The document provides instructions for a mock student project on creating a "United States Melting Pot" slideshow. Students will work in groups, with one student in each group interviewing a family member who immigrated to the US. The other students will research the immigrant's country of origin. When complete, each group will present their findings and all groups will combine their work into a class slideshow depicting the classroom as a "melting pot." The document outlines the project implementation over three sessions, with students learning about each other's cultural backgrounds in session one, developing research questions in session two, and presenting their findings in session three. Students are instructed to develop and submit a written narrative outlining how their proposed project satisfies the elements

1. III. Mock Student Work Sample
In order for you to explain your project to your students AND for you to be able
to accurately and effectively plan to implement it with them in the classroom,
you MUST go through the process of creating a sample of the project
YOURSELF!
1)Create a work sample – this must be a work of Art that YOU personally do,
with resources and materials that you can reasonably expect to find in a
contemporary school, and within a timeframe that can be made to work as
part of a school’s instructional program
(allowing for the fact that as you are going first, you may take more time in
order to establish the procedures needed). You may do this project
digitally or you may do it in traditional arts materials (or other adapted as
arts materials – like scrap cardboard used to make masks) and then scan
OR photograph it (digitally) so that you may submit it online. Many of you
may find that the Digital Collage approach that I highlight in this course is
a an art making approach that is practical for you and that you may apply
to one of the approaches to projects we’ll be seeing (i.e. digital posters,
postcards, trading cards, etc.)
2)Describe the process of creating it…
The students will create a “United States Melting Pot” slide show. In this
project the students will work in groups. One person in each group will be
a descendant from a country other than the United States. The person
who is from the country other than the United States will interview their
family member and share with the class the history of their families’
immigration. The other students will research the country’s language,
culture, sports, food and famous people from that country. When the
students come together to bring their information they will present their
groups work to the other classmates. When all groups have finished their
research work they will come together and make a slide show which will
become the “Melting Pot”.
3)Describe how you will organize things in order to accomplish this with your
class (materials and resources needed, classroom environment, will the
students work individually or as groups or as a whole group, etc.)
The students will work in groups with one individual being from a family of
immigration.
Materials needed: the students will need computers to do their research
What to turn in: A graphics file of your Mock Student Work Sample and a (text)
narrative of your project creation and implementation process descriptions…
How to turn it in: Start a thread in the Discussion Board set up for this

2. submission and attach the file of your sample.
As we've discussed already, for your Final Project you will create a unit of study.
This will be a PBL (Project Based Learning) unit. Consequently, one of the things
you will require of your students is the creation of a product. We have just
surveyed a number of this type of project, most of which clearly involve the
creation of Visual Art products. In presenting the project you expect your
students to do, showing them an example of completed work will help them
understand it. Also, by going through the process of creating a sample of such
yourself, you will assure that your assignment, guidance, and expectations for
your students are workable, manageable, do-able, etc. Consequently, it is time to
begin producing mock student work samples.
Experiment with creating an image(s) or a Visual Art based learning product
using an item(s) from the list of software/tech applications to create content
above (or substitute your own resource(s). You may want to leave this first
attempt simply as an experiment, or you may want to use this as the work
sample that you will include with your final project - Your work may be a
'capture' or saved image that you somehow "process" (alter, enhance,
transform, etc.), a collage of captured or saved images, a digital drawing or
painting or a scan of non-digital images...or it may be a combination of these.
Save your image in a way that the viewer will be able to open and see it and
attach the file to your post in the Discussion Board - OR - if you create
something online you can simply include the link in your post. Be sure to put
your name and 604 in the file name.
See sample: http://www.scribd.com/doc/63266472/Mock-Student-Work-Sample-a
What to turn in: A graphics file of your Mock Student Work Sample and a (text)
narrative of your project creation and implementation process descriptions.
How to turn it in: Start a thread in the Discussion Board set up for this
submission and attach the file of your sample.
NOTE: In the event you encounter difficulties or confusion, let me know or better
yet, reach out to the class for suggestions in the Peer Help section of the
Discussion Board.
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IV. Defend your project as Project –Based Learning
Is your project true Project-Based Learning? Or have you fallen into the
trap of planning a traditional lesson that has an art activity tacked on
toward the end as an extra, an ancillary enrichment? Please go through
our PBL checklist and comment for each item how your project

3. conforms…
Elements of Project-Based Learning EdSE 604
1. Students identify what to learn, how to learn it, and how to demonstrate
what they’ve learned (as far as is practical for age, grade level, and
student population type) – Teacher sets general goals and parameters,
etc.
Students will learn how to research other countries and find out how the
individuals in these countries live, their cultures, their language, the way they
dress, what famous people are from these countries and what the favorite
sport and foods are for these countries. Classmates who are descendents of
immigrants will serve as group leaders.
2. Students work independently and/or in small collaborative groups
Students will work in groups with the student from the immigrated family as
the group leader. The groups will decide what questions the student will ask
the family and the remaining students in the group will decide who will be
assigned their portion of the research.
3. Students learn facts and skills IN ORDER TO CREATE their project’s
PRODUCT and or PERFORMANCE creates a need to know essential content and
skills. Typical projects (and most instruction) begin by presenting students with
knowledge and concepts and then, once learned, give them the opportunity to
apply them. PBL begins with the vision of an end product or presentation which
requires learning specific knowledge and concepts, thus creating a context and
reason to learn and understand the information and concepts.
America the melting pot has always been a statement heard around the world. Students
will first tell what they think this phrase means and we will explore the reasons why these
students think this is the phrase heard around the world after which we will demonstrate
how the melting pot exists right in the classroom with the students we are around each
and everyday.
Students will learn that the United States is a Melting Pot because there are so many other
countries represented here in the US and they will realize the differences between those
whose families were born in the United States and those who families come from another
country and the reasons why they immigrated to the United States. When the groups put
their work together this becomes their ―melting pot‖ in the end the classroom will
produce their own melting pot slide show which tells of the different cultures in the
classroom.
4. Students create a product or performance that is “Authentic”, that is, it
serves a real purpose and is presented to a real audience
The students will create a slide show that will tell of the different stories of

4. immigration and the information they researched from each country. Once they
have completed this the students will put together their own melting pot as the
groups come together and create a slide show which describes the classroom’s
melting pot.
5. Students receive feedback:
a) from their peers as they are working on their product and include the
feedback as part of their revision process, and
b) from their audience, which may help them evaluate the success and
impact of their work
6. The product/performance is saved, archived, and “published” (or
disseminated/distributed)
7. The student product/performance has an expressive or artistic dimension
to it.
8. Students make significant use of technology in doing their project
The students will use the computer to do their research of their countries
culture, language, etc. and use PowerPoint to display their research.
9. The experience of working on the project includes a reflective,
“Constructivist” dimension
10. Students will be able to relate to their classmate much better because they
will understand the ways in which different cultures operate and their view
of their classmates perhaps in the way they dress or the way they
approach different situations will begin to make sense to the other
students and help them understand the ways of the student’s culture.
11. requires inquiry to learn and/or create something new. Not all learning has to be
based on inquiry, but some should. And this inquiry should lead students to
construct something new – an idea, an interpretation, a new way of displaying what
they have learned.
Students will inquire into the group leaders country in order to establish what the basis is
for their project. They will learn about the different ways of other countries including the
language, the food, the sports, what famous people are from their countries.
12. requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of
communication. Students need to do much more than remember information—
they need to use higher-order thinking skills. They also have to learn to work as a
team and contribute to a group effort. As a team they will put together their
information in order for their finished product to be a compilation of research and
the information once put together will produce a finished product of their country.
They must listen to others and make their own ideas clear when speaking, be able

5. to read a variety of material, students will be able to do research on the internet
and once presented to the group they will decide whether or not they need more
information on the country.write or otherwise express themselves in various
modes, and make effective presentations. Each student will begin presenting their
information to the group, the group will decide whether or not they require more
information from the student. These skills, competencies and habits of mind are
often known as "21st Century Skills". For more info:
http://www.bie.org/about/21st_century_skills
13. is organized around an open-ended Driving Question or Challenge. These focus
students’ work and deepen their learning by centering on significant issues,
debates, questions and/or problems. The question or challenge is directly related to
the product or performance. The students will decide whether or not their
information is significant to present to the rest of the class or if they will require
more information in order to satisfy the history of the country they are
researching.
What to turn in: A text narrative in which you discuss your project in terms of
how it satisfies each item on our list of PBL Elements
How to turn it in: Use the Discussion Board established for this.
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V. Refine, Finish, and Submit Your Project
1) Refine your project and write an implementation plan:
Review each of the 4 elements of your Final Project that precede this one and
make as many refinements and improvements as you feel will make your project
better and easier to understand.
2) Write a short implementation plan:
For each session that your unit will run, explain the following…
a) Give an overview of the session
Session I
The children will stand before the class and tell us where their family originated
from. I expect that at least 5 or 6 students will have families that migrated to the
United States in at least the past 2 or 3 generations before them.
Session II
All students will come together to decide what information they will research
from the different countries and what information they would be interested in
learning from their Group leaders regarding immigration and their families.

6. Session III
Students will come together in their groups and explain what information they
have researched and what they came up with. The group leader will present to
the class the information that was obtained from their family member. The other
group members will present the information they have obtained based on their
research.
b) Explain what the students will do during this session
After we have established the students who are descendents of immigrants we
will select these students as group leaders and each student will decide which
group they wish to join based on the country they most want to research.
Session II
Students will begin to brainstorm to decide which questions will better serve the
information they are seeking.
Session III
Once all the information has been presented the students will come together and
decide the best way to present it to the class. They will have pictures and
information on the country they have researched. In addition they will come
together and each one will take part in putting together the melting pot.
c) Explain what the teacher will do during this session
During the first session the teacher will serve as the record keeper. She will
keep track of which student is the group leader and which students belong to
their group.
Session II
The teacher will visit each group to make sure they are staying on point and
concentrating on the appropriate questions for their research.
Session III
The teacher will provide the materials necessary for the students to paste the
pictures together as well as paper and crayons to begin the artwork of the flag of
the country they have chosen.
d) What will the students produce this session? (A product? a portion of a
product? preparation for a product? a presentation or performance? Other?)
d) How long will the session run – how will the time be apportioned (broken up
into sections)?
During the first session the students will get to know each other and their group

7. leader and learn what to expect as the project continues on.
Session II
The students will present to the teacher the questions they feel are important to
represent the information they want to capture about each country.
Session III
The students will present the research they have on each country and continue
to research information about their country.
e) Logistics – how will the students be seated (i.e. individually, as small groups,
as a whole group) – how will materials/resources be distributed? How will work
be put away for the day? How will students retrieve work in progress? How will
students share their work, ideas, questions, etc.?
Students will be seated in groups and each group will be given the opportunity
to decide what questions they will have the students of immigrant descendant
ask their family members in order to understand clearly what it means to be an
immigrant.
Session II
At the end of this session the students will put their work in the folder of
questions they have selected and they will begin to assign each group member
what they will research specifically, i.e. language, culture, holidays, foods, etc.
Session III
Students will come together and the teacher will assist them in putting their
information together and presenting their slide show.
f) Will you assess the students for their participation this session? If so, how?
No assessment will be done this session. The students will be free to toy with ideas on
what type of questions they have to ask and given the leisure of changing up the questions
as they see fit.
Session II
At this session I will review the questions that they have chosen to be asked by the student
of the immigrant family and I will review the distribution of research to ensure that each
student will be given a fair amount of work.
Session III
All questions

8. 3) Present the plan to the class – Post your work online and then email a link(s)
to it to professor Gura.
What to turn in: All of the 5 components joined as best you can or in accordance
with your sensibility in terms of functional communication and creativity.
How to turn it in: After you have uploaded your work to the web, email the link(s)
to Professor Gura