Good morning!
I can’t believe all of the learning and fun that has taken in such a short period of time! A week ago we discussed what it means to be a good classmate and then a group mate. This year in Social Studies we will spend a lot of time working collaboratively. We all agreed that in order to be successful, we had to create a set of norms, or expectations, for ourselves and each other. The results were incredible. Your kids have set high expectations for themselves and have been sticking to them! I also loved that the kids included our core values: empathy, wonder and Tikkun Olam.
The creation of these expectations was the perfect transition into our first group project. The students were put into groups and asked to research an ancient landmark and share their findings with the rest of the class. Through Google Classroom, students documented their research and kept our essential question in mind, “How do ancient landmarks help us learn more about the civilizations that lived during that time?” The groups worked diligently and stayed focused on the task at hand. Many groups referred back to our group expectations as they had to work on compromising and shared responsibilities. After 3 hard days of research and creativity, the students did a “gallery walk” to learn more about the landmarks their classmates studied.
The classroom was silent as the kids made their way from one poster to the next. With one exception– Many students were raising their hands and pointing out to me that some, if not all of the groups, had conflicting information. Or, some groups had information that didn’t quite make sense. For example, the years listed didn’t match the time that the civilizations existed. Or, the size of the landmark was measured in inches instead of feet or miles. The kids were surprised by reaction…a smile and “I know.”
Today we are spending time in the innovation lab looking at real and fake images and websites. We are spending time talking about the importance of checking websites to make sure they are credible. We are spending time talking about the importance of using more than one source when conducting research and not always using the first result in Google. We are spending time focusing on what 21st century students need to know! The landmark project was exactly what I wanted it to be- a FAIL– or a first attempt in learning.
We will look back at our posters and use the project as an opportunity to reflect on what went well and what we can do differently in the future when working on research based projects. There will also be an opportunity for groups to receive feed forward– kind, specific and helpful information that can help them move forward in their work.
I look forward to sharing more learning with you soon, stay tuned!
