Visiting Europe through Project-Based Learning

Visiting Europe through Project-Based Learning

Kim Hardwick

University of Georgia

EDIT6400

Problem Statement

The students are having difficulty describing the geography, climate, and culture of the European countries. Current instruction uses the textbook only. Students have been reading the textbook chapter, answering questions based on the reading, and taking a test. In doing so, students are not remembering the content and are doing poorly on the assessments. During instructional classroom time, students are not interested in the subject and are often off-task.

Target Audience

The students are in a sixth grade social studies class. The majority of students are reading at or above grade level. There are 19 students in the class with 8 boys and 11 girls. Four of the students are in the gifted program. Two of the students have special needs and receive support from resource teachers. The class is ethnically diverse with 42% African-American, 38% White, 14% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 2% Multi-Racial. The students have a wide range of interests and talents. As a group, they are relatively talkative and enjoy social interactions. Several of the students have traveled outside the state, but not one of them has traveled outside the country.

Instructional/Learning Model

This lesson plan based is based on the Project-Based Learning model.

Explanation of Instructional/ Learning Model

The Project-Based Learning model provides an engaging instructional approach that is student-centered and involves producing a product that is representative of a real-world task. Projects are often accomplished over several weeks providing complex tasks and meaningful activities. Project-Based Learning provides a learner-centered environment. Students are given opportunities for control and choice. This encourages more self-directed learning, authentic tasks, and increased motivation, as well. As students work in groups to research and build knowledge, they learn collaborative skills: self-regulation, how to provide feedback, and how to make decisions as a group. The culmination of all of this work is to produce something…an artifact, product, or presentation. This provides a fun way to share knowledge with others.

All Project-Based Learning activities require adequate and clear planning and process guidelines, as well as evaluation for the students. The teacher’s role is to be the facilitator to provide scaffolding, engage the learners, and provide feedback. Assessments, often rubrics, need to be provided early to define expectations for the students. It is helpful to provide both individual as well as group assessments.

Relationship of Instructional/Learning Model to Problem

The current instructional method lacks context and meaning for the students. The textbook-only instructive approach is not working to interest nor engage the students. The material is not presented in a way that makes it relevant and meaningful to them. It needs to be real-world and authentic so that they can relate to it and find meaning. Otherwise, it is simply objective facts that have no relevance to them personally. If the students are not engaged in the learning, and by the information, they do not remember the content. Furthermore, the instruction lacks problem-solving, collaboration, and real-world application. A Project-Based instructional strategy could provide all of these elements.

The social studies teacher could create a Project-Based Learning task. I think that would engage the students in a meaningful way to learn about the European countries. I think a Project would create the engaged learning experience that the teacher is looking for in the social studies unit.

The Project-Based Learning activity would include adequate and clear planning and process guidelines, as well as evaluation for the students.

Students could work in small groups of 3-4 students to research one of the European countries. This collaborative approach would provide the social experience that the class seems to enjoy. The teacher could start by bringing in a guest speaker who has traveled to Europe to share pictures and experiences with the class. This would help them to relate to Europe in a personal way. Each group would choose a European country to find out more about. They could research anything about the country (music, art, landmarks, etc…) that they want to know about. They also must find out about the country’s climate, culture, and geography. I think giving the students control and choice in their learning would provide an authentic task and a higher motivation to learn about Europe. The teacher would provide multiple resources in various formats (books, audios, travel guides, videos, globes, maps, and Internet sites). The students would choose the resources that they wanted to use in the formats that appealed to them. The teacher would interact with the groups as the facilitator to provide scaffolding, engage the learners, and provide feedback. An assessment rubric would be provided so that expectations are defined early for the students. The class could spend one month on the project. This would give adequate time to research, self-regulate, make decisions, provide feedback among the group members, and create a product to share with the class.

As the culminating task, each group would present what they learned about their country. It could be a PowerPoint show, a role play dialogue, a travel brochure, a video, or another pre-approved culminating presentation. I think this type of project (with its high degree of flexibility and student-directed learning) would be engaging and motivating for this fourth grade class. This would help the students better understand and recall information about the European countries.

Statement of Lesson Plan Objective s

Students will work in collaborative groups to research information about the physical geography, climate, and culture of a European country.

Students will create a product that demonstrates their knowledge of a country in Europe.

Students will be able to describe the geography, climate, and culture of a country in Europe in a presentation of their products.

These lesson plan objectives support the following Georgia Standards for Sixth Grade Social Studies and Language Arts.

Social Studies

Geographic Understandings

SS6G8 The student will locate selected features of Europe.

a. Locate on a world and regional political-physical map: the Danube River, Rhine River, English Channel, Mediterranean Sea, European Plain, the Alps, Pyrenees, Ural

b. Locate on a world and regional political-physical map the countries of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.

SS6G10 The student will explain the impact of location and climate on Europe.

SS6G11 The student will describe the cultural characteristics of Europe.

a. Explain the diversity of European languages as seen in a comparison of German, English, Russian, French, and Italian.

b. Describe the major religions in Europe.

Language Arts

Reading and Literature

ELA6R1 The student demonstrates comprehension and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of informational texts.

Writing

ELA6W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.

a. Uses organizational features to locate relevant information.

b. Includes researched information in different types of products.

c. Cites references.

Listening/Speaking/Viewing

ELA6LSV1 The student participates in student-to-teacher, student-to-student, and group verbal interactions.

Lesson Plan Details

Anticipated Time R equired for Projec t : 3 weeks

Materials/Resources on Europe (that you will need to gather)

? Travel brochures

? Travel guide books

? Nonfiction books

? Globes and maps

? Videos

? Social Studies Textbook

? Computers with Internet access

? Guest Speaker (someone who has traveled to Europe)

Activity Sheets Provided in this Lesson Plan

? Field Trip Planning Form

? Suggested Internet Research Sites List

? Self-Evaluation Teamwork Rubric

? Group Project Evaluation Rubric

Pre- A ctivit i es

Students have general background knowledge of Europe. They are also familiar with the Five Themes of Geography.

Overview

In this unit, students will research and learn about the climate, physical geography, and culture of selected European countries. Acting as travel agents, small groups of students will create an imaginary field trip itinerary to a selected country in Europe. The culminating activity will be to present an artifact that includes climate, geography, and culture characteristics in addition to other interesting information about the selected country.

Suggested Activities

Day 1 Opening – Setting the Stage

Discuss what it would be like to travel to Europe.

§ Has anyone gone on a trip far away? Or visited another state?

§ Has anyone ever been on a plane?

§ What if you were on a plane for hours?

§ What if you could go on a plane to Europe?

§ What would you want to do first?

Today, we have a special guest speaker who is going to share that trip with us. Introduce guest speaker. This will be a person from the school or community who has traveled to several European countries. He/she will share with the group some of the highlights from the travels. They will also bring in photos, videos, and artifacts that they collected while in Europe. This will create an exciting and authentic introduction to Europe in a personal way.

Day 2 Introducing – Setting the Expectations

Explain to students that they will be tour guides for the next several weeks. They will be assigned to a group of 3-4 students. Their group assignment is to create a field trip for their class to a country in Europe. As a group, they can decide which country they want to visit. They will have to make sure that the itinerary includes several main categories, but they can also learn about whatever interests them in addition to the required information. The required information will include climate, physical geography, and culture of the selected country. Explain to the class that they will be graded in two ways. They will be evaluated on their individual contribution to the group. They will also receive a grade as a group based on their product at the end. Hand out the evaluation rubrics. Discuss how a group must cooperate and work together. Discuss expectations of individuals and groups, as you go over the rubrics. Ensure that all questions have been answered and that the students have a clear understanding of expectation and how they will be evaluated.

Divide students into groups of 3-4. First, each group must decide on a country and submit their destination to the teacher. Every group needs to have a different country.

Days 3-10 Researching

Explain that they are now tour guides and need to plan the field trip/tour of the country. Explain that their ultimate goal will be presenting the field trip itinerary to the class. They have to produce an artifact to share as part of this presentation. This artifact can be a brochure, a PowerPoint presentation, a poster, a video, or another format approved by the teacher. Give each group a Field Trip Planning Form and Suggested Research Website List that they can refer to as they research so that they get all of the information required.

Introduce the multiple resources (listed above) with some explanation so that students have a general knowledge of the type of resources that you have available. Have students use the resources to learn about their countries and gather information.

Days 11-17 Creating Artifacts

Using the information that they have gathered, students are now ready to create a product to share. They can choose what format they would like to use for the presentation. Some ideas include video, power point show, brochure, poster, or role play. Give the students the Project Evaluation Rubric. Discuss the rubric with the class and answer questions about how they will be graded. Students should have a clear understanding of your expectation s for the presentation.

Days 18-20 Sharing : Group Presentations and Enrichment

Groups will take turns sharing their presentations. Be sure to provide time for a question/answer session after each presentation. After all of the groups have presented, a fun enrichment activity would be to vote on which country the class wants to visit. The winning country could be promoted on a bulletin board display in the classroom. You could even have a day to “visit” that country and bring in music, art, and food from the country to pretend that you are there on a trip. Since you can’t actually take your class to Europe, you can bring Europe to them.

Supplemental Information : The time period allowed may vary according to student needs. Part of the time will be spent doing research. Remaining time will be spent creating an artifact. Final week will be saved for group presentations.

Processing and Reflection

After all of your activities are complete, it is time to reflect back over the project. Guide your students in a discussion to reflect on what they have learned. Here are some possible questions:

§ What is one thing that you learned about a country in Europe?

§ What surprised you the most?

§ What are some ways that Europe is different than the United States? Or how is it similar?

§ What else would you like to learn? Any questions that you still have?

§ How was working in a group?

§ How was creating a product? How was presenting?

§ Would you choose a different format next time? If so, what would you choose?

Assessment

This lesson plan incorporates both individual and group assessments. The individual evaluation focuses on how the student performed in the group. In this case, the individual rubric is a self-evaluation tool. This encourages the student to reflect on his/her own performance. It is important that each student is encouraged to contribute to and work collaboratively with others. The teacher must discuss with the class how a group must cooperate and work together as a team. This is a very important life skill. Each group is evaluated on the final project presentation. For this assessment, every member of the group receives the same grade. Discuss expectations of individuals and groups, as you go over the rubrics. Ensure that all questions have been answered and that the students have a clear understanding of expectation and how they will be evaluated. Individual and group evaluation rubrics are provided in this lesson plan (see pages 10 and 11).

Defense of Instructional Model

Project-Based Learning supports a learner-centered environment by engaging learners in an authentic task, empowering them to make choices and construct their own learning, as well as work collaboratively with others. I think the instructional objectives in this lesson plan fit well within the general framework of Project-Based Learning. Every instructional model has challenges, and Project-Based Learning has several.

One challenge is time management. One of the strengths of this model is the amount of flexibility and student choice/control. This student control might make it hard to predict how long certain aspects of the lesson will take. A video would likely require more time to create than a poster. Students work at varying speeds, too. There is little way to determine how quickly each group will research and collect the information that they need or want on their country. This requires the teacher to be flexible with the timing of each step of the project.