This year, I am teaching all 97 fifth grade students language arts, and I love it (I hope they do too)! We are a low income school with more than 70% of our students being English language learners, but their circumstances do not hinder them from being wonderfully kind, eager learners.
We have created an environment where inquiry is key.
We read books that spark questions and I create future units and projects based on what interests them. With Bud, Not Buddy, students got to choose from a variety of projects to show what they had learned. They created scenes in boxes, puppet shows, games, and wrote new chapters to continue the story. We are just finishing Hoot, which has inspired research projects on conservation and endangered animals around the United States. We use literature to make connections to science and social movements.
My Project
My students love games. Games provide opportunities to learn and reinforce skills in a way that is engaging and entertaining. Vocabulary is always a tricky thing to acquire for English Language Learners (more than 70% of our school population) and new opportunities to expose them to words and to manipulate words would greatly benefit them.
Our school is in a financially depressed area and many of the students do not have games at home, their only exposure is at school.
Throughout the years that I have taught I always seek out reflections from my students on what activities and topics they enjoyed, playing games has always been at the top of their list.
Games for use during class would also be used during indoor recess in bad weather or could even be used as an activity on reward days. I would be thrilled to have a whole class of young wordsmiths out there!
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