This lesson plan is designed for a class titled "Asian History" that is open to 11^th and 12^th graders of all ability levels. The plan is the first in a series of three geared toward introducing the students to China at the beginning of a three week unit on the country. Prior to this lesson, students will have been given a demonstration on the features of the software program Eyewitness-History of the World. This program is best utilized in the curriculum as a source of information for student projects. After the demonstration students should be able to navigate the software comfortably and need not follow the teacher. The teacher does need, however, to provide a framework for any activity using the software because of the breadth of information contained in the program.

In the lesson plan laid out here, the students are given the opportunity to use the software in order to research a given topic, abstract the main ideas, and ultimately present the findings to the class. The class will be broken into small groups; therefore, either a computer lab or library computers will need to be available. The students will be able to conduct the activity independently, with the teacher monitoring progress and providing technical assistance whenever necessary.

DAY 1

Prior to using the software, the students watch a demonstration of the software and are instructed to take notes. As a reminder, the students are given a reference page to refer to as they use the software. At the end of the class previous to the use of the software, the students are broken into groups of four and briefly introduced to the activities they will be engaged in over the next few days.

Objectives (for the next three days)

1. work together with others in producing a finished product
2. access a piece of educational software
3. extract main ideas about a given topic from the educational software
4. create a presentation about their topics for the class
5. design three quiz questions to be used on a quiz at the end of the presentations

Materials

Teacher:

Software: Eyewitness-History of the World

Copies of the students’ assignment

Copies of the software reference page

Use of computer lab or library computers

Student:

Notebook and pen

Begin by asking the students to share anything they may already know about China. Write their responses on the board. Explain that the assignment is an introduction to China and that each of the topics will be investigated further throughout the unit.

• Culture: silk painting, Chinese characters, poetry
• Well known people: Mao-tse Tung, Chiang-Kai Shek, Confucius, Kublai Khan
• Government: Ming Dynasty, Manchu Dynasty, change to Communism
• Geography: Great Wall, Silk Road, Forbidden City

1. The students have the remainder of the period to utilize the software in order to obtain the information they need to complete the project. The teacher monitors progress and provides technical assistance as needed.

At the end of class each group shares one interesting fact they learned.

Evaluation for this particular day will be done through teacher observations of the students progress with using the software and extracting main ideas. The formal evaluation will be conducted on the day the presentations are done. The presentations and student-created quiz questions will serve as the basis for the final evaluation of this assignment.

Day 2: The students will work on organizing their information and deciding what type of presentation they will do. They will spend the entire class creating their presentation and practicing.

Day 3: Presentation day. Each group will be given 10 minutes for their presentation. Students not presenting will be instructed to take notes so they will be able to study for the quiz that is comprised of all of their self-generated questions.