Process

What makes someone great?

The student's task is to find answers to this question by learning about the lives of people who are famous or well-known in their particular field. To do this, each member of a group of four will assume the role of an expert in one field. One will be a Science and Technology expert, one will be an expert in Leadership, one on Sports, and one will focus on Arts and Humanities.

The lesson is organized into four segments -- one per week. A minimum of two and one-half hours per week should be allowed for student work time. Additional time may be necessary outside of class for this interdisciplinary lesson.

Students are divided intogroups of four. It is best to include a student who is interested in each of the four areas, of course, but not necessarily practical. You could ask the students to indicate their top two or three choices among the four disciplines and then assign students to the groups. If your class consists of a group of less than four students, you might consider consolidating roles or inviting additional students to participate in the lesson.

If you're working in a one-computer classroom, or don't have Internet access from your class, it might be advisable to print out the Internet pages on each individual so that students can read them offline. Otherwise, a schedule will need to be developed to allow each student some time online.

As a teacher, you need to have some experience with the Internet. It would also be helpful to have knowledge of the program WebWhacker, or something similar. Using WebWhacker, one can save the web pages to the hard drive of the classroom computer so students do not need to be online to access the information.

You also need to have working knowledge of PowerPoint, or an assistant who has experience with the program. This might be an ideal situation for volunteers to help in the classroom.

Week One: The students will read about three or more of the specific people in their chosen fields. They may use books and magazines as well as the Internet links provided. Because the fields are divided among them, it will be extremely important that each of them learn as much as they can about what influenced these people and caused them to become great. Students will need to take notes on each individual to refer to later.

Week Two: Students continue reading about at least three of the people and collecting information about their lives. They will begin to formulate their own theories about what might have caused these people to become great and look for evidence to support their theories.

Week Three: Group members meet to compare what they've learned. Are their theories similar? Can they find anything that the famous individuals might have in common?

If they find nothing in common, they may want to consider the theories of other members of the group and go back through the information on their subjects. Perhaps students overlooked something. If there is nothing in common, this will need to be incorporated into the PowerPoint presentation before the school board and community members group.

Students develop their plan for the presentation they will give to the committee examining a magnet school. Each student must contribute to the presentation whether it is with visual aids, role-playing, or summarizing. They need to plan how to get their message across to their audience.

Week Four: Students finalize plans for their PowerPoint presentation as a group. Each student must have a significant role in sharing the findings. Students will need to practice their delivery.

Culmination: Students present their findings to the committee.

Variations

Knowledge about organizing and conducting a live remote session with an expert would be extremely beneficial, if it can be arranged. Some of the individuals selected for this lesson were specifically chosen because they may be accessible through e-mail or interactive remote sessions.

Additionally, you may consider collaborating with the library media specialist to locate and gather reference materials. A resource center could be established that includes periodicals and other print items.