Poetry - A Grade 10 and 8 Collaborative Project

Many teachers at Fraser Heights have been experimenting with more collaborative, cross-grade projects.  We have found this experience to be extremely beneficial for our students, not only educationally, but also socially.  They are able to not only learn from each other, but also build relationships with peers in other grades, and thus develop a greater sense of school community in the process.

The Project:
Ms. Pelat's Humanities 8 class paired up with a student in Mrs. MacRae's English 10 class to create a collection of poems which illustrate 4 themes: School grounds/nature/neighbourhood; people (students, staff, etc.); The school building; Events/experiences/things that happened.

For each theme, the 2 students created a poetry response, demonstrating their understanding of various types of poems such as: Haiku, Diamante, limerick, villanelle, sonnet, free verse, tanka, etc.  They were expected to figure out what form (if any) to use for each theme, and also decide how to divide up the wiriting tasks.  This lead to conversations around trying to figure out with each partner was thinking.

After a 30minute nature walk, and once all of the poems were written, each pair of students presented their work to the class.

Our Observations:
Many of my grade 8s had trouble parting from their friends.  On the field, they clumped together and nearly refused to speak to their grade 10 partner.  However, after much separation anxiety, they were eventually able to walk around and write some of their observations down.  Some students made instant connections, while others still struggled with the idea of working with someone new and older/younger. 

In the classroom, we encouraged students to sit alone with their partner.  I believe this is where much of the bonding happened.  Many of the grade 8s (who hadn't had any poetry lessons at this point) asked many important questions regarding rhyme, syllables and types of poems.  This was a great experience for the grade 10s because their knowledge was tested as "experts" teaching their partners.

The Presentations:
When it came time to present their poems, all groups were very well prepared.  They had agreed on who would type out the poems and who would read what.  The grade 10s usually took control, giving introductions to each poem, and also gave their grade 8 counterparts encouragement to speak as well.  The classes were both very attentive as audience members, and many of the poems included verses describing their newly established relationship with their partner. 

Assessment:
This assignment is a summative assessment piece.  Both classes were engaged in formative assessment activities prior to the project, so they brought their own knowledge to this activity.  This project demonstrated their understanding of various types of poems and devices, as well as an ability to share understandings and knowledge.  During the presentations, Julia and I marked our students separately.  We then read through the poetry together, and came up with a mark that both students were given.

Summary:
This collaborative experience was quite positive for our grade 8 and 10 classes.  The students were able to build new relationships with students in grades they normally would not encounter socially.  Furthermore, the work that was produced was a joint effort.  The students were able to write about their experiences, as well and learn about someone else's.  They also had an opportunity to learn new styles of writing from their partners, and were motivated by their partner to complete the work creatively and with high expectations.

Now What?
Collaboration is a positive force in education.  Students and teachers are able to share ideas and understandings, leading to even greater learning.  As inquiry-based learning becomes more popular in education, collaboration is increasingly more important in the way we teach.  On a recent visit to Calgary Science School, I was inspired by the collaboration among teachers and learners.  See Learning from Calgary Science School for more info.  To learn more about my visit to CSS, check out my latest blog post on the fhsslearn homepage.  

Fraser Heights Secondary is working on various projects to increase collaboration in our school.  More and more teachers are working together to create projects, lessons, units and courses.  One example is a projects developed between our ELL course and Shop http://db.tt/EJYuTVMg You can also find a summary of the project on the fhsslearn "projects" page.

Technology?
It is a constant challenge trying to engage all students.  With the availibility of technology, we are able to develop more innovative ways to do so.  Using the iPads with this project can provide students will an opportunity to showcase their work in an alternative way.  Rather than using pens and paper, students can take the iPads outside, record what they see, feel, think, and also take pictures and video to display their encounters during their presentation.  They can use programs like Keynote as a presentation tool, and also create digital storybooks of their poems with apps such as iBook Creator.

Pelat's Civilization Revolution iPad Project in Hum8

(See project outline on “projects” page)

On May 2, 2012 my Humanities 8 class presented their experiences with “Civilization Revolution” (iPad version).  The task was to understand what leads to the rise and fall of civilizations, which is one of the key PLOs in the Hum8 curriculum.  For the entire year, my class has been trying to understand our world (past, present, future) using essential questions as our lens. 

Some of our questions so far:

1.       What makes us who we are

2.       What is power? Where does it come from?

3.       How does geography determine the success of a civilization?

4.       What leads to the rise and fall of civilizations?

As a class, my grade 8s are realizing the connectedness of all of these questions, which were visually represented in this game. 

To begin, I realized that the iPads were going to be a big deal when used for the first time, so after I went over all of the instructions, and after we developed a set of rules for proper use (which they were super excited about signing – to make it official), I gave the groups (of 3) the rest of class time to “PLAY” with the game.  They were so excited to get their hands on it, but the novelty wore off pretty quick and they couldn’t wait to start charting, brainstorming, answering the questions, and organizing their group ideas. 

My students are a rowdy bunch.  They get their work done, but it’s usually a very “enthusiastic” process, with lots of chatter and a ton of questions.  During the Civ Rev unit, I have never seen them so focused on their own work – usually they are interested in the groups around them, walking around, comparing ideas, but this time they were glued to the iPad and their group members.

I was so impressed, and ultimately surprised by the outcome of this “video gaming” project.  I wasn’t expecting the depth of the answers that were presented.  We used keynote as a tool with our Apple TV, which was really convenient and easy to use.  Each group stood up, connected, and shared their experiences with the class.  I couldn’t believe the connections the groups made, each one using their games as examples for successful and unsuccessful civilization development; but, what really got me, was when 3 out of 5 of the groups actually attempted to connect the game, the questions, and other lessons from earlier in the year, to their school and community! (I didn’t even ask them to do this!)

At the end of the class I asked some of my students what they thought of the unit and they seemed to really enjoy it.  One student said that they had such a fun time playing the game that they didn’t even realize they were doing work. They also looked back at a brainstorm they did in class a few months ago around the essential question and they compared their answers then to their understandings now.  It is clear that they now have a deeper understanding of what leads to the rise and fall of civilizations.  They have developed a one word list (leaders, beliefs, culture, etc) into a meaningful explanation, complete with visuals, historical examples, and modern day connections.  I have attached a copy of the project questions and guidelines for further reference.

Using the iPads - How do we maintain shared devices?

The Learning Design Team has been working hard to educate ourselves on iPad use in the classroom.  We are excited to try new things and share them with our students, however the only way to do that is to PLAY!  We have handed out 8 iPads to members of the learning design team (those who showed interest) and those people have been exploring various uses for about 2 weeks now.  We also had a Meet n’ Eat where we shared some of our learning and experiences with other staff members.  We are still trying to work out some of the “bugs” with shared devices (iPad cart) and are planning on expanding our classroom iPad protocol and maintenance education.  Jess has proposed to educate teachers (pro-d, meet n’ eats?) as well as give a talk at the beginning of the year at our grade assemblies on how to properly use shared devices.  Take a look at the great poster Vicki and Teresa found on Twitter (Go to the resources tab – it’s the first link).

Any FH teachers interested in familiarizing themselves with iPads, you are welcome to sign one out for the weekend (from the iPad cart – See Angela Monk in the Library) or if you are interested in creating a project and think you need a longer time to play around on it, find Jess Pelat in the IAT prep room as she has 2 available for sign out – these iPads are intended for innovative learning design and should be used to promote/develop collaboration and project-based learning.

Please keep in mind that these are shared devices that are maintained at a central location. Thus, please do not log in to your personal iTunes account as it causes problems for the facilitators and is very time consuming to adjust, delete, update, maintain.  Also, please make sure you delete any pictures or personal documents as anyone else using the device after you will have access to it.  Finally, it is advised that you do not log into your personal accounts (email, Twitter, Facebook) using the apps, as some people have encountered difficulty deleting accounts after due to various controls that are on our School iPads.  It is expected that this information is also shared with students when using the school iPad cart.  See Jess if you are having problems or have additional questions. 

Anyone with any ideas for apps to upload or purchase, let Jess know.

We are also looking for speakers willing to come and talk to us about ePortfolios for our students using SharePoint, as well as experts on project-based/collaborative learning.  Any names come to mind?

21st Century Learning with Alec Couros

The learning design team at Fraser Heights had a privledge of sitting down with Alec Couros today to have a conversation about 21st Century learning. 

Alec Couros is a professor of educational technology at the University of Regina.  With regards to social media in education, we had many questions for Alec.  Below are some of the key points from our conversation.   

It seems as though there are many teachers who are resisting the shift into "21st century learning" and the use of social media because they are concerned about students losing traditional literacies. 

- How do we find a balance between paper/pen and technology integration in project-based learning?

- What if the course is content driven like ss11, in classrooms where the students and teachers are comfortable inside the box?  Do we really need to change?

What does 21^st Century Learning really mean?

-          NCTE standards

-          Develop proficiency with the language and tools

-          Global communities

-          Manage, analyze and synthesize a multitude of information (multimedia text, multi-literacies)

Essentially, we need to start somewhere because education is changing whether we want it to or not.  There are new ways of understanding the world around us and they can be found with the touch of a button...not even a button...by tapping a screen!  Kids (and teachers) have the information right in front of us.  We need to teach them how to gain access to this information in a safe way.  We need to learn how to collaborate online and use the resources around us.  No longer do we need to teach dates and times of events in history.  We need to teach our students how to think about these things critically and how to efficiently access and share the information.

Struggles – what’s appropriate and what’s not? – Where’s the line?  What should be private (tweets etc)?

Do we need to worry about losing penmanship?

TED – Wade Davis

Looks at the loss of culture

What does it mean to be the last speaker of your own language?

http://www.ted.com/speakers/wade_davis.html

What are we holding on to and why?  - you can never get rid of peer review it’s just done differently now – faster, more efficient, wider scale (more opinions)

Scott Mcleod @mcleod – "If you are not becoming digitally literate, you are slowly becoming illiterate"

      - What does this really mean?  What does it mean to be literate?  What is literacy?

Possible Solutions -

Using facebook pages?  Facebook.com/pages – that way you don’t have to add students to facebook – opens it up but keeps your profile private

Twitter is good for professional development resources – being social and fun is not a problem.  It’s ok – build your digital identity and show your students how to too!

There are problems that exist with technology in education BUT Don’t blame it on the technology itself – it’s the way it’s used and our understanding of that.

Learning how to use blogs in different ways? – School blogs are not social blogs - teach students the difference and teach them how to appropriately build their digital identity

-          What if we don’t have time to teach how to blog?  How do we teach the literary aspect without having to waste time with digital identity?

How do we assess the differentiation – are they really meeting criteria?  Make sure criteria is CLEAR…as long as it’s met, then delivery is up to the student – do a reflection at the end that explains learning – did you try something new?

Some tools worth checking out:

GoogleDocs – collaborative writing https://docs.google.com

PollEv - online polls for the classroom (great for intros, critical thinking, presentations, etc) www.polleverywhere.com

Remind101 – set up texting and class subscribes http://remind101.com/

EdMoto http://www.edmodo.com/

GoogleReader – if class blogs, it becomes more of a portfolio (get students to subscribe to eachother) https://reader.google.com/

KidBlog.org (wordpress based) – shows up on one page http://kidblog.org/

#commentsforkids (post work to twitter and get feedback from everywhere)

Give kids the choice?  Publish for world or publish for private? Communicate with parents for consent

Pinterest – like a corkboard that allows you to pin things – art, picture, ideas, interests, school stuff???  Becoming very popular. Possibly used as a classroom bulletin board online?? http://pinterest.com/

Online social bookmarking – http://delicious.com/

"Let me google that for you" (search on google) – how to use youtube (for example)

"Real time world war II" - Tweeting the war day by day (6 years real time)

Google “my fake wall” – social media profile without actually having to go on twitter or facebook.

Foursquare – checking in using geolocation – “girls around me” (is anything really private anymore? ) The reality of our digital identity – make kids aware!  Share this with them to show how public their info really is, and the potential implications of that.

Some people who were mentioned who may be interesting resources:

Seth Godin – inundate Google with good stuff about us

Moving towards “the new social”

Scott Mcleod @mcleod

David Chrystal – texts and tweets myths and realities (youtube)

Kathy Cassidy – blog (innovative teacher award.  Moosejaw sask.)

NCTE.org (This gives a really good definition of digital literacy)

Danah Boyd – Public by default, private by effort

Wade Davis - Search on TED

You can’t control the conversation unless you are in it.  Get in on the conversation.

The internet has shifted from a place from which we can download stuff, to a place where we can now contribute to the conversation (web 2.0) – assignment idea: learn how to do something via the internet (eg. Play piano, speak a language)

Join the Conversation! Make mistakes! Share your ideas and don't be afraid to PLAY! 

iPads and AntiBullying at FHSS!

These PSAs were completed entirely on the ipad. they recorded and then edited with the imovie app.  So these are the final products:

Troubleshooting was: How to get songs into imovie?

icloud - didn't work

dropbox - didn't work

itunes - this worked. If they had their own itunes account with the song they wanted in it, they could log in and import the song into the ipad to use it. The other methods didn't allow the song to be imported. Some kids held two ipads together and they played the song on one and recorded it on the other...that's why some sounded better than others but at least they learned to problem solve!

Other issue: one group's video clips got deleted by another class (we've narrowed it down to Pocock's...lol)

T. Oakland

Drama 9 – created on the ipads

http://vimeo.com/37191683    Iryna’s group  * *

http://vimeo.com/37207719   Gurvir’s group

http://vimeo.com/37207289   Amanda’s group

http://vimeo.com/37208054     Tara’s group 

http://vimeo.com/37207725      Parisa’s group

Blogs and iPads in Bio and Chem

Here's what Fraser Heights science teachers are saying about using blogs and iPads in bio and chem...

The use of a classroom blog has been extremely helpful in Chemistry and Biology. The use of an iPad makes it simple to keep students and parents up-to-date on all the course materials and what is going on in the classroom.  Blog postings include photos of work done on the board and handouts that allow students access to the information discussed during class. Links to power points and other documents makes it easy for a student who has been absent to keep up with their work.  Students are able to come back to class prepared and not having to play catch-up. The blog also allows students to work ahead for those who need a challenge.

Using various apps on the iPad makes lesson plans, student/parent email, attendance, and marks all easy and hand-held.  Students also must be well prepared in Chem and Bio because there is even an app used in class that randomly picks a student name to respond to questions. Students are given a mark based on their response and statistics are kept as to how they progress.  Students are coming to class more prepared because they know it is possible they may be next to be picked!

Learning Design Initiative in Explorations 8 - An Update

- Mr. John Kelly, Explorations 8 Learning Design Project
This project began at the beginning of the semester (February 2012) - See Link in "Projects"

    When I first embarked on this exploration I was heavily influenced by the Learning Designs grant that we had recieved at Fraser Heights.  I was most curious about the idea of cross-curricular projects and was really trying to find a place in the school where this could be put into practice without disturbing the timetable.  As a teacher of an explorations 8 strand that incorporates Art/ InfoTech / Drama I realized this just might be the perfect place to start.  I've always felt that each element of these 3 courses really leant themselves well to one another.  Since I am teaching this class with one colleague (Angele Thibault) and am responsible for each of the three strands I felt that I could blend the courses in a new and inovative way, without causing any disruption in the timetabling at our school.  The result has been very exciting for me.  With the help of Angele, I have created a series of Summative projects that tether the curriculum for each of the three strands of the explorations B curriculum together. 
    The purpose of this post is essentially to share how this is developing.  I'm really enjoying watching the ideas come to life; being the first time I have ever done something quite like this, the process has been quite organic and things have developed with a living and breathing energy of their own. The students have been truly excited about the process, although I have to note that it took a little bit of time to get the students accustomed to a class that rotated classroom space on a weekly or even daily basis. 
     One of the major challenges so far has been the timing and organization of the class in the midst of attempting to cover the core curriculum, of three subjects, necessary to complete our first project.  We decided to use Edmodo as our virtual classroom to keep the students connected to each other during group work and allow for us to update the students outside of class in a streamlined fashion.  The students have really taken to the virtual classroom and are only disappointed that it doesn't work more like facebook (something to consider for the future). 
    The first project we have completed has been an interesting combination of each class and has involed an explorations of a dramatic concept called TABLEAU.  The idea of the frozen picture was expanded with the student to capture the elements of story and plot.  The students were asked to prepare a plot for a story and then begin to story board 20 forzen pictures (Tableau) that would be essential to communicate to an audience their ideas.  Following the story boarding the students had to begin considering the compositional make up of their photographs.  We used iPads to take the photos and then transplanted them into keynote to test the strength of the stories plan.  The students had a lot of fun with this process.  It was really fun to do photo shoots and to get them to understand the concept of backgrounds, props, costumes, lighting and composition.  We extracted the photos from the iPads with the use of dropbox (a very handy tool when working with iPads if you want to keep the work you do).  Following this step the students used Powerpoint to create a slide show which will culminate in the presentation of a polished mulit-media experience.  The students also learened how to cut music in Audacity and then finish by layering the music in their PowerPoint to communicate tone and emotion as an aid to telling the story they created.  Our presentations are next week and I'm really excited to see what comes of it.  (Pictures will be posted!) 
    The class has also begun a research project which is titled The History of Explorations.  We've covered how to use Prezi effectively and are now going to apply our research to a Prezi format.  The students will create, with partners, a dynamic exploration of Histrorical and noteable figures, movements, artists, playwrights, software and hardware that relate to each course.  The result will be a wealth of information that should (hopefully) aid in each students further understanding and appreciation for Art, InfoTeach and Dramatic arts. 
   Next we head into working on Silent Films.... I'll keep you posted.