Celebrating: ECT (Enrichment Creavity Time)

It's time for celebrating, and I am proud to share this week's celebration.  Thanks Ruth for encouraging us to choose a special moment and write about it.  I am excited to celebrate with everyone.  Spring break has passed, hopefully winter is over soon, and round 2 of state testing starts next week.  Two weeks of testing which changes everyone's schedule in our building and in Room 234 our schedule will have a celebration everyday after testing.

KA and HD chose to research cancer. Both girls lives have been impacted by cancer in their families.
They chose different kinds and their creativity is making the different ribbons to display each
type. I learned that every form of cancer has a color attached to it.  These displays will be placed in the library
so their learning will go beyond our classroom.

RK built the White House with popsicle sticks.
The roof lifts up and she included facts about three rooms that she was interested in learning more about. 

ECT (enrichment creativity time) has been a highlight of third trimester. Our district has encouraged the entire K-12 staff to include creativity throughout the school day.  We have had district PD on what it looks like and sounds like. I decided learners in Room 234 would be apart of the decision making process.  I posed a question: What do you want to learn more about and how could you use your creativity to share your project?  When you ask a group of fifth graders and allow the gates to be wide open, their responses are amazing.  The best part about the process for me (and them) was it was an opportunity for exploration as well as a chance for each learner to share their project with their peers. The criteria included:

1. Learning goals
2. Plan including a timeline
3. Materials (most supplied from home)
4. Completion and sharing with peers

AM built a rubber band car. He chose this topic because we were
studying force and motion.  He loves science! The best part of his ECT project was that
his car did not run smoothly, and he is still revising his plan. I am confident that he will
revise and share his car with us.

Enrichment is NOT about Worksheets

I have been struggling with a new focus on using diagnostics to guide my instruction.  For the first time in my teaching career, I was required to give reading and math diagnostics (both fall and spring). This blog post is not going to include my thoughts on these diagnostics however; I might consider writing one after I get my OAA scores back this summer.

Where I have struggled the most is with students “who already know the material.” These students need enriched – they need to be pushed to the next level.  Not necessarily to the 6^th grade indicators but deeper into 5^th grade indicators  I struggle because with all the differentiation that is required I find myself giving my students a worksheet and calling that enrichment.  OK I typed it:  the cat is out of the bag.

Fast forward to April reading, I had 11 students who showed they had mastered their non-fiction reading skills, and I was bound and determined not to give them a worksheet and call that reading instruction.  I spent a weekend reading blogs and going back to Choice Literacy searching for an idea. Finally I decided on having the students create their own game boards. I know that the best teaching comes when you have to teach someone else.  I hit gold with this idea. 

The planets are 3 dimensional: clay and different size planets made out of clay.

I divided the students into groups of 3-4 students.  They chose their own groups-more ownership. I assigned them a rubric that I found on line and adjusted it to our topic:  Earth and Space science.  I gave all the groups the same book and explained the project. Their timeline was one week to read the text, create the game board including directions, game cards, and pawns. We spent an entire afternoon playing Earth and Space games.  It was the BEST afternoon of the month.  The students laughed as they played “Eating Space” after Hungry Hippo. See the video below. They learned several new facts because the rest of the class had to use the text to locate the answers they did not know. That was exciting to hear, "Look on page 13 and skim for the answer." Many of the students made connections to the unit we just completed. It was a great review for our unit test. Finally I have 5 game boards to use for a review and hopefully I can beg to keep one of them for next year’s class as a mentor game board. Now that the "cats out of the bag" I am thankful because I believe enrichment is NOT about worksheets.