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PROJECT TASK LIST
BOAT WEEK

PROJECT

OVERVIEW

LEARNING

OBJECTIVES

PROJECT

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TASK LIST

PROJECT OVERVIEW: Description of project/unit. Try to construct a simple overview, for an audience including students and parents, that provides a summary outlining the activities, expectations, and "Big Ideas" for the project/unit.  The overview should not be detailed to the point that it overlaps into other sections of the Theme Module Design.  Just highlight the key ingredients of the project and try to generate excitement about getting started.  Encourage support from parents and include the URL (Web address) for the Theme Module so that parents and students will be encouraged to access the information and resources you have aligned to support the project/unit.  Let them know that examples of student work will be published in the Student Artifacts section (Students must have an Online Publishing Agreement on file before their work can be published to the Web.)

Consider constructing the overview in letter or outline form.  It should be a printable document that you go over with students at the start of the project/unit.  Have students take a printed copy home to share with parents or mail the document directly to parents. Linking it to the Project Module Toolbar will allow students or parents to access the document throughout the project or obtain an additional copy if the original printed copy is lost.

Linking project overviews into the calendar on your grade-level main page is a good practice.  It offers an additional access point for parents who use the Website to be informed of what their child is engaged with in your class. You could also have a link on the calendar (at the start of the project/unit) that takes viewers directly to the Theme Module Toolbar.  This would direct access to all online resources associated with the project/unit.

 

Tools: Microsoft Word, Flashpaper, PDF, Online Calendar.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: The essence of what you intend for students to learn through various tasks during the project/unit. These should prompt students to investigate, contrast, and synthesize information by engaging in the tasks.  These tasks should be constructed to help students meet specific curriculum standards

 

Reminders about Essential Questions:

1. Frame your questions in "kid friendly" language. Make them engaging and thought provoking.
2. Design questions that reflect the standards and "big ideas" of your content area.
3. Write essential questions with "how" or "why" instead of "what."
4. Sequence your questions so they lead naturally from one to another.
5. Post these questions in your room as a learning focus for your students.

6. If a question is too specific, or could be answered with a few words or a sentence, they are probably not essential questions.

Be creative in how you initially engage students with the project's Essential questions.  "You only get one chance to make a first impression." ... try to imprint these Big Ideas into student's mind!  Often, as adults we take for granted the evident importance of certain ideas, but students may never have considered these questions before.  It is unlikely they have any experience with formal thought about them... and why you have 20 kids looking at you in class.

Example: Show a PowerPoint that has a slide for each Essential question... have it running when they enter the class the first day of the project/unit.  Ask them to write down one subsidiary question of the Essential Questions... a question that thinking about the Essential question makes them want to ask.

Example: Place each Essential question with a thought provoking image and ask students to generate two subsidiary questions that, if answered, would help justify their answer to the Essential question:

What invention has hade the greatest impact on mankind?

Questions that relate to the Essential question:

1.

 

2.

Construct Essential questions in a format that students can record their initial thinking at the start of the project/unit and then return to reflect on changes in their thinking at the end of the project/unit on each question.

Construct the Essential questions in a visual organizer (e.g. Inspiration) and as a class have students brainstorm subsidiary questions that relate to the Essential questions. Record and post to help define investigations students should pursue.

Tools: Microsoft Word, Flashpaper, PDF, PowerPoint, Inspiration

 

PROJECT RESOURCES:

STUDENT ARTIFACTS:

TASK LIST: