and be able to present the main ideas to their peers in a creative way that utilizes technology.

Why would this qualify as an Engaged Learning unit?

This would qualify as an Engaged Learning unit because it meets the following criteria:

Vision of Learning: The students were responsible for their own learning because they were able to choose the Revolutionary War topic they researched. They also had the opportunity to choose how they were going to be assessed by helping to create a rubric for the project.

Tasks: This project was authentic because the students were able to choose topics that they had a personal interest in researching. It was also challenging and it integrated different subjects such as language arts, reading, writing, and technology.

Assessment: The students created a presentation of their topic to present to their peers. The rubric the class created had meaning for the students because they were able to refer to it throughout working on the project.

Instructional Model: This project was interactive with utilizing technology available to the students as well as generative in providing a meaningful experience to help the students remember the importance of their topic.

Learning Context: This project was a collaborative effort between groups of students. It was also knowledge building and a safe learning environment set up for valuing diversity, multiple perspectives, and strengths.

Grouping: The groups for this project were heterogeneous, equitable, and flexible with students combined from both classes in each group.

Teacher Roles: The teacher served as a facilitator, guide, and co-learner throughout the project.

Student Roles: The students were given opportunities to explore new ideas, as well as technological tools. They were able to be teachers of the information they researched to their peers. Finally, the students were producers who developed products of real use to themselves and others.

Why is technology an important component of this unit?

Each group was required to use the internet for research as well as at least one of the following forms of technology during the creation of their project: digital or video camera, scanner, or AppleWorks slideshow.

Why is this project authentic/meaningful, and challenging for students?

This project is authentic because the students created the entire project. They chose their research topic, their cooperative learning group, the project itself, and created a rubric as a means of assessment. In order to accomplish their tasks, each group had to work together to make decisions and solve any problems that arose. They were also required to determine the important facts about their topic, and present those facts to the rest of the class.

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - The WHAT questions

What new attributes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) do you expect students to gain?

Knowledge:

1. Causes of the Revolutionary War

2. Major events and battles

3. People that fought in the War

4. Results of the War

Skills and Attitudes:

1. Cooperative learning skills

2. Research skills

3. Internet skills

4. Technology skills

5. Writing skills

6. How to self-assess

7. Presentation skills

What school, district, state and national standards/benchmarks are addressed?

State Goals:

Social Science Goals: 

Goal 14- Understand political systems, with an emphasis on the United States

Goal 16- Understand Events, trends, individuals, and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States, and other nations

Goal 17- Understand world geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States

Goal 18- Understand social systems, with an emphasis on the United States

Language Arts Goals:

Goal 1- Read with Understanding and Fluency

Goal 2- Read and Understand Literature Representative of Various Societies, Eras, and Ideas 

Goal 3- Write to Communicate for a Variety of Purposes

Goal 4- Listen and Speak Effectively in a Variety of Situations.

Goal 5- Use the Language Arts to Acquire, Assess, and Communicate Information

Learning Activities - The activities required to achieve the goals.

1. Pre-reading for background information

2. Brainstorming research topics

3. Research and note-taking

4. Creating rubrics

5. Writing, editing, and proofreading

6. Group meeting, discussions, and project time

7. Presentations

8. Assessment

The How questions.

Student Assessment- Enables student and teacher to measure student's attainment of goals.

What are my scoring characteristics? (What do I want to measure? What is an important outcome of this unit?)

Scoring will be an on-going process where the teacher will be constantly evaluating the students using anecdotal notes, as well as using the student-made rubric. The students will be evaluated based on the written component of their project as well as the presentation component of the project. In addition, the students will be evaluated on effort and time management.

What will indicate that students are novices, practitioners, or experts?

Students should be able to fulfill all of the requirements listed on the rubric that was made by the students for this project. If all requirements are met, that will indicate that the students are experts on their topic. Requirements that are not met will clearly indicate practitioner or novice standing about their topic.

How will I measure and communicate student progress on the goals?

Students have created a rubric to assess the required goals. Students were encouraged many times to look over their rubric to determine what steps were still necessary to achieve the goals. 

How can students be involved in establishing goals and criteria for the assessment?

The students created a rubric with teacher guidance. The students were able to determine what was necessary to include in the rubric, as well as how the points should be distributed for different aspects of the rubric.

How will the assessments be implemented to ensure that they are generative? Seamless and ongoing? Equitable for all students? An authentic task?

Before beginning the project, the students created a rubric. Throughout the project, the students used this rubric to assess what still needed to be completed. After the project, the students graded themselves using their created rubric.

How will students demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

Students will demonstrate their knowledge and skills through two components. Each group was required to have a written component of at least 3 paragraphs. The second component was a presentation component where the students had to utilize the technology that was available to them to present their information to the rest of the class.

Management

How will you manage student work individually and in groups? - What resources will you need to do this unit?

Resources needed:

1. Social studies text book

2. Computers and iBooks

3. Scanner

4. Internet

5. Television monitor

6. VCR

7. Copy machine

8. On-line card catalog

9. Printers

10. Appleworks

11. Student supplies

12. Student resource books from the public library

How will the room(s) be arranged.

The room will be arranged the same way it always is- in table groups. Students will be able to move around the room to meet their needs when working in groups.

Where will equipment and materials be located to promote maximum use?

There are 2 computers available in my classroom and 3 computers available in the second teacher's classroom available for use by the students. In addition, we had the mobile computer lab available during social studies time when we worked on the project. The computer lab was scheduled for several days when many of the students needed to be on computers at the same time.  

Where will students need to work and how can they be accommodated? 

Students will be able to work in the two classrooms as well as the library and computer lab. Additional computer lab and library times were scheduled as needed.

How will students with special needs be helped?

The students with special needs were helped with reading, writing, and organization of their ideas. They required frequent check-ups as well as more careful monitoring during the project. There was a teacher's aide available to help these students with special needs to accomplish their goals of the project. In addition, these students were grouped heterogeneously with other students who were able to give them additional support and guidance.

Unit Evaluation

What will I need to do, be aware of, and/or gather while teaching the unit in order to answer these questions?

What was effective?

Creating the rubric at the beginning of the unit was one of the most effective parts of the project. The students then knew exactly what criteria had to be met in order to be successful with this project. Also, I found it very effective to let the students choose their topic to research. The students found it much more authentic and were challenged by being able to research something that was interesting and important to them. The students were able to take ownership of this project to create a great presentation.

What wasn't effective?

The written portion of the project was not what was expected in many cases. Some of the students did not relate their topic to the importance of the Revolutionary War as much as I had hoped.

What will I do differently next time?

Next time, I would change the rubric to reflect more specific requirements regarding the content of the written portion of the assignment. I would also like to have the students do a peer evaluation of the presentations in the future so that there is more opportunity for the students to learn from others' mistakes.