Open House: Wednesday June 1st, 2016 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
As part of our year-long study of culture and immigration, we are excited to introduce our final project of the 6th grade Cultural Connections year. In the next two months, each sixth grader will interview and do research on the history of a family member or a friend, create a poster board (in both English and French), and give a French oral presentation in class about the heritage and/or stories discovered.
The final projects will be displayed for parents, friends, and relatives at the Cultural Festival Open House on Wednesday, June 1st from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Deciding on a Topic :
There are three main topics for this project: 1. Family History - possible topic can include a family tree, historical events family members were involved in, or different types of immigration stories.
2. Family Culture - projects can reflect different aspects of culture: ethnic or religious background, family interests or hobbies, family traditions (family reunions, recurring travels, etc..).
3. Community history - A friend or member of the community who has an immigration story you would like to explore.
The project should reflect:
1. How the topic is related to family, culture, or immigration.
2. New learning as a result of the assignment.
Students will share project ideas with their family and teacher before starting. The topics should be broad enough to provide adequate information, but not so broad that the information is overwhelming or too general to be interesting.
Students should plan on doing at least one interview with a family member or a family friend. The interview may be done in person or by phone, letter, or e-mail. Information on planning and conducting interviews will be given in class and there will be time to brain-storm possible interview questions.
Additional Research
Students may use a variety of resources to gather more information:
1. Interviews as noted above.
2. Primary Sources - family documents, scrapbooks, journals, etc.
3. Reference books or sites.
4. Newspapers and periodicals.
Parent or Family Support
Students will need adult support outside of school in order to gather information for this project. Much of the writing will take place in school but the material to write about needs to come from home. Students should be doing the vast majority of the work. Here are some ways adults might help:
1. Discuss and suggest project ideas, but let the child make the final choice.
2. Help locate and read reference materials, but let the child actually take the notes.
3. Help brain-storm questions for the interview, but let the child talk or write to relatives.
4. Help gather photos and documents, make copies. Help identifying the content of the pictures, but let the child write the captions.
5. Help organize information, but let the child do the writing.
6. Proofread all written work, but let the child make the final corrections.
7. Listen to your student as he or she rehearse for the oral presentation (it will be in French, and even if you don’t understand, this will help with poise, delivery, and fluency).
*Poster-board for the final project will be provided in class.
-Please don’t buy your own!
Important dates
- April 4th to April 10th: Start having conversations and generate ideas about possible topics.- April 11: Plan of Action (green form) filled in and signed. Project topic decided.
- April 11 to April 27th: Research at Home. Weekly check-ins about progress. Turn in general outline (yellow sheet)
- Friday April 28th: Begin Cultural Festival rough draft in class using Google Docs.
- Monday May 9th: First draft of writing due. Start the French version (oral presentation).
- Wednesday May 11th to Wednesday 18th: In class writing of Final Draft.
- Friday May 20th to Thursday 26th: Distribute poster boards in class. Students will work on creating the displays during Cultural Connections class. Student finish writing the oral version of their presentation (French), and practice it.
- Tuesday May 31st: Boards get put up for display
- Wednesday June 1st: Cultural Festival Open House 6:30 to 8:00
- Friday May 27th - Friday June 3rd: Cultural Festival Speech Presentations
If you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to e-mail me: wiebe_c@4j.lane.edu
Check our blog for updates on this project : catherinewiebe.blogspot.com
