We concluded our social studies unit today. Each student has been researching an "important" person for the past four weeks. Today everyone was presenting their findings. I was nervous to see what students would get up and forget everything they learned. I was nervous that I assigned people to students that had too complex of a "story" for them to comprehend. However, I did know some students that would go up to present and be very successful. I knew in advance that some students were really engaged in their research. I also knew that if a student wasn't successful it wasn't entirely my fault. Let me discuss a few of the presentations.
Helen Keller: I assigned Heller Keller to one of my lower level students. I wasn't sure at the beginning of the unit how well he would be able to comprehend everything. However, to my surprise he became very invested in his research and retained more information about her than anyone else in the class did about their person. Very proud teacher moment!!
Benjamin Franklin: I felt as though finding and understanding the importance of Benjamin Franklin was fairly "easy". I chose a student to research him that has difficulty staying on task and focusing. There was a lot of information that he could have presented on Benjamin Franklin and to my disappointment (although not my surprise after observing him throughout the unit) the only 2 lines he gave during the presentation were "Ben discovered electricity. He made the first fire company." He was unable to elaborate, provide any other life stories or answer of the student's questions.
I really enjoyed listening to the students present and even more so listen to the students answer the questions from their peers. They may or may not have known the actual answers but all of them gave it their best shot at answering. ** I did correct false information that was relayed. My favorite question/answer combination.
"How did Neil Armstrong die?"
"He floated off into space and never returned to earth so he's dead."
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