A Project Based Learning Journey - Part 2

This is Part Two in a series about my latest Project Based Learning Journey. Part One can be found here.

As I mentioned in my first post, the approach to a PBL needs to take on a Triangular Shape. 

Either...

• Many choices (questions) with a single (or few) final product choices.
• One (or few) choices with multiple options for presentation.

At the time of this writing, I am working with a Grade 3/4 teacher to develop a PBL approach to the Light & Sound section in the Grade 4 Ontario Science Curriculum. We have decided to use triangle two (on the right). Multiple curriculum prompts with learning demonstrated through either a Tri-Fold Brochure or Infographic (possibly with a QR code to a Google Site.) 

Step 1: Start with the Curriculum

Go through the curriculum and pull out the specific expectations and example questions you want the students to explore. I have organized them into this table.

Step 2: Decide on the Culminating Task

• Explore a Multi-Media Tech Set to learn about the elements of Light and Sound that are identified in the curriculum.
• Identify a question they would like to answer or an area they would like to explore.
• At this age, we need to help support them finding "open" questions or provide meaningful question prompts.
• Research their question and organize the information into either an Infographic or a Brochure
• Both of these products will need to be "front-loaded" through literacy activities.
• Optionally, students could include a QR code to a Google Site that contains the same information.

Step 3 - Solidify Evaluation Approach 

• Feedback throughout the project is essential - especially for young children and those participating in a PBL for the first time.
• Learning Skills need to be addressed regularly - student self-evaluation through Google Forms might be a good strategy. I have also provided time at the end of each work period for students to document their progress and share it with their parents (I used Student Story in Class Dojo)
• The Final Project should be assessed using a No Mark Rubric co-created with students so that they fully understand the expectations. Perhaps...
• Aesthetic Appearance - Communication of Understanding & Media
• Organization of Information - Literacy, Research, Reading and Writing
• Literacy Conventions - Editing & Using Google Tools
• Overall Understanding - Can the student explain their understanding & knowledge?

Next - Building the Multi Media Tech Set

"A Love Letter to Canada" Part Three

This is Part Three of a four part series about the use of The Amazing Race Canada in a Grade 4 classroom. In Part One, I discuss the genesis of the project and the changes I made in the first few years I screened it with students at a school with a high English Second Language (ESL) population. Part Two catalogues the transition of the program for use with multiple classrooms using Google Tools & Flipgrid to communicate their experiences with each other.

In this post, I'll detail some of the activities we tried. As I am not the classroom teacher, I can only suggest activities and I can not always be present for them. The teachers I worked with were wonderfully receptive, so most of the things I suggest here were tried by all the classes.

Viewing Parties

Obviously, this unit requires that the students view 10 episodes of a 1 hour television program. That might raise eyebrows for some administrators or parents. In reality, each episode is 44 minutes long (without commercials) and many intentional breaks are taken throughout the screening. I suggest that teachers treat it like a Read Aloud. In order to facilitate this, students are encouraged to sit in their own version of Amazing Race partnerships. Intentionally planned discussion breaks can be taken to clarify a wide range of events that occur in the program that relate to several curriculum strands. A few examples include...

• Would you or your partner complete this Roadblock challenge? Why?
• Which of the two Detour choices would you and your partner choose to complete? Why?
• How did the girl's team react when Tim & Tim were given a penalty at the Pit Stop? (*they laughed and said "suckers")  What does that tell you about them?
• How is this different from the way The Cowboys behaved when the Twins were eliminated by the same penalty? (*they were empathetic and supportive)  What does that tell you about them? 
• How would you behave in a similar situation?
• Is "hiding the maps" at the airport store cheating?  or clever game play? Why?
• Which team showed excellent collaboration?...problem solving?...determination? etc.
• What brand names have you heard highlighted on the show (Chevy, Interac, Air Canada) - why do you think the host (Jon) keeps mentioning these brands?

Mapping Skills

Part of the Grade 4 curriculum reinforces concepts about maps and mapping already introduced in the primary grades. Specifically, the Grade 4 curriculum states that students will... 

"demonstrate an understanding of cardinal and intermediate directions (i.e., NW, SW, NE, and SE), and use these directions as well as number and letter grids to locate selected political and physical regions of Canada on a variety of print and digital/interactive maps." 

To accomplish this purpose, teachers were encouraged to introduce students to atlases as well as other maps (wall, printable, online).  I direct teachers to a worksheet site called Worksheet Works. If you recall, this entire experiment began with me trying to escape the world of meaningless busy-work on ineffective worksheets. Here's the thing: It is how you choose to use this tool - not the tool itself that is more important. Here is a Teacher Led activity that will help scaffold student understanding of maps.

1. Print this map of British Columbia (the first Province visited on The Race) and enlarge it so that the partners can see it more easily. It requires that students match numbered arrows to a word bank of names... Vancouver, Victoria, Pacific Ocean, Alaska, Skeena River, etc.
2. Show students how different maps (particularly Google Maps) can be advantaged to determine objects and locations on the map. Focus on big objects first (Yukon Territory, Pacific Ocean, Washington State) before zooming in on smaller objects. 
3. Throughout, highlight the differences between Political/Human Locations (Cities, States, Provinces) and Physical Locations (Rivers, Sounds, Mountains). This Google Slide is how I introduced it.
4. Demonstrate the backdoor approach - instead of searching to see what an arrow points to, open another tab and search for the location (EX: Hecate Sound or Queen Charlotte Sound are easier found this way).
5. Google My Maps can be revisited later to mark all the destinations visited on the trip, as well as a "crow flies" travel plan - this is perfect for practicing rounding large numbers in math. "Why would we round the distance from Niagara Falls to the Butterfly Conservatory to the closest 10, while rounding the distance from Toronto to Kelowna to the closest 100?"

Our Own Amazing Race Day

Students are provided with a second chance to build these mapping skills with a group challenge using the province of Alberta during our version of An Amazing Race Activity.

• Multiple copies of the map are enlarged on to ledger paper and cut into three strips.
• The strips are put into envelopes
• The envelopes are labeled and hidden in the school yard at locations that can be described in a riddle written in the form of a simple poem. (Literacy)
• In teams of 4, students are sent out in the yard with their riddle poem. The find each of the three envelopes, return, assemble the map and then identify the locations. (Physical Movement)
• There is a 5 minute penalty for each mistake and a 10 minute penalty for yelling or running inside the school (outside is fair game). 
• A running clock is displayed on the board and students are allowed access to the classroom map and at least two Chromebooks. (Time Measurement, Technology, Social Studies & more)
• The team with the best time is declared the winner and...this is a non-elimination leg of the race.

Needless to say, enthusiasm and engagement is high. I was present for all four variations of this race with the four participating classes (mainly because it ensures better supervision for student safety). Throughout, the teacher and I circulated the groups and did some anecdotal evaluation of the students' understanding of mapping - but invested more time into notes about their learning skills and global competency skills.

• Did they communicate well as a team?
• Did they collaborate well - dividing up the tasks to maximize their speed & efficiency?
• Did they problem solve well when they got stuck?
• Did they show perseverance when challenged?
• Did they look for ways to stay engaged throughout the task, or did they get distracted?

My Observations

• Engagement was very high when groups were searching for clues on the yard.
• Every class had at least one group who completed the map perfectly - often in the best time.
• The groups that were most successful did the same things - persisted, communicated, divided the workload, remained engaged in the task.
• The groups that struggled and did not complete the challenge - communicated less often & less effectively, argued over tasks and had members disengage from the task (sometimes in boredom, sometimes angrily).

The Debrief

• Students were asked to reflect on the things that went well and the things that challenged them.
• Without identifying students & being mindful of self-esteem, teacher observations were shared.
• "I noticed that Chloe showed great perseverance when she was stuck ..." Can you share what you did Chloe?
• "I noticed that Richard's group divided up the task & kept communicating with each other."
• "I saw Adele's group use the big map of Canada at the back of the classroom first - how was that helpful to your group?"
• The correct answers to the map were taken up - again, highlighting effective strategies. 
• Students were asked to think about things they might do differently if the activity was repeated with another map in a few weeks. 

Initially, I planned this to be a 2 part series. It looks like we are going to make it 4. Tune in next time when I cover the other curriculum expectations and the launch of a Multi-Media Tech Set to allow students to do some project based learning around the Grade 4 Social Studies Curriculum.
Part Four Here

"A Love Letter to Canada" - Amazing Race & Grade 4 Curriculum

One of the great benefits of my role as an Instructional Coach is variety. A particularly busy and enriching day might include...

• starting my morning in a Grade 7/8 class teaching figurative language in literacy,
• meeting with the Principal about math data,
• transition to a Grade 3 class to enhance multiplicative thinking through relational rods,
• chatting with a Grade 6 teacher about a new technology option,
• finishing in a Grade 4 class supporting a cross-curricular approach to Social Studies.

Not only is this energizing and exciting, it's a powerfully effective way to learn the nuances of the curriculum across the grades. A fun challenge I have set for myself is to try to "Hit for the Cycle", a term borrowed from baseball which occurs when a batter hits a single, double, triple and a home-run in a single game. For me, that would be a visit with a Kindergarten, Primary (Gr. 1-3), Junior (Gr. 4-6) & Intermediate (Gr. 7/8) class in one day. So far, I have come close (ticking 3 of 4 boxes) on a few occasions. 

An additional perk about visiting multiple classroom is the opportunity to revisit curriculum expectations from grades that I have previously taught. This year, I was excited to pitch a unit from my time teaching Grade 4 in 2013. Through consultation with 4 teachers at 3 different schools, I was able to retool an engaging unit and infuse it with current teaching practice, including the use of Google Suite and other recently released tech-infused pedagogical tools.

The unit is built around Season 1 of The Amazing Race Canada.  Over the next three posts, I would like to provide a richer context for how this unit works so powerfully in a Grade 4 Canadian classroom.

The Genesis

When I first decided to try this unit, I was teaching at Eagle Heights Public School. This was a school in a phase of swift transition. The population was growing rapidly and the demographics were in flux. In 2013, the construction for the second building expansion project in 5 years was well underway. Additionally, the average number of new Canadians who were English Language Learners had quadrupled since my arrival in 2011.

I had watched The Amazing Race Canada season during the summer and knew it had a place in my classroom. My goal was to meet expectations of the Grade 4 Ontario Curriculum for Social Studies - Political & Physical Regions of Canada, but I also wanted to shake off the doldrums of typical practice (of which I had been guilty)...

• map colouring - 1 for provinces, 1 for physical regions, "My Western Cordilleras are blue."
• student presentations - "Our province is Saskatchewan..."
• those bad 1990's videos on YouTube (even well-meaning videos like this had run their course.)
• or worst of all, Canadian Province worksheets ... especially meaningless word searches.

I guess I most wanted to introduce my students (especially those who had just made Canada their new home) to the beauty of this magnificent country. I wanted them to make connections from places on the map to real places that the teams visited. I wanted them to learn about all of the incredible diversity in landscape, recreation, tradition and history that we have captured between three great oceans. Recently, Season 1 participant Dave Schram put it well when he shared the following...

When we were selected, the producers told all of us that... they "wanted the show to be a love letter to Canada."

That was really what I was after - a way for my students to fall in love with Canada.

• To know the immigrant experience at Pier 21 in Nova Scotia.
• To realize Robert Service wrote wonderfully fun & funny poetry about the Yukon.
• That Innuk throat sing, participate in Arctic Olympics and that Muktuk (whale blubber) contains Vitamin D they can't always get from the sun.
• To know that Ogopogo, the Saskatchewan Roughriders & "Body Break" are things that exist, and that some Canadians cherish them fondly.
• And so much more...

Not surprisingly, the unit was a hit. This was at a time before our board had embraced the Google Suite tools, so a lot of our work was on paper and displayed on the classroom walls. We dipped into multiple curriculum strands as we...

• tracked the progress of the race across a large map, calculating & rounding distances,
• documented arrival positions & eliminations for each leg,
• connected race challenges & events to the 6 Learning Skills outlined in the Ontario Growing Success Document,
• wrote about our favourite participants, locations and challenges,
• looked at the positive messaging implied in the shows use of Chevrolet, Air Canada, Interac & Cadbury chocolate,
• tried muktuk, Arctic char & muskox meatballs delivered from Steve (who lives in Iqaluit), 
• even got a surprise visit from Jet Black (a final four participant)
  

The next year, I worked with a Grade level partner and two classes were involved. We built on the successes and added activities. In 2015, I left Grade 4 for a new assignment and my former teaching partner continued running the program on her own. We were fortunate to have annual surprise visits from London participants Jet & Dave...who learned that the response to their arrival was sometimes overwhelming.

I presented the unit at several Elementary Teacher Federation Workshops and remain pleasantly surprised when I see evidence of it on the walls of an unfamiliar school. I'll admit, at this point, I was content with the project I had built and felt that it had legs for quite a few years. However, this year, I got a chance to upgrade the unit to match both the advances in technology and our Board's move toward Global Competencies. 

That, and more, in Part Two.  

A More Amazing Race

I have made use of The Amazing Race and The Amazing Race - Canada to help deliver the Grade 8 and Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum for over ten years. If you are unfamiliar, “The Amazing Race” is a television program where teams of two, with an existing relationships, race around the world (or Canada) trying to find a predetermined location or "pit-stop". Along the way, they must arrange transportation, find clues and complete multi-disciplinary challenges. The goal for each team on each episode, or leg of the race, is to avoid arriving last at the pit-stop - where they face probable elimination. On the last leg of the race, the remaining three teams strive to be the first pair to make it to a Final Pit-Stop and be declared the winners of The Race. They receive a prize of $1,000,000 or $500,000 on the Canadian Version.

For the last two years, when I was teaching Grade 4, the first season of the Canadian version was ideal for introducing our beautiful and diverse country to my students (more than half of whom are recent arrivals to this vast and splendid landscape). It was the perfect vehicle to explore the Political and Physical Regions of Canada from the Social Studies section of the Ontario Curriculum - see page 102. We were even lucky enough to have Season One participants Jet and Dave visit our classroom to answer questions about their experiences on the show.

Last year, I made the transition to Grade 5/6 and thought I would have to retire the unit. However, near the end of the year, my teaching colleague reminded me that he had attended my workshop in 2011 and had adapted my Grade 7/8 unit to fit the Grade 6 curriculum. Specifically, he used Season 10 as a jumping-off point to discussions about Canada's Interactions with the Global Community (Pg 124). Additionally, he reminded me of all the connections we could make to the Ontario Learning Skills (Pg. 17) - particularly Collaboration, Organization & Initiative.

Furthermore, Season 10 boasted a wonderfully diverse cast of participants which would allow for in-depth discussions of Stereotypes - an important element of this section of the Grade 6 Health Curriculum:

By the end of Grade 6, students will assess the effects of stereotypes, including homophobia and assumptions regarding gender roles and expectations, sexual orientation, gender expression, race, ethnicity or culture, mental health, and abilities, on an individual’s self-concept, social inclusion, and relationships with others, and propose appropriate ways of responding to and changing assumptions and stereotypes.

On Season 10, teams included:

• Asian-American brothers
• Devout Muslim friends
• Beauty Pageant winners
• A married gay couple from New York
• A father and his gay daughter
• A rural Kentucky couple
• African-American, single mothers from Alabama
• Two triatheletes - one of whom has an artificial leg
• Friends who are recovering drug addicts
• An Indian-American Couple

In their opening interviews, many team members emphasize that their goal (aside from winning the million dollar prize) is to help break the assumptions and stereotypes associated with their particular race, gender, culture, physical ability etc.

Our class discussion of the teams (following their introductions) provided us with a safe environment to discuss the stereotypes often associated with these varied individuals. As the show progressed, students had the opportunity to see many stereotypes broken. Mary, one of the Kentuckian participants, summed this experience up for many of my students when she stated; “I’ve never met Asians before, or any gay people...they’re really nice.”

Throughout the unit, engagement was high. We did not simply “watch” an episode...we interacted with it. We paused to discuss learning skills, debate sportsmanship, speculate on strategy or sympathize with the participants.  We kept a score sheet at the back of the room for each leg of the race and awarded teams with a variety of honours, including “most cooperative”, “most organized” or "best self-regulation" at the end of each episode.

Students were given an option of using a printed map or the Google My Maps application, to locate and mark the destinations to which the racers travelled. Additionally, a "Canadian Connections" chart (on paper or through Google Docs) provided students with a space to share things that they saw, they learned and they researched about each destination and Canada. (I had no idea we imported nearly 100 million dollars worth of goods from Madagascar! Thank you for the vanilla & coffee!

My teaching colleague and I arranged our schedules so that we could show the episodes simultaneously. This would prevent any spoilers leaking from one class to the next. At the end of the unit, his class prepared an Amazing Race day for our class with a dozen challenges from multiple areas of the curriculum (Phys. Ed., Math, Science, Art, Language, Dance and more). We returned the favour with our own version a few days later. I hope to write about that shortly. It was a wonderful success.

Reflections on a Positive Year

My Report Cards are in. With the exception of some editing (and maybe a few changes to the Science marks after next week’s activities) I am now thinking about next year. However, I should take some time to reflect on the year that is coming to an end in eight school days.

This year started wonderfully because I finally escaped my portable and got back into a regular classroom. Moving from a portable to a classroom is not a small upgrade. It is a monumental game changer.  Here are just a few of the perks...

• There is much more space in a classroom - much more.  
• That space is enhanced by the presence of a hallway, where jackets, boots and backpacks can be stored away from the learning space.
• The hallway also acts as a buffer for the mud and snow that children track-in during recesses therefore, the classroom is always cleaner.
• The heat and air unit is silent in a classroom. In a portable, this space crowding behemoth hums and drones a dull, white noise at about the same frequency as the human voice. Consequently, teachers and students have to speak much more loudly all day. Group activities naturally become shouting matches that wear the nerves of teachers and students alike.
• The heat/air unit also recycles the dirty air. I would like to see a study that compares the number of sick days lost to students and teacher in a portable vs those in a classroom.
• There is a sink and there are many cupboards in a classroom.
• The ceiling projector does not shake and rattle out of focus when the door closes or when the students move around the room.
• There are large windows in my classroom, allowing the room to be flooded with natural light even on overcast days.

Portable 2 - My classroom for 4 long years.

It remains my belief that classes in portables should be hard-capped at 24 students.  I have had over 30 students in a portable and, as the old expression goes, it was so cramped that we had to go outside to change our minds.

How about this? For each student above the cap, the teacher and each member of the class get a small, monthly monetary bonus. This is to make up for the dusty, cramped, loud, dark confines in which they are expected to operate. How about a $100 gift card for the teacher to buy those extra school supplies (or class prizes) not covered by the school’s budget and a $10 gift card for each student to Scholar’s Choice or a Book store? In all honesty, even if I received an extra $500 a month in cash - I would still opt for a classroom.  I guess I should also mention that I make this suggestion in jest. I sincerely believe that I am paid well for a job that I love to do. I would hate to misrepresent myself or my colleagues as cash-strapped complainers.

I also returned to Grades 5 & 6 this year. That was a good decision for many reasons, not just because it got me out of the portable village. I loved the Grade 4 curriculum and kids at that age are really sweet but, it was not a good a fit for me. I work better with students who are a little more independent.

My very first full year position was a Long Term Occasional gig at Lorne Avenue school in 1999 with a Grade 5 & 6 class. Those “kids” are now 25-27 years of age and my current group of students would not be born for another 5 years. I think back on the guy that I was in those first few years. I was not as competent as a teacher. However, I was more patient and more passionate. Sadly, I think I was a little kinder. I am trying to recapture some of that. My teaching partner, Kyle, has helped me immensely. I see in him, many of the qualities I used to have. He is far more patient than I and he has made wonderful progress with so many students. Sadly, he is leaving for a coaching position. It is a change he needs and he will be a great resource to other educators. He was a great partner to work with. We shared lessons and ideas and we were both available to each other as a sounding board for the inevitable complaints and grievances that come with a job that you care about. Next year I am going to be using many of the lessons (particularly the art activities) Kyle shared with me. I am also going to try to be a little more like him when it comes to working through situations with students who are challenging. I’ll let go of some of my cynicism and work to try to reclaim the passion I had when I got that first LTO gig 17 years ago.

Well, I planned on reflecting on the past year and I am already thinking ahead to next year. I suppose that a change doesn’t have to wait for a new class. I have eight days to make more positive changes with the students that I have right now. I am going to invite them to share their thoughts about the good and the bad from this year. I am going to ask them to write letters to my students next year to warn them about what to look for. I will encourage them to be blunt and honest - even if it means they point out a negative about me. My goal for the next eight days is to find time with every one of my students and have a one-on-one conversation that builds them up and gets them ready for a great summer and positive start to Grades 6 & 7. They, like me, will be in a classroom (not a portable next year). So, we have that going for us.