Group Project

 

Group Project Working together using this wiki Updates Group members Proposal Questions and Obstacles Forum Dates Assessment rubric:

 

Working together using this wiki

 

Think of this wiki as a shared online whiteboard. Your entire group can share information using this wiki, making your research accessible to everyone. Play around with this wiki: Notice how you can add comments to a page, see what people have changed, and edit all the text.

 

Updates

January 30, 2008

I've added in a few new pages, one, Lesson Matrix, is designed for us to share with each other what lessons we plan on implementing, and the other is a list of Topics and Questions which we may want the students to address during the blogging forum.

 

January 8, 2008

1. The new Iran unit is back from the printer, and I will be mailing all of you copies of it. When it arrives, look through the resources and decide which lessons look most useful to implement. It would be nice if all classes did at least a few of the same lessons.

 

2. I'm now proposing we do the blogging exercise in mid to late April. Is there any one who has an issue with that? When are everyone's spring breaks?

 

(Amy) -- our break is April 18-25, but we could participate before or after the break.

 

3. I've added in Cindy's feedback to the questions, as well as some feedback from Amy. It would be great to hear from the rest of you.

 

(From Amy) Mollie, I wanted to share with you the simulation I mentioned that asked students to role play UN members deciding what to do about Iran's nuclear program. I made some small modifications to the simulation -- it was very successful in the classroom.

 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/world/iran_nuclear.html

 

Group members

 

Mollie Hackett mollie_hackett@brown.edu

Jo-Anne Hart hart@lesley.edu

Amy Sanders Amy_Sanders@yarmouth.k12.me.us

Kacey Dewing kdewing@stmarysschool.us

Cindy Alexander calexander261@hotmail.com])

Becky Gordon cbuxbaum@unm.edu

 

 

Proposal

I understand that all of you have full plates, and thus I don’t want this to be too time consuming for you. But at the same time, I would like this project to be collaborative and would love your input, especially on things you feel strongly about. Thus, I started this wiki, so everyone could weigh in with their two cents and help develop this project.

 

 

Proposed Blog Project:

 

Purpose:

• To implement and enhance instruction of the Choices’ new Iran curriculum unit.

• To facilitate civic engagement by creating an online forum for discussion of issues pertaining to Iranian history, politics, and U.S.-Iranian relations.

• To connect students with leading scholars and with other students from across the country.

 

How it would work:

Get about 3 or 4 classes from across the country to implement the Iran unit at approximately the same time during the school year, and then use a blog to enhance their learning.

The dialogue on the blog would be initiated by a scholar, who would start out by providing some context and insight for the impending discussion, and would then pose questions to the participating students. Students would then submit responses and initiate their own questions and dialogue amongst themselves. Once some discussion has taken place among students, a scholar would once again chime in and help synthesize the discussion and then pose further challenging questions.

 

The online forum would be confined to a defined period of time, perhaps 1-2 weeks.

 

 

Questions and Obstacles

 

• When will Choices be ready to host this blog?

 

(Mollie) I am working with our Director and Outreach Coordinator on this.

 

• When and in what fashion do the participating teachers currently teach about Iran during the semester?

 

(Cindy)I usually do a unit on geography, then culture, then I get into country specific units. I can move up Iran to be my first country unit (I usually do Israel/Palestine first); I usually start with the Shah, CIA assistance of his regime, and then the Iranian Revolution through present day. I use the graphic novel Persepolis in class too.

 

(Amy) I begin our unit with class time on geography (physical features, major cities, oil resources, ethnic groups); focus on Iran's modern history (last 100 years -- including the same topics that Cindy does); show a Frontline video (latest release was "Showdown with Iran," October 2007); have students do brief research on Iran's nuclear program; conduct PBS simulation Mollie mentioned above. In the past, I have also shown an Iranian film, "Children of Heaven." For reviews of Iranian films, this website may be helpful.

 

(Kacey) We are heading off on spring break and we come back on the 7th. I think I will introduce Iran today and tomorrow, before we leave for break, and then just start working through the five day plan, with the supplemental material (Choices and mine own) worked in as well. I only have 7 days of instruction that fall within the project window, so I don't know how far I will actually get at this point, but I will begin with the Constitutional Revolution lesson and continue from there.

 I'm curious how we will have our students interacting within the broader forum. I know you are waiting for our plans, in order to set this up, but I also need to know how that is going to work, so I can plan the interaction into my lessons.

I put tentative dates into the lesson matrix. I am using spring break to hammer things out more concretely. I hope this helps get everything set up.

 

• How flexible are they in changing the timing and format of instruction to fit with this project?

 

(Cindy) I still think early Feb. might be a bit early for me but I can try to have my kids ready for a more meaningful discussion by then.

 

(Amy) The plan to work together in April would work very well for me.

 

• How many scholars do we want to participate, and can we get them involved?

 

(Amy) I want to share contact information for my friend and colleague, Reza Jalali. As I mentioned on the phone, I first met Reza when he agreed to be on a council of advisors for a K-12 curriculum I wrote on the Middle East. Reza has lived in the United States for many years and is a Kurdish refugee from Iran. I am sure he can provide much more biographical information with you. He currently is working for the University of Southern Maine, is working on a MFA degree, has served on the board of Amnesty International, has been a wonderful and informative guest speaker in my Middle East class, and is genuinely interested in educating students about the Iran and the Middle East.

I want to put the two of you in touch with one another as I believe his contributions would be helpful for your blog project.

 

• Do the teachers' schedules fit with the scholars' schedules?

 

• How do we ensure that there is enough ‘meat’ to the blog to provide all students room to be fully involved in the discussion?

 

(Cindy) One observation I have from participating in online discussion groups of my own is that the quality of questions asked really matter and sometimes there is a tough balance between objective and subjective questions. Objective answers get repetitive and subjective can be so personal (my opinion blah blah blah) that there isn't always much to respond too. I wonder if there are ways to allow students to ask the scholars questions, as well as perhaps asking questions that require students to do some amount of research (perhaps into different media sources, etc) and then use the wiki as an outlet to share what they found.

 

(Amy) I'm not sure yet of the nature of the work that students will do with this project, but offering choice or options often works well in my classroom. I have tried a wiki with students doing research on different countries, and it seemed to work well to do research on a variety of topics. If the form this takes is more of a blog, we may want to give students some choice in the questions from scholars to which they respond (for instance, it's really difficult to have something original to say if you're the 25th student responding to a question).

 

 

Forum Dates

 

When should the forum take place?

Who	Preferred dates
Mollie	The tentative dates for the forum are Aprill 7-17
Jo-Anne
Amy	I am flexible. I'm teaching one Middle East class that ends in late January and starting a new section early February.
Kacey	Mid to late April would be ideal, but I'm willing to be flexible.
Cindy
Becky

 

 

Assessment rubric:

 

I’ve started to create a rubric, which assesses a few things that I think are important:

 

Area	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Content	Demonstrates a keen understanding of the topic by going beyond generalizations and consistently using accurate, specific and relevant evidence to support ideas.
Thinking	Demonstrates original thought by bringing new insights into the discussion. Thinking is analytical and reflective; entries help clarify complex ideas, draw out and interpret important pieces of information, and/or offer critical evaluation of the text and commentaries of other participants.
Language	Writing is cogent, spelling and grammar is consistently correct, and the entries maintain a formal, academic tone.
Conduct and Interaction	Demonstrates respect for fellow particpants and for the subject. Entries encourage meaningful interaction with fellow bloggers by responding to the ideas of others and by posing new questions.
Frequency	Meets or exceeds the minimum number of entries. Entries are evenly paced throughout the duration of the project.

 

 

Draft 1

Draft 2