Academic Challenge
Mary Magnusson
The Backstory for Academic Challenge-- Citizenship
I teach a course for freshmen called Citizens in a Global Society. This is an
interdisciplinary course with a social studies and English teacher. We begin this course
taking a look at the nature of citizenship: What are the duties and responsibilities of
citizens? What does it mean to be a good citizen? What are examples of citizenship in
our school, your town, our state, our country? How does one become a citizen of the
United States? Why would someone want to become a citizen of the United States?
Since this is the first unit of the year, my students are inexperienced in the world of high
school, with me and my co-teacher, and with their fellow students, some of whom are
new to Sanborn. It will be important in this first challenge to scaffold it for these layers
of inexperience. In addition, challenges are new to these students, since there are not
many teachers at the elementary or middle school level who use any type of challenges in
their classrooms.
The challenge I’ve created will hopefully allow them to answer all of the above essential
questions. In the past we’ve assigned reading from the textbook, given them the
citizenship test, given out worksheets. The knowledge of citizenship has largely come
from the teachers. Now, I want my students to investigate the knowledge collaboratively,
most likely in groups of three since I will have 30 students in each class. Also, I want
them to begin to set the standard for self-direction and organization as learners.
CITIZENSHIP
Introduction: There is a range of opinions about Immigration. Many United States
residents believe others have the right to come live in the US, the land of opportunity, and
live the American Dream. Many US residents believe the US has too many immigrants
and our country is becoming overcrowded. Still, others are in the middle and can’t reach
a decision. Where do you stand on this continuum? This challenge will help you
understand the meaning of citizenship and what it means to become a citizen.
Product: Your group will be creating a mural about citizenship.
Process: Your mural will need to answer the following questions about citizenship.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the duties and responsibilities of citizens?
What does it mean to be a good citizen?
What are examples of good citizens in our school, your town, our state, our country?
How does one become a citizen of the United States?
Why would someone want to become a citizen of the United States?
There will be resources available in class for you to find answers to these questions. It
will be up to your group to decide if additional resources need to be sought outside of
class. Make sure that you document the resources you use.
This assignment will be due at 2:00 on Friday. Therefore, at the end of class today, your
group will need to give me an outline of the mural you will be creating. Be thinking about
how your mural will graphically and with words, represent the answers to the above
questions? In coming up with this outline, you will have to decide on how you want to
find the answers to these questions and how you want this mural to look?
Assessment: At the completion of this challenge you will write a reflection in which you
assess your personal contribution as a member of your group. Be thinking about how you
contributed ideas, took responsibility for your share of the work, and treated others with
respect. Your mural will be assessed through the rubric and quality criteria we will create
as a class.
CENSORSHIP MURAL
Name:
Main Ideas
Needs
Improvement
Outstanding
Satisfactory
Mural has a
clear title
which gives
specific
information
about the main
ideas of
citizenship.
(3 points)
Mural has a
title that
gives some
information
about the
main idea of
citizenship.
(2 points)
Mural is
missing a
title or
statement of
main idea.
(1 point)
Mural
includes most
details about
citizenship
and has clear
labels or
phrases.
(3 points)
Mural
includes a
few details
about
citizenship
using labels
or phrases.
(1 point)
Mural gives
others a
solid
understanding
of
citizenship.
(3 points)
Mural gives
others a
general
understanding
of
citizenship.
(1 point)
Mural
includes
illustrations
and labels.
Content of
mural is
edited for
spelling and
punctuation
and has less
than 3
errors.
(2 points)
Mural
includes
illustrations
and labels.
Content of
mural is not
edited for
spelling and
punctuation
and more than
3 errors.
(1 point)
Details from Mural includes
Research
all details
about
citizenship
and has clear
labels,
phrases, or
sentence
descriptions..
(5 points)
Effectiveness Mural gives
of Poster
others a
thorough
understanding
of citizenship
with specific
examples or
illustrations.
(5 points)
Quality of Mural includes
Poster
illustrations
and labels.
Content of
mural is
edited for
spelling and
punctuation
and has no
errors.
(3 points)
Self
Teacher
Evaluation Evaluation
Total Score:
Handwriting Score:
Overall Appearance:
O
O
/
/
S
S
/
/
N
N
Comments:
COLLABORATION CHECKLIST
For years, you have been working cooperatively in school. To cooperate means that you
work together and get along. Collaboration is when you are investing in group goals and
sharing a group vision. You are sharing your abilities and talents with your group in
reaching a common goal. In collaborative work, you have to communicate well with
each other and understand what your role will be in that group.
For our work in this class, you will be assessing how well you collaborate on different
assignments. For each of the collaborative characteristics on this checklist, you will need
to assess your self by a /+ , / , or /- (checks). You can see that there is a column for you,
and a classmate, and teacher to assess you on each of these characteristics.
Date_______ Assignment___________________________
COLLABORATIVE CHARACTERISIC
Teacher
Comments
Self
Classmate
1. Contributed to group discussions
_____
_____
_____
2. Contributed to work on product
_____
_____
_____
3. Valued group members ideas
_____
_____
_____
4. Engaged fully in collaboration
_____
_____
_____
5. Defended your ideas
_____
_____
_____
6. Fully invested in the work
(not just going along with it)
_____
_____
_____
7. Able to put aside personal agendas to work
towards common goal
_____
_____
_____
8. Able to work out conflicts in group
_____
_____
_____
9. Take advantage of group member’s
strengths to maximize group goal
_____
_____
_____
Additional Comments