Progress Happens

Courtesy Creative Commons

Things are starting to fall into place.  We are using a problem solving/project based approach this year, which requires a lot of groundwork!  Today we set themes for the year, which  gives us a framework to build the rest of our learning experiences around.

Most themes run for four weeks.  We are collaborating -  creating whole group learning experiences, which we will team teach. We will also divide the students up into smaller groups to do explicit, direct teach lessons which are aimed at specific learning outcomes drawn from National and State standards.  The schedule is flexible, allowing us to give more time on any given day to a learning experience that requires more time. For example, if Bryan is doing a lab to help students understand plant biology, we can allow him that time, while adjusting time spent on other lessons.  Students who did not need to earn a biology credit would work with Brenda and I in English or social studies.

We previously created a crosswalk from National and State standards and are using those results to create checklists for each of our courses.  We have evaluated the different technology and Web 2.0 tools we would like to use, and today posted an introductory survey we will use at the beginning of the year to start learning about our students.  Our first focus is on relationship building.  The survey will be one piece of that. Feedback from each person will tell us how they see themselves as students and help us in planning lessons.

I am duplicating my courses in Moodle.  This will allow students with attendance problems to keep up.  I have also found my students really like this kind of structure. They like to have a place where they can see what the learning tasks are, what level of performance is required to earn credit, and when things are due. Grades are also posted on the Moodle.  As our program comes together, Moodle will also be a tool for allowing advanced students to finish courses a little faster.  I am drawing from my e-learning and game design courses as I structure these new Moodle versions of the social studies courses I teach.  There will also be one Moodle which will serve as a resource for all students, with tutorials and step-by-step instructions for projects and assignments.  Students who may be working on a project at home could refer to the Moodle if they had forgotten how to use Audacity or Photostory 3, for example.  Or if they wanted to see the rubric for a major assignment, they could pull it up on Moodle from any computer linked to the Internet.

We are also looking at opportunities to integrate reading and writing standards across the curriculum.  The goal is to have students practice and demonstrate mastery of literacy skills essential to future success beyond high school. 

 I am breaking my social studies courses up into levels, with repeated elements in each level.  For example, each level in the history classes will have a vocabulary and a geography piece, as well as core content which students will need to demonstrate mastery of.  There will be increasing levels of sophistication required as students move through a course. 

We created a web as part of our initial planning.  The web was a good starting place for seeing how the English, math, social studies, and science courses overlap.  I am now working on a sort of web/flow chart to describe how we will be integrating all of our courses.  We also need to identify stories we want to use to introduce each new theme.  Storytelling is a great way to draw students in and capture their interest. They are also a great launching point for researching.

I also would like to see our students creating their own stories, as a way of sharing what they've learned.