Titanic Research Projects

Task Focus: The teacher will begin by showing a video on Morgan Robertson, author of The Wreck of the Titan, whose fictional story predicted almost exactly what would happen to the Titanic fourteen years later. The teacher will discuss the similarities between the fictional story and the real-life story.

Teach/Model: The teacher will introduce “Exploring the Titanic” by Robert Ballard. Reviewing plot, the teacher will direct students to a link on Nearpod that will display a plot structure diagram. While reading, the students will identify and record the parts of the plot on their iPads or Chromebooks.

The teacher will begin by reading the first two pages of the story to the class, modeling fluency, and stopping to model comprehension. The teacher will guide students to enter information for the exposition into their plot structure diagrams.

Guided Practice: Next, the teacher will instruct students, in their assigned teams, to continue reading the story and completing the plot structure diagram in their groups. Once each group has completed the story and the plot structure diagram, students will submit their responses to be reviewed by the teacher. Upon teacher approval of their submissions, students will receive their independent assignments.

Independent Practice: Each group will receive a topic sheet for their research project. Topics include the following: Training to become a Cruise Ship Captain, Robert Ballard Biography, Other Shipwrecks, Timeline of the Titanic, Create and Advertise a New Cruise Ship, and Survivors of the Titanic. Topics should be strategically assigned to groups based on ability. Within each group, each student has a specific assigned role in the research. Rubrics are also attached.

Step 1: Collect facts through research using KidRex or Kiddle kid-safe search engines.
Step 2: Record research on note cards.
Step 3: Collaborate with other group members.
Step 4: Design a Prezi, Emaze, or Google Slides presentation to inform the rest of the class.
Step 5: Collaboratively present information to the class.

Closure: The learner will complete a Ticket out the Door explaining the most interesting thing that he/she learned from another group’s research presentation.