As part of the New York State Common Core Learning Standards, the second-graders in the Islip School District have been studying fairy tales and tall tales. In an effort to excite his students about studying this English language arts module, Robb LeVien, a second-grade teacher at Maud S. Sherwood Elementary School, created a process bulletin board. “A process board is not a finished work,” explained Mr. LeVien. “You put a little bit of their work up in the beginning and you build until you get to the final project.”

Throughout the module, the students read seven different tall tales and fairy tales and learned about various characteristics and traits of each. To culminate their unit of study, the students wrote three paragraphs detailing the characteristics and traits of each tale and explaining which they preferred and why.

“The kids really enjoyed the process board because they were excited to see it building, and to see which writing pieces were chosen to appear on the hallway bulletin board,” said Mr. LeVien. “To make sure everyone was included, we expanded our process board into the classroom. It took us five weeks to get to the final board, but it was a fun process.”