News
Sixth graders "rock" at creating factual stories
April 2008
A
group of sixth grade students from Ms. Gallelli’s class, and a few
students from Ms. Donovan's class, took a trip to Bradt School to
read their rock cycle stories to second graders for the second year
in a row.
The sixth-grade students created their stories based on knowledge
and facts they learned in science class. They then used these facts
to write a creative “fiction” story from the point of view of a
rock, in one of the many stages of the rock cycle. They had to
accurately describe how they became one of the three types of rocks,
using vocabulary, such as “felsic,” “mafic,” “extrusive,”
“intrusive,” “foliated,” “clastic,” and more.
ELA teachers helped to edit the stories, and students practiced
reading with proper voice inflection and projection before going
over to read at Bradt. The group of Draper students also asked the
second-graders questions based on their stories and the rock cycle
to practice good listening skills.
“It was a great experience for my students to go back and to be a
role model for the second graders,” said Gallelli. “The second grade
students had great questions and really had some wonderful
background knowledge.”
Both classes are currently studying rocks, which made this activity
meaningful for both grade levels, reinforcing their learning even
further.
