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Seasons of Life

School: Audubon Elementary School

City/State: Dubuque, IA

Grade(s): 6

Format(s): Biography

Subject(s): English Language Arts, Social Studies

Project Overview

6th grade students from the Audubon Elementary School in Dubuque, Iowa, created a series of biographies of elders from a local nursing home. Students, in pairs, did repeated visits to the nursing home, building a relationship with one person, getting to know his or her life story. Students then created a biography, which told the life story of one person through writing, illustration, scanned photographs, and a current digital photograph. The project intentionally combined interviewing, researching and writing skills, history content, and a focus on student character development fostered through empathy, kindness and relationship building with elders. 

Each group provided a copy of the biography to the person interviewed, as well as to the school.

Included here is one team’s biography. They chose to organize Janie’s life story through a metaphor of seasons, which provides a structure through which to discuss four main periods of her life.

The teacher who organized this learning expedition received a $25,000 service award for her work. She subsequently designed an Expeditionary Learning summer institute based on this project, and led EL teachers from across the country through a week-long version of the same experience, culminating in similar books. Those teachers then took the project structure back to their classrooms and schools.

How This Project Can Be Useful

  • A wonderful example of fostering intergenerational connections
  • Highlights “living history” – students learning about the history of the 20th century by listening to people who had lived through a large portion of it
  • Fosters connection to the community
  • An example of a powerful, authentic audience – the people who were interviewed
  • An example of a project with multiple purposes including service to the community
  • Notice the care used in many of the drawings, and the way the drawings accentuate the writing. See pages 8 and 14
  • The range of skill shown in the artwork is a means for both students to share their drawings – a nice means for differentiation
  • The writing is simple, but engaging; highlights what these students found interesting about this person’s life

Common Core State Standards

Standard Long Term Learning Target
W.6.3
  • I can write narrative texts about real or imagined experiences using relevant details and event sequences that make sense.
L.6.1
  • I can use correct grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.6.2
  • I can use correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling to send a clear message to my reader.
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