CLEARING Teaching resources for ecology, sustainability and community Expeditionary Learning


learning targets based on state standards, with snowshoeing, animal tracking, trail cameras and forestry. In the end, stu- dents will deliver PowerPoint presentations to the North East Washington Forestry Coalition (NEWFC) as an authentic audi- ence for their service learning work product. The expedition will provide an exciting and adventurous outlet for student learning and assessments on rigorous state standards. As an Expeditionary Learning School, Kettle Falls Elementary believes that expeditions are the primary way of organizing curriculum. The subject matter of


Expeditionary Learning: Exploring Healthy Forests


By Val McKern and Greg Goodnight W Page 8


hat is a healthy forest? That is the question that Kettle Falls Elementary School fourth graders have been grappling with all winter. In order to examine this question, fourth grade teachers Sally James,


Sydney Potestio and Judy Galli have designed an expedition with carefully scaffolded projects for their students. Through these in-depth, service-learning projects, students have been engaged in reading, writing, math, science, social studies and technology. In Kettle Falls we firmly believe that it takes a village to educate a child and we count on a cross curricular approach of teachers and many experts to make any expedition a success for our students. Our priority is creating engaging expeditions that have rigorous learning for ALL students.


Kettle Falls Elementary: an expeditionary learning school An expedition is the format Kettle Falls Elementary uses to


combine adventure and service with learning state standards. Each expedition has standards strategically embedded in field- work. The healthy forest expedition will combine many “I can”


a learning expedition is a compelling topic derived from content standards. Expeditions feature linked projects that require students to construct deep understandings and skill and to create products for real audiences. Learning Expedi- tions support critical literacy, character development, create a sense of adventure, spark cu-


riosity and foster an ethic of service. They allow for and encourage the authentic integration of disciplines. (Expeditionary Learning Schools Core Practice Benchmarks p.8.) This learning expedition began as all expeditions begin at


Kettle Falls Elementary. The staff went through a careful study of the new Washington State standards and determined the “priority standards” at each grade level. The standards are then written as long-term learning targets. Once these standards were determined, teams researched case studies that could become the focus of the learning expeditions. The life science standards addressed focused on life cycles, animal structures and behaviors, food webs, ecosys- tems and human impacts as the center of the expedition.


Literacy is embedded with in the expedition. Priority learning


targets are written based on the standards of reading and writing. Reading comprehension strategies and the traits of writing are the focus of these targets. A content map is designed that assigns long term learning targets to each of three expeditions through out the school year. Each expedition runs for eight to twelve weeks. Learning targets are at the heart of our work. There is clear


criteria for posting and referencing learning targets school-wide. Long- term targets, project targets, and scaffolding steps are organized so that students can track their achievement during the daily debrief. We emphasize “learning together, but assessing in- dependently.” Anchor charts that hold the thinking of the class are posted near the targets. The anchor charts will collect information that makes the learning target clear, whether it is knowledge or meta-cognitive thinking. All students are independently assessed on all learning targets.


www.clearingmagazine.org/online CLEARING 2010


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