By Jaye Shlayer, Hof Hacarmel High School

Mini Project by Jaye Shlayer, Hof HaCarmel High School

1. Aims of project 2. Instructions to the teacher 3. Enabling skills (prerequisites) 4. Instructions to pupils 5. Rubric 6. Future assignments for classwork and assessment

1. Aims of project Access to information:

 Pupils will become experts on their chosen topic by obtaining information from written and oral texts.  Pupils will extract relevant information for specific purposes from different sources.  Pupils will understand the main ideas and significant details of a text.  Pupils will use their listening abilities by noting three main ideas from their peers’ presentations.  Pupils will compare and contrast information from various sources.

Presentation:

 Pupils will demonstrate their oral abilities by presenting information from different sources.  Pupils will use basic language structures and suitable vocabulary accurately.  Pupils will express ideas and opinions about a topic using main ideas and supporting ideas.

Educational aim:

 Pupils will learn how to evaluate their peers using a simple rubric.

2. Instructions to the teacher This project takes about a week to prepare. Its goals are explained to the pupils who form groups. Within the group each pupil chooses the topic s/he wishes to research. The teacher ensures no two pupils have selected the same topic in one group. Pupils are given written instructions which the teacher explains, and are given a week to prepare their short talk. During this time the teacher must sit with each pupil (or groups of pupils) offering any necessary assistance, checking their written outline and ensuring they have found information and can organize it into a coherent presentation. This can be done as a class activity with pupils bringing their source material to class. The pupils will learn how to write down five or six main ideas in point form and then expand them. While they are doing 45 this, the teacher goes round giving individual help. The pupils are told the date of their presentation. They may refer to brief notes while giving the talk but may not read aloud. The teacher tells the class that the written research will be reviewed and evaluated at a later date. This project can be part of a theme being studied in class so that the topics chosen by the pupils will be connected to the overall theme. This project may also be used very successfully as an activity for extensive reading where pupils recommend their books to their peers.

3. Enabling skills (prerequisites) Before beginning the project, pupils should know:  how to access information from an encyclopedia, books or magazines  how to surf the Internet for appropriate material  how to summarize main ideas They should also:  have had oral practice in class prior to this activity  know how to use a rubric

4. Instructions to pupils (handout– “Be an expert!”)

Each group member must become an expert on a certain topic. Here are some suggestions for topics connected to the theme of “Time and Space:”

 the stars  the sun  the moon  earth  any of the planets  any of the signs of the zodiac  astronomy  astrology  Galileo  the Ancient Egyptians  the first landing on the moon  the American space program  Stonehenge  U.F.Os

Where can I find this information?

46  encyclopedia  the Internet  the Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia  magazines, books, newspapers  parents, other sources

Remember: during your talk do not read directly from your notes, although you may use notes to help you.

5. Rubric (handout - “Listening to the experts”)

Listen to each expert in your group and grade him/her according to the scale below. There is a maximum of 5 points for each criterion – a total of 20 in all. 5 4 3 2 1 Interest Very Interesting Quite Not very Boring interesting interesting interesting

Length 2-3 min. 1-2 min. 1 min. Less than 1 min.

Preparation & Very well Well Quite well Had to read from Not prepared at organization prepared prepared prepared notes and not all and difficult to (Information and and easy and easy to and quite easy to follow the follow ideas are to follow follow easy to main ideas presented fluently follow using basic organizational skills.) Language (A Hardly A few Some Many mistakes Used too much broad range of any mistakes mistakes and used Hebrew Hebrew and vocabulary and mistakes made many simple syntactic mistakes structures is used accurately and appropriately.)

Expert # 1 Name:______Topic:______Mark: ______

Three things that I learned about this topic: 1. 2. 3.

Expert # 2 Name:______Topic:______Mark: ______

47 Expert # 3 Name:______Topic:______Mark: ______

6. Future assignments for classwork and assessment  Pupils present their written work to the teacher which can be used for process writing and can be assessed later.  Pupils can make poster presentations of their topic and have a poster day for the entire class.

Note: In this particular activity the teacher does not give an evaluation. The average of the three evaluations for each speaker is the evaluation for the pupil. The teacher could do spot checks by sitting with each group for one presentation to see how accurately the pupils are using the rubric. The advantage of this activity is that all pupils have an opportunity to talk within one lesson.