ROYAL READING ROOM

Armed with notebooks and painters caps, first-graders at Kingsley Elementary School, 2403 Kingsley Drive, planned their structure with contractor Howard Steffes, asking questions like true professionals.They asked a few even he hadn't thought of.

A 5-by-6-foot castle is going up at Kingsley, a testimonial to what students can achieve when given an interesting problem and shown how to find the resources to solve it.

Constructed from 400 orange juice cartons, this Renaissance monument will boast flags, a gatehouse, turrets and a makeshift drawbridge.

Located in the learning media center (LMC), the castle will be a place for students to read and write in.

Every detail -- from the castle's exact color (gold), materials and height -- was planned by the kids themselves.

Unorthodox? Oh, yeah.

One of four first-grade teachers advising the project, Jeanie Guenther describes with a smile the process used to get the "non-standard measurement" of 5 feet.

Easy. How high could the students reach?

"They could go as high as my nose," Guenther said.

"They didn't want the castle to go any higher, so they couldn't reach to paint it."

Kitty Ryan, Kingsley's assistant principal, says the new Problem-Based Learning curriculum at Kingsley, Beebe and River Woods is "a way to get kids involved in messy, real life, ill-structured problems."

Knowing how to regurgitate back the ideas of a single source no longer works, Ryan says.

"The information explosion has made it necessary for kids to not just memorize a body of facts.

They have to know how to find information -- and know what it is when they've found it."

Students in a problem-based project are encouraged to "access information from all kinds of sources": the Internet, people, traditional research.

One group of students might provide for the "health and safety" of a family of ducks that lives outside the classroom, for example, thinking of food and water sources.

Another class might give advice to a pale, tired boy who the teacher knows, telling him how to "make healthy choices" so he'll feel better.

Children are asked for their "help," solicited for their expertise and coached on where to find the tools they'll need.

The castle project began with an invitation (a problem statement) by LMC director Marcia Bean: "Would your first grade be willing to build a castle in the LMC so kids could read and write in it?"

Teachers then guided students through a series of questions and prompts.

"We want to build a castle in such a way that..."

"That we can read and write in it," first-graders answered.

"The first-graders must fit in it.

That it's our best job and looks nice.

That it is safe."

First-graders discussed supplies.

They considered the cost, the sturdiness, how they would get the materials, and the practicality.

But what if the first-graders had wanted something unreasonable?

"If they had decided on bricks or wood, we would have gone that way," Guenther said, heroically.

"We would have researched it and seen if we could have gotten parents to help."

Fortunately for teachers, the kids turned out to be terribly practical. Bricks were too heavy, cement too messy, they decided.

Students tested wood (teachers brought in samples) and found it too noisy.

Their search led them to orange juice cartons -- "which we were real glad about," Guenther said.

At home, this choice meant a whole-family commitment.

"All of us drank a lot of orange juice so this could happen," said Virginia Petru, parent to first-grader Jenny Petru.

Problem-solving also meant bringing in professional help.

Howard Steffes of Steffes Construction in Plainfield and parent to Morgan Steffes came to the school, showing students how to lay out, measure and draw the building, how bricks work, and "how to get from the customer's idea to reality." Architect Don Tozi designed and donated a blueprint.

"They're great," Steffes said, after giving two talks.

"They came up with better ideas than I thought.

They grasp so much more than you think they would."

One student idea was to handle the project via committees.

During planning, a first-grader said, "We'll have to have jobs, so it's not crowded." Grown-up jobs, students were told, happened in committees.

"They came up with the concept," said teacher Wendy Pligge.

"We gave them the words to make it seem more official."

At some point, everyone got to try their hand at painting.

But students also took positions covering every dimension of the task: materials managers, safety inspectors, landscape architects, public relations representatives.

Not to mention the cleanup crew.

Working in committees meant an education in people skills.

One little girl, upset that her colleagues left her to wipe down a work table by herself, provided a strategic lesson in managing conflict.

The teacher wouldn't solve the problem for her.

"Kathy," her teacher said, "what do you think you could do to solve this problem?"

Foremen and forewomen who supervised the painting process were taught to give "warm fuzzies" to their employees.

"You're doing a nice job," they might say.

"I really like the way you're painting."

When asked what forepeople did when a painter didn't do what he was supposed to do, first-grader Allison Brannon had her own answer.

"Fire them!" she said, with a gleam in her eye.

To supplement the project, teachers had students compose an e-mail letter to the architect (and receive a response), visit the DuPage Museum to get ideas for rollers and ramps, and read books together on castles, construction and -- why not? -- dragons.

First-graders could clearly explain the building process.

"Only one person wanted dark gold.

Everybody wanted light gold.

So we voted.

We decided and told our teachers," said first-grader Cassie Richardson.

Her classmates look forward to the day when the castle will be surrounded by Easter grass landscaping ("Green!" they all chime) and maybe have some sort of moat.

Paper trees? Cut-out flowers? Frogs? These things get serious consideration.

"We would have made bees," said one boy, "but one of the teachers accidently cut the tracing up."

Oops, no bees for now.

Just don't tell the first-graders that the castle will be beautiful.

"It is beautiful," Cassie quietly insisted.

Absolutely.

PROBLEM BASED LEARNING SCENARIOS Problem Based Learning has been defined as: "An instructional strategy which develops problem-solving strategies and knowledge bases by placing students in the active role of problem-solver, faced with real problems which mirror the real world."

In District 203, teachers at Beebe, Kingsley and River Woods elementary schools have created the following real-life problems for students to solve:

Grade Level Kindergarten Problem Statement River Woods principal Jan Rodriguez comes down to visit the kindergarten rooms.

She is carrying a bag of lima bean seeds and a tray with three pots of soil.

She says, "We are interested in making the garden bigger so that more people may enjoy the beautiful plants.

I know that kindergartners talk about seeds and that's why I'm here to ask for your help.

Would you be able to find out about these seeds and how they grow so that you can work with me to plant them in our garden this spring?

Grade Level 1st grade Problem Statement Should Beluga whales be kept in captivity at the Shedd Aquarium?

Grade Level 2nd grade Problem Statement How can we plan a butterfly garden in the courtyard in such a way that butterflies will want to visit?

Grade Level 3rd grade Problem Statement How can we organize our lunch period in such a way that: a) we have enough time to eat? b) it is safe? c) it will satisfy most people? d) it falls within the district and state guidelines?

Grade Level 4th grade Problem Statement How can we as a class persuade young teens younger than 18 not to smoke in such a way that: a) health risks are recognized? b) peer pressure strategies are learned? c) propaganda is interpreted for the real purpose (making cigarettes attractive to young people)? d) laws on smoking are understood by students younger than 18?

Grade Level 5th grade Problem Statement You are a colonist.

Based on events occurring between England and the colonies, what action will you take? (Each student was assigned a job/role and had to react as their character.)

Kingsley Elementary School first-graders recently planned and built a castle made from orange juice cartons as part of a lesson in solving problems. Architect Don Tozi designed and donated a blueprint for the project. Following those plans, Joshua Wiggins, above, and his classmates worked in committees to get the project completed. Joshua's contributions included painting the castle, which will be used as a place to read and write.