Innovative Curriculum Design

I am working on creating an innovative curriculum design for 7th Grade English. What does that entail? That's the question I am asking myself over and over, all day, every day.

Here are the voices in my head so far:

• Students are tasked with working collaboratively to find solutions to real-world problems/challenges.

• The problems/challenges necessitate critical thinking and access to skills that appear across curricula.

• Problems/challenges will necessitate contacting experts via Skype, social networks, etc.

• Social networks will be used to consolidate information for analysis.

• Credibility of sources and management of information are crucial.

• Assessments for student performance should be formative and summative.

• Student reflection, via social networking, blogging, vlogging, etc. will be key component.

• The learning outcomes will be focused on principles that can be employed in the 21st century job market, and should resist being relegated to formats that will be outdated by the time students graduate.

• Cutting edge research skills, data collection, and ability to analyze data effectively, should be key component. St

• Students will demonstrate understanding in a variety of modalities, including multi-media presentation, Socratic dialogue,  exit interviews (from project), formal reflection, etc.

• The lessons/unit developed by the teacher should be based on an ongoing feedback loop and exploration of the content should serve as the basis for students gaining background knowledge, as opposed to such knowledge being "dispensed" by the teacher.

• Some 21st century skills: empathy, critical thinking, information management, research skills, cross-curricular synthesis, entrepreneurial potential, leveraging social networks, anticipation of global connections...

More to come.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - ...

Socratic Seminar Online with Meta Blogging

The image above contains a chart that details how a face to face Socratic seminar could be enhanced by having an outer ring of students blogging synchronously with the conversation.

The seminar would have an inner ring of students taking part in the face to face discussion. On the outer ring, seven students equipped with laptops would be blogging about the conversation.

Here are the roles of the outer ring students:

1. Process Summarizer
This student blogs about how the process of the seminar is moving along. Comments can include analysis of the group dynamic and recognition of what kind of energy there is in the room as the discussion flows from one topic to the next. This is a challenging role that involves higher order thinking. The blogger should be dealing with questions such as: Is the order of the questions effectively soliciting ideas? Could the flow of the discussion be improved in some way -- either by the content or delivery of the questions? What kind of group dynamic is forming as a result of the questions?

2. Content Summarizer
This student blogs about the questions being posed and the ideas being generated in the discussion. Twitter would be a good tool for this, but it could easily be done on blogger or any blogging platform.

3. Image Collector
This student scours the Internet for images that are relevant or evocative of the discussion. They compile the best images and post them to the class blog.

4. Question Generator
This student listens carefully to the discussion and writes questions that are suggested by the conversation. Questions should be developed to dig deeper than the current conversation is permitting.

5. Link Generator
This student scours the Internet for useful websites that are relevant or evocative of the discussion. The compile a list and create hyperlinks to these sites.

6. Video Generator

This student scours the Internet for useful videos that are relevant or evocative of the discussion. The compile a list and create hyperlinks to these videos.

7. Project Manager

This student walks the outer ring and checks in with each blogger, troubleshooting problems and doing quality control.

8. Teacher

The teacher runs the inner circle discussion.

Depending on the length of the seminar and the familiarity the students have with the roles, students can be asked at certain intervals to switch seats and move from the inner ring to the outer ring, or vice versa.

Acknowledgements: This Socratic Seminar Format was designed in conjunction with my colleagues Brian Wogensen and Kathleen Tunderman.

Blogging Thoughts…Again

from huffingtonpost.com

Blogging Thoughts from Weblogg'ed...

Great analysis of the difference between pretend blogging and actual blogging.

HOW TO BLOG, or Okay, my students have blogs. Now what?

BLOGGING IS COMMENTING
The essence of blogging is commenting and having others comment on your comments. That is to say, blogging is commenting. In an educational setting, comments that have value meet two essential criteria:

A. the comment is authentically that of the person making it
B. the comment serves the discussion by contributing new content or questioning or clarifying previous comments.

STUDENT COMMENTS ARE ON A CONTINUUM
Students essentially  make comments before, during, and after the introduction of a stimulus. The stimulus might be a mathematical equation or a modern short story. Regardless, there is always an opportunity along the continuum for students to make comments. Blogging (commenting online) should be availed of the same opportunities.

BLOGGING BEFORE
Blogging before explicit instruction serves two crucial purposes:
A. Activates prior knowledge.
B. Engages students to the task.

BLOGGING DURING
Blogging during a lesson serves two crucial purposes:
A. Activates metacognition.
B. We remember what we think about (see Willingham).

BLOGGING AFTER
Blogging after a lesson serves two crucial purposes:
A. Creates environment for clarification.
B. Reinforces content.

All three phases have a key strength: blogging is naturally multi-modal; students engage visually, aurally, and kinesthetically with the material.

What should students be blogging about? About the material. Specifically, student bloggers should be:

• asking questions about the material
• making conclusions about the material
• discovering connections between other topics and the material
• creating visual, video, and audio representations of their thoughts
• finding and listing sources where there is more specific information on the topic or related topics (hyperlinking)
• editorializing about the material

The Fierce Urgency of Eventually

Take this article, add Ken Robinson's speech from my earlier post, and shake. What do you get?

The Fierce Urgency of Eventually

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms | Video on TED.com

Brilliant and brief summation of divergent thinking and

how education needs to reform.