Letter to Parents / Guardians

Here's what we sent parents about our inquiry-based learning pilot project:

Last month, we implemented a pilot program for inquiry-based learning at the Grade 8 level.  The provincial government recognizes inquiry as a way of personalizing learning because it fosters the skills and competencies learners need to succeed in the 21st century.  We are very excited about giving learners the opportunity to pursue their own interests, while they develop the necessary skills to be life-long learners and responsible global citizens.

The Grade 8s have had regular morning classes and have been using every afternoon to explore the big idea, “What is our relationship with water?”  Learners have had the opportunity to work in small groups or individually.  In this collaborative, cross-curricular setting, subject-area teachers have taken on advisory roles, observing learners and assessing the skills and competencies required across all disciplines. These competencies include:

• Communication
• Critical and Creative Thinking
• Personal and Social Relationships

Learners have been working at refining the big idea into their own more manageable guiding questions. They are required to gather artifacts of learning that demonstrate their progress including any research, and they must use digital journals and portfolios.  The March Report will include anecdotal comments that will explain how learners have fulfilled the required competencies and learning standards across all curricular areas.  

We invite you to help us continue to foster a culture of inquiry at St. Pat’s.  Please feel free to ask your son/daughter about his/her inquiry studies and encourage him/her to continue to probe more deeply.  On Tuesday, March 4th, the learners will showcase the results of their inquiry in our gym and science wing, from 6pm to 8pm.  We invite parents and community members to come and celebrate personalized learning at St. Pat’s - mark your calendars!

Let's Do This!

This week we launched our grade-wide Inquiry on Water... and it IS messy!

Let me give some background:

There are ten of us on the PLC for implementing inquiry at our school.  Of the ten, five actually teach courses at the grade eight level.  Of the five that do teach grade eight courses, no two teach a grade eight class in the same block.  What these facts mean is that we have had to be creative with who was available each afternoon to introduce all the logistics of the model we wanted to adopt.

We did our first afternoon in the cafeteria with ALL 100 grade eights. We spoke about the Inquiry Process, which should have been a review because we had expected our colleagues to do some practise with the process in the prep phase. What we immediately noticed was that we had to actually practise the process again.  They are only thirteen years old after all and for most of them, this was the first time in their lives we weren't asking them to arrive at an answer!

After two afternoons of practise around how to create questions that might inspire deep learning, we showed the entire class a few clips from various videos about water.  Learners worked in "practise groups" to map questions and make curricular connections.  We knew we were closing the door a little bit on true inquiry, but our fear was that since many of our learners did not come from cultures of inquiry, they might not know how to approach it, and besides, this particular group of learners needed a bit more structure. So, we offered learners the guiding question: "What is our relationship with water?"

Each learner posted three questions on a long piece of paper that we draped over lockers in the cafeteria. We arranged the post it notes according to commonalities within curricular areas - we realized later that maybe the curricular areas weren't necessary, but more on that later. Even though it felt backward, I was pleasantly surprise by the quality of the questions and by the ways in which learners grouped themselves.  Some learners decided to work individually straight away; others chose their friends; most chose to work with people with similar interests.  We had a few issues around certain people working together, but we eventually decided we had to let go.

The most difficult thing about the whole process is not being in control.  Instead we have to give learners space to move in what we (educators who were "learners" in a system that asked us to complete tasks) might consider the wrong direction, all in the name of teaching creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Building A Culture of Inquiry

So, we are nearing the end of our Prep Phase with the Problem Based Learning model that we propose to staff for this 2014-2015 school year.

We have been struggling to define what it might look like at our school given our class rotation schedule, extra-curricular early dismissals, space, and of course the whole reason for the shift. Since we only met once every two months (it seemed, this year), it was difficult to work out anything solid.

(My previous blog has a link to the proposal we made to our staff.  Click here to see it again.)

Anyway, with administration's support, we decided the following:

• We will use a split Inquiry Hub, PSII model for PBL at St. Pat's.
• We will switch from calling it problem-based to inquiry-based learning.
• Inquiry time will be every afternoon.  In my school, we only have one teaching block after lunch (except on Fridays) and we decided to sequester all the grade eight learners* in one area of the downstairs hallway.
• Learners may work individually or in groups.
• The learners will report to a "Home Base" room for attendance and emergency procedures if necessary.  Teachers who teach a grade eight class in the block after lunch will take a Home Base, take attendance, and foster inquiry.  One of my colleagues worked on schedule to move non-inquiry classes to other spaces in the school.
• Learners will be free to move around the school to access technology and work space.
• All learners will write a guided check-in (via Moodle) and write a journal-style check-out (via Mahara) every afternoon. 
• The final product does not matter - all learners will exhibit their learning in the media they choose on March 4, 2015.
• The members of the PBL learning community will serve as advisors to the learners.
• As a PLC we will meet three mornings a week to discuss projects and logistics.  We will also change the language of learning in our school. (Change the language; change the attitudes. Ergo: learner v. student.)

#isrosemao

Last week, three members of my PLC and I visited the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) in Victoria, BC.  What an amazing place! It's probably what solidified our plans to actually figure out the logistics of our proposed whole-grade inquiry on water.

The school is one big open space with smaller break-out rooms around it. There are learners' inquiry maps posted on every wall; there is a schedule of all the seminars for the coming weeks (learners choose to attend only the ones they need); there is a kitchen where learners can create recipes and cook; there is a workshop for building things; there is a dress-makers work space; there is a 3D printer, for goodness sake!  The thing that has the most impact though is that the learners have a ton of freedom to move and work where they wish.

And, don't get me wrong: teens are still teens. Not all learners were "on task" all the time, but ALL of them recognized that they eventually did have to document something about their learning. Everything that we talk about as educators when it comes to 21st century learning and best practise exits at PSII... self-regulation is an understatement.

I had the opportunity to chat with two learners: one is in "Grade 11" doing podcasts on pop-culture connections to literary classics; the other one is in "Grade 9" whose inquiry centres around the Heroes of WWII.  Both were able to tell me what curricular outcomes their inquiry met. The Grade 9 boy said:

"Part of my inquiry is fulfilling some History 12 outcomes; the way I'm choosing to present everything is covering Information Technology; and because I've decided to actually do the training program the military does, I'm doing my DPA (Daily Physical Activity, a ministry requirement at each grade level)."

I was struck by the incredibly purposeful and completely personalized learning going on, and by the absence of any desire amongst the learners for a letter grade or a percentage.  In fact, when I asked Jeff Hopkins, the founder of PSII about how the report card looks, he told me the percentages arrive out of a conference with each learner and all the learners know that they will be assessed on the learning outcomes they fulfill and how deeply they fulfill them.  Learners are responsible for documenting all their learning electronically, via Quio.

There are so many more anecdotes I can share, but maybe the twitter feed of our experience is better "real time" reading. Check #isrosemao.  Rose Pillay, a consultant with the CISVA liased with Jeff to arrange the visist - the hashtag is a tribute to some of her wise words.

PBL or Bust!

Okay. I figure I'd better document this whole "grade eights do the Inquiry on Water" thingamabob in January.

The story of how we even decided to attempt Problem Based Leaning at my school goes back to the Building Expert PLCs our previous principal created.  You can read all about it on his blog. Anyway, a few of us had spent the better part of two years learning about inquiry / problem / project based learning - we even tried versions of PBL in our own classes.

When Johnny left, we got stuck in limbo. We had always planned on implementing PBL school wide, but we didn't know how. More correctly, we didn't know how it would be received and none of us were ready to take the fall out. All we knew was that by September of last year, we had reached the apex of our learning around PBL and inquiry.  We needed to actually put the theories in action.

We hummed and hawed about even continuing to meet as a PLC and even toyed with the idea of letting the dream die.  Even the two administrators who were in our PLC were ready to move on - they were still supportive, but the business of helping to run the rest of the school no longer afforded them the time to think about the logistics of actually "doing" inquiry.

I forget exactly how it all got decided, but I remember a colleague saying, "We just need to do this now!" We eventually came back together, talked more, and planned an actual proposal for the staff.

And now, here we are... in the supposed "Prep Phase" fumbling our way through tech issues and questions from other staff about room switches and course content and logistics of space and I'm still trying to accept the fact that it's going to be messy!

Dystopia: A Lesson in Inquiry-Based Learning

Rather than reading Lord of the Flies this year with my English 11 class and "teaching" students how to do a close reading of the novel as I had done for the past sixteen years, I decided to do something different.  I had been doing some professional reading around problem / project / inquiry based learning as part of my Building Experts PLC, and thought about the kind of 21st century learners I had in my classroom and about studying a novel that was published many years before I was even born (never mind my students!).  Don't get me wrong, I love Golding's novel, but I struggled with my purpose for even doing a close reading of ONE novel, and did I only choose that one novel because it was the one I had done as a student myself?

I decided that the only reason I used Lord of the Flies was because I wanted students to look at dystopia.  I discovered that there were many more dystopian novels (and films and short stories) published in the first decade of this century than there were in the last half of the 20th century. So, I concluded that it didn't matter what novel I used, it was the skill I was after.  I could model those close reading skills with any novel (or short story or film) and if students were interested, they could pick up literary pieces from the canon in the future - but who is to say that some early 21st century novels won't become part of that canon later on?

I dropped my plans for a novel study and posed one question, based on my observations of the current literary trends with young adult fiction: What is the appeal of dystopia?

I gave students carte blanche to come up with an answer and only required three things: they needed to keep a learning log, they needed to keep track of all the sources they considered (I asked for a Works Consulted page in MLA form), and they needed to present their findings in some way.  That's it! Some students decided to work independently, others made groups.  I gave up all semblance of a daily class agenda and asked students to set up their own plan of study.  I was encouraged by student response to my first Exit Slip question, "What is your first step?" Almost every group/individual decided that it was necessary to actually read a dystopian piece.  (Win-win!) Many students decided they needed to read two or three pieces of fiction; some decided to view a film to supplement their reading, only one group of students decided to just watch a film.

It was daunting at first. I decided early on that I had to take my cues from the students.  I only did mini-lessons, which were more like modelling activities on character study, close reading, symbol, setting, conflict, presentation skills, writing skills(etc.), and I only did them when students asked or when I could see students struggling. My assessment was purely formative; the presentation was suppose to be the summative piece, but if you look at how I set up the rubric, it ended up being formative, too.  I decided to benchmark an actual percentage after I gave feedback.

I have to admit that it was a bit of a messy process, but in the end almost every student had read more than one novel and viewed at least one other piece of dystopian fiction.  They decided that was necessary in order to see if there was a pattern.  Not every student managed to master the skills for a close reading, but they wouldn't have with Golding's novel either. What was interesting though was that every student took the six weeks very seriously and every single one of them made connections to the political and social contexts of our world today.  Some students even ended up reading Lord of the Flies, anyway!

On Assessment: A Student Perspective

Most educators think that "in the end" it's a disservice to our strong students if we don't assign a letter grade or a percentage.  The following is a student's self assessment of his major project on poetry - apparently, not all strong students want what we think they want.  (Posted with permission.)

I struggled as I attempted to write this self-evaluation.  I looked through all my [explication] essays and poems trying to come up with a grade assessment for my work.  I couldn't.  Instead, I came to this realization:

The purpose of marking an assignment is so that an individual can see his or her own mistakes from a different perspective.  When these mistakes are realized, the student can decide if he or she values the input.  If so, he/she can put it to use improving him/herself and his/her skills.  For this reason, I don't think it is entirely appropriate for me to provide a self-mark for my work, as I am stuck in my own limited perspective.  I feel that I can only grow as a student if someone [else] helps me recognize where I can improve.  I cannot ask myself, "Is this a 6 [level] essay?"  I can only evaluate myself based on one criteria:  did I do the best I could with the resources that I had?

I completed the assignment to the best of my abilities.  I worked hard not so that I could achieve a high grade, but so that I could become a better person in one area of my life.  Instead of taking an indifferent attitude towards the assignment, I challenged myself to write the best darned essays and poems I could write.  Using the skills that I have learned, I did the best I could.  Now, I can only wait for another perspective to provide constructive criticism and help me improve myself.  I am happy with the work I have handed in; this is the only evaluation I can give.