Task+7-+Mini-action+Research+Project

Task 7: Mini-action Research Project

The three teachers that I am working with choose to have their students create their own PowerPoint presentation. I left it up to the teachers to decide what the subject matter of the PowerPoint would be. The 4th grade teacher decided to have students create a short PowerPoint that introduced their reader’s theatre that they were going to perform for their parents. The two 5th grade teachers had their students create a PowerPoint about information that they gathered from reading a biography about someone. In order to assist the teachers in implementing Microsoft PowerPoint I created directions using a Jing for creating a PowerPoint and together we created a rubric that they would use when assessing the PowerPoints.

The Jing is a short video that students can use to help them get familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint if they have not used it before. The video shows how to add a new slide, insert a picture using clip art, change the font size/style/color and how to change the design of the slides. These are just the basic things that they need to know in order to create a PowerPoint. The link to the Jing that I created is below: [|PowerPoint Directions]

The teachers and I worked together to create a rubric that set clear expectations for the students when they are creating their PowerPoints. We created two different rubrics, one for fourth grade and one for fifth.

**4th Grade PowerPoint Rubric ** (3) || Fair (2) || Needs Improvement (1) ||
 * || Excellent
 * Title of Reader’s Theatre ||  ||   ||   ||
 * List of Characters ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Summary of Play ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Clip Art (Relating to the play) ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Includes various font size, style, color ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Total: ||  ||   ||   ||


 * Comments: **

(3) || Fair (2) || Needs Improvement (1) ||
 * 5th Grade PowerPoint Rubric **
 * || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Excellent
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Name of Researched Person ||  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Background Information <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif';">(Birthday, Childhood, Education) ||   ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">At least 5 Interesting Facts ||  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Clip Art (Relating to the person researched) ||  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Includes various font size, style, color ||  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Resources Listed ||  ||   ||   ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Total: ||  ||   ||   ||

__**<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Comments: **___

Students worked to complete their PowerPoints. The students in 4th grade worked in small groups to create their PowerPoints. They were in groups with the students that shared the same reader’s theatre. The teachers that I worked with shared some of the PowerPoints that were created with me. I did not receive the grade sheets and the names were removed from the PowerPoints. Two of the PowerPoints were done by 4th graders. They introduced the reader’s theatre that they were involved in before presenting them to their parents. The one PowerPoint was done by a 5th grader who researched Cal Ripken, Jr. There is a copy of the three PowerPoints below.

PowerPoint done by two 4th graders:

PowerPoint done by one 4th grader:

PowerPoint done by one 5th grader:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

The reason I recommended that the teachers implement Microsoft PowerPoint was to provide a technology tool that the students could use for communication and productivity. All of the students were able to take the information, whether it was an assigned reader’s theatre or a person they choose to research, and put it in a format that made it easy for the viewers to understand their learning. Students used the technology to present information creatively and in 4th grade they were able to share that information with their parents before the reader’s theatre.