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When you think of the ideal classroom, what comes to mind? Maybe you think of kids interacting with each other in meaningful and rich conversations. Or maybe you envisioning students sprawled out on the floor or in nooks and crannies in the room intensely engaged in their work, books opened, pencils rushing across their notebooks as students filter what is important to add to their notes.
The sound of the classroom might be a bustling hum, the perfect balance of quiet where kids can do their best thinking, and plenty of on-task meaningful interactions where students share aha moments they come across in the text, push each other's thinking, or ponder what they just read by glancing away from their text with that I wonder look to the ceiling quickly followed by feverishly jotting down their thinking in their notebook. These are all signs of student engagement where they exhibit a love of learning, but how do you get to this point?
In my previous posts about the structure and strategies to make a great reading class, I highlighted the components I have found success within reading class, but the focus of this post is how to incorporate thematic units, which naturally excite students, into ELA time.
Some classes may have a set time for PBL (project-based learning), but if you don't, or if students crave more of this time here are some options for you. Incorporating PBL into ELA can really ignite students' love of reading and writing.
Often times PBL, project time, thematic units, interdisciplinary work (or whatever you'd like to call it) focuses on a non-fiction topic but doesn't have to. Let's take a look at some ways you could incorporate PBL into your reading and writing workshop!
Let's set the stage: Students DO--What I mean by this is during any workshop time, students should be doing, more than listening to the teacher. Of course, specific instruction needs to be taking place, such as a mini-lesson, but plan your time with intention so that students are doing (reading, writing, researching, creating, thinking) on their own instead of the teacher doing it for them. So many times, we as teachers get carried away with the lesson and leave little time for students to practice the strategy. I'm guilty of this too! I've found however, that students thrive when I keep mini-lessons short and to the point with plenty of time for them to practice. Another way to look at this is if you are an athlete your coach may show you the proper technique of lifting weights, but is the athlete going to gain much by just watching the coach? No! It's the athlete who has to put in the reps and it's the same with reading, writing and thinking. The student has to experience the exercise of doing the work to build those thinking muscles. That's why thematic units and PBL are so great, because there is naturally more investment by students and therefore more students doing rather than watching.
Mini-Lesson--PBL often involves research and ways to think deeper about a topic. It may involve text structure such as comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, descriptions, chronology, etc. Weave in important content like text structure, reading strategies (like inferencing, determining importance, synthesizing information, etc.) in your mini-lesson and have students apply it during their research. If you need more help planning a mini-lesson, visit this post.
Build Background Knowledge--When I plan an interdisciplinary PBL unit I almost always begin with a fun pre-assessment to see what they know about the topic. Right after that though, it's essential for students to build background knowledge. Why is this important? Because when readers are able to make connections to what they already know, they latch onto new information easier. This makes for deeper learning.
Get busy! In project-based learning, kids are busily engaged in activities, moving around, and showcasing their learning by creating. So how does this combine with ELA? Besides needing reading and writing skills to complete most of these tasks, there are several project-based learning activities that are perfect for the ELA classroom. Even if your theme is something related to science or social studies, you can absolutely incorporate some of these ideas as part of the project! Getting busy can look like students reading scavenger hunt cards, playing a game that creates strategic thinking, planning for a mock trial or debate, or creating a living museum to showcase their research. Check out the above picture to see loads of ideas on creative ways to incorporate ELA with thematic units and PBL.
Plan for collaboration. PBL involves kids working together to solve problems, so think about how to achieve this. Do kids research in partners? Do they brainstorm together to make a movie trailer? Are students surveying each other and other students and teachers in the school to collect data? There are endless ways to involve students working together and let's face it, if paired up correctly, collaboration can be amazing!
Invite kids to give direction. If kids are invested in the topic or project, they will achieve so much more than if it's force-fed. Perhaps you can set parameters such as incorporating a research component, a writing component and a speaking component in their project, but they decide how to do it. Give some basic guidelines, but let kids take the reins!
Brainstorm ideas and then create a roadmap or plan on what the steps will be. If you're like me, you love to use students' ideas as a platform to spring off of and give them options. Or another method is to give students an open-ended theme and have them take off with their own spin and talents. Let their own interests and passion guide them. Click on the picture below for a 14-page free unit plan guide to help you organize your thinking for each lesson along the way. It features essential questions, steps, collaboration, and so much more!
What are ways you've incorporated ELA in your unit plans? I'd love to hear your ideas in the chat. :-)
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