In May of '06 I taught a 10 day course on Leonardo Da Vinci, as part of our yearly Renaissance Fair. I did this in a brand new way. I started the project off by having students create their own blog here on elgg. I also created a learning community/forum for each of the two classes, and a social forum to be shared by both classes.

There is one thing above all others that significantly impressed me with this experience: Students owning the learning, asking the important questions, and helping each other to learn. They showed an incredible willingness to contribute/share their ideas.

I wasn't sure what rules I should give around 'Safe Blogging' so I pared it down to some basics. In our school we have been slowly rolling out the ideas of Restitution and we have developed 4 basic beliefs: Respect, Safety, Inclusion, and Learning. So I thought why not use these beliefs as the guiding principles for the blogs and communities? Here is what it has evolved to (a work in progress I know...)

Note that #3 in the post below, 'Learning' is broken into two sections, 3a for the social forum this post is found in, and 3b is for the class dialogues and the student blogs. I like this separation, (good idea or control issues- I'm still undecided???), because it keeps the learning space a learning space, and still allows the students a place to be kids- with minimal 'cross pollination'.

I like having two different class blogs so that I can have kids reflect on things without giving away the lesson to the second class, but I also liked that the social blog was a place they could come together... In fact I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the conversation that often happened in the social forum! I ran a powerpoint presentation during the fair to showcase some of the online 'conversations' that occurred. The presentation (in two parts) along with some optional student feedback (all that was given to me) can be found here.

I've found a lot of posts in the 'edu-blogsville web-world' recently around Blog Rules with most of them emphasizing what NOT to do. I did find one positive gem, Arapahoe High School's Blogging Policy, with 3 sections: Safe and Responsible Blogging; Successful Bloggers; and a Sample with 'additive' comments.

- - - - - Here is the post with my BASIC RULES: 

 

MrTruss @ Our Community Forum

Here is a shared space to chat, share ideas, and get to know what others are doing in both classes.

There are some basic rules for using this forum, our class dialogues, and all personal blogs in this learning community.

The school beliefs apply to this forum and all personal blogs.

1.Respect- We are polite, kind and appropriate at all times. Remember that many students and Mr. Truss will view your comments.

2. Inclusion- Anyone is welcome to comment or join a discussion as long as they are respectful.

3a. Learning (in this forum)- You can have fun in this space, but if others are having a learning conversation either add to it positively or make your comments in a new post.

3b. Learning (in class dialogues and blogs)- These are places to reflect and learn. You are encouraged to: Ask questions; Answer questions; Share your learning; Synthesize ideas; Plan projects or assignments, and Reflect on the process of learning.

4. Safety- DO NOT REVEAL ANY PERSONAL DETAILS, either on the profile page, or in any posts. Never use any students' last names. Always click on the "Access restrictions" drop-down menu and set restrictions to either this forum or to "Group: Truss/Mirhaj Access Only" before you post... this way our comments stay private for members of our classes only.

Every Student must add a comment to this post. Under "Your Name" put your "User Name". Your Comment text will say, "I have read and I understand the basic rules to posting in the social forum, dialogues and blogs.". You can say more than this if you wish. (Mr. Truss has done one as an example.)

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In the class forums, (I call them class dialogues), I repeat these as the basic rules above without 3a. I also provide a definition:

This is a space for students to add to Mr. Truss' class learning dialogue.
Definition: dialogue |ˈdīəˌläg; -ˌlôg| (also dialog) noun
• a discussion between two or more people or groups, esp. one directed toward exploration of a particular subject or resolution of a problem. See 'conversation'.

Every student will contribute to this dialogue on a regular basis.

There are some basic rules for using this forum.

(The basic rules are repeated here in the post.)

 

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[Feedback appreciated]

I haven't written too many quotable quotes in my day... but I like this one:

I come from the Batman era, adding items to my utility belt while students today are the Borg from Star Trek, assimilating technology into their lives. 

I just wish it was true! The fact is that my utility belt is often lacking...well... utility, and my students are far from being the technological 'assimilators' that I believed them to be.

 My post's title came to me after I read this in Dave Maclean's post:

Interestingly, I am not seeing the tendencies of digital natives that Marc Prensky writes about. In fact, what I am faced with is students with relative apprehension towards blogging.

Students are not the 'digital natives' I thought they were. In fact 'digital immigrants' are much more the norm (in my Grade 8 class). Now don't get me wrong, they are savvy in many ways when it comes to technology. Give an avid Gameboy or Xbox user a new game that they know nothing about and they can make it to the second level before I know what all the controls do. Hand them a cell phone and they can text someone before I can figure out how to clear a number I pressed by mistake.

However, little things are coming up that show me that 'digital natives' they are not! (For example, simple things like opening a 'verify your e-mail' message and thinking that the act of opening it, -without following the embedded link-, is enough to get verification). But this is just a case of being naive... my students have shown me that they are willing to learn, and that is refreshing! 

To start off this calendar year, I created a private community here on elgg, and set up all my students with their own blogs, as well as some community blogs (see more in my last post). But the few technical problems I had on elgg with my last project are now amplified making it impossible to use this platform... don't get me wrong, I enjoy working with this elgg blog, but the computer lab I use with my students at school uses either Netscape or Explorer with Mac os9, and the combination is nothing short of brutal! So I adapted. After 2 days of getting everyone set up on elgg and trying to make the best of a bad situation, I stayed up most of the night and figured out how to get everyone a private blog on Google's Blogger, (here is a step-by-step powerpoint). BUT... Blogger was not in my utility belt when I started this. As a result I have hit a few school crossing zones on the internet highway.

 First I realized, as I started accepting e-mail invites to view my student blogs, that every student is now going to have to invite every other student to see/comment on their blog. I have a Social space for both classes to converge so that means almost 60 e-mail invites that each student must accept. The invite itself is easy, I just have to e-mail the list to each student (the same addresses in the To: box as in the body of the e-mail), but accepting invites will be a tedious step that I didn't need at elgg.

Then, I just found out that I can't RSS private blog feeds on Blogger- not even to Google Reader. So now I will have to make the blogs public. Not a big deal except that I was holding off on my letter home to parents about the blog until I had it up and running, and I felt comfortable inviting them to read the class blogs and their child's blog... but if I am gong to have grade 8's posting comments 'out in the open' parents should be informed in advance.

And here is the clincher... I have spent HOURS playing with these technological tools in the last couple weeks, and very little time on the new Science curriculum. There are two digital divides here preventing me from effectively using technology in the classroom. These divides are the gaps between:

1. What I know and what I need to know. 

2. What the school has in the way of technology and what it needs to have.

In a way, these will always be struggles that we are faced with... but there is a bright side. I think that with open source software and friendlier and friendlier user interfaces we will see the divide narrow. Case(s) in point: Computers won't need to be bogged down with expensive applications, and we won't have to settle for outdated browsers when we can upgrade them with free open source applications. And, I needed some knowledge of html (a slow learning process for me) to move things around and add items in the right column of this elgg page, whereas all I had to do was cut-and-paste some code to do the same thing with Blogger. So the gap is narrowing, and it is becoming easier to be more efficient and effective with our integration of technology. This is a good thing, that we are slowly moving towards. So what are the missing ingredients to speed this up? Well Professional Development, and mentorship come to mind... so does asking for help.

Well it is past midnight and I have to draft a note to parents...

Are students today digital natives? I would say only a select few that have chosen to be so (out of interest in what technology has to offer as opposed to a birthright of a generation).

Am I digitally naive? Yes, I need more guidance than I have asked for. With this last attempt at blogging with students I know that I have re-invented the stone wheel and there are tons of rubber wheels spinning down the web highway. Many students are also digitally naive, and we have an obligation to help them get 'good wheels' too.

Is there a digital divide? Yes, there are at least two that are relevant to teachers in the Western World, but these are getting smaller!

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 ps. I think that my kids may be the first truly digital natives: My 4 year old after getting a Webkinz stuffed animal for Christmas, "Now I get to go on Webkinz-dot-com!"

 I got this button from Liz Ditz' blog "I Speak of Dreams"

I do wonder who visits this site? 

 

Here, I'll make it easy... This is me:

            

Now, who are you? 

{I was just chatting on-line with a past student, telling her that I was having difficulty writing this post. As it turns out, she wrote a similar post just hours ago. Rather than continuing my tedious process of writing, deleting and re-writing a mediocre introduction, I thought I would start, and finish, with her eloquent words… and I shall say very little.}

"The creative work that came out of the arts in [past centuries] had to be excellent, because each individual’s standard of living depended on it. Nowadays, I would argue, creative work need not be excellent–just acceptable."

Listening Experience?
Or Listening Convenience?



Monumental Mass Media? 

Or Mundane Masses using Media?

(100 million views- video no longer available)

 

The plot thickens?

Or the selection widens?

 

Creative with Crayons?

Or Colouring with Clicks? 

Are we willing to 'settle' for less? What about The "Dumbness" of Crowds? I think it is wonderful that anyone can have an audience (see Numa Numa), and share their creativity, but how much must an uninterested audience wade through to find something meaningful?

 - - - - -

"...there’s a lot of flotsam and jetsam in creative work floating around today–or should I say, dotsam and netsam, a term we’ll probably be hearing a lot more of in the near future."

- - - - -

Thanks to Kris for 'framing' my ideas for me... her post is worth the read! 

Earphones image by Chance Agrella
http://www.freerangestock.com/watermark.php?i=1086

Aragon Theatre image by Brandon Perkins  http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503201029@N01/79583229/

Crayons image by Marja Flick-Buijs
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/317127

*All photos link to their sources

An antithesis to my last post, "Acceptance of Mediocrity, Web 2-point-oh-oh!"

Well, actually more of an ‘alternate spin’ on web2.0 than an ‘antithesis’. I must admit to seeing an element of accepting mediocrity in some students that concerns me. An example of this is the quality of work that students believe is satisfactory to hand in.
When a student asks me, “How long does this need to be?” my favorite answer is, “It needs to be as long as it needs to be!” The idea here is that a good answer can come in 4 or 5 eloquent sentences, and it can also come in a 7-page treatise... Unfortunately a poor answer can also vary in length considerably- often weighted on the light side. What surprises me is when I read something far less than exemplary, that a student hands in, and I ask, “Are you happy with that?” or “Would you like to work on this some more?” many students choose to settle for what they have already done… (“Perhaps you didn’t understand that I wanted a good copy and not a first draft!”) Anyway, that is a small example that may be a comment on my assignment as much as it is on the acceptance of mediocrity.

So this post is not about discrediting the point of my last post… rather, it is about validating the use of an interactive web that engages students in ways that may not always be apparent or available in a ‘webless’ classroom.

Here are my Ah-ha moments with the world of Web2.0h-Yeah!
These are two on-line ‘converstaions’ that happened to in my 10-day Da Vinci - Renaissance Fair Project that I did, which included a blogging component. Neither of them are outwardly profound, but when they happened they were profound to me in that they showed me the potential the web has for engaging students as ‘owners’ of their learning.

- - - - -

• In Vanja’s first blog entry, she posed an open-ended question and then said she was going to search for more information on the topic. She got a comment on her post and personally responded to it, mentioning that she was still seeking information. Then Charlotte commented and here is Vanja’s next response:
“ ..umm Charlotte I was actually hoping that you would actually post something to either contradict or go along with my observations.. not just say that’s meaningful and true.. Tell me what you think is meaningful and true!!” - - - - -

Vanja both wanted, and demanded a learning conversation. For me it was wonderful to see a student expecting more from her peers, or should I say, from her community of learners.

- - - - -

• In our Social Forum, (a community blog), Andrew asks, “we need some help trying to figure out what the animal in Leonardo's drawing is. This is the site--->
http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/img/macchina_assalto_mura_d.jpg

Here are the first 5 of 16 comment responses:

   1. From what I can see thats a bull. I can see horns..at least thats what I think it is.
 Vanja

   2. I think that is either a bull like Vanja said or it could be an ox.
Erica

   3. I think it's a bull or goat. If you ask me, it looks more like a goat.
Alessandra

   4. Its probably a cow..........
Jason

   5. According to my close observation, it looks neither like an ox or a cow. Because it's horn is too long, and it looks too slim and skinny to be like a cow or an ox. So I think it might be a goat or something other than cows. (Like what Alessandra had said) But why is that animal over there? It is there for a reason??
Lily    - - - - -

I was asked yesterday in a Math Learning Committee, “How do you know when your students are learning? My quick response was, “When they are asking the right questions.” That is exactly what Lily did above. What I liked most about her comment is that I thought of her question, (Why is the animal there?), before reading the comments. That question was going to be my ‘teacher comment’… but the students didn’t need their teacher here!

I couldn’t believe the breadth and depth of what was shared on-line.

- - - - -

These are small but significant occurrences in the wonderful world of web2.0h Yeah!

Here is the Powerpoint I ran continuously during the Renaissance Fair. It showcases some of the online learning that occurred during our time together: Part 1 and Part 2.

Here now are a few parting comments from students. These are from a voluntary reflection on the course:

From Cynthia, “I learned more by sharing than by searching.”

From Mona, “You actually get to learn with each other and help others learn.”

From Michael, “I really liked the use of blogs and forums for this project. It really keeps everyone connected even outside of school.”

From Lily, “It was fun doing this project and I enjoyed this kind of learning experience when you get to find your own knowledge rather than laying it all out for you. I feel that I have achieved something really good each time I've found some interesting facts on the blog and the dialogues, which made me put more time into these things. I realized that this could be another way of learning new things and also communicating with each other rather than finding information by yourself. Our project was very successful because our new idea really amazed a lot of people, rather than showing off Leonardo's inventions. I wish that people still contributed to the blog either on the forum or on the dialogue next year!”

(Lily checked in with her last post about 3 weeks after the course ended.)

With the Elgg upgrade, all my fine-tuning and added resources to my page have been reset. I will be re-formatting soon.

You might see some weird configurations as this progresses, but the posts should remain easy to read. Thank you for visiting! 

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/numeracy-and-problem-solving/

Math Professional Development day with Peter Liljedahl: Two sessions
1. Exploring Producibles: Getting the Genie Back in the Bottle.
2. Assessing Numeracy: How do you Photograph the Wind?

One of my goals for this year is to make Professional Development Days more useful. Too often I gather great information from a session and then 'file' it away never to be used... despite its usefulness! I have decided that I will always pick one thing from a session and make sure that I implement it immediately into my practice. I will take the problem below into my Math class on Monday! Problem solving is something I have always valued and this session was a good synthesis of many ideas that I find important in teaching Math. I will be taking a lot more than one thing from this session...

Problem:

You have two glass orbs of equal strength and a 40 story building.

Your task is to determine the highest floor from which you can drop an orb without it breaking.

What is the least number of drops required to do this?

Both orbs may be broken in order to determine your answer.

Problematic problems:
Solving ‘True problems’ rather than traditional ‘word problems’. “With word problems the problem is in the words, with true problems the problem is in the problem”… word problems are about the ‘right’ answer, “A train leaves Toronto at…”. True ‘Problem Solving’ is about your path to the answer, it has ‘better’ answers, not necessarily a right answer… (It may indeed have a ‘right’ answer, but when you get it, you can’t necessarily guarantee that it really is the best answer.) The question above is about problem solving! (Tell the problem in a story rather than putting it in print.)

Producibles:(anything that students produce – not necessarily to ‘hand-in’ -List below created in our session.)

• Presentation – Solution/ Think-Pair-Share
• Case Study – give them 3 floors… try it, did your theory hold up?
• Create a similar problem
• Pictures/Drawings (with explanation)
• Self Assessment
• Skit/Video/Audio

Aspects of Problem solving: Communication (talking, listening, sharing, debating, working together, questioning, helping, taking roles, co-operation), Brainstorming, creating, interpreting, testing, hypothesizing/predicting/guessing, organizing, risk-taking, getting stuck/frustration/disengagement, comfortable frustration, self-correcting, messy/loud, getting stuck, brainstorming, perseverance, using multiple strategies, thinking!

Which aspects do we value… and want to develop in our students?
What to we want to assess?

“A hundred years ago we used Grimm fairy tales to keep kids in line, the fear of a witches or big-bad-wolf. Now we use assessment.”

We need to make thinking valuable in class… if we just access 20 questions at the end of a unit/lesson etc. then what are we telling students is important? “Show your work” is really ‘show my work’. How good are students at truly showing their thinking? Your thinking is chronological not logical.”

Here are some producibles that can be used to look at ‘The Process’:

Reflective Journaling- Does not disturb the process, but creates a producible that is reflective of the process- can journal on many things- Tell me how working in a group contributed to your answer. Convince me of how hard you worked on this problem. (Moving the thing that you value into your evaluation)… but you must teach students what you expect from journaling!

Black/Whiteboards- Put everyone on a board… teacher in the center of the room.

Digital Photos- print and ask, “What were you doing at this point?” “How were you contributing to your group when this photo was taken?” –can be ‘in-action’ photos or after they are done.

Poster- lots of variety here… not just what is your answer… look at process.

Pictures- Draw a 3 (or 4) panel cartoon that shows me how you got to the answer that you did.

More producible strategies: Show your work; Show me how you know; Quiz/test; Problem solving journal; Graphic organizers; Narrative/story; Placemat; Time line organizer; Presentation/sharing; Self and peer evaluation.

*Pair these together: Digital photos used to spur a reflective journal entry.
Here are some Cooperative Learning Strategies.
When you assess process you need to:
1. Let students know what you are assessing, (Today I will be looking at your perseverance or team work etc.- Pick only one!)
2. Mark them/give them feedback on what you are assessing, (don't be afraid to be tough on them… and give them a chance to improve the next time)- call them on it!
-Show that you value the things that you value! (Problem solving aspects or skills that are important should be both announced and assessed.)

Kinds of Problems:
1. Planning Problem: “How many chocolate bars/drinks should you buy for the school dance?”
2. Fair Share Problem: Goody bags- you need 10 bags and you have 6 suckers, 8 chocolate bars, 12 glow-sticks, 3 party horns… “How do you ‘fairly’ make 10 goody bags?”
3. Estimating a large number of variables: “How many candy canes does the Santa at the mall hand out in a day?”
4. Modeling problem: “How do you organize classes so that you can get every other Friday off… without losing overall teaching time, and keeping a fair distribution of class times?”

Possible Producibles for All Students:
• Right/Wrong     -sometimes you can just say, "No, that's not right". (If the class culture makes this ok.)
• Step by Step Rubrics/Part Marks
• Content Rubrics
• Performance Standard Rubrics
• Holistic Rubrics

Assessing through Observation (Some students per day- not all)
• A holistic or specific focus observation of selected students on a given day… (Announce and Assess).

Here is a very useful Holistic Marking Rubric .

- - - - - 

There is a problem with our fascination with "Explain your thinking" as a tool to asses. I am reminded of an analogy in Blink,  by Malcolm Gladwell, on:

Unconscious Intuitive Thin-slicing: People are often unaware of how they make intuitive judgments.

Imagine that you have to solve this problem: two ropes are hanging vertically from the ceiling, too far apart for you to reach both at once, and you have to find ways to tie them together. One solution, which very few people come up with on their own, is to swing one rope, grab the other rope, and then catch the swinging rope. In one study, people get a subtle hint: the experimenter casually walks across the room in a way that involves brushing against one rope and making it swing slightly. Most of the people were able to pick up on the hint and identify the rope-swinging solution. However, only 1 of these people realized that they got the idea from the experimenter's brush with the rope. The rest came up with unrelated explanations of their inspiration. They had no idea of the process that led to their (successful) intuition. [Taken from Blargh Blog]

...Students don't always know where their ideas come from. Our school goal of 'Articulate Your Thinking' grew out of an e-mail that I wrote to our Math Learning Team that we had almost thee years ago. I still think it is important for students to articulate their thinking, and I have found this session interesting in the way that it challenged some of my thinking. Getting students to record their ideas chronologically can be a very insightful process that I will explore further.

This was an excellent opportunity to look at what is really important in Math. Just as I have been focusing on 21st Century Skills and the use of technology for learning, it was great to also revisit the parallels to Problem Solving in my Math Class.

It is interesting to note that Peter is fully aware that it is difficult to get all students engaged in problem solving, and he noted several times that this is true for other subjects too, and yet we still work at it... (Can you say that all your students were engaged with the Water Cycle in Science or with the Square Dancing unit in Gym?). You still have to use your skills as a teacher to engage students in the problems. Also, as you work on this 'sometimes messy' math, it is important to let students know what specifically you are assessing them for, and then you need to 'raise the bar' on expected producibles as students: get used to you assessing 'different' skills; and, as they improve their thinking skills!

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Resource: NRICH –need to filter, but some really good problems can be found here. It has a good internal search: by topic/grade(UK-so actually ‘level’)/difficulty.

- - - - - 

My ‘best answer’, so far, for the initial problem… with a 40 story building, the maximum number of orb drops I would need to determine the highest floor from which you can drop an orb without it breaking is ____ (I’ve got it in less than 10… so far). Feel free to post your best answer, but don't ruin it for others with an explanation here!

I am starting a collection of good numeracy tasks on my 'Practic-All' blog. Do you have a Numeracy Task you would like to share? (Click here)

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Images: 'Sphere_2720' by doviende, 'Producibles' chart by Peter Liljedahl, 'Swimming Hole Rope' by Cindy Seigle.

In my last post about my Numeracy Tasks Pro-D session with Peter Liljedahl, I mentioned an e-mail I wrote almost 3 years ago. I dug up that e-mail and found an interesting 'conversation' between Gary Kern and I.  My comments are after the e-mails.

- - - - -

From:David 
Sent:May 10, 2004 9:55 PM
To: [Our Math Learning Team, my principal, and a few other people whose opions I value]
Subject: School Goal(s)

Hey,
I've been bouncing these ideas around and would like to get your slant.
 
The BIG IDEA
One overall school goal of"Articulate Thinking"
 
Building the skills necessary to develop articulate students who can express their thoughts in meaningful, articulate ways.
 
The Philosophical Bent
I don't really care if my daughters, upon graduation, can identify the subordinate clause in a sentence or if they can tell me how to find the volume of a cone... I do care that they can express themselves in thoughtful, meaningful ways and demonstrate social responsibility in their decision making.
 
The GOAL(s)
1 main goal that we always focus on... especially with regards to our all-writes/ or our testing,
3 sub goals, but we only focus on one per year... across the curriculum!

Main Goal: Social Responsibility
Sub goals:
Year 1 - Structure of writing - Form, grammar, etc.
Year 2 - Verbal - speeches, presentations etc.
Year 3 - Visual/Spacial - charts, data, displaying information, etc.
(It could work that we divide this into terms and do all 3 per year, but I think 1 per year lets us keep it simple and focussed!)
 
The Buy In
So, how do we focus on one per year... across the curriculum? And how do we get ALL teachers involved?
In every class, we make a commitment to challenge students with a critical thinking challenge monthly or bimonthly. The topic of the challenge is course specific and preferably integrated with other subjects.
Examples
CAPP: Casa Guatemala, Multiculturalism, Bullying etc.
Social Studies: Current Issues, Religions etc.
Math: Problem Solving with real life application, Dream house, Planning a party, etc.
Science: E3 - Environment, Experiments, Ethics
Explorations: (examples)
Tech-Ed: Build a birdhouse that fits these minimum requirements... but these are the sizes of wood you are limited to...
Computers: Use [insert program here] to present the following information in a meaningful way
Home Ec.: These are the sizes of the individual pieces of material you will need for this sewing project...
  place them on this 1m x 1m piece of material so that you waste the least amount of material.
*Key idea... focus on critical challenges that force students to express and justify their ideas.
We have the opportunity to build and sequence these during pro-d!
 
How the Sub Goals work
Year 1 - Structure of writing - All of the challenges above have a written component and EVERY teacher has a part of their marking rubric factor in Form/Convention/Grammar ... Structure of writing.
Year 2 - Verbal - All of the challenges above have a presentation component and EVERY teacher has a part of their marking rubric factor in verbal communication of ideas.
Year 3 - Visual/Spacial - All of the challenges above contain data collection and/or graphing etc., and EVERY teacher has a part of their marking rubric factor in visual representation of the information/ material.
 
This is not done for every project, but in each class, one of these assignments is expected every 2-3 months.
 
Back to the BIG GOAL
***The sub goals allow us to micro-teach the necessary skills needed to improve how we express ideas in written form, in our verbal communication and our ability to visually display information... skills that allow us to express our thoughts in articulate ways.
The main goal... Social Responsibility.. is where we collect our data to see how we are progressing... to give us feedback on how well students are doing, (and for that matter how well we are doing at teaching them these skills across the curriculum).
Once a term, or twice a year, we test kids using a critical question based on Social Responsibility topics. These would still be taught in CAPP and Advisory, and hopefully also taught in other areas... looking at the environment in Science, waste reduction in Tech Ed and Home Ec. etc.
 
How students are expected to respond to the critical question would depend on what year/sub goal we are focusing on:
Year 1 - Structure of writing - Essays
Example: Moral dilemmas
Year 2 - Verbal - speeches, presentations, etc.
Example: Speech on Bullying; Develop an Anti-smoking ad campaign... You must 'sell' this idea to your class.
Year 3 - Visual/Spacial - charts, data, displaying information, etc.
Example: Develop a 10 question survey on peer pressure and display your findings in a meaningful way.

Well there you go!
I'd like to hear what you think,
 
Dave

- - - - - 

Gary wrote:
 
Ahh, what do you want me to say?  It sounds like it could be a unifying concept that the school could rally around.  Kind of like Joey’s old EBS, but with an academic slant.
  
I might argue that these goals are already taught by your Language Art teachers, so the main benefit is that everyone is working towards the same outcome. To that point, the LA teachers touch on those skills every year.  The main problem, as I see it, isn’t that we aren’t doing a good job teaching these skills, it is that we have 5 – 20 % of the kids who don’t get it.  These are the kids that we need to focus our goals on – these are the ones where academic interventions are required.  If we add more teachers teaching a concept, the real question is to what extent are we going to improve the ability of the 5 – 20 %ers?  If we aren’t going to improve their skills, then don’t set the goals.
 
In saying that, perhaps all of our students need to be more articulate thinkers?  If so, than this is a well thought out plan!

Good luck,
Gary

- - - - -

David wrote:

It often comes down to that 5-20% doesn't it?
I wonder what we are doing now that isn't working with that group? Is there some school somewhere that handles this group well?
I'm not sure I challenge this group in a way that gets the most out of them, but then I spend too much time on giving them info (not a lot of time on the 3 higher levels of blooms taxonomy). If we challenged kids to think about 'no right answer' kinds of questions in every class, maybe we would be challenging and hopefully exciting some of these kids... maybe this is wishful thinking.
 
I can't help but wonder what is wrong with the structure of education that limits us from connecting with these kids???? If you built your own school what would be different?
 
Maybe a good discussion for our book club... not 'perfect world' education, but given the resources we have, what would we do differently if we had the budget of a current school and carte blanche permission to make the school look and operate any way we felt?

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Gary wrote:

Well Dave…
 
One must first challenge some age old assumptions.  Our system is built on the belief that “every kid can learn.”  Second, we believe that every teacher can teach every child.  Thirdly, we assume that every child should be “with their appropriate age grouping.”
 
If we want to unlock the potential of our students, these assumptions must be examined.
 
Can every child learn?  Developmental psychologist will answer by saying “maybe.”  Developmentally, many of our students, especially at the middle level, are stunted in their thinking.  They lack the ability to “integrate” the sensory world. They lack the ability to temper dual thoughts. They even lack the adaptive process that we assume all people possess. So their answer to that question is “maybe.”  For students to learn, Gordon Neufeld says they must be ready.
 
Can every teacher teach every child?  Come on, we all know that we can’t be all things to everyone. Even good teachers will eventually meet their match.
 
Finally, should every child be with their appropriate age?  I’m of the opinion that the greatest thing in our kids lives is their peers.  So much so, that peer pressure is ruining their lives.  Students don’t come to school to learn, they come to school to meet their friends.  A true cart before the horse analogy.  Again, Neufeld would suggest that this very notion of peer influence is what is causing some kids to be unable to learn. He believes peers stunt our growth and block us from learning.
 
So, the solution?
 
 I will put a computer in every students hand.  I would keep students in “similar age groupings”, but I wouldn’t guarantee their same age grouping.  I would differentiate all learning, but I would try to cluster learning objectives so that teachers can continue to play a crucial role in learning and still be the main facilitator for learning.  The computer, in its ideal form, is the tool that allows us to individualize student work.  It will allow us to communicate in real time, learn in real time, and assess in real time.  It will be the lever to better learning.  Teachers, however, will need to be better than ever before. They will be the fuel for the flame.
 
My middle school would thus have grade 6 – 8 classes. Some students would remain in the class for only a year before going on to grade 9. Others might stay for four years. Teams of teachers would still work together to deliver the curriculum, but the interaction and model would be much different than today.  Some genius will lay out the curriculum into standards and objectives that are clear and easy to follow.  Teachers will bring the objectives to life, and technology will allow students to demonstrate their learning in ways unimaginable only a few short years ago.  Problem based learning and rich task learning will be for the masses.  For our 5 – 20 %, reading recovery, math recovery, writing recovery will be their focus.  We won’t be ashamed to actually help people progress.
 
Finally, students will come to school to learn.
 
Is it possible?
 
G

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My thoughts on this conversation:

It was great to re-read this and see where my thinking was 3 years ago... it was before I saw the value of technology in education, and yet it wasn't very long ago!

I thought this was pretty insightful of Gary, "Teachers will bring the objectives to life, and technology will allow students to demonstrate their learning in ways unimaginable only a few short years ago.  Problem based learning and rich task learning will be for the masses." 

This idea of many students not fitting into school, or rather schools not fitting many students, has been a something I have considered a lot... especially in my Square Peg, Round Hole post. The concept of being socially responsible applies equally if not more so in this technological age, (note: my Blogging Rules).

"One overall school goal of 'Articulate Thinking'. Building the skills necessary to develop articulate students who can express their thoughts in meaningful, articulate ways." This might have been a lofty goal three years ago, but after reading Thomas Friedman and David Warlick, maybe it is time that education focussed on, as Gary suggests 'differentiating all learning'. It is the side trips of learning that students enjoy. Maybe when we are better at meeting students needs, they will have the motivation to meaningfully participate... and therefore be more compelled to be the 'Articulate Thinkers' they need to be in the 21st Century!