Posts Tagged ‘student voice’
Starting Off the School Year: It’s About the Learners
I always start off the school year focusing on connections – my connections to the students, their connections to me and the other in the class. Too many classes, all grade levels, begin the school year with getting down to academic business – starting to cover content, discussing expectations regarding academic requirements, giving tests, and other academic information provided by the teacher to the students in a mostly one-way communication. The human or social element is often disregarded.
I want students to learn about one another in a personal way. I want to learn about my students so my instructional strategies can be more personalized and tailored to their needs and interests. Beginning class with a focus on connections rather than content gives learners the following messages:
- You are the focus of the class not me.
- You are important as a learner in this class.
- You will be expected to engage in the learning activities during class time. You will be an active learner.
- You will be expected to do collaborative learning during the class time.
- I, as the class facilitator, will be just that – a facilitator. I will introduce the learning activities, but you will be responsible for the actual learning.
- I will get to know you as a learner and try to help you find learning activities that are of interest to you. (From my post: Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content)
Two things that I believe needs to occur at the beginning of the schools year:
- Get to know the learners – as individuals with unique backgrounds, interests, strengths, weaknesses.
- Establish a learning community where all learners are seen as having value in our classroom.
This past week was the first week of school and the first week that I am teaching these students in a 9th Grade Freshman Seminar. After the first day introductions with fun games such as Warp Speed and Jenga Q & A (descriptions of these can be found at https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2018/08/12/beginning-the-school-year-with-connections-2018/ . The rest of the week was spent on the learners working on the activities from the following Hyperdoc.
By far, the most valuable activity for me is the Student Interest Survey as it provides me with so much information about each student in such an easy format. With 25 students in the class, it would have taken me months to learn all I did using the following Google Form.
The results of the survey, which follow, provide me with so much valuable information. I discovered their passions, aspirations, dreams, and even some fears. For example, I found out their career aspirations: pathologist, mechanical engineer, police officer, orthopedic doctor, electrical engineer, doctor. veterinarian, architect, actress, civil engineer, professional racer for anything with a motor, teacher, interior designer, photographer, nurse, writer, artist, dancer, music producer, singer psychologist, forensic scientist, neurosurgeon. This information will assist me in planning activities based on their interests.
I Have a Dream: Authentic Learning
I wrote a post earlier this year entitled, Authentic Learning Experiences. Some of the characteristics of authentic learning I identified are summarized in this graphic:
The Task
Learners, 4th through 6th graders in my gifted education language arts class, were given the task of composing and then recording their own I Have a Dream speeches.
Writing Their Speeches
This authentic learning experience began by watching Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. Interestingly and sadly, there were a few students who had never seen it.
They then wrote and published their I Have a Dream speeches on Kidblog. These were projected as each learner read her speech. Their peers offered feedback about both the content and the mechanics of grammar and spelling with changes made accordingly. Here are some of the edited examples:
Recording Their Speeches
An authentic learning experience offers learners choice and voice. In this case, students were offered a choice of recording their speeches as part of a video in front of a green screen or by just making an audio recording. Half chose the green screen and the other half chose the audio recording. The videos were recorded using my iphone, the audio recordings via Quicktime on a Mac. Their recordings were uploaded to iMovie. All students were asked to add photos to their recordings. They added images found at Unsplash, over 850,000 free (do-whatever-you-want) high-resolution photos by the world’s most generous community of photographers (my favorite online tool for finding and using images). Learners took turns editing their speeches and their final video follows. Note their different styles and as mentioned earlier, reinforces student voice and choice.
Maker-Enhanced Writing Workshop: Character Development
Readers of my blog know my thoughts and feelings about effective student learning. I have written blogs on:
- All Lesson Should Be Interdisciplinary Learning – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/all-lessons-should-be-interdisciplinary/
- The Imperative of Experiential and Hands-On Learning –https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/the-imperative-of-experiential-and-hands-on-learning/
- Authentic Learning Experiences – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/authentic-learning-experiences/
- Intentional Creativity – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2017/08/20/intentional-creativity/
- The Magic of Making: The Human Need to Create –https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/the-magic-of-making-the-human-need-to-create/
This month I started a maker-enhanced writing workshop with a group of gifted 3rd through 6th grade students. As with all of my lessons, I strive to practice what I preach in my blog posts – being interdisciplinary; using technology to enhance their work; and making, creating, innovating, and inventing.
Standards Addressed
21st Century Skills
- Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
- Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts).
- Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts.
- Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively.
- Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts.
Next Generation Science Standards
- Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Common Core State Standards – ELA
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
National Core Arts Standards
- Students will generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
ISTE Standards for Students
- Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
National Novel Writer’s Month Young Novelist’s Workbook
For this project, I use parts of the National Novel Writer’s Month Young Novelist’s Workbook found at https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/pages/educator-resources.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, empowering approach to creative writing. The Young Writers Program (YWP) allows 17-and-under participants to set reasonable-but-challenging individual word-count goals.
The YWP also helps K–12 educators facilitate NaNoWriMo in schools, libraries, and community centers around the world. We provide virtual classroom spaces on our site, as well as student workbooks, Common Core-aligned curricula, and free motivational materials (https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/).
Since I work with 3rd through 6th graders, I use the one for elementary students. I also like the way it is formatted with lots of places to insert one’s own answers and ideas. Here is the PDF – elementary_school_workbook_ed4_INTERIOR.
Character Development
After some introductory information, the workbook jumps into character develop. I like having my learners begin by developing their characters. They did so by:
- Describing their character (pages 11 – 25 in the workbook).
- Drawing a picture of their characters.
- Creating a more artistic version of their character using additional art materials.
- Posting a description and image of their character onto Kidblog.
- Using Scratch and Makey Makey to describe the main characteristics of their characters.
Example Character Description and Artistic Creation
Programming Character Details Using Scratch and Makey Makey
The idea for this part of the lesson came from the Makey Makey Biography Bottles https://labz.makeymakey.com/cwists/preview/1506-biography-bottlesx. In the case of their character development, students programmed Scratch to tell a fact about their character upon the touch of each button.
The first step is to create the physical element, the character is glued onto a piece of cardstock (file folders work well for this). Holes are punched along the bottom – five for five facts and one for the Makey Makey ground wire. Large brass fasteners are inserted so that one of the fastener legs is bent to hold it in place and the other hangs over the edge. This permits the connection between the object and the Makey Makey.
Students then program Scratch so that when different fasteners are touched, a different fact about that character is verbalized. Scratch 3.0 now has extensions for Makey Makey and Text to Speech – both which are used for this project.
They upload a picture of their character and choose five facts about their character – one fact for each of the Makey Makey keys – space, up arrow, down arrow, left arrow, and right arrow. These facts are made via Text to Speech blocks. Students can even change accents and languages with these blocks.
Now you are ready to connect the Makey Makey! Connect alligator clips to the legs of the brass fasteners that protrude from the conductive plate. It is a good idea to mark which button you want to trigger each key press. Connect the other end of each alligator clip to the matching input on the Makey Makey. Make sure you have a clip attached to the ground. Connect the Makey Makey to the computer. Run your Scratch program. Hold the ground clip (making sure you are touching the metal part) and lightly touch each button (https://labz.makeymakey.com/cwists/preview/1506-biography-bottlesx).
To see how it all works, watch the video below:
The World’s Largest Lesson: Sustainable Development Goals’ Activities
I have a strong belief that education should assist learners in developing the desire and skills for global stewardship. I discussed this in my post, Empathy and Global Stewardship: The Other 21st Century Skills https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/empathy-and-global-stewardship-the-other-21st-century-skills/.
Learners, grades 5 and 6, in my gifted class do the global goals projects one hour per week. What follows are some of the activities they have done.
Introducing and Choosing the Goals
The Global Goals lesson was introduced to learners through the following videos:
They were then asked to explore each of the goals via the World’s Greatest Lesson website: http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/ using their newly constructed Global Goals glasses (template found at http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2017/08/WLL-Glasses-V3.pdf).
The final part of their introduction and exploration of the global goals was for each learner to choose one or two goals to further explore and research; and to list these on their personal blogs. They presented their selections to the rest of the class.
Activity: Board Game Go Goals!
“GO GOALS!” board game. The purpose of this game is to help children understand the Sustainable Development Goals, how they impact their lives and what they can do every day to help and achieve the 17 goals by 2030. The game can be downloaded at http://go-goals.org/
Activity: Exploring Wealth Inequalities
This was such a powerful activity. I blogged about it in Exploring Wealth Inequities: An Experiential Learning Activity https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/exploring-wealth-inequities-an-experiential-learning-activity/
Here is a video from their activity:
Activity: Superhero to Help Rescue Climate Change
Learners completed the worksheets (1-3) found at http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2017/09/WLL_ClimateComicContest_Final-1.pdf.
The learner responses were posted on the bulletin outside of the classroom hopefully to bring some awareness to other teachers and students in the school.
Creating a Website
Learners, either alone or with a partner, are creating websites about their chosen goals using Google Sites (we are a Google apps district). They are required to include the following items:
- An overview of the problem using reputable resources and with live links included,
- Multimedia presentations (2) using Web 2.0 tools from this list provided to them via our Google Classroom – https://www.symbaloo.com/embed/multimediatools8?,
- A self-grading quiz using Google Forms,
- A Green Screen or Flipgrid commentary.
Video Game Design with Elementary Learners
In order to support interest and passion driven learning (all – I mean all – of my students play video games) as well as address cross-curricular content area integration of language arts, science, and technology standards, I had my gifted elementary learners, grades 2 through 6, do a semester long project on video game design.
Standards Addressed
English Language Arts Common Core State Standards
- Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
- Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
- Reference – http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/
Next Generation Science Standards
- Define a simple design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process, or system and includes several criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design problem.
- Reference – https://www.nextgenscience.org/
ISTE NETS for Students
- 4a – Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
- 4b – Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
- 4c – Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process
- 4d – Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
- Reference – https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students
Unit Overview
The overview for this unit:
- Introduction to Storytelling
- Storyboarding with Storyboad That
- Storyboard Presentations, Feedback, and Revisions
- Create a Video
- Design a Logo
Introduction to Storytelling
The following video and articles were reviewed with the learners:
-
How To Write A Good Game Story – http://www.paladinstudios.com/2012/08/06/how-to-write-a-good-game-story-and-get-filthy-rich/
- How To Write A Compelling Game Story In Three Steps https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/how-to-write-a-compelling-game-story-in-three-steps/
Storyboarding with Storyboard That
Learners used Storyboard That to create the storyboards for their video games.
Storyboard That is a graphic organizer and storyboard creator . The program provides pre-made scenes, characters, text boxes, shapes, and other images to choose from, Students are able to drag and drop these items into their chosen layout. Scenes are organized into locational and thematic categories (e.g. school). Characters are organized similarly and can be customized with hair color, eye color, and other edits. Text boxes allow the student to give voice to their characters. Shapes and additional images add props to the story. (https://www.edsurge.com/product-reviews/storyboard-that-product)
It was continually reinforced that their storyboards needed to include strong characters, settings, and plot.
Feedback
Learners presented their storyboards to their classmates. Their classmates asked questions and gave feedback using the questions from How To Write A Good Game Story http://www.paladinstudios.com/2012/08/06/how-to-write-a-good-game-story-and-get-filthy-rich/
They made revisions and additions based on the feedback they received.
Create a Video Game
Learners were then given the choice to create their video games using one of the following platforms:
Create a Logo for the Game
Finally, learners were asked to design a logo for their games. To add another element of fun, learners decorated sugar cookies with their game logo.
Examples
The Adventures of Jack by a 6th Grade Boy
His video game was created using Sploder:
His Game Logo:
Save Mother by a 4th Grade Girl
Her video game was created by Bloxels:
Her Game Logo:
Sam and the Dark Lord by a 2nd Grade Boy
His video game was created using Sploder:
His Game Logo:
A Socratic Seminar for Elementary Learners
Socratic seminars have been around, obviously, since the days of Socratics. I believe they are an underutilized but powerful instructional strategy.
In the Socratic method of education, teachers engage students by asking questions that require generative answers. Ideally, the answers to questions are not a stopping point for thought but are instead a beginning to further analysis and research. The goal of the Socratic method is to help students process information and engage in deeper understanding of topics. Most importantly, Socratic teaching engages students in dialogue and discussion that is collaborative and open-minded.
Ideally, teachers develop open-ended questions about texts and encourage students to use textual evidence to support their opinions and answers. In the Socratic seminar, the teacher uses questions to guide discussion around specific learning goals. Socratic questioning is a systematic process for examining the ideas, questions, and answers that form the basis of human belief. It involves recognizing that all new understanding is linked to prior understanding, that thought itself is a continuous thread woven throughout lives rather than isolated sets of questions and answers. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4994
The Benefits of Socratic Seminars are:
- Offer opportunities for student voice
- Embrace the power of open-ended questions
- Often mimic how intellectual discourse occurs in real like
- Support providing evidence-based arguments
- Build active listening skills
- Reinforce close reading
- Approach real world solutions as having multiple perspectives
- Hone critical thinking skills
- Build oral communication skills
- Emphasize the importance of critical reflection
- Help to develop conflict resolution skills
To learn more about Socratic Seminars, visit:
- https://www.paideia.org/about-paideia/socratic-seminar/
- http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/socratic-seminars-30600.html
- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/socratic-seminars-culture-student-led-discussion-mary-davenport
Sneetches: A Socratic Seminar
I introduced the Socratic Seminar to my two groups gifted elementary learners, ages 7 to 12, through the following slidedeck and by using Dr. Seuss’s Sneetches
Here is some highlights from this Socratic Seminar:
Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
