I talked to the kids about how the project I have them doing is designed to prepared them for doing a History Day project in middle school. I used a Power Point presentation from middle school to show the steps of research for a History Day project and told them how I would scale down the expectations for them.
After I got done I edited the Power Point to show the elementary school expectations so I could post that version on the website--one of the kids had asked me to post the slide show, and I figured I better make it one that didn't need me explaining how I would be altering the requirements!
On the elementary page go down to social studies. You will see the "Steps of Research Projects," which is the Power Point presentation. There is the "CBA Outline" which I posted in the last newsletter. There is also the "Conflict in US History CBA" which I have NOT yet shown the class. It is a more detailed outline for how to tackle the project. I also included a handful of graphic organizers since different students appreciate different ways of organizing their thinking. Finally, I added the "Rubric for CBAs." Again, I haven't discussed that part with the class yet, but you might want to see it.
If you look on the calendar for February and March, you can see my plan for how long I think we should take to complete the CBAs. I will give time in class to work on them.
It would really help if kids brought print material with them next week relating to their topic that they can use for taking notes--books, magazine articles, newspaper articles. I don't want them using online sources yet.
Most of the students had a topic in mind by Thursday, and most checked out books from the school library this week.
You can help by taking your child to the public library to look for more books relating to their topic. They ARE allowed to ask the librarian for suggestion. It's possible they might need to request a book from another library. If you or the librarian can show them how that's done, that would be a great skill for them to learn.
Thank you! And have a great weekend!