Because our class is studying Japan, our principal has asked us to share our knowledge with other students by creating a Japanese Arts Festival. This will be a day of celebration and fun shared with the students in first grade. However, your teacher is just too busy to learn about all the art forms of Japan. Not wanting to disappoint the principal, your teacher has come up with a way that we can present the arts festival by our deadline. For this task, you will be the teachers. You will work in cooperative groups to investigate one Japanese art form. Then, you will create a presentation that can be shared with the students in first grade during our festival. Your presentation must be informative and interesting to younger students. This is your opportunity to be teachers, so you will need to do your best work and be fully prepared. Good luck!

The Task

The Task

• Your teacher will assemble you into cooperative groups based upon the art form you are interested in studying.
• You will investigate the art form using resources found in this WebQuest. As you investigate, you will complete an Information Sheet that you will use to develop your presentation. This will allow you, as teachers, to organize your information so you'll know what you will be teaching.
• You will create a presentation for the first grade students. Your presentation will include information from your sheet. It may be in any form that you believe students in first grade will find interesting. This includes posters, skits (short plays) puppet shows, or computerized slide shows. At the end of you presentation, you must show the students how to perform the art and provide them help so they can take part in the festival. It won't be fun for them if all they do is sit and listen to the teachers.
• Since good teachers always practice and get help from other teachers, you will demonstrate your presentation to your classmates so that they can critique it.
• You will teach the first graders how to "do" the art form using your presentation.

The Process
1. You will be directed by your teacher to select the art form you are interested in studying.
2. Assemble into your art groups when directed by your teacher.
3. Assign the following “jobs” in order to complete the task:

•             Leader – makes certain everyone is performing their job correctly
•             Writer – writes the groups answers on the information sheet
•             Reader – reads the directions and information found throughout the task
•             Time Keeper – makes certain the group is working at a steady pace
•             Encourager – encourages others to do their best and handles the “clicking” on the computer

7. Create a presentation that you can present to the first grade students.  Remember, you can chose to present your art form in any way that you feel would interest first grade students.  You must include samples of your art form that you have created or found in your research that first graders could also make.  You might want to create posters, write a puppet show or skit, or create a computerized slide show.
8. Now, you must decide how you will do your demonstration.  As a teaching team, you will need to introduce yourselves to your students and take turns presenting the information.  You will need to develop your student demonstration.
9. Practice, practice, practice your demonstration!!!
10. When all groups are ready, you will present your demonstration to your classmates so they can tell you what they enjoyed and what areas you can improve.  Your teacher will give you further instruction when at this time.
11. Teach the 1st graders about your art form at the Japanese Arts Festival!!!

Evaluation

Your performance will be evaluated using a scoring guide designed just for this task. You will receive two grades for this project. First, you will be evaluated on the presentation you create. Then, you will be evaluated on how well you teach the first graders. Before you begin, you will want to review the Scoring ;pGuide.

 

Conclusion

 

Wow! You did a great job teaching the 1^st graders about Japanese art. And, just like all teachers, you learned many things along the way. At the end of a task, good teachers always take some time to think back over their lesson. Think back over your demonstration for the 1^st graders. What did your group do well? What do you think you could improve to give a better demonstration next time? Write a letter to your teacher informing her about your group’s demonstration. Don’t forget to tell her what art form you demonstrated. As you know, it’s hard to remember everything when you’re the teacher!!!