Thinking About China Today

Possible essential questions:

How have past events shaped today’s world and how will present actions affect the future?

How does the interaction of the physical world and the cultural world affect the development of societies?

How do cultures balance the rights of individuals and the common good?

How do societal decisions affect the use and distribution of scarce resources?

Goals:  Students will

• Investigate modern life in China.
• Identify and discuss context of current event in understanding world places, environments, and cultures…
• Relate current event to self
• Develop complex search strategies
• Identify appropriate sources of information (news, websites, blogs, forums, governments)
• Recognize and analyze bias from a source

Previous Knowledge:  To successfully complete this project students should have completed studies on China, be able to evaluate sources of information, understand bias and have experience with basic search strategies.

Project Overview:  Students will extend understandings of China learned in class unit by choosing and investigating an issue through current events.  Students can use Grade Level Expectations to help frame the analysis and discussion of the chosen issue.  Students will receive instruction on advanced search strategies, various sources of information available in today’s digital society, how to evaluate those sources and how to recognize and deal with bias.  The final outcome can be in a variety of formats as it is the success of the process of searching, identifying and analyzing information that demonstrates competency.

Timeline:  Project can be simplified to a one day search, read and discuss assignment, or extended to an in depth analysis with multiple sources, data collection, analysis and reporting. The outline below can be accomplished in 2-3 class 45 min periods.

Project Outline:

1. Teacher guides students in reflection of material learned during the China unit of study in order to choose an area of special interest to further investigate such as: environment, politics, geography, society, economy etc.
2. Students complete a research plan to identify possible questions, search terms, sources of information and review requirements.
3. Students are guided by teacher-librarian in developing complex or advanced search strategies, filtering through results, identifying types of sources (blogs, forums, governmental, etc), and evaluating sources for authority, timeliness, and bias.
4. Students are guided by teacher and teacher-librarian in research to gather a balance of information from multiple points of view, organize the information and develop final presentation.
5. Final presentation should encompass a clear statement of the issue, the various participants or parties involved in the issue, the various points of view and a conclusion that reflects the student’s opinion based on the facts stated, and how the issue relates to the student in real life or in his/her understanding of China or the world.

Possible Tools and Products:  There are many very cool tools available for gathering, documenting, analyzing, reflecting, synthesizing and presenting information.  All of the formats would have the same content as a written report or PowerPoint presentation—just a little more fun. The following are ideas on ways that students can present their findings:

1. Blogs:  A blog is an incredible online tool for research and reflection.  The tools built into a blog enable users to keep a running journal of the research process, reflect daily on their findings, archive links and copies of sources, communicate with any number of people around the world, and publish their work.  Teachers can monitor the progress on student blogs by subscribing to individual student RSS feeds and have updates come to the teacher to review.  Students can easily work in groups, or conduct peer reviews.  Parents or other local or world communities can participate in discussions.  The possibilities are endless!
2. Wiki annotated bibliography and web presentation: A wiki is a website that can be edited by multiple people, and is very easy to use.  A pathfinder is a document that compiles where to find information on a particular topic and documents the information gathering. For this project students would document their research as directed on the wiki and then create a web presentation on the wiki.  This is a particularly useful tool when students are working in groups.  The wiki automatically keeps track of all of the history of changes made on the website.  Think of this as an entry in Wikipedia!
3. Podcasts:  Engage students with audio!  Students prepare a newscast of sorts, record it as a podcast and post on school website.  Podcasts are easy, don’t require any fancy equipment (just a simple microphone) and allow families to reap the benefits of student work!
4. Digital Video:  Many students can prepare these videos at home, and love to do it.  Frame as a special news cast and collect documentation on research, story board, and screen casting.  The trick is to be clear that the content must be there! 

7^th Grade Social Studies Grade Level Expectations

B3 The student should relate how people create similarities and differences among places by:

1. M comparing and contrasting the cultural lifestyles of people living in similar latitudes.

D1 The student should know that the need for people to exchange goods, services, and ideas creates population centers, cultural interaction, and transportation and communication links by:

1.      M describing how new goods, ideas, and movement have impacted and altered cultures, economics, and settlement and political patterns in the Eastern Hemisphere.

E5 The student should analyze the consequences of human modification of the environment and be able to evaluate the changing landscape by:

1. P planning an approach to investigate a regional environmental problem and generating research questions and a plan for data collection. Collecting, organizing, analyzing, and displaying the data.

G: The student should understand the impact of economic choices and be able to participate effectively in the local, state, national, and global economies.

G1 The student should apply economic principles to actual world situations by:

1. P discussing economic principles in the context of current events.

G3 The student should identify and compare the costs and benefits when making choices by:

1. P discussing the costs and benefits when making choices in the context of current events.

G4 The student should make informed choices on economic issues by:

1. P discussing economic issues in the context of current events.

G5 The student should understand how jobs are created and their role in the economy by:

1. P discussing how jobs are created in the context of current events.

G6 The student should understand that wages and productivity depend on investment in physical and human capital by:

1. P discussing wages and productivity in the context of current events.

G7 The student should understand that economic choices influence public and private institutional decisions by:

1. P discussing how economic choices influence public and private institutional decisions in the context of current events.

Part Three: Activities Beyond the Classroom

In a paragraph or two, describe any activities you are planning outside your own classroom, such as presenting to colleagues, sharing resources with a community group, or engaging others at your school in a China-related activity. Note that you are not required to take your experience beyond your own classroom, but many teachers do—this is a forum for you to share, inspire, and aid fellow group members.

Presenting to groups will be a focus for the coming year.  I have been asked to present in other 7^th grade social studies classes and will offer to teachers across the district.  Public libraries often host travel presentations, so I plan to schedule at least one public library presentation.

To promote all aspects of the program, the trip, and ideas for collaborating with teachers I have applied to offer a session at our state library conference.  If the feedback from district teachers is favorable I could also look into a state social studies conference.

I used the some China photos with teachers at my school during inservice to demonstrate the Voicethread website, and plan to continue to use this with teachers and students.