 Sample
Projects: The reptile project
Stage 1: Choosing a project
The teacher put his students into groups of three. He then posted a signup sheet so each team could sign up for a reptile that they will report on. One group of three chose Alligators.
Stage 2: Organizing the environment
The teacher decided to keep control of the project conferences. He created a conference with the following structure:
Based on the structure, this is the project conference he created.
Stage 3: Scheduling
The teacher chose to use the existing class calendar to post due dates.
Stage 4: Conducting meetings
The teacher allows class time for all of the group meetings. The secretary in each group puts the minutes of each meeting in an email and sends it to the other members, so they are all on the same track.
Stage 5: Brainstorming
During the first meeting, the teacher distributes a web diagram to each group that he printed out from FirstClass. This helps the students brainstorm within their group.
Stage 6: Managing tasks
Once the group has brainstormed and decided what they are going to do, they assign each person a task. Each student uses their own personal calendars to manage the tasks they are responsible for.
Stage 7: Collecting information
The group collects most of their information from the Internet and books. As they collect the information, they make notes in FirstClass documents, and then share their notes at the next meeting.
Stage 8: Compiling the project
The group gathers at a computer to compile each stage of their project. The teacher gave them the following template for the final copy. It outlines the components required in each section, including graphics. It also outlines some project guidelines.
From that, the students compiled their information into a finished project.
Stage 9: Presenting and showcasing
The group created a presentation to present to the class. Here is the first slide from that presentation.
Stage 10: Grading
Students submitted their final projects to the Final Copy conference. The teacher opened each project, graded it, and emailed a grade back to the team members with his comments and their grade.
To ensure privacy, the teacher gave the students write-only permissions to the Final Copy conference.
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