Project Based Learning: Telling Their Stories

Middle school students rehearsing their Stick Figure Anime 

 

The brain needs to be actively engaged in order to process certain concepts; storytelling is not necessarily instinctive. 

Many students struggle with understanding the basic elements of a story and how characters and settings contribute to the overall theme.

If your learners struggle to understand storylines, settings, and character development, move away from the typical class notes and worksheets and step toward project-based learning. 

Project-Based Learning is a collaborative process used to engage learners in understanding the complexities of key concepts. It has proven to be a highly effective learning strategy. To learn more, click this link Edutopia-Project Based Learning.  

Understanding the different parts of a story arch, setting, and characterization can be challenging. One way to approach this is to provide learners with an opportunity to create their own stories. 

Providing the right support and a grading rubric at the onset sets the stage for success. 

Prepare learners by providing a storyline framework and Just in Time Learning (JiTL) videos, which are quick, target instructional videos they can easily access, to explain a storyline framework, setting, and characterization. 

Audio-visual examples are a strong reinforcer of learning and JiTL videos give learners an opportunity to re-watch difficult concepts as often as needed to cement their learning. To learn more about Just in Time Learning click this link to My eLearning World.

Preparation is key. Gather the materials you will use to teach the various parts of storytelling. You can use a story map, a plot map, a character sketch, a conflict-resolution graph, or scripts - there are many ways to set up your project-based learning activities to meet any identified curriculum standards. For more ideas and resources for teaching literacy click on this link Literacy Ideas.

A fun and easy example is Stick Figure Anime. This is a highly creative process and does not require more than popsicle sticks, colored pencils, glue, a recording device (cell phone, camera, tablet, or computer), a script template, a character framework, and learner imagination. 

Seen in the pictures are middle school students who created their original storyline and characters. They were assigned an additional element, acting and voicing their script for a short three-minute video for a class movie shorts presentation. Their level of perfection exponentially increased as they knew they were to watch and rate peer presentations. 

Imagination at play allows for multiple learning modalities and learning styles and encourages physical collaboration. These learners engaged in authentic conversations and participated in a little conflict resolution of their own on their way to a united storyline. 

Providing learners with time to develop their project, providing support elements, and a clear rubric helps put them in charge of their own learning and ultimately their collaborative achievement. 

If you would like to read more about the use of play, particularly in the middle grades, click on the link to Learning Through Play: Perfect for Middle School. 

Stick Figure Anime Original Stories

If you have any great project-based learning experiences you would like to share, please use the comments to let us know. Happy planning! 

JiTL - Just in Time Learning: As a Reteaching Tool

 As every teacher knows, there are glorious days when all the wisdom of the ages seems to align, and your students get it! 

Then, there are those other days; the days where no matter how great the lesson, how well prepared the interactives are, or how collaborative the task is – a number of your students are just not getting it.

How can you move forward when some are stuck? They need the learning scaffolded in a new way. Here is where Just in Time Learning (JiTL) can help. 

The idea behind JiTL is to provide the needed information in smaller chunks just when it is needed most. By creating a short support video, remediation does not have to become a same-old rehash. 

Using quick video segments designed to grab a learner's attention and that provide visual representations of the material in smaller bites, may make it easier for learners to digest and retain what was previously missed. 

Making the learning video short, relatable, and easily accessible for their replay is an effective way to support struggling learners. 

Challenging them with an online, immediate feedback knowledge check as a follow-up is a terrific way for them to see if they are mastering the task or need more engagement time, or additional support. 

Click on the link to my YouTube channel and take a look at a quick sample of one JiTL recently created and used to reteach the basic idea of metaphors. 

The Richter Chronicles   https://youtu.be/OSAOLkrCds8

Access the links below for more information on Just in Time Learning or Just in Time Teaching.

Additional Resources

Mcdaniel, R. (2022, May 17). Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT). Vanderbilt University. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/just-in-time-teaching-jitt/

            https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/just-in-time-teaching-jitt/

Rooney, E. (2021, March 21). Alphabet Soup: JITL. Edgeworks Creative. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://edgeworkscreative.com/blog/alphabet-soup-jitl

Distance Learning Post Covid-19

Take Heart Educators - Opportunity is Knocking

   

 As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the necessity of flipping immediately to online learning demonstrated that the education ecosystem is much more resilient than anyone might have thought. It also taught a valuable lesson in global experiences - how we are all truly much more connected than we ever imagined. 

Within minutes of the shift to online learning teachers across the globe wasted no time in recognizing the need to be flexible, imaginative, and resourceful to continue to serve their communities full of parents, students, and administrative stakeholders. Zoom, Skype, and a host of other online virtual meeting platforms moved out of the boardrooms and became everyday jargon across the kitchen table, proving that necessity truly is the mother of invention. 

What once seemed impossible has now moved rapidly to the mainstream; education delivery for K-12 has evolved and with it some growing pains are natural. Instructional design and technology have been waiting in the wings, like prima ballerinas waiting for their turn to shine in the spotlight, and their moment has arrived. 

 Indeed, not everyone shifted easily and successfully; but many educators realized the power at their disposal. Technology and a solid instructional design framework grounded in proven learning theories can provide access and reach to so many learners, who may not have had opportunities before, building foundational skills necessary for a 21st Century workforce. 

 As educators, we must take heart because opportunity is knocking. By understanding that there are more ways to reach and teach, we can embrace innovations and become lifelong learners of processes that foster important student outcomes on a wider scale.

 Exploring what did and did not work is part of reflective teaching, whether it be in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting or a virtual platform, the desire to deliver excellence should never diminish; it should merely evolve. The use of online learning modalities such as flipped classrooms, blended learning, and immersive learning through virtual field trip experiences, along with assistive technologies enriches learners in ways that were once not possible. In a way, Covid-19 gave the distance learning educational ecosystem an opportunity to build a better mouse trap by building stronger teaching and learning opportunities for all.  

    

    

    

Summer Reading Slide

It's summer! 

For most parents, kids, pets, and humans on planet Earth, summer brings us an opportunity to be more relaxed. Schedules shift. Alarm clocks do not rigidly sound off their bugle call to daily life. 

This is a much anticipated time of year, especially for kids who relish in their classroom-free environments, lighter backpacks, later bedtimes, along with a slacking-off of any strict video gaming restrictions in place during the school year. 

This decompressing time is a much-needed respite; however, it is also a crucial time for that dreaded disease known as the summer reading slide. 

I realize that this may not be what you want to hear, I mean, it's summer for Pete's sake! Give it a rest! - I get it. But, much like the flu season blues, the summer reading slide is real and can infect anyone - even the best of the best, the top of the line, A++ achievers can experience a regression in their skills if they are just vegetating for approximately 10 weeks. 

In full disclosure, there are various trains of thought regarding summer reading slide - some studies tend to support that the summer reading slide virus is a myth, while other studies support that it is real and effectively targets middle to low socioeconomic groups. These groups are cited as being most vulnerable because kids in those groups tend to have less participation in summer activities and programs that engage their learning skills perhaps due to cost, transportation, or both. 

But, as with anything, even if you are among the wealthiest Ritchie Rich live-a-likes, and do nothing - not even read the description on a bag of chips all summer long - you too can summer slide!

To learn more about summer reading slide you can access an article published in Bright Hub Education here:
https://www.brighthubeducation.com/summer-learning-activities-ideas/78894-how-reading-prevents-summer-learning-loss/ 

You can also read an article from a Concordia University blog by clicking here:
https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/is-the-summer-learning-gap-real/ 

What to do?

As a preventative measure, more and more school districts across the nation have incorporated a summer reading program to help foster retention or enhancement of the reading skills a child has just invested a whole school year perfecting. 

Most schools place their summer reading program on their school website or provide parents with informational materials at the end of the year. If you have no information, contact your child's school directly, or contact your school district office. They will be able to assist you in getting the right information.

Whether you believe that the summer reading slide is real or not, there are some things that you can do to minimize the potential loss or just continue to enrich your child's learning throughout the year. 

Resources

Some free digital resources that won't break the vacation budget bank, and which can promote conversations and engagement between you and your child at any level are listed below:

Readworks.org is a free, online resource that provides parents and students alike with account access and supports reading and comprehension through standards-based materials. They have a plethora of articles in both fiction and nonfiction for K-12.  https://www.readworks.org/

Commonlit.org is another free online resource - for grades 3 -12, which also provides high-interest fiction and nonfiction reading materials with standards-based comprehension questions. https://www.commonlit.org

Quizlet.com is a vocabulary online resource that promotes vocabulary growth through the use of study activities. Creating a parental account is required if your child is under the age of  13. https://quizlet.com/

Khan Academy is another free online learning resource that covers math, as well as other topics. It contains learning videos that can be repeated for review and mastery. https://www.khanacademy.org

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