Investigating+Goverment

=Put a Short Activity/Lesson/Project Title Here=

2) Teacher facilitates conversation about how to navigate the internet in order to find age appropriate resources to help answer questions 3) Students choose to work in a group, with a partner or individual to research overarching questions, what is the government and how does it work. Journals Presentations ||
 * **Title**: ||< Investigating Government ||
 * **Subject**: ||< Social Studies ||
 * **Grade**: ||< 3rd ||
 * **Time Frame**: ||< 2 weeks ||
 * **Summary:** ||< Students will investigate what the government is and how it works. ||
 * **Tasks**: ||< 1) Ask the students to brainstorm in groups what they think they know about the government, what questions they have and how they can find the answers.
 * Give chart paper to each group of 4 to write their ideas - graffiti style
 * Students participate in gallery walk to share and gain ideas
 * Students post ideas and questions about the government on class chart
 * Students put questions and ideas in their journal
 * Class read questions and ways to find answers
 * Teacher models using google as a search engine
 * Search government and adult sites are returned
 * Narrow your search and you able to find more helpful information
 * Look for current events that make the research more relevant
 * Students use computers, books, iPads, etc. to look for the answers
 * Students record learning in journals
 * Teachers assists students with technology and models presentation modes (trading cards, prezi, blog, wiki, GoogleApps, glogster, etc.) ||
 * Objectives: ||< TEKS ||
 * Assessment: ||< Teacher observation
 * Resources: ||< Computers, iPads, Internet, other electronic devices ||
 * **Teacher**
 * Reflections:** || This investigation was not just for the kids but, for me as the teacher too. Letting the kids drive the "car" was a big leap of faith for me. I was unsure if the kids would actually discover how the government works and if they would understand it. My other challenge was how would the students communicate their learning to me and each other. After weeks of questioning and investigation most of my kids got it and were able to share their learning verbally and with their notes in their social studies journal. I created individual student blogs where the the kids could post their prezis and reflect on each others learning. One problem we had was that the kids that created trading cards would not stay on the blog....this was frustrating for the kids. Most went back and created prezis. Check out our blogs

http://skaggsadventures.edublogs.org ||
 * **Examples**: ||< * http://skaggsadventures.blogspot.com/p/social-studies.html ||

Discussion:
Use the Embed Widget tool to add a Discussion Area widget. Bump the number to 100. This will take the comments from the discussion tab and add them to the bottom of the page. This will encourage teacher reflection and modification.