ImagineIT Round 1 Report
What I've Learned
The book that my Deep Play group chose to read, Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach, built on the lessons and themes covered in The Dreamkeepers. In Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings argues the culturally relevant teaching allows students to create connections between their community, national, and global identities and see students as the source of knowledge, rather than the teacher.
In Problem-Based Learning, John Barell provides activities and advice to implement this strategy in your own classroom. In PBL, students are presented with a problem and then work to generate solutions to this problem throughout the unit. I believe that this is one way to implement the culturally relevant teaching Ladson-Billings promotes in her book. Rather than spoon-feeding students information through lectures and guided-notes, students are empowered to seek out information, hypothesize, and test their own ideas.
Barell also writes about creating a classroom environment that supports PBL. While I believe I had accomplished this with flexible seating, blended learning, and a maker space, one fear that I had was that the culturally relevant practices I had implemented would be overshadowed by the more "traditional", assimilationist practices of not only the other teachers in my building, but the teachers my students had all through elementary school. My colleagues helped me focus on my project and reminded me that in my role I am only responsible for what is going on in my own classroom and that I can't change instruction across the entire building, network, or even district.
My students asked me to create more opportunities to take on the identity of different scientists through problem-based learning like they had done during their freshman year. Also, they suggested that I complete my own 20% project alongside them, which I have started. The problem that I am working on is how will we go about convincing people to leave Earth and colonize other planets. I modeled how I came to this problem with my students before they wrote their proposals for this round of projects. I have also walked students through my work plan to give them a better idea on how they should be dividing their work time.
New Insights
By implementing PBL more in my classroom and allowing students to have more voice, I assumed that they wouldn't want to hear from me as much. In fact, students were incredibly interested in knowing what I thought and what I was going. In Problem-Based Learning, PBL is described as a more student-centered approach to learning, but in my context I found it to be a cooperative approach where students and teachers learn from each other.
Planning for Round 2
In Round 2 I want to incorporate more opportunities for students to share their ideas with the entire class. Students regularly work in pairs or small groups, but I want to implement weekly Socratic seminars to allow students to share their ideas and evaluate proposed solutions to our unit problems. I experimented with this technique with my One Goal students during the week of December 12th, 2016 and am looking forward to implementing it in my environmental science class.
Additionally, after our December face-to-face meeting I want to host a TED Talk style presentation during the school day or after school for students to present their 20% projects with the school community and their families. In order to prepare for this I will be inviting teachers to sit in on our presentations in January ask the for their feedback on how to create an event either during or after school hours. I hope that by presenting for an outside audience students will give them a greater sense of pride and satisfaction in their work.
The book that my Deep Play group chose to read, Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach, built on the lessons and themes covered in The Dreamkeepers. In Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings argues the culturally relevant teaching allows students to create connections between their community, national, and global identities and see students as the source of knowledge, rather than the teacher.
In Problem-Based Learning, John Barell provides activities and advice to implement this strategy in your own classroom. In PBL, students are presented with a problem and then work to generate solutions to this problem throughout the unit. I believe that this is one way to implement the culturally relevant teaching Ladson-Billings promotes in her book. Rather than spoon-feeding students information through lectures and guided-notes, students are empowered to seek out information, hypothesize, and test their own ideas.
Barell also writes about creating a classroom environment that supports PBL. While I believe I had accomplished this with flexible seating, blended learning, and a maker space, one fear that I had was that the culturally relevant practices I had implemented would be overshadowed by the more "traditional", assimilationist practices of not only the other teachers in my building, but the teachers my students had all through elementary school. My colleagues helped me focus on my project and reminded me that in my role I am only responsible for what is going on in my own classroom and that I can't change instruction across the entire building, network, or even district.
My students asked me to create more opportunities to take on the identity of different scientists through problem-based learning like they had done during their freshman year. Also, they suggested that I complete my own 20% project alongside them, which I have started. The problem that I am working on is how will we go about convincing people to leave Earth and colonize other planets. I modeled how I came to this problem with my students before they wrote their proposals for this round of projects. I have also walked students through my work plan to give them a better idea on how they should be dividing their work time.
New Insights
By implementing PBL more in my classroom and allowing students to have more voice, I assumed that they wouldn't want to hear from me as much. In fact, students were incredibly interested in knowing what I thought and what I was going. In Problem-Based Learning, PBL is described as a more student-centered approach to learning, but in my context I found it to be a cooperative approach where students and teachers learn from each other.
Planning for Round 2
In Round 2 I want to incorporate more opportunities for students to share their ideas with the entire class. Students regularly work in pairs or small groups, but I want to implement weekly Socratic seminars to allow students to share their ideas and evaluate proposed solutions to our unit problems. I experimented with this technique with my One Goal students during the week of December 12th, 2016 and am looking forward to implementing it in my environmental science class.
Additionally, after our December face-to-face meeting I want to host a TED Talk style presentation during the school day or after school for students to present their 20% projects with the school community and their families. In order to prepare for this I will be inviting teachers to sit in on our presentations in January ask the for their feedback on how to create an event either during or after school hours. I hope that by presenting for an outside audience students will give them a greater sense of pride and satisfaction in their work.