Monroe Middle School_Big 6+ ELA Projects: 7th Grade GLE (Charity)

This is a collaborative lesson taught by both the classroom teacher and the school librarian. Get in contact with your school librarian early to discuss scheduling and teaching responsibilities.

This lesson plan is a guideline. If you need to make minor adjustments or changes to best suit the needs of your students or the resources in your building, please do so. If you have questions about the curricular requirements, please contact Shelley Erickson or Julie Schik.

At the completion of this lesson, you will need to send two student examples each of a level 2, 3, and 4 project to your curriculum specialist or department head who will in turn submit them to your supervisor.  This can be electronically or as a hard copy.

 Teacher—will assist students with brainstorming areas of interest to help select a charity to research.  (i.e. children, animals, sports, mentoring, homelessness, education, literacy, poverty, physical needs, healthy, hunger, etc.)  Once students have selected an area of interest, they can begin exploring charities that serve that area of interest.  Students will use prior knowledge and exploration to select a charity to explore.  (Selection Sheet Included) Students will answer the inquiry question:  Which Charity would you choose to personally become involved with as a volunteer, to donate to, or to spread the word about? Why?    

Teacher will introduce the requirements for the project.  (See Synthesis & Sharing)

Librarian—can update topic lists based on library specific resources.  Can also introduce online resources if a pre-topic selection exploration activity is desired.

Formative Assessment: Verify all information is recorded on student handouts (can be a visual check or graded assessment)

With direct instruction from the school librarian (with support from the classroom teacher) on search strategies and recommended resources, students will locate required information about their selected charity:

• How did the charity start?
• How does the charity help those it serves?
• Connection to Omaha--How can someone in Omaha receive aid from this charity?
• How can you become involved with this charity?  (Volunteering, donations, sharing info, etc.)

Possible Sources of information:

• Charity Watch
• Great Non-Profits (Omaha)
• Charity's Website

Formative Assessment:  Consistent and frequent verbal and visual checks with student to assess if they are able to access quality resources.

Teacher will guide students through transferring information into a notes organizer. (TBD by teacher and/or self-selected by students.  Example included).

With direct instruction and support from the school librarian, students will create citations for their sources.  Recommendation to use district subscription to Noodle Tools. 

Formative Assessment:  Visual checks for completion.  And/or, individual conferencing with students to determine if ready to move on to synthesis and sharing.

Teacher will review the requirements for the final project and assist students as necessary.  Products: Each element should combine students’ personal perspective as well as general information about the charity.

• Required:  A written Summary of information learned. The written summary should include a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. The summary should give a detailed description about how the charity began, the work the charity does to support those it serves, the charity’s connection to Omaha, and why this charity would be the ideal one for this student to become involved with either through volunteering, donations, or information sharing. Other information about the charity could be included at the teacher’s discretion. (Sample outline included)
• Optional:  *Visual--An Info Graphic, Informational Flyer, Brochure, or Bookmark that includes 8-10 elements about the charity that describe what the charity does and how people can support the charity.  (sample Newsletter templates included).  *Verbal presentation for the entire class or in small groups.

Formative Assessment: Rough draft feedback.

Summative Assessment: Use provided rubric to grade final product.

Teacher will guide students as they complete the self-evaluation form containing teacher selected items from the form included below.

The self-evaluation can be as brief (one question) or as long as the teacher deems necessary.  This can be a graded or non-graded activity.         

For more help, go to NoodleTools Support and view KnowledgeBase, Downloads and Tutorials, and Users Guide. See more NoodleTools videos by searching for NoodleTools videos in YouTube outside of the OPS network.