Photo Credit: Canva
“It was important to me that they see themselves in the books that they’re reading whether it’s in appearances or experiences that they share with the characters.”
Welcome to the PBL Playbook, brought to you by Magnify Learning – where we put teachers back in their sweet spot. Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @askgiebs, @MissB103, #PBLPlaybook.
Josh and Andrea continue the PBL Project Blitz series where once a month, they highlight a PBL project by veterans in the PBL classroom.
In this episode of the PBL Project Blitz series, our hosts are joined by Kayla Adams (@KaylaJoAdams), a first grade teacher in JCPS (@JCPSKY) in Louisville, KY. Kayla talks to our hosts about a project she completed with her first graders in which her students learned how to become authentic authors. In this project, she pushes her students to create stories that represent them through appearances and experiences to increase representation in children’s books through a diverse group of authors. Listen to this great conversation as Kayla describes the impact this project had on the young authors of her classroom.
Stay tuned for more awesome projects as the PBL Project Blitz series continues every month!
Show Notes
*PBL PROJECT BLITZ EP19: FULL SHOW NOTES
Resources & Links Related to this Episode
School: Kenwood Elementary School- Louisville, KY (@KenwoodElementa)
PBL UNIT OVERVIEW:
PBL Unit Name: Can I See Me?
Grade: 1st Grade, All Content Areas
Standards: Data collection, representation and analysis; Identifying and describing characters, setting, and important events in a story using key details; Composing a narrative using complete sentences, punctuation, phonetic spelling, and transitional words
Summary: Students were challenged to become authentic authors of their own stories. As a class we asked ourselves if we were able to see ourselves as characters in the books we read, whether in appearance, home-life, or shared experiences. We used the collected responses to create a pictograph, representing our class data, and analyzing the data. Students then wrote their own narratives about an "Uh Oh" moment in their lives, to be turned into a class picture book for future students to access. In collaborative groups, students created and recorded presentations explaining what the project was and why it was important, sharing the class data and analysis of the data, sharing one student narrative, and what we learned through our PBL project. These recordings were shared with students throughout the school as well as with our community partner, to encourage others to share their own stories so that everyone can see themselves as characters in the books they read.
Driving Question: How do we as authentic authors create diverse picture books so that all children and their experiences can be represented?
Entry Event: Our community partner recorded a video explaining what it means to be an authentic author and why it is important for everyone to see themselves in the books they read. She shared how and why she started writing and read one of her own picture books to the students. She then challenged students to become authentic authors of their own stories.
Community Partners: Deedee Cummings, local author
Student End Product: Independently students wrote and illustrated their own narratives about an "Uh Oh" moment in their lives, and used class data to create an info-graphic of how many students see themselves as characters in the books they read and analyzed the data collected. Collaboratively students created and recorded group presentations sharing why the project was important, what they learned from the project, using one group member's info-graphic and one group member's narrative to show a solution to the problem. The group recordings were then shared with classes throughout the school encouraging others to become authentic authors of their own stories in order for everyone to see themselves in the books they read.
