Cultivating Questioners

I began my lesson on Thursday afternoon by having my paper passers hand out a piece of “one-side good” paper to each of their peers. I invited my students to close their eyes and to picture a scientist in their minds. Once they had an image in their heads, I asked them to translate their vision into a drawing. My students diligently worked on this task and as they finished, I had them use a magnet to hang their drawing on our white board. The ending result was a “scientist gallery.”

Once everyone had a chance to contribute our scientist gallery, I asked my students to take a few minutes to think about what was similar and what was different about the drawings that they had produced. My students commented that they all looked slightly different, but that most of them were in a lab working with “potions” and that they were doing science inside. Once students discussed their observations, I had them brainstorm and contribute to a T-chart about who scientists are and what they do.

I used their comments as an opportunity to introduce the word and concept of a “stereotype.” Prior to this lesson, I expected us to debunk the stereotypes that scientists are mostly men and that scientists all work in a lab. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of the girls in the class actually drew female scientists! (Apparently this stereotype either hadn’t trickled down to them just yet or — just maybe — they won’t fall prey to it. I’m curious to ask them about math now…) After we briefly covered the concept of a stereotype (this was just an initial exposure to a concept that we’ll return to again and again this year), I had students brainstorm other places where scientists might work and what materials they might work with other than “potions.”

This lesson provided a segway into one of my favorite biographies Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell. This particular text highlights several of the key themes of my biography unit — all famous people were once children not unlike my students and that childhood dreams and habits can shape who we become.

More About My Biography Unit:
As I mentioned earlier, my first thematic unit of study has been about biographies. The emphasis in this unit has been on students feeling inspired by remarkable individuals; realizing that they, too, can become someone important; and getting to know one another. I’ve also woven in math and history topics related to schedules, telling time, and dates in history.

We began our unit with a KWL chart – my second graders came up with some great questions about biographies.

I used the questions that the students brainstormed to shape the discussions that we had during subsequent read-alouds and guided reading sessions. We have had some quality discussions about the types of illustrations included in biographies and the methods biographers use to conduct research about their subjects.

I’ve been really pleased with how interested the students are in biographies and autobiographies — it’s been a really accessible jumping-off point for introducing students to some of the key features of nonfiction texts. My students have made extensive use of timelines (including adding key dates to our classroom timeline from their own lives), glossaries, and author’s notes.

Here’s a list of some of the texts we’ve explored during the unit:

• John, Paul, George, and Ben – Lane Smith
• Jump!: From the Life of Michael Jordan – Floyd Cooper
• Queen of the Falls – Chris Van Allsburg (My kids LOVED this book – they are still talking about it!)
• Balloons Over Broadway – Melissa Sweet
• The Story of Ruby Bridges – Robert Coles
• Before John Was a Jazz Giant – Carole Boston Weatherford

We’re wrapping up our unit this week with the students completing and sharing their own autobiographies, revisiting and answering some of our initial questions about autobiographies, and thinking about things they might do to bring their own passions and goals to fruition.

This unit has been a great way to get our year rolling because it’s given me ample opportunity to expose students to some of the issues that we will be exploring throughout the year, including race, heritage/ethnicity, gender, and social justice and diversity more broadly. It’s also given me a chance to start pushing them to think beyond their small rural community — and its largely homogenous population — to the broader world in which they will one day be (and already are) citizens.