Communication in Room 13: Libby Sinclair’s 4th and 5th Grade Speaks Out

Communication in Room 13:
Libby Sinclair’s 4th/5th Grade Speaks Out

Room 13's expedition this year is on communication and its many forms. Students asked guiding questions at the beginning of the year such as:

Examples of writing activities/assignments for the year include:

Biography of an older adult, based on written notes taken from a list of interview questions, including questions on communication in earlier time.
Information from interviews was used to create and perform a 1940's radio show, When Radio Was King!
(To read all about the radio show including letters from elders, click Antique Radio Show!)
Research report on a living thing and how and why it communicates.
Letter on how technology impacts communication.
Description of the street the student lives on.
Original poem on blues, showing how music is used to communicate.
Book reports following a specific rubric.
Science journals. For a science project that designs a vehicle for motion, students wrote on their observations, analysis, evaluation and results of experiments.
Math writing in conjunction with various assignments.
Written reflections, covering both process and end product. Reflections cover what they did, what they did well, what they'd improve on next time, what challenges they had and how they met them, what was meaningful and rewarding, how they felt about the work, what service component was involved. Reflections synthesize students’ understanding of big ideas.
Final projects involve a study of cross-cultural communication and mis-communication. An end-of-the-year event will involve students in researching and representing a country’s point of view in a conference debating an international issue.

Megan performs in When Radio Was King!
Photo by Linda Martin-Morris