We've Got Issues

We're in the midst of our 5th grade CBA- curriculum based assessment. In this they need to select an issue, research it, analysis positions, and call for action. The project is ambitious, but worthwhile. My understanding is that some classes will do this as a stand alone assessment, and it will take 2-3 days.

I've taken to teaching this as a unit on issues. We'll discuss issues in our local community, go through what stakeholders are, and determine how we filter out information. We started earlier in the week by looking at a road near school that is ridiculously busy yet had no sidewalks. Instead it has a painted line as separation- helpful I suppose. We went through why this is a problem, who might care, and what could be done. Afterwards I modeled using search engines and our research databases (god help me if we type I the question again!!!).

How is it going? We're slowly moving the horse. Some are really pumped, and want to employ all of these skills. Others say "I'm not sure what issue to do can you pick one" or "there aren't any issues that impact me." The latter of those statements is particularly frustrating. They will say that we use too much paper or that school lunch doesn't taste good and turnaround to say those issues aren't a big deal to them. I will steer them into a choice between issues and let them do the rest, as it isn't my project (I already know that I can think about issues). My focus needs to be on pushing all of them, even those disinterested, to analyze information and explain. You can't say what should be done just because you think it sounds good!

What Do You Value?

In my social studies rotation we have focused on reading comprehension. A big part of that, in nonfiction particularly, is finding the main idea. But you can only go so far with that. Ultimately we need to be exercising our thinking skills, and trying to make sense of the information.

So the past 3 days have been focused on forming conclusions. "What do you think, did explorers have a positive impact on history or a negative impact?" Aside from the question "what do you mean 'impact'?" it has gone pretty well. I had them think of a scale, with the idea that the things which are most important to us influence our decisions/opinions.

We took some statements about explorers (conquered the Aztecs, found new land, etc) and placed them on a two-column chart. Then we looked at them altogether, and made a judgement one direction or the other. How successful was that? Mixed. Some really struggled looking holistically, while others were very clear about their opinion. The writing is still a work in progress, and tells me that I need to provide more writing instruction to get them where I want them to go. But I was happy that they were struggling with the ideas of positive and negative impacts. When I have kids saying, "Mr Hanson, it could be both positive and negative" I know that they are thinking critically about the information- precisely my objective.