21S In Action

Rainforest Hummingbirds Stream into Mississippi Classroom


Mrs. Wilson's classroom The children are really taking ownership of their learning and the learning of their peers. -Jennifer Wilson, Teacher, W.L. Smith Elementary

Entering Jennifer Wilson's classroom at W.L. Smith Elementary in Petal, Mississippi, a visitor is immediately engulfed in the sights and sounds of Ecuador's rainforest. A live streaming video from Ecuador is playing on the interactive whiteboard, and the flutter and chatter of birds bursts full-volume from the sound system. The streaming video is a backdrop to vibrant hives of third-graders who are researching, collaborating, and creating reports about the rainforest.

"I was selected to go to Project Zero at Harvard last summer as part of the Cisco 21S program focus on professional development," explains Wilson. "The Project Zero teaching framework stresses in-depth learning, what they call 'teaching for understanding.' Instead of teaching isolated skills, you set one or two over-arching goals for learning and then teach skills embedded in that." The expected result of such teaching is that students not only can apply the acquired knowledge, but apply it in unscripted ways.

"For the rainforest unit, I wanted to teach the children how to do research," says Wilson. "In third grade, one of our objectives is for students to be able to look at information, find things, and answer questions. I look at this unit as a way to tie in several goals of our Mississippi framework I found a trade book, The Great Kapok Tree, and I loved it. It met lots of reading objectives - story elements, characters, plots - so I thought, how can I integrate technology to teach as much as possible with this one unit. I wanted the class to read the book and then relate the fiction to the non-fiction research, so they learn how to combine and expand on their knowledge."

Wilson immerses the students in learning by using the streaming video, which is projected onto an interactive whiteboard, as well as a variety of other technologies, all supplied by the Cisco 21S program. "Most of these kids are visual learners," reasons Wilson. "They're used to looking at a viewing screen, whether it's a computer, TV, or video game. They depend on their eye and hand coordination. They're used to that, so why not teach them in the manner in which they learn best. In addition, all children do not learn the same, so I try to provide multiple experiences with one concept to better reach all my students. Technology allows me to do that."

The children, grouped into five teams, perform research at home with their parents' help and conduct Internet research on four classroom computers to answer pre-assigned questions on the rainforest. Each team focuses on a specific aspect of the rainforest - the people, the animals, the plants, what is the rainforest, or what is happening to it. The students' engagement in this fertile learning environment is palpable - not only in the unedited comments they leave on two boards about the rainforest's impact on the world and how they might help save the rainforest, but also in their actions. A sense of urgency erupts from one boy who takes aside a visitor to say, "You know, only a few years ago the rainforest covered 16 percent of the Earth's surface, and now it only covers about 7 percent." Then he shows the visitor a map and highlights the marked differences.

Wilson provides additional insight. "That connects with the story that we read. In the story, a boy goes into the rainforest to cut down the tree and he falls asleep. All the animals that live in the tree whisper into his ear not to cut down the tree, because of all the devastation it would cause just to cut down that one tree. So reading the fiction book about the rainforest and then reading accurate research about what's actually happening - the kids are able to connect it. They gain a deeper understanding and are able to process the information, to get the whole picture, that it's not just the tree being cut down but everything being affected by that."

Once the students have completed their research, Wilson teaches the basics of PowerPoint presentations, so that the teams can create a formal presentation to share their research findings with the whole class. Each student contributes two slides, which he or she presents. "The children are learning how to project their voice, stand with good posture, and present information in a manner in which someone can learn something from them," says Wilson. "They are really taking ownership of their learning and the learning of their peers. Three groups finished their projects today and they were saying, 'Oh my gosh, Ms. Wilson, look what we did!' A lot of them have never really had that true feeling of accomplishment. They didn't really even have to read off the slides, they were able to explain the information off the top of their heads."

For additional excerpts from the interview with Wilson, click here

For a copy of Wilson's lesson plan for the Rainforest unit, click here

To see examples of her students' PowerPoint presentations, click below


To contact Jennifer Wilson, please send email to jwilson@petal.k12.ms.us

21S Principles in Action

Wilson's Rainforest unit reflects the following principles of the 21S program:


Written by Sudha Putnam
Posted - Thursday, 21 February 2008

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