A Steaming Styrofoam Cup of Social Studies

Socials 11 is hard. It is course crammed with material and can at sometimes seem like a labyrinth. Like the famed labyrinth, there is also a minotaur waiting in the tunnel; the minotaur is of course, the government exam.

A coworker gave me an idea quite some time ago to help students study, while at the same time building classroom community and I was excited to try it out. I chose my 1920s/1930s  test, since students have typically found it to be challenging due to the breadth and depth of material contained in the unit.

Students were each given a styrofoam cup. They were told that they could bring the cup into the test as a study aid. They could write whatever they wanted on it and then, during the test, I would give them hot chocolate to put in the cup.

Some students wrote on the outside of the cup in microprint; other cut the cup up and wrote on both sides (a few who did this, also brought their own cup so as not to miss out on the hot chocolate.) Two or three students did not opt to use the cups at all.

Ultimately, the test results were higher than other years and fewer students asked for a re-test. However, anecdotally speaking, it was interesting to see that many students seldom seemed to look at their cups during the test. My ploy had worked - they had worked so hard to condense their material that they had in essence memorized it and the cup was simply there as more of a security blanket.

Interestingly, I found that in the two days prior to the test, students asked a lot more clarification questions because they had been actively reading their notes, chapter questions and reviewing. As a result, they were more knowledgeable and more prepared.

I know some teachers would scoff at the idea of a "Cheat sheet." However, if my philosophy is that I want students to learn the material, know it, synthesize it and retain it, then does it really matter how they come to that?  Would it be better to have them not do the cup, not learn the material and not do well on the test? I can think of one student in particular who hugely benefited from this form of studying and he was delighted to receive his highest mark on a test yet!

Anyhow, a neat new item to add to my repertoire and I will certainly choose to use it again for both its effectiveness and for its novelty.

Below is a video showing student examples of the cup along with a voiceover explaining what is going on.



Post courtesy of Jeff Fitton

Tell Me What You're Really Thinking… The "Ticket" Out

When a lesson comes to an end, and students gather up their things and head on out the door, there are days when I ask myself, Did they really get the lesson? What happened there? The hectic nature of an hour (or even two, if you are lucky to have the class for two subjects) with middle schoolers can leave any teacher with a little uncertainty as to how much the students are really engaging and really learning. One tool that I have found to be effective is the "ticket out the door". This is a quick formative assessment that can give a teacher some feedback on just about anything they want to know. One that I used recently was "Reflection on My Writing"- The questions were "What am I doing well at?" and "What do I need to work on?" This not only assessed what the students were thinking in terms of their writing, but also how they were doing with the language of writing. I wanted to know if they were able to recognize and use 6 Traits language such as conventions, transitions, style, detail, organization. Some students were able to express their strengths and next steps using the language, others said things like, "I wrote a whole page", or "I write good ending sentences". There was one student who wrote "nothing" as his strength - which clearly reflected his low engagement and therefore low confidence in writing- a good heads up for me. 

In my experience, the "ticket out" is a good way to invest the last 5 minutes or so of class. It provides a reflective closure for the students, gives me some quick feedback, and provides a good starting point for the next day. Once the practice is in place, and students become comfortable with it, the "truth" really surfaces and the feedback, although not always rosy, is invaluable.

Post courtesy of Andrea Devito

Developing a Framework for Inclusion Within Math 8

This year I have the opportunity to work with Pam Rutten in her Math 8 class.  The focus of this co-teaching is to attempt to provide access to the curriculum for all learners with a specific focus on "grey area" students.

Pam and I have jumped in to this experience wholeheartedly using a predominantly 'organic' approach.  Having a trusting and cooperative professional relationship is really the core of our approach thus far.  So far, Pam and I have co-planned, shared philosophical and technical teaching ideas.  Moving forward our goal is to spend more time 'structuring' our co-teaching time with student achievement in mind.

These are a few examples of what you would see if you wandered into Pam's class during our co-teaching time:

• Readiness Level Small Group Instruction
• Team Teaching (Pam and I teaching the same concept together.)
• Examples of different approaches (Pam teaching examples of how to add fractions followed by a demonstration of manipulatives from me)

We are in our fledgling phase of this process and I hope to add more ideas to this blog as we learn together.

Post courtesy of Nick Korvin

Trying Something New: Students Become the Experts

 Over the course of the last few years I have been trying to figure out different ways to teach and engage students on the topic of Confederation. I know, I know, it is a fascinating topic! But an important one for understanding the framework of our government and social problems in Canada.

 So, this semester I decided to break the info into the terms of the PLOs and make expert groups (four groups; Social, Political, Economic and Geographical reasons for Confederation). I had the groups stay together for about a week and become real "experts" on their topic.  They did every task for the week in these groups (note taking from text, note taking from power points/teacher "lecture", answering questions and class discussions).  This had an interesting effect as they built a new sense of community and ownership, as well as accountability to the group.

 I then took the four groups and made new groups with one member from each of the above groups going to form the new group which represented a colony of Canada. Then they compiled new notes for their colony based on their understanding of social, political, economic and geographical reasons for Confederation.

Finally,  the Colony groups had to make an advertising campaign to influence the delegates of the Charlottetown Conference (our class) to allow their colony to join Confederation. There were a variety of choices from rap, to poetry, to speeches to posters. As you can see from the video they really bought into this and I got a variety of presentation types. Looking at this process before the unit test and before the unit assignment (a written speech) I feel like they found it more interesting, felt it was a more effective use of time, it allowed more variety with more discussions and ultimately more learning!



Post courtesy of Christy Bevington

Fraction Smoothies with Seniors

Well last year I did baking with fractions, click here for the muffin recipe and fraction activity (these are sweet muffins).  You don't have to do the baking part if you do not have access to a kitchen with your class; however, everything is better with food and the kids loved it.  We had so many muffins after each group made a batch of 12-24 muffins that we decided to share them with other classes and the Summerland senior community.  My class visits a group of seniors at the Summerland Senior Village every 3 weeks and our next visit was just a couple of days away from when the students completed this baking activity.  Of course we brought muffins and enjoyed them over good conversations with the seniors.

This year my goal for our senior buddy visits was to incorporate fun curriculum based activities with the seniors.  Of course the baking with fractions activity came to mind, which would involve curriculum, a lot of fun, and something to eat over conversing with seniors.  We invited the seniors to come to our Home Ec kitchen, which has 6 stoves and all the supplies for a class to bake a batch of muffins.  However, the seniors wanted to be at their facility in the comfort of their home environment.  Of course we adjusted, but this meant that we would only have 1 oven to use at their facility.  Not the best situation with a class of 26 and 13 extra seniors!!!!  Muffins were out and an easier recipe, using the same concept, was used.  Thank you, Lana Manuel for your recipe and adaptations to make this work in one block and limited ovens.

Well, we packed 10 blenders and the ingredients needed for smoothies to the Summerland Senior Village country kitchen.  It was fabulous!!!  Some of the student/senior conversations were interrupted with the sounds of blenders going, but boy did they taste great!!!  Some of the seniors mentioned that they had never tried a smoothie before and now they really like them.  Funny how all of the students had tried a smoothie and some of them have them on a regular basis.

Below are some pictures of this activity.

Post courtesy of Jessa Arcuri 

Show What You Know- The Brain (Grade 4/5)

With our school-wide focus this year being Social Emotional Learning (SEL), our staff has committed to using the program "Mind Up". This program was chosen because of its application across the grade levels K-5 as well as its ability to teach kids specific SEL skills such as self-management, self-awareness and social awareness. The first part of the MindUp program entails teaching students about 3 main parts of the physical brain and the job each part does. Students learn that the Prefrontal Cortex (wise old owl) is responsible for planning and organization, the Hippocampus (filing cabinet) stores facts and memories and the Amygdala (watch dog) controls their emotions. One of the major learnings we want students to come away with is that in order for your PFC and Hippocampus to be available to its user, we need to keep our Amygdala in a calm state of being. After spending a few sessions learning about our physical brain, I gave the students a task of choosing between 3 formats in order to "Show What They Know" about the brain, its

different parts and each parts' purpose. Students were able to choose between demonstrating this

knowledge through the use of play-dough, window writers or auto-rap. Students were given the choice to complete this assignment individually or in partners. I specifically chose to appeal to the students' various learning styles and learning preferences. Offering these choices also offers a need-fulfilling way to approach each student's individual need for freedom, power, fun and belonging (Glasser's Internal Needs Model). It was interesting that there was a diverse mix of who chose to use which format although most students chose to work in partners. After going over the project's criteria with the class as a whole, I gave the students a 45 minute period to complete it. This turned out to be more than enough time. We then took another 30 minute period to have groups present. The class as a group decided if each group had met the expected criteria and students were given their mark on the spot based on this assessment. All students met the criteria with ease and were pleased with  both their presentation and their final product. The photos shown are from the students' "Show What You Know: The Brain" presentations.

Post courtesy of Heather Rose

Not giving up… the results get better

Sometimes when I have tried to get students to "Show Me What They Know" - and I give them the freedom to use their own strengths or interests, I have been disappointed with the results.  Perhaps it's the fact that the samples we all show each other are those which we are proudest of and then when the results of my students don't measure up I think that somehow my approach isn't working...and that niggling thought in the back of my mind drags me back to considering marking the 'Presentation' or 'Creativity' to up the results.

However this year I am beginning to receive much better results and I think it is because:

a) I'm doing a better job
b) I've got better students or...
c) Examples that are from my own classes have given the students a chance to see the possibilities...
d) They had Russ last year and are used to taking risks

Well it's c (as you all know because it is always C and because it is the longest explanation - thanks UBC Assessment class)...and of course D but I didn't want to grow that ego any more.

It has simply taken time for me to gather up and have different examples (some big and extensive and others simple but brilliant) that have sparked my students into finding ways to show me their knowledge.  Thus my nerves have been somewhat eased and my belief in allowing students to use their own interests reinforced.

Keeping my students' work from previous years - and saving samples in files on my computer - has begun to pay off and it is great to see.

Realizing this I have asked students to record (with their cell phones) even some simple white board work - Recently I asked my students to show me the difference between a laissez-faire (1930's Canada) government and a welfare state (today) without using words.  My favorite is below.  I'm hoping that by showing it to future classes when I ask them to try the same assignment that it will lead them to think of different ways to show the difference between the two concepts.


 

(The students used the idea that some suggest those who are out of work (down and out) are told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps - while others think they don't have the skills necessary and could use a hand up)…

Post courtesy of Dave Searcy

Connections

In an effort to build relationships and increase relevance in my courses I've been focusing on building connections. 

I want my classes to be places where students feel comfortable to share ideas and to try new things. I've worked on building connections between everyone in the class. I've designated time on Mondays to classroom discussions (we focus on current events in Social Studies, but will often talk about the weekend and what the students are doing in their lives). I haven't implemented the 2 x 10 strategy yet this year, but I consciously make an effort to check in with students (especially the ones that struggle academically or socially in my classes). Another strategy that has been very successful this year has been the use of name cards and designating the seats that students sit in each class. Students made name cards on one of the first days of class which I put in a different seat everyday so that students have the opportunity to work with everyone in the class. We do a fair amount of partner work so I'm hoping that by working with everyone in the class the students will slowly feel more comfortable sharing ideas with everyone - I think it's working (some students that were really reluctant to speak in class are starting to be more open). The cards also break up the cliques that can form when allowing students to choose their seats which really helps classroom dynamics by integrating the shier students into the class and prevents the more confident groups of friends from intimidating others. 

In an effort to make subject matter more relevant and provide students with an opportunity to create connections with the material I am now teaching Social Studies thematically instead of the more common Chapter by Chapter approach. It makes for more work when preparing my classes, but it allows students to understand why we talk about historical events that happened hundreds of years ago. Being able to learn about what's happening in Syria or changes in social media give students a chance to personalize the subject matter during our Revolutions Unit. I'm hoping that students will finish the course with a better understanding of some major themes as well as being more aware of what's happening in the world (and why it's happening) than if we focused on memorizing facts and figures about the English Revolution. If I do continue to teach English in the future I'd like to try to move towards teaching a theme-based English course as well.

Post courtesy of Marcus Krieger