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will
be working from within Piaget's Concrete Operational stage of development
with the possibility of a few outliers beginning the Formal Operational
stage. However, it is more likely that students will be at
various stages of development and therefore it is also advised
that Vygotsky's prescription for small groups be followed.
Groups should contain higher level functioning students, lower level
functioning students, and students that are overlapping in their
developmental growth. Furthermore, it is also advised that
the activities mentioned within this unit be changed to meet the
specific needs of the classroom. Students will participate in small
group work throughout the unit, but will have independent projects
to complete at various points as the unit progresses.
As
young children we have been taught that history is an important
component of our educational experience. This author completely
agrees with this premise. History allows us to learn how others'
failures, trials, mistakes, and successes have influenced our values
and way of life. In particular, history provides us with the opportunity
to examine how the human experience has evolved and shaped the world
in which we live. History, therefore, becomes the study of
how others have made our lives better or worse, depending on an
individual's point of view.
However,
this author believes that the importance of history, as mentioned
above, is often lost in the manner in which it is presented to students.
This author can remember spending what seemed like countless hours
listening to lectures on what this person did and what that person
did for this or that country. Thereafter, book reports were
assigned that yielded plagiarism, as students are unable to make
a personal connection with the topic. Students are often not given
the opportunity to make a personal connection with the subject matter
because they spend majority of the time being lectured to without
any need to think critically. In addition, adults often forget
that students, especially the younger students, feast on fictional
characters, action, and drama. For the reasons listed above
and an acknowledgement of the importance of history, this author
has selected the book Ben and Me by Robert Lawson as a
focus unit on the life of Benjamin Franklin with particular attention
to the inventions that have influenced our lives. This book, told
from the point of view of a mouse, allows students to learn about
history and its influences on our current ways of life in a fictional
manner that also allows of hands-on experience. This unit strives
to allow students to explore history and make a personal connection
with the material being studied.
The
lessons and activities that are listed within this unit are based
upon classrooms where the students have access to computers with
Internet access, multi-media software, and are no larger than 25
students in capacity. For many teachers these traits resemble
a fictional classroom; this author expects that these lessons serve
only as guides. In fact, this author encourages readers to
change the enclosed lessons to meet their specific needs and the
needs of their students. This author hopes to have provided
readers with some ideas on how to engage students on a study of
Benjamin Franklin, without having to start a unit from scratch and
re-invent the wheel (pun intended).
OK,
now that I have justified this whole thing we can get on with the
unit. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed putting it
together. By the way, I highly recommend getting yourself
a copy of this book. I have conveniently placed a link to
Amazon.com in the resources section just for your use. J
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