Discovering Great Read Aloud Books
           By:  Jeff Henderson, Shelby Poest, Tracey Weberg, & Molly Guikema

Project at a Glance :

This project introduces Middle School students to a variety of elementary books and incorporates their personal experience to put together a portfolio of best books for elementary school teachers.        
 
Driving Question:

What collections of themed-books should a (grade level) teacher at (elementary school) read as a read aloud?            

Standards:

• Analytical reading and discussion
• Persuasive writing
• Drawing inferences/conclusions from texts
• Analyzing conflicting source documents
• Supporting arguments with evidenc
• Solving complex problems with no obvious answers

Team / Culture Building:​

• Creative DNA Sequence activity​

• Hopes/Fears/Norms protocol

Entry Event:

• ​Read aloud to kids with (librarian/children’s book author) to explore read aloud book possibilities. Engage them!​​​

 Stakeholders:

• Elementary Teachers who use read aloud books in their classrooms.
• Students in elementary classrooms who are the audience of the teachers reading books aloud.

Empathy Building:

• Empathy Maps - investigating how the students felt as the students who sat and were read to by their elementary teachers.
• Interviews with the elementary teachers and/or their students to gain insights.

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• ​Students will create a Mood Board
• Pains & Gains protocol from students perspectives​

• Explore Donalyn Miller's Book a Day Challenge

• Students  interview authors

Incubation:

• Anti-question - tweak the question to the opposite side
• Brain-mapping 
• Idea Quota - brainstorm 100 read aloud book ideas​

• Yes, and Can It. . .  protocol with people from other teams
• How would _________ solve this problem? (critic, someone we know, historical figure, etc.)
• The Anti-Problem ​

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Solution Building:

•  Students will use the  Saturate and Group protocol to organize their 100 solution ideas  
• After grouping 100 ideas students will vote on the best ideas using the Dot Voting protocol. 
• After dot voting, students will decide on a group theme and analyze their books to prove they “fit”. 

• Next, they will create a Storyboard sharing their research and solution ideas.
• Each student of a group will fan out to meet with others to complete the Charrette. Then each person will bring the Charrette group feedback to their project groups. 

Critique and Revision: 

•  ​Gallery Walks will allow students to see the work of their peers, as well as give and receive a variety of feedback.
• Students will engage in  a variety of revision protocols throughout the process: table tents with sentence starters, gallery walk, etc. ​to gain feedback.

Authentic Audience:

• Librarians
• Paraprofessionals 
• Elementary teachers

Final Presentation:

• Students will  individually write a piece to defend their choice of literature. Pieces of each team member’s writing will be included in the final team presentation. A presentation menu will be created to allow for voice and choice (options: infographic, poem, drawing, cartoon, collage, etc.) ​

Click here for Baldwin MS teacher's full plan.
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​Reflection and Feedback:

• Journal entries, through individual and group reflection.
• Correspondence with audience through email, and possibly Zoom/Loom.
• Google Forms responses for both students and stakeholders (Elementary teachers).
• . As a team or as an entire class, we will complete a FishBowl activity where kids share what they learned, wondered, etc. Individually, students will reflect in their writing journals.​

Click here for the  teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet.

Meet the Educators:
​Jeff Henderson, Shelby Poest, & Tracey Weberg all teach at Baldwin Street Middle School, Hudsonville Public Schools.  Molly Guikema teaches at Riley Middle School, Hudsonville Public Schools.

     "I was open to new ideas to engage student thinking and collaboration. This project allows students to dive deeper into our driving question." ~ S. Poest
     "PBL allows teachers to take students into the future with skills and excitement that make the classroom experience exciting and rewarding! " ~ J. Henderson
     "I am passionate about PBL and Design Thinking because I want our students to be prepared to think creatively in their future endeavors."  ~ T. Weberg
     "I believe in bringing real-world relevance to learning to engage my students. When students feel empowered to use their gifts and talents, real learning happens! "   ~M. Guikema