Message from tsprague

[Anonymous]

Here is my other idea for curriculum development. In my English 3/4 elective courses, Thanatology (the study of death) and World Humanities (the study of culture), students end the semester's worth of work with an Exhibition Project. The Exhibition Project requires students in groups of 4-5 to research a topic (that answers the essential question of the course) and present their findings to the class. This is not a presentation, no, the students must teach the class about their topic for one class period, complete with activities for students to do, and an assessment of the class at the end of the Exhibition. Students really become the teachers in this project! I have the project broken up into small deadlines to ensure student success (otherwise, they would be too overwhelmed). To support them, I do the exhibition project myself; I complete a sample for each deadline for students to use as a model. In Thanatology, the essential question is: how do people cope with grief? I have studied Ancient Egypt and various African tribes for my "model Exhibition" in the past. Now, I would like to create a new model exhibition for Thanatology: how do Chinese people deal with grief?
In World Humanties, I have no such model exhibition: in fact, this year I used the Thanatology model with a few modest adaptations. I felt so guilty. At any rate, I can use my experience in China to create such a model exhibition, which will answer the course's essential question: what do a culture's traditions, politics, religion, folktales, and art reveal about the culture's values? its people?
Just a bit about what the students do in this project--a glimpse into the small deadlines. Students brainstorm ideas for the essential question, divide the topic among group members, then each group member finds three sources of information, brings that information back to the group to make sure that there is no overlap. Students learn note-taking skills on research, create a Works Cited, create a thesis statement that reflects the conclusion of their research, create something (an essay, a painting, a children's story) that proves their thesis, write a letter to me that explains the connection between what they've created and their thesis. (And that's just the individual work). As a group, they link their individual thesis statements into a group thesis statement that guides the group's presentation; they create activities and visuals to engage their audience; they create and grade a quiz that the class takes at the end of the presentation--this quiz serves to motivate the audience to participate in the presentation; it also teaches the group how well that they were able to teach the concepts to the class.
Wow! It's a lot of work! For each one of the steps, I create a model. I know that you think this is too much, but there is so much value in my creation of a model project. One: students say "you write too much", but invariably, they write more in response to my expectation: the model is a very clear visual of my expectations. Two: I am reminded of the difficulty involved in the project, therefore, I have more sympathy for my students. Three: I see which parts of the project need revision, or more importantly, I see how the order of the deadlines sometimes needs to be reworked. It's been a wonderful experience for me; I can't wait to create new models with what I find in China and Japan!