I have a million ideas and not nearly enough focus in any one direction. While I am trying to find ways to wrap up our current inquiry unit, my mind is already leaping forward to the next unit.
My students have been actively gathering information on child labour, child soldiers, women's rights activists, sweat shops and their products, and fair trade. When we took an afternoon break to watch a video on the life of Terry Fox, the students were upset that the time had to come from their inquiry class. They were happy to watch the video, just not so willing to give up their inquiry time. This made my heart happy. The students' enthusiasm and effort is amazing and exciting.
A snag that I have run into is that some of my EAL (English as and Additional Language) students have struggled with the content and expectations of this inquiry. The modifications and supports that I put in place for them have done very little in the way of supporting them towards independent work. I thought that the handout I made them had simple language, but it was still too challenging.
Representing their learning has been my latest focus. I have spent literally hours imagining what our display will look like, and the information that it will need to convey. I have thought about what the expectations for their representations need to be and how to evaluate them. The possibilities seem endless. I've also struggled with knowing how much direction I can give this. Can I decide on what the bulletin board will look like, or do I provide the "canvas" and let the students design the message?
So far I've come up with this: We'll do a wall display on the light colored wall. We'll have one large silhouette of a child soldier, and two smaller (life sized) silhouettes of two children carrying bricks on their heads. The caption overhead will be: Human Right Violations. We will then have three sub-headings or areas to give information. The first section will be informing others, the second section will be personal reactions and advocacy. The last section will display our plan to make change.
I have also come up with a plan to make change: An art auction to raise money for an organization that helps build schools for children.... or something along that line. The children will use old wax crayons to make art that we will auction off. Here again, is my dilemma: can I decide this, or do the children need to direct this themselves?
And so it would seem that my mind is spinning just thinking about the wrap up for this unit. I've mentally got lists running in my head for all of the different things I will need to acquire to pull this off. I'm going to have to keep a list of lists to keep all of it straight.
The next unit will be energy. The grade six students will focus on electricity and the grade sevens will focus on alternative sources of energy. I need toasters, tools, wire, sponsorship, an expert, and the list goes on. My ideas are grandiose and need reining in. I've actually wondered if we can get an exercise bike hooked up to stuff that the students can power by pedaling. The hoarder in me thinks we need to go garage sale-ing. The neat freak in me is baring the doors.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Hit the ground and running...
A few short weeks ago, I found myself being moved to a new school after the school year had begun. I had a great group of students and the new school year looked promising, but then this opportunity arose. We had to lose a teacher, and one of the options was to move to a school pioneering inquiry based learning. What an opportunity. So I left my comfort zone and opted for an adventure.
This will be a year of learning and growing. I'm sure there will be successes, but also failures. While I am excited, I am also afraid. My ambivalence and excitement got me thinking - I should keep track of this journey. In a year from now, will I look back on this post and be surprised at how far I've come? I don't know.
I can't imagine that anyone but me will ever read this blog, but if you find yourself here, know this: This is a blog about an elementary school teacher on a journey to become a better and more effective teacher. I will post my successes and failures, and I will attempt to figure out what I could have done differently.
So, what is inquiry? I'm not even sure that I have that all figured out yet. My limited understanding of inquiry is that it is student driven. I brought the idea of Human Rights to my students through a website called www.youthforhumanrights.org. This amazing website has 30 unique short videos - one for each of the Universal United Nations Declared Human Rights. After viewing the videos as well as a history of human rights video, we began work on determining the difference between a need and a want. We ranked our needs and wants as individuals, in groups, and as a class from a list of ten needs/wants that I had made up. After that step, the students began work on our classroom rights. The great learning that I wanted them to obtain from all of this is that we give each other the right to _____ whatever we agree to. Students give each other the right to be respected or listened to, and if you want that right for yourself, you have to give it to others. During these lessons I had the students fill out Before/During/After pages. When they watched the videos they had to fill out a viewing guide. We did some phys. ed. stuff exploring rules - dodge-ball with no rules, rules for some, and rules for all. When we returned from the gym, students displayed their thoughts and feelings in an open-mind portrait.
After this point, I felt a little lost. Now what? Where do I want to go with this? The social studies curriculum requires that we explore power and authority. I know that I want to have students discover the various ways that people exert power and control over others. (Limiting education, food supplies, communication...) I also want them to become aware of their own ability to use their power for good. I know that sounds hokey, but it's true. We all have the enormous power to makes someones day wonderful or miserable. We also have the power to make change.
The next place I went was to google. I printed off dozens of pictures of child laborers working. I gave each student a photo to look at, and a pile of sticky notes in the middle of their groups. Their task was to ask questions or make statements on the post-it notes and stick them to the photos. We passed the photos around a bit. This was highly motivating - but I did worry to what end. I also worried that if we explore child slavery, child labour, or child soldiers what we'll uncover. Could there be any more motivating way to learn about power and control? I watched my students look at those photos with shock, outrage, and sadness. They had so many questions. These questions will now be the driving force for their own learning.
Yesterday we watched the Kony 2012 video. I know there is a lot of controversy over that video and its purpose, but I wanted to use it because it documents one man's domination over children. It also documents a group of people trying to make change. This is where I hope my students go - I want them to formulate a big questions about a Human Rights violation. Then I want them to research that violation (it may be the history, graphing the change in numbers, comparing one country to another...) Once they've researched and represented their learning, I hope to incorporate an element of writing. I want the students to use their voices to urge change. I'm not sure what form this will take. I guess it depends where the students go with their research.
I think the hardest part of this whole inquiry is the letting go. I have to let go of my control over where this takes us. There will be learning - tones of it, and I guess I will document it as we go.
This will be a year of learning and growing. I'm sure there will be successes, but also failures. While I am excited, I am also afraid. My ambivalence and excitement got me thinking - I should keep track of this journey. In a year from now, will I look back on this post and be surprised at how far I've come? I don't know.
I can't imagine that anyone but me will ever read this blog, but if you find yourself here, know this: This is a blog about an elementary school teacher on a journey to become a better and more effective teacher. I will post my successes and failures, and I will attempt to figure out what I could have done differently.
So, what is inquiry? I'm not even sure that I have that all figured out yet. My limited understanding of inquiry is that it is student driven. I brought the idea of Human Rights to my students through a website called www.youthforhumanrights.org. This amazing website has 30 unique short videos - one for each of the Universal United Nations Declared Human Rights. After viewing the videos as well as a history of human rights video, we began work on determining the difference between a need and a want. We ranked our needs and wants as individuals, in groups, and as a class from a list of ten needs/wants that I had made up. After that step, the students began work on our classroom rights. The great learning that I wanted them to obtain from all of this is that we give each other the right to _____ whatever we agree to. Students give each other the right to be respected or listened to, and if you want that right for yourself, you have to give it to others. During these lessons I had the students fill out Before/During/After pages. When they watched the videos they had to fill out a viewing guide. We did some phys. ed. stuff exploring rules - dodge-ball with no rules, rules for some, and rules for all. When we returned from the gym, students displayed their thoughts and feelings in an open-mind portrait.
After this point, I felt a little lost. Now what? Where do I want to go with this? The social studies curriculum requires that we explore power and authority. I know that I want to have students discover the various ways that people exert power and control over others. (Limiting education, food supplies, communication...) I also want them to become aware of their own ability to use their power for good. I know that sounds hokey, but it's true. We all have the enormous power to makes someones day wonderful or miserable. We also have the power to make change.
The next place I went was to google. I printed off dozens of pictures of child laborers working. I gave each student a photo to look at, and a pile of sticky notes in the middle of their groups. Their task was to ask questions or make statements on the post-it notes and stick them to the photos. We passed the photos around a bit. This was highly motivating - but I did worry to what end. I also worried that if we explore child slavery, child labour, or child soldiers what we'll uncover. Could there be any more motivating way to learn about power and control? I watched my students look at those photos with shock, outrage, and sadness. They had so many questions. These questions will now be the driving force for their own learning.
Yesterday we watched the Kony 2012 video. I know there is a lot of controversy over that video and its purpose, but I wanted to use it because it documents one man's domination over children. It also documents a group of people trying to make change. This is where I hope my students go - I want them to formulate a big questions about a Human Rights violation. Then I want them to research that violation (it may be the history, graphing the change in numbers, comparing one country to another...) Once they've researched and represented their learning, I hope to incorporate an element of writing. I want the students to use their voices to urge change. I'm not sure what form this will take. I guess it depends where the students go with their research.
I think the hardest part of this whole inquiry is the letting go. I have to let go of my control over where this takes us. There will be learning - tones of it, and I guess I will document it as we go.
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