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Nadine
Farrell
08 09
Project
Summary
Addison Central School District
1. General Overview of the Proposed Project:
__I will begin in the American History era of the differences
between dividing Britain and its colonies through the Revolutionary
War era. I will be assigning each child a “person” of this era.
They are “to become” that person. I will encourage them to dress up
for their presentation to the class. Their presentation will include
a first-person written essay in which they will describe the
highlights of ‘themselves.” Pictures and drawing of their era will
also be includes in their reports. The student audience will have to
try to guess who is being depicted in the report, and if the
presenter does a GOOD job, then we shall be able to figure out “who
he is.” ___
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
___Students will become familiar with the famous American and
Englishmen of the era. Since they will have to listen and guess who
is being presented, they will not only become familiar with their
person, but with all others as well.
___________________________________________________________________
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will benefit, who will
participate in this project.
_____Fifth grade students.
__________________________________________________________________
4. U.S. History Content Area
_____ “Differences Divide Britain and Its Colonies”
“The War for Independence”
5. Outline Describing Content
read 5-6
narratives from Open Court ELA Series
- assign
“people” to students
- research
- writing report
- creative,
artistic part of project
- presentations
6. Software to be used, internet materials, contacts, etc.
The students will have to research their person via the internet
and also have to gather pictures and dress of the era.
7. Level of
Student Involvement
All students
will be involved. All students will have a person to report on,
and as an audience, they will be filling in a report on the
presenter and will have to guess who it is, and supply the
reasons for their guesses.
8. Evaluation process (include students when possible)
The students will be given a rubric for their written essays and
presentations. The essays will be worth 70 points and the creative
presentations will be worth 30 points.
9. Timeline: how you envision the project being carried out
between start up and conclusion
In our ELA Reading Series (Open Court) , there is a unit which
consists of 5 narratives on this particular American History era. I
plan on reading the stories with the children in S.S. and then start
up the project.
10. Comments or Questions:
We do “Team Cup Points” for our 5th grades classes as
a competition. I am trying to think up a way to possible award team
cup points for children correctly guessing, with appropriate
reasons, when a presenter is reporting.
Reflection of “Who Am I” S.S.Project
Nadine Farrell
I am working with a wide range of student abilities and when I first
introduced this project, there were many mixed emotions. Some
students wanted there every question and concern answered at that
moment, some did not even have a clue of what I was talking about ,
and then there were some who plain didn’t even care to listen to
what I was explaining. I knew then, that I had my work cut out for
me and that this would be a lot more difficult than simply reading a
few chapters on the American Revolution from our textbooks.
To tackle some of these problems, my Special Ed Teacher helped
immensely with her students. From one class she had four students
working in one group on one character from the Revolution, and in
another class she had two groups. One boy really wanted to work on
his own “person”, while another group of four worked on a joint
project. Her results were extraordinary.
I now had two classes of regular ed students working on this
project. Since some students work so well independently and at home
with their parents, while others have no home support, and need
constant supervision, I decided to allow two weeks of class time to
complete this project. This was a good choice, as I had 100%
completion of this project by the due date. I feel this was a good
time frame used, as all felt a sense of completion. I then spent the
next three class days having the students present orally their
reports.
Since my more capable students were done sooner than most others, if
I were to do this project again, I might rethink the “person” I
assigned them. I would definitely assign them people of the era that
they are already NOT familiar with, so they would do more research
and learn something new. I came to this conclusion after speaking
with a very capable student who WAS assigned a person she had never
heard of. In asking her what she liked about this project, she
replied that she really liked learning about a NEW person. I would
also make sure that my less capable students were all assigned a
person that they already knew something about. This time around, all
the people of the era were randomly assigned.
Once I got the kids all working with their research papers and their
graphic organizers, they really WORKED hard. Very rarely were they
fooling around, as I worked with students individually. They really
seemed to like what they were doing. I did poll the students to see
what they especially liked about this project. They liked doing the
poster with pictures best. They were required to have only two
pictures with their own written captions, but the majority had four
or five pictures all with their own written captions. I had some
awesome posters and pictures turned in. Another favorable response
to what they enjoyed was that they really liked writing in the 1ST
person. They liked assuming the identity of the person. I did notice
that when the students began writing, they were writing in the 3RD
person, but after we corrected that, they really understood writing
in the 1st person, and they loved it!
I did ask the students what they did not like. They had to think
real hard to come up with something that didn’t please them. One
suggestion was that they all get to choose their people, and another
was that they get to dress up. I had thought of dressing up, but I
wanted to get the project done this first year without that aspect.
Next year, I will add that.
All in all, the students really enjoyed working on this project.
They liked it much better than reading about the Revolution and the
famous people of the era from simply a text book. I would definitely
do this project again next year.
Nadine Farrell
5th Grade Teacher
Addison Central School district
nfarrell@addisoncsd.org
S.S. Project Written Grading Guide
40 Points Total
40 Points
Excellent written report. Hardly any grammatical
mistakes. Accurate information from research. Important facts
researched and written about. Written in your own words.
30 Points
Good written report. Some grammatical mistakes. Some important facts
were omitted. Some information not as accurate as it could have
been. Mostly written in your own words.
20 Points
Written report is a little confusing. Lots of grammatical mistakes.
Information is not accurate. Important information is missing. Some
“copying” from research materials.
10Points
Report is very confusing. Many grammatical mistakes. Inaccurate
information. Important information missing. Much “copying.”
GRADING SHEET FOR “WHO AM I”
S.S. PROJECT
1.
Graphic organizer “The Life and
times of….” 20 points
2.
Written report (300
words) 40 points
3.
Oral
report
20 points
4.
Poster with 4 pictures and
captions 15 points
5.
Picture that you draw
5 points
If your projects are late, you
will lose 10 points per day.
![C:\Documents and Settings\nfarrell\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\E9GRET25\MCPE01149_0000[1].wmf](Farrell%2008%2009_files/image002.gif)  WHO
AM I – S.S. Project
You will each be assigned (to
become) a person of the Revolutionary War Era. (Keep this a secret
and do NOT tell others who you are.) You will research (via the
internet and research books) this person, learning all about him or
her. Fill in the graphic organizer entitled, “The Life and Times
of…”
Using your organizer and
notes, you are to write a 1St person essay about this
person. This essay should be no less than 300 words. In this essay,
you are writing as if you ARE that person – hence, 1St
person. For example, you will write sentences like, “I was born May
10, 1715.” You will read your completed essay aloud to the class and
we shall try to GUESS who you are. If you have written a complete,
inclusive report, and have done your research properly (given us the
important information about this person), then we SHOULD be able to
figure out who you ARE.
Using construction paper,
or poster board, find some (at least two) pictures of your person
on the internet. These pictures can be of your person engaging in
various activities of his/her famous life. You are to write
captions for each picture explaining what the picture is
illustrating. Finally, I would like you to try your hand at drawing
a sketch of your person.
HAVE FUN AND I HOPE YOU
LEARN A LOT!
Look at the attached
grading sheet.
The
Life and Times of……………………… (continued)
1.
Early Years
2.
Childhood and teenage years
3.
Adult life
4.
Why I am famous
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