As a good teacher knows, you are always evolving lessons to make them different, better and more effective for student learning. Being a PYP school, the curriculum has been placed into 6 units of inquiry on a planner. As a new teacher, this planner became my go-to or lifeline. Yet as the year progressed and I gradually became more comfortable and familiar with the planner/curriculum, I started to crave something more for my students. How can we not only make studying the regions of Alberta research more effective and interesting, but incorporate aspects of 21st century learning as well? I also feel that so much of education lacks the art focus and our kids thrive for that! Yet for me, that is an area of increasing interest as I don't feel competent. Saying that, how could I teach art to my students so that they would know true techniques, vocabulary as well as adopting it into their own work, when I myself have no idea what I'm doing! Insert Melodie MacLean: former teacher of 20+ years, artist, drama teacher, actor, director, and one of the greatest aunt's anyone could have. But before she could come, we had to do the groundwork.
To start with, the kids were divided into the 6 regions of Alberta (Parkland, Grassland, Boreal Forest, Canadian Shield, Rocky Mountains, and Foothills). In past research activities, students have explored various methods including websites, books, etc. So then the next step is to focus on taking notes from resources in our own words to avoid plagiarism. Each student received a copy of all the information about their region copied from the textbook. They then cut out the information needed, glued it into their Inquiry duotang, and could underline, hilight and write all over the information. The next step is to find the key words in each sentence and immediately rewrite their own sentence using those key words. As a part of my reflection, if I am to do this again, I would have started doing key word outline practices regularly prior to the research so that the students are more familiar... and then the research portion would take less time. After their rough research was complete, they typed out their good copies and put in Writers Notebooks. After their research was complete, they now knew all the various aspects of their region including climate, vegetation, animals, bodies of water, landforms, etc. and were ready to apply their knowledge into their art. Auntie Mel initially spent time teaching various techniques of water color painting, which took a while, but the result definitely proved it effective! After learning techniques, the students were able to choose what they wanted to include in their paintings. The result was incredibly beautiful, unique and creative water color paintings that portrayed the various regions of Alberta! But this is not the end! I have been exploring new technologies that are child-friendly and that can be incorporated in the classroom. One of the popular programs in some of the other classrooms was the "Show Me" app on the ipad. Simple to use, students could take a picture of their art and then record their research. By doing this, it was a different form of presenting their research rather than reading it out to the class that also displayed their hard work in their writing, research skills and art. This was also an opportunity for some students who might be more nervous presenting their information, to do so in a safe and more private way that still allows for them to present, but in a less intimidating way.
Overall, this inquiry project worked out well with each student having success. Some required more support than others, but if I had began teaching key word outlines and research skills from the very beginning, the students would have had more background understanding and therefore better able to do their research with less support. After saying that, the students did very well and worked hard to do nothing short of their best work. It was actually a surprising opportunity for some students who tend to struggle academically, to have the opportunity to achieve great success artistically. The next step is to post their work on our class website for each student to share their outstanding work!
To start with, the kids were divided into the 6 regions of Alberta (Parkland, Grassland, Boreal Forest, Canadian Shield, Rocky Mountains, and Foothills). In past research activities, students have explored various methods including websites, books, etc. So then the next step is to focus on taking notes from resources in our own words to avoid plagiarism. Each student received a copy of all the information about their region copied from the textbook. They then cut out the information needed, glued it into their Inquiry duotang, and could underline, hilight and write all over the information. The next step is to find the key words in each sentence and immediately rewrite their own sentence using those key words. As a part of my reflection, if I am to do this again, I would have started doing key word outline practices regularly prior to the research so that the students are more familiar... and then the research portion would take less time. After their rough research was complete, they typed out their good copies and put in Writers Notebooks. After their research was complete, they now knew all the various aspects of their region including climate, vegetation, animals, bodies of water, landforms, etc. and were ready to apply their knowledge into their art. Auntie Mel initially spent time teaching various techniques of water color painting, which took a while, but the result definitely proved it effective! After learning techniques, the students were able to choose what they wanted to include in their paintings. The result was incredibly beautiful, unique and creative water color paintings that portrayed the various regions of Alberta! But this is not the end! I have been exploring new technologies that are child-friendly and that can be incorporated in the classroom. One of the popular programs in some of the other classrooms was the "Show Me" app on the ipad. Simple to use, students could take a picture of their art and then record their research. By doing this, it was a different form of presenting their research rather than reading it out to the class that also displayed their hard work in their writing, research skills and art. This was also an opportunity for some students who might be more nervous presenting their information, to do so in a safe and more private way that still allows for them to present, but in a less intimidating way.
Overall, this inquiry project worked out well with each student having success. Some required more support than others, but if I had began teaching key word outlines and research skills from the very beginning, the students would have had more background understanding and therefore better able to do their research with less support. After saying that, the students did very well and worked hard to do nothing short of their best work. It was actually a surprising opportunity for some students who tend to struggle academically, to have the opportunity to achieve great success artistically. The next step is to post their work on our class website for each student to share their outstanding work!