Project-based Flattened Weeks in Year 5
Throughout the 2017 - 2018 school year, students in Year 5 participated in several learning weeks focused on different aspects of the curriculum. During these weeks, students were given increased periods of uninterrupted learning time to inquire into specific concepts, skills and knowledge they felt passionate about.
Rather than remaining in their homeroom classes and learning a balance of all subjects throughout the week, Year 5 students engaged in weeks of deeper exploration within one primary subject area. Homeroom subject blocks were eliminated and students across Year 5 simultaneously engaged in projects that invited them to group themselves based on interest rather than by homeroom teachers. Longer periods of focused time in one area allowed for student creativity to flow and encouraged learners to produce high quality pieces of work.
On the first day of each project-based week, students explored a range of invitations that were going to be on offer and guided by adult mentors throughout the week. Once students had sampled all of the options, they selected one from the menu and committed to pursuing an in-depth inquiry into it for the duration of the week.
For the rest of the week, students convened with their adult mentors and were grouped based on the challenge they elected to pursue. The new groups consisted of a mix of students across all homeroom classes who shared a common curiosity or interest. Learners developed skills and expertise in their area of choice through a workshop model of mini-lessons--studying mentor texts, experimenting with techniques they noticed experts using and continually reflecting on the application of those skills with the help of peers and mentors. Students worked in collaborative groups to demonstrate increased proficiency and understanding of their learning goals and project-based criteria. At the culmination of each week, students exhibited and celebrated their projects to larger audiences and reflected on the skills and mindsets applied during the week-long learning process.
During the second semester, students in Year 5 had three project-based weeks.
The Media Project: In this week, students investigated themes such as identity, gender, culture, ability, ethnicity, family and language within our year-long Who We Are central idea--Communities create a sense of purpose, identity and belonging. Students simultaneously engaged in learning experiences connected to our How We Express Ourselves central idea--Visual media is designed to communicate and express ideas. Merging two units provided students with the opportunity to understand elements of media and how they can be used to communicate significant concepts around diversity. After introductory sessions that exposed students to a variety of media forms (visual art, collage, podcasting, videography, graphic design, photography and digital presentations), students broke into groups based on their media of interest and began to communicate bigger messages around communities, identity and belonging. At the end of the week, students exhibited their media forms to each other and inspired awareness around their Who We Are theme.
The Writing Project: During this week, students were challenged to collaboratively create an engaging book or series in a genre they wanted to pursue. Throughout the year, students observed, practiced and refined their writing skills, with the vast majority of writing opportunities completed independently. With each writing process they experienced, a culture of talking through their ideas with peers and seeking out feedback from others began to grow. The purpose of this week was to leverage this growing authorship culture and offer an experience that more authentically reflected the collaborative process of publishing a book. Working in teams of two to four, students were able to take on a variety of roles, such as ideators, writers, editors, proofreaders, illustrators, layout designers and more. These roles allowed students to work from positions of strength and passion in order to co-create books based on a shared vision, while at the same time transferring many of the writing skills they had been developing throughout the year. The extended period of time provided students the opportunity to get into the writing flow, go more in-depth with the writing process and encouraged higher quality publication. The goal of this project was for students to cultivate a sense of joy, motivation and inspiration as authors, as well as to spark student-driven collaborative writing initiatives in the future.
The Mathematics Project: This project-based week consisted of a variety of mathematical challenges students explored in strands such as shape, space, measurement, data handling, probability, pattern and function. The purpose of this week was to help students appreciate the connection to maths in real life and recognize its existence in authentic contexts. Carefully crafted rich tasks inspired a curiosity for maths and were designed to uncover and develop the maths thinking that is often overlooked in daily life. Students had the opportunity to explore one project from a menu of challenges that included: collecting authentic data at NIST to inspire change, designing fitness events to promote healthy lifestyles, constructing functional three-dimensional structures, designing fashionable clothing, creating interactive challenges, designing the interior of an Early Years dollhouse, artistically replicating patterns found in nature and virtually designing functional objects to be 3D printed. At the end of the week, students presented the results of these challenge-based projects to an authentic audience that was specific to each group’s goal.
