It's not all about 'Stenders- A student conversation in a S.O.L.E.

I ran a lesson today loosely based upon a Self Organised Learning Environment (S.O.L.E) today with my a year 7 Secure Science class whom I meet once a fortnight. We have met three times so far and each time we have used this structure.

 Today I posed the question

 "How do scientists make sure that the data they collect is
A) Precise
 B) Accurate
C) Valid
 D) Reliable
 And why are these qualities are important?"

They were given 30 minutes research time and then as part as their demonstration I asked them to discuss their findings as a group of adults would for a period of 5 minutes. It turned out to be 7.41 minutes. The only help I gave them was I left the questions upon the whiteboard and I modeled good listening behaviours, making eye contact, raising eye brows and subtly nodding to show I too was listening.
 This is the conversation.
 

The things i think they did really well are:
 1. The large number of students readily involved themselves.
 2. Many tried to exemplify their ideas they did not read from their notes but referred to them.
 3.The organisation that was attempted " Before we start, can we just check that everyone understands the terms"
 4. The consistency of the ideas
 5. Although not all comments were right, many were, and as a teacher it gave me the information to identify what I needed to do next
 6. There's intermittent agreement " that's what we said" and "yeah"
 7.They refer to the original questions and use it to ask each other questions, and they answer them.
 8.They listen to one another "its like your sugar and water thing""I know what Laura is saying..."
 9.They find importance in not only there work but in the content themselves.
 10.They see the big picture " I think all those qualities are linked together.
 11.How they support one another "it's precise..".

 I am even more impressed on the second listen, the sophisticated and articulate conversation. These are 11 year old students working with a teacher for the third time.

 We debriefed the lesson after we discussed their understanding, and I ensured each student had a voice. So far SOLE is novel for the students and they are excited and intrigued by it, but they are clearly getting better at it, and they feel as though they are learning and it's a worthwhile approach. I think their engagement is palpable and their passion for such a difficult, abstract and (on the surface) disconnected topic is impressive.

The ABC of Curating the process of student work?

"I work harder showing the work than I do helping my students make it" - Jeff Robin HTH Unboxed Issue 1

"The key to excellence is this: It is born of a culture" Ron Berger An Ethic of Excellence.


Audience.

This post occurred to me during the Call of the Wild Project, when we showed the audience page of the blog we had set up to capture the process on Blogger to the students. Their response was complex; they clearly impressed themselves, they were THAT interesting, they realised that their learning was important to others, not just Sir and that they now had a responsibility to produce something of quality. This resulted in greater student motivation and engagement not only in the project but in the refelction of the process that it engendered. I believe that this experience has had a lasting effect upon the students.

As a result I wanted to capture this in future subejct based projects. So, I have simply repeated the process, although this time its one blog with three year 8 classes. However, the response of the students has been the same, just today the students entered the class and asked "how many visitors had they had?".

This reminds of a much repeated mantra at High Tech High, that students will only go to University as far as they have travelled. They therefore send them quite literally around the world. Obviously, I am not doing that, but these students are becoming more aware that there is a world out there. It's motivating.

The current Blog can be found here, it is has so far "set the scene" of the project and will hopefully develop with student drafts, critiques, and reflections. I think it captures some of the teacher planning that has went on before the project began.

I am hoping that it will create an authentic audience for their work.

Build 

The second role of this blog is to build a resource for students to use. Some of these will be blatant Science resources such as useful weblinks and useful Youtube clips. Some will be the work the class generates that aids learning and the production of quality, such as success criteria.

Other uses will be an aid to reflection, so that the process is clear and the progress in their learning and product obvious. It is a great way to use some Daniel Willingham's advice such as "Praise-Effort, not Ability" (I'm sure that's Dweck's) this made easy as student can SEE the effort they have put in, they will be able to see "The hard work paying off", and I am sure it will show how difficulties (and perhaps" failures) are a natural part of learning ".

All in all, I hope the public display of these things will be special, and create a useful memory hook of "what was I doing when I learnt that?" From the few student reflections on there already it is interesting that the content knowledge  has been prominent. My favourite being a quote by an unlikely student, who said "The most difficult part so far has been deciding where to draw the arrows to show where the forces act upon the object". If you knew this student, you'd be as pleased as I am. It is his longest response to date, and his understanding (and precision of his thoughts) are simply heartening. He impressed himself too.

"Self Esteem from Accomplishments. mot compliments" Ron Berger.


Care

...and not just for the final project. In fact, the project can look after itself in that regard, students think it's a useful, challenging and enjoyable thing to do. The part I really want them to care about is the process that they are going through.

When I consider why I value Project Based Learning, partly it's the control I gain over the content, but mainly it is our opportunity to develop (and value) the attributes and skills that society (well the non political part) values. So whether you are going to assess these or just encourage them, to use the dichotomy of the Buck Institute, then making them obvious and putting them on show is important for your students and the culture of your classroom.  It will play an important part of shaping how we want our students to be in our schools and eventually in our community.

http://www.hightechhigh.org/unboxed/issue8/want_to_get_home_on_time/ I hope Mark Moorhouse from Mathew Moss High School can forgive me in the hatchet job of my summation of his article.

"How we teach, the relationships we build and maintain are essential in the formation of communities which we (should- my addition) serve. We accept that academic success is vital but so are the people that schools and teachers influence."

I know the ABC's here are contrived and overlap, but curating a project blog values a neglected part of what I do as a teacher, and that's to build a culture.

 I hope you join us.

Do the Project First- Olympics Style.

This video is not intended for you to watch, you can if you want, but it serves merely as evidence that I have indeed followed the advice of Jeff Robin at High Tech High and I have done the project first.

My year 8 students have just began a Science Project on the Science of the Olympics, where they had to choose an Olympic sport, research the Forces that are employed in the sport along with the antagonistic muscles that create them. So just simple Physics and naming of a few muscles are expected as the content. But in the one lesson that I have had with these classes I have already noticed a benefit to this paired down content. That the students have began to unlock the content that belongs to them and is allowing for genuine co-construction to take place. So amongst some of the notable queries and discussions we have had are:-

1. "Sir, it says that people who go on a Skeleton for the first time have a 50% of dying! I wonder how they worked out the probability?" which left me ruing that this is not a maths and science project.

2. "Sir, what do you call the shape of the pattern that an Arrow flies in...you know that curve thing?" "A parabola. " So how does that work then ?". This conversation has taken place in three out of the four lessons, and not always with the top end of the KS3 levelling hierarchy that we use to determine intelligence and success in this country. One of the students had just scraped a level 5 in the last topic test. (Irony).

3. "Sir is it OK if I video myself Ice Skating, Swimming, Running, Playing Basketball....I have not done it for ages!"

4. Two girls jumping up and down flailing their arms about who said " Sorry sir we were just trying to work out if your arms help pull you up when jumping!"

5. "Sir, can we make the music, the scenery, do stop gap animation as homework?"

6. Three boys who had chosen Table tennis and then regretted it as it had became boring. Responded to my request of "can you finding a way of making it interesting for you?" Found out that it was banned in Russia for 53 years, if memory serves as they thought it could make you blind!" They were skeptical (great scientific thinking I'd say) but are now in love with Table Tennis again.

But perhaps my favourite so far has been one from a student who I have struggled to engage. Who asked today " So Forces and Energy are different aren't they?" I felt like Mark Moorhouse (@MarkMoorhouseMM) !

The point I'm trying to make is by allowing students to find and define some of their own learning can take students to deeper and more interesting learning, by developing a true engagement as opposed to a learning compliance. I know I am going to have my work cut out but will endeavour to teach to the requests.

None of this would have happened if I had said "research and Olympic sport and make a video". I imagine that I would get a load of pilfered images, pixelated , inappropriate and compiled in an uncreative way. Do the project first!

The video above is not perfect but took me 9 hours to make. So imagine my joy when one class even gave a spontaneous round of applause. All the others sat perfectly through it, often glancing and smiling at me when I appeared on screen. I think my applause was for the error ridden guitar playing, which is my first public performance! I think they saw that I had taken a risk and was a learner too. I tweeted this and received a great response from Mr Moorhouse that simply said " Great Learning commons!" I love this notion that students and teachers are in this together! Read more in the latest Learning futures pamphlet here.

As I have said and not just as a disclaimer, the video is far from perfect. However it serves an important role in this project, and that is to set the minimum standard, I expect my students can and will produce better. I think I could have made a better one but did it on my own and with no critique, not an excuse but stating the power in the critiquing process. I will use this as model so that the students and I can define together and success criteria.

Another reason to do the project first.

I also manage to model a few techniques and strategies. that my students could use to avoid the pilfering of low quality images. It also has work of varying quality from me in that shows that I have learned too. My presentation with a box on my head is very self conscious but by the end hearing my voice in some of the voice overs I am more confident and clear. (Well if you are fluent in my native tongue!). I have learn to edit moving pictures in Movie maker and to edit sound files using Audacity. These skills are transferable and teachable now.

Another good reason to do the project first.

It also allowed me to figure out what I thought the minimum content should be, and what was difficult in the content and the process too. I'm now more prepared for differentiation, to support my students and design groups that will work. I have also been able to assess how long my students need to do this and plan a schedule that is appropriate.Deadlines were shared at the beginning of the project to allow my students can plan ahead. Or at least have the opportunity too. This is what used to happen when I worked outside of education, it is one way of "Making Learning Whole" as David Perkins fine book encourages, it helps make this a real experience.

So I will finally state in true Jeff Robin fashion that none of this would have been learned and applied if I had not DONE THE PROJECT FIRST.

Metacognitive wrappers based around Marzano's 8 C's of engament.

This is an attempt at personalising the start point of a learning experience. I have planned a choice of four different metacognitive wrappers. These have been designed around the four classification of Robert Marzanos learning styles ( from On excellence in teaching"").
The students will arrive and "best fit " themselves to a category. I have intentionally dropped the labels, although this may be a mistake, to keep the start of the lesson as simple as possible for the students.
I have tried to simplify Marzanos language for year 7 students and phrased them as questions to invite self reflection. I will record their preferred style for future reference and use.
















Once selected the students will have Metacognitive wrapper for their prefered style. These have been designed to meet the assigned C's of engagement. The basic format of these wrappers are to get the students to think about the content of the lesson and also about a strategy that will facilitate their learning. I have attempted to match these thoughts with their particluar C. I don't think these are perfect yet. Any suggestions to improve them are welcome.

1. Mastery learners who are driven by success and are engaged predominately by Competition and Challenge

















2. Interpersonal learners who are driven by relationships and are engaged by Cooperation and Connections.
















3. Understanding learners are driven by the need to make sense of things and are engaged by Curiosity and Controversy.














4. Self Expressive learners who are driven by origionality and are engaged by Choice and Creativity.















I will update this post after I have used them with some student reponses, and when I have overcame the Nuthallian problem of what success will look like in this lesson.