Battle of Gettysburg Inquiry Journal

Teacher Copy


Overview

This is an online inquiry assignment that encourages students to be intentional about how they search, consume and reflect on information online.  Students who complete this assignment will gain new information about the Battle of Gettysburg and learn about their own online inquiry practices. The use of LearnicsIL in this lesson encourages  students to conduct intentional searches online and it sets an expectation for the amount of time that students should spend working on the assignment.  The activity could be used as a virtual learning activity or in class assignment.  

Inquiry Assignment Background

This assignment takes a unique flipped approach to instruction.  The use of LearnicsIL encourages students to be intentional, focused and reflective about their online activity.  To get started, a teacher will need to create an assignment in the teacher portal and share a unique assignment key code with their students.  Students will need to have the LearnicsIL Chrome extension installed on their computer.  

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Lesson Outline

  1. Teachers log-into the Learnics dashboard to create a new Learnics assignment
  2. Teachers ensure that students have installed the LearnicsIL Chrome Extension.and have access to the Learnics assignment either through Google Classroom or with the use of an assignment code.  
  3. Explain the purpose of the assigned experience to the students.
  4. Share the Battle of Gettysburg Inquiry Journal- Student Copy
  5. Allow students 30 minutes to complete the pre-research inquiry journal and conduct the online research.
  6. Allow students ten minutes to complete the reflective journal questions
  7. Students should submit both their inquiry Journal and LearnicsIL log.
  8. Have a discussion the following day about the results of the students’ inquiry.



Teacher Reflective Questions:

The goal of this assignment was for students to engage in an online learning experience that had them access prior knowledge to conduct an intentional internet search for new information about the perspectives of the soldiers that fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.  Below are some suggestions for ways that the Learnics analytics may provide you with evidence of this activity.

  1. Did the search terms utilized by students reflect content previously taught in class?
  2. Did the search terms used by the students evolve as their 30 minutes of research progressed?
  3. Did the students access primary sources as you suggested?
  4. Did you attempt this assignment on your own?  If so, was the student activity similar to yours?  Why or why not do you think that was the case?
  5. Did the student meet your expectations for time on this assignment?

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