We are beginning our archdiocesan Language Arts assessment. It’s titled, It’s a Weird, Wacky World. It takes about 3 weeks to complete this assessment. My students are pretending that they are aliens visiting Earth. We will brainstorm in class some things that might be very different from what a person from another planet might be used to. We will write four letters back to our family and friends, telling them all about life on this strange place called Earth. The final presentation is reading one letter and presenting the diorama, of a scene from the letter, to our classmates. Finally, we pack up our diorama to take home in our space ship!
The other 3rd grade teacher and I always enjoy this assessment. We both read a science fiction story during our read aloud time to the students before we begin. I read The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron. My partner reads Space Race by Sylvia Waugh. She also just finished up a Science unit on the Solar System. So it seems to be the perfect time to give our assessment.
I always am amazed at what my students come up with in their dioramas. We stress that students shouldn’t buy anything to put into their box. In the letter we sent home, we encouraged that and plugged recycling. What’s amazing, they really do follow this guideline. We have had scenes of our local zoo with little toy animals in it to parks with really twigs for trees. They are a resourceful bunch of students!
Of course, if you know me, this assessment will have a technology piece to it. My students will illustrate, using either Kid Pix or Appleworks draw, a scene from their original planet. This should be a lot of creative fun for my students.
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