National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence awarded by U.S. Dept. of Education

7th Grade Scholars Participate in an ELA/Science Project

Middle school teachers, Ms. Lainez and Ms. Ginart have been hard at work designing an interdisciplinary lesson for Pioneer Academy's seventh grade scholars. The lesson was designed in an effort to provide students with authentic opportunities to make connections between the content that they are learning in each of their classes. In science class, students have been learning about ecosystems and biodiversity. In English Language Arts class, students have begun a unit on research and informational writing.The goal of the project is to take students through the process of writing a science lab report. The project began with a co-teaching lesson during which both Ms. Lainez and Ms. Ginart were in the classroom to introduce procedures and requirements to the students. Ms. Lainez spoke with the class about the components of a scientific lab report. Ms. Ginart introduced the students to the topic of scientific writing and procedures for conducting research. After the introductory lesson, students began a biodiversity lab under the guidance of Ms. Lainez. While they were working in the lab, students brought their data into the English classroom where they drafted, peer edited, and published each component of the lab report under the guidance of Ms. Ginart.This week, our scholars will be working on the conclusion of their lab reports. They will learn how to properly format their documents before submitting. The finished products will be used to measure student growth in both content areas.