As I mentioned in my last episode, I was able to interact with many of my edu heroes last week, including Stephanie Harvey. What a firecracker! She is not only quite intelligent and articulate, but she has a fire within the language development for all learners. Something that stayed with me was Writeacide; to die a death of writing worksheets. How do we get learners to write authentically from their hearts? It’s certainly not from worksheets. Steph shares that inquiry in literature comes from curiosity, comprehension, collaboration, and content. Isn’t that just beautiful? She continues to state that “Inquiry is not always about a final product at the end..it is living in a way that all questions matter…because the more you learn, the more you wonder…and our role is to fan the flame of curiosity.” How do we fan the flame of curiosity? We discover the commonality of the human experience within our curriculum. I’ve been fortunate to have lived through so many experiences that have shaped who I am today. Growing up in South Korea until I was school aged helped me to realize the importance of family and cultural identity. When I moved to America, my cultural identity shifted and I was no longer Korean. I was a Korean-American with an emphasis on the American part. I quickly learned the things I needed to survive in my new culture. As I grew into a young adult, I realized that all of my friends were either introverts like myself or foreign exchange students. Why was I always drawn to others who were different from the norm? In adulthood, it was no surprise that I entered into the wider world to discover myself. I went to Germany to discover my father’s culture and I’m still waiting for the chance to move to South Korea. I need to discover and celebrate my mother’s culture that I lost along the way. Why am I sharing this? All of our life events are intersected based on common story elements. You may have lived in the same country your entire life, but you have experienced identity issues, growing pains of childhood to adulthood, and coming into your own as an adult. How are we preparing our young learners for this adventure ahead? What are we putting into place to help them know about the greater world? How are we showing them that cultures are more similar than different once you go below the surface of the cultural iceberg. I’ve often felt like a third culture kid, even more so as I’ve aged. Although I live in the land of birth, I don’t feel like I belong here. I belong to the world. I have spent ⅓ of my life exploring and living in other countries and cultures. It’s a part of who I am and how I look at issues facing humanity. Many of our learners are in the same situation. They have moved throughout their lives and dont’ feel that one place is quite home. How are we feeding their need to express their ideas and experiences through our curriculum? Thinking about Steph’s advice of writeacide, I thought of some strategies that I learned while participating in the ECIS International Teacher Certificate program to help build communal identity while allowing for student voice in authentic writing. Welcome BookEvery year, we have learners who transfer into our school from another place. This is normal. For some, this move is across the city, state, or our country. The move won’t feel as foreign if they are still residing in the same region, As we cross regions, this gets more complex. I remember moving to Texas and learning so much about the kitschy culture that was influenced by Germany. It’s Southern, but uniquely Texan. What about learners who are transferring countries? With work being more fluid since the pandemic, many people are continuing to move and explore other places. How do we help these learners to adjust to their new context? Something that I really like is creating a Welcome Book that reflects the flavor and uniqueness of our school, city, and community. Inside, learners are able to see advice from their peers about best places to visit, things that are cool about their city, and how to navigate the school community. I’ve used a Welcome Book before and it helped newcomers feel like they already had a network of people that cared about them. To add the newcomer into the mix, there were areas in the book where they could describe where they came from, their experiences, and analyze the differences and similarities between both places. This allows the newcomer to feel that many of the things they enjoyed in their prior home can be found in their new home. This helps to calm fears and open to risk-taking. Farewell BookWithout fail, we begin the school year with a bang and then we lose students due to mobility, new jobs, and family changes. This happens. How do we support these learners as they begin their new adventure often in uncertain circumstances? A Farewell Book allows learners to reflect on their experiences in their present city and identify the things that make it special to them. This is a way to honor the experiences as they move on. The Farewell Book also allows fellow learners to share their favorite experiences and messages of friendship. This is important for the learner leaving the community, because they will struggle with the transition. Oftentimes, they are leaving the only community they have ever known, even if it is just across town. By providing the Farewell Book, it acts as a security blanket during the transition and allows the learner access to talking points to share with their new community. Something I really like about the Farewell Book is that it has space for the learner to connect their past experiences with their new ones. They will have the opportunity to compare and contrast elements to see the commonality of the human experience. I remember being an adult that was continuously changing their living situation every 3-4 years. There is a sense of loss and directionality when we move. Yes, it’s all new and exciting, but nothing is familiar. There is something to be said for familiarity. It lets us know that we are safe and secure of our surroundings. Speaking to leadership, I would consider making a Welcome and Farewell book for your incoming staff. I greatly appreciated the faculty binders and materials to help me navigate areas of town. What would have helped even more was a book that helped me to understand the local experience from people who had lived there awhile and understood my hesitations. A reflective journal would have helped me to better see the connections between where I am from and the new place I called home. Something to consider. Humans MatterSome of you are shaking your head and thinking, “When am I going to have time to make this?” Guess what, you don’t. Have your learners create the welcome and farewell books during the first month while developing small group station routines. This will allow them to demonstrate a wide variety of skills such as writing, collaboration, creative thinking, reflection, and generating novel ideas, to name a few.
The only thing you need to do is co-create a success criteria of what should be in the Welcome and Farewell books, so everyone is working towards the same goal. This will allow your learners to stay on track while creating something unique for their peers. Notice, we didn’t explore writing strategies to bring about more voice, because you already have access to a wide variety of resources. One person you might add to your list is Gretchen Bernabei, who has put in structures to make the writing process more scaffolded and learner driven. You can find her work at Trail of Breadcrumbs.
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This week, I had the privilege to attend the Crafting Inquiry Conference with Kath Murdoch, Trevor MacKenzie, Kimberly Mitchell, and Stephanie Harvey. This powerhouse group of inquiry leaders helped me to think about my practice and expand my thinking. Kath talked about the ten characteristics of a great inquiry. On the top of her list was authenticity. When I think of authentic learning, I picture children grappling with real issues that are happening in their everyday lives, not just in a word problem. One way to do this is through stories. They shape the mental movie reel in our minds of why the issue matters and what we can do to make it better or solve it. I hear you in the back of the room asking these questions as I shared this connection.
A few years ago, we were unpacking what it means to migrate from one place to another in fourth grade. The learners were somewhat interested in the topic, but it sparked to life when one student shared her mother’s experience crossing the border into our country. Her family was quite desperate to get the United States and they tried everything to do it legally. With limited options, the family decided to try and cross the border with a group. The stories that were shared involved barbed wire fences, border patrol with guns, and snarling dogs. I could easily picture the event in my mind and my perspective about immigration policy quickly expanded. In my classroom lived a child whose family had gone through unmentionable things in order to make it across the border. It’s no longer an US versus THEM argument, because we have just humanized the experience. How are we humanizing the local and global issues that we are teaching our learners? We can easily do it by providing the back story to what we are learning. It’s not that hard. For every teacher, practice, or strategy is the story of who came up with it and how they made their discoveries. You just need to find the stories that resonate with you, so they connect with your learners. Social Studies StoryWhen I was living in Dubai, our class went on a field trip to the Ibn Battuta Mall to watch an IMAX film about undersea life. I remember walking around the mall totally confused, since each corridor represented a different country that was explored by Ibn Battuta. There were actual artifacts such as pottery, papyrus, statues, clothing, to name a few. On that field trip, I learned so much about this explorer and how he helped to build relationships between all the nations of Islam and the surrounding regions. Why had I not heard of Ibn Battuta in America? One possible reason is our definition of explorer. We usually attribute them to European countries who went out in search of unknown lands. Technically, they were already known, but that’s another story. Since Ibn Battuta’s mission was not out to conquer and claim lands, his exploration is hardly mentioned. For this reason, I include him as part of my inquiry materials and use him as an example in most of my workshops. Science StoryAs an upper elementary/ primary teacher, I was always looking for ways to connect the abstract science content through stories. One of my favorites came when I was looking for examples of how to make properties of matter connect to real-life. It’s not easy. One unique story that I uncovered was about Albert Einstein. Did you know that Albert discovered the fifth state of a matter, which is an expanded version of plasma? Say what? As a young scientist, he made this unique discovery and presented it to the scientific community. The community refuted his findings and began making personal attacks about his capabilities. This impacted Albert so much that he retracted his findings, until another team repeated the experiment 20 years later and proved he was correct. In recent years, a team won the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering the seventh state of matter. Yikes! One way to get the learners hooked even further is by posing this question: How would you feel if you presented your ideas to the world and people wrote about you in a negative way on social media? What would you do? Could you handle the pressure or would you retract your ideas like Albert did? Now we are making this story relevant to our modern-day. How to StartFInd something you are crazy about exploring with your learners and research the backstory of the theory, the struggle to make the discovery, the people behind it, and how they overcame their personal, social, and mental obstacles to make it happen. Everyone loves a a good story.
There is a story in every subject area. How can I say this? Every topic, science, art, innovation, and creation that we know of has come about through human interaction of some kind. These people who made, discovered, and innovated have a story of their process, their obstacles, their successes, and their journey. Take a moment to find out, so the learning becomes more real to the lives of your learners. Better yet, hook them into a question about a person and have your learners inquire for themselves. Do you fangirl? I know you do. My friend Denise Kraft and I spent two days just doing that. We fangirled over the leading inquiry thought leaders of the day. Kath Murdoch Kimberly Mitchell Trevor MacKenzie Stephanie Harvey They all lead the process in their own way, but equally important. I learned so much about my thinking and how it connects to each of them. Here I am with Denise and Trevor MacKenzie. When he entered the room, he headed towards our table with a big hug. It was the first time meeting, but it felt like old friends grabbing a hot cup of happiness. Here I am with sassy Stephanie Harvey. She has stories to tell! Being in her presence for five minutes lets you know that she is serious about inquiry and language. Her passion is infectious! Here I am with Catherine, a fellow IBEN that I met a long time ago during one of our first workshops. When we reunited, it was all hugs and happiness. Throw in Kimberly Mitchell into the conversation and it's all smiles. Bodo Heiliger and I met at IBEN development in New Orleans. Since that moment, he went from being head of primary to the entire campus at The International School in Portland. It's because of his genius that everyone was gathered for the conference experience. It was great seeing him after so many years. Here's a picture of the Fab Four. I didn't snatch a photo with her, but I received a big hug. It's been amazing how I've seen her present two other times and always walk away with new ideas. It's wonderful to see so many educators giving of themselves so that we can continue to grow.
In the last episode, we talked about going from a local issue to more globally minded. I used the PZ visible thinking routine, Projecting Across Distance as an example. As I went through this past week, I realized that this may be a bit advanced for some people, so I scoured my files to find something that might be an easier starting point. A tool that I really like is Investigate, Organize, Generalize by Rachel French. It helps to scaffold the process of going from a local issue to a more global focus. To begin the process, think of a big idea that you will be exploring in your unit. For mine, I chose culture, since this is a universal concept in Who We Are and How We Express Ourselves. Let’s take a look at this strategy in action to bring about more local and global inquiry in your context. For those new to local and global inquiry, this might be an easier starting point, because the thinking is a lot more scaffolded. Plus, I really appreciate the summary and synthesis portion at the end, because it helps learners to make conclusions in an easy way. I hope you will try it out in your practice!
Wahoo! The moment has finally come. We get to merge the local inquiry with a global context. I’m physically and metaphorically rubbing my hands together with glee. I can’t wait to put these ideas together to create something meaningful. When I think of the relationship between the local and global inquiry, the first thing that pops into my mind is the PZ visible thinking routine, Projecting Across Distance. This amazing thinking routine helps learners to stretch their understanding about local or isolated content and make relevant and significant connections. It has become one of my favorite routines to use to explore more complex issues that humanity is universally experiencing at the same time. In some small way, it makes it easier to realize that you are not the only one. Projecting Across Distancehttp://www.pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Projecting%20Across%20Distance.pdf Pick a topic, event, or issue that might be approached differently in different parts of the world or even your own country, such as food security, population growth, or marriage practices. Then, consider it from the following perspectives. How is the topic, event, or issue playing out or viewed in... your community? another city or town in your country? a country east or west of your country, where people may think differently about the theme, event, or issue? a country north or south of your country, where people may think differently about the theme, event, or issue? What might account for the similarities and/or differences between and within the communities and countries? To apply this visible thinking routine, I am going to conduct a research project based on places that have a special place in my heart through personal travel and living in the country. Sorry if I geek out, but you will get a bigger picture at the end. I just love this stuff. What might account for the similarities and/or differences between and within the communities and countries? The commonality between all the countries explored is that there is disparity of access to clean water and balanced eating opportunities based on your income level. As expected, the majority of the issues occurred in rural areas outside of big cities due to infrastructure or easy access. In the United States and Australia, the highest population that did not have access to balanced diets were people of color. Although, Australia is trying to put forward initiatives to teach people living in poorer conditions how to source and prepare healthy meals. Although India has clean water access in rural areas, most of the people do have access. There was limited data to support unbalanced diets, rather, there was more research to support healthier eating systems. In the mad race to be, we often forget ourselves in the process. I promised myself that this year that I would make homemade Halloween cards for about 30+ friends around the world. It's one of my favorite holidays, because you get to dress up, get lots of treats, and laugh a lot. I decided to hit of my local craft store for supplies and merged into this crafting process. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, which shows how long it's been since I've done something for myself and others unrelated to work. I need to take more of these moments. |
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