Artist, Expert & Poet - A Celebration of Learning
The last of the snow is on the mountain tops and the daffodils are finally in bloom. We have had a slow start to spring this year, but that hasn't slowed our learning down in the ELL classroom. This March and April, ELL students were busy working on an extended project that practiced academic language across several disciplines. In their classrooms, students were working on an animal research project and learning about habitats. So, in the ELL classroom, students used the background knowledge they were building to describe their animals as an Artist, Expert & Poet.
First students were artists. They each found a photo of their animal, described it as an artist and then illustrated their own image of it thinking about the real colors of their animals and the habitats the animals lived in. Next, students then wrote and filmed interviews of each other using iMovie. To do this, they had to write out an introduction to the interview, draft the questions and come up with a closing. Lastly, students were asked to describe their animal as a poet. We read the poems of Douglas Florian and then wrote our own.
By wearing all of these hats, Artist, Expert & Poet students practiced how to talk about the same thing using vastly differently academic language. If you want to try it yourself: find a photo you like then try describing it as a poet, mathematician, biologist and historian.
Please enjoy a sample of their art work and poems below. Their interviews were posted on YouTube and have been shared privately. This was truly a Celebration of Learning!
Leo the Lizard - Grade 1
I
wouldn’t want to
Be
a Lizard.
Lizards
are covered with scales.
Lizards
have sticky tongues.
Lizards
are orange.
Lizards
have pointy spines.
I
wouldn’t want to
Be
a Lizard.
Parrots - Grade 2
Some parrots fly across
islands.
Some parrots fly over
trees.
Some parrots fly next to
the sea.
Some parrots fly in my DREAMS.
Penguin - Grade 1
A penguin is a bird.
A penguin can swim.
A penguin is a bird.
A penguin can dive.
A penguin is a bird.
A penguin can waddle.
A penguin is a bird,
That
cannot fly!
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