Early on in the school year, Ms. Fundalinski’s students identified access to books as a concern in their community—many of whom live in the Chirilagua community of Alexandria. After taking a walking tour of the Little Free Libraries in the Del Ray neighborhood which surrounds the school, students were inspired to take action and create a Little Free Library for their own community. Students surveyed local community members about book ownership and literacy practices, investigated Little Free Library designs and local government rules and policies, and also applied many language arts, social studies and mathematics academic skills during the IPARDC cycle. In addition, they learned about 3D design and printing by making prototypes of their Little Free Library designs, which were then scaled up using proportional reasoning. Students also presented to local community groups about their proposal.
Cohort Member: Jessica Fundalinski
Students: 6th grade English for Academic Purposes class at George Washington Middle School
Essential questions:
What is the importance of reading and literacy?
In what ways does data and statistics help inform decisions for projects within my community?
How can I help improve and be helpful to my community?
In what ways does understanding geometry help create structures useful to my community?
Standards:
Math 6.14 The student, given a problem situation, will construct circle graphs; draw conclusions and make predictions,using circle graphs compare and contrast graphs that present information from the same data set.
Math 6.10 The student will solve practical problems involving area and perimeter; and describe and determine the volume and surface area of a rectangular prism.
English Language Arts 6.1 The student will participate in and contribute to small-group activities, communicate as leader and contributor and summarize and evaluate group activities.
