Brad Velcoff's Technology Lesson Plan

Introduction:Public Opinion Research Project

This lesson plan is actually a two week unit for my College Preparation class. The class is designed for seniors who are at least considering college. It is mostly an English class concentrating on writing, literary analysis, and SAT preparation, but it also serves as an introduction to word processing, spreadsheets and the Internet. This unit incorporates critical thinking, writing, collaborative skills, research, math, word processing and spreadsheets.

Procedure

The class brainstorms a list of social issues that affect our communities and that people have strong opinions about. The teacher writes them on the board. Then the teacher writes the steps of the project assignment on the board as follows:

Get into the group (generally 4 or 5 students) designated by the teacher. Then the groups each do the other steps.
Choose a topic from the list on the board.
Develop at least 5 questions to ascertain people's opinions about the selected issue.
Interview at least 20 people, starting with all the students in the class.
Compile results.
Analayze results both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Report results in a 1000 word paper.
Include research on the topic.
Include a chart or graph relating the results of each question.
Post to student webpages or blogs.

This lesson plan has the students use computers in at least 3 capacities. First, they will have to word process their group report. Secondly, they have to use a spreadsheet program to create the charts and graphs. Thirdly, they use the internet to research their topic, finding statistics, anecdotal information and historical backgrounds of their issues. The teacher's role during this process is primarily facilitating each group's progress. Maintaining some semblance of group cohesion, keeping them on track, enforcing deadlines, offering technical support, providing examples of relevant literature, and models of similar reports are all aspects of the teacher's role.

Evaluation

Ideally, each member of a group will get the same grade, if the groups delegate comparable amounts of work to each member. In actuality, however, there is usually a de facto group leader who does more than her share of the work, or sometimes 2 or 3 students who do more than others. When this occurs, grade differences do accordingly.