Student Observations

My 3rd Grade Girls are creating giant book covers and writing summaries based on what they have read so far in their novel. This is a project they chose and have developed the "guidelines" for, so I guess it could very easily be a problem or product-based learning activity. As I sat and watched earlier, I saw them figure out a problem and then discuss (sometimes argue) about what to do next. When they made a mistake on the gigantic bookcover they were creating, the girls just changed the picture a little to make the mistake work without needing to totally start over. The read through a whole book in 3 days and completed a project on it last week. They are close to finishing another book this week. I am having them focus on writing summaries and identifying similarities/differences (which are some of Marzano's High Yield Instructional Strategies). All the students enjoy creating non-linguistic representation also (another HYIS). The students got some large pieces of chart paper and are taking notes on what happens in each chapter and keeping track of the characters. I would like to take credit for this form of notetaking, but these students are very self-directed learners. I do remember giving the idea a while ago I think. Notetaking is another HYIS! These students are also working on 21st Century Skills while working on activities like PBL activities.