Ms. Perez was kind enough to come in this morning to administer a lesson on essential questions. Each group was asked to write four or five essential questions related to their topic. Then, each group created an “Essential Question” page on the wiki to keep track of them and to make them public.
Two problems surfaced. One is that only one person can edit a page at any one time. So four children hoping to post four questions on one page could not do it. So, we had them take turns editing the pages. Also, we were unable to get the wiki to spell-check. So, students wrote first in Word, then spell-checked there and finally, cut and pasted into the wiki.
Also, they had forgotten how to edit and create pages, so we had to do a little review.
I’m thinking about the museums group. The other groups have easy access to information. Any thoughts?
Here are some thoughts regarding the issues you bring up:
ReplyDeleteEach group was asked to write four or five essential questions related to their topic. Then, each group created an “Essential Question” page on the wiki to keep track of them and to make them public.
It took me a while to figure this out. Then I realized you had student create new pages for their essential questions instead of putting them on their topic pages. This is fine, and most of the questions are okay. However, some of the questions are generic questions for the main topic and some of the questions are related to the subtopic. There is some confusion there.
Also, it would be nice if these essential question pages were linked to the main pages.
One is that only one person can edit a page at any one time. So four children hoping to post four questions on one page could not do it. So, we had them take turns editing the pages.
Yes, we discussed this last session. That is why I had each group work on only one computer while they created their subtopic pages.
Also, we were unable to get the wiki to spell-check. So, students wrote first in Word, then spell-checked there and finally, cut and pasted into the wiki.
The pbworks spell check is spotty, I have noticed. Having students work in word first is an excellent solution.
I’m thinking about the museums group. The other groups have easy access to information. Any thoughts
First, I'm not crazy about the choices of museums that group started with (the Museum of Natural History and the Children's Museum are fine, but the Dare Devil Museum is a strange choice.)
You can find a nice list of museums in NY State at: http://www.nyhistory.com/links/museums.htm or http://www.museumlink.com/newyork.htm.
Second, I'm not sure the essential questions this group came up with are the best for the topic. I like "What are museums" and the questions about oldest and most visited are fine (a quick search found the answers to both those questions), but I think this group will do better to write questions about their specific museums, such as "What things are there for kids to do?" and "How do you get there?"
Hope this helps. I've asked Ms. Perez to give us a double period Friday so we can catch your class up.
I have told the museums group they are going to do government instead. I did this because in every aspect of New York State history there is something about government to learn and information is accessible.
ReplyDeleteI think the questions they wrote are weak. I have given each group a question to answer for research homework tonight. Each questions relates the topics to Native Americans.
We can do the same for other aspects of history...
I will help students develop better research questions. I think taking each SS unit and applying it to their individual topics sounds like a great way to teach SS all year long.
ReplyDelete