Skip to main content

Less Physics Mo Problems

By
Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs.  In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year.  Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home.  I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms that are
Post a Comment

Entering the LAUNCH Cycle: LAUNCH Book Study Part 2

Image
By



I have dived into reading the next 3 chapters (Chapters 4 - 6) of LAUNCH by John Spencer and A. J. Juliani which cover the first three steps of the LAUNCH Cycle. The book does a great job going into depth about what each step entails and what it looks like with specific examples.  I would be doing the work of the authors a great disservice trying to create a Cliff’s Notes version of their text, because what resonates with me for my classroom practice may not resonate with others.  Also, the text is so rich that it needs to be read.  It’d just be retyping the book. I think that’s plagiarism. In lieu of that, I hope to provide some of my highlights below.

Step 1: Look, Listen, Learn

I love the way that this step is framed.  It’s the why of the process.  But, it’s clear that the “why” is not an extrinsic motivation.  The desire to create comes from the student.  So, this first step is seen as raising interest or awareness. The authors go over 7 different ways to tap into student awareness and build intrinsic motivation to find want to learn. They go into great detail on each of the 7 ways to get students all in.  I’ve created a rough graphic below differentiating the different ways to tap into student awareness.  Consider this iteration 1.  I look forward to going back and refining it. Any feedback would be appreciated.



Step 2: Ask  Tons of Questions

Spencer and Juliani frame this step as the bridge between awareness and research.  But, they are careful not to say it’s just about asking questions. If the first step is about raising awareness, this step is all about wonder.  This means that learners should not be afraid of stupid questions.  They should “think like a three-year-old”.  Students should open the floodgates of questions.  I have found in my experience that students are not great question crafters. They don’t ask enough questions to get deep into the topic, and they don’t ask questions that are specific enough for research.
In my class, I am the one asking the questions.  So it shouldn’t surprise me that students are at ease with answering questions and struggle with crafting questions. Juliani and Spencer make it clear that by wondering and asking questions regularly, students will become better question askers.

The authors provide 14 different strategies to help students ask better questions.  These cover all content and span different age groups.  Here are some that I found powerful and can’t wait to put into practice.
Wonder Days: Days where students choose a topic they are curious about and research it. Then, they summarize and see what new questions they have.  Love this.  They recommend doing this early in the year to create a culture of questioning. I plan on pulling this out week one.
Give Feedback: When students develop questions, they need feedback.  This feedback will lead to refinement.  This is not just teacher feedback, but peer feedback.  With today's digital tools it’s easy to share and comment.  When peers provide feedback, this helps everyone learn what better questions look like.

Model the process with your own questions: Too often I come up with dummy questions.  I really think it would be great to go through the process with students using my own interests.  I am doing it with this book, why not put that on display for my students as well. If it’s good enough for them, why am I not doing it too?!

Provide support: The book offers great sentence starters for questions.  I won’t share them here.  You’ll just have to get the book.

Simply asking more and more questions students begin to see the scope of their problem.  So, the act of asking questions defines the problem being solved.  That was a great insight!  Too often I’m ready to jump to research without this important bridge step.

Step 3: Using the Information
I feel like the research process has gotten to a point where students dread it? How did it get to this point?  The authors and my students are in agreement.  When research is more about the structure and filling out forms it has gotten away from discovery and into task completion.  I am guilty of this.  I resolve to correct the error of my ways.
Yes, it’s important for students to record findings of their research.  But, there should be flexibility. The authors recommend providing scaffolding, but not too much.  Research is not linear.  Students may have to take a break from research to reevaluate questions.  But, even before beginning research, the authors recommend students go back to their questions and narrow that massive list down based on these factors:
  • Connection to main topic
  • Specific
  • Object- and fact-based
  • Will it help find a solution
The authors also look for students to move away from simply using written text as their only source of research. What else is there?

Multimedia: many of my older students have discovered the greatness of YouTube for finding videos on topics.  But, just as good are podcasts and TED Talks.  The authors point out another great thing about using multimedia.  It helps build a key success skill, media analysis.  Students need to learn more than how to determine reliability of written texts in their daily lives.  They will be encountering multimedia on a greater basis.  So, this is an important life skill for them to develop. Question everything!
Exploring Data: The ability to analyze data sets is huge for many professions.  Not to mention, most standardized tests.

Interviews: The rise of social media means that we can connect with a world of experts we may never meet face to face.  I had students do this as a part of a personal learning project and I was amazed at how willing local and national experts were willing to respond and answer the questions my students posed.  This is powerful stuff.
Hands-on Research: As a science teacher, this is a big one. Conducting trials and collecting data is research. This is research that the student owns! The key is that students record their data.  Again, it’s important not to make this a rigid format. But, it does need to be recorded accurately.
No matter what form the research takes, the authors are clear on this point:
"The goal is for them to connect their research to their inquiry question so they can understand the larger problem they are trying to solve."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twitter Cards for Blogger

By
So, I’ve been seeing people with beautiful Twitter Cards in my Twitter Stream. They make it clear that there is a web page to visit and give a quick preview of what would be found. Something like the one below: I’ve been wondering how to get one of the cards to appear when I tweet out a link to my latest blog post.  Since I use Blogger, there is not a simple button to click to turn this on.  I had to find a way to paste new code into the HTML code of my blog.  It took some searching from multiple sites to get a completely functional.   This site though was quite helpful.  But, I’d like to walk you through my process and hopefully it helps a few out. There are a few types of Twitter Cards.  Two that at most frequently see are the basic summary card and the summary card with large image.  Below you can see the layout of each, but realize that they both have the same content pieces. This is going to look like a lot more work than it will actually be
14 comments
Read more

Personalized Learning Tasks and Roles

By
Yesterday, I read a great post by Jim Rickabaugh dealing with the roles of learner and teacher in a personalized learning environment by looking at tasks . The roles were set up on a continuum. This article timed perfectly with a reflection on part of Students at the Center by Allison Zmuda and Bena Kallick on idea generation and task development I had in mind. These two works are the focus of my reflection here. I think a key misunderstand teachers have when it comes to digging into personalizing learning is that for planning purposes, we no longer begin with standards but with student desires.  I believe like all good instruction, we need to start with the standards.  Think about it, standards are what we want all learners to know and be able to do as a result of passing through our educational system. That is why it is essential that we make sure that standards are representative of what we believe is important for learners to be informed and productive in their futur
1 comment
Read more

Pear Deck 101 + Q&A

By
  Last week, I presented as a part of Pear Deck’s Pear Fair 2020. My presentation was Pear Deck 101 for Google Slides. During the presentation, there was a live chat. Many people said it went too fast for a 101 Session. Luckily, it was recorded so it can be rewatched.  Also, many said that they wanted to know how to build a Pear Deck first. I structured the presentation to show what Pear Deck was before showing how to make one. Perhaps that wasn’t the best structure. But, I’m going to stick with my philosophy of showing what something is before showing how to make it. The presentation, which can be watched below, was structured in several different sections What is Pear Deck? Providing an overview of the experience from the Teacher and Student perspectives. How do you build a Pear Deck in Google Slides? How do you start a Pear Deck presentation? How do you end a Pear Deck presentation? Here is the Slideshow I shared during the session bit.ly/pearfair101 Time really flew in the sess
2 comments
Read more