Student-Driven Learning

Although USA based, this article looks at student driven learning and essentially the start of inquiry learning which is huge in the district I work in.

STUDENT-DRIVEN LEARNING

Most student-driven classrooms start with a question. It’s usually one that springs from a common place but allows for individualization by students based on their interests. It allows them to build questions and go about answering them, utilizing the skills and knowledge that the curriculum provides. The teacher facilitates this learning, to be sure, but also gives authority to the student to “own” their question. The student moves to center stage and the teacher assumes a supporting role.

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Gustav Klimt Art

Gustav Klimt Art can be fin especially with all the lines and details. I found some cool kids art based on the artist and wanted to share some examples. These are all from one of my fave art teacher blogs.

The teacher/blogger wrote: While I love most of Klimt, there is a lot out there that isn't appropriate for young children.



Tree of Life art..... 

The hawk, in the Tree of Life.

 Patterned dress like that of Klimt

Black Death Simulation Game

As a wrap up to the Feudal Games unit my grade 8s have been doing, they participated in a "Black Death" simulation game. You can find the rules and details online bu searching "Black Death bean simulation" I was going to link it here but I couldn't link to the .pdf correctly.

I had told my students about the activity a bit before hand, only that they would participate in the simulation and get an idea of how the plague spread and killed so many people.

The prep work is quite extensive, but well worth it! Luckily I had an SEA in the room the first round, and then our teacher-librarian / resource teacher came by to help re-set the game for the second class.

I will include some basic instructions here, but you should read the online package that goes through it all in more detail.

For me, it was an engaging activity that showed the impact of the plague and led to discussions about how and why the feudal system ended and what that looked like.

I loved the questions and comments students came up with. What a nice way to wrap up the feudal system. After Spring Break they will start a "Castle" unit where they get to research and build castles. My job share partner has so many awesome units to make Socials Studies fun!

Now if you want to try this simulation (LOOK IT UP ONLINE FOR FULL DETAILS).... Here is a brief overview....


Here is what you need:
-24 paper bags (1 for each city)
-24 dice (1 for each city)
-beans... I used black eyed peas for "healthy" stays, black beans for "plague" and redbeans for "cholera". (They recommend white beans, pinto beans and red beans in the directions online, but as long as you let students know what bean represents what result it is fine. You could probably even use something else besides beans as long as they feel the same in shape and size.)
-photocopies of the "journies" and "instructions" and "map"
-a large class map
-graphing paper

Prep Work:
-put "healthy" beans in each city bag (instructions recommend 200, I used less.
-put the coordinating number of "plague" and "cholera" beans in specific bags (instructions outline which cities get which amount)
-label paper bags with city name
-place bags around classroom with a die in front of the bag
-hand out copies of map, instructions to all and the different journies to each student.
-review in detail - I went over it a few times and had to pause the simulation to clarify.
-Students follow the journey on their sheet (there are 6 different journies so students are at different stations etc.)
-when they arrive they roll the die to determine how many days they stay in that city - that is the # of beans they pull from the bag. If all "healthy" they move on, if "plague" or "chlorea" they mark on their map "infected" and in the next town they roll the die to determine how many "plague" beans to put into that cities bag (infecting the city), the 2nd city after infection is where they "die".

I encourage you to read the online instructions as it is more detailed than this....

Game: Electricity

A fun game to play as sponge or time-filler at the end of the day...

Summary: Squeeze your teammate's hand as quickly as possible- only if the coin comes up as heads! Goal: Be the first team to grab the object, if the quarter comes up as heads. Preparation: - A quarter - An object for teams to grab (ball, stuffed animal, water bottle, etc.) How to Play Electricity: 1. Arrange everyone into two equally numbered teams. Have both teams line up in parallel lines. At the end of the line, place the object about five feet away (in equal distance from both ends of the line). You’ll be at the head of the line. 2. Explain the rules: Everyone in line will need to hold hands and close their eyes. Only the first person of both lines can open their eyes. Flip the coin in the air, catch it, and reveal the quarter to the first person of both teams. 3. If the quarter comes up as “heads”, the first person squeezes the next person’s hand. The second person squeezes the next person’s hand, and so forth. At the end of the line, the last person runs to grab the object. The team that grabs the object first wins a point for the round. If the quarter comes up as “tails”, then no one squeezes anyone’s hand. If there’s an “accidental” hand squeeze and the quarter comes up as “tails”, the team that grabbed the object loses a point for the round. 4. For the second round, the first person goes to the back of the line and the game continues. The first team that reaches 10 points wins the game. Source: http://www.greatgroupgames.com/electricity.htm

Free Download: Jeopardy Power point template

If you have a usb flash drive you take with you to TTOC, or a laptop, this is a great something to have saved for "whenever"

This site has a free download of a jeopardy powerpoint. If you are in a classroom with a SMARTboard or projector this is an awesome, engaging way to make lessons exciting. You can edit it to any type of question/answer.... I love it!

A Beautiful Way to Stop a Bully - Shane Koyczan 'To This Day'

I love Shane Koyczan.

For one, he's Canadian.

But also, an amazingly talented slam poet!

I had the pleasure of meeting him at Grouse Mountain during the Olympics. I was up to watch the TODAY SHOW and shared a gondola with him. He was very kind, though a bit shy and my daughter and husband posed for a photo with him and even got an autograph. He was well-known then as the slam poet who did "We Are More" at the Olympics.

This time he talks about Bullying and is called "To This Day" (there are some swear words FYI) but it is moving and was presented at TED in Long Beach CA. last month.






At 1:10, he talks about the unfair question grown-ups always asked when we were kids.

At 1:41, he walks through his career choices.

At 2:11, some adults tell him something awful.

At 3:00, he decides on an impossible career.

At 3:48, he blows my mind.

At 4:50, he quotes an line from a cartoon. I never knew how epic that line was.

At 6:00, the audience realizes something tragic and funny.

At 7:36, he rips my heart out.

At 8:41, something awful is said.

At 9:15, he preaches the truth.

At 10:00, he has a message to every kid who was ever bullied.

At 10:49, you have to do what he says.

At 11:28, he gets to the beautiful, beautiful point. And everybody gives him a standing ovation.

You can see the original version of his beautiful animated poem here. You can buy it here. And you can share his inspiring message by clicking the share buttons below.


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Middle E-Connections

Bring Class Discussions to Life

January 2013
Rick Wormeli
"Beuller? Beuller?"
Look in on class discussions today and what you'll see (I hope) is a far cry from the classroom of gaping-mouthed, drooling, blank-faced students in the John Hughes 1986 film Ferris Beuller's Day Off.
One great way to get students to think critically and move information into long-term memory is through dynamic class discussions. However, ensuring these discussions are effective requires clear principles and strategies.
Whoever asks the questions does the learning. If I ask a student about a topic and listen to his answer, especially if I'm interested in the topic and the student, I'm learning a lot, but the rest of the class is sitting passively. Do you see something wrong with this picture? I am the teacher; I already know the material. My goal is for students to learn it. Students, therefore, need to be asking the questions.
Students learn the most when they ask the questions themselves. To make this happen, teachers have to make question-asking compelling and habitual. As often as possible, ask students to brainstorm questions, queries, and investigate starting points for as many topics as time allows to get them in the habit.

• Create 10 questions to which "colloquialism" is a good answer.
• What are all the possible things we'd want to know about cuneiform writing?
• What do you wonder about your future?
• What questions might a visitor from another planet ask after observing our election process?
• Pretend you're a radicand (the number under the radical sign in a square root). What would concern you as this math algorithm progresses?
• Create all the "Why … ?" questions you can about light and the way it behaves.
• Skim the whole chapter and list at least eight questions the chapter seems to answer.

Making question-asking compelling is another issue, however. Here, we're trying to make students so curious that they form their own questions: "Why does it do that?" "What will the effect be?" "What are the exceptions to this rule?" "Why do you believe that?" "How is this false?" "Where's my mistake?" and "What would happen if … ?"
We can create curiosity by presenting students with puzzling phenomena, surprising facts, challenges to accepted opinions, appeals to imagination, playful situations with manipulatives, connections among seemingly disparate concepts, moral dilemmas, and personal dramas when facing struggle.
Another way to involve more students in active question-asking is to get your students to ask the follow-up questions. If one student answers the initial question you pose, ask a second student to offer evidence to support or refute the first student's response; then ask a third student to critique the second student's evidence. Go back to the first student who provided the initial response and ask her to respond to what the other two students said. This creates positive anxiety in the classroom. We want students so concerned that they will be called upon to say something intelligent that they remain on their toes mentally. To be effective, we have to make a habit of this redirection so that students know it's going to happen. This keeps the entire class thinking of answers and questions to ask.
Another tip for keeping the whole class engaged is to always pose questions to the entire class before calling on a specific student to respond. This invites percolation, which builds those neural pathways. Wait time is important as well. Research shows that waiting 10 seconds or more before calling on a student to respond leads to more depth, thinking, and investment in the conversation. It takes practice, but it's worth promoting this expectant silence so that students know you're counting on them to come up with a quality response.