Celebrating our Unique Story
                                                               By:  Amy VanAllsburg

Project at a Glance :

​Everyone has a unique story, and now more than ever our communities need to gain empathy and appreciation for other cultures, traditions, and experiences. This PBL project is a year long experience for 4th grade students that will incorporate ELA standards as well as Social Studies standards. Students will focus on gaining empathy for those around them, by creating deeper relationships and sharing the stories of those in our community. Through this project students will learn to celebrate what makes each of us special and different, but also brings us together.  
       
 
Driving Question:

How can we value and celebrate everyone’s story in our community?            

Standards:
  • Writing: Friendly Letters/Formal Letters/Thank You Notes/Email Writing/Personal Narratives
  • Reading: Comprehension, Drawing Conclusions, and Summarizing
  • Teamwork and building empathy towards others
Team / Culture Building:
  • Introduce read alouds: Her Right Foot, by D. Eggers & A Bus Called Heaven, by B. Graham
Entry Event:
  • Iceberg Drawing Discussion  (What part of an iceberg do we see? What don’t we see that lies beneath? How does that relate to what we know about people we meet?)
  • Classroom Video:  Everyone Has A Story We Don't Know About | Moral Stories For Kids
  • PBL Notebook - Describe a time when you made a judgement or assumption before really understanding the person or situation.
  • Stakeholder Panel - International Student from Hope College, Esther Fifelski, Pam Schwallier, New Student/Family to Lakewood - Sharing information about themselves while students take notes and use Venn Diagram to show similarities and differences in their life stories.
  • Students created Mood Boards to share with their groups.
Stakeholders:
  • Human/International Relations Manager - Esther Fifelski 
  • West Ottawa Director of EL and Bilingual Programs - Pam Schwallier 
  • International Student from Hope College
  • New Lakewood Students and Families
Empathy Building:
  • Human Photos - Empathy Map
  • Students Will Brainstorm Questions for our Stakeholders’ Visit
  • Lakewood Family Interviews / Hope College International Student Interviews/ Pam Schwallier Interview
  • Stakeholder Map
Inquiry / Need to Knows:
  • Need to Know - Sticky note activity - (What do we know about people in our WO community and our Holland Community? What do we wonder about?) or Chalk Talk
  • Story Share and Capture - Google Meet with New People in our Community
  • Book Resources:  The Wild Robot  - by Peter Brown, The Boy at the Back of the Class - by  Onjali Rauf, Eyes That Speak to the Stars - by Joanna Ho, The Name Jar - by Xangsook Cho, The Proudest Blue - by  Ibtihaj Muhammad, The Day You Begin - by  Jacqueline  Woodson, The Cay - by Theodore Taylor, and The People Remember - by Ibi Zoboi
  • Writing Project with Mr. Ambrose’s Class - Human Library Questions - Our Human Library Questions - 2021​
  • Speedboat protocol
Incubation:
  • Chalk Talk
  • Gallery Walks
  • Idea Quota with Sticky Notes
  • Anti-Problem - The idea of having the students try identifying ideas that are the opposite of the Driving Questions.
  • 3-12-3 - Generating as many ideas in 3 minutes, then develop a solution to a couple of ideas in 12 minutes, and finally give their pitch in the last 3 minutes.
  • Mind Mapping - Brainstorm as many idea branches as you can that relate to your Driving Question.​​
  • How Would _____ Solve This? - Think of answering the Driving Question with a variety of perspectives like, how would Apple, or Google, or the President solve this?
Checking in:
  • The great thing about having a lot of observations, journaling, and wonderings completed in our Digital Notebooks is that the teacher can open up any of the students’ work to get a pulse on the direction it is going.  This can be a weekly thing. We designate Friday afternoons for PBL time, which makes it something special that the students always look forward to during the week.
  • Partner with another class from a different elementary school in West Ottawa to share things that we were working on. This is a great way for the kids to share their excitement about a project and get feedback with new perspectives.
  • Bug List on Pear Deck
Solution Building:​ Critique and Revision: 
  • Dot Voting - or Google Form (The Google Form ensures all students voices are heard).
Authentic Audience:
  • West Ottawa Community
Final Presentation:
  • The Pitch - Students will take 3 - 5 minutes to deliver their pitch.
  • Videotape their pitches to the other classrooms will help them see what specific things they need to work on:  projecting voice, establishing eye contact, speaking slowly and clearly. etc...
  • Final Pitch Feedback Survey
  • Audience Stakeholder Survey
  • Fish Bowl Sharing Out Strategy
Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:
  • Using survey link, the students will gain feedback about their presentation skills and what areas they need to improve in before their final pitch to their Stakeholders.​​
  • Use a Jamboard to record I Like, I Wish, and What If? for peer projects.
  • Students will be using their PBL Digital Notebooks and their PBL Journals Pages to reflect on their feedback. ​

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

Meet the Educator:

Amy is an educator at West Ottawa Public Schools. She teaches 4th grade at Lakewood Elementary.

     "Integrating curriculum through PBL experiences has sparked a passion for authentic, real world problem solving in my students. My 4th graders are more actively engaged and enthusiastic about the learning process since I began using the Creative Sequence and Design Thinking protocols. They are gaining empathy for those around them and building employability skills along the way. It is thrilling to witness their excitement!"
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