ES PBL Grade 1: School – How It Works!

Project-Based Learning is a critical aspect of SA’s school design.

We believe that students learn best when they are engaged in a topic from a cross-disciplinary perspective over an extended period of time. We also believe that students are more engaged when involved in creative exhibitions.

Scholars experienced project-based learning in kindergarten. They have engaged in deep study of one topic through field studies, projects, and creation of a museum.

Schools are not only a critical part of our scholars’ lives; they are also interesting organizations. Students learn about the different roles and responsibilities involved in schooling and about the structure of a schooling organization.

In this unit, your job is to fuel scholars’ excitement about schools as organizations and to help them become better observers of schooling.

If you do your job well, your scholars will understand:

• Schools have many different people, places, and things designed to support student learning.
• There are many parts within a school, all of which serve different purposes and help ensure that the school functions.
• Schools require a wide variety of personnel, filling many different roles.
• Beyond school design, there are many intangible/qualitative aspects that contribute to a great school.

As in all reading units, your job as a teacher is to ensure that your students are reading at home and at school. Meet with the parents of any scholars who are not reading at home. If you cannot persuade parents to ensure that their scholars are doing their homework, you need to manage up to leadership.

It is your responsibility to ensure that ALL your scholars are reading 6 days a week at home!

Projects are not the dessert; they are the main course of Project-Based Learning! Scholars will explore and learn about schools through four exciting projects:

• 3D Classroom Model
  • Scholars work in pairs to create maps of their classroom on cardboard, using mixed materials to represent different items and spaces.
• School Personnel Interview Video
  • Scholars plan interview questions for faculty and staff throughout your building. Scholars work in pairs, filming each other asking the faculty members and staff questions during the interviews. Then each scholar writes a biographical paragraph about each interview subject.
• Design Your Own School
  • Scholars work in groups to plan and build their ideal school buildings out of blocks.
• Virtual Tour of Your SA School
  • Working in small groups, scholars will script and shoot a 1–2-minute virtual tour of one part of your SA school on iPads. All parts should fit together to give a comprehensive view of your school.

Every day you will have 2 hours for your scholars to become investigators of schools.

Some days the focus is investigating and studying to learn more, while other days center around project work.

Your day might include:

• Launch (5–7 minutes): This is brief. You need to quickly set your scholars up for success, without unnecessary teacher talk. Your purpose here is to allow your scholars to work independently and to get them started as quickly as possible. If you can do it in 5 minutes, do so!
• Read to Learn (45 minutes): Through Read Alouds (30 minutes) and Shared Texts (15 minutes), you will model how to research and develop expertise about schools.
• Writing (30 minutes): Through writing, scholars will further develop their expertise by recording the details and big ideas they have learned.
• Independent Reading (30 minutes): Scholars will have time to both explore schools through PBL-related texts and read their just-right books.
• Project Work or Field Studies (45 minutes or more): Scholars engage in learning about schools through hands-on, firsthand experiences, and create projects to share and communicate what they have learned about schools.

Art: Scholars will explore architecture through building designs or create current or future self portraits.

Hold scholars accountable for the content they are learning in Art. Their work product must match their work product in your classroom. Projects from Art should be showcased at your PBL Museum!

Choose 2–3 engaging field studies over the course of the schools study. Here are some ideas:

• Touring Our School (2 days)
  • Lead your scholars around your school building to observe different spaces.
• Scholar-Led Interviews of School Personnel (2 days)
  • Break scholars into small groups and guide them through the building so they can use iPads to interview various members of the staff and faculty.

Give scholars a clear objective for each field study. Set explicit expectations for scholar behavior and learning and for effective materials management.

Facilitating meaningful Project-Based Learning is challenging because there are materials to manage and the work is open-ended. But this is the very reason why it is important and engaging for our scholars.

Your level of preparation and your clarity of purpose make all the difference. You also need a North Star. You need to know what excellent first-grade work for this unit looks like. Fortunately, we have many samples. You need to study them and know what you are shooting for. You need to know what the work should look like, and you need to be driving to get ALL your kids’ work there!

Guard against exploration without rigor! Whether in the classroom studying a text or on a field study, scholars’ experiences should spark questions and further investigation about the topic.

PBL Museum: The culminating exhibition, or museum, showcases scholars’ project work, and most important, all that they’ve learned about schools. Get parents invested in their scholars’ academic work by communicating with them early on about the study and museum.

Use project work time to check in with scholars to see that their work demonstrates what they have learned. Is their work accurate? Is it neat and detailed? Does it demonstrate actual mastery of the content and their best effort?

Make a plan for preparing scholars to present their museum to visitors, guiding guests on a tour of their projects and clearly demonstrating their excitement and expertise regarding the topic.

Effective Management of PBL Materials: Scholars will work with a variety of materials as they create their projects. Develop a plan to manage the materials, but keep the focus on the content! Ask your art teacher for advice on effectively managing the materials and working with any unfamiliar medium.

Work with your leaders, grade team, and/or teaching partner to plan a routine for using and setting up materials.

Scholars will use PBL journals and folders for their research and writing. Prepare these beforehand, making them special and exciting for scholars to use. Each journal’s cover should have a picture of a school and the scholar’s name.

You will need lots of space! Make sure you have a plan for how to use your classroom to display scholar work and a PBL word wall. Include wall space both within and outside your four walls.

What does a school need to achieve its main purpose?

What are the key parts of a school, and how are they used?

How do school personnel help the school run smoothly?

What makes for a really great school?

Below is a list of additional Read Alouds that are not included in the lessons; you can read these with scholars to build their content knowledge.

• Day in the Life of a Teacher, by Heather Adamson
• At School: Long Ago and Today, by Lynnette Brent
• Going to School in American History, by Dana Rau
• Going to Work series (Principals; School Counselors; Teachers), by Julia Murray
• One-Room School, by Bobbie Kalman
• Schools Around the World, by Casey Petersen
• School Days Around the World, by Catherine Chambers
• A School Like Mine, by DK
• Virgie Goes to School With Us Boys, by Elizabeth Howard
• The Most Beautiful Place in the World, by Ann Cameron
• Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World, by Susan Hughes
• Teachers Then and Now, by Roben Alarcon
• What’s for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World, by Andrea Curtis

What Does Success Look Like?

What does a school need to achieve its main purpose?

Success is when scholars are able to identify the different things schools need to work.

Day 1

Engage — 1 minute

Share surprising facts about your school to get scholars excited to explore “behind the scenes” of their school to discover the people and places that help their school function.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Launch the day by having scholars share out what they believe is the main purpose of schools. Then show scholars photos of different schools (photos available here), using either the ELMO or a pocket chart. Scholars turn and talk about what schools need to have to achieve that purpose—teaching students.

Read to Learn — 15 minutes

• Read aloud From Chalkboards to Computers: How Schools Have Changed, by Jennifer Boothroyd.

Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• With scholars back at their seats, distribute their journals. Scholars write two sentences about what schools need to teach students.
• Spend the first few minutes making sure all kids are on task. Narrate scholars who are following through on your expectations and using strong writing skills.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her writing goal and what’s holding her back. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
• Scholars tell you their big ideas. Can their big ideas be made stronger? Do they support their ideas with evidence? Is their writing simple and clear? Do they reread their writing?
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars articulate and watch them write their ideas. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their paragraphs under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their writing.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 25 minutes.
• Whether you are flying solo or teaching as part of a duo, start by making sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone. Play classical or instrumental jazz music, but the volume should be low.
• Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations or demonstrating strong reading habits.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
• Listen to scholars read, assessing their struggles and level of understanding. Do they need to envision more? Do they need to stop after each paragraph and think about what the big idea is? Do they need to work on their fluency? Is their oral language development lagging?
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars as they read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Continue to read aloud From Chalkboards to Computers: How Schools Have Changed, by Jennifer Boothroyd.

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited to analyze the roles of different objects in your classroom before transforming that knowledge into a 3D model. Show scholars maps that go from zoomed out to increasingly zoomed in (e.g., map of the globe, country, city, neighborhood, school floor) to highlight the different roles maps can play.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Scholars share out different areas in your classroom. Chart the areas that scholars name. As scholars name an area, scholars turn and talk about why that area might be important.

Project Work — 60 minutes

• Project: Classroom Map
• Scholars work in pairs to create floor plans of your classroom on paper. Each pair builds their floor plan into a 3D model using a piece of cardboard and a variety of materials (e.g., clay, paper towel rolls, buttons, pipe cleaners, construction paper, markers, glue).
• Model beginning your map plan, highlighting how you think about an object’s size and its room placement before you add it to your map. Model measuring an object and thinking about how big to make it on your floor plan.
• Divide scholars into pairs and distribute planning materials for scholars to begin. As scholars work, circulate to find scholars making creative, purposeful choices. Before handing out 3D model materials, have a brief discussion. Strategically choose several scholars’ maps to compare what they included in their maps. Ask scholars to explain their choices.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud several chapters of It’s Back to School We Go, by Ellen Jackson and Jan Davey Ellis.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 25 minutes.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back.
• Listen to scholars read, assessing their struggles and level of understanding.
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars as they read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

What are the key parts of a school, and how are they used?

Success is when scholars are able to name different parts of their school and explain how they are used.

Days 3–4

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited about going on a tour of the school by sharing a short anecdote about a “secret” area you discovered recently (e.g., the boiler room or kitchen).

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Prepare scholars for the school tour.
• To research your school, scholars will:
  • Visit different parts of your building and make observations about the space.
  • Develop their understanding of how different spaces in the school are used.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud pages 4–16 of My School in the Rainforest: How Children Attend School Around the World, by Margriet Ruurs.

Field Study

• Lead scholars around your school building to observe different spaces and to better understand why those spaces are important. You may need to schedule some visits in advance.
• Divide your class into 2–3 smaller groups to ensure that they will be able to fit into different spaces. If possible, divide your class further to make the groups as small as possible, leveraging parent chaperones, ATs, and your grade team to ensure that all groups are supervised.
• Plan to observe as many places as possible—the main office, cafeteria and kitchen, teacher workroom, gym, art room, auditorium, upper-grade classroom, basement, boiler room.

Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Post-trip, debrief with the class, discussing scholars’ observations. Push scholars to analyze how spaces are used and by whom, along with why they are important!
• Create a large chart using butcher-block paper or chart paper, including columns for: “Place/Illustration”, “Who works here?”, “Where is it?”, “What is it used for?”, and “Why is it important?” Work with scholars to fill in the name column with the places seen on the tour.
• Then assign scholars to work with partners to create work for the remaining columns. Each partnership or small group generates the information for a row, completing the writing and
  illustrations on sentence strips and/or index cards. Add these to the chart at the end.
• Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations. Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her writing goal and what’s holding her back.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their writing and/or illustrations under the ELMO. Then give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their work.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading. It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
• Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

What are the key parts of a school and how are they used?

Success is when scholars imagine ideal schools and work in small groups to design the layout using blocks.

Day 5

Engage — 1 minute

Now that scholars have learned about the different parts of a school that enable it to function, get scholars excited to step into the shoes of a school architect. Provide examples of important decisions scholars will make as they decide what a school really needs.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud pages 18–32 of My School in the Rainforest: How Children Attend School Around the World, by Margriet Ruurs.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Thinking about their school tour, scholars share out different parts that a school needs. Chart scholars’ suggestions.

Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• To prepare to design their own schools, scholars write about their ideal school. What places does it need to best help students learn?
• Narrate scholars who are following through on your expectations and using strong writing skills.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her writing goal and what’s holding her back. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
• Scholars tell you their big ideas. Can their big ideas be made stronger? Do they support their ideas with evidence? Is their writing simple and clear? Do they reread their writing?
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars articulate and watch them write their ideas. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their paragraphs under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their writing.

Project Work — 30 minutes

• Set behavioral and intellectual expectations for project work.
• Project: Design Your Own School (Day 1)
• This project spans two days. During the first day, scholars work in groups to combine their ideas and decide which areas their ideal school needs and where these places fit relative to one another. Groups then plan their ideal floor plan on paper. They can make accessories, such as signs, for their areas using Legos, paper, markers, and clay.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

What are the key parts of a school, and how are they used?

Success is when scholars build block models of their ideal schools in small groups, including important areas.

Day 6

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited to bring their designs to life as they head into the blocks room to make their layouts into 3D floor plans. Show scholars a picture of a model school and explain the different, creative decisions made in the model.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Set behavioral and intellectual expectations for project work.

Project Work — 60 minutes

• Project: Design Your Own School (Day 2)
• Schedule scholars for an hour in the blocks room. Take pictures of scholars’ structures to preserve their work in the form of a bulletin board or poster.

Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Now that scholars have built their ideal schools, each scholar writes a paragraph about what his or her ideal school is like.
• What is a normal day like in their ideal school? Push scholars to think beyond the physical environment, instead imagining its culture, students, faculty, staff, schedule, etc.
• Spend the first few minutes making sure all kids are on task. Narrate scholars who are following through on your expectations and using strong writing skills.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her writing goal and what’s holding her back. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
• Scholars tell you their big ideas. Can their big ideas be made stronger? Do they support their ideas with evidence? Is their writing simple and clear? Do they reread their writing?
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars articulate and watch them write their ideas. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their paragraphs under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their writing.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

How do school personnel help the school run smoothly?

Success is when scholars are able to generate precise and thoughtful questions for different school personnel.

Day 7

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited to learn more about the people “behind the scenes” in the building who help their school run smoothly, by showing a brief video of an interview you conducted.

Launch — 10 minutes

• Prepare scholars to interview people who work in their building by having them share
  personnel they have noticed. Create a list of the different people and their jobs.
• Explain the design and purpose of an interview. Show scholars how you generate questions for a sample
  interview subject. This should be someone you can bring into the classroom during Day 8 (e.g., another teacher or a member of the building staff) to help you model interviewing.
• Scholars practice generating more questions for your interview subject using question words (who/what/when/where/why/how). Scholars share questions and evaluate their precision.

Project Work — 55 minutes

• On Days 8 & 9, small groups will interview four members of school personnel. Leverage parent chaperones, ATs, and your grade team to make the Field Study groups small—ideally groups of four.
• Project: School Personnel Interview Video
• Scholars meet with their groups to plan their interviews. Each scholar can conduct one
  interview, or scholars can conduct interviews in pairs. Scholars should then work in pairs to draft at least five interview questions for their assigned school personnel.
• Get your scholars focused and ensure that the room has a hushed tone. Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Scholars ask you their questions. Can their questions be more precise?
• Choose two scholars who have precise questions to share their questions under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their questions.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud School Days Around the World by Margriet Ruurs.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her reading level goal and what’s holding her back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

Read to Learn — 15 minutes

• Continue to read aloud School Days Around the World by Margriet Ruurs.

What Does Success Look Like?

How do school personnel help the school run smoothly?

Success is when scholars record informative interviews with school personnel.

Days 8–9

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited to use their interviews to capture the stories of influential people within their schools and to share an anecdote about a time that someone in the school helped them in a surprising or important way.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Before you take scholars around the school, invite two interview subjects to your classroom. Ideally, one should be the person you modeled generating questions for during Day 7.
• Demonstrate interviewing one subject; highlight how you ask unplanned follow-up questions. Then have scholars pose questions to the other subject. Give scholars time to generate questions. Choose which scholars’ questions you will ask before the interview begins.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read a Shared Text.

Field Study

• Prepare scholars for the interviews. Ensure that each group has an iPad; set clear expectations for when and how iPads should be used.
• Confirm each group’s interview assignments. Groups finalize which questions they will ask. By the end of Day 9, each scholar needs to have an iPad video of their group interviewing a member of school personnel.

Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Post-trip, debrief with the class, discussing scholars’ observations. Each day, share a clip of a group’s interview.
• Each scholar writes a biographical paragraph about a person she has interviewed each day, including the interview subject’s name and title and a brief description of his or her job.
• Get your scholars focused and ensure that the room has a hushed tone. Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations. Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his writing goal and what’s holding him back.
• Scholars tell you their big ideas. Can their big ideas be made stronger?
• Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars articulate and watch them write their ideas. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their writing and/or illustrations under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their writing.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5-6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her reading level goal and what’s holding her back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

What makes for a really great school?

Success is when scholars identify a part or aspect of their school that they think is special.

Day 10

Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited to shoot their virtual tours by talking about how effective commercials can be at conveying information and excitement to people. Like products, schools also advertise all the
wonderful services they offer.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud several chapters from Going to School in India, by Lisa Heydlauff.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Show scholars parts of the Success Academy virtual school tour, which you can also find through our Blueprints on this website. Highlight the variety of information being conveyed. Then tell scholars they will get to make their own virtual tours for their school, highlighting the different aspects that make their school great. Scholars share out different parts of their school that they could highlight in the virtual school tour.

Writing Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Scholars independently select one aspect or place from your list about which they would like to make a virtual tour. They should then write one paragraph about why they think that aspect of your school is important and what makes it great. Scholars write a “second choice” aspect or place on the bottom of their papers—you can use these paragraphs to create virtual tour project groups.
• Spend the first few minutes making sure all kids are on task. Narrate scholars who are following through on your expectations and using strong writing skills.
• Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his writing goal and what’s holding him back. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
• Scholars tell you their big ideas. Can their big ideas be made stronger? Do they support their ideas with evidence? Is their writing simple and clear? Do they reread their writing? Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars articulate and watch them write their ideas. Hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
• Choose two scholars who have strong ideas to share their paragraphs under the ELMO. Give scholars time to go back, reread, and revise their writing.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her reading level goal and what’s holding her back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read a Shared Text.

What Does Success Look Like?

What makes for a really great school?

Success is when scholars work in groups to create a plan for their virtual tours.

Days 11–12
Engage — 1 minute

Get scholars excited about creating a virtual tour of one part of their school by using Launch to explore additional parts of the Success Academy virtual tour.

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud several chapters of Going to School in India, by Lisa Heydlauff.

Launch — 5–7 minutes

• Share with scholars different parts of the Success Academy virtual school tour. Continue to highlight the variety of information being conveyed.
• Scholars share out how the virtual school tour teaches viewers about Success Academy. Which information did they highlight? How did they convey the information?

Project Work — 60 minutes

• For the last four days of the PBL unit, scholars work on their Virtual Tours.
• Project: Virtual Tour
• Communicate each group’s assignment within your school. Then groups meet and create plans for their 1–2-minute videos, thinking about what viewers will need to know about their assigned place and its role in your school. Scholars decide where they will shoot and which places and items within the room should be included in the video. Be clear that scholars can put together multiple short clips—their video does not have to be 1–2 minutes straight through! Set clear expectations for work time and noise level. Be clear that every scholar needs to have a role in the video.
• Leverage parent chaperones, ATs, and your grade team for the remaining three days of this unit to give scholars the opportunity to shoot their virtual tour segments using the video function on the iPads in different parts of the school. While some groups are shooting, other scholars should work on their scripts and/or finalize their other projects.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading level goal and what’s holding him back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
• Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

What Does Success Look Like?

How can we teach others what we’ve learned?

You’ll know you’ve been successful when scholars are able to teach others key information about school.

Days 13–15

Project Work — 60 minutes

• Provide scholars with work time to finish their projects and prepare the museum. Throughout these days, prioritize ensuring that all scholars have time to shoot their virtual tours throughout the building.
• 3D Classroom Model
  • Ensure that the models are completed. Scholars can display their models on their desks during your museum.
• School Personnel Interview Video
  • Scholars finalize and publish one of their biography paragraphs. If there is time, scholars can also create a portrait illustration, which you can bind into a class book to accompany your class’s video. Decide how you will share the interviews with parents.
• Design Your Own School
  • While you will make the bulletin board showcasing the photographs of the blocks, scholars revise and finalize their paragraphs about their ideal school to accompany the photographs.
• Virtual Tour of Your SA School
  • Ensure that all scholars have the chance to shoot their virtual tours throughout the building. Decide how you will share these videos with parents—you can send them directly to parents, compile them into a class video, etc.
  • Display and label all project work. Depending on timing, scholars can also make brochures and/or invitations to your museum.
  • Plan and practice the format of the exhibition. What role will each scholar play? How will the museum flow?

Read to Learn — 30 minutes

• Read aloud from the additional Read Alouds or Shared Texts.

Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes

• Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
• It is critical that scholars sustain focused reading for 25 minutes or more.
• When kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone, spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 5–6 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify her reading level goal and what’s holding her back.
• Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
• Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.

Use the next 5 days to work with scholars to increase their capacity to read and write.

The most important thing you can do is give kids independent reading, writing, and revision time.

Depending on their needs, work with scholars whole group, in small groups, or one-on-one to support them with the Tactics of Great Readers and Writers.

Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of Unit 3: Project-Based Learning: School—How It Works!

As a result of teaching this unit, you, as the teacher, have:

• Developed scholars’ content knowledge to answer the essential questions of the unit.
• Turned your scholars onto investigating and researching topics of interest.
• Supported scholars’ ability to think as both readers and writers of nonfiction—thinking about both the big idea and how it was presented by the author.

Your scholars can:

• Answer the essential questions of the unit, demonstrating their understanding of the topic— school!
• Ask and answer their own questions about topics of interest by reading to learn.
• Understand what they read by noticing the choices the author made to convey the information and his or her ideas.
• Apply the same techniques of great nonfiction writers to teach others through their own writing.

Celebrate your scholars’ successes by acknowledging the expertise they now have about school as a result of the study and explaining what they can now do as readers and writers as a result of their work over the past several weeks. For example, scholars have developed a deeper understanding of their school and its personnel and have used technology to share this understanding in their culminating virtual tours.

Invite scholars to share what was most intriguing to them over the course of the study—and what they’re going to keep investigating on their own!

Reflect on your successes and stretches as well as those of your scholars. Look at your F&P results. Have your scholars grown as readers over the past month? Enlist parents to help get scholars over this hump!

Scholars must read at home, as well as in school. Are 100% of your kids reading 6 days a week at home? Make sure at-home reading is happening, and meet with families who are falling short to recommit them to this team effort.

Are 100% of your kids reading fluently? Are kids using all the tools at their disposal to figure out the meaning of what they are reading?

Are 100% of your kids doing their literacy homework?

Going into the next unit, make specific reading goals for yourself. Set a percentage goal for how many children you will move in the next 15 days. Set a goal for children who are not reading at home. Whom will you get to consistently read at home? Why are they stuck? Do they read most or all words correctly? What is their struggle with decoding? Do they understand what they’re reading? Do they understand the big idea? How will you partner with parents to support their growth?

If you are having trouble meeting your goals, do not wait until you have NOT succeeded. Consult your colleagues. Consult your leaders. ASK FOR HELP so you can meet your goals!