One of the things I am very conscious of in thinking about leveraging Story Workshop into a Science Workshop is that I don't want to change what is already happening. I am not trying to hijack Story Workshop and convert it into a science activity. But I am thinking about small changes that will allow students to include their science learning as part of their stories.
I revisited the Grade 1 class doing Story Workshop. As I debriefed with the amazing classroom teacher, Mrs. Mace, we started to talk about what Science Workshop could look like.
And then some magic happened!
Mrs. Mace is very intentional in attempting to move students' writing skills forward. We were talking about how we could help improve student writing by teaching them to add adjectives. "One day, a cat went to the sea" could become "One day, a cat went to the cold sea." The addition of the adjective adds detail and depth to the story.
But how do we weave in science? Mrs. Mace shared that they were currently studying the grade 1 Big Idea: Matter is useful because of its properties. Properties... Adjectives... It's the same thing right?
What if students revised their stories to include adjectives that were inspired by properties of matter? What if the materials used to inspire stories were the same materials being studied in science?
That rock in the story becomes a hard rock. The bark on that tree becomes rough bark. The cottonwood blowing in the wind becomes fluffy cottonwood. Student writing includes size, shape, texture and many more descriptive words. Students consciously include science thinking into their stories.
And when they share their stories, they are also sharing their science learning.
Thank you...
to Mrs. Mace and the amazing Grade 1's at Bear Creek Elementary for inviting me into their classroom.
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