TitleIII Learning Experience

Learning Context | Procedure | Instructional/Environmental Modifications | Time Required | Resources | Assessment Plan | Student Work | Reflection

LEARNING CONTEXT

Purpose or Focus of Experience

 The focus of this experience is to compare the student's own cultural/religious beliefs and traditions of death and funerals with those of another culture.

This experience comes near the end of a unit on death and dying. We have discussed the biology of death and dying, we have investigated and debated euthanasia vs. paliative care, we have learned about health care proxies and living wills, organ donation, and we have toured a local funeral home and discussed local traditions.

Connection to Standards

 HPEHE Standard 3 - Key idea: students will analyze how cultural diversity enriches and challenges health behaviors.

MST Standard 2 - Key idea: students will use the internet to retrieve information as a tool to enhance learning

ELA Standard 1 - Key idea: students will read information from a variety of resources to discover their own and other culture's funeral/death beliefs and traditions.

LOTE Standard 2 - Key idea: students will develop cross-cultural skills and understandings of funeral/death beliefs and traditions.

Essential Question

 How and why do we honor our dead?

Content Knowledge: Declarative, Procedural

 Declarative: students will understand their own cultural philosophies concerning death and funeral practices.

Students will understand another culture's philosophies concerning death and funeral practices.

Procedural: students will write a research paper, properly cited, comparing their own beliefs of death and funeral traditions with that of a different culture

Students will use available written resources and the internet to research material for this research paper.

PROCEDURE
(Chronologically ordered description of all teacher & student activities and interactions.)

 1. Students watch a short excerpt of John F. Kennedy's funeral to see some funeral traditions that are practiced in the United States. Class then discusses the pomp and circumstance of a "state funeral" and compares that to a standard funeral service.

2. Teacher hands out written copy of assignment and grading rubric to students.

Advanced Health Research Paper

You are going to research a different culture/religion's views, philosophies, and traditions surrounding death and dying AND compare those beliefs and traditions to your own.

Things you need to research:

What is their belief concerning afterlife?

What funeral traditions do they practice and why do they practice them?

What does a typical funeral consist of?

This paper is due 4 class days from today and is worth 50 points. We will work in the library today and the next 2 class periods, after that, you will have to work on your own time, or during advisement. You must submit an outline and or rough draft next class of the information you have acquired. Your paper should include a work-cited list. Pages 33-36 of your planner show the proper way to format such a list (this is the APA format of citing work.)

3. Students select a culture/religion from the approved list the instructor has. I cut up slips of paper with the names already on them, and have students randomly choose one. If possible try not to duplicate cultures within the same class.
4. Students and teacher proceed to library/computer lab and log on to WWW. Since this is not the first project the students have done, they are familiar with how to access a web search and begin their research on their own.
5. The teacher circulates throughout the room, assisting students where necessary.
6. Students submit an outline or rough draft by second day of class, to make sure that they are moving in the right direction.
7. Research and writing continues for day 2 and 3 of class. Teacher assists in any way possible during class time and after class.

INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS

 Extra time is allotted for special needs students, a time is set up between the teacher and the student to work on the research and the writing process.

TIME REQUIRED

 Planning - can be as short as 1 hour to write assignment and rubric, prepare cultural/religion choice slips. If a list of possible web resources is included, this takes possibly 30 minutes or longer, depending on familiarity with web search engines.

Class time - I use 3 class periods of 82 minutes to allow students access to computers and library materials for gathering information and reviewing outlines and rough drafts.

Assessment - I have found in order to accurately research the student's work cited lists and thoroughly correct their writing skills it requires a minimum of 20 minutes to correct each research paper submitted. It is imperative that you check their sources, to ensure that they are not "cybercheating".

RESOURCES

 Technology: computers with access to the World Wide Web and search engines

Human: our Librarian pulled resource materials out ahead of time, to assist students in their research. This is not essential, but it is helpful

ASSESSMENT PLAN
(Include samples of rubrics, checklists, etc.)

 Daily assessment includes observation and personal contact with each student to make sure they are staying on task.

For the outline and rough draft, I use anecdotal comments to help students to fine-tune their final submission

The final paper is graded using a rubric.

POINTS DESCRIPTION

4. Paper explains death philosophies and traditions completely

Comparison to own beliefs and traditions is thorough and fully explained

Student demonstrates above average knowledge of death/dying practices

Spelling and grammar are correct/ paper is typed

3. Paper's explanation of death philosophies and traditions is missing some information, needs clarity

Comparison to own beliefs and traditions is brief, needs more explanation

Student demonstrates average knowledge of death/dying practices and traditions

Contains a few spelling or grammatical errors/ is neat

2. Paper lists death philosophies and traditions, little or no explanation

Comparison to own beliefs and traditions stated, gives little or no explanation

Student demonstrates below average knowledge of death/dying practices and traditions

Contains many spelling/grammatical errors/ is legible

1. Paper's description of death philosophies and traditions is inaccurate and incomplete

Comparison to own beliefs and traditions is inaccurate and incomplete

Student's knowledge of death/dying practices and traditions is inaccurate

Paper contains spelling/grammatical errors throughout/ is sloppy

0. No description of death/dying practices

No comparison to own beliefs

Work copied from elsewhere

Paper not turned in on time

STUDENT WORK
(Include samples of student work showing different levels of performance.)

REFLECTION

 I have found this to be a nice experience to do at the end of the unit and near the end of the semester, as it utilizes many of the skills and knowledge the students have learned throughout the unit and the course. One of the added results of this experience has been that students have discussed death and dying traditions and beliefs with their families. I have had many parents comment on what an interesting experience this has been for the students and for the parents when death was not something they were having to deal with on a personal and sad level, but were able to express their beliefs about a topic that is often hard to bring up.