West Hartford Education Association Grant: Telling our Stories Brick-by-Brick
- School Year: 2015-2016
- Applicants: Brenda Smith, Lead Teacher Jennifer Hall, Laurie Perry
- School: Morley
- Subjects: Language Arts, Technology
This grant will fund the purchase of 2 Lego Story Starter Classroom packs with Story Visualizer software to be used by the 4th grade initially, and then expanded to the 2nd through 5th grade students at Morley Elementary School. Children are natural story tellers and the grant is designed to combine all aspects of the Common Core curriculum (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and technology) in a motivating and engaging way to improve skills in these areas. Using Lego building blocks and mini- figures, students will collaboratively create the sets and action that will present their story visually. Using the Lego software, students will take pictures of their sets and begin to craft their story in comic form by including dialogue. Ultimately, each story will be published by printing it or sharing it digitally with others. Students who struggle with writing will be supported by the modality of this “hands–on literacy” approach and there are many options to extend and enrich the learning for more advanced students.