Student drafting in the Cells Project

The Cells Project- Project Card

Planning, managing and Exhibiting Projects. Part Three - Exhibiting

The power of Parents.

For the Physics of the Olympic Project we invited the students parent in during the science lesson. It was interesting to note that even this one off event has had a lasting impact. The sessions themselves where great, all the students were excited and bristled with "lets get this job done", even those whose parents couldn't make it. You could cut the tension in the air when the group of 30 adults entered the room ( four classes). A quick presentation was made to set the context pointing out the relevance of doing projects. Reading out 6 job adverts from the current New Scientist each one mentioning the word projects did that. Finally pointing out keywords and ideas to look for. I also encouraged them to visit as many projects as possible, which I don't believe was necessary as the parents were tremendous and were a cordial yet challenging audience. I was thrilled to stand next to some parents who "grilled" their son on the physics. He returned in kind with detailed. logical and correct answers. It was a great buzz to see this all going on The students shared their drafts, the classwork and the journeys they had been on, some knew they had let themselves down while some beamed with pride. Many a parent thanked me on the way out and some even pondered why this was not a regular event. It will be and we have one imminent in year 7.

I must admit, I'd much rather do this twice a year, than to fill in some numbers about my students "progress", or sit and have a conversation about the numbers at parents evenings, or to write a report. Exhibition makes the progress or lack of it concrete for everyone. We can see the effort that was made, in fact we are showing an appreciation of the effort the student made, we can identify and share what needs to happen next. It stimulates real conversations about real learning. Along side the project , the drafts, and student reflections my students had their exam papers on display. They could show their parents that they had learned successfully in many different ways. If we want evidence to inform education, then this is a great way to show it.


"You cannot separate character and scholarship. There is a direct correlation." Ron Berger.


Remember it is worth the effort.

Putting on an exhibition is an arduous task, and can seem risky. What if it goes wrong? However, even if the projects aren't great then it doesn't prevent the exhibition. This is part of the project, students will learn.

My favourite anecdote from my trip to High Tech High exemplifies this value.. A student on an exhibition night was there without a finished project, amongst a whole class of projects . This void, really stood out, I asked her where her project was and was confidently told that she had been let down by her partner, but that she had everything in hand to meet the deadline later in the week to hand over the project to the recipient. As we spoke a colleague came by and interjected, " I'm sorry" he said "but where's your project" , this was followed by another colleague three minutes later asking the exact same thing. So in about 10 minutes three strangers had asked this student why she had not finished her project, this is real assessment, with real feedback, leading to real responsibility. . Two things struck me about this student was how confident she was in failure and how much she had learned about the content and process of completing this project, in reality she had been really rather successful. I have since witnessed this exact event with my own students.

I would also suggest that the impact is long lasting. I can give two strong anecdotes, where the students have been "transformed" by their experience. I am sure that most of my students will to  alesser extent show these kinds of attitude and motivation changes. I honestly believe that the culture and the skills of projects is transferable.

Student number one: Year 7 Most tests and written assignments below target. Five home works in a row in complete. i.e. Unmotivated. Year 8 ALL test and written assignments on or Above target. Homework always done.

Student Number two: Bright, intelligent boy. i.e. Lazy. always just about on target, but rarely on. Now, always at least on, often above. Highly motivated and believes he can do it.

These are not testament to me, but to the culture, and structures that projects bring with them.

So I encourage you to take the "risk" and make the effort of exhibiting. It is indeed worthy.

Expert audience raises student expectations.

Seems obvious, but these bring their expertise. This allows them to challenge students from an authoritative position. The Where should we Bee project involved getting critique from the good people at the Bee conservation Trust, and the final exhibition will have local bee keepers. Their interest and knowledge are valuable for our students, not only in motivating them to be prepared, but also from what they can add during conversations.

Does your project have a legacy.

Some of my first attempts of Projects, had very short lived exhibitions.  A single day or event. When considered in these terms, you must question if the huge effort required to complete a project is worth it? So carefully considering where and how your final product is displayed is an important consideration.

Following the Cities in a Box project, we invested in a large central display case for our project work. Designed and constructed by Nick MacGregor. This video clip really captures the excitement its initial launch had. The great thing is, that this display is permanent, we can go and scrutinise it and use it as a model of high quality work .

 

 

This display also captures the process of how the students produced such quality, highlighting drafting and critique. The display captures "our ethic of excellence". Students still point at and talk about the display at breaktime and lunch. Therefore it could be considered to permeate the culture of our school, even at lunch high quality work is prominent. They are showing they are proud of their work, and why wouldn't they be?



Presentations of learning.

Do not just present the product, the process of how the students got there is also a vital ingredient to great exhibition. One of my proudest moments in teaching came from doing just this. A student who was very shy, awkward in his interactions with others, stood up in front of his parents, peers and adults he did not know and started his Presentation with the line " At the start of this project I was not very confident...". I have to admit, I was completely taken aback, emotional even. This simple sentence reveals so much, he is now confident enough to recognise his weaknesses publicly. This is gutsy, clever and a great way to advocate Project Based Learning. I wish I had recorded this presentation. Next time, next time.

Be aware, that good Presentations of Learning don't just happen and are not a tag onto the end of the project, they are planned from the start. The reflection and debriefing sessions that occur throughout the project should help the students gather evidence to use in them. This leads to my final point.

Curate the project process.

Curate sound awful grand, but it's definition

"Select, organise, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition)"

is exactly what is needed to support students, allowing them to be metacognitive about the work that they are doing.

I use the ABC method to curating. I establish a blog that mainly focuses on the processes that the students have used or have been put in place to facilitate their project. In a way this is content "lite" as the product itself should encompass the content being learned. This has had the benefit of attracting an audience for the project. Students find this interest in their work highly motivating. It makes it clear to them that they are not doing the work for Sir, but that their community is interested in what they learn.
 I tend to ask a range of different reflection questions, which combines content, process, success and next step prompts. The nature of projects and exhibition can be summarised in a the following image. If this was a visit to an art gallery, your response would be despite the appearance of a masterpiece, your opinion of the gallery would that it was "pants". In reality we what all student work to be a masterpiece. The ONLY way to achieve this is through critique, and critique needs a strong trusting community. So debriefing, and reinforcing the behaviours that we want are also an essential part of this. I have found these questions really helpful in this. My particular favourite is "tell me about when someone said Thank you?", it always induces a whole host of "thanks for..." conversations. False, as they start out, but it also makes it a normal thing to do.

 However, I only select one or two per written reflection and ask students to write more. This is combined with verbal debriefs which are also curated, using AudioBoo or Sound Cloud. I often get them to electronically record it so I can simply copy and paste, and then highlight key points on the project blog.

 

 

Summarise your project in a project card.

Another great idea from High Tech High, Search through "heaps" of these in their Unboxed Journal.

The premise is simple.

- take some high quality images of the project.
- Write a pithy summary of what the project was.
- Write your reflections ( teacher)
- Add in students perspectives.
- Share.

A benefit of doing the project first!

Several hours in the making, this data recording sheet should make the upcoming "Where should we BEE? " project a whole lot easier to run. This will help the students gather relevent data and then process it in a useful way once we are back in class. Without it, this project would be chaos.

I could only get my head around this by reviewing several academic journals and getting out and doing a (brief) bee walk, yes that's doing the project first.

Backward planning for the "Where should we BEE? " project.

After doing some substantial reading of academic studies of Bees, a little scouting mission of a potential site, and setting up a potential expert audience. I started by scetching out what the academic poster would need to contain. Hopefully by the last week of this academic year, we will have academic posters with measures of the "ecological health" of Cramlington. Different classes will study Bee population, land and benthic invertebrates and algal growth.

As a department we have determined to invite parents in to see the products and drafts in mini presenatations of learning, following the success and impact of doing this in the "Physics of Project".

We have 5 sessionsof 2.5 hours  to get there, so I plotted backwards to work this out. I find it really helps focus on the essentials, on what will be learned and where some structure will be needed.

 

The Headlands Project.

I do need to get better at curating student work, I am currently trying to catalogue alot of high quality exemplars. I've just found this one from last years Year 7 Headlands project and had to make a fuss over it. The quality is wonderful.

I'll do my best to organise the drafts.

The Headlands Project Rationale.
Cramlington is a town surrounded by agriculture. How is this managed to produce food and maintain a healthy environment. One method used by farmers is the use of “Conservation headlands”, which are field margins which are not sprayed with feriliser or pesticide. Students undertook an environmental survey, based on invertebrate diversity (using pitfall traps) to measure the environmental impact of these zones. Beneficial insects will identified and used to indicate the economic/ agricultural benefits of such areas.


Students will produce an ecological journal article to compile the findings, sharing this with our collaborators, such as local farmers, University farm managers and National Union of Farmer representatives.
The plan has been dissected here
Below is the work of a Year 7 student. ( 11-12 years old) , I think its beautiful.

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The Headlands Project


Over the past 25 years creatures associated with Agriculture have been in steep decline.

The problem mankind is facing is that as the population of the world explodes not enough food can be produced. So civilians are ploughing more fields which mean habitats for invertebrates and rare animals are being destroyed so the numbers decline. Studies have shown that many 91% of Great Partridges and 70% of Skylarks have been killed through the use of Pesticides and loss of habitat. Pesticides are a chemical that lessens plant harming invertebrates so that the crop isn’t destroyed or eaten. Fertilisers are a chemical that encourages crops to grow taller and richer and produce more. A possible solution to this is Agricultural Headlands. Headlands consist of a hedge, followed by a followed by a 4-6 metre strip. None of this is sprayed by either Pesticides of Fertilisers. The evidence collected by this study will show us if the possible solution is working because there will be more invertebrates in the headlands and more species in the headlands than there will be in the field. Invertebrates are important to Ecology and Food chains because the primary consumers in many chains are some species of invertebrates which shows that the species is prey for many other animals. Invertebrates are important to farming as predator invertebrate species will eat the creatures that devour the farmer’s crop.



The study site is an agricultural field surrounded by 6 metre headland, in East Cramlington (Grid Reference NZ 28055 75991). The study was carried out from the 14th of May to the 21st. The Abiotic Measurements are:

• Soil Ph: 6.5

• Soil Temp: 12.5 degrees

• Air Temp: 12.63333

• Lux: 1061

• Vegetation Height (cm): 57.66667

• Nitrate (mg/l): 10

• Phosphates (mg/l): 8.3333333



How to measure pitfall traps:

The pitfall traps are used to capture insects so that the specimens can be identified to the particular species. They are set on two transects covering the same distance so that patterns can be spotted in Species Richness and Abundance.

1. The contents of the pitfall trap are poured into a jar.

2. The date the substances are collected is written on the jar. So is the trap and transect number.

The Abiotic Factors

The abiotic factors were taken at each pitfall trap to see how the chemical and light levels are at each trap. Abiotic factors are non-living factors so they cannot be controlled, monitored them. The abiotic factors can affect what live where so they have to be monitored in case some invertebrate species take a drop in population.

Measuring Nitrate

1. A sample of soil is collected in a test tube.

2. The soil is then made into a solution by adding distilled water.

3. A nitrate indicator tablet is dropped in.

4. The solution is shook.

5. The distilled water will change colour according to the nitrate concentrations. This is checked against a Nitrate Indicator Chart.



Measuring Phosphate

1. A sample of soil is placed in a test tube.

2. The soil is then made into a solution by adding distilled water.

3. A phosphates indicator tablet is dropped in.

4. The solution is shook.

5. The distilled water will change colour according to the Phosphates concentrations. This is checked against a Phosphates Indicator Chart.



Measuring Air Temperature

1. A thermometer was held 10 centimetres above the ground.

2. When the thermometer stays steady on a temperature, not changing, take the temperature.



Measuring Soil Temperature

1. A thermometer is stuck into the ground.

2. It is left in the ground for one minute.

3. After one minute the temperature is taken and recorded.



Measuring light levels

1. A lux meter is held next to the ground.

2. When it gives a steady reading the temperature is recorded.



Measuring PH levels

1. A small sample of soil is placed in a test tube.

2. Distilled water is poured in.

3. A solution is made by shaking the soil and water.

4. Universal indicator is dropped in through a pipette.

5. When the solution changes colour it is compared to a Universal Indicator chart.

6. The results are recorded.



How the Invertebrates are identified

When identifying invertebrates it is best to use a white tray, because then it is clear and easy to see what is being looked at.

1. An invertebrate is chosen.

2. The identifier observes the shape of the legs, head and abdomen.

3. The identifier looks through an invertebrate book and tries to identify the specimen from its species.

4. The identifier will use many different resources to verify the species. This can include books or the internet.

Graph 1- Average Species Abundance

The pattern of the line on Graph 1, on average shows that the closer you get to the crop the population of the invertebrates decreases. The downwards direction of the line clearly indicates this.

The line strongly shows that Pitfall Number 1 (next to the hedge) collected an average of 15 invertebrates. Pitfall 7, (situated in the crop) averaged 28.4 invertebrates. This is a difference of 13.4 invertebrates.

The average of the Pitfalls in the Headlands (1-6) is 29.66 invertebrates collected but the average of the pitfall in the crop (7) is 28.4. The difference is 1.26 invertebrates. This is a strong difference because there are fewer invertebrates in the crop than there is in the headland. That clearly states that the closer you get to the crop the less abundance the wildlife possess’.

Graph 2 – Average Species Richness

The pattern of the line, on average shows that the closer you get to the crop the variety of the invertebrates decreases. The downwards direction of the line clearly indicates this.

The line strongly shows that Pitfall Number 1 (next to the hedge) collected an average of 7.6 invertebrates. Pitfall 7, (situated in the crop) averaged 5.8 invertebrates. This is a difference of 1.8 invertebrates.

The average of the Pitfalls in the Headlands (1-6) is 6.39 invertebrates collected but the average of the pitfall in the crop (7) is 5.8. The difference is 0.59 invertebrates. This is a strong difference because there are fewer invertebrates in the crop than there is in the headland. That clearly states that the closer you get to the crop the less variety the wildlife possess’.
Abiotic Data Value

Soil Ph 6.5

Soil Temp 12.5 degrees centigrade

Air temp 12.63 degrees centigrade

Lux 1061

Vegetation Height (cm) 57.66 cm

Nitrate (mg/l) 10 mg

Phosphates (mg/l) 8.3 mg



This graph shows the Abiotic factors averaged across the headlands. They are consistent and create a safe environment for wildlife to thrive in.

Overall the results indicate that an Agricultural Headland does help wildlife to survive because the average richness and abundance of the invertebrates caught in the pitfalls in the headland are higher than the average of the pitfall in the field. The headland is beneficial to the wildlife because prey invertebrate species such as Black ants (Lasius Niger) can thrive and breed to improve species numbers. This is also beneficial to predatory birds such as Barn Owls (Tyto Alba) which feed upon the birds that prey on ants, such as Skylarks (Alauda razae) and Great Partridges (Perdix Perdix).

Acknowledgements

We thank the Hartley Farm group and Mr Andrew Crewdson for allowing us to study the site. Without them we could not have carried out this study. So once again, thank you.

Project Card - Cities in a box Project.

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.

Three Students explain the drafting of their work.

These brief clips speak for themselves. Sophisticated, hard working and talent young people.

A drafting journey

I love the final drawing in this process, it's a beautiful piece of work from the Call of the Wild project. However, it's the obvious hard work, belief in critique and drafting and the resilence of this young person that impresses me most.

Although this work is six months old, I still vividly remember the pride this student had for this work. Pride, for better and for worse, is addcitive. Once, you've experienced it you want to emulate that feeling again and again. I believe it is transferable, if the process is transferred with it. This for me is why, critique and dratfting works as it catches the students "doing the work", and that it pays off in the end. These drafts illustrate, the unlinear nature of progress, lots of effort for small gains (around draft 4 and 10) followed by a quantum leap between draft 12 and 13.

The progress captured in this work  is not just important for this individual. By valuing drafts, saving them and sharing progress are cultural ways of improving student outcomes.

"The peer community sets the tone on how to be.It sets positive peer pressure." Ron Berger

Project Based Learning -Avoiding the Content Trap

I've made a mistake. I knew I would. I have been drawn into the content trap, again.

"We can build projects that engage students in their cultural roots and yet are academic projects to the core." Ron Berger.

I always start projects with the best of intentions of balancing  content and the skills and attributes, that's why I value projects. Projects can help build that classroom community so vividly described in Ron Bergers work, but buidling community takes time. Time, that in the heat of the moment seems too short to "fit" all the content, that culminate in the ever eating thoughst of " I'll just give them  more minutes to finish this task", and "they need to know this....." Content is dominating.

"My ethic of excellence runs deep, we care for where we live, the people here, not just our academic skills" Ron Berger.

The result is evident in our class blog. Barely any student reflection, student work, resources , class discusion are all there, but the time for all of us to take stock and value one another is missing. So far only two out of the three classes doing this project have had a whole classs discussion about how they are getting on. Even these were sparse in their conversations. Most of the reflection has been on a one to one basis and fleeting. I've made no time for our community. In fact, the class that have not had a whole class discussion are the class that need it the most. It's time we got back to what makes us good people and what good learning communities do.

"Building and maintaining a positive community takes constant vigilance. It's a job that's never really done....." Ron Berger.

So here's the plan.

The next lesson for all classes will start with a simple round robin discussion. Each student will be given one of these questions and a moment to compose a response. All responses will be accepted. Using a round robin allows me not to run the conversation, students will be asked to jump in, piggy back on answers, and agree and disagree. They, the community, will lead the conversation.

The questions are unashamedly positive (only one or two ask for potential negatives), I'm hoping for a small celebration of us as people, of what we can be like. If this does not happen and students don't have examples of listening well to one another or  been trustful of one another then that's O.K too. This task will at the very least raise the profile and the desirability of these qualities. It prompts a need to be emulative. I'm hopeful that it will further strengthen our classroom community.

How have you shown trust to others?	Who has helped you the most during this project? Why?
Who has impressed you so far during this project? Why?	When did you listen to someone very well? How did you do it?
When has someone listened to you carefully during this project?	What are the strengths of your team?
What are the strengths of the people in this class?	Who in your team has worked hardest during this project so far?
How do you feel about the class blog show casing your project?	How do you feel about inviting people from home into see your projects?
Describe a time when someone has helped you during this project?	Describe a time when you have said Thank you to someone during this project?
Describe a time when you have complimented someone’s work during this project?	Describe a time when someone has complimented your work.
Describe how someone’s feedback has made your work better.	Describe when you have given feedback to someone.
Describe when someone has distracted you from your work.	Have you distracted someone from their work.
How have you motivated someone in your group?	How has someone motivated you?
How has negotiating help your project?	How has critique helped your project?
How have you shared the responsibility during this project?	How have you made agreements as a team?
How have you discussed your project as an “adult” would?	What talents have the people in your team brought to the project?

UPDATE

Here is a recording showing these questions in use, although no discussion took place each student contributed in a sophisticated and positive way.I think the culture of this class is evident lets hope it shows and develops with  all  classes.

20 Berger Quotes around Culture- Some food for thought.

I've been pondering what I would like school/ education to be like for my son and my students. For me the culture of education seems like the place to start. Although I don't believe one person has all the answers I believe the vision of Ron Berger  of Expeditionary Learning. encapsulates what can be right about the culture of learning. Here are some quotes in no particular order, that have made me think.


We built our curriculum around connecting our students to the outside world.

Not many would trust students to carry out original research.

This is the process that adult professionals go through (when designing), they go through a lot of drafts, get lots of critiques and its public.

The best way to motivate people, for them to bust their guts , is to have a reason for doing something , where they are creating something to be proud of.

Accountability stops being on page 32 of a text book and becomes about the kind of quality of the work that your kids are doing, and the kind of people that they are AND their test scores.

We can build projects that engage students in their cultural roots and yet are academic projects to the core.

There's no magic bullet towards excellence , it's all cultural, and by building a culture within the our schools where our kids feel pressured to do good work and be good people, we succeed.

The peer community sets the tone on how to be.It sets positive peer pressure.

What makes our school culturally clear is that every older child is paired with a younger child, to help them read ,get their boots on and to ride the bus with them.

My ethic of excellence runs deep, we care for where we live, the people here, not just our academic skills.

It's a long term commitment. It's a way of life.

Schools cultures that support excellence can look very different.

My personal passion is a culture built around beautiful student work.

Self esteem from accomplishments, not compliments.

Building and maintaining a positive community takes constant vigilance. It's a job that's never really done.....

The power of the (school) culture rests in community.

School culture must extend beyond the school walls.

Imagine a school in which to be cool, to fit in and be regarded as popular, you have to do quality work and treat others well.

What goes on in the hallways is as important as what goes on in the classroom.

A school culture of quality connotes a culture of high standards for all students in all domains.

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.

Lieracy and Science part 2- Writing strategies.

This is the second part of a blog post on why and how developing literacy in Science is beneficial to teach and learning science.

 Unsurprisingly my educational appreciation of Connectives derives from my use of SOLO taxonomy. In a Science context, it also makes sense to classify them as in  these useful resources. This helps to chunk content knowledge with the appropriate connectives. For example while sequencing the route of blood through the heart, or a method. Sequencing is essential for lots of science concepts. Add to this the Cause and Effect connectives, such as because, therefore and due to and your students will have a decent start point for Scientific thinking armoury. This is the exact reason why being explicit with these is a great case in point for teaching literacy as it also develop Scientific thinking.

This photograph shows how useful they are to students. During a critique these Year 7 students (correctly) identified that the final paragraph needed restructuring to bring together all of the evidence. So I asked what connectives might be useful, the three they chose were most helpful as can be seen by the next two pictures of student draft two's!

 

 

A post on connectives structured around SOLO can be read here.
That Superman amongst us David Didau embellishes upon this here


One of the main focuses I have recently had is how students write. This has been especially during writing methods (instructions) and conclusions. I have encouraged, through critique and feedback for my students to write in the third person.  This has many benefits for learning Science. Firstly it encourages students to write more clearly about the Science, data, findings etc and not hide behind what they think or even what they did. The more I have thought about this the more I have come to realise that it encourages that wonderful Scientific trait of objectivity. That is to say, for the sake of an example.... By writing in the third person students are trained to become more objective in their thinking. (See it works!)

 This students work show the impact it has on the quality of the Scientific work. Surprisingly, this work only took twenty minutes, yet the progression is still taking place and started weeks ago. Learning eh! (Irony)

The Point Evidence Explain (P.E.E) paragraph has also become a regular feature as students learn to write conclusions to experiments or investigations. Although, this seems a straight forward method it is worth considering an "analysis" section or activity before students write. You'd think the need to have processed the data before you started writing would be a no brainer. Apparently it's not. As a result I have formalised the analysis  before requesting a P.E.E. paragraph for the conclusion. Don't let this put you off, the familiarity of P.E.E. to students does help make the abstract task of drawing conclusions at least a more structured affair.

Both connectives and the PEE paragraph allows the teacher to hoop jump, meeting the need for teachers to mark for literacy, but in a really  useful way for both the subject knowledge and literacy. Now that's subversive. I think the following examples show this and the impact of the marking, which even occurs between activities. Learning eh! (Irony)

and its follow up task ...

 

 

The role of projects, success criteria and critique in my development as a teacher has been central to my growing understanding of literacy and it's importance. Asking students to complete worthwhile tasks, that has an audience makes the use and emphasis upon literacy purposeful. This adds an essential ingredient, namely motivation. When you add this to the clear demonstration of progress (let reclaim that word) students see value in literacy. This is the power of teaching it in ALL curriculum areas, it becomes normal. I am yet to have a student complain or whine at the prospect  of practising their literacy, young people see it's a vital part of learning and being successful. So no matter how uncomfortable I feel using them, it has clarified how I look at my subject and how I teach it.

Using models whether teacher or student derived to draw out success criteria demonstrates this wonderfully. Increasingly students are suggesting these literacy qualities as part of their success. This is real progress for me.

Why I Love the Buck Institute Planning Proforma!

This blog post is a quick restoration of an accidentally  deleted previous version. I hope it remains useful. I have reposted it as I think it highlights the usefulness of the BIE form and how I used it non sequentially. 

First things first, I did not start planning the headlands project using this pro forma. It was a much messier affair, starting with a practical field investigation idea. Before I began the detailed planning I  attempted to draw out themes and content to be learned from the potential  project. In a way I  was answering the question “Is this project worthwhile doing?”. This probably stems from the criticism of any inquiry approach is that its effect size is low (Hattie). Understandable if the project starts out as just a “cool” idea or something that sounds “fun” then the academic learning will demonstrably  limited. However, if the content of what you want the students to learn is at the core of the project then it may well be a different outcome. ( Learning future as is shown here 

shttp://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Learning%20_Futures_Engaging_Schools.pdf).

This project almost did not get off the ground. The problems of designing a project for every student in a year group of nearly 400 is frankly daunting. The solution was sought in the strength of the teaching team. I sent an email with suggestion of different projects to see who wanted to develop a project of their choice, meaning that each teacher would be responsible for one project. The pro forma I am about to dissect would therefore become a model for others. We hosted a twilight session to plan as a team, a savory choice.  The result and consequent pedagogical decision was that we would be able to offer students in each cohort a choice of at least three different projects.

This dilemma  also begs the question in why you would use project or inquiry based learning in the first place. Is it solely for the acquisition of someone else knowledge, or, is it to develop the motivation, skills and attributes to make effective independent learners. It should for both, as one without the other trivialises both. I would also hope it’s more than this. I may be thinking a little too subject specifically here, but the as a Science Teacher the Scientific thinking that the students would use is a key bit of “content” knowledge. It is something that the system will be able to measure and assess.

The wider implications that project based learning offers cannot be understated. I cannot and will not be able to state it as eloquently and as exemplarily as Mark Moorhouse in his wonderful Unboxed article  . 

http://www.hightechhigh.org/unboxed/issue8/want_to_get_home_on_time/I hope Mark 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.

SO why does the B.I.E pro forma help?

It  to contextualise the project and asks for its purpose.

The first three sections focuses the teacher to plan this wider context. What is the problem? Although not specifically requested, this section requires context, after all a project on the San Diego Bay ecology, would not be relevant to the students in Cramlington.  Context is both problematic and emancipating in Project Based Leaning. The engagement of external partners is essential as part of this planning, and potentially more valuable in later stages (The farm manager at Hartley Farms not only gave me permission and directed me to a site where it would be worthwhile, but, provided a lot of insight into the issues surrounding the project.)

The driving question at this stage of planning is essential for clarity. If this task was “just” a science investigation, this would be the title I would use. It helped  frame all of the planning and student tasks from this point forward. This is the question we will keep coming back to. It can be broken down into sub divisions but this is the big picture.

How do I know it’s the right question?  Firstly, I had to ensure it would allow the students to learn what I had intended, so by plotting out the outcomes and formulating what the product could be like but, , was the study authentic?

It balances skills and content, helping you decide what needs to be taught.

Project Based Learning needs to place the content and skills at the heart of it planning. To be honest, this section was tricky, I could have added many other items, and indeed not everything that could be taught within a project based module needs to appear in the final product. The process of filtering and correlating what was important FOR the project, gave the rest of planning purpose and direction , as it would any well planned “teaching”. Although no decision was made at this point, I had already began to work out what the valuable assessments would be. I also know that the student Scientific writing skills were going to be a big part of this. Subsequently , the planning of looking at real research article and how to read scientific articles was going to be important. The LSS first and second glance strategies are invaluable for this. http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/science-society/activities-infectious-diseases-now

Assessment and therefore "rigour" is at the heart of the plan.

Which brings up neatly the issue of assessment.  You may not enjoy the nomenclature of 21^st Century Skills, but this does not matter, what’s important here is that the skills that are useful FOR the project are highlighted. The added dimension of assigning whether it is a vital part of the project ie Taught and assessed or if its something that will be useful and therefore worth looking for opportunities to exploit. This is  helpful in developing the essence of the project, how would this project run for students, what would the conversations be like?  It was at  this point that I decided that the use of data and the drawing of conclusions were to be the focus, as opposed to say the designing of an experiment to produce valid data. The earlier decision to run one project not only ensured teacher sanity but that we would be gathering a lot of data, adding value and  rigour to our study. The consequences of this are two fold.

Firstly  I must design the experiment so that the data the students get is valid and valuable. Secondly how will I actually assess this and how will I then support (diferentiate) ALL my students.

The following section on Performances, was not completed sequentially, and indeed why should it be? It remained enigmatic for  a good while with the phrases “ Journal Article” and in the individual part “different sections “. Subsequent planning and writing of a write up guide, allowed this to become concrete.

It brings feedback to the surface of your thinking before the project has begun.

I'm not claiming that the BIE performa does all the planning required but it does concentrate your mind on what matters for example what will you assess and  what feedback could you provide. Why else would you  assess?  Here lies THE contradiction, Hatties research has deified “feedback”, so how does a pedagogy that is obviously built around feedback not have an “equivalent” effect size?  I suspect it's the planning, and potential task orientated approach that may have previously been the undoing of a project based approach. This article is called Why I Love the Buck Institute Project planning proforma for a reason, consider in the plan revealed so far how much has been about the product, and how much has been about the content, the assessment and the feedback." Nuff" said,.

Thh following sections does not diminish this. In fact it make it even more manifest, requiring consideration to the format of the assessments. Asking what will be summative and what will be formative entices you link the two things together. This isn’t radical stuff here, just common sense, a well founded pedagogy.

It considers engagement.

The little section which preludes this asks for consideration to be given to the selling and the WIIFM of the project. I think these particular projects benefit from the choice element, but it also serves to give the wider context of all projects. As part of this process,  a Google maps image of Cramlington was shown to the students asking them to say how important Agriculture was to this place. It obviously is.The students were then asked to say where in the country this was, the majority of responses where Yorkshire, Durham and Scotalnd, although some students speculatively ask “ is it Cramlington?” This bring the article back full circle to Mark Moorhouses unboxed article, students need at least an opportunity to connect to where they live in a wider context, appreciate some of working of where THEY live. This helped enormously, with engagement and subsequent field visits were now relevant. The trips out of school, enhanced and enabled by our block scheduling of half day sessions for science, also benefited from what learning futures would describe as “School as base camp”;a simple trip out of school gives purpose to what you do in school, this leads to engagement.

It helps you consider how students will reflect on the content and the process.

I must confess that the reflection section has remained blank, although, I know it should not. The student reflection from the Wild about Cramlington project tells me this. Its remained blank as it needs planning, I haven’t got there yet, although, it has in some of the individual sessions.

Although after the laboratory session, identifying the invertebrates captured, the students were briefly debriefed using the above questions. I am don’t think I've yet got the balance right over completing the project work and ensuring the process is open and valued. I hope to get better at this. However the student responses have been  interesting. I am not too concern that I have again neglected the process part, more frequent short evaluations will over the duration of the process do the job of providing me ways of helping student develop their skills, attributes and learner behaviours.,

Assessment is really at the heart of this document. Asking for what the formative and summative assessments should be. Planning these at the start, helps focus the planner on what is important for the student learning in the project, making the formative assessment genuinely formative having an impact on the quality of the learning and project.

It demands that content is linked to specific activities.

The final section is my favourite, a demand to plan strategies for the content and not planning the content around the tasks. Again this is simple but effective pedagogy. Here it ensures planning FOR the project, helping to keep the “teaching”  relevant and useful. This is the section where this planning tool took on a new dimension. I would do this for my “everyday” lessons, so why would I not do it within a project.

As I made these connections this section  seemed an obvious depository to compile the resources I had, or had to create or had located elsewhere. I also found it useful to phrase the outcomes as questions so that the whole project could be a problem solving activity. This does not mean it was discovery, It is entirely valid that within a project for me to teach, as I normally would. This is a year 7 project and its there first one of this magnitude. Of course I'm going to structure it and support them at every step,and I now know where this will be needed, thanks to the Buck Institute Project Planning Proforma. You gotta to love it.