The Packet is Dead! (or at least it should be)

Remember the packet?  I mentioned “the packet” the other day in a workshop could see that everyone knew exactly what I was talking about.   The packet – a number of “worksheets” stapled together that students can work on independently -in theory, not so bad, in practice, not so good.  Not too long ago, there was a Youtube video, of a student ranting against the packet- (warning – “strong language”).  The video went viral, mostly because everyone understood what this student was talking about! 

However, not all packets are created equal.  Some very good project-, problem- and challenge-based learning activities start with something like a packet, but questions, challenges, and resources send students far beyond the packet.  The thing is, there are simple ways to get students to work independently, creatively, collaboratively, and thinking critically.  Why not avoid the packet all together?  You can present interactive problems with links, collaborative discussion areas, brainstorming centers and student workspaces using simple technology tools.   

Take a look of these sample projects and launch your project with the same creativity and learning objectives you expect from your students (and look like you are some kind of techno-geek in the process).  

These simple tools offer students (and parents) 24-7 access to the project that they can never lose:

Wiki – this wiki is a great example of how a problem can be presented, resources linked and places provided where students can work and share with other students.  This problem was presented to teams of teachers in the problem-based learning style. 

Livebinders- I am a great fan of Livebinders because they are so simple to use.  You can insert documents, provide links and resources all in one nice neat package (note I did not say packet!))  This one presents a challenge to students, provides links, resources, rubrics, and even a place for them to share their finished products.

Blendspace  provides a place for you to insert text to present the challenge and then places that you can link websites, photos, videos, etc. to give students different perspectives to study.  This is a great way to share informational text for common core standards. 

Ted-Ed provides a really simple interface where you can start students out with a challenge via video (or just provide a video to get them thinking) and you can then supply “The right questions” to get them thinking and learning.  You can provide links to information, and collaborative sites to enrich the lesson or project.  Here is my most recent critical thinking problem on graffiti presented Ted-ED style.

Google web site and docs – This is a great mock-up of a class web page made by the people at ITSCO for their AMLE work session.  They used a Google site with links to separate Google docs for the students to work on in small groups.  They provided a large group timeline for the entire group to work on and an exit quiz using Google forms for assessment.  What a great way to leverage all of these free Google tools to provide resources, a collaborative space and assessment.  The ITSCO people did a great job with all of their mini workshops at AMLE, you can check out their other workshops and resources  with this link.  Top quality work!

Web page I attended a PBL workshop last year, where Mr. Cooper was kind enough to share his website with us.  He shared some great examples of how a teacher might use a website to present students with a project, provide resources, etc. (Note:  he has a place where you can “print the packet” for those of you that ask “what if a child does not have access to technology at home?”) 

Want apps?  Check out apps for challenge based learning which provides suggestions for apps for launching and supporting a challenge based learning project from start to finish.

Setting up a SCAN scenario for discussion can be a great way to launch a problem-based learning experience with your students.  You can attach links customized to reading levels, and get them to see a problem from different perspectives before they get started.

Although, I might not express myself in the same way as Jeff Bliss has in his viral youtube video (although, I am pretty sure I might have in high school!) I agree that “if you want kids to come in here and get excited for this, you gotta make ‘em excited!”  PBL’s and technology are a great way to achieve that goal.  Ditch those packets, as Bliss says “you gotta take this job serious, it is the future of the nation!”

Teachable Moment: 3 Things the Government Shutdown and Graffiti Have in Common

What does the government shutdown have to do with a graffiti artist in NYC?  First, both arise as teachable moments, an unplanned opportunity to connect social studies, language arts, and the arts to real world current events.  Second, resolution of the issues will take the ability to see other perspectives and compromise.  Third, they are both “complex situations” with plenty of different perspectives that can teach students to think critically about such questions as:

• How do rules protect individual rights as well as meet the needs of society?
• What are the responsibilities of a good citizen? 
• What are the responsibilities of our leaders?
• What are the lessons that can be learned from current events?
• What role does social media or the media, in general, play in our perspective of events?

No time like the present

Many educators feel they might not have the time to talk about current events, but with increased expectations for critical thinking, evidence-based persuasive writing, and literacy skills in all subject areas, hot news stories can hook your students and encourage them to develop critical thinking around the issues. 

Embrace, deface or erase?

Look at the issues surrounding the famed (or infamous?) British graffiti artist, Banksy, who is taking up an “artist’s residency” this month in New York City.  Each day in October he is “installing” art in a New York City neighborhood.  The art, sometimes whimsical (he has painted “the musical” under some other NYC graffiti so that it read Playground Mob – the musical) or complex as the painting of horses at war with night vision goggles, or beautiful as this truck transformed into the ultimate diarama.  His graffiti/art is drawing crowds and creating quite a buzz in social media as people strive to discover and share it before it disappears.

Ask your students

Is this person an artist or a criminal?  Should his art be covered up or protected from other graffiti behind plexiglass?  Should we embrace or erase?  Are the people defacing his art any different? Being outside the law is part of his popularity, should he be stopped?

There is a great lesson in the SCAN library that can give your students a head start in their critical thinking.  The Graffiti:  Freedom of Expression or Vandalism? Scenario in the SCAN tool at TregoED.org provides 4 different perspectives, guiding critical thinking questions and a private discussion area for your class.  (The SCAN library holds over 100 other free scenarios that teachers can use with their classes.  For a short video about the tool or how to set up a lesson go to http://tregoed.org/teachers/new-to-scan.html.) 

You can add these links to your lesson to provide background research to help students develop their perspective:

Video news clips:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50156760n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0b90YppquE

http://news.yahoo.com/video/banksy-goes-rogue-nyc-233840768.html

News stories:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/elusive-graffiti-artist-banksy-hits-nyc-20474753

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/urban-artist-banksy-dots-boroughs-creations-article-1.1477611

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4819726/banksy-interviewed-about-new-york-art-show-better-out-than-in

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/08/20871038-banksys-nyc-street-show-draws-fans-and-defacers?lite

Don’t miss this opportunity to use this event as an opportunity to think critically about our laws and responsibilities as citizens as well as consider how compromise, civil discourse and different perspectives all come to play in the resolution of the problem.

Make another connection

Use these Best Resources on Compromise and Best Resources to help Understand the Federal Government Shutdown compiled by Larry Ferlazzo and posted on his blog “Websites of the Day” to take student thinking one step further.  How do those same essential questions apply to this situation?

NOTE:  The SCAN lesson library and discussion tool is 100% free to educators. This SCAN lesson was inspired by MaryAnne Molishus elementary class project http://scan-werecriticaltothinking.blogspot.com/2012/02/current-events-prompt-critical-thinking.html. 

Students' Rights: Great Cases to Get Them Thinking

Want them to write?  Find their passion.

I was recently involved in a #njed twitter chat on BYOD.  A large group of people enthusiastically contributed their experiences and points of view on how a successful BYOD program might look and run and some of the benefits and disadvantages of having students bring in their own devices.  I noticed that there was a student involved in the discussion (how cool is that!) and when asked how she felt about students bringing in their own devices, she responded that”…students who have the devices should have the right to bring their own devices…”

There were two things that were very cool about this whole discussion and her being involved - # 1 she was participating in a great real life authentic critical thinking activity as an equal with adults (how cool is that?) and #2 she was passionate enough to write what she believed to be students’ rights.

That is what I love about young people.  They are very clear and very passionate about their rights!  As we all are!

Try to see it my way…

This passion is something that we as teachers can harness to get kids thinking and writing.  Isn't that what we are trying to do with the CCSS focus on argumentative writing-get students reading nonfiction material from several reliable sources to put together a coherent argument?  This becomes a much easier task when you have (or they have) selected a topic that they care about – whether it be their privacy, rights, or their cell phones! 

Do you own your phone?

The Bill of Rights Institute has a great lesson, Unlocking your Cell Phone – Property Rights in the Digital Age,  complete with downloadable student pages that sets up the issue, gives resources from different perspectives and great critical thinking questions surrounding the recent court decision that makes it against the law to unlock your cell phone so you can utilize another carrier.  Check out these resources that they provide:

A Right to Unlock Cellphones Fades Away
Date: 1/25/13
Source: NY Times

FCC To Investigate Cell Phone Unlocking Ban
Date: 2/28/13
Source: TechCrunch

Point/Counter-Point:

The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone
Date: 1/27/13
Source: The Atlantic

What’s really happening with unlocked devices
Date: 1/26/13
Source: CTIA Blog

Beyond the Cell Phone

 It turns out there are a lot of good cases, past and present, that our students may be interested in.  Why not have them select one, do a little research and develop an argument for or against the rulings?

Can the principal search the texts and pictures in your cell phone?  And punish you for what they find?

I think that students would find the article on this case relevant and interesting to them.

Or

Have them look at one of these lists and choose which case interests:

Landmark Supreme Court Cases about Students

Or

Have them look at some of these older cases with some of these interesting examples :

Can a student wear medieval garb for his yearbook picture?

Distribute an alternative newspaper?

Have a grade reduced due to an unexpected absence?

Or

Have them look into some cases focused on students’ rights to free speech.

Using court cases involving their peers can make work relevant, stir their passions, allow them to develop arguments, see different perspectives and learn about their own civil rights.  Seems like a great way to get kids thinking!

Simple Questions lead to Complex Learning

Watching the news this morning there was a story about a baby panda growing stronger in the zoo.  Isn't it ridiculously cute?  As usual, it got me to thinking about zoos and breeding programs and endangered species….and off I go!

With the new Common Core, teachers can turn their focus from “the test” to teaching students to think for themselves.  Sometimes it just takes a simple question.  That seems to be the basis of “Problem-Based Learning.”  Think about the question posed by the NYCDOE Nonfiction Reading and Opinion/ Argument writing task for 5^th grade:  “Should zoos exist?” or for older students, Room for Debate’s “Does Captive Breeding Distract from Conservation?”  These simple questions can be the basis for some great informational reading and research-based writing and some great critical thinking.  

Check out these resources that provide different perspectives on the debate on zoos:

The Swazi Eleven

Life span of elephants in zoos vs. the wild

10 Facts about Zoos

How do zoos help endangered species?

What zoos do

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/endangered_species/zoos/index.asp?article=whatzoosdo

Don’t zoos help to preserve endangered species?

Room for Debate:  Does Captive Breeding Distract from Conservation?

The same resources can be found here, all neatly arranged in this “live binder” – a digital binder that will allow you to share all of these resources with your students in one easy place.  Have your students do the research and use this great persuasion map from readwritethink.org to get their writing started!

Jumpstart their thinking!

Having a discussion before students start writing can help them understand new perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of the issues.    The SCAN tool  at TregoED.org has a great new scenario “Should Zoos Exist?” (always free) complete with scenario, four perspectives, resource links and a private discussion format to get them started.

CCSS lesson: Arguing the School Calendar

It’s easy to get kids writing an argument when they are passionate about a subject and who is not passionate about the school calendar?  Just open up the discussion on year round schools or what religious holidays will be observed can spark a debate.  Adjusting the school calendar for emergency days adds the complexity of previous plans and often emotions run high.  With the recent Hurricane on the East Coast, many schools have been closed to two full weeks.  Why not have your students do some critical thinking and problem solving around the topic of Emergency School Closings?

Perspectives

To get the argument started have students take on the role of parent, Board of Education, teacher and student and read the articles below:

Informational text Resources:

Parents Debate How to Fix the School Calendar

Chester Schools Debating Calendar Change

Schools Across NJ Juggle Calendar

Charter School Holds Online Classes during Power Outage

NJ School Boards:  Guidance on Rescheduling School – the 180 Day Requirement

See the Issues

As an individual, have students list the issues they come across for their point of view as they are reading.  List all class issues.

Clarify the issues:

Ask students to clarify the issues that have been posted.  Students should refer back to the articles to see if there is an explanation as to why the issue is important. 

Ask what’s Important

As a class determine what issues are most important to consider when coming up with a solution.

No, what should be done? 

Work as a class to determine what should be done to adjust the school calendar keeping the most important issues in mind. 

Get them writing:  Ask students to describe and defend the new plan making sure they acknowledge other options and points of view.

Online SCAN Tool:

Increase student engagement and participation in this discussion using the SCAN tool at TregoED.  The private online discussion tool walks students through these steps, allows them to comment and collaborate on the solution.  “School Calendar and Emergency Days” is a free SCAN scenario this month featuring these points of view and including links to the articles. 

I guess if you live in a sunny spot with no weather issues you may never have to face the problem of emergency school closings…perhaps you may want to have your students look at the issues involved in the “Year Round School” Scenario. 

This same problem solving strategy can be used at the administrative level.  Check out “5 Steps to Help Your School with Post-Disaster Management” to see how this strategy can work for you.