Friday was a special day for our fifth graders. After weeks of very hard work, they got to show off their Wolf Ridge books. Parents and fourth graders visited small groups who shared their books. Visitors shared thoughts on post-its, many of which were tacked to the inside pages of the books for safe keeping. The project was designed to really stretch them as they planned and wrote ten short essays about their experience at Wolf Ridge. We tried to jot down details and ideas while we were at Wolf Ridge, capturing the language and moments that might slip away later. Then we used formal planners to organize our writing. We revised and edited our work. Then we illustrated and, in many cases, hand wrote our final copies. Many students even had time to add "sparkle" which has become the word the Elms use to describe the extra little things that make a project special.
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March 2009
March 29, 2009
I Can't Believe I Made the Whole Thing!
The habit of mind that kept coming up in conversations I had with students was "persistence." It took a lot to write ten essays and it took even more to keep at it, make them better and create final, beautiful work. I got to give a hug to more than one student amazed by his or her own work and say, "See, you could do it! You did it!"
This was the first run for the Wolf Ridge book and I saw the lights in the eyes of many fourth graders as they thought about their own trip to Wolf Ridge (and what they might write about it). A tradition might very well have been born. As Sarah and I reflected on it, we think that fewer essays and a mix of poetry and essays would give the students more of an opportunity to revise meaningfully. We'd also like to do some specialized art lessons for their illustrations. That said, the first ever Prairie Creek Wolf Ridge books look beautiful and have given a powerful "I can do it" boost to students as they enter the last weeks of the honors project.
Party Line
Sometimes studies in the Elms end with a large culminating event. Sometimes we celebrate among ourselves. Such was the case with electricity. This week we made a party line with ten and a half old fashioned land line phones (G.L. only wanted the talking half, not the listening half).
Students had to apply what they knew about series circuits and polarity, conductivity and short circuits in order to get the system going. Even then, we had to do a lot of trouble shooting. Each pair of Elms got their own phone working and then added it into a larger circuit. Larger circuits then joined together.
We hope to have a chance to chat with the Tamaracks on our phone soon. (Yet another good way to solidify our learning -- teaching others).
March 15, 2009
Pi Diddy, Pi Day
3.14159265368979...That's as far as I can get, but, it should be noted, not as far as some of the Elms and Tamaracks can get. Pi Day, March 14 (3-14) has become an important tradition at Prairie Creek. This year, students could memorize pi, listen to pi as a song in which they set the notes for each digit, listen to Pi Diddy's "Loose Yourself in the Digits," find pi in a lot of different circumferences and diameters, cooperatively make a pi chain, and graph the digits of pi. (More activities can be found at our Pi Day Site.)
Students are fascinated by the idea of a number that goes on forever without ever repeating. How could that be? Their amazement is the reason that activities like Pi Day are important -- along with a strong computational and problem solving foundation, students need to know that mathematics has a lot of mystery, a lot of things that haven't been discovered. There is beauty in the mathematical world that they just might be the first to discover. Happy Pi Day.
The Science of the Times
The Elms are wrapping up their study of electricity. We began with the vaguest notion of how our lights went on and the students are now able to apply their knowledge of series circuits to create a party line with speakers and receivers from old land-line hand sets.
Richard Schulte, Lauren's grandfather, came in last Thursday to share his expertise with us. He had created different electrical components on blocks that could be combined in different orders to experiment with different ideas. It was a wonderful way to push the students' understanding of things like resistance, ohms (units of resistance) and amperes. With a little practice, they were able to use the tools that Mr. Schulte brought to make hypotheses and test them. When we set up a parallel circuit, students were able to predict what would happen if we added resistance (heat coils) to the circuit. (They thought there wouldn't be enough power left to light the lights.) They were right!
Be sure to come to our Science Night on March 24. We've been very busy planning an informative and fun evening. As our nation (and our community) focus more on science education, we'd like for all parents to fully know what science looks like in a progressive setting. Child care for all students is available (please contact Colleen to let her know how many children to expect).
Getting it Together
The fourth graders have been working to organize their notes. This is the first time that many of them have done a formal outline and we spend a lot of time explaining why outlining is necessary and how to turn an outline into interesting prose.
First, we look at each of the umbrella topics they've taken notes on. These are conveniently on color coded note cards (there is a method to our madness). For each umbrella, students consider what facts make sense to share with the reader first. Sometimes, a fact doesn't fit in anywhere and it's discarded, sometimes it belongs under another umbrella. We stress that research always involves learning more than you teach.
Each umbrella is then briefly outlined. Most students use a traditional paper outline. Some choose the
program Kidspiration to create a web that can then be turned into a traditional outline. We stress the idea of a strong main idea (one's umbrella) and supporting details. While I use roman numerals and capital letters to model an outline, the children are not expected to master this particular format. Instead, we want to make sure they understand the concept of organizing one's information so that it is easier to understand. This is the most information that they have ever tried to share. It's no longer an option to list one's facts willy-nilly. They have a responsibility to help the reader make sense of what they're saying by organizing the information with paragraphs and topic sentences.
This emphasis on "making sense" and "teaching" helps to make the process of research and writing authentic. The students are not simply working through the required steps of an assignment. They are learning tools to be successfully reach their goal: to teach and inspire the interest of others.
Our next steps are honing our writing, editing and making a visual representation of our learning (i.e. a neat, coherent poster). Then, after spring break, we'll work on how to present our information orally and how to involve our audience in a meaningful way. Each fourth grader presents three times during honoring week (April 13-15).
March 07, 2009
The Real World
Watching the Elms today on Bridge Square was thrilling. These young people had confronted a situation that many of us feel hopeless in the face of -- and they had found a creative way to make a difference. It amazed me to see how quickly they moved from "Oh, it's sad that Sweet Lou's and River City are closing," to "We've got to do something."
And do something they have. From the initial brainstorming sessions to today's rally, the Elms have been in charge. They did research to find out about small businesses and shopping local, they made the phone calls to city hall to reserve Bridge Square, they contacted local merchants, they talked on the radio, they wrote a press release, they crafted their pledge and they contacted local leaders. My role has been to provide information and support when they've needed it.
Most gratifying to me has been the wonderful response of the Northfield community. Our students have been treated with respect and their ideas and contributions have been valued. It's a tremendous thing. Kids often feel powerless to make an impact on the "real" world. But here were real world adults, many of whom didn't know us at first, who were genuinely interested and impressed by our work. There is no doubt these kids have helped to make the world just a little bit better place.
Thank you to Mayor Rossing, Phong Nyugen of Ahadiscouts, Joey Robison of Just Food, Jeff Johnson of KYMN, Patty Cash (portrayed with feeling by Bill Nelson), Elizabeth Treat, Brett Reese, Ross Currier, Michele Reese, Robyn Gunderson, Phoebe Gray, Jennifer Sawyer, Katy Hargis and all of the parents who have supported their children's interest in the local economy and this project. Your enthusiasm for the work of the Elms has taught them the invaluable lesson that they can effect change.
Griff Wigley blogged about the rally with great photos and a video: Locally Grown
Tam Prichard also wrote about the rally, a better overview of the project than is here (perfect for sharing with granparents, etc.) It's at 007 Mom: Northfield First
We hope that you'll help us increase the impact of the project by talking to your friends, neighbors and co-workers and asking them to sign the pledge. You can download your own copies here
Download Northfield First Pledge (1352.7K) and they can be returned to Present Perfect.
March 04, 2009
It's Never a Simple as it Looks
People often ask me, "How do you teach math to both 4th and 5th graders? Do you split them up?" In many classrooms, it would be very difficult -- the texts for the fourth grade and fifth grade curriculum would necessitate completely different lessons. With time, I've learned how to craft explorations so that we can begin together and then students engage in the activity at the level that is appropriate for their current understanding.
We've been working with probability in the last week. We began with a few demonstrations of single event probability (6 sided die, tiles in a bag) and then looked at the classic bell curve of the probability of getting a certain sum when you roll two dice. We also considered experimental versus mathematical probability. With those concepts securely under our belt, I opened it up.
Students were asked to create a simple game with the dice we have (a nice variety of 4-20 sided). They were to explain how to play the game and then they were to list the different probability events in the game. Finally they needed to figure out the probability of those events.
Needless to say, "simple" to me and "simple" to the fourth and fifth grade mind are not the same thing. As students began to unpack the probability in their games, they realized just how much complexity many events held. Some modified their games to make the probability more manageable for them, others decided to they wanted to tackle it. One student had a game with two twelve sided dice. If one rolled a sum of less than 10, you lost your points. If you rolled more than 12, you gained points for that round. Of course, he had to figure out how many combinations were possible (144) and how many of those gave the desired outcomes. Students who were newer to probability stuck to one die. One game involved rolling the die once and then rolling it again to see if you got a multiple of your first roll.
By picking the complexity of their work based on their "comfort level", students learn to evaluate their current understanding of a concept. There is no stigma of "low math group" or "high math group" -- instead, students see themselves as new to an idea or more experienced with it. They push themselves accordingly and my job is simply to support them along their way.