So,
for the past couple of years we’ve been using the Common Core Maps units for the
basis of our ELA curriculum. These maps have tried our patience, caused us to carefully
consider KCAS content in the name of understanding, offered countless
opportunities for us to analyze our practice, and mentally opened up our mindsets
about the integration of all things ELA. As we’ve struggled through, we have
certainly put to use all of our thinking strategies as thoughtful
practitioners. Our background knowledge has guided us, our questions have
propelled us, and our inferences supported us as we navigated uncharted
waters. Most recently, I
experienced a synthesis of sorts after reading a Readers’ Digest article while
visiting my mother. I had no idea it was coming, but after reading the text had a much clearer vision
and understanding of one particular third grade unit.
Our Story
The unit titled, “Stories Worth Telling Again and Again,”
comes as our second in the year. A focus of this unit calls for students to
become familiar with those stories passed down from generation to generation so
as to retell them using key details. It features Native American and other
cultural trickster tales and asks for students to record a family (parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle)
story of their own. Of course, our
team “got” that this unit takes place in the month of September when we
celebrate Grandparents’ Day as a nation, but what we didn’t realize was the
researched-value of students knowing the tales of their past— specifically the
positive outcomes from family members’ experiences overcoming trials and
tribulations. Who knew? We sure didn’t know the benefits beyond current content,
but obviously the Common Core Maps writers did!
…and Our Synthesis
Last
year we attempted to communicate a purpose so our students would be vested as
they participated in the activity of collecting stories to retell them, but it
felt flat (about as fulfilling as making
a cute card). This past year, we made more of an effort and really worked
to make the work meaningful to both students and their families, but we didn’t
“get it” until we read this article.
“The Stories that Bind Us: Strong families know—and teach the next
generation—their histories” by Bruce Feiler caused a synthesis for my third
grade colleagues and me. And it came just in time to share our new
understanding with our students so they could reap the undeniable benefits of connecting
with their families (nuclear and extended). Now their work to capture these
precious positive stories will afford them
the opportunity to “be more resilient” when faced with challenges.
While
we wish we had read this powerful text about a month sooner then we did, we are
grateful to know how we can revise our plans and support our students in
understanding the true benefits of sharing and reflecting on those “Stories
Worth Telling Again and Again.” Of course the take-away from this experience
extends beyond this one unit. Yet again, we see evidence that the authors intentionally
wove in meaningful experiences as they designed each of these units. We are called to be open-minded and
obligated search for a deeper meaning and worldly importance of those
at-first-glance “surfacy” activities. Though they may not all be the hidden gem
that these grandparent stories are, there may just be more than meets the eye,
and who knows what ah-ha we will have next?
Feiler,
Bruce. (2013, September). The Stories that Bind Us: Strong families know—and
teach the next generation—their histories. Reader’s
Digest, 32-34.
From
the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?_r=0
