I finally have a clear picture for my field project. A lot of the ideas I had will not work with the time frame Miss L has for this social studies unit, but we’ve compromised and come up with a plan. In order to facilitate the students’ learning about the five regions of Pennsylvania, we are going to use a “Jigsaw” instructional strategy. The class will be divided into three teams of five students. Each student on the team will select one region, and then meet with the corresponding members from the other teams to form an “expert group” for that region. They will gather, organize, and summarize the information about their region and prepare a concept map using PicoMap on their Palm handhelds. Using the PicoMap, they will then return to the home team to teach their teammates about their region, and learn about the other four regions. The team’s five PicoMaps will then be used to create one big concept map about the “5 Regions of PA.” They’ll use the Internet to gather some pictures to add to the map as well. The expert groups will “reconvene” to develop questions for a PowerPoint Jeopardy game and then input the questions and answers into the game template. this Jeopardy game will be used as a review for the entire class. We will begin this unit next week, and I’m looking forward to working with Miss L and her class!