Janet+Kinsella

My Project Ideas: Subject: Missouri History Grade Level: 4
 * My Essential Question**:
 * What makes a person great?


 * Unit Questions:**
 * What characterisitics (intelligence, honesty, perseverence,integrity, etc.) makes a great person?
 * What accomplishments does a person need to make to society in order to be considered great?

I'm thinking about using this idea, but wonder if it involves enough high order thinking. This is a new twist to something I already do in my classroom.

A Living History Museum of Famous Missourians is being added inside the capital building in Jefferson City, Missouri. Your class has been asked to come up with a list of famous Missourians that deserve to be included in this museum. Students will need to choose a famous Missourian, research and write a persuasive piece that explains why their famous Missourian should be a part of this new display. Students should include accomplishments their Famous Missourians have made and how they've impacted Missouri's history. Students will be grouped and asked to use the Visual Ranking tool to come up with a list of top Famous Missourians in order from most to least important based on the accomplishments/impact they've made to our state's history.

Janet, this is Anne Jeschke and I was so thinking about this same project (I've done it too) I wondered about the ranking of Famous Missourians as well. I wondered about asking for a list of traits from students that they believe would make a person famous/valuable and having them rank those qualities. Then move into having students look at their famous Missourians and consider which ones had some of those highly rated qualities, then do another ranking of those Famous Missourians?

I wondered also about using the Seeing Reason tool to look for relationships between being famous and character traits. I thought it might assist the students in their research and writing of the biographies. I don't know how your students do, but I found it difficult for them to determine qualities that could make the person "famous" They did lots of regurgitating their research without enough thought/analysis involved.

Just a couple of thoughts. Good luck!

I agree- now I think I need to have students research the traits of a great person before we pick our famous Missourian. I'm thinking small group activity with this.

**Great ideas going on. You may want to consider using the Showing Evidence tool to argue for their famous person. Carla** Now I'm thinking instead of having the students brainstorming qualities and characteristics that make a person great, I will include many of our character words as well as other qualities on one master list, and then have the students rank them in groups and of course compare rankings. But I can't decide if I should let them come up with the list or if I should provide it? Let me know.

Is it backed up by other sources? A complete list! How would you help students evaluate the evidence? Students will need to think along the lines of what single piece of evidence will I need to support this claim?
 * Supporting Evidence Tool- Activity 2, Step 2- Our thoughts!**

Supporting Evidence Tool- My Thoughts I could use this tool in my classroom, especially in the Science, and Literature fields. I like the idea of using this with literature and tying it in with the characters of the story or book the students are reading. I think this would be a good way of helping students think more about what they read. So often its read and regurgetate, but this tool will definitely go far beyond that and make the student really think about the story and its content.