From page 46: "These six building blocks are necessary whether you're devoting an entire class or a portion of a class period daily or weekly to student-defined, passion-based projects. Every such class needs to be: Collaborative, Task-Oriented, Daring, Relevant, Reflective, and Ongoing."
In his section on Daring - I loved this quote: "In the cave you fear to enter lies the treasure you seek." How true is that statement? When we attempt and or achieve something we were afraid of, doesn't the satisfaction and fulfillment we feel with that achievement feel so much better? He continues by saying, "When students know they can trust that the teacher will not punish them for trial-and-error learning, they really start to push the limits of meaningful projects." As we have all commented earlier, we need to teach them and show them that it is ok to fail. Quite often, they will learn so much more about the topic - and themselves - when they fail and try again and again until they succeed. They will remember what did not work. They will remember what did finally work and they will have so much more pride in their results knowing they overcame the hard times and failures. I tell my fourth graders quite often that it is ok to struggle - they need to try on their own instead of rushing to ask for my help. Let them fail! As long as they learn from their past attempts and continue on and don't give up.
Andi McNair, a teacher at Bosqueville Elementary in Texas wrote, "I want my students to learn how to fail, how to struggle, and most importantly how to try again. As their teacher, I should be preparing them for the real world, rather than a place where every problem has a correct answer and all of their questions can be answered by an adult or a textbook." AMEN Ms. McNair - I agree WHOLE-HEARTEDLY!
Some examples of projects her students worked on were:
Introducing Augmented Reality to Teachers
Planning a 5K Run to Raise Money for Cancer
Finding Ways to Decrease Animal Euthanasia
Creating and Sharing New Ice Cream Flavors
Sharing Why Snakes are not All Bad
Teaching Others How to be Safe While Hunting
Finding Ways to Make Local Hospitals More Comfortable
Creating a Website for Students to Share Book Reviews
What a great range and collection of projects! Each passion project can be constructed and completed on their level.
What were your thoughts and/or take-aways from this chapter? Please share!
Being a high school teacher...I see students that either a) persevere through a problem or b) students who just quit. It is frustrating to see a student who has the ability to tackle a problem, not even try because it is too long, or they don't "think" they know how to do it. Somewhere along the way they have fallen into this helpless generation. They have the internet at their fingertips yet refuse to take the time to look something up. I have tried to get my classes to use a level of help program. 1) the 3 r's: reread, retry, rethink. 2) Resources: Notes, online google search etc. 3) Others: Try asking a neighbor. 4) Teacher: Do I finally need to ask for help. I try to make the students go through these steps before they ask me for help. Sometimes it is hard for me to let go because as a teacher I naturally want to help my students, but I know that they will need these skills in real life. I don't completely let the students off the hook either. I don't just let them quit. If they get to this point I hedge them in the correct direction without giving too much info. I loved the projects that the students came up with in the book and would love to see that implemented into a class here at the High School. Not sure if I could utilize it in math class, but a humanities class would be fabulous!
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of problem solving ability isn't just with high school students. I think we are naturally geared to attempt to find the path with least resistance. The problem is that the short term path creates a much bigger long term issue.
DeleteThis is precisely why I like the idea of genius hour. It actually forces someone to work through a project from start to finish.
As far as how this applies to math, what if you gave various problem scenarios where the students had to research and utilize the tools they are learning in class to apply it to a real world situation?
I want to apologize to the entire group. I have been unable to keep up with the book study due to some health issues I've been experiencing. I regret my lack of participation. I hope to catch up as soon as I can.
ReplyDelete"Every such class needs to be: Collaborative, Task-Oriented, Daring, Relevant, Reflective, and Ongoing."
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the crux of what we want every classroom to be? Isn't this what we imagined our classrooms to be when we first entered the teaching profession. I feel like this is something we have lost as a whole trying to teach everything.
Kids learn best when it is there choice. I feel that there are elements of this mindset that should be infused in everything we do.
Maybe I'm just crazy...
I am finally catching up on my commenting. Tackling 2 book studies at one time has proven to be challenging to say the least. This chapter brings to mind my use of Class DOJO. They have 5 short videos that I shared at the beginning of our school year. It is all about having a growth mindset. I should revisit these videos this time of the school year. The thought of all this state testing is new to my third graders and sometimes it gets overwhelming with a sense of "test burn out".
ReplyDeleteI have a sign hanging in our room, that goes along with this series is states: Fail- First Attempt In Learning. This speaks volumes and every students needs to buy into this simple truth.
In the Housing and Interiors class I teach they have to do a project researching a career in the field. ( Most take the class for personal gain, and fun. ) I have had several be really good and decide to explore further classes or career options. As part of the project they must make a contact with a local person who does this job. Most were really intimidated by this thought of talking with someone. I gave them options of email, phone or personal. I had one group make personal contact and invited her to speak to the class. It was a great learning opportunity for all of us. I even picked up a couple of explanations that helped make sense of current community issues. These two students learned so much more then others because of that contact. Most just emailed and got just the bare minimum. As was stated earlier some were afraid or didn’t know how to look up information on the internet. (example community offices and business)
ReplyDeleteAll of this to say, the students who made collaborative connections got so much more out of their project then working on their own.
In my genius hour class (one period per week) they are exploring maker space. Next week we will look at “MAKING THE TO DO LIST” (goal and plan) often we get stuck at the idea and no thought of how to execute.
A great six parts to keep the organization flowing.
When we get the special teachers involved in a project you can just feel the enthusiasm rise. The media specialist starts collecting the research materials. The art teacher plans on how to display or "sell" the project. When the students see us collaborating, they see how we need other academic areas. I am starting to think more about how our projects relate to our community--perhaps we should visit the recycling center so they see what happens then.
ReplyDelete"The real quest for teachers is to get students to understand and appreciate the value and joy of learning." I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. That may mean thinking outside the box when it comes to teaching as encouraged in this book. I appreciate the author going into greater detail for the six building blocks of innovative learning and giving examples of how teachers incorporated this process into their classrooms. One of the teacher's biggest challenges is helping students to be okay with failing and not worrying so much about their grades. For some students this will be a challenge perhaps not so much for younger students in early elementary grades. I'm still curious how this will work with primary grades such as first grade.
ReplyDelete