Third graders publish a book on international children

Last week I ended one of my most enjoyable experiences as a professional educator. I was invited to assist the third grade and Bishop Larkin Catholic School to write a book on international children. I was very lucky that Liz Henderson, a former student of mine at the College of Charleston, was teaching third grade in Da Nang, Viet Nam. We decided to connect the two sets of students and allow them to explore each others worlds.
(Be sure to click the photo to enlarge it.)

The USA third grade students used a consensogram to create a create a list of five questions to ask the Vietnamese students. The areas were: foods you eat, toys and sports, your home, your school, and a generic culture question. The USA students answered their own questions and sent them off to Viet Nam.

The interesting decision here was to scan the student work rather than try to type it into a word document. This proved to be one of the best parts of the project as students in both countries felt so much closer to each other when reading handwritten letters.

The Vietnamese students returned their answers and also sent their own questions to us. The day we distibuted letters around the USA classroom was one of amazing excitement. That excitement seemed to carry the students through the balance of the project.

The USA students did Venn diagrams of themselves and their Vietnamese friend. Those Venn diagrams helped the student write a one page article for the book that compared and contrasted themselves with their counterpart. The final element was the drawing of a picture to represent their learning and to be placed side-by-side in the book. The book went to the publisher last week.

Now the goal is to duplicate the project with the first grade classes. We hope to use more video with these two sets of students. I can't wait to get started.