Background
Windmill Springs Elementary School is one of twenty-one schools in the Franklin McKinley School District located in the East Side area of San Jose, California.
Franklin McKinley is a Title 1 school district. The neighborhood demographics find families that are generally Asian and/or Hispanic, single parent households, families with gang affiliations, ones where English is not the primary language nor is it encouraged to be spoken at home, grandparents and other guardians raising students (due to parental issues), and middle-class families.
Windmill Springs has an enrollment of 618 students whereas 65% are classified as socio-economically disadvantaged.1 This coming school year Windmill may be facing a declining enrollment due to Charter Schools and families relocating to other counties due to economic reasons. Windmill Springs is a K-8 campus where older students are looked to be role models and help the younger ones with their schoolwork. Many siblings attend Windmill so teachers get to know families and their students’ needs a little more than the traditional elementary school model.
In adopting Common Core standards one major criterion is Project Based Learning melding with traditional curricula to facilitate a deeper knowledge and understanding of content. I know in my personal practice, Design Challenges have instilled in the students a means to assimilate specific theories and principles on a much deeper level. In my research, I found means to teach this unit on a much different, more defined mode to accommodate their learning styles.
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