Fourth Graders Are Pushing Their Boundaries

The Fourth Grade Curriculum is full of people who cross boundaries, especially as they begin to study Abolitionists, people who helped to force change by pushing the limits of society. We all know someone who has pushed beyond a line to cause change in themselves, the world, or both. Our students are discovering the people in their lives who have done exactly this.

This multifaceted project incorporates a range of skills and opportunities for the students. In addition to learning how to find information through questions and conversations, the students are learning how to organize the information for a documentary. This means taking a series of facts and crafting them into a story. The process is fluid and cyclical, as students move continuously between their questions, their narrations, and their storyboards. Each child’s creative process is different, and students are given the freedom to guide their own process with teacher support.

Pairing the right sound and images with their videos is a challenge students have begun to solve in a variety of ways. While some are actively seeking out license free music from the web, others are creating their own sounds in GarageBand by building tracks of loops. In effect, the students are pushing themselves into new learning and crossing their own boundaries.