ask all grades 4-8 each January to have a research project related to
their history or science curriculum. In the last week of January I host
an author on campus for 4 days of assemblies and master clases to work
on writing the research into whatever the final product will be. In all
cases, the opening paragraph is a more creative spin on the usual, a
chance to take the facts and build a scene related to the topic. 8th
grade researches important artists in 20th century US, so a scene might
be an early performance in Duke Ellington's career, a seminal moment in
some way. 7th grade studies American History to the Civil War, and
their scenes might be from Nathan Hale or Andrew Jackson. 6th studies
Ancient History, and ultimately writes a persuasive paper defending (or
denying) the importance of Alexander the Great, for example. 5th grade
has done both Inventors and Explorers in different years. In all cases,
the requirement of a setting as in fiction requires the students to know
more about the times in which their topic lived and to build more of a
story to their lives. We have done this project for 8 or so years now,
and I see many changes that can partially be attributed to the program:
writing skills have improved; understanding of why the times around a
person are important have improved; teacher design of research projects
that are achievable have improved through consistent collaboration with
library staff, and on and on. All from a grounding in Story.
I'm so glad you presented at NAIS - I wish I could have heard the
program.
Dorcas Hand
Annunciation Orthodox School
Houston
-----Original Message-----
From: Bigenho, Chris [mailto:bigenhoc@greenhill.org]=20
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 9:18 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: NAIS Attendees- 8am session: Lessons cloaked in the power of
narrative
Are you looking for a session at 8:00 this morning. Let me suggest
coming to hear a few stories. I will share three different stories in
three different formats. The first will be a narrative game for
learning. The other two will be global human instrest stories from Iran
and Haiti. You can learn more abou the session at:
http://bigenhoc.wordpress.com/presentations/nais-ac-2010-lessons-clocked
-in-the-power-of-narrative/
8-9 am
Room 3001
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