Native Americans
A Cooperative Unit of Study
Marking Period 1
Congratulations! You are about to embark on an adventure that will make you and your teammates our class experts on a Native tribe that will be given to you. You and your partners will research this Native American group. The bulk of this project will be done in class. You will be the experts, and will be responsible for teaching your classmates about your topic.
Part I – Research
Head to the library if you can and begin researching your Native American group.
Start combing the web, the library, and other resources for information about your topic. Bring in useful information from home that you will share with your group in class. Remember these tips when researching:
1) Be sure that your sources are valid. Joe’s Exploration World doesn’t sound valid and probably is not! Look for sites from universities, educational programs, and well-known organizations such as National Geographic.
2) NEVER copy entire websites. Read the information first! Copy only what you will use for class. Copy and paste it into your word processing program before you print it. This saves time, toner, and paper.
3) If you read a few paragraphs on any given site and you don’t understand the information given, this is not the place for you. Keep searching!
Part II – Real Estate Poster
Create a poster that describes the houses your group lived in. You will need to point out the benefits of living in this type of environment. Include descriptions of the land and the weather in the area. Demonstrate your knowledge of the climate and living conditions. When you present, you will promote the place as a wonderful place to live.
Part III – Create a Song or Rap
Borrow a tune from a familiar song, and create your own lyrics. The song should describe the daily life of your tribe including facts about their everyday activities, housing, clothing, and culture. All team members will perform the song for our class.
Part IV – Create a Menu
Pretend that a new restaurant is opening in town. This new eatery will specialize in foods eaten by the group you are researching. Create a unique menu for this restaurant that contains at least two main entrees, beverages, appetizers, and desserts! Don’t forget to name your restaurant.
Part V – Oral Presentation
Your group will be required to present all of your information as an oral presentation. Create at least one additional poster to use as an introduction to your topic. Be sure to include a map that pinpoints the part of the country your group is from. Remember, for your poster to be effective, your classmates must be able to read it from a distance. This is important!
Present all of the other components of the unit in an organized fashion. You will be graded on presentation as well as research. You will need to practice the delivery of your information. You will be given a daily grade for this project.
Most of this work will be done in class, but you are required to bring in at least one library book or information from an encyclopedia or website.
Explorer Report
Marking Period 2
Grab your ships, your crew, your treasure chests! You are about to embark on a great exploration around the world that will make you an expert on _____________________________________!
You will research this explorer. The bulk of this project will be done in class. You will be the expert, and you will be responsible for teaching your classmates about him.
Part I – Research
Begin researching your explorer. You may head to the library and look for books about your explorer, or use some of the books I have here in the classroom.
Start combing the web, the library, and other resources for information about your topic.
Remember these tips when researching:
1) Be sure that your sources are valid. Joe’s Exploration World doesn’t sound valid and probably is not! Look for sites from universities, educational programs, and well-known organizations such as National Geographic.
2) NEVER copy entire websites, this is a waste of time! Just make a list of information you find in your notebook. This will make it easier when starting your project.
3) If you read a few paragraphs on any given site and you don’t understand the information given, this is not the place for you. Keep searching!
4) Keep neat notes. Make sure that you always write down the website you are on so that you have it for your bibliography.
5) The following websites are good places to start:
Wikipedia.com
Biography.com
History.com
Ducksters.com
Allaboutexplorers.com
Smithsonian’s History Explorer
Part II – The Project
In the past, students have written a 5-paragraph informational essay about their explorer. I’ve decided this year to give you an option of how you would like to present the information you have learned…
Option 1: Five-Paragraph Essay
For this, you will be given a rubric of the expectations. Your essay will be at least 5-paragraphs long. I will look for an introduction, three informational paragraphs, and a closing. Your essay will be done in Google docs so that we can print it. You will also need to include a bibliography, which is a list of the resources you used to gather your information. This option also requires an oral presentation. For that, you will write 6 to 10 important facts on an index card or presented on your ipad, and share with the class. As an extra bonus, you may dress up as your explorer J
Option 2: Creative Activities
For this, you must choose two out of the three creative activities listed below. You will still be expected to provide typed pages, a bibliography, and an oral presentation. (See above for bibliography and oral presentation)
The three activities are:
1) Poem – Write a 16-line poem about your historical figure. You must include historical facts about your explorer. There are several types of poems you can write: AA/BB format, Formula Poems, Shape Poems, etc. Before beginning, it would be a great idea to research different types of poems so you have an idea the direction you want to go in. If you want to do a shape poem, please see me for guidance and tips.
2) Eulogy – A Eulogy is something written and read aloud at a person’s funeral by someone close to the deceased individual. For this, you will write a Eulogy that commemorates your explorer. Grammar, spelling, creativity, sentence structure, and organization are all important. Your Eulogy will be done on your ipad so that we can print it. You may pretend to be a relative to your explorer and read the Eulogy as if you were speaking at the funeral.
3) Interview – For this, you will create a scripted interview between you and your explorer. You can either pretend to travel back in time to conduct the interview, or pretend your explorer has suddenly appeared in 2018. Your interview should be typed on your ipads, contain historical facts, and it should be at least a page in length.
*Some students have expressed an interest in performing the interview. I think this is a great idea! If this interests you, please come see me. TouchCast Studio and iMovie can be used for this. I can help you with the process. A typed script is still required to turn in.
*Remember – you need to choose TWO out of the THREE creative activities.