My students and I spent three days learning about Antarctica. I created a scavenger hunt and showed short video clips with a response sheet for students to delve in to this unfamiliar topic in the hope that they would generate questions and interest - and it did. With the enthusiasm, support and expertise of outstanding educators such as Kathy Nelson, B.J. McCracken and Emily Parzynski, my students are engaged in literary circles, as they read the book, Endurance, describing Ernst Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition that began in 1914. Students have roles within their circle and record individual responses in a dialectical journal. The circles consist of four roles and the source I used to describe the task/contribution of each member as well as the literary circle process is found at Read, Write and Think. We will be reading half of the book in science and the second half will be read in their English classes! Throughout the introduction and reading of the book, my hope is that students will find an interesting topic in which they write and illustrate a children's story....that will be next in two weeks. I am very grateful for my team and specialists who have been so flexible and supportive with this cross curricular opportunity!
Photos: Beth Thomas