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Welcome to Unboxed Issue 27

What if we treat people, from the beginning, as imaginative, intelligent, playful creatures who deserve to be understood as such?

Issue 27: Fall 2024

Jeff Govoni kicks off this issue by writing about literal “making”—the power of construction projects in elementary school. Aneesa Jamal shares a strategy for helping students reconnect to their questioning abilities, Michelle Jaconette has suggestions for how to launch inquiry-rich lessons, “Dr Project” has ideas for helping students critique “models” and make high quality products, and Brad Blue offers advice on how students can curate their own work after a project. Robert Talbert and Sarah Strong both share ideas for making assessment meaningful and student-centered. And Elizabeth Brown, Paula Espinoza, and Amber McEnturff share stories and strategies that challenge us not just to help students “make the world differently.”

An Improvement Project Tackling Chronic Absenteeism

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferdinand T. Day (FTD), a Title 1 elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia, noticed an alarming increase in chronic absenteeism rates that disproportionately impacted Hispanic students

Lesson Launch: The Wow Factor

Much like a movie’s opening scene, the launch of a lesson should grab everybody’s attention, spark curiosity, and get students asking questions.

Deconstructing Construction Projects

Last spring I was standing in my fifth-grade classroom, mid-project, rearranging student groups when I realized we had a problem. My students were building scale models of dog houses and cat condos that they had designed—and would ultimately build—to donate to a pet-adoption event later that spring.

Fantastic Beasts

Students explored humanity’s connection to animals through mythological and physical representations

Creatures Before Us

Students became experts on creatures from the Mesozoic Era through research, measurement, writing, and fieldwork experiences.

Can’t I Just Let the Kids Decide What to Make?

Q: It seems restrictive to tell every kid to make the same kind of product when we’re doing a project. How should I decide what parts of the project to be flexible on and which are non-negotiable?

Video Portrait Project

Students created a digital video portrait of themselves using one of their personal poems written in English class

How (and Why) to Start a Project with a “Model Critique”

“We critique and discuss what makes the work powerful: what makes a piece of creative writing compelling and exciting; what makes a scientific or historical research project significant and stirring; what makes a novel mathematical solution so breathtaking.”

Comic Con Project

With the collaboration of a comic book artist community partner, students wrote and designed their own comics

Welcome to Sustainable San Diego

Students created travel brochures in small groups, featuring a San Diego map with sustainable sites and descriptions of their eco-friendly practices and visitor appeal.

Craftivism

Craft activism to foster empathy, critical thinking, and civic engagement, encouraging students to express themselves on social issues through art

Self-Assessment Strategies for Students

How can assessment practices be designed to best support student learning? In school, the term “assessment” is often shorthand for “grades”—or, perhaps, tests, quizzes, rubrics, and similar evaluative tools. However, thinking of “assessment” as interchangeable with “test” or “grade” limits the potential for assessment practices to lead to meaningful and deeper learning.

Emerging Entomologists

First graders worked as naturalists to connect the community to the ants that share our environment
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