Subject Area: Fifth Grade, Social Studies

Multidisciplinary Subject Areas: Language Arts and Technology

Project Description:

This interdisciplinary project focuses on the study of Colonial America. Students work independently or in collaborative groups as they conduct research and then create two projects: an interactive Colonial Jeopardy Game and a newspaper, both written from the perspective of someone living in the 1770's.

Students share their learning through three different venues. (1) They have a Living History Day in which they roleplay their lives as colonial figures. (2) They write clues as to their identity and post them on their webpages for the Colonial Jeopardy Game. (3) Finally, they help construct a newspaper while completing the webquest, Road to Revolution.

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Project Goals:

Students will understand and appreciate what it means to be an American.

Students will understand that:

• political, religious, and economic ideas led to the Revolution
• many colonists were willing to make sacrifices and to risk their property and lives in order to gain independence
• certain men and women played key roles in events leading to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the course of the American Revolution

Students will learn the following technology related skills:

• how to conduct research on the internet and evaluate its source
• how to construct a webpage
• how to use a PDA to take notes, beam notes to one another, and hot sync notes into a computer for final word processing

What is the responsibility of a government to its people?

What qualities are exhibited by someone perceived to be a leader?

When does one group of people have the right to impose their beliefs on another?

What does it mean to be an American?

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Real World Connections and Collaboration:

Recent world events have made it more important than ever that we help our youth understand and appreciate what it means to be American.

Student-created webpages will educate not only the student authors, but their parents, other students, and the internet community at large. Students will share what they have learned with others through our Living History Day.

Students work in cooperative heterogenous groups and sometimes homogeneous groups to accomplish the various activities. There is also collaboration between teachers, who meet on a regular basis to evalute and refine the various activities. Teachers will consult with parents, the school's principal, and the technology coordinator.

This project, Proud to be an American, will be shared through inservice trainings offered through the Santa Clara County Office of Education (Williamsburg Project) and iCUE, Silicon Valley Affiliate.

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Activities and Timeline:

Students work in cooperative, heterogeneous groups to accomplish the following:

1. Learn to use PDA's (optional)
2. Students are assigned a man or woman to study and eventually role-play. Students conduct online and offline research with both primary and secondary resources.
3. *Read various pieces of historical fiction
4. Write clues for Colonial Jeopardy (see How to Prepare for Colonial Jeopardy).
5. Create webpages for the Colonial Jeopardy Game
6. (optional) Colonial Day Simulation: tavern, millinery, militia, bakery and dancing
7. (optional) Living History Day in which students come in costume and role play the lives of the people they studied.
8. Tea Party: All fifth-graders role-play the individuals they have studied. During the Tea Party, they appear in costume and interview one another in preparation for playing the Colonial Jeopardy Game.
9. Play the game, Colonial Jeopardy. Even students from other classes who have not designed their own webpages may play the game. (See Directions for Playing the Colonial Jeopardy Game)
10. *Complete the wequest, Road to Revolution.

*Some students are also given an opportunity to work independently or with a partner(s) of similar ability in homogeneous groups. As a result of this flexible grouping, advanced and gifted learners are able to work at their own pace and utilize higher level thinking skills as they read higher level literature and complete the multimedia assignments. This use of technology offers a wide variety of opportunities for extensions and higher level thinking.

You can contact me through my e-mail account. I'll reply as soon as they free me from the pillory!

--Sharon Regner

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