Below is the student's slideshow on caring for the Earth, but I wish I had his actually presentation recorded! He was so engaging and passionate while presenting, it would be a great example as to how giving a quieter kid a voice truly helps them shine!
One of my 5th graders took off with this project and became very passionate about sharing the message of taking care of the Earth we have. In one class that he visited, he left such an impression that the students wanted to do research on their own about endangered species! The teacher brought those students into the library to do a little book-related research (much like the 5th grader did) and will finish their research online since the topic is fairly narrow. They are using skills like finding facts in informational text, making self-to-world connections, and evaluating relevant and reliable resources. It's awesome to see that students are inspiring one another in their learning!
Below is the student's slideshow on caring for the Earth, but I wish I had his actually presentation recorded! He was so engaging and passionate while presenting, it would be a great example as to how giving a quieter kid a voice truly helps them shine!
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I love National Poetry Month in April because there are so many fun lessons to do with elementary students to introduce poetry! In the past 2 years, I've done Haiku lessons with 1st grade, but my schedule changed this year so I see them bi-weekly, which makes it difficult to teach something new without that consistency.
In order to still teach the basics of counting syllables and the power of just a few words to tell a story, I created a Haiku Hunt! I found/made up short sentences that had either 5 or 7 syllables that related to Spring. Each student picked an egg from my basket, opened it, and determined how many syllables were in their line. On the floor I had made a huge circle with masking tape pieces that set the structure of the poem (5/7/5). Once they determined their length, they stood on a piece of tape and made a "Haiku Sandwich." The visual of a sandwich helped a lot, since we made 5's with our hands as the bread and said we'd want to stuff it with 7 beats of the good stuff! 2 pieces of bread w/o the insides is just toast! Once they were in their places, I walked around with a mic so that each group could share the Haiku they had created (and I used "magic" since sandwiches can't usually talk... they had to have the mic in front of them! Amazing how easily that quieted them). We had a great discussion on how poetry uses feeling words, like HEARing the birds chirping, FEELing the warm breeze on your skin, SEEing the flowers bloom and SMELLing their sweet aromas (CCSS.ELA.RL.1.4). We also had discussions on theme and talked about how certain words point us in the direction of understanding what the poem was telling us (CCSS.ELA.RL.1.2). What I watched unfold with this activity was students quickly understanding they were counting syllables (CCSS.ELA.RF.1.2), not words, and how they became more resourceful and worked collaboratively, rather than asking me for help. We were up moving and not in the normal table/chair classroom setting, which I noticed led to several students contributing more to the discussion than they typically do (CCSS.ELA.SL.1.2). It was a very engaging lesson and many of them called it a game! Below are photos of the set up I had, and the videos will give you an idea of the Haikus we created. I recommend using this model for other activities - something that gets students on their feet, moving around the room, and collaboratively creating something.
The 5th graders study ecosystems as part of their science curriculum, so as a way to dig deeper into informational text, they used media class time to pick an ecosystem and write an entertaining and informative story to share with a younger grade level. They were challenged to create something with a specific, genuine audience in mind, but because the lesson was inquiry-based, it allowed them to research what was most interesting to them and choose the method of delivery (poster, Google slideshow, illustrated picture book, etc). Inquiry-based learning is fairly new to our students, so it was experimental to have them be independent in choosing the WHY and the HOW part of their projects, but once they became comfortable with that freedom, they ran with it. All in all, it took about 4 class sessions to compile information about their topics, and create their stories.
Looking towards next year, I will definitely replicate this lesson but hope to get more input from their science teachers on how to better enrich what they learn for their standards, and get better coordinator with the teachers we are planning to visit. For example, I'd like the audience to give some feedback to their presenters. The 5th graders, for the most part, did a wonderful job with public speaking, considering they usually do this just in their own room to their peers. It would be great though for them to get constructive feedback on what they did right, and how they can improve. Also, it would be good to collect some data from the audience on what they learned from their presenters. What was most awesome to see what how creative they were with their passion to share information with others, and how well received they were in classrooms around the school. I truly hope the experience will allow for more opportunities to bridge grade levels! |
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January 2021
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