My Wonder Wall

Kids have a lot of questions, but how often do we give them an opportunity to ask them? This year I am trying out a Wonder Wall in my 5th grade classroom. Whenever students have questions, they can post them on the wall, and periodically I will give them a chance to research some answers.

Here’s what it looks like so far:

My goal is to work up to Genius Hour, but I want to scaffold up to it in a way that teaches students how to ask a good question and how to research effectively. So far, I’ve given them interesting sources, a chance to discuss them, and a designated space for wondering.

One routine we have every morning is a practice of noticing. I put an image up on the projector and they pull out details. We have worked on the quantity and quality of their noticings, and are working to define quality descriptions of details. It’s a great start to the day when students are asked to look at details, write about them, and have a chance to discuss their ideas. It only takes 5-10 minutes, but it is my favorite morning routine. I have seen these skills transfer into writing, speaking, and listening.

Here is one image students worked on:

Source: https://www.facebook.com/NewsOMatic/?fref=photo

Students silently wrote down a few details they noticed about all 4 quadrants and then chose the most interesting detail that they wrote. They shared that idea in a circle of friends where others listened and responded with, “I agree with you because…” or, “Interesting, I would like to add on to your idea.” From that discussion, they were encouraged to post a question on the Wonder Wall.

Students wanted to know

• Why there was smoke coming out of the ground?
• Where the bulls were going?
• And how many animals there are in the world?

I wouldn’t have known they were curious about those things if I had just moved on.

We read an article about the Refugee Olympic team together at the start of the Olympic games, and that generated some great questions for the wall.

• Why did people have to leave their country?
• Why would someone want to make children become soldiers?
• Why is there war?
• Why doesn’t the refugee team have any medals?

I also showed them the website Wonderopolis. They had a chance to read whatever they wanted, explore the site, and come up with wonders.

They only had 15 minutes on it, but they posted the following questions on the wall:

• Why do peaches have fuzz?
• Why do we have emotions every single day?
• Why does your stomach hurt when you eat?
• How do websites remember so many usernames and passwords?
• Who invented numbers and letters?
• Why did the Greeks have a different alphabet?

I am so jazzed about the potential this wall has for sparking curiosity. These kids are going to do a lot of reading, writing, speaking and listening this year.

My next steps will be to investigate the difference between a Googleable question and a BIG question. We will practice crafting BIG questions, and I’ll give them some time to research. We’ll hone our searching skills, and practice writing and presenting. Eventually, we’ll work up to a larger Genius Hour type product. I can’t wait to see what they create!

And by the way, there are a bunch of standards we are covering with these activities. BAM!

BreakoutEDU on the 1st Day of School? Why Not!!

BreakoutEDU on the 1st Day of School? Why Not!!

I designed a Breakout for the first day of school, and the energy was electric. The kids have been begging for another one, every day since. After participating in a BreakoutEDU session at the Stanislaus GAFE Summit this summer, I was intrigued. In order to really understand all the pieces though, I had to make my own. That’s just how this girl’s brain works!

I started out by thinking of the things I would normally do the first day: Put students in ABC order by their first name, have them join my Google Classroom, get them to explore my website, etc… Then I worked out how to make those tasks into clues. It took me many pages of scratch paper, a Google drawing, and several hours of my summer to put it all together, but it was so worth it!!

Here is my map with all of the pieces, put together on a Google Drawing.

I started it off with a Google form I wanted to them to fill out so I could get to know them better. At the end, they saw the following message. My intent here was to get them familiar with the logo.

Next I had them line up in ABC order by first name to get their class numbers. I recorded their names on the number chart, and put the list right underneath this sequence of numbers on the board. This would lead them to the 5 letter word lock.

Then, I showed them the Google Form that would be their lockbox for the day (My next breakout will be with a physical box and locks, but the digital one worked great too!). Each lock is set with Data Validation so they had to put in the exact code in order to break out.

I explained how a Breakout worked and that a key piece would be teamwork. I made it clear that for this Breakout, they could help each other, share ideas, and that the whole class was one team. It was helpful that each student had a chance to enter the codes in on their own Chromebook so that they all felt success.

The date lock came from this poster I had on one of my bulletin boards. I put the Breakout logo on the bottom as a clue, but it was the last clue they discovered!

To get to the directional lock, they needed to join my Google Classroom and open their first assignment. I posted the Classroom logo with my class code in several places around the room. The students had never participated in a Breakout before, so I gave them more hints than I will in the future.

The discovery of this lock took about 15 minutes, and went something like this:

Me: Does anyone know what this logo is? (Pointing to the Classroom logo)

Them: Yeah, Google Classroom.

Me: Hmmmmmm.

Them: (Not getting the hint)

Me: (5 min later) So… Has anyone joined my Google Classroom yet?

Them: No, how do you do that?

Me: I don’t know, can anyone figure it out?

(They used Classroom last year so they knew how to get to it)

Them: OK, I’m in classroom, but I don’t see yours! How do we find it?

Me: I don’t know! Is there anything on the screen that will help?

Them: (The excitement is building, and buzzing around the room) Hey! Click the plus sign!!!!

Them: It says I need a code!!! What is your code??!!!

Me: I don’t know!! How can you figure it out?

One of them: (Yelling across the room) I found it!!! It’s right here on the board!! Type in z1dd4l!!

A bunch of them: I’m in!!! There’s an assignment!!

(They open the assignment)

One quiet student whispers to her team: I figured out the directional lock.

It took a while to trickle around the classroom, but they eventually all got it. Now the energy is spiking and there are kids all over the room with Chromebooks. They are working with different people, asking for help, sharing ideas, and watching for the next person to pick up a trail. I can’t stop smiling.

The next clue involved a note I left on their desks to welcome them into the room in the morning. After they read it in the morning, I told them to put it in a safe place because they would be needing it later.

The clues here led them to a page on my website with an infographic where they discovered that I had 6 job titles, 2 college degrees, 3 hobbies, and 3 professional pillars. This was the number lock.

(Thanks @creativeedtech for the template and idea)

I had shared this infographic with them earlier in the morning, and one student figured out that the note referred to the infographic. He asked where he could find the infographic, and I told him it was on my website. That clue trickled around the classroom, and they eventually discovered a bit.ly link on the board that took them there. Number lock solved!

The first pair that broke out had the best facial expression. I wish I had captured that to share!! They all helped each other figure the pieces out, and we gathered at the carpet for a reflection session.

Here are some of their comments:

“It felt good when I was the one who discovered what the clue meant.”

“I liked the challenge.”

“I liked the teamwork.”

“It was exciting.”

“I was glad when someone helped me.”

It was a winner of an activity that achieved the main purpose of a BreakoutEDU: Collaboration. I will definitely be doing more, although now that I get the ins and outs of the whole piece, I will gladly use one that someone else has already built!!

Thank you, Mark Hammons and James Sanders for sharing this goodness with the educational community. You can join the movement here: http://www.breakoutedu.com/ There’s a very active Facebook group and Twitter feed as well where people are sharing ideas all the time. Not only is this getting students to collaborate, but educators too! @breakoutEDU

Epic Genre Sort

One of my goals this year is to create a culture where reading is prolific. In order to kick that mood off, I wanted the students to explore the classroom library. I thought about passing books around in a circle, or doing some book talks, but I decided to go big and make it memorable.

BAM!!

I had the students go up one at a time and grab 5 books off the shelf to spread out on the floor. We pushed the desks back to make more room and made sure to keep a path around the perimeter so we didn’t step on any.

After they were all out on the floor, we discussed genres. They told me what genres they could see on the floor, defined them, and held up an example from the pile. Here’s our rough draft, all in their language. Next, I’m going to show them some definitions from other sources and have them rewrite our definitions so that they are more precise.

When I asked them to raise their hand if they had their eye on a book that they wanted to read from the mess on the floor, they enthusiastically raised their hands. #missionaccomplished

We started by pulling out some of the more specialized  genres like graphic novels and biographies. We pulled out non-fiction titles as well.

Some of the kids were starting to stress out about the mess, so it was time to put them back. I put a sticky note on each table with a letter of the alphabet and asked each kid to pick up 3 books from the floor and put them on the correct table (Alphabetical by author’s last name).

Finally, they put them back on the shelf with the sticky note label (for now).

It’s a work in progress, but the students led it, worked together, and have a great sense of ownership over our library.

We all breathed a sigh of relief when we had a clear space on the carpet again. I’m doing this every year from now on. It was quite a leap to let go of my own system of labeling and organizing, but it felt so right!