Cooperative Work in Australia's Project

Here are some of the results of Australia's Mini-Project. Students work cooperatively in groups improving their personal and social competence as well as developing the learning objectives. 

These posters are turning awesome!

Australia's Posters

Working on Australia's Mini-Project

Students are working on the design of the new Mini-Project, Australia. The objectives are to get to know the history, geography, landscapes, animals and celebrities of this English speaking country which belongs to the Commonwealth.
Through the use of two dossiers of information and ICT, students did a research that later they summarized in 10 questions that they had to include in a poster.
In the meanwhile, students learnt about Australian cultural related terms, such as the Outback and the Aborigines through the movie Australia by Baz Luhrmann.

Here you have an ouline of the Mini-Project:

WARM UP

Introduce Australia with a True or False Quiz.

QUESTIONS

Look up for the information in the URLSs and in the dossiers that you will find in the classroom. 

Complete the questions: 

1. Where is it situated?
2. Is it a continent or an island?
3. What bodies of water wash the continent?
4. Look for a map and the flag
5. What is the capital?
6. The Aborigines. Who are they?
7. The Outback. What is it?
8. Main sights of Australia
9. Animals of Australia
10. Who discovered the island? In what year?

        Fun facts: Choose two fun facts about Australia that you want to share 

POSTER

Using the information you will create a poster including the answers to the questionnaire, photos, the flag, and the currency of the country.

PRESENTATION

You will present the poster to the class and evaluate your group and your peers.

In next entrance...photos of the students' work!!

Rubrics for Martin Luther King's Mini-Project

As promised, here I update the Rubrics from Martin Luther King's Mini-Project done at the elective subject in 3rd CSE. Students presented their posters and voted for the best presentation having to account the following rubric in order to evaluate their peers and as a guideline to know what were the expectations of the teacher. For me, it was also really useful as a tool to evaluate my students. Do you like using rubrics?

CATEGORY	A	B-C	F
POSTER 10 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS	Student mostly used correct capitalisation. Mostly used correct punctuation. Only I or less capitalization errors. Answers to the questions were all correct.	Student sometimes used correct capitalization and punctuation. Only 2 spelling errors. 2 answers were incomplete or unaccurate.	Spelling errors. Do not use punctuation or more tan 4 errors. 2 or more than 2 answers incomplete or unaccurate.
POSTER PICTURES AND PHOTOS	Students draw and added pictures, photos or graphs	Students at least used 1 picture, photos or graphs	Students did not use or draw any photos.
POSTER PREPARATION AND PRESENTATION COLLABORATION WITH PEERS	Almost always listens, shares or supports the efforts of the others in the group. Tries keep group members working well together.	Often listens, shares or supports the efforts of the others in the group. Sometimes is not a good member.	Rarely listens, shares or supports the efforts of the others in the group. Often is not a good member.
PRESENTATION TIME LIMIT	Presentation is 5- 6 minutes  long.	Presentation is 4 minutes  long.	Presentation is 3 minutes  long.
PRESENTATION SPEAKS CLEARLY, POSTURE AND EYE CONTACT	All the time, stands up straight , Looks relaxed and confident. Establishes eye contact with everyone during the presentation.	Speaks clearly, can be understood. Sometimes stands up straight and establishes eye contact with everyone during the presentation.	Often mumbles, can not be understood or does not look to the audience during the presentation.

Mini-Project: Martin Luther King, Getting to Know Him

In the elective English subject of 3rd CSE, we are starting to read about Martin Luther King. We did a warm up, brainstorming what makes a person a hero, and students came up with several adjectives and descriptions: someone who is a hero is someone brave, courageous, defensor of human rights, hard-worker and inspirer of good actions for humanity. 

After reading a brief biography about our hero and filling in some blanks with new vocabulary, students were presented with the Mini-Project. Here is the slide that explains the Mini-Project and the woksheet, so that you can use it. 

Timing: 3 sessions (1h per session) to complete the four tasks in the worksheet (first draft) and to do the poster.

Groupings: 2-3 students 

Presentation: Peer evaluation. Rubrics will be presented in the next entrance of the blog... Enjoy!