Project-based learning (PBL) 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.
Bread is not only delicious but also an almost-universal food found all over the world. Different types of bread are made with varied ingredients and are cooked in radically different ways. Through the study of bread, scholars will learn about cultures around the world!
In this unit, your job is to fuel scholars’ excitement about bread, help them become better readers and researchers, and develop their expertise about bread.
If you do your job well, your scholars will understand:
Make sure at-home reading is happening—parents must read to their scholars for 15 minutes, 6 days a week. Meet with families who are falling short to recommit them to this team effort. If you cannot succeed in persuading families to do this work consistently at home, you need to manage up to leadership.
It is your responsibility to ensure that ALL parents are reading to their scholars 6 days a week!
Projects are not the dessert; they are the main course of project-based learning!
Scholars will explore and learn about bread through four exciting projects:
Every day you will have 2 hours for your scholars to become investigators of bread.
Some days the focus is on investigating and studying to learn more, while other days center around project work.
Your day might include:
Your scholars will also learn about bread in Science. Scholars will identify and discuss the characteristics of living things, verify that yeast is alive through experimentation, and determine how mold grows on bread.
Hold scholars accountable for the content they are learning in Science. Their Science work product must match the work they produce in your classroom. Projects from Science should be showcased at your PBL Museum!
Choose 2–3 engaging field studies over the course of the bread study. Here are some ideas:
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 kindergarten work for this unit looks like, and you need to be striving 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 bread. 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 make sure their work demonstrates what they have learned. Is their work accurate? Is it neat and detailed? Does it demonstrate mastery of the content and their best effort?
Make a plan to prepare scholars to present their museum to visitors, guiding guests on a tour of their projects and demonstrating their excitement and expertise about the topic.
Effective Management of PBL Materials: Scholars will work with a variety of materials as they create their projects. Plan how you will manage the materials, but keep the focus on the content! Ask your Art teacher for advice on managing the materials and when 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 bread and the scholar’s name.
You will need lots of space! Make sure you have a plan for using your classroom, including wall space within and outside your four walls, to display scholar work and a PBL word wall.
What types of bread do you eat?
What ingredients do we need to make bread?
How do we make bread, both at home and commercially?
How do we make flour?
What does bread tell us about a culture?
How is bread made in a bakery?
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.
Read Alouds:
What Does Success Look Like?
What type of bread do you eat?
Success is when scholars are able to identify different types of bread.
Day 1
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
What ingredients do we need to make bread?
Success is when scholars are able to identify the key ingredients in bread.
Day 2
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
What ingredients do we need to make bread? (Continued)
Success is when scholars are able to identify the key ingredients in bread and they understand that baking bread requires a series of steps.
Day 3
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Read to Learn — 15 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How do we make bread, both at home and commercially?
Success is when scholars understand the difference between baking bread at home and baking it commercially.
Day 4
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Field Study
Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How do we make flour?
Success is when scholars understand that grinding hard grains finely makes flour.
Day 5
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How do we make flour?
Success is when scholars understand that different types of grains make different types of bread.
Day 6
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
What does bread tell us about a culture?
Success is when scholars are able to identify different types of bread that people around the world eat and how people use bread to celebrate.
Day 7
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
What does bread tell us about a culture? (Continued)
Success is when scholars are able to identify different types of bread that people around the world eat and how people use bread to celebrate.
Day 8
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 45 minutes today
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How is bread made in a bakery?
Success is when scholars understand the different roles of bakery personnel and how they work together to bake bread.
Day 9
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Field Study
Writing/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How is bread made in a bakery? (Continued)
Success is when scholars are able to identify the key tools used to make bread in a bakery.
Day 10
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5-7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
What Does Success Look Like?
How is bread made in a bakery? (Continued)
Success is when scholars are able to identify the key tools used to make bread in a bakery.
Day 11
Engage — 1 minute
Launch — 5–7 minutes
Project Work — 60 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Additional Project Days
What Does Success Look Like?
How can we teach others what we’ve learned?
Success is when scholars are skilled at teaching others key information about bread.
Days 12-15
Project Work — 60 minutes
Read to Learn — 30 minutes
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 30 minutes
Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of Bread Project-Based Learning!
As a result of teaching this unit, you, as the teacher, have:
Your scholars can:
Celebrate your scholars’ successes by acknowledging the expertise they now have about bread 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 know how to turn grain into flour and flour into bread!
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 last 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 summer, make specific reading goals for scholars. Set a goal for children who are not reading at home. Whom will you get to consistently read at home? Set a goal for moving any scholars who are stuck. 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!
resources
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