Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Work That Matters: The Teacher's Guide to Project-Based Learning

Patton, A. (2012). Work that matters: The teacher’s guide to project-based learning. (pp. 22-30).
     London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Retrieved from
     http://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Teacher's Guide to Project-based Learning.pdf

Summary:
Work That Matters outlines the main components of Project Based Learning as exhibition, critiques, and multiple drafts. They assert that, not only will these components make your projects better, but they will increase the work ethic and culture of your classroom overall.

Exhibition is essential because it pushes students to do the highest quality work. "When students know that the work they are creating in a project will be displayed publicly, this changes the nature of the project from the moment they start working – because they know they will need to literally stand by’ their work, under scrutiny and questioning from family, friends, and total strangers." Exhibitions give students more feedback than a letter grade ever could and bring student's work into the community to be appreciated by a larger audience.

The book lays out a format for planning your own exhibition a possible rubric to use if your exhibition requires the use of an outside panel.


Quotes:
"When students know that the work they are creating in a project will be displayed publicly, this changes the nature of the project from the moment they start working – because they know they will need to literally stand by’ their work, under scrutiny and questioning from family, friends, and total strangers."

Analysis:
Work That Matters is a great guide for people new to the world of PBL. It walks the instructor through a step-by-step process for the essential components of a project. It also offers examples of projects that others have done before. 

I appreciate the delineation of why exhibitions are essential: to connect to the community, encourage more in depth content knowledge and as a format of assessment. In my research, I was looking for clarity on this matter. The book helped me realize that it's impossible to narrow down the purpose to one single thing, as exhibitions serve a variety of different purposes.

AW

Measuring the "Immeasurable"

Richardson, W. (n.d.). Measuring the "immeasurable". (2012). District Administration48(8), 92.

Summary:
Despite the fact that most parents and future employers are more concerned with students having the ability to solve problems and think critically, most of our current assessments measure these things. The article suggests that finding real audiences for student work is crucial towards assessing what they term "immeasurable skills". If we shift the focus of our assessments to these skills, we will be preparing our students better.


Quotes:
"Rarely is the first thing out of a parent’s mouth “I want them to develop the ability to solve differentiated equations” or “I want them to understand the causes of the Civil War.” "

"...
the tension is that when we focus our teaching efforts on optimizing the measurable, we risk neglecting the immeasurable."





"
It’s the important work of school leaders right now to find opportunities for students to do real work for real audiences, and opportunities to turn what they know into performance."

Analysis:

The article brings to mind a quote by Tony Wagner at the recent Deeper Learning conference at High Tech. He said "It no longer matters how much you know, it matters what you do with what you know." They actually mention Tony in this article. Although High Tech does a great job teaching students to "do something with what they know", I don't know how effective we still are in measuring student's ability to do this. Most classrooms still base their grades on content knowledge. Even POL's (at least in 6th grade) focus primarily on re-presenting content that students have learned throughout the semester. I wonder what we could do to more effectively measure the "immeasurable skills" mentioned in the article.

Assessing Applied Skills

DiMartino, J. (n.d.). Assessing applied skills. (2007).Educational Leadership64(7).

Summary: 
This article discusses the direct conflict between authentic assessment and the traditional Carnegie Unit used in most American high schools. Due to the Carnegie Unit, most schools are divided into 7 period days where each period is a different content area. Even if schools rearrange their schedules into a 4x4 block being creative with cross-curricular projects is difficult. This traditional method of teaching is not adequately preparing students for the workforce, such as communication, time management, critical thinking, problem solving, personal accountability and collaboration.

According to the article, authentic assessments require students to use the skills mentioned above and better prepare them for the work place. Some examples of these assessments include senior projects, exhibitions, portfolios and capstone projects. Unfortunately, these require a multidisciplinary approach that is not possible with a traditional schedule.

Several school districts across the country have abandoned the traditional schedule in order to better prepare their students. The MET school in Providence, Rhode Island. In MET, students work in groups to accomplish semester long projects. These often include working with community members and traveling to different countries. The culminating experience for each project is to present their project to a panel of peers, community members and faculty. Even though MET's students would be referred to as "hard to reach" in many traditional schools, they have an extremely high college acceptance rate.

Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, OH has had similar results. The school reduced the number of required course credits to 14 to make room for senior projects and portfolio assessments. During 9th and 10th grade, students take courses specifically designed to foster skills such as self-confidence, self-motivation, resilience, and adaptability. Students are assessed based on three portfolios that they compile over all 4 years: career readiness folio, democratic citizenship folio, and lifelong learning folio. In addition, students complete a senior project where they choose a topic, research it, and exhibit their work to an audience outside of the classroom.

In 2005, New Hampshire eliminated the Carnegie unit all together. In it's place, districts must identify core competencies and develop authentic assessments to check for mastery. They must also provide the state with evidence that their competencies are based on local and national standards.

Quotes:
"Authentic assessments require students to use prior knowledge, recent learning, and relevant skills to solve realistic, complex problems."

"
This new system moves authentic assessment from the trunk of the car to the driver's seat, where it will now serve as the predominant mechanism for awarding student credit both in and out of the classroom."


Analysis:
This article offered some interesting options for authentic assessment in the classroom. Although High Tech does not have to worry about the traditional battle with Carnegie units, they do have other restrictions. For example, most of these projects are designed for seniors in high school. It is reasonable to expect them to come up with their own projects, plan their own trips and organize their own exhibitions. Unfortunately, it would not be reasonable to expect middle school students to expect the same thing. We run into limited finances and resources to create opportunities like the article discusses. It makes me wonder how we can adapt them to work for our students as well.

As with many other articles I've found, this article talks of exhibition as an end of the year presentation (much like our POL's). I question what ways the schools mentioned here share their students' work on a more regular basis.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Project trust: Breaking down barriers between middle school children.


Batiuk, M. E., Wilcox, N. & Boland, J. A. (2002, Fall). Project trust: Breaking down barriers between middle school children. ADOLESCENCE, 39(155), 531-537.

Summary:
The main focus of this article was about a school that participated in a summer camp known as Project Trust that attempted to break down barriers of social groups in a middle school setting and the results of the study. The experiment made sure that students who were from different cliques (as labeled by themselves during the school year) were mixed with other members from other cliques and participated in training.  The 8 groups were “dorks” “preps” “Jocks”, “hicks”, “dirties” “hoods” , “alternatives” and “cheerleaders”. They would then participate in various activities through out the weeks of the camp.  These were a list of team building activities.  One example, which the article highlighted, was named “toxic waste”, which has students blindfolded dump sludge into another blindfolded teammates cup.  This was designed to build trust among the students and open lines of communication between peers that normally did not interact with each other in school.  The way the students were assessed during the study was on the social distance scale.  For example, if students rarely interacted, this would be, according to the scale, a 7 is the greatest distance between 2 people socially.  If they were best friends, it would be a 0.  This was how often the students interacted with one another.  They measured the relationship before they went to the camp and then after they returned to school in the fall to see the difference in how often peers communicated. 
            The results of the study were very informative. While there was an overall increase in social interaction however, the group of students whose social distance between decreased the most was the preps and the jocks. Yet the authors offer no theory as to why this occurred.  I speculate that the reason is because this was not the primary focus of the article, because they really just wanted to look at the efficiency of the camp and breaking down cliques.  The study concluded that, even though there were small changes, the students learned effective communication skills and empathy towards students who were different from their core group of friends. 

Quotes: “Kramer (2000) has established that patterns of individual exclusion in school settings contribute to violence among students because exclusion separates them from the informal social control networks provided by parents, schools, and communities. This lack of informal social control has been linked to diminishing social and cultural capital” (Batiuk, Wilcox & Boland, 2002)


“The training emphasized a mutual and reflexive process of problem solving and conflict resolution in which involved parties actively frame the understanding of both the problem and its solution. Teachers and students at the middle school overwhelmingly pointed to the ongoing problem of conflicts arising from student cliques.” (Batiuk, Wilcox & Boland, 2002)


Commentary: While I found the results of the study to be relatively surprising, I did not particularly like that the initial experiment was started in 1990. It did run for 10 years, but this still seems relatively out dated, though same patterns, cliques and themes still exist in today’s classroom. This article really got me thinking about the different types of cliques the students would identify in my school.    One bright spot of the article that I did appreciate was the activities that the students participated in because I feel that I could use these in the beginning of the school year to foster a more tolerating and collaborating environment. 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Fostering the Curiosity Spark


Crow, S. R. (2010). Fostering the Curiosity Spark. School Library Monthly, 26(5), 50-52.

This article is written for librarians, but much of what is discussed is applicable to me.  I also do not think that this journal is technically “scholarly”, but the  article was the first that has helped me make connections between curiosity and some of the theories on motivation.  The article is a summary of a study on traits of children who display information-seeking tendencies (basically a form of curiosity).  Students who exhibit the traits are interviewed and trends are noted (which in reality there aren’t many) and then suggestions are given to help cultivate curiosity.

I really like in this article how Crow talks about the natural wonder of children as demonstrated in the following quote:
“Developmentalists say that people are born with this “urge” to investigate the world and that it helps us to learn, to grow, and to survive. It is this force that is seen exhibited by primary students as they exuberantly explore the world of information.” (p. 50)

“Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation is all about being the origin or the pawn. DeCharms explained it this way: when persons perceive themselves to be the origin, they are intrinsically motivated to act; when they perceive themselves to be the pawn, they experience loss of self initiation in the action (1968). When individuals perform for extrinsic reasons (e.g., for grades or rewards, or to avoid punishment) an action that they formerly performed for intrinsic reasons, the activity becomes a “tool” they use to achieve a goal or to avoid an undesirable consequence; a means to an end rather than an end to itself.” (p. 50)
The above quote has gotten me even more excited about my action research.  Motivation has been something that has been nagging the back of my mind for a while and I love the ideas of this research tackling that issue.  I am especially interested in fostering intrinsic motivation since I detest grades and the value that students put on them.  Another related quote is below:
“students seek information not for the joy of knowing, but rather for an “A.” Considering society’s obsession with testing, standards, and grades, is it any wonder that students’ inner zest for learning decreases?”(p. 50)

“Yet some students continue to be curious. Their pursuit seems endless and insatiable, regardless of the external demands of the educational system. What has happened in the lives of these students to keep the curiosity fires burning?”(p. 50)
This quote is the wondering that leads to the study discussed in the article

The following quote highlights the importance of keeping inquiry open in order to give students autonomy to explore their own interest.  Also it highlights the need to scaffold and not put  kids out in the dark blind:
“If individuals feel they have a say in performing an action (autonomy) and feel capable enough not to fail (competence), they are more likely to want to engage in that action.”(p. 51)

The following quote was a big aha moment for me:
“All of the children in the study experienced what I’ve termed a point-of-passion experience: an event that triggered months (and sometimes years) of interest and in depth information seeking about a topic. For many of the children, adult attention turned these events into information seeking passions. Their “anchor relationships” got them to the library, took them on “interest” outings, or arranged special spaces for their investigations.” (pp. 51-52)
I feel that this idea of a “point-of-passion” experience could be my main point of attack when trying to develop curiosity in my students. I wonder how many students by 12th grade have had this experience already?  How can I harness that?  For those who haven’t, how can I be that “anchor relationship” that encourages information seeking?

This article, like many others I have read, point towards inquiry-based learning as a technique to foster curiosity:
“Inquiry teaching methods parallel or “wrap” much of what I found in the experiences of my study’s intrinsically motivated students into a pedagogy that, if consciously used, might prove to foster more of these experiences.” (p. 52)

“Simply put, inquiry-based learning focuses on investigation and the process of learning rather than on finding the right answers.”(p. 52)
This makes me want to adopt at least parts of an inquiry-based curriculum, yet nothing else I have read on this style of teaching has gotten me excited.

A nice last comment from the article about the importance of staying student-centered:
“Fostering children’s curiosity spark can be pretty painless. It’s all a matter of putting the focus back on students. And the reward will be that more of them will come back next year, and the next, and the next…”(p. 52)

References of Interest:
  • Crow, Sherry R. “Relationships that Foster Intrinsic Motivation for Information Seeking.” School Libraries Worldwide 15, no. 2 (July 2009): 91-112.
  • Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum Press, 1985.
  • Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan, eds. Handbook of Self-Determination Research. University of Rochester Press, 2002.

Anatomy of an Exhibition

Brown Podl, J. (1992). Anatomy of an exhibition. Retrieved from 
      http://www.essentialschools.org/resources/191

Summary:
This article is about Margaret Metzger, a high school English teacher in Massachusetts. She had traditionally taught her seniors Dante's Inferno. Although students were often able to pass the tests, she found that they did not have a true understanding of the book. She wanted a different form of assessment that would require her students to have an in depth understanding of the material. She decided to try an exhibition with her students as a means to better assess her students.

The article asserts that there are three main purposes to an exhibition: making schools accountable to the community, generating information about how and what students are learning, and encouraging students to gain a deeper understanding of material.

In preparation for the exhibition, Metzger gave the students three assignments. They were each assigned a different Canto from the book. They had to prepare a presentation of the Canto to three outside judges: a student outside of the class, an adult from the school and an adult from the community. The second assignment was to write a paper about their Canto and include that in their presentation. Finally, students were asked to prepare a lesson to teach the class about their Canto.

Once the assignment was presented to the students, Metzger became a coach and facilitator in the classroom. She checked in with students throughout the process to make sure they were on track with their assignments and that they had a good understanding of the material. 

Metzger ran into a few dilemmas during the process. First, since most students had been taught in a very traditional manner, they did not have experience with innovative lessons. It was difficult for students to come up with engaging lessons because they hadn't been exposed to many in their careers. Metzger reflected that, in the future, lessons in teaching pedagogy would have to be embedded into the preparation time. Another dilemma was trying to find faculty members that were available to serve as judges. Finally, Metzger found that the criteria sheet she had prepared to evaluate the students was insufficient. It focused primarily on the preparedness of the students instead of asking the judges to reflect on student's demonstration of content knowledge. Metzger reflected that she would modify the sheets in the future.

After the exhibitions, Metzger and her students reflected on the experience. All of the reflections showed that students had a much better understanding of their Cantos and that understanding transferred while reading the rest of the book. Students also appreciated that the exhibition allowed them to refine their work until they got it right because of the way the assignment was laid out. In a traditional test, it's more of an all or nothing experience.

The end of the article outlined main keys for a successful exhibition: students must buy into it, students must take accountability for their own learning, students must share the workload, the teacher must prepare the students properly, the teacher must make sure that the steps are clear, the teacher must assume the role of a coach and exhibitions must be rigorous.

One 

Quotes: 

"In other words," Margaret realized, "my job is to set up situations so that they work hard. I do not want students to admire how smart I am; I want students to know how smart they are."

"
In their discussions, the students took charge, asserted themselves, and made substantive, original comments. Although the leaders were invested in a particular interpretation of the text, they valued what their peers contributed. The students created, expected, and enforced standards of intellectual rigor."



"During the exhibition," David recalled, "there was nothing to hide behind. When you write a paper or take a test, you disappear. In front of the class, you had to be responsible for what you said."

Analysis:

Although I found it a bit difficult to picture exactly what the students were presenting, I appreciated a lot of the points that this article brought to light. I have never thought of exhibition as an assessment, but I think it is worth exploring. One of my biggest issues with exhibitions as they currently are is that students are primarily regurgitating information over and over as parents circulate to their tables. I like the idea of using exhibition as a way to apply what they've learned in class to a new situation rather than simply a report of what they've already learned. In my class, I need to reflect on how to do this in an effective manner and what steps are necessary to truly prepare students in the days leading up to an exhibition.





The

A Mathematicians Lament



Lockhart, Paul. "A Mathematician’s Lament." Http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf. Mathematical Association of America, n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.

I am reading this article because I remember that it begins with the author's nightmare scenario wherein the math curriculum we use is applied to music and then visual arts.  I use a musical instrument analogy in my understanding  of how mathematics can be taught as well.  I am also reading it to buttress my ideas about the problems with teaching procedures rather than investigating and exploring.  Rather than having fun with shapes numbers and problems. 

General Reflection
I found this article difficult to read.   It was inspirational at times especially when h described mathematics as art and sharing and inspiring with anecdotes.  He was logical and compelling in imagined interviews between Simplico and Salvate.  Simplico would play the role of asking the questions on the minds of the incredulous reader and Salvate would correct his misperceptions.  I looked the names up and didn't quite have time to process the references but I am sure they are meaningful. 

Most of his time, though is not spent inspiring, it is spent railing against mathematics curriculum as it now stands and many of his positions resonate with me.  He laments the lack of real problems in math curriculum, the regurgitation of facts, the substitution of exercises instead of real honest to goodness creative problems, the over codified approach to teaching mathematics concepts, the lack of student discovery. 

Even though much of what he says resonates with me, honestly, I'm not sure what to make of it all.  I like the application of mathematics towards useful purposes and on this point we disagree.  But I find it difficult to think and read Lockhart at the same time because he is so righteous, so confident of his views that it is difficult to think critically about what he is saying lest you become part of the very thing he is raging about.  He also strikes me as close to brilliant and brilliance combined with righteous indigination is difficult to parse critically.

Another takeaway that I have from this article is that the way I wish to teach mathematics is not the way I was taught mathematics and that becoming a good problem based facilitator will require honesty and acceptance that it will take time and there are discoveries that I need to makes as well.

Musical Analogy
The analogy of a path through music that does not allow students to actually play until years after they have studied the minutia of music is an interesting one. I think think that a music instrument is an especially good metaphor for how I currently think about mathematics instruction, but I think it differs from Lockhart's view.  I think of both the play and the practice of the instrument as needing to be stressed.. Having lived for many years with a professional jazz and classical musician I can tell you that much of her time is spent practicing.  Same this for my uncle who is a professional musician.  Every morning us spent doing scales.  They are both amazing musicians and both practice all the time.  With mathematics I think about practice as something that reduces the cognitive load of more interesting problems and let's one engage in more interesting problems.  Of course it is pointless to practice scales  all day if you don't get to make music and make people love you and all the great things that go along with being a musician.   The instrument analogy also makes me think of alternately acceptable paths to understanding.  For instance I know a classically trained musician who has played in major orchestras and is considered an expert in her field, she realized at twenty something years of age that she was completely incapable of improvising.  There were kids who had only been playing for five years who could create music on the spot and express themselves in ways she could only dream of and some of them could not even read music.  This did not negate the path that she had taken through music but i made  her aware of the multiple paths and approaches. She has spent many years since mastering the art of improvisation and today is able to bring both of the approaches to bear on her art form.  This is sounding tangential o mathematics but I this about the debate about approaches to mathematic and wonder if again we are not talking about either or propositions,but instead both propositions.


Random quotes and responses

"So we get to play and imagine whatever we want and make patterns and ask questions about
them. But how do we answer these questions? It’s not at all like science. There’s no
experiment I can do with test tubes and equipment and whatnot that will tell me the truth about a figment of my imagination. The only way to get at the truth about our imaginations is to use our imaginations, and that is hard work." p4

Math for it's own sake is exciting but I wonder if it's appeal is a wide spread as Lockhart claims.  I project based learning I find that student enjoy the practical applications of mathematics. 

"By removing the creative process and leaving only the results of that process, you virtually guarantee that no one will have any real engagement with the subject. It is like saying that Michelangelo created a beautiful sculpture, without letting me see it. How am I supposed to be inspired by that? (And of course it’s actually much worse than this— at least it’s understood that there is an art of sculpture that I am being prevented from appreciating)." p5

This reminds me of the idea that the problem is not about the answers it is about the questions and the evidence of thought.  You don't read just the last page of the book you want to experience the whole thing and only then does the last page have meaning for you.

"It would be bad enough if the culture were merely ignorant of mathematics, but what is far worse is that people actually think they do know what math is about— and are apparently under the gross misconception that mathematics is somehow useful to society!"
Lockhart has a lot to say about the idea that mathematics should be studied because of its usefulness, that it is useful, is not nearly the most significant and beautiful about his conception of mathematics.  Although, he contradicts himself when talking about the beauty of story of the circumference of the circles.


"SIMPLICIO: So you blame the math teachers?
SALVIATI: No, I blame the culture that produces them. The poor devils are
trying their best, and are only doing what they’ve been trained to do.
I’m sure most of them love their students and hate what they are being
forced to put them through. They know in their hearts that it is
meaningless and degrading. They can sense that they have been made
cogs in a great soul-crushing machine, but they lack the perspective
needed to understand it, or to fight against it." p17

These kind of statements make Lockhart difficult to read.  He is not the only beacon of light in an otherwise dark world.  I am not sure how to summarize what I think he is doing in this statement.  He is suggesting that we are crushing the souls of the students we love - with out question.  But he is offering us an out if we admit our lack of perspective and admit that we are powerless cogs in a greater machine. He also claims to know my heart.  I dunno, I think if he was talking directly to  me at this point I might yawn.


"SIMPLICIO: So we’re supposed to just set off on some free-form mathematical
excursion, and the students will learn whatever they happen to learn?
SALVIATI: Precisely. Problems will lead to other problems, technique will be
developed as it becomes necessary, and new topics will arise naturally.
And if some issue never happens to come up in thirteen years of
schooling, how interesting or important could it be?
SIMPLICIO: You’ve gone completely mad.
SALVIATI: Perhaps I have. But even working within the conventional framework
a good teacher can guide the discussion and the flow of problems so as
to allow the students to discover and invent mathematics for
themselves. The real problem is that the bureaucracy does not allow
an individual teacher to do that. With a set curriculum to follow, a
teacher cannot lead. There should be no standards, and no curriculum.
Just individuals doing what they think best for their students." p23

I think this section is pretty powerful.  It seems to have vision for the future and for the present.  Maybe we can work towards a point where mathematics can be a freeform excursion.  But if that is the unreachable we can still 'teach' mathematics so that it is a process of discovery.