Jonathan Terry - Blog 4 "Genius Hour"

After researching all of the possibilities for our "Genius Hour" project, I decided to use the redefinition level of the SAMR Model.  SAMR stands for Substitution, Augemtation, Modification, and Redefinition.  The purpose of this model is to see how technology can be used to increase student engagement and, ultimately, increase student achievement.  In this model, technology shouldn't be used as just a presentation method, but students should be able to interact with the technology to learn new information.

To implement the SAMR model in my classroom, I took a lesson that I present every year and decided to place the lesson on the website nearpod.com.  Not only does this website allow students to interact with the presentation, but it allows the teacher to infuse components into the presentation where students actually have an opportunity to augment objects on the screen.

The lesson I used was on the body shapes and movements of bacteria and protists.  Students were immediately intrigued with the lesson because they were able to view the presentation on their own laptop instead of looking at the Promethean board.  At several points during the presentation, I inserted slides with mini formative assessments.  For instance, after going over the three shapes of bacteria, students were then asked to use their finger to draw several examples of bacillus bacteria on the laptop screen.  The next slide was more application based and asked students to look at the name for strep throat bacteria (strepicocci) and draw what they think this looks like based on the information we've already discussed.  After each student submitted their drawings, I was able to pull up individual drawings and discuss them.  The students were so excited to have their drawings shown in front of the class.  They were actively working to make their drawings neater and more accurate so that I would choose their drawings.

Once we discussed the three types of protists, I then put up a survey and let the class vote on which protist they would like to learn more about (every class picked amoebas).  Students loved having a voice as to what they learned about in class.

Overall, I would say that this activity was a big success.  All of my students were actively engaged and were asking when we would conduct another lesson using nearpod.  I loved that I could get immediate data on what students understand without having to do a paper and pencil assessment.  To be honest, there really was no negatives to using this method.  I did have a few technical glitches with the laptops, but those were quickly resolved without an hindrance to instruction.

Although my final summative assessment on this lesson is not until Friday, the information I gathered from formative assessments show that students have a deeper understanding of bacteria and protists.  What used to be simply a "memorize this" type of lesson has now been transformed into a "show me what you've learned" lesson.  Using this model has also taught me that PBL practices can be infused into every lesson, not just larger projects.  I enjoyed using the SAMR model in my classroom and cannot wait to infuse more technology in the future.

On Collaboration

Austin Baker

The biggest thing I've learned about collaboration (and PBL in general) is that it's messy. I mean that it doesn't look like the stereotypical classroom, and it's definitely a lot more fluid and organic. I always liken it to riding in the passenger side of your car; it feels familiar, but it's still pretty strange. 

Getting back on track with discussing collaboration, it's hard. It's hard for the kids and it's hard for the teacher. I think Curtis is right in that we don't teach how to collaborate in high school. You wind up addressing it after a project or two goes south because of a lack of collaboration, but it's just not something I think a lot of people think about because you get wrapped in the teaching of what you need for the project, and not necessarily on the nuts and bolts of how to actually work together. I'm sure that's because we, as teachers, were usually the kids who just took over a project and did it all ourselves (because obviously our group mates weren't going to do it correctly, right?). We are used to being in control, and everyone in the room is supposed to be doing what we say. 

I touch on collaboration at the start of each semester when I establish the hierarchy of my program, meaning that if the upper level kids ask the lower level kids to assist, they need to (as long as everything is reasonable), but other than that, I pretty much leave them on their own to sort stuff out.

Since I've started trying PBL stuff in my English class as well, I've definitely noticed the need for more accountability. Those students are typically not nearly as intrinsically motivated as the photo kids, so I can tell they need more clearly-defined guidelines than the photo kids. I've introduced peer-evaluations, and they were okay, but I like the idea of student-generated contracts and I think they'll be good. 

I actually really like the idea someone posted in the comment section of Curtis’s post about how to have the students self-grade:

I definitely think I'll give that a try because, I myself, like many others, have found the hardest part of collaboration is assigning a number grade to it. In all honestly, I find assigning a number grade to any PBL the hardest part of it, because I think so much time is wasted trying to turn this organic, sometimes messy, but definitely genuine learning into a number grade, but...that's a rant for another time. 

Collaboration - Jessica Barwick

Each year, I struggle with effectively teaching collaboration skills.  I do believe that explicitly teaching and modeling good collaborative practices is necessary with every grade level (because it looks different with each age group), but I think practice, trial and error is the best way students learn how to collaborate with others.  That being said, I enjoyed reading these blogs on collaboration and have some takeaways that I plan to incorporate in my classroom.  My top three elements that would most benefit my current classroom (and future classrooms) are collaboration contracts, benchmarks with ongoing feedback, and a balance of individual and group tasks.

I love the idea of a collaboration contract where all group members come up with their own set of rules, consequences, responsibilities, and goals of the group.  If students created one at the beginning, they would have more ownership in their role within the group and would be in violation of their own rules if they chose not to follow them.  I believe this would be more meaningful than simply following a teacher created rubric on how to collaborate.  Each group member would hold each other more accountable with a contract, and there might be more of a desire to not let the group down.

I also believe it's important to give students ongoing feedback on their collaborative process during a project.  Maybe using the BIE rubric as a guide, I could give groups a score once per week, with the goal of raising that score by the end of the project.  That way, students would get feedback from me on specific goals they need to work on as well as a chance to raise their score.  I know, as a student, I would appreciate the opportunity to get feedback, learn from it, and raise my grade rather than have the pressure of just one score at the end of an assignment.  Currently, I do point out groups that are working well together and give them rewards (like moving up their behavior clips), but I have nothing like specific benchmarks to let them know specifically what they are doing well and what they should work on.

Finally, as someone who typically prefers to work alone, I believe students would appreciate a better balance of individual and group tasks.  Perhaps the contract in the beginning could help specify which aspects of the project would be done by individuals.  As a student, I always hated group projects and group grades because the work would usually be done mostly by me and if someone didn't pull their weight, it could affect my grade.  As a teacher, it's hard to always see which individuals contribute which parts of a project, so giving a group grade does seem fair.  But balancing individual and group tasks would allow for more individualized grades and responsibility.  My current project does allow for both individual and group tasks (individual journals, group skit) but I will keep this in mind for all future group projects.

Like I mentioned earlier, I do believe that more practice with diverse groups of peers is what ultimate leads to a more collaborative classroom.  This year, I have had more morning meetings and team problem solving challenges in those, and I believe working together on those challenges has helped increase cooperation during class projects.  However, there is always room for improvement, and in future group projects, I will try to utilize these three elements of collaboration.

Blog 3-Collaboration

Collaboration is an essential part of PBL as well as a life skill, but it is one of the MOST difficult skills to instill in students.  After reading both blog posts, the three most important elements are:  teaching collaboration, group contracts, individual and team task.   First, teaching collaboration is something I do starting the first week of school.  We create anchor charts about group work, provide numerous opportunities for group work involving different types of activities, and discuss what we liked and would want to change.  I believe providing these opportunities from day one, and setting specific expectations has been one reason collaboration is successful within my classroom.  I can’t say that it always goes smoothly, or that everyone gets along, but with each opportunity students are learning how to work with others.  Group contracts is another element I find important.  This is something that I have never done in my personal classroom, but I feel these could take my existing collaboration opportunities to the next level.  I feel the accountability factor of these contracts could help motivate some students.  The last element I found to be important is individual and team task.  In a recent PBL, I have put this practice to use and have been amazed at the outcome.  Students are working together to research information and develop ideas, but they are each responsible for carrying out a certain task.  This has allowed me to see the students who may need extra support/motivation.  I hope to include all of these elements in my next PBL unit.  

Jonathan Terry - Blog Post 3 "Collaboration"

Collaboration is an essential component of any PBL activity.  Unfortunately, most students do not know how to properly collaboration within a group.  When I first started teaching, I assumed that students knew how to work together in groups.  Boy, was I wrong!  Even as 7th graders, many students see collaboration of one of two things.  First, many see it as a time to socialize and they struggle with getting meaningful work completed.  Second, some see collaboration as a means to finish their work faster (i.e. "You do this half and I'll do this half.").  Through this course and the two PBL blog articles, I've learned that collaboration should help promote diversity in thinking and ultimately lead to high quality work.  In fact, collaborative groups should be able to produce better products than students working individually.

After reading and studying the two blog posts on collaboration, I've determined that the top three important elements that I hope to use in my classroom are team contracts, teaching collaboration, and creating public benchmarks.  During my first PBL with the density ships, I flirted with the idea of using team contracts.  By creating team contracts, students will know their roles and responsibilities within the group, as well as making a commitment to their group members.  I like how the contracts clearly state expectations but also outlines disciplinary actions for students who refuse to obey the contract.  Second, I plan to actually teach collaboration within the scope of my next PBL.  Groups need to be shown how to collaborate effectively.  I will do this by continuously monitoring group discussion, but also checking in very frequently with each group to make sure they are making adequate progress.  Third, I like the idea of public benchmarks for collaboration.  I've already found that making something "public" can already have a huge change on achievement.  During my next PBL, I'm going to create some benchmarks for collaboration and have it posted somewhere in the classroom along with each group's name.  As they complete one of the benchmarks, I'll check it off.  By making this part public, groups will be able to see where they fall when compared to other groups in the class.

Teaching and modeling good collaboration is so important, but is often times overlooked as something students should already know how to do.  Using the three techniques discussed above will help me create better peer-to-peer communication in my class, but will also help produced better quality projects.

Melissa Terry's Blog Post 3

Having just completed my PBL unit with a third grade class, these articles and rubrics about collaboration were very timely.  Eight and nine years olds struggle with collaborating effectively to reach a common goal.  With the class that I just worked with, I would say that “commitment to shared success” was very difficult.  What I observed was that groups spent a lot of time arguing about the way they wanted to do the presentation and were not as concerned about what would be best for the presentation, but were more interested in getting their own way.  Also, groups that struggled with this often were off track and had difficulty completing the work by the deadline.  What I also noticed was that these same students were able to give good feedback to other groups about their projects, but had a hard time looking critically at their own project and working together for the best product.  I also think that it would have been important to help students assign tasks that would be group and tasks that would have been individual prior to beginning the work.  Allowing time for this communication could have solved some of the problems that arose during the project work.  Last, I think it would be good to practice interpersonal communication outside of projects.  Students did well in addressing others, but listening to others when discussions were occurring was challenging. When I sat in on group discussions, I noticed that there were several ideas thrown out by students and others just talked over them or took over and dictated the direction of the group.  I think working with students on listening to all group members and making decisions as a whole would be a good skill for life, as well as group work.

Melissa Terry's Video Analysis Reflection

I ended up trying to take three videos before I gave up due to technical issues.  The first video clip is the longest.  This shows the teacher whose classroom I am working in giving directions at the beginning of the lesson.  The rest of the time that I am in there, we (Mrs. T and me) are moving about the classroom helping students complete their projects.  Their projects had to have several components: their question to be answered, a writing component, and an art/picture/sculpture component.  In the first clip, I am helping some find information to help them answer their questions.  Students are in different stages in project completion.  Some are struggling to find answers to their questions.  Some are finished and in the process of typing up their summaries or creating their final product.

This is the first research project that these students have done this year.  They have not had a lot of experience.  Therefore, a lot of teaching was occurring prior to beginning research and also individually or in small groups as needed.  Different students needed different things as they worked on their projects.  Some were able to find answers to their question, but then had difficulty putting their notes into written summaries.  Others wanted to create google slides but had never done this before and needed a tutorial.  Others needed help locating pictures for their final presentations and needed to learn to copy/paste into documents.  The video clip is only seven minutes but it shows a snippet of what occurred over five days. 

I feel like I had to really become focused on what the students needed and provide that because my time with them was limited.  I taught lessons on thick/thin questions, taking notes, and writing summaries as students were beginning the research process.  I wanted to video the part where students were working because I wanted to analyze how they did doing the research independently or with minimal support.  What I found was there were some students who were off task much of the time.  Even with a deadline looming, they were still using their time to talk with friends and mess around.  There were other students who did not have the reading or writing ability to do this project without a lot of support.  One student that I worked with had to have everything read to her, and then we had to discuss it so that she would understand and be able to write down the main points.  Another students was researching how floods affect homes and she could not understand many of the articles she read.  There were others who were able to do this project with ease and they finished quickly and then struggled with continuing to work on their presentation to make it even better.  They just wanted to be “done” rather than continue to take the time to add sound, animation, color, etc. to presentations.  The other part I have struggled with is wondering how I could have facilitated better at the beginning to make their projects a little more meaningful.  The level of thick questions was not exactly what I wanted.  For example, I was hoping that instead of researching “causes of floods”, they would study ways to help those recovering from a flood, or how to better our transportation system to survive a flood.  I will continue to reflect on ways that I can increase the rigor of their questioning to provide more substance.

Those challenges aside, I feel like this was a good first effort by these students and the teacher and I have already talked to discover ways to make future projects even better.