Reading and Writing Through the Weather
Janna Steffan
Advanced Project Based Learning
January 28, 2008
Reading and Writing Through Weather
When I first began my advanced project based learning class I was very intrigued by project based learning but did not have a very clear understanding of it. The first weeks of class I was constantly impressed at the quality student work that teachers were presenting. As I listened to their projects it all made so much sense. But as I began to imagine it in my classroom I quickly became confused again. I had been listening to high school teachers and couldn’t figure out how to adapt it to my first grade classroom. It suddenly all became must clearer after a conversation with my professor, Rob. As I told him about my classroom he helped me to realize that I did have projects going on in my classroom but, I just hadn’t been thinking with a project based learning mind. Because of this conversation, I realized my students’ seasons books were a good project to start with and I could improve it by making sure that all of the six A’s were present in the design.
Our first of three major Science units is weather. We studied clouds, temperature, seasons, and types of weather through a variety of experiments and books. I then told my first graders that the kindergarten students did not really understand seasons and I asked them to write books in order to help them. They were all very eager and concerned to help the younger students. This gave the students an authentic audience and problem to write their books for.
After a class discussion, we thought that it would be best to write one page for each season. Each day we reviewed the season that the students would be writing about. We made vocabulary charts so all students had access to the language that they needed. We talked about the importance to using a variety of sentences structures in order to keep the interest of the reader. Each student also spoke with a partner before writing. All of these elements provided the students academic rigor while keeping them engaged.
Each day the students were challenged to use all of their writing skills and apply what they had learned about writing to this book. They also had to apply what they had learned about seasons and weather in a way that would be interesting and informative for their audience. They used books and dictionaries to help them gather ideas and find unknown words. I was very impressed to see the growth and progress in my students from the beginning of the year.
To keep students interested in the topic we continued our weather exploration. We kept weather journals and tracked the changes in the weather. After a week or so of keeping a weather journal the students were quick to notice that our weather in San Diego did not change greatly from day to day. We had learned that in winter the temperatures drop and it often snowed. We of course did not see this in San Diego. My family was in town visiting from Michigan and came to visit my class. Before their arrival, I had each student think of one question to ask about the weather in Michigan. I also took our class “pet”, a lion stuffed animal, home over the holidays and took pictures of him in the snow. In these ways the students were able to identify with different weather patterns without leaving the classroom.
As the students began to finish their books their excitement level increased. They couldn’t wait to share their books. Before we could share our books we first had to proof read them. We had a class discussion about “beautiful work” and I asked the kids to define it. They all agreed that beautiful work is a piece of work that you have tried your very best on. It was also important that they wrote in a way that everyone could read and understand their writing. We reviewed the importance of writing neatly on the lines with spaces in-between the words. They all thought that it would be very important to have neat and colorful pictures because they would be reading to younger kids and pictures could help them understand. The kids also said that it was important to create “beautiful work” because then “they could be proud of their work.”
For my students to rewrite an entire story would be very time consuming. As a class we decided to first self edit their stories and then edit it with a partner. I then read each of them and circled mistakes with a pencil that they had to go back and correct. This method proved to be effective and efficient.
After a few weeks of hard work, we were finally ready to share our stories! As we lined up to go to the kindergarten room the students were concerned about the light sprinkle outside. They didn’t want their books to get wet. I realized that they were so proud of their hard work and I was very proud of them too! They walked into the kindergarten room with confidence that I had never seen before. Each student was matched up with a buddy to read with. The kindergarten teacher, who taught most of my students, also listened to their stories. She couldn’t believe the progress they had made. Her praise spoke volumes.
When we returned to our classroom we sat down to talk about our work. I asked them, “Did you create beautiful work and how do you know?” Jourdyn told us, “I created beautiful work because I worked really hard on my pictures.” John said, “My work is beautiful because the kindergarteners really liked it.” Faith stated, “My work is beautiful because I tried my best.” All the kids continued to chime in with their reactions and I couldn’t help but agree with them. As we began to transition into our next activity, the kids stopped me and Jeydan asked, “Madame, what is our next book going to be about?” I was delighted to know that they were anxious to start their next project!
I realized that project based learning is very possible to adapt into my classroom and through the use of the six A’s the students will continue to be interested and engaged.
Advanced Project Based Learning
January 28, 2008
Reading and Writing Through Weather
When I first began my advanced project based learning class I was very intrigued by project based learning but did not have a very clear understanding of it. The first weeks of class I was constantly impressed at the quality student work that teachers were presenting. As I listened to their projects it all made so much sense. But as I began to imagine it in my classroom I quickly became confused again. I had been listening to high school teachers and couldn’t figure out how to adapt it to my first grade classroom. It suddenly all became must clearer after a conversation with my professor, Rob. As I told him about my classroom he helped me to realize that I did have projects going on in my classroom but, I just hadn’t been thinking with a project based learning mind. Because of this conversation, I realized my students’ seasons books were a good project to start with and I could improve it by making sure that all of the six A’s were present in the design.
Our first of three major Science units is weather. We studied clouds, temperature, seasons, and types of weather through a variety of experiments and books. I then told my first graders that the kindergarten students did not really understand seasons and I asked them to write books in order to help them. They were all very eager and concerned to help the younger students. This gave the students an authentic audience and problem to write their books for.
After a class discussion, we thought that it would be best to write one page for each season. Each day we reviewed the season that the students would be writing about. We made vocabulary charts so all students had access to the language that they needed. We talked about the importance to using a variety of sentences structures in order to keep the interest of the reader. Each student also spoke with a partner before writing. All of these elements provided the students academic rigor while keeping them engaged.
Each day the students were challenged to use all of their writing skills and apply what they had learned about writing to this book. They also had to apply what they had learned about seasons and weather in a way that would be interesting and informative for their audience. They used books and dictionaries to help them gather ideas and find unknown words. I was very impressed to see the growth and progress in my students from the beginning of the year.
To keep students interested in the topic we continued our weather exploration. We kept weather journals and tracked the changes in the weather. After a week or so of keeping a weather journal the students were quick to notice that our weather in San Diego did not change greatly from day to day. We had learned that in winter the temperatures drop and it often snowed. We of course did not see this in San Diego. My family was in town visiting from Michigan and came to visit my class. Before their arrival, I had each student think of one question to ask about the weather in Michigan. I also took our class “pet”, a lion stuffed animal, home over the holidays and took pictures of him in the snow. In these ways the students were able to identify with different weather patterns without leaving the classroom.
As the students began to finish their books their excitement level increased. They couldn’t wait to share their books. Before we could share our books we first had to proof read them. We had a class discussion about “beautiful work” and I asked the kids to define it. They all agreed that beautiful work is a piece of work that you have tried your very best on. It was also important that they wrote in a way that everyone could read and understand their writing. We reviewed the importance of writing neatly on the lines with spaces in-between the words. They all thought that it would be very important to have neat and colorful pictures because they would be reading to younger kids and pictures could help them understand. The kids also said that it was important to create “beautiful work” because then “they could be proud of their work.”
For my students to rewrite an entire story would be very time consuming. As a class we decided to first self edit their stories and then edit it with a partner. I then read each of them and circled mistakes with a pencil that they had to go back and correct. This method proved to be effective and efficient.
After a few weeks of hard work, we were finally ready to share our stories! As we lined up to go to the kindergarten room the students were concerned about the light sprinkle outside. They didn’t want their books to get wet. I realized that they were so proud of their hard work and I was very proud of them too! They walked into the kindergarten room with confidence that I had never seen before. Each student was matched up with a buddy to read with. The kindergarten teacher, who taught most of my students, also listened to their stories. She couldn’t believe the progress they had made. Her praise spoke volumes.
When we returned to our classroom we sat down to talk about our work. I asked them, “Did you create beautiful work and how do you know?” Jourdyn told us, “I created beautiful work because I worked really hard on my pictures.” John said, “My work is beautiful because the kindergarteners really liked it.” Faith stated, “My work is beautiful because I tried my best.” All the kids continued to chime in with their reactions and I couldn’t help but agree with them. As we began to transition into our next activity, the kids stopped me and Jeydan asked, “Madame, what is our next book going to be about?” I was delighted to know that they were anxious to start their next project!
I realized that project based learning is very possible to adapt into my classroom and through the use of the six A’s the students will continue to be interested and engaged.
