Starting the 2nd stage of Exhibition Preparation

My students and I have been developing their skills so that they are ready to take 100% control of their learning during the Exhibition Process.

The Central Idea

They at the end of each week they have been writing and revising their central ideas, describing what they have learned during the unit.  In the process, they have become more focused, thoughtful, reflective.  Some of them are still focused on the activities and I am trying to have them focus on the learning.  Many of them are really digging into what we learned and are writing clear central ideas that cover the broad idea of the units. In the process, we are also reflecting on how well we addressed the lines of inquiry.

Evaluating the Units

They are developing the unit boards and explaining the essential elements. This is really helping them to identify their understanding of the essential elements.

Building a unit board

After we complete the pre-assessment we take a period to identify each aspect of the unit and they have been working collaboratively and creatively, making connections. During the government unit, one of the students drew a bird looking down for perspective. We talked about his symbol for perspective each time we discussed the benefits and detractors of a form of government and the students really understood the key concept.

Our illustration of the Essential Elements

Designing the page layout for the unit book

Later they had a hurtful moment on the playground that ended up in a long class discussion. When they entered the classroom, one student let me know something had happened and another announced "Let's look at it from each person's perspective!"  This ownership of the key concepts led to a healthy conversation about what each person experienced, including the perspective of the kids who were across the playground, and were frustrated that their friends let their game get out of hand.  In the end, they were able to see it from a variety of perspectives and apply it to future game play.


At the end of each unit they take down the unit board and put it into a book. This book building is a reflection of what we learned in the unit, and what I need to revise for next year.  

Parent Exhibition Information  Evening

When I went to the exhibition workshop, one of the big takeaways was having the students develop a Parent Exhibition Information  Evening. This gives the students the responsibility to explain the process to their parents and is another sign to the parents that they students are in control of the process. It is also a formative assessment of what aspects they understand and what I need to continue preparing them for.

They each chose a section of the Student Exhibition Handbook, and applied their summarizing skills to jigsaw the  key ideas of the exhibition:

• roles of the student, teacher, mentor, and parent 
• the weekly planner
• the essential elements 
• academic honesty
• the elements of the exhibition
• how they are assessed

After they had taught each other, we discussed their favorite learning moments to find a way to teach their parents. They decided on a teaching game so that their parents weren't bored and stayed involved. We then brainstormed their favorite games and eventually landed on Monopoly.
It was a stroke of brilliance!

Game set-up

We made a huge playing board and turned each of the key ideas of the exhibition into 3-4 Monopoly places.  When parents landed on a spot, the student who created that card stood up and explained it to the audience. At the end of the game, we reviewed the few places that hadn't been landed on. It was a clear and active introduction to the concepts of the exhibition.

Parents playing and learning from their children

The majority of my parents are English Language Learners and they have a huge range of English language skills so I also gave them a formal presentation with a print out of my PowerPoint that they can refer back to later if they have any questions.

Celebrating our presentation

I have kept the game pieces so that we can play it again at the beginning of the exhibition and perhaps at mentor training. 

How about you? How do you help your students make connections? What are your stages of preparing for the exhibition? How do you inform parents about the exhibtion process?