INSPIRATION
This standards driven expedition was created with the purpose of building our students' capacity to become fluent readers, deepen interest in literature, and spark enjoyment and excitement about reading. The expedition is designed to empower children to look to reading as a way to open their world and discover the richness it brings to their lives. We want our 1st graders to connect to a world beyond themselves and develop the habit of incorporating reading into their daily lives. Research has shown when children read at least 20 minutes a day they are exposed to 1.8 million words per year and is important in developing vocabulary, comprehension and reading fluency.
We have found from the first implementation of this expedition, students develop an intrinsic love for literacy. Additionally, while learning to read about different genres of books, they begin to determine how an author writes to engage the reader through story element structures and "juicy" sentences. They capture the excitement of becoming authors and seek to master the writing process themselves. Ultimately, our 1st graders become published authors by using the knowledge they acquire in their analysis of books, learning from expert authors and reading a variety of genres. Then, the joy of creating their own masterpiece becomes a reality.
PURPOSEFUL LEARNING
Purposeful learning is part of the Conway experience. Through the expedition, 1st graders recognize they are also writing for something bigger than themselves. Knowing how important books are to all children, they decided to donate their original authored books to Escondido’s Interfaith Community Center. Additionally, they are collecting gently used books from the community to be part of the donation.
Community Service
Part of every expedition is a service component that promotes students to be vehicles of change in their community. Ms. Turek, our librarian, reached out to the Escondido High School wood shop students to help build Conway's Little Library. As stewards of our Conway Little Library, 1st graders are responsible for the care of the library, ensuring it is supplied with lots of books for the community to exchange out. Each day, students take turns bringing the little library to the front of the school so that all members of our community can have books available to them.
Mastery of Knowledge and Skills
In our first case study we explored the different genres of books because students need to know that books have different purposes. The second case study is about stories. We look at the elements of story to build a foundation of what makes stories appealing to the reader. In the third case study, students become authors themselves and write a narrative. They use the knowledge they attained through interviews with experts and use rich language to engage their reader. Knowing that they will publicly read their published story at their Celebration of Learning called "Books and Bagels", students focus on creating high quality work. Students will also have a book signing.
Students analyzed text to identify the elements of story so they could make a connection to how an author creates a story that engages the reader.
Experts
Experts from the community are a vital component of our expedition. Incorporating expert authors helps our students learn the skills they need to become authors themselves. Our students can also use the expert's work as models of excellence and see what the expectations are in the professional world. It is exciting for students to be able to work alongside the professional community as they are inspired by their words and example.
FIELDWORK
Field work is a very important part of our expedition. Students work alongside experts in the field to develop their own expertise on the topic of our expedition. Our first graders went to the San Diego County Public library to better understand the purpose of books using their fieldwork journals to gather information and take back to the classroom to build on their research about books.
Character
Throughout the expedition, our students persevere as they grapple with complex text. They show compassion and integrity while collaborating with peers and experts, and strive for excellence when revising their work multiple times to make sure it represents high quality work. Each day, the CREW spirit is intertwined with citizenship and academics encompassing our character traits: Excellence, Perseverance, Integrity and Compassion. We aim to be EPIC every single day whether we are working on a scientific drawing or writing our stories.
High Quality Work
We believe that high quality work is the bridge between education and the real world. Our first graders experience and develop the process of creating work that is complex, beautiful and authentic through writing their own stories. The process of writing entails a growth mindset as students strive to create works of excellence. This means as authors, multiple revisions and drafts were completed through kind, specific and helpful feedback from peers and teachers. Peer critique and feedback is central to quality work and develops effective collaborative skills necessary for the real world.
Celebration of Learning
At Conway learning is public. Students share their learning and published stories with the public to enable them to be reflective about what they learned and feel the sense of pride for meeting the rigorous expectations of high quality work. The progression of growth never ends as students receive feedback from their audience about their presentation and published story.