Learning and Leading - February 2009

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Using spreadsheets and Internet searches, students also learned the importance of data collection and interpretation by researching snow totals and comparing them to previous records. In addition, students created visual representations by measuring the snow totals and drawing themselves to scale. They found that the total snow depth was equal to two typical second graders standing on each other’s shoulders. These visual representations are a great way for young learners to see snow totals in a concrete way.

To evaluate students, we used product samples and qualitative measures, including rubrics and reflection narratives. Students also created portfolios of their work and wrote reflections about what they learned. Because they were engaged in the project, they wrote more extensively and with greater detail than in previous assignments.

Overall the students met or exceeded the learning expectations. The

project Web page (http://making historysnowadventure.googlepages. com/home) contains a correlation of the standards addressed and has samples of the evaluative pieces and products.

The activities reinforced multiple literacies including visual, spatial, kinesthetic, reading, mathematical, and expressive. To see students engaged and learning was exciting and can be summed up by a comment made by a previously disengaged student after completing one of the group projects: “This was my best day of school ever.”

—Kathy Sanders is a library media and technology specialist for the Monona Grove School District in Wisconsin. She also serves on the Wisconsin Media and Technology Association’s board.

—Gwen Pavelski is a second grade teacher in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was the local coordinator for the Leslie University Educational Technology graduate program.