Kathy's+Learner+Actvitiy


 * Inventions that Shaped American Culture **

__Objective: __  As a group, students will choose a position, justify, and debate why they believe the invention created during the 21st century they have selected has had the biggest impact on American culture.  __Task: __

Students will research inventions created throughout the 21st century in a variety of fields. These fields include communication, quality of life, created by an African American or woman, cultural, and leisure/comfort. As a group, they will choose one invention they believe has had the biggest impact on American culture. Groups will then be required to defend and justify their position in the form of a debate for the entire class.  __Process: __

There will be five roles that will be used in this webquest. Four of the five will be group roles and the last role will be done by one student. These roles are:

//Researchers//- Investigate the variety of different inventions created throughout the 20th century. This role is a group role. //Fact-Finders//- Search through the resource websites as well as other sources to obtain information and facts regarding your chosen invention. This role is a group role. //Writers-// Each group member will write one part of the speech to make a total of four (4) paragraphs plus an additional two (2) paragraphs that compose the introduction and conclusion. //Editors//- Edit each others work and look for ways to improve the speech as well grammatical errors. This role is a group role. //Speaker//- Present the entire group’s position on this topic.

Students will research inventions using a variety of websites and books. From there they will select an invention as a group. They will then create a graphic organizer to organize the information they have gathered. From this information they will choose four facts they will use to support their argument.

Each team member will take one fact and construct part of the debate speech using that fact. Each fact paragraph must contain at least 4 sentences but no more than seven. The speech must include an introduction and a conclusion. When constructing your speech, the group must use at least two of these types of supporting statements:

For example / for instance / let me give an example Whenever I go to a restaurant or bar and there are people smoking near me, I feel that I am breathing their smoke. This makes me a smoker even though I don't want to be.  Everyone knows / if...then It's common knowledge that secondhand smoke is very unhealthy for nonsmokers.
 * Example:** from your own experience or from what you heard or read.
 * Common Sense:** things that you believe everybody knows.

According to.../ to quote.../ the book _ says... According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year." ** Statistics: ** numbers -- this also comes from research Secondhand smoke causes about 250,000 respiratory infections in infants and children every year, resulting in about 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
 * Expert Opinion:** the opinions of experts -- this comes from research.

Students will also have guidelines for creating a convincing argument. These include:

- Establish facts to support an argument - Prioritize the facts by level of importance to build the argument - Persuade your audience that your evidence and conclusions are based upon the agreed-upon facts - Support your opinion with reasons–either one very strong reason or several weaker reasons that, when considered together, give it strong support. - Offer convincing conclusions

Once each team member has constructed their part of the speech, all students will participate in editing it. They will look for grammatical errors and ways for the speech to be improved.

Once the speech is completed, the group members will come together to select one student to present the speech to the class. This student must be capable of convincing the class the invention selected by the team has had the greatest impact on American culture. The class will then vote by a show of hands if the argument was convincing or not. Students must be prepared for questions by their classmates.

Students will be graded according to an evaluation rubric.

Kathy, I like you learning activity a lot, and know that a debate is always something that attracts students attention. Students will be very interested to research an invention knowing that they will need to fight for that invention chosen, splitting the roles is a great idea because the student will know which part they will need to be more knowledgeable on so that they can prove their point. There is alot of research that is out there so they shouldnt have a hard time finding one. I think that this activity is a very interesting one to not only get students attention but at the same time have them learn about history. You have also provided them with examples and guidelines so that they should have am easy experience with what is expected of them. The only thing I can suggest with this activity is maybe giving each group member a chance to talk in the deabte and not having only one person reasearch.

Interesting Learning Activity, its very motivating to learn in a form of a debate!

Rachele

Hey Kathy,

I agree that your task goes along with your learning objectives. Students will definitely be engaged in the task. Since it is persuasion, this will give students a chance to argue their points of view for an intended audience. Students do know how to argue, I think it is good for them to see that debating can be used in a productive way in the real world. Perhaps students will discover a secret talent and want to become lawyers. In addition, students will have to use websites to support facts since they must have the most current information to defend their positions. I also like that students are able to choose how they want to construct their speech. It is also good to see examples so that students have a clear understanding of what is expected. Furthermore, students are using higher level thinking skills because they must evaluate information gathered and come up with valid reasons in order to devise a persuasive speech. In all, wonderful job!

Veronica