Starting a New Book Club

Today was the start of P3's new 'Book Club'. Last terms book club was so successful that we decided as a class to start a new one. The kids enjoyed opting into a book of their choice and completing different tasks independently. We looked at about 10 books (most that were series to encourage reading, and most were dystopian because that is the new 'thing'), read the synopsis for them and watched some trailers. This helped narrow down the selections to six. 

In a previous post I showed off some of the work my student's had completed independently during book club time and how I run it.

The student's read the first chapter and began working on a blog post about their new book - why they chose it and what they think is going to happen.

This term the books we are reading are:

Point Value Art

Ms. Lopez in the Art Room has some amazing resources for implementing art into your classroom.

I found a Point Value art project when exploring her site.

 'This project works well for many grade levels and is a good opportunity to teach kids not only about colour theory and different values, but about thinking outside the box.

The project began with students following some basic directions, such as "draw 4 lines that begin and end at the edge of the paper."
After the lines were drawn and traced with black marker, I got down to the demonstration.  We incorporated different shading techniques with analogous colours to fill each new shape that was created during the first part of the project.
In the end, each student had practiced thinking outside the box, practiced colouring and shading, and had a beautiful finished product.'

Explicit instructions:

Part I Directions (do this with pencil):

1. Draw four lines beginning and ending at the edge of the paper.
2. Draw five circles.
3. Draw four triangles.
4. Draw one diamond.
5. Add one line that looks like waves.
6. Add two lines that look like lightning.
7. Draw three lines that are curvy.
8. Draw six short lines.
9. Draw one long line.
10. Add four more shapes.

*Go over all your pencil lines with thin black marker, then erase your pencil lines.

Part II Directions (do this with markers and colored pencils):

1. Fill in an odd number of shapes with a dark colored marker.
2. Fill at least five shapes with gradation.
3. Fill at least five shapes with pointillism.
4. Fill at least five shapes with cross-hatching.

*No shapes may be left blank.

Rules for Coloring (use the part II directions to make these combinations):

1. Make red turn into orange.
2. Make orange turn into yellow.
3. Make green turn into yellow.
4. Make blue turn into green.
5. Make violet turn into blue.
6. Make violet turn into red.

*These rules may be repeated as necessary to fill the paper.

Here are some of our completed projects:

 

Flappy Bird - Coding our own game

Today in class P3 learnt about computer science and were able to code their own 'Flappy Bird' game.

I got the idea from Tracy Tindle (who I have also hitchhiked on her Minecraft Lifeforms Project) - check out her blog - http://misstindlesclass.wordpress.com/

They looked at the pros and cons of the current game and made improvements they thought would make the game more marketable.

P3 already have previous experience using scratch, they were able to move through the levels very quickly. There are 10 levels, each level adding in a new element for them to think about. The only challenge from them was that they hadn't realized that the green blocks were the event blocks and that they required purple and/or blue blocks underneath them. They also needed to ensure they didn't have any loose blocks in the creative screen.

My Flappy Bird Game

Next session:

- Binary code

- Angry birds game

PBL Session Three - Staff Meeting 19.05.14

Walt - Choose different approaches to scaffold our students in deciding on their option for exploration

Sorting out our options before making our final decision (in regards to initial classic brainstorm)

Why do we need to choose one option?
What do you need to be thinking about when choosing that option?

- Time frame
- Resources
- The option may not answer our PBL scenario and provocative question

We need to:

- Convince a family member or a sponsor that our exploration is important for the future of humans

Number the options
- Sorting the options out in different ways
- Share the processes (work out what works for own classes)

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Scenario: The future of humans depends on exploration. You are an explorer contributing to our future. You are to produce a plan for your exploration that convinces your family, class and a sponsor that this exploration is important. 

Provocative Question: What do you need to consider to be up to the challenge of planning an exploration that will get sponsorship today?

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These topics need a specific research question

Will not let us answer the question:

- How children talk to each other
- Eternal youth
- String tapping
- Frequencies

Will let us answer the question

Bold = The option we selected

- Underground rivers
- Outer-space (possibility of life, food sources, travel)
- Mining and its effect
- Marine Biology (food source)
- Other countries
- Food evolution (how food affects health)
- Medicine (new drugs to replace ones that no longer work, cure for cancer)
- Diets (gluten free, nutrition)
- Maui's travel (exploring local marae/iwi)
- Surviving hostile environments (natural selection, wars and conflict)
- Human evolution
- Antarctica (polar ice caps melting, conservation)
- Ways to help people in need (very broad - needs to be narrowed down - could get sponsorship if it was given a context)

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Other ways to narrow down the choices

- Travel versus non travel
- Look at the list of headings from the classic brainstorm and categorise them into the categories they see fit (e.g. - food, music, myths and legends, space, geography, relationships, biology, philosophy and religion)
- Create four questions within the scenario to ask for each of the topics in the classic brainstorm
- Can  the topic answer the provocative question?
- Will the exploration help us in the future?
- Is it likely to get sponsorship?
- Is it interesting?

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Next Step: Get a generalised idea on the research questions we need to ask to answer the provocative questions

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What to include in our report to the sponsors:

- Equipment and resources needed

- Purpose

- The people you want to take with you or work with

- Potential benefits

- The ways to explore and research - e.g. - People (interviews)

- Estimated cost

- Challenges and barriers

- Expected time frame

- Who is your exploration aimed at?

- Presentation method

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Put children into pairs and have them decide on an option - must be in pairs first before the decide on an option!

 - Scaffold their choices
- Can possibly pre determine the questions

How are you going to present your final product/findings (concluding performance to share their learning) - encourage creativity. 

How persuasive is their plan?

- Pamphlet
- Poster
- Skit
- Slideshow
- Documentary Film
- Mock Trial
- Lecture
- Designing a Tool
- Muesum

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P3 Groups

Bradley and Ash
Bryce and Hunter
Maya and Tegan
Josh and Shaurye and Michael
Tanner and Kyle and Anthony
Alexa and Estelle and Sacha
Marnie and Casey
Rawinia and Senna
Devon and Matthew
Thomas and Cohen
Ronan and Daniel
Cameron and Cole

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Reflection on Process for first two sessions:

Session 1:

- Was very broad and overwhelming to begin with, was unsure of where we were headed and what the final presentation was going to look like
- Classic brainstorm was successful - student's were able to share a lot of ideas (most on topic but some that need to be weeded out using the process above)

Session 2:

- Hugely successful!!
- The decision making process encouraged a lot of discussion and tied in perfectly to our novel study
- Students were able to work in groups and individually through this critical thinking strategy

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PBL Session Two - Staff Meeting 12.05.14

- Recap PBL Exploration Scenario
- Critical Thinking Skill


"We can't just teach our children to think, we have to teach them thinking skills"


Inquiry Lesson three:

"I want you to think about a time you had to make a decision and you weren't sure what to do"
"What were you thinking about doing?"
"Can someone share some examples of what they were thinking about"
"When you were thinking about what to do that is called decision making, and all the different things your were thinking about are called options"
"How did you figure out that was the best option for you?"

- Instinct (previous experiences - (valued highly based on beliefs)
- Laziness (looking for a quick option - immediate gratification)
- Beliefs, essence, spirituality and being are an important part (students need to be mindful of this)
- What might the result be (consequences/repercussions)

"Let's think about something we have read lately, can anybody think about a decision one of the characters had to make etc..."

- Use our novel study as the hook
- This will draw out all the essentials of what they have to consider

"What decisions had to be made?"
"How did the make them?"

Decision making thinking map
- What makes the decision necessary?
- What are the options?
- What will happen as a result of the decision that you make?
- What information do you have of what the consequences are?
- How important are the consequences?
- Which option is best in light of the consequences?

- Further scaffolding with a graphic organiser

Charlotte's Web (decision making excerpt)

Could work on this in groups

- Dad decided to kill the pig because it was weak
- Fern decided her Dad had made an unfair decision
- Mrs Argyll made a decision to tell Fern what her father was doing with the axe
- Fern decided to try and talk Dad out of killing the pig
- Dad decided to explain things to Fern
- Fern decided to grab the axe (from verbal protest to physical protest)

When doing this brainstorm with the class student's may ask 'I wonder' questions or make statements, record them down and come back to them.

"Why did Dad have to make a decision?"

- Financial stand point (Vet costs)
- He said runts are always trouble
- He had already seen there was a runt in the litter
- Thinking about the other pigs well being

"Lets say your were Dad and what Fern had said to you made you think again about killing the runt piglet. What might you think about/what might his options be?"

- Give it away/donate to SPCA
- Keep it and look after it
- Make Fern responsible for it
- Release it into the wild
- Let nature take its course - leave the pig in there, if it survives it does

"Lets choose one of these options"

Option - Make Fern responsible for it

"What might the consequences be of this decision?"

- Show Fern why he wanted to get of the runt if something happens to the pig
- Fern may get emotionally attached to the pig
- Teaches Fern responsibility
- Fern might raise a healthy pig
- Dad might end up having to look after the pig if Fern loses interest
- Teach Fern manaakitanga, whakawhanaungatanga  - how to look after something other than herself
- Fern might feel relieved that the pig gets to live
- Fern might feel trusted and valued if Dad listens to her
- Dad might have to rethink what he knows

Graphic Organiser 

Give each group a consequence to evaluate

"Why do you think this will be a result of the decision?"
"How important do you think this is?"

Option - Fern will gain responsibility and raise a healthy pig

Why will this be a result of the decision?

- Dad listened to her and gave her responsibility to succeed
- Dad doesn't want to upset Fern and seem heartless
- Fern might a lesson by experience rather than listening to Dad
- Dad chooses to give Fern a chance

How important do you think this is?

High importance:
- Responsibility of ownership
- Priority
- Learning of diet, caring etc...
- Decision making for when she is adult and she is questioned

"Is this a positive consequence that supports the decision?"
"Is this a negative consequence that suggests this decision not be made?"

Add a plus or a minus to the graphic organiser 

Put this up around the room as our model for decision making

By the end of term they will need to come up with a plan that answers the provocative question! 

End of the week give them a chart to do their 5 favourite options for the exploration they want to explore. 

"I want you to use the organiser for two of your options and think about your other three options"

- Scaffold deeper thinking

Problem Based Learning Inquiry Learning Model: Exploration

Week 1 Session:

What do we already know about the pedagogy for problem based learning?

 Why have we chose problem based learning? (public information)

Overview of problem based learning

Purpose of 'what do we already know'

Classic brainstorming

Scenario

Provocative question

 What do we already know?

In Class - vocab, classic brainstorming of possible explorations

Skeleton SOLO rubric

Follow up from ‘What do we already know?’

 Throughout the week, include student and teacher assessment of ‘What we already know’ against Solo rubric.

Write reflection at end of week to share on Monday

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How can we collate our PPK?

- Each person says one statement and someone records it, tick of what is said twice and highlight ideas that you hitch-hike off

- Sticky notes

- Newsprint with post it notes

- Google Docs (pair and share)

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Why use Problem based learning?

- It occurs in a relevant and authentic context
- Opportunities for collaboration
- The learning assumes ownership over the learning approach
- Student uses critical thinking skills
- Opportunities for meaningful feedback

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Basic Conditions

- The students are hooked into learning
- Authentic problems
- Contents match student interest
- The process allows student independence
- Teacher scaffolds
- Ongoing feedback

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Inquiry in a Thinking Community

- Provocative Question (Initiation)
- Research Question
- Investigation/Synthesis
- Concluding Performance (Feedback)

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Provocative Question

- Open
- Undermining
- Connected
- Rich
- Charged
- Practical

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Classroom


Scenario: The future of humans depends on exploration. You are an explorer contributing to our future. You are to produce a plan for your exploration that convinces your family, class and a sponsor that this exploration is important. 

Provocative Question: What do you need to consider to be up to the challenge of planning an exploration that will get sponsorship today?

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Reflective Questions

What does exploration mean to you?
What does innovation mean to you?
What does opportunity mean to you?
What does challenge mean to you?
What does sponsor mean to you?

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In Class

Present the scenario and provocative questions
Find out what they already know ask the following questions:

What does exploration mean to you?
What does innovation mean to you?
What does opportunity mean to you?
What does challenge mean to you?
What does sponsor mean to you?

Teach the vocab
Brainstorm possible explorations (classic brainstorm approach) - hook the kids and expand their scope

Draw out ideas - If we were going to another country, what are the reasons we would go there?
Classic brainstorm this question

Students select their own exploration ideas

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