SUBJECT: Language Arts, Social Studies
GRADE: 5^th
TECHNOLOGY: Spreadsheet
BY: Sara Young

POLITICAL ISSUES SURVEY

Grade: This lesson is designed for a fifth grade class of 22 students. The students attend an elementary school where at least grades 3, 4, and 5 are present. The school has 4 third grade classes, 4 fourth grade classes, and 4 fifth grade classes (including mine).

Subject: This interdisciplinary lesson includes three primary subjects: language arts, social studies, and technology. Creating a survey using non-persuasive language is the language arts piece. The subject of the survey involves discussing the current issues of an upcoming election. Finally, the students will then analyze their data and display it graphically using a spreadsheet program.

Purpose: The students in my class discuss current events daily. This year there is an election for governor. The purpose of the lesson is for the students to create a survey to see what issues are important to the third, fourth, and fifth grade students of their school. Fifth graders will benefit from a lesson that they can relate to their own lives. They are at a developmental level where they can start relating global, national, and state issues to themselves. Using an active learning situation enables the students to create and take responsibility for a class project. The students are able to communicate with other students furthering their understanding of political issues as well as their social communication skills. In addition, students at the fifth grade level have had some prior experience with percentages and graphs, making the lesson appropriate for a group of this age.

Objectives:

1. In pairs, the students will develop two non-leading questions for the survey on issues in the gubernatorial campaign.

2. As a class, the students will create an opinion survey dealing with the current issues of the gubernatorial campaign.

3. After explaining the purpose of the survey, the students, in pairs, will distribute and collect the surveys in a third, fourth, or fifth grade class.

4. The students will input the collected data using a spreadsheet program.

5. In pairs, the students will illustrate the results of their assigned classroom graphically, using two different charts on a spreadsheet program.

6. The students will report the results of their assigned classroom to the rest of the class.

7. In small groups, the students will compare and contrast the recorded results.

a. Compare/contrast classes 2 at a time

b. Compare/contrast grades (combining 4 classes of each grade)

Materials:

recent newspaper articles about the issues of the election

computer with :

1. spreadsheet program (ex. Microsoft Excel)

2. word processing program (ex. Microsoft Word)

paper (copier)

overhead projector

overhead pens

chalk

handouts 1 and 2

partner/group evaluation sheet

Lesson Description

Introduction

· Review current events related to the gubernatorial race. Have recent newspapers and magazines available to refer to for ideas.

· What are some of the issues in the race for governor that we have talked about? Big picture: We are going to create an opinion survey for our school about the issues in the race for governor.

· What issues do you think that the students of our school are interested in?

· Does it vary by class/grade? Why or why not?

· Brainstorm the important issues for the campaigns. Write all of the ideas on the board. Guide the students into consolidating the issues into the main ones.

Guided Practice

· The teacher will pick out one topic to go through with the students.

· What are some of the issues related to ____________?

· What questions do you have for your peers?

· Is this an important issue to them?

· Are they mainly interested in a particular side of it?

· Write all of the students’ questions on the board. Let the students decide what the two best questions are. Why are they important? As a class, work on rephrasing the questions so they are not persuasive. (A prior language arts lesson addressed persuasive vs. non-persuasive phrasing of questions.) When the two questions are in final form, the teacher will write them on the overhead.

· When writing a survey, it is helpful to have some demographic information (age, grade, etc.), so that we can analyze the results by various factors. Ask the students what information may be important if we are going to analyze the results by grade (make sure that grade is a question).

Independent work—Share time

· Divide the students into pairs. Give each pair of students one of the topics on the board. Each pair is responsible for writing two questions related to this issue that they are interested in finding out their peer’s opinions. The questions must not be judgmental or suggestive of a particular viewpoint.

· Each pair will report back to the class with their two questions. The teacher will write all of the questions on the board. The teacher will go through each question with the class to make sure that the entire class feels that it is appropriately worded.

Revisions, editing, and the final copy

· Are there any questions that need to be added, deleted, or modified?

· Each pair of students will type their two questions on the computer.

· The teacher will review the questions the students typed to confirm spelling, etc.

· The teacher will make 288 copies (12 classes * 24 students/class) of the survey for the students to distribute.

Next day

Go over the purpose of the survey with the students. Discuss the importance of anonymity in an opinion poll. People are more likely to tell you what they really think if their names are not attached to it. Have the students complete the survey. Each pair of students will then go to an assigned third, fourth, or fifth grade class to administer the survey. To each class they will explain the purpose and the fact that it is anonymous. Both students should participate in the explanation of the survey, as well as the distribution and the collection of materials.

· Each pair will enter their results into a single spreadsheet program. The pair will then represent the results of that class graphically using two different spreadsheet charts that are appropriate to display the data. The class has had prior experience working with charts and graphs on the spreadsheet program.

· Each pair will report the results of the class that they administered the survey to. Discuss the issues important to that individual class.

· In small groups, the students will analyze the results by class and grade. They will use the worksheet as a guide (see handouts 1 and 2).

· What issues are important to each class/grade?

· Discuss the similarities and differences in the results for each class/grade.

· Why might there be differences/similarities in the opinions?

· Join back together as a class.

· What did you find out? What are some similarities/differences in classes/grades?

· Why might there be differences/similarities?

· Overall, what did this assignment tell us?

· Why are opinion polls important?

· Distribute partner/group evaluation forms for the students to complete.

Evaluation

1. Continually during the lesson, I am checking for student understanding by questioning them. The responses to these questions will help me to determine if students need more information, examples, modeling, guidance, and if mini-lessons need to be added.

2. While the students are working in pairs or small groups, I will walk around and observe the students. If a group seems to be off track in their questioning, I will help to guide them in the right direction.

3. Students will be evaluated using the attached rubric.

4. Due to the large amount of group work with this lesson, the students will be evaluated for most of the components as a group. For numbers 1-6 on the rubric, the students will be evaluated in pairs. For numbers 7-8 on the rubric, the students will be evaluated in small groups.

5. The students will estimate their contributions to the partnership and the group. In addition, the students will evaluate the contributions of their partner and group members.

Rubric for scoring survey lesson

	Exceeds Expectations	Meets Expectations	Below Expectations
¬ Questions (10 points)	Creates two well-written questions; language is non-persuasive and concise; questions relevant to topic (10)	Creates two questions with non-persuasive language relevant to topic (5)	Does not create 2 questions; questions lead the reader to respond in particular way; questions not relevant to topic
Typed portion of survey (5 points)		Types in two questions for survey (5)	Does not type in two questions for survey
® Distribution and collection (10 points)	Explained purpose and anonymity of survey; distributed surveys and collected them when completed (10)	Distributed and collected surveys to assigned class (5)	Did not distribute or collect surveys for assigned class
¯ Spreadsheet (5 points)		Input data into previously set up spreadsheet program (5)	Does not input data in spreadsheet program
° Graphic Representation (10 points)	Uses a spreadsheet program to represent results with two appropriate graphic representations; charts illustrate data in enlightening and easy to understand way (10)	Graphically represents data for one class in two different types of charts available on spreadsheet program (5)	Fails to represent data graphically; uses only one type of chart to illustrate data
± Report on results (10 points)	Demonstrates understanding of results; presents information in clear, informative way; both students participate (10)	Presents information in a clear, informative way; both students participates (5)	Presentation on results is unclear; one person dominates presentation

² Comparisons of classes

(10 points)

Discussion of results is valid, insightful; able to compare and contrast similarities and differences in results; offers hypotheses for similarities and differences; indications by partner of high contributions (10)

Discussion on comparisons of classes is thoughtful and valid; acknowledges the differences in what each class considers important (5)

Is unable to compare results of different classes; discussion of results is invalid, off base, or lacks support; fails to address similarities and differences

³ Comparisons of grade levels

(10 points)

Discussion on comparisons of grades is thoughtful and valid; acknowledges the differences in what each grade considers important (5)

Is unable to compare results of different grades; discussion of results is invalid, off base, or lacks support; fails to address similarities and differences

Grade Points

A = 60-70 points

B = 50-59

C = 40-49

D = 30-39

F = 29 points or lower

Group Members:________________

________________

Choose two classes. Compare the graphs of these two classes.

What are some of the similarities in the responses?

What are some of the differences?

	Class 1:	Class 2:
Similarities
Differences
Other information

Group Members:________________

________________

Choose two grades. Compare the graphs of these two grades.

What are some of the similarities in the responses?

What are some of the differences?

	Grade:	Grade:
Similarities
Differences
Other information