Things that inspire to make and create… Below are links I plan on spending some time with over the next few weeks. I’m also sharing some thoughts on where I will be taking my research and practice…
Beginning a project or area of study by generating inquiry questions is an intimidating prospect for me and not the normal way my mind works. To be honest, I’m not sure how my mind works and I’m a little reluctant to consider it too much!
I really connected with the Susan Lytle reading on “Some Thoughts on Better” and Dr. Baker-Doyle’s chapter 1 from her book “Teaching in a Networked Society”, because the three people on my team have developed a Professional Learning Community. Both readings helped me connect to how people can use networks to improve practice. After all, this is mostly what it means to be “professional.”
My teaching team has decided to use the ideas of “Caine’s Arcade” to incorporate “play” into our approach. As I stated in my Feb. 5 blog entry, my definition of equity, working in a mostly white, middle to upper middle class school, is being able to meet each student’s learning style needs and provide access. We believe creating a novel approach, using elements of play, is a way to reach a greater number of learning styles and provide for enrichment. The easy tie-in is math, but we will be looking for other ways to incorporate writing and reading, at a minimum.
With the above in mind, our idea is to embark on developing learning opportunities that provide for rigorous, novel learning experiences that will demand a high level of connection for students, regarding communication and team work, and provide a greater level of equity and engagement than a traditional approach. Some questions that could guide this work:
- How can teachers create a meaningful unit based on “play?”
- How can teachers incorporate the use of fourth grade principles of math?
- How can teachers support students and facilitate continual improvement?
- How can teachers measure success?
- How can teachers provide formative feedback?
- How can connections to writing, reading, science, or social studies be accomplished?
- How can elements of art, music, research, and physical movement be incorporated?
To begin, I’ve gone to cainesarcade.com and downloaded a lesson plan and suggestions for how to get started. The team will review these ideas and develop an approach I plan to continue to research principles of project based learning and begin a journey with our fourth graders in a few weeks. I’ve begun by developing a simple “beer pong” type game “just for fun,” and explain the game, the math I used, and show them how to play, using my written directions and score sheets. This will be used as a way of introducing the topic and eventually to allow students to springboard into their own inventions.
Please find my five finds!
- A helpful video on the basics of project based learning (PBL)
http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning
- It’s pretty basic, but this is where I’m starting.
- Austin’s Butterfly. The benefits on feedback and revision. While Common Core demands an impossible breadth of knowledge at young ages, this experience highlights the benefits of analysis, feedback, and noticing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZo2PIhnmNY
- A Teacher’s Guide to Project Based Learning. While a longer read, this is a topic I have long wanted to dive into.
- I’m still reading about this idea, but I like the bullet points below. Below is text from the website.
Visible Learning is nothing less than a synthesis of more than 50.000 studies covering more than 80 million pupils. Hattie uses the statistical measure effect size to compare the impact of many influences on students’ achievement, e.g. class size, holidays, feedback, and learning strategies.
The following examples may give an impression of the scope of Hattie’s findings:
- What’s bad? Retention, summer holidays
- What’s neither bad nor good? Team teaching, open vs. traditional classes
- What helps a bit? Class size, homework (except in primary school)
- What helps a bit more? Cooperative learning, direct instruction
- What helps a lot? Feedback, Student-teacher relationships
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