Learning in Progress

Background To encourage a shared love of reading, for the last two years I organized a One Book, One School and this year I attempted a Donalyn Miller ins p ired 40 Book  Challenge .  There are a number of formats that you could use for something like this, including something like a One Book, One Community program .  T he purpose of the One B ook , One School was two fold : I wanted it to be something enjoyable that would encourage a love of shared reading, and I wanted the school community to be able to have a common point of reference for discussion.    As a result, I have budgeted the last few years to use a portion of book fair funds to purchase a copy of the selected book for each adult in the building. For this program I like to purchase our books from a locally owned book store, The Blue Marble .  The 40 Book Challenge came about as a result of seeing a sig nifica nt drop off in reading during the 4th grade year.  I also felt I needed to do a better job

Presentation Big 6 Resources You can find resources for the Big 6 research process including planner, expectations charts, notes sheets and rubrics in The Big 6 Folder .  Project Based Learning specific handouts including a PBL planner and Super 3 organizer can be found in this Handouts folder . Learn More  Project Based Learning: Giving Students Choice and Voice in the Library - blog post that gives more detail about how I used PBL this past year Aquaponics PBL - more information on what happened when 4th graders researched aquaponics and attempted to construct a system Building a Butterfly Garden - how 4th graders researched and built a raised bed garden See more about Genius Hour here including a Blendspace that walks students through the process.