Middle+School+Persuasive+PBL+Assignment

This lesson is designed to be used with 7th or 8th grade students in their Language Arts classes. The lesson should take place in a one hour and a half block or two forty-five minute periods.

The learning outcome of this lesson is to introduce the real world problem students are trying to solve. Students will learn to research a problem and practice their persuasive writing skills. They will use critical thinking in order to conclude, which is supported with at least three reasons from research conducted in the classroom.

This Problem Based Learning unit will involve an issue that currently has people in the town of Manchester, Connecticut at odds with each other. The question of library expansion into its surrounding park continues to draw controversy as groups from both sides are looking to be heard.

One side suggests that the Library is too small for the town and would like to provide more services to its patrons, while others say the park is the centerpiece for the town and once green space is taken for development, we can never go back.

Students will be divided into groups of 4 or 5 to complete this unit.

In this introductory lesson, students will be initiated into the lesson by writing 3 things they would like to see changed in one of the town libraries. They will then be asked to come up with 3 ways to improve the park that surrounds the library. This will get them thinking about all the issues that are on the table with regard to the main issue. Students will work in the school’s computer lab and be directed to my Yahoo Delicious page. From this page, students will click on a link, which will direct them to a town discussion web site. There they will find many opinions from residents in the area. Students will read posting from both sides and rate them on an effectiveness scale of one to four stars. We will then return to the classroom where students will meet to discuss their results in the assigned groups. At this point the group will decide to take a side and support that with one of their own opinions and use two supporting ones from the website. At the end of the lesson, the group will report back to the class on their stance and supply the reasons why.

Students will use technology by using the bookmark site mentioned, and navigate the town website which holds the comments.

This lesson addresses the needs of diverse learners, as I will make the groups heterogeneous to ensure that special education and ELL learners can be helped by other group members throughout the process.

Student learning will be assessed by a short rubric which will address the group’s research and the short presentation made to the class.

This lesson meets our “GAME” criteria cited in our text Technology Integration for Meaning classroom Use. Goal- Students will form an opinion on the issue before them. Action- Students will conduct guided research and form an opinion. Monitor- Students will see patterns emerge from the research conducted. Evaluate- Students will evaluate their findings and report to the class.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.