# data[].attributes.body
Junior Historians at Work

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When planning a PBL experience, I try to front-load my design as much as possible. This always begins with a driving question that challenges the children to identify how they can use their learning and skills to help others within their communities. Next, I embed applicable skills and concepts across multiple disciplines that the project will require the learners to understand and apply. The children immediately know the skills they are going to need in order to answer the question, and the result is contextualized learning with relevancy.

Caretakers of History

Recently my fourth graders completed a PBL experience called Caretakers of History, during which they worked on the driving question, "How can we, as junior historians, raise public awareness and appreciation for Smith's Castle?" The castle is a historic landmark and museum in Rhode Island that dates back to the early colonial period.

After developing deliverables, I guided the children on a discussion of "need-to-knows" in the areas of content and skills. Based on the deliverable ideas that they brainstormed, they identified relatively quickly that they would need to:

know how to make and read a timeline

identify and use primary and secondary sources

understand the American colonial period

research specific people, places, and time periods

produce an innovative solution and present it to authentic audiences

know how to organize and write informative paragraphs

initiate and participate in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners

All of these skills and concepts are contained in our state standards for mathematics, language arts, social studies, and 21st-century skills, and were embedded in the original project summary.

Each child selected an individual project component as well as a small group component, and then set to work individually and in their groups to develop their ideas.

With PBL, assessing student progress and understanding actually becomes the easiest part of my work. Since I'm no longer spending the majority of my class time standing and delivering, I can use project work periods to formatively assess my learners' understanding in real time. I'm able to quickly adjust instruction for small groups and individuals who need either support or enrichment, while still maintaining high expectations. PBL also provides me with opportunities to circle back to specific children and revisit important skills and concepts from different disciplines on a daily basis.

Students use project reflection journals and multiple rubrics to self-assess after each PBL work session, answering questions provided by me that are designed to elicit reflection on their performance as individuals and/or team members. For example, "What positive contributions did you make to your teamwork today?"

I may also use questions about content and skills. For example, "How did you use what you learned about paragraphs to help you with your webpage today?"

The children are so accustomed to reflecting that all I have to ask is, "What time is it?" and they respond in unison, "Reflection time!" These journals are submitted to me each day and I am able to assess, on a daily basis, the children's learning and understanding.

The most exciting thing about PBL for me as a teacher is when learners come to me and say, "Mr. L., we need to learn this!" For the first time in my teaching career, my learners are demanding that I teach them the skills they need to do successful and real work.

How Students Shared Their Learning

Final products and presentations serve as forms of summative assessment; with the constant teacher assessment, self-assessment, and reflecting happening daily within the project work, these final products are almost always impressive and exceed expectations.

In the case of our Caretakers of History project, the children published an op-ed in the local newspaper, created a comprehensive website using their own research and writing as content, developed interactive exhibits, presented to high school students and important members of their community, and developed an online virtual timeline of both the museum and their own project process.

I couldn't be prouder or feel more satisfied as an educator. I trusted my learners to own their learning and recognize its relevance, and the number of skills and concepts they acquired during this three-month project went well beyond what would normally be covered in a more traditional classroom model. And my ability to be a responsive and guiding facilitator of that learning process was extremely rewarding.

As one of my children shared during her reflection on the work, "We did a ton of work, we learned a lot, and we made a difference. Not many kids can say that." Hopefully more kids will be able to say that in the years ahead.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When planning a PBL experience, I try to front-load my design as much as possible. This always begins with a driving question that challenges the children to identify how they can use their learning and skills to help others within their communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Too often when we consider how to connect science and literacy, we think about using literature to support science. Maybe it's reading a fictional book with a science theme, or exploring a biography of a famous scientist.

But we could instead turn that around and use science experiments as a way of bringing literature to life. Or we could use literature as a way to explore some of the questions about design and ethics that arise in the work of science.

As educators in Chicago, we saw that regardless of the setting, many students were not interested in science. They saw it as facts and rote memorization. In both our classwork and our outside workshops, we needed to create more meaningful connections to the sciences, and incorporating literature allowed students to engage in a different way.

The stories suddenly became something students could see, feel, and experience. They could see science as being creative. Showing students how scientific concepts connect to things that they're passionate about allows them to gain confidence in science. It also challenges them to move beyond the traditional expectations of science classwork to become more open-minded and think creatively.

How We've Done It

Using science as a support to engage students with complicated texts: Beowulf is a classic story filled with monsters, a venomous fire-breathing dragon, undersea scrimmages, and battle descriptions including torn limbs and bloody, severed heads-like your basic video game.

Yet many of the high school students we've worked with were completely turned off because they found the language too difficult. Even when trying a variety of drawing and role-playing activities, it was still hard to get all of our students to completely engage.

So we created a series of science lessons to make the story more tangible. In one lesson, students are challenged to create their own 3D model of Grendel, Grendel's mother, or the dragon. They must support their ideas by citing evidence from the text, and make and explain inferences where specific descriptions are not available. Students create paper robots, and learn the science behind circuitry by using LEDs to make their monsters light up. Battery-powered motors make the robots move.

Taking the lesson further, students can develop an arena where they set up their moving monsters to "fight" a Beowulf character. We discuss the probability of the outcomes, and discuss behavioral and physical characteristics of predators that occur in nature: What adaptations aid predators to overcome their prey? Which of these adaptations would need to occur in a monster in order for it to defeat Beowulf?

Students gain a deeper sense of the literature by thinking about alternate scenarios such as: What if Beowulf had lost to Grendel? What would it mean to our sense of the poem if Beowulf did not kill the dragon?

The lessons also incorporate chemistry, anatomy, and physiology to deepen inquiry and connections. We "myth-bust" to see if these events and monsters could really exist. What is a venomous dragon, and what toxins would the dragon secrete that would make it venomous? What would a fire-breathing dragon's diet consist of to enable it to breathe fire? What would really happen if an arm was torn off in battle?

Using literature to help students understand the idea of responsibility in science: We hit upon the idea of using the story of Frankenstein to help make a potentially dry science unit on circuits more engaging. With students from the mid-elementary grades and up, we don't read the novel but instead work with quotes from it to expand on what they know about the character, create deeper discussions, and incorporate reading comprehension skills.

We use Frankenstein's monster to connect students to ideas of design and ethics in science. We role-play as our own Dr. Frankenstein, collecting a series of items to cobble together to build our own unique creatures. We learn about motors and circuitry to bring our mini-robots to life.

After going through the process as creators, students reflect on how much of their process was spent on bringing their creature to life vs. considering the design and function of their creature. This idea reconnects us to a deeper theme in the story-because the creature Dr. Frankenstein created is so ugly, people assume it's evil. The creature looks at Frankenstein and says, "Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?"

Since people expect it to act like a monster, the creature eventually becomes one.

Students are then challenged to consider these questions:

If Frankenstein created a beautiful creature, would people have responded to it differently?

What was your process when you were deciding how your creature would look?

What responsibility do scientists and inventors have to focus on the design as much as the purpose of their creation?

What We've Seen After These Lessons

These lessons draw in the students who don't see themselves as scientists-they come to see that creativity can be a part of science. And they build confidence as they realize that science is broad-not just a singular subject. The lessons challenge the science-minded students to expand and think more creatively. And they've drawn many students toward independent reading and inquiry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Science to Bring Literature to Life | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Too often when we consider how to connect science and literacy, we think about using literature to support science. Maybe it's reading a fictional book with a science theme, or exploring a biography of a famous scientist. But we could instead turn that around and use science experiments as a way of bringing literature to life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Travel Journals: Student-Created Textbooks | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Each student at Normal Park Museum Magnet School creates a unique "travel journal" to explore the themes of science and social studies units.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When I was an elementary classroom teacher, I always welcomed activities that could serve dual duty-combining the goals of two subjects at once, in a seamless whole. Such activities streamlined my work efforts (so important for busy teachers), and they used valuable classroom time to the fullest.

With the current strong emphasis on literacy and math, it makes great sense to combine these two subjects.

Three Ways to Use Literacy Activities to Teach Math Skills

1. Use stories to develop number line skills: One of the biggest contributors to math achievement, even into adulthood, is a strong grasp of the number line. While we might be tempted to think the number line is just about counting, it's also about sequence and spatial relationship. Students who have a firm mental number line are far more able to manipulate numbers and have a better sense of when they're moving in the right direction in solving math problems.

Sequence is built into our experience with books, partly because language itself is necessarily sequential. But, beyond the simple act of reading and having children read, teachers can purposely use stories with strong sequences to strengthen number line skills.

Let's take, for instance, the largely wordless picture book Tuesday, by David Weisner, in which frogs take flight on lily pads from a deserted-looking bog, and then proceed to make a surreal trip through a residential neighborhood (even stopping to watch an old woman's TV while she sleeps in front of it).

With just a little questioning, the teacher can turn the reading of Tuesday into a sequencing activity that uses the language of the number line (before, after, forward, backward, next, then).

Or the teacher can use a hands-on "story train" sequencing approach like the one I've included in my early reader Molly and Joe Want to Know (which includes story cards, the main events of the story in pictorial form-children re-enact the text by putting the cards in order, like linking rail cars in a train). Story trains can also use the language of the number line while providing the chance to manipulate spatial relationships along a single line.

Strengthening number line language: Using Tuesday, the teacher can ask questions that emphasize sequence. For example:

What do you think happened before the frogs took flight?

What do you think happened after the old woman woke up?

What funny thing happened when the frogs moved forward through the clothesline? Why do you think they didn't go backward at that point instead?

Strengthening spatial relationship sense: Story train sequencing necessarily creates spatial relationships that allow children to literally see how far the events of a story or poem are from each other. The children can also be asked to count up the events once the train is complete, pointing to each card as they count.

2. Using stories to promote recognition of conservation of number or fractions: To an adult, it's obvious that three apples on a table that are moved to a couch are still three apples. Not so to a child, who needs to learn conservation of number. (If the child has to re-count the apples to be sure, we know she doesn't yet display this math understanding.)

Many picture books can easily be used to promote recognition of conservation of number. Anno's Counting Book moves objects around as the elements of a town grow and shift. Or you can use titles like The Alphabet Room-which has the added benefit of teaching the alphabet-to track and count objects as they move around. Just say things like, "I see the apples moved. How many apples are there now? Are there still three? Where are they? Let's count."

For children who already recognize at a glance that there are still three apples, you can turn this into a fraction conversation. "Oh, look, one-third of the apples are on the left side. Where are the other two-thirds hiding?" Such a conversation won't necessarily be simple-fractions are famously difficult even for adults-but this is a chance to speak the language and do the math together.

3. Using make-your-own books to solidify counting skills: It's hard to believe that counting is a skill so predictive of math achievement even into adulthood, but it's true: Those who count strong early on often have a lifelong math advantage.

A fun way to combine literacy and math is to make counting books that relate to your current texts. For instance, I've created a free downloadable color counting book that pairs with my title A Is for Azure: The Alphabet in Colors. (It also offers sequencing via inclusion of the days of the week.)

Such books-which children can color, write in, and eventually read aloud to friends and family-can also include important counting terms such as whole and altogether that relate naturally to the skill of addition.

If your classroom is a busy place, I encourage you to take advantage of crossover approaches that teach both literacy and math skills at once. You'll reduce your workload, and your children can enjoy the richness of dual-duty activities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When I was an elementary classroom teacher, I always welcomed activities that could serve dual duty-combining the goals of two subjects at once, in a seamless whole. Such activities streamlined my work efforts (so important for busy teachers), and they used valuable classroom time to the fullest.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At face value, a full-day integrated learning program offers a "break" from the routine of school -- which means instant buy-in from kids. However, an integrated learning day is much more than a day with a different schedule. Yes, students are surprised to see their math and science teachers leading the same lesson, and such surprise translates to curiosity and engagement. But the learning goes deeper. Teachers model true collaboration, connecting across disciplines and differences in order to create new meaning. That's a powerful lesson. Educators should view an integrated learning day as a critical piece of a rich school year, thinking about how we can extend the day's connections and collaboration into the lessons that we craft throughout the year.

A Day With a Theme

A successful model for a full-day integrated learning program begins with a broad theme, one that offers lots of possibilities to find connections. The theme should also be highly relevant -- kids should understand why the topic was chosen as the day's focus. Recently, our school organized an Integrated Learning Day focused on the value of water. Throughout the day, students traveled to hands-on workshops (not lectures!) that approached water's value from a variety of angles:

Causes and effects of California's drought

What we can do about it

How much water Los Angeles County needs

Just how acidic water can get before it becomes intolerable to the human body

The first and last sessions framed the day, offering students a chance to broaden the scope of their discussions into the realm of faith. Since we're a Jewish day school, these sessions focused on analyzing passages in the Torah that addressed water's value for humans. A non-religious school could bookend Integrated Learning Day with similarly deep textual analysis. Use a poem, passage, or story as a thematic frame for the day's adventures, and return to the text for reflection and discussion in the last workshop session.

At the very end of the day, we met as a community for the grand finale -- a ball cage full of water bottles that had been discarded around the middle school. Students saw the impact of their individual actions by viewing this "wasted" water in aggregate. But they also saw their potential for positive change as a group. The day's messages came into focus:

1. When we collaborate, switch things up, and think outside the box, we can learn about and tackle big-deal issues.

2. Every drop counts.

3. We're all in this together.

Building an Integrated Learning Day

Step 1: Create buy-in. In order to implement an Integrated Learning Day at your school, start by getting other teachers and administrators on board. Sign up to lead a faculty meeting with the goal of getting your colleagues excited about integrated learning. Pitch the benefits -- engagement will skyrocket, and students across grade levels will have a chance to collaborate. You'll foster a sense of community while challenging students to draw meaningful connections between subjects.

Step 2: Plan, collaborate, and plan some more. Once you've got a day on the calendar, plan to devote considerable time to interdisciplinary, interdepartmental meetings. This is a chance to forge connections as a faculty, paving the way for students' lightbulb moments, both on Integrated Learning Day and when they return to "normal" classes afterward. If we want kids to internalize collaboration, we must model those skills for them every step of way, including the behind-the-scenes planning. Involve students in the planning process, too. Kids can post hashtags around the school to create intrigue, or student government can create an introductory video to psych up the student body. The more student leadership, the better.

Step 3: Make it work. On Integrated Learning Day, it's helpful when teachers are available to troubleshoot, direct lost students, and pop into the sessions for support. Make sure that everyone knows her or his role and has a copy of the schedule. It's definitely not a typical day, so extra reminders go a long way.

Step 4: Reflect on your accomplishments. After you've caught your breath, plan a reflection meeting. Consider questions such as:

Did everyone -- faculty, administration, students -- "own" a piece of this day?

How can the stations and workshops increase engagement?

How can you involve as many school stakeholders as possible?

Are you collecting student feedback?

Did your goals for collaborative, interdisciplinary learning align with the students' perception of the day?

Most importantly, discuss how your faculty can extend the learning from Integrated Learning Day beyond a single day, weaving integration into the fabric of your curriculum. If one day of integration is this awesome, imagine what a whole unit -- or a whole year -- of truly integrated curriculum might do for your students, faculty, and community.

Please feel free to add your comments about integrated learning below!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Change It Up With Integrated Learning Day | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At face value, a full-day integrated learning program offers a "break" from the routine of school -- which means instant buy-in from kids. However, an integrated learning day is much more than a day with a different schedule. Yes, students are surprised to see their math and science teachers leading the same lesson, and such surprise translates to curiosity and engagement.