This was a multiple part lesson that provided 5th Grade students with the tools to start research, and present research on an African country. The final result was a short research paper (completed in their humanities class), as well as a book created in Book Creator that was put together in digital essentials.

My role was primarily to provide students with introductions to different research sources, and provide technology support for the final project. These lessons took place in the form of resource scavenger hunts for World Book Encyclopedia and CIA World Factbook. There was also a lesson on curating images from reliable sources and building basic image citations using a template worksheet. I also developed the lesson for the final showcase of their work – which was a digital book created in the Book Creator digital program. These books contained the text from their research paper, as well as their curated images.

Lesson Order:

1. Libguide introduction with the middle school library. This lesson took place in the humanities classroom. It is an introduction the African Country Research Project Libguide – how to access the guide, navigate the guide, and an overview of the major resources included
2. Resource Scavenger Hunt: World Book Encyclopedia
3. Resource Scavenger Hunt: CIA World Factbook
4. Image Lesson: Curating images, and building basic image citations using a template worksheet
5. Book Creator Lesson #1: Using Book Creator templates and adding personalized information to books for each student’s country.
6. Book Creator Lesson #2: Book Creator gallery walk

This lesson was done collaboratively with both 5th grade humanities teachers, as well as the middle school librarian.