Melissa's Activity Revision #1
For my activity, I think I'd like to stick with the restaurant idea. I got a lot of good feedback, and a lot of helpful hints as well. I think that one of the problems with my activity before was that it may have been a bit too complicated for elementary students. I am hoping to gear it more toward fifth graders, and as such, I have simplified the requirements a bit. So, bearing all of this in mind, I have come up with my revised activity. To start, the kids will still write a basic five paragraph essay about their favorite restaurant. They will detail why they like it, their favorite dish, and who they go there with. The next task of the assignment will be to have the kids break up into teams. They will brainstorm ideas for a restaurant of their own. They will represent this brainstorm using Inspiration software. At the center of their web will be the name of their restaurant. Each shoot-off of their main idea will be basic information about that restaurant. (i.e. general type of food they will serve, a basic color scheme for the decor, entertainment for their patrons, etc.) Together, they will work to design a floorplan for their restaurant using Microsoft Word. They will use autoshapes and write down actual dimensions. When they submit this, they will need to include the total area in square feet of their restaurant. The kids will also design a menu for their restaurant. They will need to come up with prices for their food, and find the average price of a plate, the median price of a plate, and the price that occurs most frequently (mode). Finally, they will create a commercial for their restaurant to present to the class. They will write a script and assign jobs (actor, director, producer, etc.). To finish the project, the kids will present their commercial to the class. They will be allowed (but not required) to bring in an item from the menu for the whole class to try, provided that an adult has helped them to prepare it. They will complete their "restaurant portfolio" by writing a reflection on the whole experience. This assignment will target basic math skills (area, mean, median, mode) as well as language arts skills (script writing, reflective writing, and five-paragraph essay). With any luck, they'll have some fun doing it as well! All in all, the project should take about three weeks to complete.
2 Comments:
Meredith-
Thanks for the feedback. I feel like this is more appropriate for fifth or sixth graders because it incorporates a much larger portion of the curriculum. Inspiration is a software that is available in many school districts that is a visual mapper. For example, if you were to go to www.inspiration.com and download the free trial, you could create a story web, a brainstorm, and a lot more. It's easy to use and I think the kids would love it!
-Melissa
Richard-
Thanks for all the feedback, it really was a big help. As far as the persuasive essay goes, I thought that FCAT took over for FL writes? Either way, they test these kids way too much. It would be a shame to have all of these creative ideas for lesson plans and then have to edit them all to fit the standards of a test that doesn't even begin to measure intelligence.
-Melissa
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