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Steve
Witherow
08
Project
Summary
Project Description
1. General Overview of the Proposed
Project:
American History Day 2007 – the students
will complete a project based upon this years National History Day
Theme, conflict and compromise. This project will include display
board with a thesis statement, research paper, copies of primary and
secondary sources and a conclusion. Since this is the first year of
this project and my first year teaching at this grade level,
students will all work in groups of two or three.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
The purpose of this project is to have the
students do historical research on a particular event in U. S.
History. The objective of this is for the students learn to research
primary and secondary sources on a topic and how this relates to
their understanding of U. S. History.
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in this project.
The 61 students are all 5th
grades at Canisteo Greenwood Central School.
4. U.S. History Content Area
The content of the research will be in
any period from the colonization of North America to the present
day.
5. Outline Describing Content
The content of each entry will follow
the National History Day 2008 theme – Conflict and compromise in
History and will be based on the student’s research
6. Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc.
The students will use the internet as a
research source.
7. Level of Student Involvement
Each 5th grade student with a
partner will do research, design and complete on exhibit. The
exhibits will follow the guidelines set forth by the National
History Day project.
8. Evaluation process (include students
when possible)
Students will be evaluated upon the
completion of their exhibits by a display at a school completion and
the winners will attend a regional competition.
9. Timeline: how you envision the
project being carried out between start up and conclusion
The project will begin in early November
with brainstorming sessions and research into areas of interest.
Topics will them be picked by late November and a research plan
formulated by early December. December will be spent on researching
the topic. January and February will be work writing the papers and
constructing the displays. The end of February will be the local
National History day contest and Judging, followed by the regional
competition in March
Reflection
Stephen Witherow
Canisteo-Greenwood Middle School
Canisteo-Greenwood Central School
5th grade Social Studies/ELA
Teacher
Reflection
The important thing that I have
learned is the 5th grade students can write a research
project and do a good job. They also now know that they can do the
research. This can be accomplished if they are shown how to do
research and have their work checked on a daily basis to make sure
they understand what they are expected to do and to make sure they
follow through with it.
I found that the materials that
were provided by the New York State National History Day
organization are excellent. They really guided me through the whole
process. I followed their timeline through out the entire process
and it kept me on track. The introductory lessons were excellent.,
especially the vocabulary lesson. I used it several times with other
social studies lessons.
I would change they way I
approached some things. I would start a little slower in the
beginning of the project. I had to go over some items many times to
get the students to understand what they were supposed to do,
especially the recording of notes and recording sources. I did find
that our school librarian does an excellent job with teaching how to
do bibliographies. This shortened some of the instruction I needed
to do. Once the students got the information they needed , they were
able to construct a bibliography quite easily. I also need to work
on getting students to narrow their topics. A few projects had
topics that were much too broad and they could not present enough
information to cover it completely. Many students realized their
topic was too broad and narrowed it when they were nearly done. If I
go a little slower, I may be able to prevent these problems. Many of
the students donated their project to me for use next year as a
model to others. When the students started the project this year,
many had a difficult time picturing what the projects should be.
The students started out not very
enthusiastic about they project. Once they were able to pick a
project they all in each group could agree on, their enthusiasm
grew. They were able to find information on their topic quite easily
and that helped them. I think what they enjoyed the best was being
able to get up in front of their classmates and then their parents
and explain what they learned. I think they were very proud of what
they learned and willing to do more. Several students told me they
were hoping they can do this next year and they were thinking about
projects they could do.
The instruction in my classroom
changed because it became student centered after the first few
weeks. It was adapted to what the students had problems with on the
previous day or what they needed to know for that minute.
I believe the students learned
that Social Studies can be fun to learn and is important. They
learned how to do research and find answers to questions on their
own. They also learned the writing skills necessary to pull the
research together and organize it into an essay.
Turner Reflection
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