ELA Project Based Learning

This school year, our 8th and 9th graders have been working on a project based on an argumentative essay A Quilt of a Country by Anna Quindlen. During this project the students did a close read of the text and highlighted supporting details that supported the argument that Quindlen presented, smaller communities come together to create a whole country. They then identified what kinds of supporting details were used throughout the text with different colored pencils. Once they completed that, they then designed a quilt pattern using those colors to represent that different types of supporting details come together to create an argument. It also represents the overall argument that Quindlen presents, smaller communities coming together to form a country.

The students then took their quilt pattern and measured and cut pieces of fabric together to create a quilt. They worked with the staff in the room to use a sewing machine to create their own quilt squares.