Book Projects

Book Project: POOT

What would Cleopatra, Frida Kahlo, Greta Thunberg, and P.T. Barnum say to each other if asked to consider how students  should use AI in their school work? That’s a question that you can’t answer with a Google search (we tried, and the Google AI was very pro-AI), but you can make some educated guesses by learning about the experiences they had and the cultures they lived in. 

For the next few months, our usual monthly book projects will be replaced by Place Out of Time (or "POOT" for short. It’s a funny acronym, and you’ll be hearing it a lot).  It's a fun and engaging project that has each student select a figure from any place or time in history, then learn about their life, experiences, and beliefs by developing questions and doing research. It’s much more than simply writing a report. Throughout the Place Out of Time simulation, students also portray their characters in a series of classroom activities and conversations. The big idea is "what can we learn by bringing the diverse perspectives of history together to consider current day issues?" 

For many years, the Place Out of Time was a program run by the Interactive Communications and Simulations (ICS) group at the University of Michigan School of Education. We’ve participated in it for 13 years, along with dozens of other schools across the country. Sadly, 2025 was the final year for the University of Michigan version of the program, which concluded with the retirement of POOT creator Jeff Stanzler. We’ve decided to continue on with our own homegrown version of the project. It’s very in-depth, engaging, and fun! You'll be hearing much more about it in the weeks ahead. 

 Every month, the class is assigned a book to read from a special genre and asked to do a project on it for homework.  Kids will always receive written directions about the assignment at the beginning of the month, and these directions will also be posted on our website.  These projects will always be due on the last day of the school each month.  At school, we will be reading, writing and interacting with this type of literature in a variety of ways throughout the month.

Long-term assignments such as these are hard for most kids at this level.  They easily fall in to that old trap of putting things off until the last minute.  As adults, we know how important it is to plan for projects such as these.  Here are some suggestions on how you can help your child throughout the month:

    Help them DEVELOP A PLAN for completing this project on time.  This should be kept simple.  Set smaller, intermediate goals throughout the month.  For example, "read one chapter a day" or "read 45 pages a week".  We will be talking about this in class as well and asking them to give us written copies of their plans.  

    CHECK THEIR PROGRESS REGULARLY.  Please ask your child often how they are doing and see if they are meeting their goals.

    GIVE ASSISTANCE WHERE NEEDED.  Does your child need help remembering to bring their book home?  Do they need you to read with them for a short time each night?  Do they need special materials to do the project?

    REVISE THE PLAN IF NECESSARY.  Is this book too hard?  Too easy?  We try to encourage the kids to choose that are "just right", but with so many kids, we may miss the mark at times.  Tell your child to let us know right away is he/she needs to pick a new book.

Remember, we will send home a copy of every month's book project so you will know exactly what's expected.  If you don't get one after a day or two, ask for a new copy or check out website!  Together, we should be able to help all our children succeed!

Thanks for all your help!