Group Projects

Today I introduced my concept for a group project I want to try out with my 7th graders. It is an open-ended project, where students can basically do what ever they would like for the project. The past two weeks we have been studying Chapter 12,  Early Civilizations of the Americas. The civilizations get a little confusing, therefore I have decided on projects. First I made a list of what they could do the projects on:

The people of the Northwest Coast

Iroquois

Plains Indians

Peubloans

Mississippians

Hopewell

The Adena

Aztecs

Maya

Inca

Next I allowed them to form their own groups, maximum of 4 students. After they formed their groups, I ripped up some paper with the numbers written on them, 1-10. I went around and had each group choose a number (the numbers were face down), this will be the order in which they will get to choose from the list above.

This is an open-ended project, so I will allow students time to brain storm what they would like to do for their project. Some examples are: make a totem pole for the Northwest Coast people, do a research project, make a poster, create a slide show, build a tipi for the Plains Indians, draw a trade route from the Hopewell to Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, build a replica of Serpent Mound, draw or recreate the legend of the Aztecs, recreate the Mayan game, or build a replica of Machu Pichu.

I have never done an open-ended project before, so I am a little apprehensive as to how this will go. I am excited and hopeful that the students will come up with something creative and thoughtful.

This is the rubric I made.

Rubric for Early Civilizations of the Americas

Project Title:

_______________________________________________

Members of Group:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subject of Project:

The People of the Northwest Coast _______       Iroquois ________        Plains Indians ________

Puebloans ______          Mississippians _______        Hopewell _______         The Adena ______

Aztecs ______          Mayas ______          Inca  ______

Member Evaluation:

1. Did everyone work equally as hard? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What responsibility did each member have in this project? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Why did you choose to do this project? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Why did you choose to do this civilization? ________________________________________________________________________

Rubric

	5 Point Answers	3 Point Answers	1 Point Answers
Name of the Civilization	Include name and location of civilization	Include name only	Include location only
Where they lived	Include where they lived, and what they lived in. I.e. next to a river, in pueblos	Include where they lived only	Include what they lived in only
What they ate	Include what they ate and how they got their food. I.e. They ate corn because they grew it, then preserved it.	Include what they ate only	Include how they got their food only
Explain relevance of project to course of study	5 Sentences, capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar all correct	3 Sentences, capitalization, and punctuation all correct, some spelling and or grammar errors	1 Sentence with poor grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization
Front page of this Rubric Filled Out	All questions are answered with thoughtful responses	All questions are answered with generic responses	Not all questions are answered

Comments:

/25 Points