Why Don't We Run Out of Water?

This week I posed the question to my class: Why don't we run out of water?  I set them up for their 3rd SOLE session with one modification.  I had the students take notes on what they were finding instead of cutting and pasting into the scrapbook that is available through The School in The Cloud website.  I wanted to eliminate their desire to spend a great deal of time finding pictures rather than concentrating on reading to find information.

What I loved about this particular Big Question was that when the students began to look for information, they typed in the question and the results were not very helpful.  They were quickly frustrated, but soon realized that they needed to think of the question in a different way.  They began asking questions about where water come from.  They immediately found information about the water cycle and were soon taking many notes on the subject.  To show what they had learned, I had them create posters.  I made three interesting observations while they were working on their posters.  The one student in my class who is exceptionally verbal chose to do the drawing for his group's poster.  Drawing is not something he has ever been comfortable with and I was surprised that he chose that task. The second interesting observation was that the one group who seemed the least interested in the big question and chose not to use all of the allotted time to research, appeared to be re-energized when they began working on the poster. Finally, I realized that letting my students do things in their own way is very difficult for me.  The noise level in the class room was very high, but as I walked around between the groups, they all were focused and excited about what they were doing.  I gave them a time limit to complete the posters in hope that it would keep them focused on the task at hand.  It did indeed keep them focused, but also increased the energy level of the classroom.  Noise does not have to mean not working.

I have included below pictures of the students at work and their finish posters.

A Second SOLE Session

This week, my 4th grade class held our second SOLE session.  SOLE stands for student organized learning environment and we used the resources found on The School in The Cloud website.  If you have not done so, I invite you to read my earlier post regarding our first attempt at a SOLE session.

After studying volcanoes for the past month, we began by discussing the different rocks that are formed by volcanoes. Then looking at some rocks that were found in our area, we asked the question: what other ways are rocks formed?  The students were given a half hour to complete their task.  When the students were asked to chose groups, I noticed that the previous groups that had trouble working effectively chose to work in different groups.  Having had a previous experience with this type of independent task, the students quickly got to work.  All of the participants were focused throughout the allotted time.  There was one group that finished early, but when evaluating their presentation, it was apparent that they did not have enough information to fully answer the question.  One group in particular was fascinating to watch.  Each time they found something useful, they cheered for themselves.  As they found more information, their excitement grew.  At the end, this was the group that had the most thorough answer to the big question. 

After the students completed their quest, and created their presentation, they had the chance to share with the whole class what they were able to find out.  Part of this sharing process is taking time to analyze how they worked in their groups and the effectiveness of their presentation.  One group in particular seemed disappointed when then realized that what they thought was a complete answer to the question really did not answer it at all.

 

For the most part, the groups worked well together.  The students were much more focused on the question this time than the first session and did not venture to see what other groups were doing.  If seemed as if the shorter time gave them more urgency to stay focus at their own station. Perhaps extending the time during our next session would eliminate the pressure and allow them more ease in collaboration.

I am planning another session for next week. I am considering eliminating the computer presentation that is part of  The School in The Cloud website.  This would eliminate the time the students want to take finding pictures rather than information on the given topic. Students can take notes and create a poster presentation after the session is over.

I would love to hear from anyone who might have tried a SOLE session in their class.  

Faced with a New Challange

    So far, this year has been very exciting.  I have been trying new things which have been welcomed in my class.  Now I am faced with a new challenge that I know I will need help with.  I have a remarkable student in my class who needs to be given the opportunity to be challenged daily.  I have had very bright students before that needed the classwork to be differentiated in order to meet their needs, but this is different.  This student's knowledge is beyond the 4th grade and at the same time he is just a little boy.  I gave our year end math test and he got 20 out of 22 questions correct..  Mind you this is only October and we have only completed 2 topics out of 16 in math  He is reader like I have never seen before. Last year he read a total of 87 book including the complete Harry Potter series which he completed in 3 weeks.  He was 8 years old. He has an unexpected understanding of the world around him and needs no prodding to research anything he is interested in.  In short, he really does not need to simply trudge through the complete 4th grade curriculum.  He has a thirst for knowledge that goes beyond the walls of our classroom.  I struggle with knowing how to meet his needs. I have no problem enriching his language skills, but when it comes to math and science, he needs more than I can give him by differentiating my instruction.  I was considering flipping the classroom for him so he can explore subjects and advance his math skills at his own pace.  My problem is I am not so sure how to do this.  Has anyone been successful in doing this for a particular student?  I would love your ideas and suggestions!