The Giver Project

Grade Level: 7th                      Unit Designers:  Sharyn Dupee, Ellen Kaiser, Amy Moore-Powers, Bob Thistle

                            Time Frame: 3 weeks

Link to content standards: History, English, Science, Math

Graduation Proficiencies:  1.3 Gather and Organize information, 1.4 Analyze and assss the value of gathered information

Summary:

"The Giver Project", an interdisciplinary unit, synthesizes skills and knowledge learned throughout the year culminating in a year end presentation.   Students are required to research a particular aspect of society, write a paper, and be a part of a group presentation.

Enduring Understanding:

Cultures are shaped by their societies' values.

Essential Questions:

        What does society value?

        What is an individual's responsibility to his/her society?

Key knowledge and skills:

Gather and Organize information

Analyze and assss the value of gathered information

   

What evidence will show that students understand?

            Other evidence:

            Unprompted evidence:

            Student self assessment:

Sequence of teaching and learning experiences:

Students will be assigned to teams

Team-Building and Skill Development

Team-Topic Selection

Teams will choose from a generated list a society to study in-depth.

Mini-Topic Selection

  1. Define roles: Economist, Artist, Politician, Environmentalist, Citizen
  2. Students select roles.
  3. Discuss the essential question, "What does the society value?"

Mini-Topic Preparation

  1. As a team, students should generate a list of research question
  2. Students will individually gather and organize materials on their mini-topics.
  3. The goal is for each student to become an expert in his or her topic.

Mini-Topic Presentation

A. Student experts present to the team their research findings. (Peer Assessment)

B. Students discuss and analyze their findings.

C. Students need to determine if a second round of presentations is needed to respond to the needs of the group.

D. Final decisions before preparing for team presentations.

E.  Research Paper due (Teacher Assessment)

Preparation of Team Presentation

Synthesize the material of the mini-topics to prepare their team presentations.

            B. Develop a plan for presentation.

Team Presentations

             Presentations are made to the whole class.

             Presentations must meet specific requirements

             Map hand-drawn to scale

             A visual representation of each role, depicting the society's values.

  1. Reflection Evaluation
    1. Individual mini-topic presentations to the team (by teammates)
    2. Team presentations to the whole class (by classmates)
    3. Individual papers (by teachers)

Essential Research questions:

1.____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

2.____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

3.____________________________________________________________

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