Sorry I have been MIA! We know, teachers, that the end of the year flies. I got lost in assessing students' reading levels (only two more to go!), meetings, planning special events and just wrapping up the school year. I have some exciting news to share, but that will be coming in a later post : ) I don't want to jinx anything quite yet.
One of the goals I set put for myself was to improve my provocations for each of my units. I want to get my students excited about the unit, asking questions and really diving in. So this last unit of the year is all about changes, specifically landforms changing, how schools/our community has changed and just over looking at the past. During this unit we usually go to a one-room schoolhouse, but unfortunately we were unable to schedule a field trip for both classes to go, so I had this amazing idea to bring the one room school house to our school!
Now I'm not going to lie, it took a lot of preparation and planning to pull this off, including moving furniture, getting rid of students' pencil boxes and covering things up in hopes that students would be able to experience what it was like for a student back in 1886.
Students were given chalk boards and were introduced to a new piece of technology 'the pencil' during our typical computer time. At first students were very nervous and confused. It was actually the quietest they came into the classroom all year because they had no idea what was going on, wondering why their teacher was dressed in such funny clothes and I heard some of them whispering 'It's like the olden days.'
Students were introduced to the date and rules right away. Some of them even enjoyed standing up to speak, but a lot of kids did not like having to sit up straight all day or not talk to anyone unless it was lunch time.
Throughout the entire day students were asking me questions like if different things were invented or trying to get me to talk about computers or phones, but I stayed in character throughout the entire day. Students were telling other teachers at recess that "Ms. Mulville is acting crazy. She thinks it's 1886."
At the end of the day we got both second grades together to discuss their feelings on the day, parts that they liked and didn't like as well as made a Venn diagram comparing schools in both years. My students have never been so excited to learn more about a unit all year. During our reading time students would want to (and still want to) read the McGuffey readers or read books about schools of the past. Interestingly enough, part of our school was a one-room school house, so students were really interested in learning more about our school and its history.
It just goes to show you that a good provocation can get students really excited to learn about a specific topic, so much so that they want to learn more on their own and for me that is my overall goal in teaching. Creating lifelong learners. With well-thought out provocations, I think it is a good first step for my students in taking control of their learning and wanting to learn more.
