Integrated project

We did a really cool integrated project at my dyad placement. There are four of us at this school. My dyad partner and I are in the k/1/2 split and the other two interns are in the 6/7/8 split. We matched the kids up so that each student in the primary classes had a big buddy from the middle school classes. They collaborated on the project which included science, writing, and art. The primary kids had been studying snails and the middle school kids had been studying weather in their science units.

On the first day, the primary kids drew, colored, and cut out a snail. The middle school kids drew a background scene of some sort of weather that they had learned about. This background became the picture for the snail. On the second day, the younger students studied their buddy's weather picture and decided where to put their snail. Once they decided where they wanted their snail to go, they glued it to the weather picture. After thinking about what they wanted their story to be about by studying the completed picture, they wrote one or two introduction sentences. On the third day, the middle school students continued the project by completing the story that their little buddy had started. On the fourth day, the all of the students got together with their buddy and the older students read the completed story to the younger ones. The younger ones followed up with saying "what ifs" or "what I liked" (something they are doing in literacy workshop.) We also took pictures of the students with their buddy and will be displaying the integrated project in the halls of the school. We made sure that we included ourselved in some of the pictures so that we have proof of our project for our future portfolios that we will have to do!

Integration and the Big Picture

My master teacher asked me what I wanted to teach when I return to the 1st and 2nd graders. I couldn't help but reply with an "I don't know," and a meek shrug. Why would I be getting ready to something? It's still November (right?) and we haven't even had turkey!?!

This afternoon brought me to a new point though. I think it was looking at the unit webs that everything clicked into place for me, and the wheels began to turn. After my body calmed down, and my brain spun into another gear, I started to visualize the points of integration. I was finally able to see the destination, the big city that I was heading towards. That isn't to say that I didn't have integration planned into my unit on Ants. I just started to see the school day more holistically. I want to have students taking books (Frog and Toad for example) and turning them into plays for the class. I want to have students writing and illustrating new endings to books, or adding onto stories, or creating original works to be performed! Ideally I want to bring them all (including those not mentioned) together under one overarching problem or issue, so that all of the learning connects. I want...

While I have been lax in my creation of the mythical and everpresent binder, I need to find the proper medium to craft my designs for the classroom (or one that I want in the future). As Lamont says, I need an index card to write down my crazy ideas, even if I never use them...