Planning+and+Preparation

a. Students will gain knowledge by first being introduced to the Renaissance Era. Anticipatory set questions, such as
 * Planning**
 * What does Renaissance mean?
 * What was the Renaissance?
 * Can you name anyone who played an important role in the Renaissance?

will be asked of the students and they will write down their thoughts and ideas in their Social Studies journal. The teacher will have each student log in to their account and follow the website: http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/index.html Students and the teacher will read aloud the website and navigate through the links. Students will take notes as they read along, in addition to answering the anticipatory set questions. The teacher will ask high order thinking questions along the way as well. Students will be asked to write down questions in their Social Studies journals that relates to how life for people was in the Renaissance. For example, what kind of sports did they play? what kind of shoes did they wear? what kind of makeup did women wear? The teacher will provide other websites to navigate through to gain knowledge. Students will use this information to gain knowledge and propose research topics.

b. Once students gather all information from class time and research, they will need to organize it to put it into their Power Point slide. Students will first think topics they'd like to research. They may propose them from the top of their head, and/or use the internet to search for ideas. Once the students narrow down their topics to at least two, they will gain access to the Google Docs Spreadsheet the teacher has created. Each student will type in their two ideas for others to see and for the teacher to see as well. Once all topics have been submitted, the teacher will print the ideas and put them into a basket. Students will randomly choose a topic from the basket to research. After topics have been assigned, students will begin their research. The teacher will provide a list of search engines and web links for the students as a guide. Graphic organizers will be handed out to complete. After two days of researching, students will then create their Power Point with the most vital and useful information. Students may use up to two slides each. The students will have another two days to complete this part.

c. When Power Point slides are finished, the teacher will have students submit their slides to through Google Docs again. The teacher will then convert it to one document and set it up to begin their Life in the Renaissance movie. Together, they will create their very own Life in the Renaissance movie. They will create voice over for their slides, add backgrounds and music*, and decide on transitions together. When the movie is complete, students will be able to copy it to DVD to take home and share with their families.
 * Music will be decided from a Renaissance themed CD the teacher provides.

Preparation needed for this project will consist of:
 * Preparation**
 * Creating and sharing Google Docs Spreadsheets
 * Obtaining correct amount of DVDs for each student to have
 * Making sure iMovie is installed and updated on teacher's computer
 * Having Renaissance themed CD
 * Making sure all links provided for students work properly