Classroom Spotlight - Experiencing the Core Design Principles in Reading and Writing through PBL

Experiencing the Core Design Principles in Reading and Writing through

Project Based Learning

"Tell me and I forget; Teach me and I remember; 

Involve me and I learn." 

- Benjamin Franklin

        Over the past several weeks in my Kindergarten classroom, we have embarked on a project about Community Helpers. We have been able to engage in inquiry, purposeful research and reading, interviewing experts, and meaningful writing opportunities that have helped the whole child grow during this project. They have not only become better readers, but they have learned how to read and write for a reason. Through this project I have seen how the "Core Design Principles for Reading and Writing" provided in Engaging Students in Disciplinary Literacy, K-6 can really be fulfilled by using the Project Based Learning Model. These Core Design Principles include Authentic Social and Cultural Practices, Optimal Learning Model, Key Inquiry Questions, Composing Requires a Range of Resources, and Authentic Assessments that Reflect the Meaning Making Process. 

       Yet, it is not as easy as it may sound to just begin this in the classroom. In This is Disciplinary Literacy, ReLeah Cosset Lent discusses how there must be shifts that take place in the reading and writing instruction that happen in the traditional classroom in order for disciplinary literacy to take place. I have learned that I must approach reading and writing not just as content, but teach my students that these are tools they can use to make them better scientists, mathematicians, and historians. I must teach them that literacy is a way to help them know. 

       Learning about their community is an authentic, real life topic that they engage with everyday. One of the parts of this project was for students to be able to research a Community Helper which they wanted to know more about. The task was an Authentic Social and Cultural Practice because they were to gather research and create a presentation that they could share with the class in order to try to persuade their classmates to choose that particular job when they grow up. We began our unit by asking many questions and coming up with a list of community helpers that interested them. The Optimal Learning Model was used by scaffolding the students' knowledge by finding out what they already knew and building understanding of what community really was.  The following chart served as their initial thinking about the project with their definition of a community and those that serve in a community.

      After we brainstormed and thought about what we already knew, we asked parents to be involved by inviting them to come and talk to us about their jobs. We were able to interview a police officer, a veterinarian, and a firefighter. In all of these interviews, the children came up with their own lists of questions that they wanted to ask, which is where the Key Inquiry Questioning took place. During this inquiry process we were able to talk about how to ask good questions and why we need to ask experts about the topics of study and how that enhances our research. After asking questions and gathering their answers, the students were able to record their learning in their journals. 

     We were also interested in postal workers so we arranged a visit to the local Post Office where they showed us how they gather the mail, sort the mail, and send the mail out on the trucks for it to be delivered. They also talked to us about how they need real world math skills, mapping skills, and reading and writing skills in order to do their jobs properly. By taking this field trip, the students were able to see that what they are practicing at school will one day help them in their future career. When we returned from our field trip, we wrote down our noticings about what we observed and saw at the post office. Here, we were able to use writing as a way to hold our thinking and how we remembered what we learned about postal workers. 

 

     After these experiences with experts and in the field, students were then able to decide about which community helper they wanted to present. Students were put into research groups based on their interests and were able to use a teacher created Symbaloo as well as a text set about their community helper that had several resources to help them gather their final pieces of information for their presentations. Students were able to hold their thinking again by writing their information on a thinking map. Prior to this, students had been taught how to use thinking maps to enhance their learning. Through the use of interviews, field trips, read-aloud texts, and internet research students were able to see how it is necessary to use a Wide Range of Resources when Composing Knowledge.

                                                   

  Next, the students were able to present the knowledge they learned about each community helper. By doing this as a group project, students were more confident and learned from each other about listening and speaking skills through their conversations and through the presentation experience. There was even one student who was confident enough to do his own research and presentation because he was that interested in learning about construction workers. I was so proud of my students as I watched them work together to complete this portion of the project. 

        

                         Construction Workers Presentation              Doctors Presentation

                                Firefighters Presentation                 Postal Workers Presentation

                               Police Officers Presentation              Veterinarians Presentation

    We also wanted to share our learning about the post office with our grade level, so we had each Kindergarten class visit our classroom for us to present to them about our field experience and they got to mail a letter at our pretend Post Office. Each Kindergarten class had their own field experience that they were able to share as well, so we got to go to other classes and hear about what they learned on their field trips. 

    Through these two types of presentations my students were able to gain more knowledge and finally write about what they would like to be when they grow up and explain why they would want to be that community helper. In these projects and this writing I was able to use Authentic Assessments that Reflect the Meaning Making Process.