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Students' final math projects: Shape Block Robots

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The language in Standard Seven discusses the way teachers engage with elementary subject matter. Teachers should be excited and enthusiastic about elementary subject matter in order to instill excitement for learning in their students. The teacher conveys this enthusiasm into practice by using appropriate terminology and teaching strategies. It is also important for teachers to make connections between and across subjects to create a classroom environment of interdisciplinary learning. In order to have a well-rounded classroom, teachers need to balance making these interdisciplinary connections with crafting an appropriate blend of content and skills in the subject areas. Teachers must also act as learners themselves, and be willing to adapt to changes in their disciplines and curriculums over time. Lastly, a teacher should be able to use a variety of explanations, theories, and viewpoints to instill a sense of inquiry and intellectual curiosity in her students.

 

I began to explore this standard with our science unit during SummerPrep. One of the most salient images from our classroom this summer is that of the “bandit bunny” that my teaching partner and I crafted as the “hook” to our science unit. We devised the problem of this tricky bunny attempting raid my teaching partner’s vegetable garden in order to get our students thinking about how we might build a wall to keep the bunny away from the vegetables. We set up our science unit as a “problem” in order to help our students think like real-life engineers solving a problem. We developed this idea from the “hook” that Zach used when we worked on our own engineering lesson in a Science Methods class. He set up the problem as a wind powered “Mars rover for NASA”, and although we knew he was kidding, our entire cohort was instantly excited to build the rover. We saw similar excitement in our Dragonflies when they heard about the “bandit bunny”, and the relatable image of a bunny rabbit helped to anchor them and hold their interest throughout six different science lessons over the course of SummerPrep. They were motivated to help find a solution to keep the bunny out and we found that we were able to channel this enthusiasm into some wonderful discussions of what real-life engineers do.

 

Our final presentation task this summer was another example of engagement with elementary subject matter. Our students created I Am From poems and accompanied them with watercolor and crayon self portraits. This task was significant for my teaching partner and I because it encompassed an interdisciplinary design that spanned several subject areas. Although this project was the performance task for our writing unit, our students also participated in several other lessons including a read aloud, a guided discovery with crayons, and a lesson on warm and cool colors. The intertwining of other subject areas with writing seemed to help our students “dive in” to this project and they all created beautiful and unique poems and portraits. One of the strengths of this interdisciplinary approach is that its varied nature allows students many opportunities to showcase their abilities (Peterson as cited in Christiansen et al, 2012, p. 45). The flexible nature of the poems and the opportunity to both draw and paint their portraits gave all of our students a way to succeed in this assignment. Some students even came up with the idea of writing over the words of their published poems in different colored markers, so their words became both visual and literal art. My teaching partner and I had designed this project prior to our Art Methods class on art in other elementary disciplines, but I was pleased to see Justine show some similar techniques for combining art with language arts. The personification thank you cards in particular shared a similar combination of writing and art to that of our final task.

 

Our students also displayed their shape block “robots” during Exhibition Day. Students designed and measured a “robot” with paper shape blocks used as arms and legs. I am glad that we chose this task to display for our students’ friends and family because the robots and the poem/portraits had a common theme that I found myself often working toward with our students: resilience. Since many students had neither written a poem nor measured with inches before, they were afraid to try something new and exclamations of frustration were not uncommon in our classroom. I ended up using the word “resilient” at least once with my students and I discussed the concept with individual students during both projects. This theme of being resilient and trying new things, or trying again, when faced with a new concept is applicable to all elementary disciplines and teaching it in one discipline may help students apply resilient techniques in other areas (Mraz & Hertz, 2015, p. 53). Our students began the writing process before starting their robots, so they were already experiencing some notion of resilience when we introduced a new project in a different subject area. I think having the common theme of resilience, or saying, “it is okay to try again”, made this new task accessible to students. Using this stance, and other themes of learning across different disciplinary areas is an important part of Standard Seven because as elementary teachers, we are teaching school and life skills in addition to academic content. In addition, we need to encourage our students to make these sorts of connections between and across disciplines to encourage continued curiosity and habits of self-reflection and inquiry.

 

I also noticed an enormous impact on my progress in engagement with elementary subject matter after I began focusing on teaching with increased enthusiasm and excitement. When I showed clear interest and excitement in the subject matter, my students mirrored my excitement. I found that they were increasingly more focused on their lessons when I started out with excitement first and foremost. As one of our program directors mentioned, there is a certain element of “showmanship” in teaching elementary subject matter. With enough excitement and enthusiasm for a subject, students will feel (and should feel) that their current lesson is the most valuable thing they could be doing with their time at any given moment. Haberman (1991) notes that one of the tenets of the pedagogy of poverty is that students are not necessarily interested in learning the “basic skills” they will develop in elementary school (Haberman, 1991, p. 291). My experience has shown me that this assumption is patently untrue. My students showed interest in a variety of areas this summer, from building walls in science to using shape blocks in mathematics, all because I introduced them to the topic with an engaging tone and language. I noticed a huge difference in my students when I started beginning lessons with this enthusiasm, and I will continue to exercise this excitement in future lessons with my future students so they also feel excited to learn.

 

 My future goal for Standard Seven is to engage further with language arts and science subject matter. I love to read and write, and I am very interested in learning more about how I can apply my own strong skills in these areas to help students build strong reading and writing skills. I hope to learn some ways of teaching reading and writing that are different from the ways I learned as an elementary student, so that I can eventually have a variety of explanations and strategies at the ready when my students need guidance. I also want to strengthen my skills in science subject matter because science is the area in which I have the least academic experience. My goal is to feel comfortable moving within and through a science curriculum in ways that will enhance my students’ knowledge of science and its relationship to other disciplines. I will continue to bring excitement and engagement into my classroom to help students delve into the wonderful things we will learn together.

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Christensen, L., Hansen, M., Peterson, B., Schlessman, E., & Watson, D. (Eds.), (2012). Rethinking elementary education. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. 


 

Haberman, M. (1991). The pedagogy of poverty versus good teaching. Phi Delta Kappan,73 (4), 290-294.

 

Mraz, K., & Hertz, C. (2015). A mindset for learning: teaching the traits of joyful, independent growth . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.


 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.