Title of Project: The Humanities Project
10-word Project Description
Give a brief description that helps people tell at a glance what the project idea is about.This project will focus on the integration of history within an English/LAL classroom.
Description of Learners (Brief)
Give a brief description of your project's learners. Again, the purpose is to help other people tell at a glance who is the audience of your project idea. Typical examples: Older Adult, Corporate Executives, Young Adult, High School, Elementary School, Pre-School.
The learners on this particular project are young adults in high school.
Description of Learners (Longer)
Provide a more detailed description of the learners who would be involved in your project idea. For example, if they are school children, would you include all students in a particular grade level, or only those who need remedial help. Would you focus on only on gifted students? If your audience are corporate executives, what is their level of education and experience?
What do you know about the learners' motivation to participate in this project idea. Would they be eager or reluctant to get involved? Why is that? What do you think they would already know about the topic? For example, if they are corporate executives studying tax laws, do you expect them to be completely new to the topic or just unaware of recent tax law changes? If they are high school biology students, do you expect them to be novices or advanced placement students?
The Humanities Project will be applicable to high school students of all grade levels and learning abilities. It is my belief that students have an embedded interest and value in historical information. This rings true for a variety of reasons. However, when it comes to English/LAL, many students struggle with finding meaning and purpose in their ability to read and write proficiently. Many students are capable of communicating with one another, and have no issue conversing with family and friends, so it does not seem very important to learn how to do so at a level that is considered proficient by most educational standards. This must change in order for standardized test scores to improve. Furthermore, these subject areas should not be learned in isolation. It is essential that students are capable of applying active reading strategies to their reading and analysis of historical figures, events, and documents. Likewise, it is important that students are capable of drawing connections with history in their own articulation of thought about studied topics. This integration of content should produce higher test scores and greater levels of intellectual application.
Description of the Setting
Where would this project take place? In a school? At a company? What can you tell us about the setting? Would the instruction take place in a classroom or on the job? What kinds of resources do you expect to have at your disposal? Will there be enough computers for everyone? Will you have a budget to purchase additional resources, such as videos or journals? If it is a corporate setting, how much time away from the job do you expect the employer to allow for the instruction?
The Humanities Project will take place within a 40-minute classroom in which students will have access to computer technology (as available). Teacher will provide varying forms of media to engage students. No time away from work is necessary for this project.
Description of Problem/Opportunity
Describe the problem or opportunity that your instructional project will meet? If your project will solve an instructional or training problem, what is the nature of the problem? What do the students or employees need to know that they don't right now? Who thinks it is a problem? What evidence is there to suggest it is a problem?
If your project will take advantage of a unique learning opportunity, describe the learning opportunity. An example would be a school that was bequeathed a large donation by a long-term community member who loved birds to build a nature trail.
The problem that students seem to face lies in their inability to make connections between their content areas (English <--->History) and see how learning within one subject can translate into success within another class.
Goal Statement
Take a stab at writing an instructional goal statement. As you do so, try to write this in terms of what you want the learners to be able to know or do. It's good advice to try to imagine that the instruction that you have in mind has just concluded - if the instruction was successful, what can these learners now demonstrate in terms of new learning that they could not have done before going through your instruction?
Make connections between content areas by applying active reading and writing strategies.
