Although a lot of our time in this 4-day week was taken up by the Terra Nova assessment, we did fit in some of our “usual” stuff. The wagon train adventure was one of them. One of the continuing elements of the multi-month simulation is the keeping of a diary. We are observing that many students have greatly increased the length, elaboration, and overall quality of their writing as they return again and again to reporting on the adventure through their chosen character’s eyes.

Some of our students began the year as enthusiastic, confident authors. Creating a simple “word problem” for math resulted in a page of rich narrative with the mathematics appropriately embedded. For them, the diary-keeping is just another opportunity to apply their skills and creativity and challenge themselves to stretch a bit higher.  But others were less at home with this kind of writing at the beginning, and many of them are showing impressive growth.

A couple of things are contributing to this, I believe. First, there is a bare-bones script in place. That is, instead of being faced with a blank page, students have notes about the day’s events (or have trusted to their memory, which is not as reliable an approach). Things have happened — difficult river crossings, missing children, snakebites, clogged trails, celebrations and losses — so they have something to talk about. At the same time, their narrator’s identity is clearly defined: age and gender, family structure, personality (created by them in their first entry and embellished since then). reasons for going west, and more. They have things — a wagon full of things — some of which are important to their journey, such as barrels for water and tools to clear the trail. So the richness of detail and presence of a narrator’s voice that helps to define a strong writer are partly in place, still subject to their own creative ideas and way of storytelling, but not needing to be invented in their entirety every time. And the repetition is a third important component. It’s not one story one time. It’s a continuing and repeated opportunity to spin a tale, add depth to another character, reveal more of one’s own history and interests, and paint a word picture that the reader can see.  Finally, the first-person books students chose to read have added one more piece to their resource pile. That is, they have a model — a book in which a character is reporting on a wagon train journey that is in at least some ways similar to their own. Decisions must be made, unexpected events must be coped with, and the individual personalities in the train must find a way to function as a community or bear the consequences of discord. What they have read (as several students have noted in their book write-ups) gives them ideas for what to write.

Note-taking is an important part of this activity, too. Even if students choose to take no or barely minimal notes for their diary as the events of the day unfold, they must take notes for trail decisions. Writing only what is essential but writing it accurately and completely enough is a skill that begins at this level and continues to develop into middle school.  It requires a metacognitive process that must go along with attentive listening — what do I extract from all that I am hearing, what are the relationships to note, what is irrelevant? Not every sixth grader is ready to do that — it’s a maturational issue and may need more time. So then you go to plan B — who in your group takes good notes? Get them to share. In time, you’ll be able to do it for yourself and help others. As you might expect, our students span a wide range of readiness for this, and we are seeing a lot of good teamwork evolving as a result.

So we’re feeling pleased with the way this entire learning opportunity is being embraced by many of our students. We hope you are following the westward adventure at home. We have a lot of the journey ahead of us, in every sense.