Craftsmanship in the Primary Grades
Craftsmanship in the Primary Grades
A look at how Community Coach Cassie Leiby, and her team intentionally teach Craftsmanship to 1st grade students using the EL Education K-5 Curriculum.
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I have been using the EL Education K-5 Curriculum since the fall of 2017, and every year our young students struggle with the idea of what craftsmanship really looks like. How can we expect Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students to show craftsmanship, specifically in those final products, when the idea of craftsmanship (aka quality) can be interpreted in so many different ways?
In the past few years our Elementary and Middle school has been putting in the work to transition our habits of character to match those found within the EL Education K-5 Curriculum. Instead of teaching compassion, respect, effort and quality, we now teach Compassion, Integrity, Initiative, Craftsmanship, Perseverance, and Collaboration. In a building where a majority of our students are interacting and currently using this terminology within their Modules and throughout their day in the classroom, it just made sense to integrate this common language throughout the remainder of our school building and to use this same vocabulary school wide.
As recent as last year (2020-2021), our building’s Crew and Culture Team (CCT) began really focusing on making these Habits of Character come to the forefront of our building and shouting out students who were going above and beyond within these specific Habits of Character. Each month, we had students and staff look at one specific character trait and shout out students for completing this trait throughout their school day. We would then display these shout outs in the main hallway entrance hallway as students arrived for school. Finally, staff members would look for students who were applying this specific character trait throughout all facets of their day and who would be considered “Exemplary.” For example, in order to receive this exemplary status in Compassion, students not only had to be compassionate to their peers in class, they also needed to demonstrate compassion at recess, during specials, and going above and beyond grade level expectations with all students they may encounter. We spent a lot of time diving into these six habits of character throughout the year and focused all of our Crew lessons around these monthly traits.
This year, the CCT continued with their work of designating one Habit of Character per month as an area of focus. Last year our school ended the year with Craftsmanship and the CCT thought it made more sense for our students to begin the year with diving into Craftsmanship, just to see if this would make a difference in the quality of work produced throughout the school year.
For the entire month of October, our first graders have been diving into this very idea of what Craftsmanship will look like within their drawing, writing, coloring, handwriting, letter and number formation, as well as final products. As a class, we looked at examples of high quality work, created criteria, practiced feedback and revisions, and we used Austin’s Butterfly as our mentor example. All of this work was completed during our 30 minute Crew in the morning as we start off our day.
Crew Focus - Craftsmanship:
We began the year with a very brief introduction to ALL habits of character and spent only 1 Crew lesson focusing on what our expectation is in 1st grade for Craftsmanship. We break down tough vocabulary, look at some kid created things that were shared on the Ellen DeGeneres show for inspiration. Then we watch a funny video created by an art teacher named Mrs. Jo who goes back in time to chat with an artist about craftsmanship. My kids laugh at this video every year.
The first lesson we dove into at the beginning of the month reviewed this idea of Craftsmanship. We watched Austin’s butterfly for the first time, and completed a notice & wonders chart.
Before we dove any deeper into the focus of craftsmanship, we took a pause to teach students about our grading scale. Marathon does not use the typical A, B, C, or even the 1,2,3,4 grading scale. Our Teaching & Learning Team (TLT) worked to create a grading scale that focuses on a student’s proficiency on their standards. We roll this out to 1st graders with the idea of riding a bike and our students watch video samples of kids riding their bikes and our students have to share where they feel like the child is on the “learning” scale. Students typically do very well with this idea, but struggle when translating it to academics.
Our next Crew lesson(s) focused on the idea of craftsmanship in our color. We created an expectations chart using various art mediums (crayons, markers, colored pencils), based on our school wide Grading Scale. Students began in the Proficient bubble and colored with quality what we expect in 1st grade coloring with that tool, then we slowly regressed our quality work. Ps. You should know that kids had a fun time with this one. We then discussed the difference between a (D) - Developing, compared to a (N) - Not Yet. We set our own class standards and expectations. Then came the hard part, how do you reach (E) - Exemplary? Our students discussed using the Think, Pair, Share Protocol from the EL Curriculum to discuss the idea of “mixing” or blending colors, and adding an edge around the outside. Once a whole group criteria was created, we wanted students to practice applying their knowledge of viewing different levels of craftsmanship. Students were given 5 samples of the same coloring page. Kids were given 2-3 minutes to walk around in a Silent Gallery Walk and to “grade” these flowers just in their brains. Students graded the coloring pages before debriefing via whole group as to why they selected the grade we did. This lesson was powerful!
We then tackled the idea of drawing like a scientist. Again, we referenced back to Austin’s Butterfly, before watching a video that supported the criteria from Grade 1. Module 3. We then captured this learning on an anchor chart to use in later lessons.
Next we looked at the importance of feedback and we took a key idea from G1. Module 2. Unit 3. Lesson 5. We utilized key sentence starters provided within the EL curriculum so that when students come back to this lesson in Module 2, our students would have some background practice with the idea of feedback. Primary students need time to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! That is exactly what we did. Our students went through their tools drawings and selected one picture they wanted to receive feedback on and we went through the feedback protocol from Module 2 with a partner. The results were astounding when we compared our drafts.
We continued our work on Craftsmanship with our handwriting, letter and number formation, and how we keep our space clean and organized.
Craftsmanship tie-in with Modules:
During Module 1, our students were challenged to create something our classroom needs whether that be a turn in bin, bathroom passes, etc.
This year our students created the following:
Teacher Mailbox
Animal Alien Candyland
Bookshelf
Bookmaking Station
Letter Formation Chart
Craftsmanship Wall
Students had to go through the revision process several times, and we even added a feedback piece based off of our recent work in Crew surrounding Craftsmanship and feedback. Every year we have 1 or 2 really good Magnificent things and this year was no exception. The main difference this year however, was that because we spent extra time focusing on craftsmanship and making feedback a basic standard practice within our classroom early, our students were able to produce final products with higher quality that are actually applicable.
The best part about this whole process was when our students were able to share their work through their Celebration of Learning. Our first graders had the choice to vote on who they would like to come to their celebration, and an overwhelming majority of students wanted to invite their 4th grade buddy crew.
These 4th graders were awesome! They were such a kind audience! They participated along in the Tool’s Song, as well as the Celebration song because they remembered it from when they were in 1st grade! A mass majority of 4th grade students remembered in great detail what they made back when they were in 1st grade! I was amazed! I couldn’t believe that these students remembered what they made, let alone who their partners were, what they struggled with, and their favorite part about their magnificent thing! It was pretty awesome for the 1st graders to be able to share this with their buddy crew and share what was important to them!
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