Embedded Files
Claim: GCCS students continue to create well-crafted, authentic projects and products in service of the community.
Claim: GCCS students continue to create well-crafted, authentic projects and products in service of the community.
Genesee students are known throughout the EL Education network for the craftsmanship of their products and 48 GCCS products can be found in EL Education’s Center for High Quality Student Work. Our push in recent years has been to increase the complexity of these products while also serving authentic audiences within our community. There are final products from each grade-level loop that represent new formats that are meaningful to students as well as the audiences they serve.
Haudenosaunee Today (2018)
Haudenosaunee Today (2018)
As part of their expedition around the Haudenosaunee people of New York State, first grade teachers wanted to breathe new life into a traditional experience for students that rooted them in the past. By critically reading books and viewing museum exhibits, students came to realize that the Haudenosaunee were not simply a people who lived hundreds of years ago, but are still with us today.
Through visits to the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) and Ganondagan Historic Site, and through video and face-to-face interviews, first-graders met modern-era Haudenosaunee and created museum panels that told the story of their lives today. The museum panels helped fill the gap in the RMSC’s historical narrative of Native Peoples then and now.
Students generated thoughtful questions, exercising their oral speaking, note taking, and listening skills to create a research base that helped them share the story of one of four contemporary Haudenosaunee people.
How this work supports our claim:
Complex work may incorporate students’ application of higher order literacy skills through the use of complex text and evidence-based writing and speaking.
Complex work may incorporate students’ application of higher order literacy skills through the use of complex text and evidence-based writing and speaking.
- Students had to read books, label copy, and interpret meaning from illustrations as part of their research phase. Listening and speaking with experts from a culture meant careful note taking and asking a variety of questions.
- Writing text for the panels required multiple drafts with peer and teacher feedback. Students used this feedback to improve the quality of their work.
- At exhibition night at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, students had the opportunity to speak to the public about their work, their process, and share what they learned about the contemporary Haudenosaunee.
Authentic work often uses real work formats and standards from the professional world, rather than artificial school formats (e.g., students create a book review for a local newspaper instead of a book report for the teacher).
Authentic work often uses real work formats and standards from the professional world, rather than artificial school formats (e.g., students create a book review for a local newspaper instead of a book report for the teacher).
- Students examined exemplar exhibit panels and label copy to better understand how a museum exhibit was produced. They spoke with RMSC experts and exhibit makers about their work and the first-graders received feedback on their projects in progress.
- The Haudenosaunee Today panels are on exhibit at the RMSC and were featured at the ELNC18 Quality Student Work Gallery. The four Haudenosaunee featured in the exhibit panels were pleased to have their culture reflected in a respectful and accurate way that honored their past and the present.
One Cubic Foot (2017)
One Cubic Foot (2017)
For students at the Genesee Community Charter School, the Genesee River and its surrounding area serve as the curricular lens to learn about science, geography, and social history. Our hope is that by cultivating a strong sense of place through the investigation of the physical and social aspects of the area they live in, children will leave GCCS as life-long stewards of the environment. The One Cubic Foot Project not only provided a meaningful service to its partner, The Seneca Park Zoo Society, but marked the first time in Genesee history that the whole school (K-5) was engaged in a single expedition.
This was by far Genesee’s most complex and rigorous expedition to date. Not only did it push teachers and students to think differently about content, it exceeded grade level expectations as mixed-age groups collaborated to conduct research, collect data, synthesize and abstract their findings for their audience, The Seneca Park Zoo Society. The original writing required students to use their observations, research, and data and make it both engaging and educational for their reader. While it is scientifically accurate, it also elevates student voice and showcases both creativity and critical thinking.
For this investigation, Kindergarten through fifth grade students collaborated to investigate the current health of the Genesee River and its watershed. Using the One Cubic Foot model, students set out in vertical teams on three occasions to collect data at six locations within the Genesee River watershed. On each field study, teams examined the habitat focusing on large, small, and microscopic species as well as studying the water and soil quality in the surrounding area.
Kindergarten through third grade students wrote narrative nonfiction pieces using information from fieldwork and in class research. Fourth grade wrote informational texts about one aspect of water quality while fifth grade wrote literary descriptions of the sites and informational text about soil quality. Additionally, in Visual Arts class, students used observational drawing and painting to illustrate the bug they focused on. In Physical Expedition, students participated in the 2017 Global Water Dancer Project.
The interactive website (ThingLink) was a new medium for Genesee and presented challenges to students and staff alike, who had become accustomed to high-quality print media but now needed to transfer this skill set to a digital realm.
How this work supports our claim:
Complex work is rigorous: it aligns with or exceeds the expectations defined by grade-level standards and includes higher-order thinking by challenging students to apply, analyze, evaluate, and create during daily instruction and throughout longer projects.
Complex work is rigorous: it aligns with or exceeds the expectations defined by grade-level standards and includes higher-order thinking by challenging students to apply, analyze, evaluate, and create during daily instruction and throughout longer projects.
- Students collaborated in vertical teams made up of students from grades K-5; each class had its own science standards to address while also serving the final product which required collaboration to unify the different classroom projects.
- Each site visit required observation, note taking, data collection, and crew reflection to make sure the multi-layered projects were being addressed.
- Students used the One Cubic Foot research models presented by mentors at The Seneca Park Zoo as exemplars that set a high bar for complexity of product.
Authentic work demonstrates the original thinking of students—authentic personal voice and ideas—rather than simply showing that students can follow directions or fill in the blanks.
Authentic work demonstrates the original thinking of students—authentic personal voice and ideas—rather than simply showing that students can follow directions or fill in the blanks.
- Students produced written pieces to complement the site-based work that each K-5 vertical team participated in; each student was held accountable to share their original and authentic voice in informational or narrative writing that told the story of the place they studied.
- Observational drawings taken from field work notes served and expert texts served as the springboard for finished watercolor paintings of the living things found along the Genesee River. Each piece authentically reflects the developmental milestones of young artists and writers.
During their expedition uncovering the modes of transportation over time in their city, Kindergarteners were able to ride the city bus and learn about bus transportation in Rochester. Working with Reconnect Rochester, a local transit advocacy organization, students learned that not all bus stops have shelters - some did not even have benches! The Kindergarteners wondered about the people who had to wait a long time, maybe even with groceries or children, for the bus with nowhere to sit.
Reconnect Rochester shared with the class an initiative to provide bus stop cubes (2x2x2 plywood boxes) that could be used at bus stops to support weary travelers. The class adopted the box and began plan for its location and what message the art on the box would send. They decided to share images of the different historical modes of transportation in Rochester on their bus stop cube, a kind of trip through transit time, and they placed it at a location many of them frequent, the Rochester Public Market. It stayed outside, accessible to the public until the winter months, providing opportunities for dozens of shoppers to take a seat while waiting for their bus.
How this work supports our claim:
Complex work prioritizes transfer of understanding to new contexts.
Complex work prioritizes transfer of understanding to new contexts.
- Students were able to transfer their understanding of historical modes of transportation to a different and more contemporary context - seating for Rochester Transit Service bus passengers. They could show a variety of ways people historically got around our city.
Authenticity gives purpose to work; the work matters to students and ideally to a larger community.
Authenticity gives purpose to work; the work matters to students and ideally to a larger community.
as well. When possible, it is created for and shared with an audience beyond the classroom.
- The bus stop cube was placed adjacent to the busy Rochester Public Market where it enjoyed three seasons of use by transit passengers.
The Story of Our School Lunch (2015)
The Story of Our School Lunch (2015)
The sixth grade class of 2015 critically examined why food - a basic human right - is not readily available to all in their community and why hunger remains a world-wide issue. Students explored basic economic concepts and applied them to the availability of food in Rochester and its suburbs and begin to understand that hunger is less an issue of scarcity and more an issue of equity.
The class visited local grocers, the Rochester Public Market, CSA sites, and food cupboards to better understand the issues around food security in our community. Additionally, the class will learn to interpret socio-economic data and identify where the supply of fresh and nutritious food is inadequate.
The class shared their findings through the lens of their own school lunch, exploring the origins of their own meals, how the federal school lunch program started, and how Rochester is tackling food insecurity and equity. The Story of Our School Lunch was a digital product and was shared with stake-holders at exhibition night.
How this work supports our claim:
Complex work often connects to the big concepts that undergird disciplines or unite disciplines.
Complex work often connects to the big concepts that undergird disciplines or unite disciplines.
- Sixth-grade students were able to weave concepts from history, economics, science, math, literacy, and health to examine our community from multiple perspectives. Students could connect their own school lunch story to the story of the food system in the Rochester and beyond.
Authentic work often connects academic standards with real-world issues, controversies, and local people and places.
Authentic work often connects academic standards with real-world issues, controversies, and local people and places.
- Students worked with numerous community-based experts, including farmers, urban planners, scientists, and nutritionists to better understand the community’s needs.
- Exploring local farms, grocery stores, commercial kitchens, and even landfills, students were able to connect all elements of the community food system to their own school lunch. Each of these elements was featured in their book.
- Sixth graders were challenged to better understand food insecurity through service learning and by creating real-world budgets connected to food access depending on their location in the community. They came to understand that food equity is a problem in Rochester and added that to their book.
Immigrant Biography Project (2006 - 2019)
Immigrant Biography Project (2006 - 2019)
Babak BIO.pdfAri BIO.pdfWarren BIO.pdfDuring each loop, 4th and 5th graders examine historical and contemporary issues of immigration and have the opportunity to interview newcomers to the Rochester community as well as those who made the journey decades ago.
This is a signature project that each 5th grade class has had the opportunity to complete since its inception ten years ago. Students learn about the groups of immigrants who came to Rochester over time, how they influenced our industries and neighborhoods, and celebrate their contributions to our community as a whole. Students also conduct overnight fieldwork in New York City and learn about the immigration process of Ellis Island and the ethnic neighborhoods of New York City, making connections to Rochester's diverse population.
The Immigrant Biography Project is a demanding, authentic project that requires students to know their emigre intimately. They learn of their life in their homeland, the journey to America, and their life on Rochester, NY. Students do background research on the "push/ pull" events that led each person they interviewed to come to Rochester and conduct several in-person and e-mail interviews to get the story right.
Students then collaborate to share the story of their person in a narrative biography. This requires revision and feedback as getting the life story of their emigre right was paramount! Teachers worked with crews to unify the voice and style of each biography (approximately six biographies are completed during each loop).
The finished biographies are presented to the emigres and their families on Exhibition Night in a celebration that also includes an interpretive dance of the emigre's life.
How this work supports our claim:
Complex work prioritizes consideration of multiple perspectives.
Complex work prioritizes consideration of multiple perspectives.
- Fifth-grade students read historical documents, fictionalized accounts, and met with immigrants to better understand the "push" and "pull" factors that led to people choosing to come to America.
- Students selected not only European immigrants (which is where many of the early to mid 20th-century emigres originated), but made sure to represent a variety of ethnicities and geographic locations.
Well-crafted work is done with care and precision. Craftsmanship requires attention to accuracy, detail, and beauty.
Well-crafted work is done with care and precision. Craftsmanship requires attention to accuracy, detail, and beauty.
- Students worked with interviewees over several sessions, taking notes and checking them against audio recordings and transcripts to verify information.
- Student crews held each other accountable for accurate information and used life events to tell a narrative version of the person's life.
- As students drafted their stories, they checked again with immigrant interviewees and provided context for the reader of the biography with information such as maps and historical events. Students also looked for natural places to use varying word choice and phrasing to engage the reader.
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