Inquiry Project Summary
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Skill Being Studied: Summarizing Primary Sources
Students:
Student A: High achiever, curious, fast learner
Student B: Average student, quiet
Baseline Assessment: Excerpt from the Pacific Railway Act of 1862
Results: Both students rewrote the entire document in their own words
First Lesson: Students were given two tools to help them summarize:
Underlining key parts of the reading
Writing a one sentence summary of each paragraph after they read it
First Assignment: Child Labor Reading
Results: Summaries were much more brief and to the point but still contained unimportant information
Second Lesson: The class, being led by the instructor, completed a summary together using the tools they had learned from lesson one
Second Assignment: Excerpt from the Preamble and Declaration of Principles of the Knights of Labor of America
Results: Slight improvement over the previous assessment, but results were very similar
What I learned:
Students need consistent reinforcement of the tools that allow them to succeed
Students need clear guidelines and expectations
Instructor needs to guide through example