This week in second grade, I think Mrs. Krass must have adopted the motto of Pablo Picasso, who once said, “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.” Instead of, “sticking to the book,” she found a way to engage her students’ minds, creativity, and handiwork.
In the subject of Social Studies, second graders were learning the differences between urban, suburban, and rural settings. They read about them, made grandiose lists of what each of the places included, and discussed how and why groups of people thrive there.
Instead of letting the lesson end there, however, Mrs. Krass challenged her students to take this learning to another level. Educational psychology tells us that the more autonomously students can approach their learning, the more effectively imprinted an idea will become. They will have ownership over their understanding, and thus, will be able to make more meaningful connections to the content.
For the past few days, Mrs. Krass gave student groups large pieces of poster-board, an endless supply of construction paper, tape, glue, scissors, and infinite use of their imaginations. She told them that they were to create 3-D constructions of either urban, suburban, or rural settings in a very constructivist approach, (the ability to make sense of an idea through one’s own experience of it) not encumbering them with too many directions. This allowed them the freedom and space to create and intrinsically motivated them to do their best work.
Amazingly, the collaborative creativity was tangible. Walking into the room you’d see pure excitement and joy at the tables.
“Oh, let’s make a boat,” one student said.
“How would we make one?” the other asked.
“Let’s start with folding brown paper up, and tape Lego people in on our blue-paper river.”
“That’ll work!” he excitedly replied.
At another station. I heard engineering and construction conversations abound. The three students’ heads were bent in concentration. “We should make a tunnel,” one boy said.
“Yeah, and we can put cars in it, just like in real life,” his partner agreed.
Still at another table, one where they were building a rural setting, they had the idea to add a windmill. To create it, they rolled a tube of white paper, and taped it to create a base, then the little girl in the group tugged the four-strand bow off of her headband and paper clipped it to the top of the base, creating the most darling, polka-dot fan-blade I’d ever seen.
This “Over-the-River-and-Through-the-Woods” project conquered numerous standards and skills second graders are expected to know. To say it was impressive would be a gross understatement. From 3-D constructions of the Upward Basketball Building, Walmart, Starbucks, and barns, to tunnels, bridges, and bird-nested trees, there were endless elements of proof that these students completely understood their settings, and the differences between them. Ingenuity. Ability. Self-Confidence. Cooperation. Pride. These are the attributes of what a classroom is capable of, when given the space and time to show what they know, and create!
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