collaborative research paper

I tried to be very specific in my last post about the wiki the students would do, which is lucky for me because that made this week so much easier! 

 

I choose to use the Collaborative Research Papers in chapter 4. This was mainly due to the fact the students for this lesson are basic education students, trying to learn about the supreme court. It would not be fair for to the students to expect them to do much written analysis on the supreme court or their decisions.   While there will surely be in class discussions on particular cases, think asking them to use the wiki, and do the research and present it in a pleasing manner is enough. 

Now for making the assignment into a Collaborative Research Paper. 

First, I would take West and West advice have an individual Wiki for each group and the home page contain the following:

1. Assigned case

2. Group Members and have them identify their role

3.Deadlines

4. Outline of paper and questions needed to be answered

 

Now if you are following along with book you will say but wait, they say goals, you have deadlines. I think goals for this project are already pretty set up on the questions that needed to be answered.  Also when is it due is really the first thing any student wants to know when first hearing about the assignments. 

Research Page:

According to West and West this will eventually become the reference page but during the project it could be a work table, however, in my assignment it would be the reference page that when ever they find a source they are going to use it automatically goes on that page. This is for student on in person class so their "work table" can be an actual table.

Paper:

While the goal the Colloaborate Research Paper is to create one, I am hoping more for accurate information that is citied and using some other media in the wiki that adds to the page. So while the there should be plenty of type, it may not look like a very traditional paper. 

You might be wondering what the activity was and not willing to go back to my last post, so here it is for you because I like to make it easy for you!

 

 

This activity has students working in research groups to find information on an important Supreme Court case and develop an information poster to share with the class.

    Divide students into groups of four to cover as many of the cases  as necessary.

    Have each group research their assigned Case and create a wiki about their Case. Allow creativity with this project  giving them free range of how they want design the Wiki. The only requirements is they answer the following questions:

1.       when was the court case decided

2.       What was the case about? What was issues that brought it to the supreme court in the first place?

3.       What was the decision of the supreme court?

4.       What was it impact on the country?

  Have students discuss on threaded questions or in class the court cases and what they learned on their subjects. Use debriefing questions below if necessary.      

Debriefing Questions:

    Which cases involved Constitutional questions surrounding the Bill of Rights or the power of one of the branches of government?

    Which cases involved judicial review?

    Which cases involved the executive branch? The legislative branch?

    Did you agree with the Court's decision in the case you presented? Why or why not?

    Did you strongly agree or disagree with any of the other Court decisions presented? Explain why.

 

 

Thanks for reading this week!

 

PS I have discovered another problem with technology, I only have West and West on my Kindle, so I cannot cite any page numbers! So sorry about that!

West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.