Becoming Authors

International School of Louisiana - Uptown

3rd Grade, Visual Art / Poetry & Social Studies

Ms. Nobile / Mr. Damien, Ms. Carbajo, Ms. Caitlin, Ms. Guzman

This is my third year working in 3rd grade social studies classes at ISL Uptown. Each year, we’ve been able to expand and deepen student learning using the same curriculum and standards. For our first unit on Louisiana regions and natural resources, students used lines and shapes to design symbols to represent each region (i.e. fishing for North Louisiana, camping for Central Louisiana, crawfish for Acadiana, trees/wood for Florida Parishes, and king cake for Greater New Orleans). Students then transferred their symbols to maps, and this year, also added map keys and compass roses. Students then wrote acrostic poems in their target language (French and Spanish) about Louisiana natural resources (i.e. riz / rice and aceite / oil). Finally, students compiled their work into their own self-published books. They created front and back covers and wrote short biographies to tell readers “About the Author.”