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2nd Graders See the Stories in Science

2nd Graders See the Stories in Science
CAM classroom listening to teacher

At Camelot Elementary in Teacher Paul Mak’s second-grade class, students gathered on the carpet for an English Language Arts (ELA) lesson about cause and effect, a concept they had been introduced to earlier in the year. On this day, the concept of cause and effect was demonstrated with a new topic—erosion—to help them visualize cause-and-effect relationships, not only in books, but also in the real world.

student reading curriculum
student reading curriculum

For an example of cause and effect, Teacher Mak showed an animation of water carving through a riverside. While the students watched the animation, they observed and noted the changes they saw and why the changes were taking place. The different causes and effects were described in the lesson’s reading, and after being arranged in groups, then Teacher Mak challenged the scholars to find the cause-and-effect relationships in book, strengthening both their reading comprehension and teamwork. One table group excitedly shared their discoveries. 2nd grader Camden talked about the lesson saying, “I’m working on my ELA, and learning that erosion makes beaches disappear,” and Dallas explained that, “one of the causes is wind can wash away land, and the effect is when the wind changes, it changes the shape of the island.”

After groups highlighted sentences of cause-and-effect examples in their small groups, the class came back together to share and discuss the examples they had discovered. Both the small group and whole class time reinforced the lessons and facts students were in the learning.

Teacher Mak highlighted the importance of the lesson, saying, “We want to make sure that students are learning about cause and effect. It happens in real life. And two, we want them to be able to do that critical thinking—can they identify cause and effect? It’s an important skill for students.”

This creative, multidisciplinary way of teaching ELA, while using lessons from other subjects, helps FWPS make sure students learn the skills they need for today and tomorrow so they can reach their full potential.

CAM classroom in group work
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