U.S.STUDIES--3+COLONY+COLLABORATION

For the first project with Susan Elliott, the 8th grade U.S. Studies teacher, we decided to have students collaborate in three groups (representing the original three colonies: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Jamestown). Each "colony" elected a leader, and together they created a way to present certain pieces of information to the other two colonies. Susan gave them a list of requirements in Google Docs. After they collaborated in this shared document, they worked together to decide how to present their findings to the remainder of the colonists from the other two colonies.

As the presentations were made, students took notes on the information with which they were presented, but not with paper and pencil, electronically with Word Note Page. They even had a chance to interview the entire colony if the information they were seeking wasn't presented to them or was unclear in the presentation. Through this jigsaw activity that involved collaboration, creativity, and technology, students gained knowledge of all three original colonies.

They were then assessed in several ways:

 1) a short quiz on Mrs. Elliott's wiki, http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22B7E7SUXSL

2) a rubric that had two major components--knowledge tied to the State standards and knowledge tied to the NETS-S standards and a portion that tied their use and learning of technology in to the evaluation;

3) a blog wherein students expressed to Mrs. Elliott how they felt they did on the project and what they could have done differently to make the project richer;

4) and an evaluation of the members of their "colony" and each person's contribution. Students were brutally honest about themselves and their participation, contributions, and lack thereof.

 Mrs. Elliott and I reflected about how on the next project we could provide them with higher-level essential questions that involved more research and thinking--essential questions that will require them to question why and to make inferences. Currently, we are finishing up on a webquest that Mrs. Elliott constructed wherein students are doing just that. It will be completed and presented this week. Both of these PBLs are a part of formative assessment and learning will be evaluated in the summative common assessment to be given in just a few weeks.

Below, are the three presentations: 1) Massachusetts Bay "colonists" prepared an iMovie of still shots and did voiceovers giving the information that was supported by the digital pics. They even created props and costumes. They burned the finished slideshow/movie to a DVD. 2) Jamestown "colonists" wrote a rap about their colony, and performed it with background dancers. It was videotaped and then edited in iMovie and finally burned to DVD. 3) Plymouth "colonists" chose a different approach. Their presentation involved a different point of view in presenting the required information. They took the position of animals that watched the colonists arrive and voiced their answers to the questions in dialogue that each student composed. The animals and voices were created in voki.com and placed in a wiki.

#1 - IMOVIE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY "COLONISTS"

media type="file" key="Mass.Bay.mov" align="center" width="300" height="300"

#2 - IMOVIE OF STILL DIGITAL PICS PORTRAYING JAMESTOWN "COLONISTS" WITH VOICEOVERS

media type="file" key="Jamestown.mov" align="center" width="300" height="300"

#3 - ANIMALS OF THE COLONIES THOUGHTS ON THE ARRIVING COLONISTS--PLACED INTO A WIKI FOR PRESENTATION

http://plymouthcolony1.wikispaces.com/