A wild idea for the beginning of the year

Last week I went to the Responsive Classroom training. This week I'm at the local Audubon site learning about integrating field work and inquiry into the science standards.

The overlap and connections are exciting.

I'm not going down that rabbit hole right now, however.

It has gotten me thinking about the beginning of school, and that's what I'm here to publicly process. (Because don't all writers need an authentic audience?! Remind me of that come Writers Workshop time.)

For grad credit, we need to create a unit where we are integrating inquiry and field work into one of our science units. We have time during the class to work on it, with the expectation that we will teach the unit in the fall and come back together in November to reflect together.

This all sounds great-the only problem being that we don't actually know which units and standards we are teaching in 4th grade this year in my district. I get that we still have 3 more weeks before school starts, but that's not good enough for me. I'm a slow processor and I like and need the summer to process and plan and just think about what I'm going to do.

And oh yeah, I have this unit I need to create. Today.

So I've been thinking about my Responsive Classroom training and how to structure the first six weeks of school to create a place of belonging, significance and fun for and with students. I read Tracy Zager's post on the Stenhouse website about how to start the school year with math tasks and cultivate a classroom culture of mathematics. And of course this class about inquiry in science: open ended questions, field work, being vulnerable with students to not know all the answers.

And I got to thinking: don't we want to foster a love of learning for all students across content areas? Don't we want them to be good thinkers, questioners, perseverers, etc. across content areas? Aren't the qualities of a good scientist the same as the qualities of a good mathematician and a good social scientist? Don't we need to create a classroom community of inquiry and curiosity? And don't we need to create a classroom community where students feel like they belong, have significance and have fun (a la Responsive Classroom)? So that they can be good mathematicians, scientists, etc. etc. etc.

So why is everything so separate? Why can't I spend the first six weeks (or maybe a little less) creating classroom community and learning the habits and skills of being good learners. Across content areas. Making connections.

So this is what I'm thinking:
(My thinking is in it's very beginning stages)
a week (ish) of focusing on math task(s)
a week (ish) of focusing on science experiments/questions
a week (ish) of focusing on social studies big questions

All the while doing Interactive Modeling on the routines and procedures students need within the classroom context. Reading books and writing reflections. Charting our thinking on what it means to be a great learner based on what mathematicians, scientists and social scientist do. Learning about each other.

Clearly I need to continue to think through this. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew with 4th graders. I need to remember that I don't know my students-they are not the ones I left at the end of last year. I'm considered the "progressive" teacher in my school so these ideas would be very new for students. This would require a lot of planning to make sure that we are still mastering the routines and procedures we need.

I'm running off to my class, and I'm only going back to proofread this for typos-because I hate typos-but not for clarity. My thoughts are messy and I'd love your help and feedback to refine them.