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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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as well. When possible, it is created for and shared with an audience beyond the classroom.
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.
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During 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.
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