
This past Friday, after introducing the books available for study groups....
Each student got a book ballot that looked like this:
Answering Our Questions
Select your top two choices.
Choosing a book means committing to reading the entire book and taking notes in answer to a question of your choice related to the book, as well as reading at least one related article, and possibly viewing a related video, and taking notes on these sources.
It also means taking notes on a group-wide question and taking part in discussions of that question.
For each choice you make, write a short explanation of why it’s a good choice for you.
First Choice ___ because _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Second Choice ___ because ___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Each student got a book ballot that looked like this:
Answering Our Questions
Select your top two choices.
Choosing a book means committing to reading the entire book and taking notes in answer to a question of your choice related to the book, as well as reading at least one related article, and possibly viewing a related video, and taking notes on these sources.
It also means taking notes on a group-wide question and taking part in discussions of that question.
For each choice you make, write a short explanation of why it’s a good choice for you.
- The Aliens Are Coming (Question: Why were people convinced that the radio broadcast was real, not fiction?)
- Building the Hoover Dam (Question: Are huge dams like the Hoover Dam of greater benefit or greater harm?)
- Caves (Question: How do caves form and who or what lives in them?)
- Deserted Stone Cities (Question: Why do people abandon cities after all the work they’ve done to build them?)
- The Quest for the Tree Kangaroo (Question: What are people doing to harm or to benefit the tree kangaroo?)
- Up the Amazon River (Question: What makes the Amazon River so dangerous and so important?)
First Choice ___ because _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Second Choice ___ because ___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
I am excited to see where their research takes them! The theme of this unit is answering questions about the world around us, for ourselves and others. The structure: whole group research and writing to be followed by individual research and writing, and small groups for those who would like extra help.