Monday, February 1, 2010
ePals
I thought I would get the ball rolling on brainstorming for the next assignment. Michelle, thank you for setting up the google folder. It seems like we might need to tweak our project idea a little to fit in to the description. I thought we could do something where they are comparing how local resources effect local cuisine. Students could research what resources are widely available and how they effect what they eat, and then compare with students in other areas. I'm not sure if this would work, but it's all I have right now. I wasn't sure how we could take the idea we started with and have students communicate with students in other areas. Anyone else have any ideas?
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I like the idea where they sort of do a reasearch project maybe if we wanted to keep our idea of the cultural fair we could pair the kids up and have them pick a country each then do reasearch based on how the foods in these countries are different and similar...then at the fair have their booths or whatever we want to call them...projects next to eachother and with each their own food, but instead of them telling you about their country its mostly them explaining their culture and the difference between their cultures food and their partners.
ReplyDeleteI dont know it could be too much work for 4th graders and this just popped up into my head and its probably all jumbled together lol but just something to think about
From the assignment description I got the idea that the students had to communicate with students from another location. Is that right? We could definitely keep the cultural fair, but I think we need the students to be communicating with students from another area.
ReplyDeleteHey Guys! Michelle, thank you for setting up our google folder! Michelle and Corey, I think you both have great ideas. I was thinking we could kinda combine the two. Students either choose or are assigned a location (we decide)and research that location (Michelle's research paper)Part of the research is finding out what agriculture or resouces are widely available and used in a particular meal, for which the location is known for or how it is part of a tradition/custom.(Corey's idea)Both the meal and research could be presented at the country fair to show the cultural differences of locations. Our students would contact other students from the location they are researching. What do you think? We can stick to fourth grade or choose a different grade. I think we need to decide if we, as teachers, select a location or have the student choose. We could come up with a list of common questions we would all the students to ask. I think we should have our students may contact after they have done some initial research on their location. Just some thoughts. Let me know what you think. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cindy.... a combination of the two is best. (Great ideas gals!)
ReplyDeleteI also got from the assignment that the students are definately to work with students from other countries... I saw in the instructors Assignment notes "Assume that will use ePals to help you identify and connect with another group of students." I guess we'll have to play around with it to figure that part out... But I LIKE this part. The students would learn SO much from their counter parts living IN that culture!
Let them pick vs Assign a country/culture:
my thoughts... let the students initially pick a country. Here's why - If they HAVE an interest in a particular culture - they are going to dig into the project and WANT to learn more.. therefore they will learn more. Another thought would be to brainstorm various cultures/countries AS a class - and then set up groups from there... "who wants to do X? We need this many students.." We would need to make sure they had a 2nd and 3rd choice... because we could not have all students doing the same group. Just my own thoughts... what do you guys think?
Combining the two sounds great. I agree that the students should decide the location they are interested. Having them form groups through their own choices sounds good. We could have a class brainstorming session about what 5 (or however many we want) countries we want to know more about. We could start with a discussion about what countries we hear about in the news and want to know more about.
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess the next part is actually writing some of this down in the google document. I'm not sure how to go about that part. Do we want to split it up, or all of us just write our first ideas and then work on combining them?
I like the idea of combining them also and i think that since we have to communicate with other cultures it might be easier to have the kids work in groups so we are not trying to contact 30 different cultures lol...but i think we have some really good ideas. I have no idea really how to start the google document I have been trying it out but havent quite figured it out. I kinda also am thinking that we should be doing this brainstorming on the google document, but I havent read the assignment thing in a few days so I have to reread it.
ReplyDeleteHey guys I just reread it and started a document in our folder...then I sort of started our write up for the assignment but I'm sure that all of you have read that we start with something then each add and edit how we see fit until we have decided on one thing all together. I'm sure there is much more to add and some thing that should be taken out on the one I started but at least its a start :D
ReplyDeleteShould we also maybe start an outline?
ReplyDeleteI'll go look at the document that has been started a little later this morning, when I have time to really focus on it.
Maybe we won't need an outline if we are all working on it and editing it as we go...