Treasure Chest of Thoughts

It’s beginning to look a lot like a kindergarten class…at least, in room 16!

I have to confess:  I am a project-based learning teacher at heart.  Not a master of this method, by no means, but a definite wanna-be.

Pictured here is the work (in progress) of my English classes.  Journey with me, please, as we peruse this recent work by my students.

On the left bulletin board are the masks created by each student upon completion of our initial discussion of the terms utopia vs. dystopia, a reading of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “I Wear the Mask,” and the writing of an essay which revealed to the reader why each student is who he/she is…digging into the “why” behind each selected personal characteristic.  The mask displays to the world (our class, of course!) the colors that best represents each student…no words or symbols were allowed! 

They loved this assignment!  “We want to color more!”

This assignment was the prelude to our reading Anthemby Ayn Rand and writing and submitting an essay for the contest on this novel.  Now, that after Spring Break, we will continue the discussion of our thematic unit Utopia vs. Dystopia with the reading of Animal Farm.

The bulletin board on the right is a display of Wordles of the students’ initial thoughts on the Holocaust in a multi-genre unit entitled The Courage to Be Responsible.  Again, they appreciated the creativity and, of course, the use of technology.  Following this activity, each student selected a sub-topic on the Holocaust on which to write an essay requiring one primary and two secondary sources.  In essence, the class as a whole is writing a research paper; each student is just in charge of one component (or one Roman numeral).  Before reading Night, each will present his/her topic to the rest of the class, using PowerPoint with embedded links (and maybe video).

Next time?  Pictures of the butterflies created to commemorate the children in the Terezin Concentration Camp.  Have seen two of them so far (they are due tomorrow)…wonderful (and colorful) tributes to such a horrific time.

They loved this assignment!  “This is so much better than taking the End-of-Level Exam!”

Yes, there is definitely time for creativity.