Help with independent project-4th grade

[Spellbound]

I'm considering having DS work on an independent project in the evenings while DD is doing PS homeswork. It would be on his subject of choice. I'd like to give him some direction, but I'm not sure what a reasonable expectation is for him. I'm looking for a resource for project evaluation and guidelines for multiple grade levels. Does anyone do these and if so what are your requirements?

[regentrude]

I started homeschooling DS last year when he was in 5th grade. He did several independent projects.

He is interested in history and his first project was a powerpoint presentation about the battle of Thermopylae. He had his sister briefly show him how to use powerpoint and then figured out the details by himself. He did all his research by himself and then gave a 25 minute presentation about battle tactics, weapons etc.

He did a really good job, but we talked about things he can improve.

 

Over the course of the next few months he prepared several more presentations; one about Roman history, where he did his research completely from library books without any guidance from us and gave us a pretty comprehensive overview over the Roman empire.

 

He also wrote a report about the solar system; again his sources were library books. We went through the report once together, to help edit.

 

I have no formal grading rubric. It was clear in all those instances that he did a very good job: good and correct contents, logical ordering of the material, visually appealing slides, and a good presentation with free speaking without notes in grammatically correct sentences.

 

You are the best judge how much you can expect from your 4th grader.

[2smartones]

What a cool idea! I might just have to steal that one. :D