ANDREA RUNNELS
It is no small task keeping 5th Graders occupied, engaged, and productive during the last few weeks before Winter Break! You have to dig deep into the bag of tricks! So excited to able to join in with Focused on Fifth to get some ideas to help save my sanity:)! So being an out-of-the-box history nerd, I came up with a way to mix in Holiday traditions with Social Studies! I have learned tons of new strategies during my gifted endorsement class and I had a brainstorm on the way home last night! Today I used a Task Rotation based on learning styles (Mastery, Understanding, Inter-Personal, and Self-Expressive). I have been using this strategy often this year with note-taking and it was fun to put a twist on it with stations. I plan to go more in depth with these in future posts. Students were given this Task List which they started today and will finish Monday.
Task Rotations
Mastery Task (FACTS): Students analyzed primary source documents involving Christmas during the Civil War time period. I found a wonderful resource on Teachers Pay Teachers from Bring Lit On. This was my sneaky, fun way of fitting in test review! Since then I created my own Civil War DBQ.
Inter-Personal Task (FEELINGS): Students are writing a diary entry as if they are detained at Ellis Island on Christmas. I put some books with the station as inspiration if needed. I also showed them some photos of immigrants celebrating the holiday while there.
Understanding (QUESTIONS): Students are writing a list of questions or “I Wonder” statements about how Christmas was celebrated during the Turn of the Century.
Self-Expressive (CONNECTIONS/IDEAS): Students browsed through holiday books from a variety of eras and were asked to make a connection between a tradition they see or read about and their own family. Students could also choose to make connections between two different books. The American Girl series is perfect for this! Then students are to respond on a banner by drawing a picture, writing sentences, or writing a poem.
This is just a peek into today and I hope maybe you can put your own spin on this type of task rotation! Check out this replay to hear more of an explanation.
What a great idea! This is the way I used to teach when I first started out, before everything became about teaching to "the test"! This is meaningful and relevant to the students. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you and thanks for reading:)! I know exactly what you mean. I've made it my mission to bring creativity back! I am just teaching Science and SS so I have a little more flexibilty. I need to check out the other posts!!