LOWER SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP

BY NICOLE BECKER, FOURTH GRADE TEACHER

Fourth grade is a year filled with exciting new opportunities at Tower Hill School. Nicole Becker, a fourth grade teacher, shared details of the first collaborative and graded group project her students completed this season.

Throughout the year fourth graders are introduced to high level research skills, synthesizing and sorting of important and relevant information as well as identifying text structure in nonfiction readings as part of their reading curriculum. These skills are put into action across multiple subject areas, connecting science to reading, public speaking, writing and beyond.

Extreme weather conditions are the overarching theme in fourth grade. Becker and her fellow fourth grade teachers, Anna Elliott and Melinda Martin, started this unit teaching students to read nonfiction books followed by introducing them to the broad topic of extreme weather. Students were given four generic topics to choose from, and they narrowed their research down from there.

The first step was to divide students into groups of three or four. They were then encouraged to work collaboratively and ultimately break down their topic to subtopics like causes and effects or important historical events, warning systems in place and how to measure these events. Each group member had an important role in making the final project a success, and Becker said it was inspiring to see the work ethic within each of her students.

The library and Google Classroom became an even more familiar place for these fourth graders as they sorted through articles, books, Britannica, PebbleGo, Epic and scientific journals to find the high level sources needed to complete their research. Once their extreme weather research was finalized, each group was tasked with creating a presentation using Google Slides. The expectation was that students would collaborate in the making of their presentation by sharing their findings and sources as well as posing their own questions along the way.

A grading rubric was introduced to guide them through success criteria. On the rubric was a title page, table of contents, glossary and cited sources. For many students, “this was their first time taking notes and trying to paraphrase and identify what is important versus interesting and how to put that into their own words,” according to Becker.

Once the behind-the-scenes research and work was complete, each group presented together in front of the whole class. The groups divide presenting responsibilities to ensure that every student had their time to share. They were expected to be able to describe and comment on every slide and offer insight throughout the presentation. Each fourth grade teacher selected a top presentation from their class, and later those three groups presented in THE Hub in front of all their peers and teachers.

The first of the three project finalists were Kareem Belkadi, Lizzie DiSabatino, Aarav Parmar and Kamran Wogan who presented on the topic of earthquakes. The second group included Ethan Bristowe, Sean Swain and Zoey Yang who also presented on the topic of earthquakes. The third presentation was given by James Elton, Anya Jaffarieh and Wesley Laffey who preseted on volcanoes.

The teachers evaluated the projects and presentations to identify the winning group. It was James Elton, Anya Jaffarieh and Wesley Laffey from Ms. Martin’s class who earned the highest marks and the opportunity to present at a town meeting. The results were a surprise, and the support the students offered to each of their peers was something their teachers won’t soon forget. Fourth grader, Lizzie Disabatino, said, “I really loved how we all worked together and how we all had the same goal of presenting at a town meeting. But in the end it didn’t really matter if we made it but if we tried our best.”

Reading, writing, science, social studies, public speaking and technology were all at the core of this project; an example of why Tower Hill’s fourth grade curriculum is so exceptional. Students expanded upon their text skills using Google Slides and learned to hyperlink within their table of contents to the corresponding slide. They were challenged to take notes for the first time while paraphrasing their findings. Some of the students were able to teach their peers how to use Google Slides, for example, and show leadership in a supportive way. “It was exciting to see the students collaborate effectively on a project that really sparked their interest and allowed them to develop practical research and presentation skills,” said Nicole Becker.

“I really loved how we all worked together and how we all had the same goal of presenting at a town meeting. But in the end it didn’t really matter if we made it but if we tried our best.”