6th Grade Historians are continuing their study of Hinduism, including its origin and most important beliefs and traditions. After an introductory history of India, students each developed a short video to explain the geography of a different sub-region. This week they are wrapping up a week-long project to research and explain one of the fundamental values or beliefs of Hinduism, creating a slide presentation to teach peers. Using their textbooks and a class library of dozens of books about deities, schooling, art, folktales, customs, regions and history of India, students each claimed and researched one key concept important to Hinduism. They summarized their findings, chose or created an image to illustrate the concept, then wrote an original rap, song or poem to extend their audiences’ understanding and help the new information “stick.” Once slides were posted to our online Classroom, students were responsible for reviewing 11 peers’ work and writing both a summary and feedback to share with the author and their teacher.
On Thursday, the class reviewed a range of more and less useful sample feedback with annotations about its components. They discussed what features of the feedback made it helpful, including specificity, sincerity, surprise, and constructiveness. Teaching this transdisciplinary skill of giving feedback helps our middle schoolers build relationships, process what they read more deeply, and consider an author’s perspective and purpose, while also giving our authors an authentic audience and feedback for their writing.