Central Focus
Enduring Understanding:
Lack of food can be a driving force of change.
Essential Questions:
What is the most drastic effect of widespread hunger?
Can a negative historical event yield positive end results?
Enduring Understanding:
Lack of food can be a driving force of change.
Essential Questions:
What is the most drastic effect of widespread hunger?
Can a negative historical event yield positive end results?
Integrations
Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts (VAPA), Technology, and Service
Rubrics
Activity Instructions
In groups students will participate in an online scavenger hunt in order to find information about the Irish potato famine as well as world hunger today. Students will use the information they found to individually address an essay prompt about world hunger as well as to collectively create some kind of advertisement for a food drive. This can be in the form of a poster, brochure, or commercial to be posted to YouTube.
Essay Prompt: As you each completed the scavenger hunt with your groups, you were introduced to information about the Irish potato famine, as well as current information on world hunger today. Using this information each of you will write a 2-4 page essay in which you will address hunger, its causes and effects, and argue whether or not there are people in the world today who still experience hunger on the level of the Irish during the potato famine. You may choose either side of the argument as long as you are able to adequately support your argument.
Group Roles
Lead Organizer: Will be responsible for ensuring that work is fairly distributed among team members.
Art Director: Will take the lead in creating the groups art project with contributions from other group members.
Scribe: Will be responsible for recording groups roles and taking notes as needed.
Each member will be assigned one of the first three assignments:
The group members will divvy up the fourth assignment, Irish Potato Famine Scavenger Hunt, equally amongst each other (10 questions each).
Materials for the Activity
Cooperative Learning Elements
Positive Interdependence:
Each student:
Individual and Group Accountability:
Each Student:
Group Processing:
Social Skills:
Face-to-Face Interaction:
Specific Task:
Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts (VAPA), Technology, and Service
Rubrics
- ITU Individual Write-Up Rubric
- ITU Participation Rubric
Activity Instructions
In groups students will participate in an online scavenger hunt in order to find information about the Irish potato famine as well as world hunger today. Students will use the information they found to individually address an essay prompt about world hunger as well as to collectively create some kind of advertisement for a food drive. This can be in the form of a poster, brochure, or commercial to be posted to YouTube.
- Students will be placed in groups of three, chosen by the instructor based on students strengths and needs.
- Students will decide which roles they will each take, and divide the work among themselves.
- Groups will complete the scavenger hunt and all related worksheets/assignments.
- There are two main components for this assignment: the group component and the individual component. The group component includes completion of the scavenger hunt worksheets, vocabulary graphic organizer, potato famine cause/effect worksheet, and the group’s advertisement for the food drive. The individual component is the 2-4 page essay each group member will write individually.
- Upon completion, students will briefly present their advertisement to the rest of the class. Advertisements will be posted around the school along with canned food drop-off boxes. The food drive will go on for one week at which time the canned food will be donated to a local homeless shelter.
Essay Prompt: As you each completed the scavenger hunt with your groups, you were introduced to information about the Irish potato famine, as well as current information on world hunger today. Using this information each of you will write a 2-4 page essay in which you will address hunger, its causes and effects, and argue whether or not there are people in the world today who still experience hunger on the level of the Irish during the potato famine. You may choose either side of the argument as long as you are able to adequately support your argument.
Group Roles
Lead Organizer: Will be responsible for ensuring that work is fairly distributed among team members.
Art Director: Will take the lead in creating the groups art project with contributions from other group members.
Scribe: Will be responsible for recording groups roles and taking notes as needed.
Each member will be assigned one of the first three assignments:
- Irish Potato Famine: Effects of Chart
- Potato Famine Worksheets
- Vocab Chart Instructions
The group members will divvy up the fourth assignment, Irish Potato Famine Scavenger Hunt, equally amongst each other (10 questions each).
Materials for the Activity
- Irish Potato Famine: Effects of Chart
- Potato Famine Worksheets
- Vocab Chart Instructions
- Irish Potato Famine Scavenger Hunt
- This is a timeline source students can use to help them write their essay.
- Argument Paper Brainstorm
Cooperative Learning Elements
Positive Interdependence:
Each student:
- Has been assigned a group role. [Lead Organizer, Art Director, and Scribe]
- Has adopted 1 activity and 10 of the 30 scavenger hunt questions.
- Contributes to creation of advertisement.
Individual and Group Accountability:
Each Student:
- Is responsible for their individual activity.
- Is responsible for their 10 questions from the scavenger hunt.
- Completes their own argument paper brainstorm and 2-4 page essay.
- Must add to the advertisement, whether via brainstorming, art, drawing, etc.
- Is responsible for the the completion of the advertisement.
- Makes sure all the material is completed by the end of the unit.
Group Processing:
- Each student comments on their partners and their own participation via the rubric.
- Group members make an agreement on how to divide the work and keep in contact with their partners for completion of the activities.
Social Skills:
- Students will cooperate in division of tasks building social skills.
- Students have to communicate, make group decisions, learn to resolve any conflicts, and ultimately build trust while creating their food drive advertisements.
Face-to-Face Interaction:
- Students come together and must come to agreement on group roles.
- Students share their individual work and findings to help each other create their brainstorm worksheets.
- Students brainstorm and create advertisement together, meeting face to face in class.
Specific Task:
- Each student does one of the 3 individual activities, based on agreed upon division.
- Each student does 10 of the 30 scavenger hunt questions as agreed upon, and shares findings with their partners.