Journey into the 21st Century

by Kerri Presser

Crescent Elementary

Council Bluffs Community Schools

1st/2nd Grade Classroom

Crescent Elementary:

Just under 100 students with 4 classroom teachers 2012 National Blue Ribbon Award

Recently received 9 iPad minis to use in future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) projects

Respect, responsibility, relationships

Our mission at Crescent Elementary is to promote a positive school environment

that encourages the intellectual, emotional, social and physical growth of each child.

District Mission Statement:

“The mission of the Council Bluffs Community School District is to guarantee that every student graduates with the knowledge, skills and character to become a responsible

citizen and to succeed in a changing world by creating a leading-edge, inclusive educational system which provides challenging expectations, diverse experiences,

engaging curriculum and innovative teaching within a collaborative, caring community.” (Council Bluffs Community Schools. (2007). District mission statement.

Retrieved from http://www.cbcsd.org/)

My Focus Student

“Jackson” has great difficulty attending to instruction throughout the day. During group times,

he often wanders around the classroom or rolls on the floor. He has trouble keeping his hands to himself and frequently invades the space of his peers. He “blurts” frequently throughout the day. During work times, he makes a variety of noises. He is also a likable child with a great smile who

loves to be active. Like many second-grade boys, he likes superheroes, ninjas, sports and video games. “Jackson” struggles in all areas of the curriculum. As frustrating as his behavior can be, I

try to live by the motto “tomorrow is a new day” and when communicating with parents, I try to stress the positive as well as sharing the negative things that occur over the course of the week. Every child has strengths and I believe it is important that these strengths are emphasized to

parents while also being honest about the difficulties that the child faces each day.

Lesson #1 Reading and Critical Thinking

Small Success: Using the Alphaboxes Strategy

This lesson invited students to practice their reading and critical thinking skills. It challenged and engaged students, giving them the opportunity to share their own ideas and listen to the ideas of others in a collaborative environment.

Lesson Goal: Students will collaboratively investigate a nonfiction text, identifying at

least 5 key facts and noting these facts on their alphabox strategy sheet.

After reading our non-fiction mentor text, Owls by Gail Gibbons, I demonstrated the alphabox strategy sheet

Children were put into groups of 4-5 students and given a non-fiction text to investigate

They read the text and, together, identified at least 5 key facts from the text and wrote these on their alphabox strategy sheet

Students then shared their findings with the rest of the class during share time

Professional Standards:

Know and use various text features (e.g. captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently

Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grade 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Reflection:

Because we practice a workshop model in our classroom, we spend a lot of time in collaborative groups. Using the alphabox strategy sheet to investigate a non-fiction text was a new and fun way to study non-fiction texts while also preparing students for a future non-fiction writing assessment. Best of all, Jackson really enjoyed this activity and was insistent that he have a chance to write some of the facts. I considered this lesson a success. After the lesson, Jackson chose to fill out his own alphabox strategy sheet while reading a book about caring for dogs.

Instructional Resources:

Chalupnik, M. (2012). Grade 1-2 language arts map combo. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-c?pli=1

Fountas, I. C. & Pinnell, G. S. (2010). Benchmark assessment system 1 (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G. S. (2007). The continuum of literacy learning, grades k-2: A guide to teaching. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann. Gibbons, G. (2005). Owls. New York, NY: Holiday House. Morrison, V., & Wlodarczyk, L. (2009). Revisiting read-aloud: Instructional strategies that encourage students' engagement with texts. Reading Teacher, 63(2), 110-118.

Lesson #2 Writing and Collaboration

A Bump in the Road: Family Message Journals

This lesson invited students to write a letter to family members about what they were doing in school. Family members then wrote back to the students. The letter writing engaged students as they participated in an authentic writing experience. It also encouraged collaboration among peers, as well as, between the child’s home and school environments.

Lesson Goal:

Students will collaborate with each other to write a message to each child’s family member following the friendly letter format. The message will consist of at least three complete sentences in which the student tells about some aspect of their school day.

I read this book to students to introduce the idea of letter writing to communicate with a family member We brainstormed the kinds of things we might share with family

members about our school day Finally, students chose a partner to work with, knowing that

partners could help each other with ideas, as well as help with spelling, revising and editing if needed

Professional Standards:

With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing

Participate in shared research and writing projects

Reflection : When I first introduced the family message journals, most of the class was really excited to be writing to a family member. However, Jackson wanted to address the letter to his mom whom he rarely sees. When I tried to encourage him to write to one of his dads, he became angry and didn’t want to do it anymore. Then he had to go to speech. So, my first attempt at family message journals was not successful with Jackson. However, during subsequent use of the journal, Jackson seemed happy to write to his dads and began to see the purpose of using writing to communicate. Instructional Resources:

Boyle, B., & Charles, M. (2011). 'The three hags and Pocohontas': How collaboration develops early years writing skills. Literacy, 45(1), 10-18. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4369.2011.00576.x Chalupnik, M. (2012). Grade 1-2 language arts map combo. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-c?pli=1 Smith, J. (2012). Grade 1 language arts grade level expectations. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-b Smith, J. (2012). Grade 2 language arts grade level expectations. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-c Stewart, S., & Small, D. (2007). The gardener. New York: Square Fish. Valerie, L. M., & Foss-Swanson, S. (2012). Hey! guess what I did in school today. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(3), 40-48.

Lesson #3 Digital Literacy and Creativity

Victory!: Make a Video about Dinosaurs using the iPad

This lesson invited students to work collaboratively to create a video presentation. Students experimented with a variety of technology (Flip cameras or the iPad) as they engaged in a challenging and innovative activity which helped build their 21st Century skills. Lesson Goal:

Working in a collaborative group, students will create a 3-5 minute video presentation on dinosaurs. In their presentation, students must answer at least one of the following questions pertaining to dinosaurs: How can we learn about the past? What can we

learn from fossils? What were dinosaurs like? What are some new discoveries? Students must include 3 distinct facts in their presentation.

This lesson took place over the course of several days I began by introducing the topic of dinosaurs as a unit of study in our Science

textbooks and explaining that students would be creating a video to teach their classmates about dinosaurs

Students were placed in collaborative groups and read several non-fiction dinosaur books and gathered facts

Students then began working on any props or backgrounds they needed for their presentation

Students filmed their presentation When all the filming was complete, we had a pizza party and students shared

their presentations with their classmates

Professional Standards:

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including science

Ask and answer questions such as who, what, when, where, how and why to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text

Know that fossils give information about plants and animals that lived long ago

..\Videos\FlipShare Data\Videos\VID00004.mp4

Reflection: My students loved this project. They were constantly asking me when they could work on their dinosaur project and when filming would begin. After viewing the presentations, we had a class discussion about what they liked best. The majority of them said, “Everything.” One student commented that “it was harder than I thought it would be but it was fun”. Jackson was proud to be the videographer of his group and couldn’t wait to share the video with our principal. Instructional Resources:

Chalupnik, M. (2012). Grade 1-2 language arts map combo. Retrieved from

https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-c?pli=1 Husbye, N. E. (2012). Critical lessons and playful literacies: Digital media in pk-2 classrooms. Language Arts, 90(2), 82-92. Schachter, R., & D'Orio, W. (2011). Kid 2 kid connections. Instructor, 120(5), 46-52. Smith, J. (2012). Grade 1 language arts grade level expectations. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-b Smith, J. (2012). Grade 2 language arts grade level expectations. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-1/objective-c Smith, J. (2012). Grade 1 science curriculum. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-3/objective-b Smith, J. (2012). Grade 2 science curriculum. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/cbcsd.org/cb-curriculum-and-assessment/standard-3/objective-c Zoehfeld, K. W. (2011). Dinosaurs. Washington, D.C: National Geographic

Researching, reading, writing about and discussing 21st Century Skills with other professionals has given me the motivation to

begin to incorporate these skills into my own classroom. In working with all of my students, I saw them engaging in the curriculum in a way I had not previously seen. I am looking

forward to continuing this journey by trying new and innovative lessons which will promote 21st Century Skills and

will help my students “to succeed in a changing world”.