Tidying Up Your Life:  Locker Edition
​                                         By:  Ashleigh Whitney

Project at a Glance :

This project is for a 5th grade students. This will be their first year switching classes, so it is important for them to stay organized. During the project students will make a plan to ensure that they can find materials quickly and efficiently.
      
Driving Question:

How can we organize materials in our locker so that we can find them quickly and efficiently?             

Standards:

• ​5.SL.1, 5.SL.4, 3-5-ETS1-1,  3-5-ETS1-2 
• Skills: Making good choices, Teamwork, & Responsibility

Team / Culture Building:

• Creative Sequence Assessment will be used to create successful teams. ​

• Once teams are made, students will complete the Inner Heroes protocol to build culture.
• Another option: Fill the Lockboxes with materials they will be using to organize their space.

Entry Event:

• Clip from Hoarders show.
• Invite Modern Office Interiors in to explain what they do and the importance of organizing spaces.

Stakeholders:

• Teachers
• Students
•  Principals
• Custodial staff

Empathy Building:

• Students will complete the Stakeholder Map protocol to identify these stakeholders themselves.
• Empathy Map - create a map for each stakeholder group. 

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students will participate in a Need to Know Chalk Talk. They will use different color markers/sticky notes to differentiate the “knows” and “need to knows.”
• Chalk Talk: Why is it important for people to stay organized?​

• Students will then interview students from the middle school, as well as other teachers in the building, to uncover information regarding how to keep an organized locker. They will use the chalk talk activity to help formulate a list of questions.

Incubation:

• Model brainstorming
• Team building exercises
• Anti Problem: How can we make our locker super messy and disorganized?​​

• Use the Idea Quota protocol to generate solution ideas.

Checking in:

• Check-ins will happen daily as this will be a quick PBL. This will happen as the teacher is monitoring groups while they're  working.
• Talking Chips strategy​

• Think Pair Share protocol

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Solution Building:

• Poster Session - showing groups solution ideas.
• Saturate and Group activity from sticky notes during the Idea Quota protocol
• Dot Voting strategy will help narrow down ideas.

Critique and Revision: 

• Gallery Walk or Elevator Pitch paired with I Like, I Wish, What If feedback session.
• Invite Modern Office Interiors back in at this point to offer suggestions.​

Authentic Audience:

• Teachers
• Students
• Principals
• Custodial staff 

Final Presentation:

• Elevator Pitch - have students view Kid Shark Tank for guidance
• Students will be able to build a model or draw a diagram illustrating their organizational design to share with the authentic audience.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• The authentic audience will be given a Pluses and Deltas sheet to fill out after each pitch.
• Reflect together using the Talking Chips strategy.
• Students will self evaluate using the Emoji Rubric​

The teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:
Ashleigh Whitney teaches fifth grade ELA at Coopersville South Elementary. 

     "I am passionate about PBL and Design Thinking because it allows students to apply skills into a real world setting, more importantly, their community."