I will close my eyes as you tell me, if you provide a lot of details, maybe I will feel like I am there!
~ words from Shruti that keep us thinking and wondering ~
Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
Notice what you notice. Wonder what you wonder. There is no quiz, no right way. Read until something stays.
this film has no words. notice what you notice. notice what you wonder. wonder out loud. and don't forget to notice what you feel, too.
Have To, Want To
One of the reasons why I am good at bike riding is because I practice. When I first started, I began by riding my bike for 5 minutes, and then every day I increased the amount of time by adding another 5 minutes. Can you help me figure out my below practice schedule by following this skip-counting pattern of 5?
5, ______, ______, 20, 25, ______
Can you share with me some of the sights and sounds that are in your neighborhood? I will close my eyes as you tell me– if you provide a lot of details, maybe I will feel like I am there!
If I ride my bike along different paths like the patterns below, can you tell me the name of the shapes?
Many people say I behave like someone who is the oldest child in a family. I like to take care of my brother and I’m not afraid to tell people what I think. Is that what it means to be the oldest? Or is maybe that just me? What is it like in your family? How does the order in which you were born affect the way you or your siblings act with each other? How is it if you are an only child?
Let’s say that I find a stone in the shape of a circle. If I want to divide it in half, can you draw a line in the below circle to show me how?
Can you think of some ways that you take care of the Earth? How can you help protect our planet even more?
Ask students to help arrange seats in a circle to create an inclusive environment for discussion in this lesson.
“What is the difference between doing something because you WANT to, and doing it because you HAVE to?” Let’s work with students to unpack what these two phrases mean, and how they might make people feel.
You can draw two columns on the board with one labeled “have to” and the other “want to” and can then ask students, “What are some ways that you can describe each of these phrases?” Some RESPONSES could be that “have to” means that they don’t have a choice or they will get into trouble if they don’t do it, and “want to” means they do have a choice and freedom to make a decision. After you write the examples that students share in the columns, ask your class, “Now how do these phrases make you feel?” and write down their responses. Examples might be that “have to” makes them feel stuck and frustrated, and “want to” makes them feel free and like their opinion matters. After students have an understanding of the different responses to these two phrases, you can discuss if there are any ways to turn one into another. “Can you think of a time where you were excited to start doing something because you WANTED to, and then it turned into something that you HAD to do? What about a way you could turn something that you HAVE to do into something that you WANT to do?”
Watch the video “I am Shruti” with your class. You can ask your students, “Did you see any times in the video that Shruti or her friends did something because they HAD to?
What about something that they seemed to WANT to do? How can you tell the difference? Or do you not know how they feel unless you ask them and learn their story?” Then, read the Learning Journey story “I am Shruti”. She describes how sometimes her brother acts like she owes him things. To practice reading comprehension, you can ask students, “How does it make Shruti feel when her brother treats her this way?” Then you can have students use their empathy skills to think of how they would feel in a similar situation. “Do people ever ask you to do things for them? What might influence whether you do it because you WANT to or HAVE to?” Some examples could be if what you are being asked to do is fun, or if you have time to do it, or who it is that is asking you.
Tell students that you know that sometimes it can feel like you HAVE to do certain things in school, like solve math problems– but how can you work together so that everyone will WANT to?
Brainstorm some ideas as a class– ways to stay motivated could include sharing how this could help students in their own lives, or really understanding the value of solving the problem, or making it fun! Then, approach the math in the story “I am Shruti” this way. For example, if students feel that they need to see how skip counting (page 1) is relevant, ask them to share examples from their own lives of times they’ve used it; if they are wondering how knowing fractions of shapes (page 3) can be important, share a time from your own life when it helped you to know the fraction; if having fun motivates students to recognize a shape (page 2), encourage students to use silly voices when giving answers.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Imagining Ideas
I have tried to be strong, but it makes me sad that I won’t see my friend at school or play with her again. Do you think I will always feel this way? What do you do when you feel sad? Is it OK to feel this emotion? Or should I try to always be happy? Why do you think this?
What do you think the term “eco-friendly” means? Why do you think we wanted to make sure the repellent was this way?
If Tanishka spent 25 minutes on the Internet on Monday and then 30 minutes doing so on Tuesday, how much time was spent looking up information?
If Tanishka and I talk about the repellent for 5 minutes before our class and then for 13 minutes in the afternoon during our school break, how much time did we spend discussing?
This is how most of our conversations go. Tanishka and I shout out ideas. We laugh a lot, and we help each other. Each of us played a part in our mosquito repellent idea. How do you work when you’re in a group? What do you enjoy? What do you struggle with when you’re working with others?
We try not to think of the sketches that we did not use as failures, but rather as ways to practice before we finally got it right. If we created 20 sketches total and only 1 of them was used to make the repellent, can you write an equation showing how many sketches were left over? Can you then solve it? What can we learn from those ideas we did not use?
Even though we were excited about creating the mosquito repellent, we sometimes wondered if we would be able to do it. Have you ever wondered about whether you can achieve your goals? What do you tell yourself when you feel like you might not achieve what you’ve set your mind to? Can you give me some advice for when I doubt myself?
Before starting this lesson, have your students close their eyes and take deep breaths for one minute to create a calm and peaceful atmosphere.
“Where do ideas come from?” There are so many different responses to an open-ended question like this! Some possibilities might be from talking to other people, or from reading books, or from trying different things out and learning from the experiences.
Once you discuss with your students many possibilities of where ideas in general originate, you can focus on a specific idea that is well known. An example can be from your school (such as, “Where do you think the idea to have different classrooms based on students’ ages came from?”) or one from your country (like, “How do you think the idea to have a national holiday formed?”) You can also explore how ideas can sometimes seem like mysteries when they first appear. “Have you ever had an idea that seemed to come to you out of nowhere? How did it make you feel not to know what influenced your thought?”
With your class, read the Learning Journey story “Shruti is Inspired.” To check reading comprehension, you can ask your class, “What event caused Shruti and her friends to want to create a mosquito repellent?” You can then ask students to think of a big idea that they have had in their own lives.
“Can you trace the origin of your idea to a major event in your life? Or do you think the idea came from something that happened over a long period of time?” You can also watch the video “I am Shruti” and ask your class to write down some of the steps that Shruti and her friends took before their mosquito repellent creation was built.
Sometimes ideas are formed because they help us solve problems– let’s explore this through the math concepts of addition and subtraction. Have students read the green math questions on page 2 of “Shruti is Inspired.” Ask them, “What is Shruti trying to figure out here?
Why do you think she had the idea to use addition to help her solve it?” Once students share ideas about why they should use addition here (specifically, adding 1s and 10s and addition within 100), they can then solve the math examples. You can then go to page 3 and ask students for ideas on how to solve the math question. “Why do you think that you had the idea to approach it a certain way?” You can then have students solve the question by setting up a subtraction equation to practice subtracting 1s and 10s.
You can explain to your class that a major part of sharing information about health practices (such as using mosquito repellent to reduce the chance of getting a disease spread by mosquitoes) is by spreading awareness.
Have students come up with creative ways to share the idea of using mosquito repellent– examples could be creating posters with drawings, or creating a skit of people using the repellent, or acting out a commercial about its benefits that could be shown on TV. You can then ask students, “Can you trace where your idea to spread awareness in this way came from? Was it based on an example of something else that you have seen before? Or are you not sure? What do you think are some things that may have inspired and influenced your creative idea?”
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Keep Going
Can you take a guess about what my friends and I built? Are you surprised that we invented something, even though we are kids?
You might not think that you can make something useful out of things in your home, but that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t have any money to buy expensive parts, so we were creative and used things around us. Why do you think it’s useful to build things out of spare parts? When have you seen this done? Have you ever done it yourself?
Using the line to measure, about how long is this piece of pipe?
If I have one pipe that is 12 inches long and another that is 20 inches long, what is the difference in length between the pipes?
The small area behind my house does not need many drops of oil in the water can. If we set-up our invention in my school to repel mosquitoes around the playground, the area will be much bigger. We would need a larger water can and more oil. By looking at the bar graph below, can you tell me about how many drops of oil I would need for the area behind my house, and also school playground?
Before starting this lesson, lead your class in a stretching exercise to get students out of their seats and focused.
“What do you do when your plan doesn’t work exactly as you want it to the first time you try it?” You can begin this lesson by sharing an example from your own life where you had everything planned out exactly as you wanted it, but then things didn’t work as you expected.
As you give details about what happened, also share how it made you feel. You can then ask students to share examples of times that this has happened to them. “How did it make you feel when things did not happen the way you wanted them to? Did you give up? Try again? If you kept trying to work it out, why did you do this and not stop?”
Read the Learning Journey story “Shruti the Inventor” with your class. Practice reading comprehension by asking students to describe the conditions in which Shruti and her friends were assembling their invention (hint: they are working in the heat, on top of a building).
You can explain that this is called setting the scene, and that by giving descriptions when telling a story someone can make it feel like you are there with them. You can discuss with your class, “Even though she was putting her invention together under the hot sun, Shruti kept working. Does your environment ever impact if you keep working on something, or if you give up? How?” Ask students if they can think of any other obstacles that Shruti and her friends had to overcome when creating their mosquito repellent (an example is that they had no money and had to use parts that they found). “Shruti and her friends could have used this as an excuse to give up– how did they see it as an opportunity instead?” You can then watch the video “I am Shruti”. Even though the video shows the mosquito repellent invention working, ask students, “What do you imagine Shruti and her friends would feel if their invention did not work the first time they tried it? How do you think it made them feel when it succeeded?”
Let’s come up with ways to stay motivated when solving math examples, and then practice! Explain to students that sometimes math examples can be difficult to solve on the first try and as you are learning new concepts.
Remind them that the important thing is to stay motivated and not give up– but how? Ask students, “What do you think are some ways we can stay motivated to keep practicing math, even if we don’t always get it right on the first try?” Some ideas could include understanding why it is important to solve the equation even if it takes time, using encouraging words to keep people excited, and being patient and helping others if they do not remember how to solve it. Once your students come up with a list, you can then work as a class to solve the math problems in the story “Shruti the Inventor.” As you practice a length word problem (page 2), comparing and estimating length (page 2) and bar graphs (page 3), encourage students to reflect on the list of ideas they came up with to stay motivated if they start to feel frustrated.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
If a moment stayed, follow it. If a question rose up, hold it. The quiet teaching is still teaching.
Three or four real stories woven into one lesson, your topic, your time. Shruti is one. The weaver finds the others, threads the math, the literacy, the values, the reflection.
Open the weaver →