12 Steps to Beautiful Work
Steven Levy
Editor’s Note: This project was the project mentioned in Ron Berger’s Interview.
The fourth-grade crew at Palouse Prairie Charter School hosted an evening of art, poetry, and inspiration to benefit the Humane Society of the Palouse (HSOP). At this Celebration of Learning, students presented their final product for the EL Education curriculum “Poetry, Poets, and Becoming Writers” (ELA, Grade 4, Module1). For this module, students read Sharon Creech’s free verse novel Love That Dog and studied the art of poetry along with Jack, the main character who is inspired to write poetry about the dog that he adopts from an animal shelter. As a crew, they were inspired to “adopt” animals from their local Humane Society, make coloured pencil sketches of them, and write poems in their voices to inspire others to adopt animals.
Students engaged in fieldwork at the HSOP to learn about the organisation’s mission, meet all of the animals in need of adoption, choose an animal to “adopt” for their project, and hear stories about the animals’ lives to inspire their work. Several experts helped students study and practice the arts of poetic writing, coloured pencil sketching, and poetic reading. Experts helped students develop a poetry and artist’s toolbox, both of which we turned into co-created criteria lists for high-quality work. This work clearly reflects students’ attention to craftsmanship and responsibility for their learning.
At the fundraising event, students read their poems, displayed their art, and sold posters and greeting cards showcasing their work. The crew raised $942 for the Humane Society of the Palouse and was awarded a “Humane Society Hero Award” for their extraordinary work of service and compassion to promote our local organisation and inspire the adoption of animals who dearly need a home.
Teacher Reflection
- Beautiful high-quality drawings that draw the reader in
- Shows a project that could be replicated at different grade levels in both rural and urban settings
- Inspirational model of a project that involves service work
- Excellent idea for a fundraiser for a nonprofit organisation.
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
As a collaborative project between the Chula Vista and North County campuses, students created and published a children’s book detailing their chosen endangered species challenged with the impacts of climate change. Students created a watercolor illustration of their endangered species which was included in the children’s book. Our created children’s book is now being used to help educate other students and the public, on how human impact has become problematic for our wildlife. This project was aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Teacher Reflection
This was such an impactful project dealing with a very important issue, not only in our country, but worldwide. Students were able to be scientists, researchers, artists all in one through this project. To have the students create their own learning around this issue by exploring this phenomena really allowed for them to want to become activists. Also, the cross-school collaboration allowed for our schools to come together. We feel literacy is very important and we wanted to find a fun way to incorporate it in a math and science classroom. We saw students step out of their comfort zone, and we teachers did too. We had no experience using watercolors, and it was great learning experience, which we shared with our students.
Student Reflection
I feel good about helping the earth, because now I know ways to save the environment in the future.
—Rishi
I didn’t know I could paint. My animal looks really cool!
—Leo
The best part was seeing my book on a website. People can buy it and my name is there.
—Illeana
To see or purchase the book, visit http://www.blurb.com/b/7640975-here-now-gone-tomorrow
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
In the Toy Story project, second graders explored the essential question, “What is the magic of toys?” To investigate this idea deeply, our students visited a local preschool and became buddies with these young children. They surveyed their new friends to learn about the types of toys they like, their favorite colors, favorite characters and so much more. After finding trends in the data collected, the students used this information to design the perfect toy for their preschool buddy. After many drafts, critiques, revisions and prototypes the students took their designs to MakerPlace (a DIY workshop in San Diego) in order to professionally create the toys. Students also studied story elements by reading a variety of stories that have a toy as the main character. They incorporated the elements they learned into a story about the toy they created for the preschooler. And then they learned the writing process in order to publish their story in a board book for their buddies. Finally, our second graders returned to the preschool to give both the toy and the book to the preschoolers.
Teacher Reflection
When designing this project, it was important for us to have a product that was minds on, hands on, and hearts on. Since every second grader loves toys we thought that would be the perfect fit. This project felt like a great blend of allowing the students to have choice and be creative while learning many essential math, reading, and writing skills. Throughout the project, we wondered if our students would be upset to give away a toy and story they had worked so hard on but we were pleasantly surprised at their eagerness to give a gift to another child. We felt like the authentic audience in the project was also another driving force in its success.
Student Reflection
“The magic of toys is they can come to life. They encourage kids. They’re adventurous. They help kids imagine.”
—Joshua
“The magic of toys is that they have feelings too. They can talk!”
—Zuri
To learn more visit:
http://jsteffan9.wix.com/digitalportfolio#!toy-story/c5ic
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
High Tech Elementary Explorer had a run-down grassy area as a part of its playground, and a real shortage of options for creative outdoor play. Patricia Lim and Stacey Stevenson decided to create an inquiry-based project about the nature of play, in the hopes it could ultimately transform the underused space into a nature playground.
They began their project by asking some open-ended questions: Why do children like to play? How do they like to play? What allows children to be creative, to pretend, to build, to be active?
Stacey and Patricia launched the project with a trip to a nature playground, where their classes played for hours and also reflected on how they played, and how the materials they encountered encouraged them to play. In the following days, when they were back at school, they observed other students playing. Finally, based on their observations and field work, they began a process of re-designing the run-down play area. Children made sketches of their ideas, and gave and received critique from classmates as well as older students and adults in the school. They voted on final ideas for various areas of the playground, which ultimately included a sand house for pretend play, sticks and rocks for building, stumps for balancing, a water wall, a music/sound wall; and a giant tire for climbing.
The final weeks of the project were spent building. Each group also created safety rules for each play area, and wrote how-to books to teach other children how to use the new play area.
Project Learning Goals
This project met many standards for kindergarten learning, including counting; measuring; data collection; observation; reflection; persuasive speaking; drawing a model of a proposed solution; giving and receiving critique; and writing informational how-to manuals. Social and emotional learning goals included collaboration; negotiating over final products; analysing what makes playtime fun; and understanding and creating rules for play spaces.
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
In this project we discussed the issue of homelessness and poverty to encourage students to develop empathy and to see the world from different perspectives. Students took a closer look at the underlying issues of homelessness. We examined the issues of resource availability, equity, and access. We grappled with questions about over represented populations. Students took a hard look at their own biases and misconceptions and developed a better understanding through community service. Students created change with public service announcements, demonstrations holding cardboard signs with facts and statistics, and the creation and implementation of community food pantries.
Teacher’s Reflection
“We saw a tremendous shift in our students’ thinking and perceptions about what it means to be homeless. Throughout the process it was evident that students were growing as empathetic individuals who wanted to create change in their local community. Each student worked to help the homeless population in our community gain access to much needed resources.”
Student Reflection
This project was based on empathy and helped us see how the other half of the world lives, and that we can do so much to change the world if only we try.
— Emersyn
The campout made me realise that the homeless live in harsh conditions, like cold, rain, and hard places to sleep. Having to build our own shelters helped me understand because ours fell down in the middle of the night.
— Ashby
I had seen some homeless people in the park in Escondido but it was drastically different to see the camps downtown.
— Bree
To learn more visit: Mrvisser.weebly.com, Mrscasciato.weebly. com, or Charleyjacob.weebly.com
This term we explored electricity and why electricity is important to everyday life. We looked at the science behind electricity and learned how to make our own circuits, how to be safe using electricity and how to encourage others to do the same.
We wrote ʻA Day in the Lifeʼ explaining all of the technology we used and why it makes our lives easier. We had photographer, Jeremy Coleman, host an Expressive Arts workshop on how to take photos with different light sources. We also built our very own electronic toys and created Dragonʼs Den pitches to try and sell our toys to the Senior Leadership Team. Their Speech and Language sessions focussed around developing their presentation skills, whilst OT helped develop strength in their hands, to be able to use crocodile clips to make circuits!
Teacher’s Reflection
“The pupils were really engaged doing a science-based project as it was different from previous ones. They were able to do fun experiments and learn about a variety of different scientific theories. It was a great one to link in with literacy and OT skills, especially when making the toys.
Another highlight was the way we created companies and the pupils worked really well as a team most of the time. They took the roles seriously and were all invested in creating quality work. Originally, we wanted the pupils to make their own toys, but in hindsight, this worked a lot better. We created posters and manuals to go along with the toys, but next time I would get them to do that independently to allow a variety of different ways of working.
I really enjoyed their pitches for their Dragonʼs Den episodes. All pupils got a role to play and worked together as a ‘company’ using simple business skills. It was great to see how much they enjoyed it.”
— Leah Coombes
Student Reflection
“I thought it was fun — although I wished to have learned more about how to set up appliances.”
– Francesca
“I learnt how lightning is made and that was fun! The highlight of the project was the exhibition.”
– Daisy
“The highlight of the project was the Dragonʼs Den pitch which taught me how to present.”
– Ben
In Keren this term, students studied the novella Jekyll and Hyde with a key focus on duality and social justice. Through this term’s project students aimed to emphasise Jewish values, and the importance of advocacy through charity work. Students explored the concept of the duality of man with a focus on what drives our morals and values in our day to day decisions and choices.
Keren had an exciting journey with them showcasing their skills and talent in their final product. Parents were very supportive as they provided an authentic audience for students to experience the real world of production. They were able to access the expertise of costume designers, artistic directors, actors and playwrights through our production workshops. Lights! Camera! Action! On production day, students had an immersive experience as they got their makeup professionally done by an external make-up artist, and lots of opportunities to show what they had learnt in English, Science, PSHE and other subject areas.
Teacher’s Reflection
“The best thing about this project was seeing and hearing the great sense of pride that students felt and expressed in presenting their final product! Students demonstrated much confidence and significant improvement in their oracy skills through the immense work and support from our therapy team. Importantly, there was raised awareness of social justice as students had debates about rights, responsibilities, equality, fairness and diversity.
One of the greatest challenges with this project was not with the actual content, but rather with getting students to navigate the social dynamics of working as a team. Students found it challenging to be patient and to take turns in presenting. Moreso, demonstrating resilience in repeating rehearsals to get it right was not the easiest skill for Keren to Master. With lots of support from our Therapy team, students were able to navigate these challenges, learning many key social skills in the process.” – Nikeisha Webb-Hardy
Student Reflection
“It taught me how to do some acting, how to work as a team and build my confidence”
– Moshe
“I learnt about social justice and how we should be kind to other people.”
– Poppy
“I was pleased at the end because I remembered all of my lines.”
– Riley
“It taught me to know the difference between good and evil.”
– Shamai
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work
Understanding Habits of Heart and Mind Through Our Community
Second graders investigated the question, “How do Members of Our Community Show Care and Perseverance?” Throughout this project, students engaged in fieldwork to show care and perseverance within their community.
To begin, we brainstormed people who showed our Habits of Heart and Mind: care and perseverance. Next, we asked various experts to visit us to teach us about these traits and how they show this in their personal life and in their job. During the process of speaking with experts, students generated interview questions, took notes, and debriefed about what they learned. Finally, the students selected one member of their community who inspired them and taught them about our Habits of Heart and Mind. Students wrote creative biographies and created Norman Rockwell style artwork, developed through multiple drafts. These pieces of work were exhibited at a local non-profit art center in San Marcos called Charity Wings.
Teacher Reflection
I was inspired and amazed at the efforts the students made to help their community. It was tremendously rewarding to see the outcome of our fieldwork as well as how accomplished the students felt. I hope that this project will be an inspiration for students to continue to help others outside of their school and persevere to make a difference in their community.”
Student Reflections
My highlight of the project was going to the beach because we got to pick up trash.
—Grant
My highlight of the project was getting to help the community.
—Matteo
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
The Food for Thought project focused on why and how to make healthy food choices. Students researched the food industry in America and the deceptive nature of fast-food advertisements. They learned how to read food labels and discovered the many benefits of vitamins and minerals.
Students selected a vegetable to grow and research, de-signed a kid-friendly recipe that included their vegetable, calculated the nutritional content of their recipe, cooked their recipe many times, and took professional photos of the results. Ultimately, the students compiled a professional cookbook of healthy vegetable recipes for kids. During exhibition, students in chef’s hats stood by their cook-book pages and educated visitors about the benefits of their vegetable, how they calculated the nutritional value of one serving of their recipe, and the importance of making healthy food choices.
Teacher Reflection
This project stretched beyond the classroom to connect school and home. I was struck by how powerful it was to involve parents in the critique process. Many parents told me that their child had never cooked before, or was now more appreciative of the food on their table. When you hold the cookbook in your hands, and flip through its beautiful pages, it is clear that 56 children cared deeply about their work.
Student Reflections
We made our recipe at home with the help of our family and then they tried it and gave some critique. They gave some celebrations and suggestions. We took the suggestions into consideration and changed our recipes. This was a very unique form of critique because it allowed for our families to get very involved with our project and truly get an inside look at what we were learning in class.
—Sarina
Eating fresh and balanced meals make a big difference in one’s well-being. When you eat what you choose, ask yourself, “This tastes good, but how does this affect my health?”
—Izadora & Aleia
To learn more about this project and others,
