Bloggers:
I hope you are all excited for our Thanksgiving break. I am so excited to just go home and relax for a bit. As you all know, we have a pretty big unit plan due for our final in Education 358. I looked at some of the models. I noticed some of the unit plans were over 60 pages long! Because we are all studying to become teachers, we ought to become familiar with this kind of work. Beside all of the work, I am actually kind of excited in creating this unit.
Since our professor suggested that we work on the unit with partner, Ashley F. and myself plan on working together. Ashley will be student teaching in a sixth grade class next semester and I am in a sixth grade class right now for my work study. With that said, we hope to create a unit aimed at a sixth grade classroom. Ashley has been in contact with his cooperating teacher, and she wants him to create a research unit where children are expected to research a topic, write an essay, and present the topic to the class. Not only will Ashley use this lesson in his classroom, I may also teach some of the lessons to my sixth graders.
Because we need to create eight lessons, each one of us will create four lessons that tie in together. We will have to conference together of course to make some smooth transition and connections. Ashley is still waiting to hear back from his cooperating teacher about what specifically she wants the project to be about.
I am confident many of you have done research projects in the intermediate and mid-level grades. I know I did! Do any of you have any suggestions about what we might do? What do you remember about your research projects in your schooling career? I am looking forward in hearing back from you all. I am sure I will blog about the unit plan later in the semester.
Carpe Diem :)
Tony, teaching how to research and present sounds like a fun challenge! You'll definitely have to address how to pick a researchable (word?) topic, how to find reliable sources, and how to format an effective presentation (whether it is a powerpoint, poster, speech, etc.).
ReplyDeleteIt would be helpful to know what kind of topics the students can research. Can they present on anything?
I believe we still have to hear more back from the cooperating teacher. Hopefully she will give us some more information.
ReplyDeleteDear Tony,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a wonderful opportunity and I am sure you are grateful for the opportunity to work with Ashley and learn how to collaborate and cooperate with others while simulatneoulsy learning how to create an effective unit plan.
I would like to reiterate what Amy said. You will need to explicitly teach students how to pick a meaningful, relevant topic, how to find valuable and reliable resources, and how to present effectively. This last aspect, in particular, should be addressed. Through my expereince at South, I watched seventh grades give presentations that could have been so much more effective if they were taught how to present and perhaps had a model of an effective presentation to base theirs off of. I definitely recommend addressing this issue in your unit.
I know you are waiting to hear more from the cooperating teacher, but I also think it would be helpful to pick a general, overarching topic that students can use to refine their specific project. In one of the articles we read for class, the author described a research unit on heroes in which students picked a specific person who was their hero to do their project on. Although "heroes" is kind of a cliche topic, I recommend reviewing that article to remind yourselves of the steps the author went through to plan and implement the research unit. Hopefully you find it helpful!
Best wishes and I look forward to seeing your unit plan progress and hearing about the final product!
Courtney B.
Hi Tony, I am glad that you and Ashley can work together on such a relevant part of the curriculum. I agree with your classmates, that one of the keys is finding a topic that is naturally relevant and allows enough flexibility for students to pursue something that interests them. When Ashley and I met, I suggested going with the cooperating teacher's suggestion that they work on something related to environmental concerns. You have a built in significance, and can take the research beyond merely reporting a problem to helping argue for solutions.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the topic itself, you should spend some significant time considering the role of technology in today's research project. Students can complete almost all steps of a research project more efficiently with smart use of digital tools. Keep me posted on your progress.