10 Step Graphology (or; what does my writing say about me?)

(disclaimer: this is my first attempt at blogging using the google app on the iPad2. Thinking about the content to follow; I really should be writing this by hand...)

Alright, today I witnessed thirty minutes of dedicated, controlled and productive group work for 20 Grade 6 students in WIDE open space followed by another thirty minutes with three teachers available to 50+ of the same.

If you're wondering how it came about, or where we're going then read-on, because that's the intent of this post.

Forensic Science is a small unit in Grade 6 for Alberta students. They are required to demonstrate that they can observe and make inferences regarding things like fingerprints, graphology, chromatography, foot-print-ology (that's the technical term, right?)

Drama is a course we invented for the students this year to prepare them to make a choice about what arts stream they would like to follow in Grade 7 throug 9. @bar_qu (the science teacher) and myself have worked the past couple of weeks to use our 90 minutes of drama time, and the science classes to allow the students the space to "create" their own mysteries.

My last cryptic post illustrated the details on how to roll out something like that. Today is to tell you about the opportunities that present themselves when the schedule of two partnered teachers happen to overlap.

With less than 20 minutes of planning we took one combine science class of about thirty students, with another twenty drama students, brought them to a wide open area and set the, to task decoding a mystery.

• First: Intro the idea (People don't write the same)
• Second: Indicate what some important observations of handwriting might be
• Third: Wake them up again.
• Fourth: Have the available teachers sign a giant mobile whiteboard away from the students, and then have each teacher write the same sentence.
• Fifth: Challenge the students (who wrote nothing down because this is all so easy) to match the signature to the sentence.
• Sixth: until they can explain the observations that led to their inference do not allow them to work on the premade practice sheets.
• Seventh: Do not reveal the correct answer, simply provide students with the handouts and explain they'll have one chance to get the answer after they work on the practice sheets.
• Eighth: Let the students work (wherever, and with whomever they wish)
• Ninth: Have students submit their final conclusions on the handwriting (ideally through a google form, or other online repository)
• Tenth: For the students who are writing the "Snow White" mystery, (see last post) allow them to tailor their work toward building their evidence package.

Drama students, like scientists must spend time observing, creating, and communicating ideas. They must work collaboratively but ultimately they have to stand on their own to demonstrate individual statements of knowledge and skill. Can we justify the time spent? I think so. Can the process be refined and improved? Absolutely. Are we proud of the results! Yes. Are the students engaged?

Well in answer to that question, I point out that in one wide open classroom with over fifty eleven year olds, only one sheet of a two-page handout each student received was left behind. That in-and-of-itself is representative of what I consider to be a near-ubiquitous buy-in by the students indicating that they've found the intrinsic value of a practice sheet... But that's just an inference.

Differentiated Structures

Resources:
For a Grade 6 Science, Drama, and Career & Technology Studies Cross Collaboration

When things don't work out in class, I'm often excited because I usually get a chance to try things twice.  In drama I am always harping on the potential of failures as the best learning experience, and the most amazing fun is had in improvisation games when people "play on the edge of losing".

Problem
How do you give Grade 6 students an inquiry project that involves group work, each task allows space for differentiation and the whole thing takes place in a huge open auditorium without the whole group descending into a scenario which might inspire a story along the lines of, oh, let's say, "Lord of the Flies"?

The struggle is allowing them to complete tasks and objectives at differentiated speeds, and keeping group members accountable to each other, when the maturity level to keep numbers of tasks, and impulse control in check.  The first time I tried this, no matter how much structure  I hoped to create, the structure would break down within minutes.

The solution came today:  Task oriented assignments, where individuals in the group are responsible for ensuring that the order of tasks are kept in place, that no one is allowed to get ahead of the group, that the sequencing is constructive, and that the objectives are given in simple, easy to remember language.

I know, not that revolutionary, but for a teacher of older students it came as somewhat of a shock when the results came in so easily.

To Begin:

• Five students in a group.
• Four groups.
• Two different assignments in the room.
• One assignment per group.

To Solve:

• Five objectives.
• One per group member.
•  Each designed to accelerate the brainstorm process, but also support the structure of the activity.

Observations
Each group met the objectives at a pace that worked for them.  Though the assignments were different, the structure for completing the assignment was left intact which allowed for easy guidance as students ran into road-blocks, or had questions.  Students who had the responsibility of guiding the first objective were being prodded by the student who had the second objective to do a good job and complete it quickly because they were waiting to take leadership for the next objective.

There was evidence of strong intrinsic motivation in the students, there was less disruption in the large room. There was more focus on the work in front of them and consequently there was more success.  Each student was granted space to be creative and work in ways that brought their personality and strengths to the group, but there wasn't so much room that they had no idea where to start, or became "overly creative".  There was accountability to each other, and I'm pleased to say that I was able to do this all in half the amount of time the second go-round.




Mystery Tales by Thomas Currie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at docs.google.com.