Teamwork often involves a daunting assignment that is difficult for both the instructor and the students to get excited about. I suggest building a culture in your classroom of collaboration that is not usually tied to a grade so that when a group project is assigned the team experience is not foreign to anyone. For history classrooms, get students thinking about what historians do which is often researching a topic and producing something that communicates that to an audience whether that might be a website, museum display, journal article, or a TV show. Most of the time, historians do not do all the work alone and therefore work with a production group or team. A team is often more effective if each member has a defined role. The roles assigned might depend a bit on the type of project and depending on the size of a group some students might perform more than one role, but here are some of the roles you might consider.
1. Researcher-Not only locates reliable primary and secondary sources, but provides documentation of those sources for the final product.
2. Writer-Composes the text for the final product.
3. Graphics Organizer/Designer-Depending on the project and the level of your students, this person will collect images, maps, and other illustrations of the content or develop their own.
4. Director-Organizes all the text, documentation, and visual aides and develops a story board to be approved and completed by the team.
5. Editor-Edits grammar mistakes in the final product and checks for plagiarism issues.
6. Content Editor-Critically examines reliability of information in product and ensures all the key details are provided accurately.
7. Technician-Depending on the scale and complexity of the technology used in the project, one student may need to be the technical expert who brings a background in computers, AVI equipment, etc. and is responsible for any school equipment utilized and oversees use of technology in the project.
8. Producer-This is the instructor who may remain fairly hands off but should have checkpoints along the way--for instance seeing the story board and approving the production of the team. The instructor might also reject a production group's proposal outlining the specific areas that need improvement to be reconsidered.
Ideally, your students have had a chance in small ways to be these various roles on an ungraded or low stakes assignment. As a class, define the responsibilities of each role, like a job description, and the consequences for not doing the job. Be ready to answer these questions:
-Can the group fire members, and what happens then?
-How will the product be evaluated or is it their performance in their group that is evaluated?
-Do students get to form their own groups or will the instructor assign the groups?
-Will the instructor assign jobs to the students or does the group determine that?
Running production groups in your classroom takes a great deal of planning to truly be effective. However, students, particularly those who are not interested in history, will find the experience rewarding and engaging.
Showing posts with label Group Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Group Work. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Monday, December 21, 2009
Turn your class into a Museum
As I’ve said before, group projects were my least favorite type of assignment as a student, and therefore, I am reluctant to use them in my own classes. However, I think if you set parameters, provide time and a work space for the groups, and ultimately judge the students on their performance the projects can be a positive learning experience for all.
Turn your classroom, online discussion, blog, or second life space into a museum exhibit on a particular topic related to the course. For this assignment, the class will work as a whole, but be broken into teams to handle different topics of the exhibit. Each member of the teams would be responsible for a part of their section. Have the class brainstorm what should be included in the exhibit and let students sign up for the team that most interests them. For example, an exhibit on Gettysburg might include a sections on clothing, weapons, strategy, generals, soldier life, medicine, the Gettysburg Address ect. The smaller groups or teams would brainstorm and divide up even more detailed topics and develop how they will present that content to a museum audience for an interactive experience.
A face to face class might include small replicas, people dressed in the appropriate attire, posters, ect. An online classroom might have some similar products but might also include technology like blogs, wikis, U-Tube, Web 2.0 tools, ect. Encourage students to be creative and remember they are engaging all ages and knowledge levels. As a class, they organize the material, put it together, and open their exhibit to others in the school or public. One way to help prevent chaos is to assign or vote on a leader for each team that would then form a committee to be the main organizing body of the exhibit.
Before getting started select the main topic for the exhibit, find resources to get the teams started, and consider how each individual and team will be evaluated and provide that rubric to each class member. Ultimately, you maintain the role of master curator and the success or failure of the exhibit lies with you, the instructor.
What experiences have you had with group work in your history courses? Please share with us your successes and failures.
Turn your classroom, online discussion, blog, or second life space into a museum exhibit on a particular topic related to the course. For this assignment, the class will work as a whole, but be broken into teams to handle different topics of the exhibit. Each member of the teams would be responsible for a part of their section. Have the class brainstorm what should be included in the exhibit and let students sign up for the team that most interests them. For example, an exhibit on Gettysburg might include a sections on clothing, weapons, strategy, generals, soldier life, medicine, the Gettysburg Address ect. The smaller groups or teams would brainstorm and divide up even more detailed topics and develop how they will present that content to a museum audience for an interactive experience.
A face to face class might include small replicas, people dressed in the appropriate attire, posters, ect. An online classroom might have some similar products but might also include technology like blogs, wikis, U-Tube, Web 2.0 tools, ect. Encourage students to be creative and remember they are engaging all ages and knowledge levels. As a class, they organize the material, put it together, and open their exhibit to others in the school or public. One way to help prevent chaos is to assign or vote on a leader for each team that would then form a committee to be the main organizing body of the exhibit.
Before getting started select the main topic for the exhibit, find resources to get the teams started, and consider how each individual and team will be evaluated and provide that rubric to each class member. Ultimately, you maintain the role of master curator and the success or failure of the exhibit lies with you, the instructor.
What experiences have you had with group work in your history courses? Please share with us your successes and failures.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Get Engaged
How do we engage students and provide opportunities to actively experience history?
The University of California One outlines a cohesive plan at The History Project Website . Instructors “apprentice students in age-appropriate ways” to “learn to work with sources, consider different perspectives, analyze and interpret information, and marshal evidence in support of their conclusions.” This project includes a lesson plan template, a linear research method, and a sample lesson. Additionally, you’ll find here numerous image and primary source document resources including Our Documents website that houses 100 key US primary sources with images of the originals, transcripts and lessons plans. Hippocampus.org has primary source documents included in its lessons in appropriate places such as the Virginia Charter in the Jamestown Lesson.
But we’ve talked about utilizing primary sources before. I really want students to engage history. Mission Inn Museum in California is getting closer to what I am thinking of with their Hands-On History Lesson Plans and their Family Voices Project. In the Family Voices Project students are “given the task of choosing a family-related object or tradition and conducting research on their chosen subject with their families. Project artists- including a writer, a storyteller/singer, and a photographer- work with the students through numerous workshops to teach the students how to preserve their family heritages through written, oral, and visual techniques.” What a way to make history relevant to the student and a life-long mission!
The Family Voices project could be adapted to any classroom or online learning environment, but the students would become their own artists. As a group project each student could be responsible for creating a piece of the project to illustrate a tradition or historical significance of an object. A history must be able to research a topic but also be able to tell the story in a creative and interesting way so others will listen. This project certainly gets the students involved in research but also how to share their knowledge with others in dynamic ways.
Next time get ready to engage your sense of smell!
The University of California One outlines a cohesive plan at The History Project Website . Instructors “apprentice students in age-appropriate ways” to “learn to work with sources, consider different perspectives, analyze and interpret information, and marshal evidence in support of their conclusions.” This project includes a lesson plan template, a linear research method, and a sample lesson. Additionally, you’ll find here numerous image and primary source document resources including Our Documents website that houses 100 key US primary sources with images of the originals, transcripts and lessons plans. Hippocampus.org has primary source documents included in its lessons in appropriate places such as the Virginia Charter in the Jamestown Lesson.
But we’ve talked about utilizing primary sources before. I really want students to engage history. Mission Inn Museum in California is getting closer to what I am thinking of with their Hands-On History Lesson Plans and their Family Voices Project. In the Family Voices Project students are “given the task of choosing a family-related object or tradition and conducting research on their chosen subject with their families. Project artists- including a writer, a storyteller/singer, and a photographer- work with the students through numerous workshops to teach the students how to preserve their family heritages through written, oral, and visual techniques.” What a way to make history relevant to the student and a life-long mission!
The Family Voices project could be adapted to any classroom or online learning environment, but the students would become their own artists. As a group project each student could be responsible for creating a piece of the project to illustrate a tradition or historical significance of an object. A history must be able to research a topic but also be able to tell the story in a creative and interesting way so others will listen. This project certainly gets the students involved in research but also how to share their knowledge with others in dynamic ways.
Next time get ready to engage your sense of smell!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Topic of the Month: Pearl Harbor
U.S.S. Shaw exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941(National Archives, Still Picture Branch, 80-G-16871 )
Next weekend on December 7th our nation remembers the devastating attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. This attack by a fleet of six Japanese aircraft carriers propelled the United States into World War II. My students enjoy a comparison discussion of this event and the US reaction after 9/11 and the reaction of the nation.
Another assignment to teach research skills and to learn about Pearl Harbor is to have students work together in a Wiki to generate a Webliography of sources about Pearl Harbor. Encourage students to break the sources they find into categories such as Naval History, Eye Witness Accounts, Photographs, Japanese Perspective etc…As they post sources they find, require them to also include a summary of the information at the site and any concerns they may have about the integrity of the content.
To Get students started, this day that would “live in infamy” has many wonderful resources available on the web. Here are a few:
For an eye witness account
Another assignment to teach research skills and to learn about Pearl Harbor is to have students work together in a Wiki to generate a Webliography of sources about Pearl Harbor. Encourage students to break the sources they find into categories such as Naval History, Eye Witness Accounts, Photographs, Japanese Perspective etc…As they post sources they find, require them to also include a summary of the information at the site and any concerns they may have about the integrity of the content.
To Get students started, this day that would “live in infamy” has many wonderful resources available on the web. Here are a few:
For an eye witness account
US Naval History Website including eye witness accounts and key basic logistical information
And another US Naval History Website
Cool interactive map from National Geographic and numerous other resources
The National Archives Site also has many primary sources such as audio pieces of the Day of Infamy Speech
For some Critical Thinking you might also check out the Library of Congress “Man on the Street” Interviews
For more Critical Thinking consider the Japanese view of this attack. Check out this site to get started
What assignments and activities do you use to teach about this important event?
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