Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Different Types of Culminations

Culminations bring an ending to our stories. Sometimes it may be the grand opening of an Ice Cream Shop or Art Museum. Other times it may be a ceremony or performance. Whatever it may be, a culmination should provide an END to the journey, task or opportunity the characters were originally challenged with at the start of the story.

One of the most experienced storyline teachers in our building, JJ Howard, sent an email home to parents this spring to prepare them for the culmination for "Knights of the Round Table." He told me about it and we started reflecting on different types of culminations. I asked him if it would be okay if I shared the email and our reflection with all of you...

Hi Families,

     Some culminations are a look back at all we've learned. Other culminations are part of the story we are experiencing and are done as our characters. This dubbing celebration is part of the story of Knights of the Round Table.  I will send home our work before school is out so you can see all our learning.  However, our culmination will be about celebrating our squires and knights and we will be in character.  Your role will be proud parents of a squire or knight from the Middle Ages.  I just don't want you to be disappointed if you don't see lots of work across different subject areas on culmination night.
Thank You,
JJ Howard


Many, perhaps most, of our storylines include a culmination that provides students with an opportunity to share or educate others about what they've learned throughout the storyline. And it is at these types of culminations that parents are generally hit with the power of storyline and the integration of curriculum from a variety of areas. I know at many of my classroom's culminations, parents tend to utter phrases such as, "there's just so much" and "how do you pack it all in?" and "this is such a cool storyline, with so much learning!" It made sense to me that Mr. Howard wanted to prepare his families for a different type of culmination.

At culmination for Knights of The Round Table the squires have succeeded in earning their knighthood. They gather in front of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere and are knighted ceremoniously. It would not make sense for the knights, at this time, to step out of character in order to share "what they've learned" with their parents.


Other examples of storylines that have a similar type of culmination...

Shakespeare storylines - These storylines generally end with a performance. Though topic books or portfolios may be assembled afterwards, and as part of the "reflection" post culmination. There may not be a designated time to "share" with parents while at school.

The Children's Hospital - Different teachers have handled this culmination in different ways. The culmination, as most do it, is a celebration of the sick children returning to health and their discharge from the hospital. Sometimes, this culmination doesn't include parents of students at all. Instead it might include the "parents" of the patients.

The Bike Tour of Oregon - In this storyline, the characters tour the state of Oregon by bike and spreading the word about healthy living. The culmination is a simple bike ride involving ALL students. The parents help to create a "finish line" in a local park with BBQ that celebrated the finish of the tour.

The People of The Longhouse (Iroquois) Storyline - The culminating event is a peace ceremony that unites the five original nations. The first time the 2/3 team at our school completed this storyline, we invited parents to attend the ceremony. The following times we decided to keep it just to the 5 classrooms (nations). It didn't make sense to involve parents who were not a part of our story. Because it felt strange at the time to dis-involve parents, we decided to have a Part II that gave students and parents a chance to tour their own classroom and share some of the learning from that storyline. 

How to end storylines is a constant discussion at our school. At a school that completes 3-4 storylines a year at every grade level, so many parents have come to expect a certain amount of involvement, fanfare and "show." The question we continue to ask ourselves when going back and forth on how each storyline should culminate is, "What's the ending of the story?" If we are staying true to the story in the planning of the culmination, then we know we're on the right track.









Thursday, April 23, 2015

Shakespeare!

The 4/5 team at our school are going on an amazing journey into the worlds of Shakespeare's plays. This Shakespeare topic approaches William's work much like a book topic would - as you can see by the friezes. At the same time, the all-male Elizabethan characters are invited to join a troupe of players lead by "Lord Winston." At the end of the topic, each 4th and 5th grader will perform in two of the four plays. Take a look at their work so far...

A Midsummer Night's Dream...



The Tempest...



Julius Caesar...


Macbeth...


Characters...



Monday, April 13, 2015

World Wide Surf Tour - Frieze

After we created characters and decided to "join" the tour, we did some thinking about the places that would be good to visit as surfers. We did some map-reading and world geography - using some maps to help us with our brainstorming. We also considered what the "perfect wave" for surfing might look like. Here are a few images from our frieze-work...

Here, 2nd grade boys work on tracing our world map using a projected image of a map. We focused only on continents and oceans. As we arrived in each new country, I drew in the outline of each country and we colored them in with red crayon.


We used torn/painted paper to create our wave. We tried to use different colors to create depth and "ocean spray"


About 3-4 students worked on ripping/gluing the wave on at a time. Other students worked on other portions during this time, or continued working on their character. The girls to the left are creating a large sign that reads "World Wide Surf Tour" to go above our map, which will be placed to the right of the frieze. As we go, I will add artifacts from each country to the frieze.
















Monday, April 6, 2015

World Wide Surf Tour - Getting Started


Three 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms are embarking on The World Wide Surf Tour this spring! We are just getting started, but I hope to share our progress with you along the way.


On the first day back from break we had a visitor. His name was Duke and he shared about his surfing experience and his motivations for starting a World Wide Surf Tour. He asked if any of us wanted to join the tour. Our response was a resounding "YES!"

Here are some of the Key Questions we explored after the hook...


Then we imagined what the perfect wave would be like...


And developed our characters...


We all come from six different countries! So we applied for our passports, too...


SURF'S UP!