Leadership - Identifying Characters That Model Good Leadership (Grades 3-5)
We started class this week with a new spin on discussing our reading. I am noticing that many of the same students are sharing their reading every week. While this is exciting that they are comfortable sharing, this also means that there are many who are NOT contributing to the conversation. This week I broke the class into small groups and had each person share something they are reading or something they just read in the small group.
When we shared back to the class, I asked for 1 spokesperson from the group to report out a book that someone ELSE in the group shared. My hope was that this would get them sharing and listening to one another. I believe it did just that.
The leadership conversation continued this week. We began by looking at the list of leadership qualities we created last week.
Now it was time for students to begin the reverse thinking - what character from a book exhibits these leadership qualities? Students decided if they would like to work in a group or independently. They browsed the library for a familiar book where a character exhibited leadership qualities.
Once the character was chosen, students identified three leadership qualities that he/she exemplified.
Students checked in with me and were then ready for part 3 - the creation portion of the project.
The groups that struggled with this were groups. Independent workers got right to work but the challenge with the groups were in getting all students to agree on a book. In many cases 2 out of 3 students read the book. Much time was spent finding a book that all members had read. I suggested using books that we had read in library in past years, so everyone would have read them, but identifying these took time. I humored having everyone do this independently, but wanted to give students an opportunity for group work. A visual representation of books we read last year would have been helpful.
By the end of the class, all but 1 or 2 groups were done and checked. This means that when we meet again, we are ready to take our writing to an iPad and start creating.
When we shared back to the class, I asked for 1 spokesperson from the group to report out a book that someone ELSE in the group shared. My hope was that this would get them sharing and listening to one another. I believe it did just that.
The leadership conversation continued this week. We began by looking at the list of leadership qualities we created last week.
Now it was time for students to begin the reverse thinking - what character from a book exhibits these leadership qualities? Students decided if they would like to work in a group or independently. They browsed the library for a familiar book where a character exhibited leadership qualities.
Once the character was chosen, students identified three leadership qualities that he/she exemplified.
Students checked in with me and were then ready for part 3 - the creation portion of the project.
The groups that struggled with this were groups. Independent workers got right to work but the challenge with the groups were in getting all students to agree on a book. In many cases 2 out of 3 students read the book. Much time was spent finding a book that all members had read. I suggested using books that we had read in library in past years, so everyone would have read them, but identifying these took time. I humored having everyone do this independently, but wanted to give students an opportunity for group work. A visual representation of books we read last year would have been helpful.
By the end of the class, all but 1 or 2 groups were done and checked. This means that when we meet again, we are ready to take our writing to an iPad and start creating.
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