Research Projects That Motivate

As we begin the new school year, we need to think about student motivation and engagement. Inquiry-based learning is one of the best ways to motivate students. Students who are able to inquire about things they are passionate about or about things that have a direct impact on their lives are engaged and motivated. So how can we bridge the content we have to teach with student's passion and interests? Design good research projects.

Doug Johnson has 2 posts where he outlines what this means. In his first post he writes about research questions having an 'action element' to them. Take a look at his post where he shows a level 4 research question:

Level Four: My research answers a personal question about the topic, and contains information that may be of use to decision-makers as they make policy or distribute funds. The result of my research is a well support conclusion that contains a call for action on the part of an organization or government body. There will be a plan to distribute this information.
Primary example: How can our school help stop the growth in unwanted and abandoned animals in our community?
Secondary example: How might high schools change their curricula to meet the needs of students wanting a career in manufacturing in Minnesota?

Think about the motivation of adolescents who work at finding the answer to the above question.

Johnson linked to a post he wrote back in 1999 characteristics of excellent projects. Here is a summary:

1. Motivational research projects have a clarity of purpose and expectations.
2. Motivational research projects give students choices.
3. Motivational research projects are relevant to the student’s life.
4. Motivational research projects stress higher level thinking skills and creativity.
5. Motivational research projects answer real questions.
6. Motivational research projects involve a variety of information finding activities.
7. Motivational learning tends to be hands-on.
8. The use of technology can be exciting for many students.
9. Good projects often use formats that use multiple senses.
10. Interesting projects are often complex, but are broken into manageable steps.
11. Collaborative learning is often stimulating and results in better products than individual work.
12. Motivational research projects have results that are shared with people who care and respond.
13. Learning that is assessed by an authentic tool is more meaningful that a paper and pencil test.
14. Samples and examples give the learner a clear idea of what quality work looks like.
15. Well-designed projects allow the learner to reflect, revisit, revise, and improve their final projects.
16. Teachers and media specialists who enjoy authentic, project-based learning are comfortable with a loss of control over time, the final product, and “correct” answers.
17. These teachers and media specialists accept active students rather than passive students.
18. The professional’s belief that given enough time, resources, and motivation, all students are capable of high performance is critical.
19. Like media specialists, teachers who do exciting projects recognize that their expertise in the learning and research process rather than in any particular subject area.
20. Teacher enthusiasm becomes more important than ever.
21. Teachers and media specialists who work on these kinds of project know that they don’t always work the first time.

Keep these in mind as you design projects for your students. In Johnsons's post he elaborates on these points with examples. You can also get more information about quality research projects by accessing our board's resources: Imagine the Learning, Research Success@ your library (see page 23 and 24 of the link for ordering info) and our new Research web page that you can access here.

Learning to Blog

I haven't posted for a bit - I've been busy posting on the book discussion blog that a group of us started as a way of developing a professional learning group over the summer.

Right now, I am in Will Richardson's session on blogging that's being held during the Vision to Practice conference by the Greater Essex County DSB in Windsor, ON, Canada. Will is working with teachers new to blogging.

It's interesting as I sit back and listen to the discussions and concerns. It's evident to me that the message that social networking is a dangerous thing is very strong and that many teachers are not aware of the message that networking through the read/write web can be a very powerful learning tool that can motivate and engage students. Will showed us Anne Davis' blog post Rationale for Educational Blogging where she lists a number of reasons why blogging is pedagogically sound. She says,

There are many skills and concepts that need to be addressed to effectively help teachers learn to use blogs throughout their curriculum to foster these new literacies. It is not just a matter of transferring classroom writing into digital spaces. Teachers need to address writing for a public audience, how to cite and link and why, how to use the comment tool in pedagogical ways, how to read web materials more efficiently as well as explore other ways to consider pedagogical uses of blogs. Blogging requires us to teach students to critically engage media. Students need instruction on how to become efficient navigators in these digital spaces where they will be obtaining a majority of their information.

She writes about new literacies and I think that this is important. I think that we are in real danger of narrowly defining what literacy is. Literacy is not just a highly publicized score on a standardized test. In the quote above, Davis defines other literacy skills that are not part of these tests but are certainly part of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. And we know that what gets tested gets taught. So how do kids get proficient with 21st century literacies if we don't value them enough to place them within our curriculum or our testing systems? The reality is that blogs, wikis, rss, text messaging and social networking sites are part of the daily literacies of our students. If we don't teach them how to navigate and ethically use these technology who will?

If you want to know more about 21st century skills check this out here. There are lots of links on this site that will lead to articles that examine what it means to be literate in the 21st century and the types of skills that we need to foster in our students so that they will be prepared for a world that is totally different then the one for which we were prepared.

We had almost 50 teachers attend Will's 2 sessions. I am excited to see teachers at both secondary and elementary extending their learning by becoming familiar with blogs.

Here are 2 sources for more information on blogging that Will shared:

Support Blogging

Weblogs in Schools


Happy Blogging!

An Online Book Club for Professional Development

At the end of the year, I offered the opportunity to the English Department Heads in my board to participate in an online book discussion over the summer. I set up a blog to facilitate the discussion and offered to contribute to the cost of the book. I had 3 teachers who were interested and this past week we began our discussion. So far, so good.

One of the things that Will Richardson says about the read/write web is that teachers must use the technology and become comfortable with it before they use it with students. This blog will provide a vehicle for 3 teachers to become comfortable and see the ways they can apply it in their classrooms next year. I'm hoping to expand this and have more teachers involved next time.

Our blog is called Adolescent Literacy. Drop in some time and feel free to comment.

The Trojan Women

So much to write about, so little time. Here's my impressions about the Stratford play Trojan Women.

I didn't plan on seeing this play. My husband and I had an early dinner and were walking along the river admiring the swans and laughing at the antics of the ducks. We wandered into the Festival Theatre to see what was playing that evening. I think it was Romeo and Juliet. We saw this play before at Stratford and although each staging is different, we really weren't interested in seeing it again. The ticket seller suggested that we walk down to the Tom Patterson Theatre and check out The Trojan Women. She said that it was a short play and that we could get rush seat prices for it. So that's what we did. We'd never been to the Tom Patterson before. It is a small theatre with seating on 3 sides of the stage so the audience is quite close to the action.

The Trojan Women

This play, written by Euipedes, takes place right after the defeat of Troy by the Greeks. Here's the story (taken from the program):

After 10 years of siege, Troy has fallen to the Greeks. Outraged by the desecration of her temples, the goddess Athena persuades the god Poseidon to help her harass the conquerors on their journey home. Meanwhile Hecuba, Andromache and the other women of Troy grieve for their husbands, their children and their home. Now the property of their captors, they are destined to become either slaves or concubines, and Hecuba is desperate to learn the fate of her two daughters, Polyxena and Cassandra. As the day wears on, Cassandra arrives in a state of frenzy, uttering dark prophecies of the misfortunes awaiting the Greeks on their return home. the Greek herald, Talthybius, bring terrible news for Amdromache, and King Menelaus reclaims his wife, Helen, whose actions provoked the war. The women's anguish reaches fever pitch as they prepare to be taken away to endure their new lives in Greece.

Women are so often absent from history - most history is the history of men. This play takes us beyond the history of the Trojan war itself and into the aftermath when all the men are dead and the women are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences. Euripides wrote this play thousands of years ago, yet here we are in the 21st century and women are still picking up the pieces and dealing with the consequences of war. We don't often think beyond what is displayed in our media about war - war is still mainly a male event characterized by soldier deaths and collateral damage (such a sterile term for death of civilians). We have brief glimpses into what happens to some women but usually it is just a line or 2 in a history book or a 30 second sound bite. So when I think about this play, my main reaction is that is refreshing to see history from a female perspective. Apparently, Euripedes was know for his strong women characters and this play was full of strong women whose perspective in this play was not a positive one.

I was surprised at the way Helen was portrayed - as a manipulative, selfish creature who was despised by the Trojan women. In many versions of this story that I have read, I have not seen her portrayed in this manner - usually it was Paris who was shown as weak, selfish and unconcerned by others' needs except his own.

This was the first Greek play that I've attended. I don't remember reading one or studying one in school. One of the drama teachers at my former school did some work with her students on Greek plays and I remember that one of the things that her students had the find out about was the purpose of the chorus in Greek plays. Now I understand what this is. In this play, some lines are spoken 'in chorus' by the actors on the stage.

I'm glad that we decided to see it. I'm not sure that I would go to Stratford just to see this play but it was certainly more entertaining than going to a bar/cafe or back to the hotel room to watch TV.

Image: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/ENT01/806170378

Cabaret (and One New Tool)

PC from Quoteflections (see my blogroll) suggested that I write a post about the plays that I saw at Stratford. I'm no critic; my approach when reading, viewing or listening is for the entertainment value. I tend not to analyse but to feel and make connections. Since I don't want the post to be too long, I'll do this in installments. However, don't look for the next installment until August - I'm going away for a week and I'm not taking my computer with me.


Cabaret
My previous experience with this play is the well-known Liza Minelli/Joel Gray Hollywood movie version. I saw it in the 70's and mostly remember the songs more than the plot. So seeing this play performed in Stratford was like watching it for the first time. The movie version was heavily adapted and focused on the Liza Minelli character (Sally Bowles). The Stratford version is the original play from 1966. Here is a short synopsis (from Cabaret's program):

On New Year's Eve, 1929, a young American writer, Clifford Bradshaw, arrives in Germany to teach English and work on a novel. On the train to Berlin, he is befriended by a stranger, Ernst Ludwig, who secures him lodging at the boarding house of Fraulein Schneider and persuades him to sample the city's night life at the Kit Kat club. That club, presided over by an eerily flamboyant master of ceremonies, features and English cabaret singer named Sally Bowles, who takes an immediate interest in Cliff and loses no time in charming her way into his rooms and into his heart. But even as Cliff surrenders to the dream-like distraction of this love affair, he finds himself increasingly disturbed by the ominous changes taking place in the country (i.e. Hitler's rise to power and the anti-Jewish sentiment developing - my words here) around him - and by their implications for the people he has come to think of as his friends.

There is a subplot in the play about an autumn romance and the Fraulein Schneider/Herr Shultz subplot was new to me. Fraulein Schneider owns the rooming house in which Bradshaw lives while he is in Berlin. Herr Schultz, who is Jewish, owns a nearby fruit store and romances Fraulein Schneider with gifts of rare fruit. They decide to marry, but Fraulein Schneider calls it off when she sees which way the wind is blowing in her country.

I actually felt that in this version, the Sally Bowles/Clifford Bradshaw plot was almost secondary to the sub-plot of the Schneider/Shultz romance. Not sure why. The Emcee's constant presence in every scene was a joy to watch - his facial expressions (and other body parts) reflected the emotions of each scene. The music was excellent of course but it was really hard to forget about Liza Minelli's version of the theme song Cabaret and enjoy Trish Lindstrom's (the actress who portrayed Sally Bowles) version. This is probably because I've been belting out Minelli's version in my shower for the last 30 years!

This year, Stratford is moving back to it's Shakespearen roots, so all of the musicals have been moved to the smaller Avon Theatre rather than performing them at the much larger Festival Theatre as they have in the past. The Avon was packed for the matinee; not an empty seat in the house (in comparison, the evening performance of Taming of the Shrew, held at Festival, had a multitude of empty seats. I'll write more about this when I post about 'Shrew'). I do recommend this play if you like musicals. I'm never disappointed with my Stratford experience.

On a completely different note, I have to share a tool that was posted on a recent Joyce Valenza blog. It's called Glogster and it lets you design really cool graphic pages for your wiki. I quickly made one in about 10 minutes then added it to my pd wiki. When I have time, I'll play with it some more.

Image: http://jam.canoe.ca/Theatre/Reviews/C/Cabaret/2008/05/31/5732196-sun.html

Voluntary Meme: My Seven Deadly Sins and Shakespeare

Clay Burell had this intriguing voluntary meme on his blog today. Since I tend to slide into the 'idle hands'/sloth mode in the summer, I thought that taking this Seven Deadly Sins quiz might be a bit illuminating. So here's a peek at my redemption factor - apparently I am not a candidate for living in an extremely hot place when I proceed to the next level:

Your sin has been measured. Happily for you, your sin profile leaves room for forgiveness. Just below, discover your full sinful breakdown and see the areas that you must improve, to save yourself from an eternity in hell.

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Very Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

So there's a look at where my soul is headed. I'm surprised that wrath and pride are so low - I think that my husband might have a bit more to say about that. I tend to keep my wrath under wraps in public, but it generally comes out when I'm at home. I'm not going to tag anyone - it's just for fun.

On another note, last week my husband and I went to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (The Festival has a Facebook page that you can see here). Our trip is an annual summer event and this year we saw 3 plays: Cabaret (the musical), Trojan Women (a Greek play by Euripedes), and Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare). Stratford Shakespeare Festival is tradition for school field trips in Southern Ontario and watching Shakespearean plays being performed is the best way to appreciate his talent. It is well worth a summer trip.

I'm off to the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair today. I love summer!

Playing with Some Neat Sites

Spell With Flickr




Spell with Flickr can be used with vocabulary and spelling lessons, and used to produce unique graphics for a variety of multimedia applications.


Motivational Poster Generator





This can be used to develop posters for many different content areas (character posters, setting posters, history, science - you name it).







Image Chef







The images generated in this site can be used in blogs and wikis. They can be saved as pictures and then used in powerpoint, on print and other applications.


In my wiki, there is a page called Media Making Tools. I have started creating a pathfinder for different tools for multimedia. I've added these tools to it. I invite you to add to the wiki - it is now unlocked.