Social Studies Reflection- Medieval Project
1. What did I feel successful doing during the process of the project? What am I proud of?
I felt that during the process of this project, many things were successful. One of them is the fact that I managed to survive through 32 grueling pages of information on the Crusades in Encyclopedia Britannica. Also, I am very glad that in the end, I managed to create a ‘child-friendly’ presentation and quiz for my very young audience. I am very happy with that, because I had the most trouble in that area, as I happen to utilize big vocabulary words in research assignments. In addition to that, I thought that the actual fair was successful, for I could see that the little kids had a lot of fun with learning about many different topics. I am proud of myself for creating a child friendly environment for the kids at the fair, because for me, personally, that was my biggest challenge. Presenting to the kids was another thing I am very proud of, because I remembered to speak slowly, and phrase everything in a way where the kids would understand the information.
2. What new skills did I value learning?
I really valued learning more about a very important topic in history. You can call me a nerd, but I LOVED learning about the Crusades. I thought that is was an amazing learning experience to learn about such a significant subject. As you might know from my visual presentation, I learnt a lot of moral lessons from the process of learning about the Crusades. A few examples of it include-
- Make sure that you have a goal, because having a goal gives you the drive to pursue what you really want
- Don’t stray to far from your main goal; you will aim for something else, and because of that, you would not succeed in any aspect of your work
- Don’t bring on war- of course I already knew that before, but learning about the Crusades was a really a big wake up call for me. They carried on wars for 386 years, for a total of 26 years, with (probably) millions of people killed
I’ve got many more moral lessons, but I’m sure that you will get tired of hearing them. So, to sum all of it up, I am going to, and will have to say that learning about the Crusades was just the most enlightening and valuable lesson I got out of everything.
3. What was challenging during the process of completing the project? With what did I struggle?
As I have already mentioned before, the biggest challenge for me was to write and present everything in a child friendly way. Another challenge was to try to phrase everything in an interesting way. To be honest, I am not a very interesting person, and I usually just present facts, let you know reality, DONE. But this time, I had to depict the information in a more exciting, fascinating, and motivating way. I had to try to make connections for kids, so that they would understand and comprehend the facts better. However, with those challenges, I succeeded. Challenges I did not succeed with as a quiz game that was more ‘out of the ordinary’. When I first started this project, I made myself a goal to make a very attention grabbing quiz game. Unfortunately, I failed, and so I ended up making an electronic game in a Jeopardy format. I struggled with that, because to be perfectly direct, I am really bad with creativity. I literally cannot think of new ideas without another to lean on. I NEED people to help me with ideas. Making an ‘out of the ordinary’ quiz game was goal that I failed to reach.
4. How could I have improved my process so that I would have been more effective?
I could have improved my process to be more effective by managing my time more wisely. One of the abilities I lack is time management. I try my best to mange my time, but usually, with big projects, I am not very prompt with personally made due dates. As a result of that, one of my new goals is to improve on time management. The second, big defeat was not being on task all the time. Seeing that (if you know me) I talk a lot, and HAVE been reprimanded for that before. That personality trait leads to me always distracting others and myself, which leads me to my next point which is apologizing to Maya. I’m also sorry to whoever is reading this entry, I know it is really grueling to read through all this.
5. Did I effectively create an age-appropriate presentation and game for the elementary students? (Please explain how you know it was appropriate or how you could have changed it to be more appropriate)
As hard as it was, YES, I did manage to effectively create an age-appropriate presentation and game for the elementary students. I knew that it was pretty much appropriate, for I got the opinion of my friends who have siblings, and I also got the opinion from my parents. I incorporated those advices and suggestions into my presentation, and I was satisfied with my final product. Of course, after, I let my sisters (age 8 and 10) take a peek at it. I could not get my sisters to take a through assessment at my work, for I knew that they would be invited to the fair, and that would not be fair to the other kids. Through my sisters’ eyes, they thought that the appearance of the presentation was pretty appealing, and they also thought that the quiz was in an interesting format. Then, I was pretty convinced that my visual and game were both fitting for the age group I was going to present to. AFTER the medieval fair, I then realized that it is not all about the information that I put in, but also about how I was saying the information. Elementary kids do not just sit and read quietly like we do (not that we are quiet all the time), they want you to explain the information to them, and make connections so that they can interact with you. From presenting to the kids, I also realized that you should ask more questions when you are throwing information at them, or else you never know if they are paying attention or not. But to answer the question- overall, yes. I did create an age appropriate game for my young learners.
