Subject and Level - Literacy, Social Studies, and Technology-- Second Grade

Learner Description - This project will be implemented by a second grade class of 19 students with a wide range of literacy skills. A large portion of the class receives additional reading support through the Title I program. A number of students also receive additional support in the following areas: ESL, Speech & Language, and Social Work. Five children come from homes where another language is spoken

Overview:Students will showcase important employees of Ross School. The children will learn how to conduct an interview. They will be involved in brainstorming, researching, and deciding on interview questions, interviewing the individuals, and developing a presentation to share this information.

What will be taught? literacy skills, interview skills, letter writing, expository writing, researching, use of technological skills such as the digital camera, digital video camera, tape recorder, and word processing

How will it be taught? In large and small groups

Rationale

Why would you teach this unit?

To develop researching skills, interviewing skills, note taking skills, improve expository writing skills, provide opportunities for students to work cooperatively with their peers, and provide opportunities to use technology

To meet the following state goal requirements:

State Goal 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes

State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations

State Goal 5: Use language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information

State Goal 18B: Understand the roles and interactions of individuals and groups in society

Why would this qualify as an engaged learning unit?

The children were presented with the problem of how to inform the public about the people who help to make Ross School run efficiently. They researched jobs, brainstormed ideas and interview questions, formed interest groups, and worked collaboratively to develop presentations to share their information. Rubrics were student generated and assessed context, cooperative work, and presentation skills. The teacher acted as a facilitator by modeling, mediating, encouraging, and guiding when needed.

The following Engaged Learning Indicators are addressed:

• The student is responsible for learning, energized by learning, and learning is collaborative.
• Tasks are authentic, challenging, and multidisciplinary.
• Assessment is performance based, generative, and equitable.
• The instructional model is interactive and generative.
• The learning context is collaborative and emphatic.
• The grouping is heterogeneous, equitable, and flexible.
• The teacher is a facilitator, guide and co-learner/co-investigator.
• The students are explorers, teachers, and producers.

Why is technology an important component of this unit? -

The students will use a variety of technological tools for their research and presentations. Possible uses of technology include: use of internet to research, digital camera, video cameras, tape recorder, scanner, use of AppleWorks

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

The students will be challenged to educate others about the people who help make Ross School run efficiently. They will be engaged in authentic tasks as they research jobs and prepare their final presentations. The students will practice and improve their literacy skills as they read, discuss, and write to inform other students at Ross School about the important employees at Ross. They will choose the mode of their final presentation.

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - 

What new knowledge and skills do you expect students to gain?

Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the occupations that they research. They will improve their researching and note taking skills, and improve their ability to communicate written and oral information. They will become more familiar with various aspects of AppleWorks, using the digital camera, tape recorder, and video camera.

Students will gain experience working cooperatively in a small group, making decisions about their projects, choosing tasks, and problem solving.

The following state goals are addressed:

State Goal 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes

• A. Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and structure.
• B. Compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.
• C. Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a variety of purposes.

State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations

• A. Listen effectively in formal and informal situations.
• B. Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

State Goal 5: Use language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information

• A. Locate, organize, and use information from various sources to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas.
• B. Analyze and evaluate information acquired from various sources.
• C. Apply acquired information, concepts, and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.

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

• B. Understand the roles and interactions of individuals and groups in society.

Learning activities -

General interviewing skills: Students brainstormed general questions and practiced interviewing skills by interviewing their parents about their occupations.

Research: Students researched the occupations of the Ross employees.

Question writing: Students used the information they learned in their research to create interview questions specific to each employee's job.

Letter writing: Students composed letters to request interviews.

Interviewing skills: Students interviewed the Ross employees.

Note taking: Students took notes during the interviews.

Presentation planning: Students discovered during their research that our school library did not have any books which specifically addressed the occupations that they were researching. As a result, they decided to write a series of occupation books and place them in the Ross School Library for others to read.

Expository writing: Students wrote books about each occupation.

Public Presentation: Students presented their final books to

the Betsy Ross Library, to their parents, to District 23 Staff, and to the School Board.

Student Assessment:

What are my scoring characteristics?

Students created a rubric that was used to assess the quality of an interview. They also created a rubric of components that should be included in the production of their occupation book.

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

The student created rubric and their final product are indicators.

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

Students will evaluate their participation, preparation, and performance on this project by completing self evaluation and peer evaluation sheets.

Communication between teacher and students will be ongoing throughout this project.

Teacher will regularly conference with students to assess progress

and set goals.

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

Students created the rubric for evaluation. The assessments are equitable for all students because they helped create the assessment tool and knew what was expected of them. Students were able to choose a form of presentation with which they felt they would be successful.

Resources:

Books on interviewing skills, video on interviewing, books about occupations, computers, printers, internet, digital camera, video camera, scanner, employees

Management:

Students were allowed to find their own work space in the classroom or hallway. The work space varied depending upon their spatial and technological needs. Computers were clustered for use by each group. Students with special needs were aided by their peers, teachers, and parents.

Unit Evaluation:

What was effective?

The students improved their interviewing skills, note taking skills, researching skills, and expository writing skills.

The students became knowledgeable about specific occupations and how important the specific jobs are to the daily operation of Betsy Ross School.

The students improved their ability to work cooperatively in small and large groups.

The students improved their expertise in using technological tools.

The students improved their ability to communicate oral and written information.

What wasn't effective?/What will I do differently next time?

It would have been helpful to have more than two adults to facilitate the various groups.

The project required more time than was expected, due to the wealth and depth of information that the students acquired, and the type of final project that they chose.

I would not have spread the project out over as long a time period.