Academic Challenge

Mary Magnusson

The Backstory for Academic Challenge-- Citizenship

I teach a course for freshmen called Citizens in a Global Society. This is an interdisciplinary course with a social studies and English teacher. We begin this course taking a look at the nature of citizenship: What are the duties and responsibilities of citizens? What does it mean to be a good citizen? What are examples of citizenship in our school, your town, our state, our country? How does one become a citizen of the United States? Why would someone want to become a citizen of the United States?

Since this is the first unit of the year, my students are inexperienced in the world of high school, with me and my co-teacher, and with their fellow students, some of whom are new to Sanborn. It will be important in this first challenge to scaffold it for these layers of inexperience. In addition, challenges are new to these students, since there are not many teachers at the elementary or middle school level who use any type of challenges in their classrooms.

The challenge I’ve created will hopefully allow them to answer all of the above essential questions. In the past we’ve assigned reading from the textbook, given them the citizenship test, given out worksheets. The knowledge of citizenship has largely come from the teachers. Now, I want my students to investigate the knowledge collaboratively, most likely in groups of three since I will have 30 students in each class. Also, I want them to begin to set the standard for self-direction and organization as learners.

CITIZENSHIP

Introduction: There is a range of opinions about Immigration. Many United States residents believe others have the right to come live in the US, the land of opportunity, and live the American Dream. Many US residents believe the US has too many immigrants and our country is becoming overcrowded. Still, others are in the middle and can’t reach a decision. Where do you stand on this continuum? This challenge will help you understand the meaning of citizenship and what it means to become a citizen.

Product: Your group will be creating a mural about citizenship.

Process: Your mural will need to answer the following questions about citizenship.

1. What are the duties and responsibilities of citizens?

2. What does it mean to be a good citizen?

3. What are examples of good citizens in our school, your town, our state, our country? 4. How does one become a citizen of the United States?

5. Why would someone want to become a citizen of the United States?

There will be resources available in class for you to find answers to these questions. It will be up to your group to decide if additional resources need to be sought outside of class. Make sure that you document the resources you use.

This assignment will be due at 2:00 on Friday. Therefore, at the end of class today, your group will need to give me an outline of the mural you will be creating. Be thinking about how your mural will graphically and with words, represent the answers to the above questions? In coming up with this outline, you will have to decide on how you want to find the answers to these questions and how you want this mural to look?

Assessment: At the completion of this challenge you will write a reflection in which you assess your personal contribution as a member of your group. Be thinking about how you contributed ideas, took responsibility for your share of the work, and treated others with respect. Your mural will be assessed through the rubric and quality criteria we will create as a class.

CENSORSHIP MURAL

Name:

Outstanding / Satisfactory / Needs Improvement / Self Evaluation / Teacher Evaluation
Main Ideas / Mural has a clear title which gives specific information about the main ideas of citizenship.
(3 points) / Mural has a title that gives some information about the main idea of citizenship.
(2 points) / Mural is missing a title or statement of main idea.
(1 point)
Details from Research / Mural includes all details about citizenship and has clear labels, phrases, or sentence descriptions..
(5 points) / Mural includes most details about citizenship and has clear labels or phrases.
(3 points) / Mural includes a few details about citizenship using labels or phrases.
(1 point)
Effectiveness of Poster / Mural gives others a thorough understanding of citizenship with specific examples or illustrations.
(5 points) / Mural gives others a solid understanding of citizenship.
(3 points) / Mural gives others a general understanding of citizenship.
(1 point)
Quality of Poster / Mural includes illustrations and labels. Content of mural is edited for spelling and punctuation and has no errors.
(3 points) / Mural includes illustrations and labels. Content of mural is edited for spelling and punctuation and has less than 3 errors.
(2 points) / Mural includes illustrations and labels. Content of mural is not edited for spelling and punctuation and more than 3 errors.
(1 point)
Total Score:

Handwriting Score: O / S / N
Overall Appearance: O / S / N

Comments:

COLLABORATION CHECKLIST

For years, you have been working cooperatively in school. To cooperate means that you work together and get along. Collaboration is when you are investing in group goals and sharing a group vision. You are sharing your abilities and talents with your group in reaching a common goal. In collaborative work, you have to communicate well with each other and understand what your role will be in that group.

For our work in this class, you will be assessing how well you collaborate on different assignments. For each of the collaborative characteristics on this checklist, you will need to assess your self by a /+ , / , or /- (checks). You can see that there is a column for you, and a classmate, and teacher to assess you on each of these characteristics.

Date______Assignment______

COLLABORATIVE CHARACTERISICSelfClassmateTeacher Comments

1. Contributed to group discussions ______

2. Contributed to work on product______

3. Valued group members ideas______

4. Engaged fully in collaboration______

5. Defended your ideas______

6. Fully invested in the work______

(not just going along with it)

7. Able to put aside personal agendas to work

towards common goal______

8. Able to work out conflicts in group______

9. Take advantage of group member’s

strengths to maximize group goal______

Additional Comments