Learning by Cubing
This past Friday Felicia, Susan and I presented a lesson on current events. The topic we decided to focus on was cubing. I came up with the idea of cubing because it is something that I read about in my Language Arts Methods textbook, and I thought it would be a very engaging and creative way for students to look at an article, aside from the unoriginal who, what, where, when, and how.
So what is cubing you ask? Cubing is exploring a topic from six different viewpoints or perspectives. There are four steps that involve cubing:
Step 1: Read instructions for your viewpoint, so that you know what you are looking for when reading.
Step 2: Read an article.
Step 3: Write your viewpoint as a title and then compose about 3 sentences from your viewpoint.
Step 4: Tape your paragraph to our "Supper cool Class Cube."
The great thing that I learned from exploring the topic of cubing is that this activity can be done with any article, as long as it is the appropriate length, and any grade level, although we focused on fifth. Even though the idea of cubing is engaging and exciting for students because they get to tape their response to a cube and the cube can be decorated in any way that is appropriate, the main reason why I like cubing is because students will understand that there are many ways to read and respond to an article. In addition, students will become knowledgeable with the fact that looking at anything from different viewpoints is crucial, whether it be in school, in our own occupations, or in our own social or personal lives.
The Six Viewpoints
Description: After reading the article, you will describe what the article is about.
Comparison: After reading the article, you will compare your findings to a time when you were praised for something you didn't think you deserved.
Association: After reading the article, you will associate what you read with something else that you have learned about, either in the news, class, or in, your personal life.
Analysis: After reading this article, you will analyze the details that you read in order to break it up into main parts.
Application: After reading the article, you will write down how you can apply the message that learned to your own life.
Argumentation: After reading this article, argue whether you believe that Faulkner did the right thing by asking for his Purple Heart later on in life or if you think it was too late? Why?
The descriptions of each viewpoint is content specific to the article that we utilized, but the descriptions would change according to the topic of the article and how well students are familiar with cubing. The article that we used is entitled "Richard Faulkner, World War 11 veteran, awarded Purple Heart after declining honor 70 years ago." Felicia found this article on one of the news websites.
In short, this article was about a World War 11 Veteran who was awarded a purple heart, the oldest military award still given to U.S. service members, back in 1944 after he was the sole survivor on a B-12 plane. Back then, Faulkner did not receive the award because he found it difficult to accept what happened, but many years later, he finally accepted it so after he died, his grandchildren would remember his heroic and brave efforts in the military.
For this lesson, I modeled the first viewpoint, description, and put it on the cube so students would know how to respond to the article based their viewpoint. Afterwards, we assigned each pair of students a viewpoint, even though the responses would be done individually, and students had about five minutes to respond to the article. After students were done responding, they put their written responses on their cube and we even had some students read what they have written in relation to their viewpoint. When students reflected, most of them said that they wished that they had more time to respond, because people had a lot to say. Therefore, this lesson may be better suited in forty-five minutes intervals rather than ten minute intervals.
In short, I feel like this lesson went well!!!
First Grade
This lesson could be used with the first grade classes by modeling and explaining in detail every perspective. In addition, I would also split students up into pairs and have them work with one another. While cubing works well in the other grades since viewpoints is a complex topic, as long as teachers model, this could still be an engaging experience for first graders. In addition, I would use a book, rather than an article, and make sure it is a book that was read to students already, more than one time. I would explain viewpoints as looking at something in a certain way, and I would guide students through the process every step of the way.
Sixth Grade
Since the lesson on cubing was for fifth grade, I would not make that many changes to the lesson when it comes to sixth grade students. Contrasting from first grade, however, there would be less teacher support. However, I would still model how to do the first viewpoint, and I would have students write 4-5 sentences, rather than 3-4. In addition, the complexity of the article may vary and students would also be required to use one of the viewpoints to respond to an article at home. The overall themes of viewpoints and perspectives would also be utilized and integrated within the lesson as well, so students understand the sole purpose of why cubing is so important. By the end of the lesson it would be hoped that students would understand perspectives, not only when looking at various texts, but their own lives.
Current Events inside of the Classroom
I learned many new things about using current events inside of the classroom. I never realized until today how important it is for students to be able to read and gain valuable information from articles, not only information either, but gaining important skills in the process. For example, I know many groups who used listening and speaking as the skills that would be taught for current events. However, I used the CCSS ELA Literacy standard on writing which is writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. By responding to the article using the six perspectives makes it possible for students to do so. It allows them to look at anything , whether it is an article, a book, or even a picture, and be able to write about it from that point of view. Even the performance indicators state how students will be able to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly, develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic, and use precise language and domain specific-vocabulary to inform or explain about the topic, and eccetra. As it is explained, it is not all about writing, but getting skills out of it.
Current Events and Technology
It is the 21st century, so teachers are moving away from using paper and pencils to teach students about current events. Since technology is expanding, that is what many teachers are utilizing inside of the classroom now. There is a great website entitled "5 Ways Students Can Visually Explore the News" which provides resources to teachers about how to find current event stories that are visually appealing and informative to students and allows them to explore the news on their own (Byrne 2011).
Here are two of them that I found interesting:
Ten by Ten: This is a program that links images with new stories by a ten by ten grid (Byrne 2011). . Clicking on an image will provide students with more articles about the story. I like this program because it allows students to make connections between pictures and stories. They can make connections not only between those two, but personal connections as well.
Newspaper Map: This is a tool used for locating and reading newspapers from locations all over the world. There are many ways to find a newspaper, such as browsing through a map and clicking on the link to read the newspaper. It can also translate the newspapers on the map (Byrne 2011). I like this tool because it teaches students new ways to look at maps, and again, students get an opportunity to make connections between the map and the story. It is also great because this tool gives access for students to read papers from all over the world.
Besides using these awesome tools, it is also possible to teach students about using current events using technology such as TweenTribune, twitter, and Newsela. All of these are great resources to use and can be used for students in the elementary grades. Tweentribune is a great website for all students to use because it provides a range of relevant and interesting topics for students to learn about from animals to entertainment. It is also easy to negotiate for both teachers and students. First grade students may need to be modeled and shown how to use the site, but the older students should be able to easily find important and interesting articles without as much support.
I do not know if I would use twitter inside my classroom as often. When I think of twitter, I think of social media. However, it is a great and quick way to get updated news stories. When something is considered "breaking news" twitter is usually the first place I would I look. However, I do not think that twitter is necessarily appropriate to use inside the school classroom and since first-third grade students would not be familiar with Twitter, I would probably utilize it with the older students.
When it comes to newsela, this is a way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that is relevant when it comes to daily news. After reading the news stories, students could test their comprehension or what they understood from reading the article. What is great about this website is that it could be used for students of all ages, no matter what grade depending on the news stories.
As demonstrated, current events is important in students lives so they can keep up what is going on in the world, and so they can increase comprehension, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Using the article when it comes to cubing was great and interactive to use because it gets all students involved and is interactive and engaging for them to be apart of.
Links
Below are the links to the PowerPoint and lesson!
PowerPoint Presentation on Cubing!
Mini-Lesson on Cubing
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