Projects

Each of these projects had some similar characteristics. For each, students were able to work in groups and they were able to pick their own partners. Some teachers don’t like to let students work in groups but I feel it is a great teaching strategy. While students are doing a lot of talking, if the project is assigned correctly most of the talking is about the project. It allows students to bounce ideas off each other and discuss information in a way they would not otherwise get to do. I feel the discussing and working through of information aids in their retention of the material. Plus if they are working with someone else it makes the work a little more fun than if they were to work all alone. I let them pick their own groups so they are with people they are comfortable with. They will be more likely to ask questions and discuss the material if they know the people/person they are working with. Also I let them pick their own groups to avoid the problem of one person doing all the work or someone doing none. They know the people they are selecting, they know if they are responsible, hard working, and a good groupmate, or if they are lazy and wont bring much to the group. I feel this way I just have to grade the group and I don’t have to worry about individual grades. I also don’t have people complaining to me about their group, as they knew what they were getting into when they selected it.

Another thing these projects all had in common is that I gave them several days in class to work on/finish them. These students are very busy and I understand that. Also, with them working in groups I know it would be very hard for them to get together outside of school. As a result, I am more than happy to give them time to work in class. I usually didn’t give an exact due date, as long as students were working and staying on task they would continue to have work time. If kids know when a project is due, they tend to wait and finish it at the last minute. By not telling them and instead telling them “it is done when you guys are done working”, I found they would work a lot harder and longer, and produce some very nice projects. I feel this also helped to keep them on task and reduced the issues that other teachers may have that turns them off to group work and projects.

The final thing that all the projects had in common was that they were all presented to the class. Because a lot of what I was teaching was simply background knowledge and broad overviews, I relied on the student projects to provide a lot of the depth and extra information that I didn’t cover myself. In addition to the extra information that was provided by students, I feel that the repetition of much of the material helped students to retain what we talked about. While students did research and brought in new information, a lot of what they would present and talk about was restating what other students already had heard, said, or knew. As a teacher I know one of the best ways for students to retain information is repetition, and the presenting of the projects helped to provide a lot of repetition to drive home and important and necessary information while sprinkling in some new details to keep it interesting


 * Mesopotamia:**

Reflection student work


 * Egypt:**



Reflection student work


 * Ancient Near East:**

Reflection student work


 * Greece:**



Reflection student work


 * Rome:**

What could have been