Hilltop's second graders have recently wrapped up their first EL Education Module: Schools and Communities. In Unit One, students explored the guiding question: "What is school, and why are schools important? " Through collaborative whole class and peer conversations, close-reads of literature, role-play, and self-reflection, they were able to develop a list of the many reasons why school is vital to communities.
In Unit Two of this module, students studied the informational text, "Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World" by Susan Hughes, to learn about schools from various communities around the world. The communities had to overcome challenges that made it difficult for the students to attend school (i.e hurricanes, earthquakes, monsoons, remote villages, homelessness, etc...). Students were able to apply what they learned to perform skits retelling the information and demonstrate their speaking and listening skills. The second graders also learned how to write their own informational paragraphs about the problems and solutions in the communities they researched.
In Unit Three, second graders began their culminating task of using their research notes from our focused read-alouds of "Off to Class" and information acquired in their small group research teams to write an informational book that discussed the similarities and differences of our school, Hilltop, and one of the research schools. Throughout the writing process, students collaborated with writing partners to develop, edit, and give feedback on their sentences.
To celebrate all of their learning, efforts, and success, the second graders shared their informative books, entitled "The Most Important Things About Schools", with a Kindergarten class. The second graders would like to thank the Kindergartners for their time and hope that they were able to teach them a little something that they can look forward to when they are in second grade!
