Focused Task

For our Focused Task we looked at the Grade 6 Social Studies section of the illustrative examples. The task asked students to look at China in the last 50 years and find relevant pictures for those 50 years. Students are then required to copy and paste the pictures into a Word document, with captions/brief summaries for each picture. At first, we decided on an interactive timeline. After some initial work with this, however, we decided to create a movie instead. The idea was still there, however - to choose a series of pictures that would illustrate China within the last 50 years.

We went back centuries, however. We felt that, in order to understand any country's present state, one must have a general understanding of that country's past.

The movie itself took many hours to create, as we both had very little experience with the program (Windows Movie Maker). However, it was actually quite easy to get used to and understand. Unfortunately, it was not uncommon for the program to shut itself down. We quickly learned to save our work often . . .

I enjoyed doing the task because I have a personal connection to it - I am Chinese! Though I have never been to China before, it was really interesting to learn about the country. As I searched for pictures I became more and more interested in China . . . I would love to visit someday. In addition, I already had the music that was chosen for the movie on my computer. The difficulty was choosing just one or two songs. All of the songs have a traditional, but modern, flair to it.

I would actually like my students to perform this focused task. Of course, the students can modify the task to make it meaningful to themselves. They can do a Power Point, create a website, or even a photo-journal. The students can use pictures, video, sound, or anything that they feel will relate to the task. This is not a difficult task. Even though the task takes time, if the students have an interest in the topic, the students will put their best effort into it.

As I went around the room, looking at the other focused tasks, I became quite interested in Comic Life. I think this is a great media for kids to do projects on. I believe that everyone enjoys stories, and when kids can make stories with pictures (even stories with pictures of themselves in it!) students will always succeed. The ability to stretch, change, or distort all pictures and words is very appealing to me.

Some comments that people had about our focused task included, "what kinds of lessons or activities lead up to this focused task?" and "I really liked the pictures that you chose, but maybe provide a limit to the students on the amount of pictures they can use." These comments got me thinking a lot. Maybe providing a limit on the amount of pictures a student can use will limit their creativity . . . or maybe it will help keep them focused . . . maybe it depends on the kid . . . what kinds of lessons would lead up to this? It seems that this focused task would work well as a culminating, or final project. The students will probably have had a lot of exposure to the type of material already . . . or, maybe they will come across a lot of new information as they work on their project . . . again, it depends on the individual . . .