Independent Reading Projects

Ms. Baldwin's Mantra is "Independent Reading is Essential."  This impacts nearly everything she does.  The students have been working for a few weeks on creating projects based around their summer independent reading book.  Some students completed posters.  Others completed movies.  Others did slide presentations and acting.  The essential question was: "What is the purpose and importance of independent reading?"  As long as the students addressed that question somewhere in the project, they could explore other topics.  One student talked about how he would have ended the story differently than the author.  One student talked about how the author's life influenced the content of the story.  Today was presentation day.  The students presented to the class after filling out self-assessment rubrics.

I really appreciated this project.  I have been looking into the importance of independent reading when it comes to vocabulary learning and other avenues.  I appreciated, also, that the students could think about their books through different lens.  Rather than merely summarize their books, they had to exercise analysis of the text and provide opinions on characters, structure, etc.

One student, Mason, shared a presentation about the book he read, A Bridge Over the River Kwai.  He talked about history in which the book was set.  He talked about WWII conditions and geography and the story presented in the book in contrast with the real life story.  It was obvious that he was engaged with the material because he was passionate about it.  That passion was even translated on the student spectators.  They asked him questions and he went with it.  Even Ms. Baldwin was asking questions.

There was a broad range of texts and subjects pursued in the class.  The students really seemed to be engaged with the material and their projects mirrored some of their personalities and interests.   One set of students worked together to make a movie about the Harry Potter books.  They acted out the characters and really brought out their own senses of humor.

I asked Ms. Baldwin how she came up with the idea for these projects.  She expressed that she didn't always see the value in making all students read the same textbooks all the time.  They interacted with material more and learned more from exploring their own interests and finding ways to present those interests to the class while still addressing the essential questions.

Another important observation from today came from the group setting up technology before presentations.  The students seemed to be the experts.  More than that: Ms. Baldwin let them be the experts.  She let them set up the wires and the speakers and connect their iPads to her computer Bluetooth.  She continued to call on one student, Elton, for assistance in the technology area.  He seemed to really enjoy that role.

I'm finding that Ms. Baldwin's classroom management style is not as traditional as what I'm used to.  However, I feel far more comfortable with it than any other classroom management style so far.  She is relaxed and lets the students pursue questions and ideas.  She is respectful to them, and they are respectful right back.  I feel very at ease in this classroom.