Gaja Stirbys Field Seminar Context: Eliza B.

Kirkbride Elementary School, grade 1 Unit Topic: Internal, Physical and Community Change Over Time Inquiry Question: How can experiential learning serve English Language Learners? Kirkbride Elementary School is geographically situated adjacent to one of Philadelphias oldest immigrant hubs. In the early nineteenth century, droves of European workers traveled to Philadelphia in search of economic opportunity. A century later, the Pennsport neighborhood of south Philadelphia is home to generations of newly arrived and deeply rooted families. My classroom demographic is comprised of Mexican, Cambodian, Indonesian, Chinese and South Philadelphia born students. We recently began a unit in social studies that created opportunities for introductory explorations of the land that surrounds us. From the seven continents and worlds oceans to the meaning of neighborhood and community, students discussed where these places are and how they can be identified. During a read aloud, I asked students what they thought the main character might be looking at through her window and furthermore, what do they see when they look out their window in their home? I see a chicken! I see a chicken, too! I see a cow with my abuela. For a moment I assumed that they misunderstood my question. However, this was quickly cleared up when I remembered that there were several live poultry shops in the neighborhood, with one directly across the street from the school. Other students began to share sights they had seen through the windows of their own homes or the home of their grandparents in other countries. The class giggled and reveled over the knowledge that several students had helped milk cows. This classroom moment helped me put into focus one of the many features

that make my class full of round, dynamic characters. Even being so young, they all have had a chance to look through different windows of experience. In my integrated unit, I hope to use their windows of experience to investigate the idea of change over time. With a careful selection of readings and activities related to the plant life cycle, students will investigate their own lives and surrounding environment to explore the concept of change over time. These understandings will emerge from their own observations and experiences and create opportunities to reaffirm classroom community bonds. Students will also have a chance to work as scientists and researchers, generating knowledge and information to share with their classmates. Though my students are only just turning seven, many of them have experienced crosscontinental travel, the birth of younger siblings and the tensions and joys that arise when living within a classroom community or neighborhood. Through the experience of growing plants and analyzing characters in literature students will have the tools and resources necessary to evaluate these broader universals. My classroom environment has been greatly influenced by the belief that the teacher is in control and that learning is teacher-student directed (Haberman). When instruction does take place there is a mantra of there is no time! repeated throughout the lesson. Students are led to believe that there is no time for exploration, there is no time for conversation. In my unit I hope to transform this conception and assert that they can serve as especially important sites of discovery and growth for English Language Learners. During my integrated unit, studying the plant life cycle and a text set of literature where characters undergo a change will help scaffold student-led inquiry through experiential learning.

Bibliography Haberman, Eric. The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, v73 n4 p290-94 Dec 1991