Integrated Subject: Humanities

Our new 5th grade Humanities teacher, Jenna Greenfield, created an exciting way to engage students in the topic of Rights and Responsibilities this fall. Jenna had an idea. “I’m thinking we could do something around the theme of Utopias ...” That was the beginning of a project that engaged the students’ imaginations and intellects. This project had two parts.

Part I: Students had specific responsibilities within teams assigned to invent a utopia. They had already learned quite a lot about utopias with Jenna and in their reading of The Giver (Research/Deep Dive). The designers sketched a variety of ideas independently (Generating Ideas), Then teams came together to decide on the features of the team’s utopia (Making Informed Decisions and Monitoring Team Dynamics - SEL). With a variety of materials and a short timeline, the students crafted models that incorporated many inventive features.

The fifth grade teams presented their utopias on Grandparents/Special Friends’ Day. One utopia had four sections, each with a different season. Several adults commented, “Kind of like California!” Another had two levels. “We thought the top level would be a nicer place for people to live with all the trees. Below, is a level with the businesses. It has an added feature that it reduces your time and distance to get to work” (Share & Reflect).

Part 2: After lessons on how to entice someone into allowing you to interview them and techniques to use to run a fruitful interview, the students were charged with interviewing five people about the rights and responsibilities they wish they had or thought individuals should not have (Research/Deep Dive — Ask & Listen). Armed with this knowledge, the very engaged students brainstormed and hammered out their utopia’s bill of rights (Incorporating Feedback). We were very impressed with the students’ depth of thinking throughout both parts of this project.