June 13, 2011
The
tale of Cinderella, in one form or another, is familiar to nearly every
child around the world.
At BKW, students in second and ninth grade come together to explore the international variations of this magical fairytale and compare it to the version they grew up with.
The Cinderella Project began last year as a collaboration between second grade teacher Molly Tiffany, secondary school English teacher Audra Rys, and BKW librarian Beth Davis.
“We do fairytale book reports in our class,” Tiffany said, “and I asked Beth to do a book talk for us.”
At the same time, the ninth graders were doing a section on fairytales, folklore and fables with Rys and Davis.
The three decided to join classes for a project in which the older students would read the international versions to their younger peers in small groups, and then the group would use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the stories. The groups then present their findings to the classes at large.
“The
ninth graders like it because they get to act like the teacher,” Rys
said. “It improves their leadership skills and gives them more
understanding of how to work with someone who is younger than they are.”
The teachers try to match students in the groups based on personalities in the hopes that the ninth graders will eventually become “buddies” to the younger students.
The partnership will continue on June 22, when the students take a virtual field trip to the Smithsonian Zoo.
The second graders will return to the high school library, where they will spend the day. The ninth graders, who are not required to be in school at the time, volunteer to come join their buddies for a morning of exploration.
“The students are still talking about last year’s experience,” Rys said. “It had an impact on them.”
The
students will have breakfast together before breaking up into their
groups to watch the zoo animals through a live feed from the museum,
participate in a scavenger hunt, and play educational games online. Each
group will focus on one animal. When a group sees their animals doing
something interesting, they will signal one of the teachers, who will
then broadcast the feed through the large projection screen, so that all
in the library can see. At lunch time, they will have a picnic on the
library floor.
“It’s great to have this collaboration and have the buildings working together,” Davis said. “I think it forms a nice connection so when the younger kids see the older ones, they go ‘That’s my buddy!’”
It isn’t just the students who benefit from the partnership.
“It’s nice for us to work together,” Tiffany said. “It helps you to grow as a teacher.”
District HOME
