Franklin 2/24-2/26

We packed a lot into just a few days this week! If you don't already, you can follow me on twitter, @aiellomrs. I try to post more frequently (and briefly ;) there).

Team Pursuit's Podcast Promo Party

On Monday Team Pursuit invited families and community members to join them at Station No. 6 to celebrate their Podcast, "Stories from 86th Street". Each student had a job-from food servers to videographers to help the event run smoothly. They had a button making station, a podcasting area, and lots of great West Allis swag to hand out (stickers, tattoos, book marks). They were professional and so proud of the hard work that went into this endeavor.

Mind-Mapping for Project Reflection

On Tuesday, Kindergarten and 1st Grade students in Team Pursuit had the chance to reflect on their Podcasting PBL unit. They started with a visit to 88.9, Radio Milwaukee, received feedback from peers from other schools, interviewed experts, wrote and revised their narrative pieces, recorded podcast episodes, and planned their public event. Today they collaborated on mind maps to answer the questions: What went well? What was hard? What would you change? Moving forward they will be able to use this reflection opportunity to create their best work in future projects. Each group shared out their reflection with the class.

50 Things Ideation Protocol for Revolutionary War Museum Interactive Exhibits

Team Odyssey has been researching their Revolutionary War subtopics. They will be working with Team Enterprise and Team Resiliency to create a museum for our March Franklin showcase. Each student will create an interactive exhibit, they'll run a museum cafe, as well as a gift shop. On Tuesday Odyssey students used an ideation protocol to brainstorm as many exhibit ideas as possible. In about 7 minutes they were able to collectively brainstorm hundreds of ideas. The goal was to go for quantity over quality and students stated their ideas as they wrote. The reason for this is that other members of the group are then able to build of their ideas.

Gallery Walk to record Interactive Exhibit Ideas

On Wednesday all brainstorm posters were displayed around the room. Students circulated and wrote down exhibit ideas that fit their interests, skills, and sub-topic. Students who made their selection were able to start mapping out their exhibit plan (what visitors should learn, how visitors will interact with their exhibit, a step by step plan, materials they need, challenges and successes they anticipate in the process). Developing this plan was modeled for students before they began their own.

Woods Runner Book Club

Students in this Odyssey/Enterprise group are reading Woods Runner by Gary Paulson. The story is set during the Revolutionary War and written from the perspective of a 13 year old boy. The historical fiction is peppered with informational sections about important topics from the colonial era such as communication, land settlement, and more. Today students read independently then met with small groups to discuss: 1. Historical event mentions and completed additional research (ex. Battle of Lexington and Concord) and 2. What gaps have you noticed in the story? Is there important information that you’re waiting to find out?

Literary Entrepreneurs Business Plans

Students from my Team Promise Reading Group are continuing work on their Literary Entrepreneurs Project. They completed their business webs and rough draft business plans. Today they began working on drafting their final business plan in either Keynote or Google Slides. They are including: their business idea, how it differs from competitors, business name, target market and demographics, marketing, pricing, and profit. Once their business plans are complete and they've received feedback and made revisions, they will begin designing their business websites. They were extremely focused on their task today. At the end of our session James observed math work on the white board (5th Grade group work on solving for variables within a proportion), he had to check their work and was amazed at the correct answers for such challenging math.

5th Grade Math Group (Rates, Ratios, and Proportions)

The guided math group I work with from Team Enterprise and Team Odyssey has been working on developing skills in the area of Rates, Ratios, and Proportions. We've discussed representing ratios, equivalent ratios, ratio tables, unit rates, and solving proportions using different strategies (6th/7th Grade Standards). On Tuesday and Wednesday we started the Scholastic Ratio Design Challenge. Students are asked to approach several real world scenarios and use proportional relationships to solve. As they complete tasks features are added to their facility (baseball stadium in this case). There are bonus rounds to earn additional items. These are challenging problems that involve unit conversions, setting up proportions, algebra, and some pretty intense division. We worked through a number of tasks together and students will eventually work independently to solve the remainder. This is unfamiliar material but they are enjoying the exposure to new and above grade level content.

Have a great weekend everyone!