Some interesting approaches to building school cultures.

“Schools cultures that support excellence can look very different.” Ron Berger ^[1]

One of the more enigmatic findings in Graham Nuthalls work is his unpicking of classroom and learning cultures ,  not all of which are  positive and nurturing. Where the relationships between students determining largely whether they are supportive or not. Nuthall shines a light on this problem but gives (disappointingly - am I allowed to even think this? )little by way of practical solution. He suggests that to negate negative peer cultures teachers should  “subtly work with it to manage each students learning opportunities “ and to “ create a powerful classroom culture that overrides the natural peer culture”.^[2]  So what might a "powerful classroom culture" look like?  

Due to the complex nature of cultures, it may be useful to look at some case studies of how different institutions have set about tackling establishing a “powerful classroom culture” . The Expeditionary Learning schools, and Uncommon school may at first appear diametrically opposed being either student centric to teacher centric models. However, it is the commonalities that may provide more use in establishing our classroom cultures. I recognise strategies and approaches from both in my classroom, and that’s OK. It really is.

The clearest and most impassioned view of what powerful learning communities can look like can be found within the pages of Ron Berger’s inspiring book “An Ethic of excellence” If you haven’t read it, you must. Do it now. Go to a bookshop. Take my car. Just do it. In it, Ron shares his passion for high quality student work, which provides for him, and the teachers at Expeditionary Learning Schools, the mechanisms for building a supportive and challenging community. High quality student work encapsulates all aspects of how and what students do: from Maths work to how they communicate publicly. They make clear what the expected standards are for each aspect of school life and then relentlessly teach and model it so that students understand what they must do in order to attain it. It clearly makes for aspirational and motivated students who know how to provide one another with “kind, specific and feedback” during the act of learning.

At the heart of Expeditionary Learnings philosophy^[3] (and similar schools such as the High Tech High group of schools in San Diego) is that success is defined by getting everyone to the top of the mountain not just ourselves. The strength of the school resides in the strength of its community. Students are therefore obliged to think of others and their role with their community, and as a result see themselves as active participants in their education becoming “crew not passengers” ^[4] along the way. In fact, my first classroom experience at High Tech High saw me naively ask a student what they were working on. The student showed no signs of pity in his response, but did not show me his work, but showed me around the classroom describing in astonishing detail the work of his fellow students. It was clear that their work was his work, and as result he benefited from a deep understanding of the subject.

It is no surprise that these schools engage with the wider community as a lever for student responsibility and learning. In these schools, the students undertake public exhibition of their work. These high stakes, reviews of their learning and character occurs regularly throughout the year and becomes the motivational mechanisms for the students.

My first exposure to students exhibiting their work was at High Tech High in San Diego. The students had been building toys for first graders that involved using a cam in the toys mechanism. The first graders had been interviewed by the students to develop a design brief, allowing them to make a bespoke toy for the younger child. A dozen or so international visitors were lead into the exhibition hall by the Larry Rosenstock, CEO and founder of HTH, and Rob Riordan, the legendary Emperor of rigour. The hall was already a mass of parents, families and business leaders from local toy factories. This was quite a daunting audience. My eyes settled instantly on a student who appeared to have no toy on display in front of them. Approaching her, she smiled, and I asked “Where is your toy?”. She smiled again and said “I did not get it finished in time”. At this exact moment David Price, our party leader and very astute educator, interrupted and asked “Where is your work?”, “Again she smiled and began to explain again “I did not get finished in time, but I will get it ready for the first graders on Monday”. Just as I was about to ask what had happened, Martin Said, a true gent and master classroom craftsman, interrupted asking "Sorry, where is your work... This is a rather extreme form of student accountability. As extreme as this sounds, with three unknown adults, who are hugely interested in education, that have travelled thousands of miles to be there are grilling you on where your school work is.

The surprising thing for me was how well she coped with this. She smiled, listened  to our questions, communicated clearly, honestly responded to our queries. Infact, she excelled in this situation. Her work was actually finished, but she had run out of time putting a high-quality finish onto it, and was not prepared to put inferior work on show. Yet, she had a large ring binder file, overflowing with her learning, which she gleefully shared and explained. It was very clear that she had learned lots of physics, lots of technology and was getting to grips with how to be a very successful learner. The exhibition served as very productive reflection for this student.

Now, I know that at first glance this looks almost superficial with students standing next to their work in a kind of glorified show and tell. I know it also sounds risky, with parents and visitors coming in to view the quality of student work, ergo your work. Furthermore, I know this sounds a complete pain in the backside scheduling student work, writing letters and organising an event in an already bounteous workload. I know these things, yet I wholeheartedly recommend that you do this. If I can’t convince you then please speak to your Art department at school, who have always done this, and ask what effects it has on the students. It does indeed require a curriculum set up to do this to this scale, but even small extent it can raise the stakes for students on quality and importance of their work matters. A simple mechanism is to may be sit at parents evening looking at student work rather than just some numbers on a piece of paper.

These schools clearly and obviously value both academic and character building success, and provide the operational conditions that allow student to thrive here. Berger challenges us to imagine a school culture that for students to fit in they must do well academically and be kind. What would you have to do in your school and classroom to start to work to this end? To normalise academic success as “what we do around here” requires more than one teacher efforts being supported fellow teachers, sharing and using consistent language of practice and shared values are essential. We intuitively understand this, as part of what we rely on to work as teachers. Our challenge is to provide classrooms that students get to see this too.

On a visit to two expeditionary Learning schools I was struck by the consistency of language used by the teachers. Nearly every classroom exchange (and hallway for that matter) involved the language of choice that lead in making their own decisions. The notion that self-direction  is powerful in these communities, although it should be noted that students may not naturally provide such a supportive environment. Communities need building, and one such story comes from Kathy Greeleys’ wonderful book “Why fly that way?”^[5] The transformation of a disparate and fractious groups of students into a cohesive and supportive community is far from a straight story, beset with setbacks and slow progress. Greeley’s persistence and belief in keeping classroom culture at the heart of her endeavours and planning eventually works for these students. At times, she took the brave decision to shelve the curriculum until the issues in the class had at least been challenged. This will certainly ring true to a lot of teachers where either the students’ behaviour, attitudes and relationships must be addressed before they are able to productively engage with the curriculum. It reminds me that sometimes culture must trump content.

At the heart of Greely’s approach was the belief that rituals and routines can be used to value the qualities of the community they were striving to be. Her students were provided many opportunities to talk and share thought and feelings, as she sought agreement on the student culture, in circle time. Circle time- the act of sitting students in circles in order to talk may seem a little childish or even hippy-ish, but they do allow sharing without authority, hierarchy and the sharing of ownership, and in doing so help build relationships.

Berger, Greely, Expeditionary learning and High Tech high encapsulate much of what was defined as the conditions for “Powerful learning “ ^[6] The components as:

1. . What they learn is personally meaningful.
2. What they learn is challenging and they accept the challenge.
3. /What they learn is appropriate for their developmental level.
4. They can learn in their own way, have choices, and feel in control.
5. They use what they already know as they construct new knowledge.
6. They have opportunities for social interaction.
7. They get helpful feedback.
8. They acquire and use strategies.
9. They experience a positive emotional climate.
10. The environment supports the intended learning.

Uncommon schools

“Teaching is the best and most important work in our society” Doug Lemov 390

The first thing that strikes you about Uncommon schools is just how teacher centric their approach appears. They take this approach as a group of pragmatic idealists that didn’t chase educational equity in the abstract but pursue it relentlessly as instructional problem solvers in learning communities. It is based on a belief that students rely on teachers to create such environments. They started by looking closely, analytically even at what the most successful teachers did, the ones whose students were “joyfully engaged academically, working collaboratively as a team, and generating jaw dropping results”. In his book, Teach like a champion 390 Lemov identifies that teachers are not often serious about learning from teachers that are like this.

This approach is remarkably similar to the Effective Teacher behaviour research of Reynolds and Mujis ^[7] we saw in chapter 7, in which we summarised effective teacher as:

Effective teachers are confident in their ability, and highly committed to the success of all students. Their interactions are consistently fair and respectful, inducing a sense of trust in their classroom. They have the ability to think analytically and conceptually allowing them to be flexible in their approaches. They act proactively and are constantly seeking out information to make good decisions. They set high standards, modelling them and hold others accountable. They have an overwhelming passion for learning and what education can do. They work in teams, understand the motivations of others and seek to influence them in positive ways. They communicate clearly and are inclusive. They employ a variety of teaching methodology that engage and stimulate thinking. They take an active interest in their own pedagogical content knowledge and use this knowledge to teach as well as they can. They create classroom communities that provide an ordered and civilised climate where students feel safe and suitably challenged. They teach and they learn and seek to model the behaviours that exemplify these noble pursuits.

The teachers the Uncommon Schools studied excelled at the parts of a teachers job we often take for granted, or consider to mundane: How we patrol our classrooms; How we ensure that all students are engaged; How we target questions; How we frame situations in a positive light; How we use time well; and how we strategically move students on . Uncommon schools take pride in “well delivered lessons [with] a heart of love, and [the] celebration of teachers for their impact on students life trajectories.” It sees itself as an organisation that is about great teaching and teachers most of all.

Their approach is based upon “sure fire routines, and a joyful culture that builds a productive platform for learning”. It is more than just really good classroom management with a critical focus upon a “culture of error” where it is safe for students to show their mistakes. A culture that resonates loudly with the themes of this book: students’ prior knowledge, their misconceptions and how we can use feedback well.

Teachers are portrayed as artisans, who use simple tools to craft learning and students. The tools may be simple, but things of beauty can be created . It is the focus on getting what may be considered the small things right, and much more. In perfecting the use of simple tools, we get to reflect upon the art of teaching too. Lemovs’ book, forms the basis of teaching toolkit for teaching well and ensuring all students achieve. Lemov insists on naming techniques so that a common language can exist to allow teachers to “analyse and discuss” the classroom, and perhaps more importantly be ready to “adapt and adjust” the techniques so their style, context and students are catered for as well as possible.

The problems of teaching are endemic, and therefore “entirely predictable” according to Lemov. You may have seen this approach alreadyon this blog, with PEEL’s “teacher concerns”. Similarly the Uncommon Schools approach seeks to align common problems with “specific, concrete and actionable techniques” . It is the skill of the teacher to select the right tool, for the right job at the right time.

The Uncommon Schools is neatly encapsulated in what seems to be a benign teacher action whilst issuing resources., in this case a worksheet. The teacher has the student practice handing sheets around the classroom so that it takes around 10 seconds to complete, rather than the usual  80 seconds, thereby saving a significant amount of time each lesson, each day and each academic year This allows the students to concentrate more on what matters: the cognitive work, and many of  their routine and rituals are used to build “strong learning habits”  and increase student autonomy so that the proportion of cognitive work increases. This may not sound that important to leafy suburban schools, but the structured approach and the accountability and autonomy the routines imparts have been seen as instrumental in tackling the achievement gap between the rich and the poor. The ethos of Uncommon schools is to focus “primarily on serving students of the greatest need”. These may well be the students who do not have the consistent and structured home lives that lead to good self-regulation and learning habits, so the orderly approach provides their experience of how this can help a person become successful.

Interestingly, the idea of culture in Uncommon Schools is linked inextricably to behaviour, once more reminding us that behaviour management is not enough, as Lemov rightly points out “order is necessary but not sufficient for learning, and culture is more than just eliminating disruption”. Lemov goes on to define what culture means in this context identifying five principles, that when “well balanced” can provide for a “strong” learning culture.

The following table will hopefully illustrate the hierachy within these principlesand gives prompt s for teacher thinking and planning steps. 

Principle	Definition	Implications for the teacher.	Planning questions
Discipline	Knowing the right way to do something.	Students must be shown/ taught how the teacher wants each task done.	When and where do the students get to practice these routines/ techniques? How do you know when this routine has become a habit?
Management	Process of reinforcing behaviours	Relationship building is an essential part of this. Rewards and sanction become less effective over time.	How do you construct relationships that are ”non-transactional” i.e. contain no rewards or punishments. How do I link good learning behaviours and academic success?
Control	Capacity to cause someone to do what you ask	The power a teacher has to assert control over a class the more freedom can be given. Students are more likely to be controlled by someone they trust.  Being specific with language-e.g. instead of saying “calm down” rephrase to say “please return to your seat and start your work”	How can you phrase your requests so that they are more likely agreed to? How do you build trust with students/
Influence	Next step beyond control. Helping a student to internalise the thing you suggest	Aim of using influence is to get students to believe in long term success by wanting to behave positively. Often a failure to exert influence is what stops students from believing in classroom cultures designed for their benefit	How do you move students from behave to believe? How can you building in greater autonomy so that the students have greater ownership of the responsibility for learning?
Engagement	Engaging students in “important, interesting and challenging work”	How do we get students to do more of the cognitive work?	How do we transport students to “real scenarios?” How do get students to have a vested interest?

So, what can we learn about classroom culture from these institutions?

Most importantly, culture does not lie in the differences between these approaches, but rather in their commonalties. Just as we need to be able to explain the concepts of our subjects in multiple ways, we also need a variety of approaches to start, develop and maintain a productive classroom community. Kathy Greeley’s book- Why fly that way? – highlights that the answer will be different for different students in different contexts, there is no one right answer. But it is in the blend of elements that we can begin to understand.

Both emphasise high academic expectation as a central tenet to their approach, communicating that all students are capable of achieving highly. Students success is clearly correlated to teacher expectations. ^[8] However, this is easier said than done. Poor differentiation, along with teachers de-selecting concepts which they believe students cannot comprehend, even before the students have attempted them, ultimately cause our students to experience low expectations All too often we just hidebehind the claim that we have high expectations of their “behaviour”. Yet the mathematics here is simple:

Low Academic expectations + High Behaviour expectation= Low expectations

Our craft and skill here, is how we sculpt a culture that encourages student to be willing to tackle all that you throw at them academically speaking, and how we grant access to all of the content to students who are “less able” or in reality students who have impoverished prior knowledge. Lest we forget all students have the same capacity to learn, it is just the so called “more able” have a higher starting point when it comes to the attainment tests, that inform our opinions of ability. Our ability  to express high expectations begins with how well we can cater to their needs.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect that both approaches share is the prominence of the teacher. Without highly motivated and supremely motivating great teachers neither system would work. Do not be misled by the apparent student centric view of Expeditionary Learnings approach. There is a great deal of design, organisation relationship building along with brilliance in their teaching behind this successful school culture. Likewise, it would be folly to think that the teacher centric aspects of Uncommon Schools are the be all in and end all of their success. Their culture works because the teacher creates the environments in which students take increased levels of autonomy and responsibility in their learning.

Both organisations believe that the act of learning can be learned, so that students can increase their capacity to do more of the cognitive work of learning, which ultimately, they develop deeper academic understanding. Routines and rituals are ubiquitous in both approaches in order to provide smooth running classrooms and facilitate student work. It is the habit-forming nature of these ways of working that forms the basis of the students learning skill set and attitudes.

Routines and rituals require a common language and understanding. Sharing language with fellow teachers and with students allows the conversation of the classroom to be about learning, and how to do it. Learning becomes the culture, and how we use routines and procedures and their associated pedagogical purpose are what changes it.

Finally, both approaches understand that it takes time to build a truly aspirational and supportive culture, and that the rules and routines are just the start points, and that we must proactively develop our classroom cultures.

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Some suggested Reading and References

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[1] An ethic of excellence _ Ron Berger.

[2] Graham Nuthall The Hidden Lives of Learners NZCER

[3] Now this section of the book is going to make me sound like some right jet setting Charlie, and for that I apologise. Although the sweet Maine lobster in Portland, and the view from the Pacific Beach Alehouse in San Diego make it ever so hard to be sincere with this apology.

[4] Expeditionary Learning Core Practices.

[5] Kathy Greeley Why fly that way?

[6] Ron Brandt http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/198179/chapters/Conditions-for-Powerful-Learning.aspx  Accessed 27/07/17

[7] Reynolds and Mujis 1999 The Effective Teaching of Mathematics: A review of research

[8] Speybroek et al: The Role of Teachers' Expectations in the Association between Children's SES and Performance in Kindergarten: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

What can High Tech High tell us about learning communities?

The opening images in this 14 minute video show the interactive , installation art which is striking . Beyond that they are normal, normal in a ubiquitous sense. It's everywhere.

Larry Rosenstock's opening lines about "ignoring certain axioms" is equally stark. Identifying the current segregation's in education that are taken as normal and actively creating a school that serves and is part of community it represents should be a central to education. These two quotes clearly shows this thinking.

"Public education is the only institution designated and funded as the agent of the  larger society in protecting the core value of its citizens:democracy" Glickman

"What we teach and how we teach it- both directly , in terms of our academic curriculum , and indirectly, in terms of the social curriculum we model- should reinforce our social ideals and values"  Kathy Greely 


The public display and exhibition with family members and local experts are key tenets of this approach. The choice of ART as another is no accident either.

"Art communicates to everyone " Jeff Robin
"People make art to communicate....." George Lucas

It makes the "tool" approach (enabling students to make things that demonstrate to people what has been learned) vital. Projects do this. 

This video really highlights the quantity of high quality work that you'd want to display, and the painstaking curation of the work, the 40,000sq foot of  area is just the start.

Again Greely sums this up 
" The culture of the whole school- in the classroom, in the hallway, on the playground, in the cafeteria, on the bus- should reflect and reinforce what we strive for: respect, tolerance, hard work, informed literacy and critical thinking."  

At High Tech High they go beyond the schools and into the wider community with work displayed at local art galleries, used at other schools and on global projects such as the Bushmeet project. Although my favourite, is the story of Mathew Moss School in Rochdale where students stepped into the breech to direct traffic. Which exemplifies Rosenstocks quote from Thomas Jefferson

 " The purpose of public education isn’t to serve a public but to make a public".
 In fact he sees in very concrete terms 

"Consider the class as a fulcrum for the community." 


The students concur and see themselves as part of the community.

"[Robots], gives us a role in the community." 

It is very evident at HTH, with the public exhibition, through critique and through the places the student work ends up. It is clear  that this is THE pedagogy for student motivation and learning.

"Beautiful work and curation, benefit of looking the work together and considering where to go next, to get better."


Although HTH systematically sends their students around the world, as " they would only go yo university as far as they had travelled", take for example Jay Vavra's Bushmeat project, which develops global citizens. Although, it's also the projects that connect students to their own community, giving them a sense of place that make a big difference. The long running San Diego Bay project is a great example of this. This is the inspiration behind "Wild about Cramlington" Project (more detail here and here ) Several of the students freely using the word pride in what they have on their doorsteps. We found a similar, positive feeling to their locality in the "Call of the Wild". 


The accretion of this culture leads to the "reverse peer effect", where success and working at a consistent high level becomes normal.

"You can study the WORLD through just about anything"  


This is not learning for learnings sake (although this would be most luxuriant), the learning is purposeful and professional. Allowing the students to sample the adult world in a safe junior version (a la David Perkins).

"What is adolescence but on try on new roles and trying on new identities?"


"Make work that work matters, that has a lasting impact."


The skills of an adult are explicitly taught, especially in the middle schools. The Critical Skills approach is visible and used, As well as structures and protocols, a large amount of trust and responsibility is needed. Students need to learn this, and learn to trust one another. This has to be "on the curriculum". Incidentally and wonderfully the tag line on the Critical Skills blog is 

" Within a community anything is possible, without one nothing is".

The integrated nature of the knowledge that comes from their projects, is how knowledge is actually used.

"It's in an adult mileu they have reason, it gets there attention so you can then pack in the biology etc"


This point is more or less made by this exultation of design thinking. It's what projects allow you to do.




Summary

All of the following are easier and more effective using project based learning.

Beautiful work not only deserves to be displayed but needs to displayed. 

Curation is a big part of a teachers job.

The best projects not only present their findings to their community,but, help connect the students to where they are.

Consider how the project can involve the community and how it can impact upon the community.

Peer culture can be manipulated through display, building and maintaining classroom communities and sharing " an ethic of excellence".

Explicitly develop the adult skills that are need, for example use the Critical Skills approach. 

Speak and work with students as you would adults. 

Create safe environment for students to take risk, don't be averse to creating junior versions of the real world.

A Story of Professional Critique

Below is the original article I submitted to High Tech Highs Unboxed. This article was "accepted with major revisions". I was provided with the most clear and challenging feedback on any piece of work I have ever received. This leaves me a little cold to be honest. Why haven't I had this before? or since?

I must admit the motivator of an authentic audience was important, but not as great as the professional learning it challenged me to do.  I would encourage you to read this "original" which is fairly pants in hindsight and then read the final version. The article is followed by the summary of the comments on my submission.

I would like to Thank Rob Riordan, Pam Baker and the Unboxed team for th opportunity.
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Introduction Experience weeks

Biannually, we stop using our timetable and organise "Experience weeks". One of these weeks has become our "Sustainability week" for our Year 9 (13 year olds), and it was in this week we decided to apply our learning from our High Tech High visit.

The purpose of the week was conveyed to the team of teachers who were going design the individual projects with two training sessions. One dedicated to what projects are and are not, and one on critique. Of course, I did a project first and used mine as an example for the others to use. The intentions of the week were established as

1. To raise awareness of environmental issues and the positive actions we can take. This was intentionally set as a broad as possible, to allow staff to explore smaller issues more deeply. This is an essential experience for UK teachers as our (unenlightened and backward) government is intent on arbitrary content statements as a "rigorous" curriculum. So much of our teaching is a race to "cover" vast quantities of superficial learning. Don't get me started.

2. To create high quality student projects. Our school as been hosting a Saturday exhibition day for the last 5 years, always successful, but when scrutinising the work it does lack the high calibre of student work we witnessed at HTH. Simply showing the books produced by Jay Vavra, Pam Baker, Jeff Robin et al. is a great way of asking to up our game. In a word inspirational.

3. To allow staff to teach to their passions. Another rare U.K. opportunity. Teachers were also asked to team up into cross curricular teams but this request was an attempt to make the projects more than a science or humanities project.

4. To allow students to experience the idea of school as base camp and extended adult learning relationships. These concepts are taken directly from “Learning Futures” as they exemplify the real world connections that learning needs and struck a chord with the idea of an experience week. I love the Ron Berger quote that’s it’s " more useful to consider schooling not as a delivery system but as an experience”, and I think that these weeks allow us to escape the delivery mentality.

From this the team came up with the following projects.

•         Books written for Primary school children

•         Video presentation on water conservation

•         Sustainable spa

•         Swap shop

•         Pray mat for Nepal.

•         Guide book to local bird watching sites.

•         Photography exhibit St Mary’s light house.

•         Dance video representing sustainable issues.

•         Recipe book.

•         Cycle guide to Cramlington.

•         Computer game development (based upon Life Below the Line charity).

•         World record attempt at the world’s biggest bird box.

From this we were able to offer some choice to our students on the theme or style of project they were to complete.  Due to our time restrictions we were unable to offer Project Tuning, and this is something that would have added so much more to the whole of the week. This will take place next year.

They also established an impressive list of collaborators and visits to enhance the projects. These ranged from Professional chefs to a visit to Hendon Sewage Works and it does get much “real world” than a trip to a sewage works!

 And so we were planned. The following is a brief account of my own experience of running a Sustainability Week Project.

“Wild about Cramlington” Bird Watching project.

For my project I wanted to have a project based around bird watching, a childhood hobby, currently enjoying a resurgence since the arrival of my son Tomas. I thought  it would be a great way of making clear the importance of looking after your local area and generate a bit of local pride (again hats off to Jay Vavra for the inspiration) So the “Wild about Cramlington” project began, I did the project first and dragged Tomas around a local nature reserve, busying myself recording what I saw and understanding what my students would have to do. It seemed easy at this stage, and it wasn’t until I spent an hour making a low quality map of the site that I began to understand what the project involved. I decided a  “less is more” approach and allow space to let the project run the learning.

I plotted a rough calendar for the week, giving it a direction, which began with asking the group (of 28) if anyone was a keen “Twitcher” (that’s street speak for a Bird Watcher), I struggled to quell the ensuing dialogue of the rarest bird they had seen. Actually, I received the stony glare only teenagers can muster, so I asked if anyone had a pair of binoculars and seven or so said they did. We were off!

 We then looked at some professionally produced leaflets and guides to local nature sites and picked out what made them successful. I did include my attempt. We came up with a list that would serve as the success criteria. Next we watched a 5 minute video made by one of our Bird watching experts, which gave tips on how to watch birds successfully.

 A serendipitous opportunity arose when my colleague that was running the project with me was unavailable, preventing the initial planned trip. We were to be confined to barracks. Fortunately we have a huge campus, with areas that are conducive to nature, including a temporal pond.  So off went 28 nascent birdwatchers with field guides and shared binoculars in small groups for an hour and a half to spot birds. What I actually observed was 28 teenagers parading around the school like a bunch of teenagers parading around a school campus, it was rather predictable but still frustrating. I galloped around the campus, suppressing my frustration and asking what had been seen and pointing out things of interest. The two volunteer experts did likewise.

 On reconvening I asked how many types of birds each group had seen. “Four” one group cried , “ Can anyone beat four?” I challenged.  “Yes, we can?”  said one group” “Great” I responded ”How many?” as they tallied up the tension built , finally responding “Six!” . The expectation fell. “So how come I saw 19 different birds and two species of butterfly?”, after a brief silence they correctly identified that I knew what to look for and where to look, and then a revelation. “Sir, you followed those tips, didn’t you?” “Er, yes. Yes I did. Can you remember what they were?” Unsurprisingly, the students named every single one, after all regurgitation is easy but putting knowledge into practice is the difficult and real world thing. This is why letting the project lead the learning is so important. I was rather proud of myself to have allowed it to do so.

For the final hour of the day, we began writing description of the birds spotted and of the site. This was in response to their correct identification that they did not know enough about the wildlife. I was pleased to see a bunch of non twitchers, thumbing through identification guides and listening to bird calls on the internet. Again the project was directing the learning. Some students naturally began drawing the birds, not requested but with Jeff Robin ringing in my ears “Artists communicate” I let them to continue to engage in the required knowledge in any way they wanted.

The next day we left the campus and visited a local nature reserve. The difference in the students, was palpable. The hushed conversations, the points to trees, the pauses and scanning of the horizon and most importantly the “What’s that sir?” questions, all indicated that the students had engaged with the project. On return each student had at least seen 20 different species of bird. One student had seen six species of butterfly, and could not  believe how fun this was. She’d taken lots of photographs and was distraught to find that they had not saved correctly. She determined to return that night to retake some pictures. She did.

Back in the classroom, whilst writing about our observations we began to acknowledge that getting the quality of photographs we wanted was perhaps beyond this project. After a discussion, and several volunteers we decide that drawings would be the most valid solution.

A whole class critique

It was at this point that we carried out our only whole class critique on the species descriptions. This was hard to prove difficult as the students did not know each other or me, nor did I know them beyond their name, highlighting the importance of building a community within classes. I persevered armed with Bergers ’Classroom norms and a single message. “We are going to give one another feedback on our work and we will redo it until we are happy that it is of publishable quality.”

So although on the surface we were coming up with a model of what our species description should be like, it was really letting the students know that drafting is part of being successful and we were going to do it. I asked them to keep all drafts and that I wanted to archive them. It is only in hindsight that it has become clear that it was this overlong 30 minutes was the turning point in the project.

On the third day, the students decided (against my recommendation)  to visit a different location to add to the guide, as “we can’t just have two places to visit”. I could not argue with this logic, and it was nice to see the responsibility be transferred to my students. This was further enhanced by a group of students who were designing the layout of the leaflet who refused to start presenting their ideas, until everyone was present. The sight of one student running down the corridor to a neighbouring room to collect a group working on a computer still makes me smile.

A small legacy arrives

It was also on this afternoon that the defining moment of this project happened. We had been critiquing each other’s work in small groups mostly hosted by but not necessarily instigated by me. One student showed me a picture she had drawn of a Willow Warbler. It was nice picture but did not look much like a willow warbler. So together we came up with three improvements; the shape of the tail, its body shape and colouration of its plumage . She returned the next day with an improved version and the question “What do you think?” It was clear that the body shape and tail were much better, but the colouration and the head shape were not helpful to its identification. I gathered two other students and we critiqued again. Although, I suspected disappointment in being asked to improve her work again she never showed it. I guess (and hope) that she understood that we had changed the rules, and in the process her best just got better. I’m sure she was nervous the next morning, when she approached me with her next draft. It was great. It looked like a Willow Warbler. I asked if it was okay to show the class her three drafts (or as they have become known “ The Birds”) which she shyly accepted and almost hid.  I proudly gathered the class not only to show a beautiful piece of work, but the progress between them and the most importantly the paradigm shift taking place. The students were impressed and said so.

The value of extended learning relationships.

It became clear that the drafting of work was becoming valued when later another student approached stating that he had completed the description for the Goldfinch, and as I inhaled  presented the three drafts he had produced. Momentarily stunned I eventually asked who had critiqued his work. He explained that he had himself after the first draft using the model the class had worked on and then he had it checked by two friends. I felt a little redundant, but remembering the years of experience I have bird watching and that of the experts we helped ensure that the important identifying features of the Goldfinch were prominent. The project once again was leading the learning.

The presence of the experts Phil Allott and Cain Scrimegour was more than just a critiquing and knowledge base. I genuinely believe that their presence helped the students realise that their learning matters to the wider community. It made their learning real. I am indebted to them.

A High Quality Product.

The final two days were planned to provide time to complete and critique the guide and then debrief the process. Time was always going to be tight. Over these days I was particularly pleased with the responsibility shown by the students; they readily offer their work for critique to small groups, reworked drafts, switched groups to support large tasks and they offered honest considered feedback during critiques. However, this was not a perfect group of students nor was it a perfect project. We required frequent prompting, task setting and structuring and  some timely behaviour management. For much of the time I acted as a teacher first and project manager second. We still have much to learn.

Progress was slow but steady and high quality work emerged periodically. Our original deadline came and went and the end of week quiz was shelved. Unfortunately, the debrief became much more independent than I had wanted, but the project needed time and correctly took precedence. The completed guide was something to be proud of and I have used it already as an exemplar to the kind of quality my students should expect to produce. This leaflet and “The Birds” are now associated with critique, and drafting by all our year 7 and 8 students. They respect the quality and understand how they can emulate it. This is a very exciting start for us.

Although I slightly neglected the debrief I feel it has given me an honest voice from my students about their experiences. I asked the students to create a poster, in response to a few simple questions. They typed their answers up neatly and placed them on to a “habitat” poster attaching them to various organisms, helping to capture the process we had been through. So I would like to close this article with my students’ voice almost as a clutch of eggs I am to hatch and nurture.

“Having to redraft felt good as I always knew what I had to improve in next draft” – Charlie

“Redo[ing] work [led to] frustration but [then] realising we had produced better work [which] expanded upon our knowledge” -Caitlin

“ living in Cramlington, we should take pride in what birds we have on our door step”- Anon

“living in a busy area we need to get away and see the wildlife we have in our community” -Anon

“[Feedback] helped me by doing drafts to get my product up to a high standard”

“[The guide] shows others our understanding and widens it.” Phil.

“We drafted our work [several] times....so we could get a quality product we would be proud of! -Rebecca, Jack and Sam.
_________________________________________________________________________

Final recommendations for revision of :

• Shorten the article, starting by eliminating or reducing the introductory section. "The article appears to have two quite separate components and tones.  The first one and one half pages are an attempt (I think) to provide context, but offer info that comes off as confusing and disjointed from the project itself.  There's a bit of a "report" tone to this portion of the article.." - "I found that this could be probably better received if it was about 4 pages long and drop some of the wordiness and sidebar comments." [Rob's suggestions: It's the project narrative that is truly compelling. I would say we should put the reader in the midst of it as soon as possible, with minimal context-setting. Virtually all of the introductory material, and especially the section on project intentions, the list of projects, and the references to HTH and HTH persons could be eliminated without damage, to start. The LF notion of school as base camp could be deleted, or perhaps folded into the project description. I would say shoot for a length of 2,000 words.] 

• Dig deeper into critical aspects of the project. "[Select] those 2-3 aspects of the project that yielded the teacher with the greatest insights around PBL (in concept and/or implementation) and then drilling down to provide more detailed and purposeful description of those elements in order to more effectively communicate the teacher's and students' experience with those aspects of the project....Readers don't need to come away with a full description of the project...but they should come away with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by beginning to implement PBL in a new context." [Rob's note: I'm ambivalent about these responses, as I find the narrative so compelling. Some of your subheads highlight essential elements of the project. Perhaps some additional or revised subheads could enhance that effect. I do think the last part of the quote above—"they should come away with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by beginning to implement PBL in a new context"—suggests persuasively the proper aim of the piece—I wonder if you agree. If so, one could think about adding a paragraph right before the student quotes, summing up the challenges and joys of the endeavor from the teacher's standpoint.]

• Final Edits/Formatting.  "Although the general direction of the article was excellent, the wording of the author made it very difficult to get into a flow when reading. There were awkward turns of phrase and grammatical kludgyness that made me have to go back and reread sections to try and understand the author’s intent."..."There's a sarcastic edge to the writing at times -- I generally like this, but there are a few comments that could alienate readers and are unnecessary for getting the point across." [Rob's note: --It's worth taking a look, though I wouldn't want to remove all of the "edge." See what you think. We may have suggestions as we go to final edits. Please review the GSE style guide (attached) and make any line-edits or formatting changes to align the article with the standards for publication (exceptions: no need for a table of contents and feel free to keep it single spaced). 

Get Inspired. Getting ideas for project based learning.

In " Yes Minister" speak this is a brave post, maybe that is why I've found it so difficult to find advice an guidance on getting initial ideas for projects. So, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of strategies and sources of inspiration, it may all be egg sucking, but, as I have just began a Professional Enquiry Group on "project based learning" I thought it might be time well spent. These will not appear in order of importance.


A very useful start point may be this article "Where do projects come from?" by Angela Guerrero in High Tech Highs fabulous unboxed.


1. Time. Probably a no brainer, but sometimes ideas are hard to come by, be aware of this and start thinking about projects early and informally. Serendipty, can be a wonderful thing so plant a seed, revisit it and wait.


2. Be a hoarder of ideas. Some ideas seem great straight away and when you start to work through their implications they become unfeasible, or, not what you want. Don't discard them but shelve them. Around four years ago I had an idea for a small task to summarise and revise a module. It involved taking key ideas and then turning them into a Dr Seuss style image and ditty, inspired by the hours I had spent reading with my son. I tried a few and felt that that the points the students would take from this task would not suffiiciently focus on the content. Recently, searching for an idea, I remembered these and found the scan I had taken and I am now about to start drafting examples for a year 7 Space science module. I think the fact that they will be describing processes as opposed to recalling facts might help.

3. Mimic and modify. Plagiarism is an ugly word, but emulation is a different ball game all together. If you see a great set of student work or some highly engaging project then use it. There's no shame in that, after all there will still be a lot of work to be done to the project to modify for your context. the content will change, the students, the timescale etc.This is why the work of High Tech High , Expeditionary Learning, Calgary Science School and the Buck institute are so important for us mortals.


4. Consider the content to be taught. Remember, that not everything you want your students to learn will appear in the project. Some of parts of a module, even a Project led one, will have a structured teacher taught part. Focus in on what what would benefit from being taught through a project.


5. Consider the audience the product is for. This again is something that you will want to revisit at a later stage of development, but, considering what may appeal to your audience may help narrow down what the product could be. 


6. Critical skills product list. I was fortunate enough to be trained in the Critical Skills approach many moons ago, and one of the most regularly used tools is a list of around 100 products. Some of which I still don't understand what they are but the list is a frequent start point. Start a list of potential ways students can show learning.


7. Use your interests and passions. I have touched on this in a previous post but if you're enthused and excited by what  is coming up then your students are more likely to be too. Your hobbies and interest may give you another angle to approach your subject from. The line "That's why we want you to teach here because this is what you ..." sums it up nicely. I wish I could capture that more often in my classroom. 



8. DTPF.  (Defined)I know this should happen later, but an initial play around will help a basic idea develop into a more substantial idea. Just setting a side an hour to have ago at roughing out the project and attempting a small part will help clarify your thinking, help you make connections and reflect on what you really want the project to be like.


9. Think of themes. If you want to do a book project, or a podcast or a movie, your thoughts might be refined by tagging on a "in the style of ...." may give your idea wings.


10. Consider the skills you wish to develop. This could be part of your subjects content, but it could easily be a literacy focus, a particular way of thinking, collaborating or communicating.



11. Visit galleries and museums. Doing this will help with two aspects of coming up with ideas. Firstly, the content of what's on show may be grist to the mill, but on a more generic level HOW the information is communicated might give you the required inspiration. The wonderful museum box demonstrates this nicely.


12. Consider which external partners your students would benefit from working with. An informal visit and chat might be the trigger for some wonderful student work, and add an authenticity to the project. 


13. Consider what parts of the real world you want to expose your students to. A David thing this. Partly, David Perkins notion of finding a junior version of a real "game" and partly a David Price "work should be like learning, and learning should be more like the world of work" thing. Thinking about this and your subject discipline may lead you to an authentic project for your students. What parts of your subject is being applied in the workplace? Take inspiration from Jay Vavra at High Tech High, and his Bush meat project.


14. Revisit old projects or tasks and rebuild them. You may have a great project under your nose that just requires a little care and development.


15. Take a systematic approach. Using a structure like SOLO taxonomy may help breakdown or indeed build up the elements of a project. This Youtube clip of Naomi Hart outlines her early attempts at doing this. Inspiring.


16. Ask how you can engage art or design and construction element. I have quoted this before from High Tech High's Jeff Robin " Art and artist communicate." So, looking for some artistic angle for the project work may at the very least bring part of the critique, drafting high qualityculture that art does by tradition. Indeed, High Tech Highs philosophy of head and hands leads to one of the most engaging curriculums around.


17. Realise that projects can come from anywhere. Obviously, having planted a few thoughts to mull over helps but a simple anecdote may illustrate a wider point. The project I am currently developing on Space Science for our Year 7's almost became a mug decorating project, with diagrams of celestial movements to help explain seasons etc. The reason for this was my son asking for a drinking and picking out his favourite "Pedriodic table" mug when the idea came. I even got as far as Googling ceramic pens and thinking about creating mugs for the staff room (an authentic audience if there ever was one for a mug) before my requirement for some literacy work in this project rendered it "shelved". I may well return.


18. Multiple steps may be necessary to get an idea you're happy  with and "do the project first" with.


19. Use the team. An invaluable resource, to share your initial thoughts, the conversations do not have to be commital such as " I'm doing ..." but will benefit from a speculative approach  " I'm thinking about...." Seems a little thing but a lot safer for both parties. I would also seek colleagues outside your department, they help see things from a students perspective (or at least one with a less subject specific lens). Colleagues from within your discipline are probably best deployed when your planning in detail.


So, they you have it, sorry I couldn't make it twenty but that would just have been arbitrary and we have plenty of that in education. Obviously, if anyone has hints and tips on getting ideas fro projects I'll be glad to add them. Even ones that apparently suggest how to suck eggs.