Final Project due November 8th

For class next Wednesday please have your two high inquiry tasks fully flushed out including at least four assessment criteria for each. The full specifics of what is required in this assignment is outlined in this blog post. Try to be as specific as possible. For example, if it involves a script how many words do you want. If it is a digital narrative or mini-documentary how long will it be? When looking for assessment criteria for each inquiry task draw from research on the internet, assessment criteria you have seen in other projects, and the particulars of what you think constitutes powerful work in relation to this task. I have provided a fully articulated example in this Google doc. 

Remember we only have four more classes and next Friday class is cancelled. However, I will be in class and I encourage you to come and use this time as a work period where I will be available to help you and answer questions as they arise. In asking you to create an assessment plan for a unit is perhaps one of the more important competencies you can have as a teacher. It is what separates you from someone who walks off the street. It is quite challenging though, so working on this in stages is helpful. 

Assessment taks: 

Once you have done identified your two big inquiry tasks, you now want to work backwards to create an assessment plan that will help students create a powerful response to this task. These would be mini-activities you would take in a long the way that will prepare students for the final task. As part of this process, include two assessment criteria. See the ones I generated for my assessment tasks as an example. 

Research:

Some examples of assessment tasks for research would include creating a critical question requiring a reasoned judgment among options. For example: What were the three most important elements of traditional Inuit life? What are three most significant elements that need to be present for a country to be considered democratic? For assessment you could included identifies three areas, explains why these are important, and provides a specific supporting detail for each. 

Connecting with experts: 

An assessment task could involve developing questions to ask an expert coming in to visit or to interview a specialist classroom group. Here the assessment criteria would be open-ended, gets us information we need to know, unexpected. See my example. 

Evaluating good and bad examples:

So that students understand the main assessment criteria for the inquiry task, you could create an assessment task asking them to evaluate a bad exemplar based on the criteria you will be using to assess their final work. Again, the criteria would be related to identifying areas of weakness in relation to particular criteria and advice for improvement. 

Formative Feedback:

As you need to build in formative feedback loops within any inquiry project, you could give students a rubric and do the same as above but with their work. Alternatively, you could get them to show you four changes they made to their script based on the formative feedback you gave them. 

Remember that you need to include the following for your final unit plan:

• Two big inquiry tasks that will guide this unit along with accompanying assessment criteria for each (min. 4) that you will use to evaluate your students. 
• A series of at least five or six assessment tasks that will prepare students to powerfully respond to each inquiry task. Include how many one-hour classes you think each stage will take at the top. 
• For each assessment task include 2-3 assessment criteria that you will use to evaluate student work. Make these tasks specific. See examples. 
• For each assessment task and inquiry task include specific resources you would use to achieve these tasks including videos, articles, critical challenges from Learn Alberta, the Historical Thinking Website, or other sources, that you will closely follow or draw upon. 
• Include the specific learning outcomes and competencies that you hope to address in this unit. Including a 200-250 words response to how this unit is an attempt to live out key elements articulated in the front matter of the Alberta Social Studies Program. 
• Develop one lesson plan that could be used at one point in the inquiry. This assessment for this will follow the criteria used for your earlier lesson plan. This lesson plan should include a fully developed rubric of three criteria you will use to assess student work. However, you only need to include the upper end- well developed (4) and the lower end still developing (2).
• Choosing two of the following areas to concentrate on in particular: Aboriginal and/or Francophone perspectives, infusion of technology, learner differentiation, and inter-disciplinary, write a short 300 word explanation as to how and when you would incorporate these elements.  
• Include an APA reference list of all resources you draw on and plan to use. For example, if you borrow from a rubric or another lesson, please reference this.    

What is inquiry-based learning and how can use this philosophy to guide our practice

There are two educational thinkers that I think are particularly helpful in understanding the nature of inquiry and the corresponding shift that occurs when you do 'authentic' work with young people. The first of these is David Perkins who wrote a book named Making Learning Whole (2009). In this book Perkins argues that most traditional approaches to teaching any complex idea or skill, from historical inquiry to mathematical thinking, meant that most students have experienced learning in one of two ways:

1. Elements first. Ramp into complexity gradually by learning elements now and putting them together later.

2. Learning about. Learn about something to start with, rather than learning to do it. (pp. 3-4)

Perkins uses the metaphor of baseball to argue that the experience of most students in school is one where they either learn isolated skills like throwing the ball or they learn about baseball by studying statistics or the history of the game.

In what Perkins called elementis, students learn the elements of a discipline in isolation, usually in the form of a prescribed set of rules and operations. For example, in math students learn addition, then subtraction, followed by multiplication and division. Although students are promised that eventually they will be able to put these operations together to solve meaningful problems, often they are never given this opportunity. Similarly, students study grammar with the “idea that the knowledge will later coalesce into comprehensive, compelling, and of course correct written and oral communications” (p. 4). However, students are not given the opportunity to produce powerful pieces of writing intended for a real audience. Divorced from the context in which a subject like math or writing lives in the world, students gain an incomplete and fragmented understanding of these disciplines. Students often leave school unable to perform tasks representative of the work undertaken by professionals in the field.

History and science are most often taught using what Perkins (2009) termed aboutis, where students learn about a topic or concept rather than learning how to take part in the process of creating that knowledge. For example, in history students are generally presented with an authoritative authorless series of facts about an era in the form of a long list of names, dates, and developments. Students rarely have an opportunity to take part in actual historical inquiry to learn how historians construct knowledge about the past. This also occurs in science where students learn about, for example, Newton’s laws or the steps involved in mitosis. However, Perkins notes, “a huge body of research on science understanding demonstrates that learners show very limited understanding, bedevilled by a range of misconceptions about what the ideas really mean” (p. 6).

In the past it was thought that students could not work within a living discipline until they had learned all the facts, definitions, and procedures about the field. Only once they reached the university level might they have opportunities to engage in historical inquiry, mathematical thinking, or genuine scientific exploration. Today, learning the way around a discipline is no longer for the few who move on in their studies; it is also open to the young. For example, educators traditionally believed that students needed to have a basic foundation of historical knowledge before they could take part in genuine historical inquiry. Because of this belief, studying history for most students involved passively and uncritically absorbing other people’s facts about the past. In the present, students can work within the discipline of history from an early age where they are given developmentally appropriate opportunities to understand how historians make sense of the past. This includes working with primary sources, and using methods of historical analysis and argumentation (The Historical Thinking Society). Rather than learning about history, students are actually given the opportunity to do history. Perkins (2008) calls this approach to education “playing the whole game” (p. 25) where students are apprenticed into developmentally appropriate junior versions of the ways professionals in a field engage, create knowledge, and communicate in their discipline.

Another educator who well articulates this philosophy is Larry Rosenstock from a school called High Tech High in San Diego devoted to doing 'authentic' work with young people.


Larry Rosenstock - High Tech High from James Cross on Vimeo.

After 12:18 in the video above, Larry Rosenstock articulates a key shift in thinking about the nature and purpose of education. Specifically, he calls for a redefinition of commonly used terms in educational discourse. For instance, rigour is most often understood as imparting more sophisticated information to students. However, for Rosenstock (2011), principal of High Tech High, a school devoted to authentic discipline-based inquiry, rigour involves “being in the company of a passionate adult who is rigorously pursing inquiry in the area of their subject matter and is inviting students along as peers in that discourse” (2011). The key distinction is between learning about a field of inquiry and taking on the ways of knowing of the field of inquiry. Rosenstock wants kids “behaving like an actress, scientist, documentary filmmaker, like a journalist. Not just studying it but being like it” (2011).

References:

Perkins, D. (2009). Making learning whole: How seven principles of teaching can transform education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Rosenstock, L. (2011). High Tech High. Retrieved from: https://vimeo.com/10000408

Elementary Social Social Studies Unit Planning within an Inquiry Framework

As part of your third assignment due November 8th, you are asked to work with a partner to create an assessment plan for a long-term inquiry unit (6-8 weeks). As part of this process you should choose a grade specific topic to inquire into as well as a discipline or medium to guide the daily activities in the unit. As outlined by Amy Park in her presentation which you have handouts from and shown in this link, please include the following elements: 

• Two big inquiry tasks that will guide this unit along with accompanying assessment criteria for each (min. 4) that you will use to evaluate your students. 
• A series of at least five or six assessment tasks that will prepare students to powerfully respond to each inquiry task. Include how many one-hour classes you think each stage will take at the top. 
• For each assessment task include 2-3 assessment criteria that you will use to evaluate student work. Make these tasks specific. See examples. 
• For each assessment task and inquiry task include specific resources you would use to achieve these tasks including videos, articles, critical challenges from Learn Alberta, the Historical Thinking Website, or other sources, that you will closely follow or draw upon. 
• Include the specific learning outcomes and competencies that you hope to address in this unit. Including a 200-250 words response to how this unit is an attempt to live out key elements articulated in the front matter of the Alberta Social Studies Program. 
• Develop one lesson plan that could be used at one point in the inquiry. This assessment for this will follow the criteria used for your earlier lesson plan. This lesson plan should include a fully developed rubric of three criteria you will use to assess student work. However, you only need to include the upper end- well developed (4) and the lower end still developing (2).
• Choosing two of the following areas to concentrate on in particular: Aboriginal and/or Francophone perspectives, infusion of technology, learner differentiation, and inter-disciplinary, write a short 300 word explanation as to how and when you would incorporate these elements.  
• Include an APA reference list of all resources you draw on and plan to use. For example, if you borrow from a rubric or another lesson, please reference this.    

There will be no formative feedback loops for this assignment; however, I strongly encourage you to schedule a meeting outside of class to help flush out your unit and strategies how to overcome areas of difficulty. I have also created a blog post to help you through the process. 

For today, focus on creating your two inquiry tasks and accompanying assessment criteria.

My Guiding Inquiry Tasks/Throughline inquiry question/s:  

Assignment 1: Working in groups of three identify a *significant event in Canadian history that you feel Canadians need to learn more about. Then choosing a group perspective (i.e., an Aboriginal nation: Tecumseh and the Shawne Confederacy, Francophone community: Quebecois, Acadian), use the concept of **historical perspective taking to create a 500-700 word written script recounting this event from their perspective. 

Assessment criteria:

Script accurately and vividly recounts this event through the eyes of a particular perspective community. We will be using the following assessment criteria: 

• account fully describes the event and is very specific; all historical facts are historically accurate and highly plausible 
• Considerable historical detail is provided including: language and items used by people at this time, as well as ways of thinking unique to the historical period  
• The entry offers a revealing and vivid account that helps in understanding the event from a particular communities’ perspective  
• The entry richly imagines an historical character’s point of view. The perspective is very realistic and personal.

Resource: Snapshots of 19th century Canada journal writing critical challenge: http://tc2.ca/pdf/samplecriticalchallenges/Snapshots3.pdf

Assignment 2: Imagining that you are curator of the Museum of Canadian History set for opening in 2017, tell the story of this event from your group’s perspective in a way that would be engaging for a modern generation that demands to be entertained? Specifically, you can choose one of the following four mediums to present your script: 

1. Digital narrative/journal 

2. Artistic creation with oral podcast of your script 

Assessment criteria: 

• All images are extremely vivid and clear. Each image strongly reflects the central ideas/events communicated in that portion of the script. The images are provocative and draw you in. 

The voice recording consistently demonstrates strong feeling about the event allowing for pauses and emphasis when necessary. The viewer can clearly hear the full speech without background noise or any static.

EDUC 535: Elementary Social Studies Pecha Kucha Presentations and Rubric

In this assignment for pre-service teachers taking the Elementary Social Studies Methods class at the University of Calgary, students were asked to develop an inquiry question that takes up a particular issue or theme related to teaching Social Studies in Alberta. Specifically, students were asked to take up a question that relates to themes and issues directly connected to the twin pillars of citizenship and identity that guide the Alberta program. Drawing on class readings, independent research, insights gained from group discussions, along with their own personal experiences and observations in the classroom, they investigated this inquiry question in groups of two or three. 

In order to represent their insights, each group was asked to create a Pecha Kucha presentation video consisting of twenty images with twenty seconds of speaking time devoted to each image. You can learn more about the Pecha Kucha format by visiting this website: http://www.pechakucha.org/faq. 

To create their presentation each group was further asked to start a Google doc with a two-column twenty-row chart. Within the chart, they could place images on the left and the script for each slide in the next column. By creating a Google doc, myself as instructor was able to provide formative feedback once they had finished the script.

To support students in developing their presentation I moreover asked them to introduce and develop no more than three big ideas and then following the SES (State, Explain, Support) format develop and support these insights. 

Here is the assessment rubric the students help create that will be used to evaluate their presentation: 

	2	3	4
Visuals /8	Many images lack vividness and clearness and/or poorly reflect the central ideas in the script. The images do not provoke understanding and thought.	The images are vivid and clear. The images reflect the central ideas in the script. The images provoke understanding and thought.	All images are extremely vivid and clear. Each image strongly reflects the central ideas communicated in that portion of the script. The images are provocative and draw you in.
Voice and Speech /8	The voice recording only occasionally demonstrates strong feeling about the topic. At times the voice is hard to hear. The presenter allows no time for pauses, emphasis of important ideas, and they are simply reading the script rather than ‘saying’ it.	The voice recording generally demonstrates strong feeling about the topic. The voice can be heard loud and clear; however, the presenter allows little time for pauses, emphasis of important ideas, and may sound at times like they were reading the script rather than ‘saying’ it.	The voice recording consistently demonstrates strong feeling about the topic allowing for pauses and emphasis when necessary.  The viewer can clearly hear the full speech without background noise or any static.
Insightfulness of ideas /4	The ideas and insights the presenters have chosen to explore lack originality, are common place and do not reflect recent research in the field.	The presenters have chosen to explore fairly original and insightful ideas in response to the research question reflecting relevant research in the field.	The presenters have chosen to explore extremely original and insightful ideas in response to the research question reflecting current and highly relevant research in the field.
Exploration of main ideas in response to the inquiry question /8	The presentation demonstrates an original exploration of the topic with a generally thoughtful engagement with the research question.	The presentation demonstrates an original exploration of each of the key ideas introduced working to develop and explain these ideas in a way that draws on relevant scholarship and research in the field.	The presentation demonstrates an extremely deep and original exploration of the key ideas introduced working to fully develop and explain these ideas in a way that reflects a deep engagement with relevant scholarship and research in the field.
Flow and Coherence /4	Thoughts and ideas explored in the presentation flow and are coherently bound together in a logical progression or sequence. It is clear throughout the presentation from the introduction, through the body, to the conclusion your inquiry question and topic.	Thoughts and ideas explored in the presentation flow and are coherently bound together in a logical progression or sequence. It is clear throughout the presentation from the introduction, through the body, to the conclusion your inquiry question and topic.	Thoughts and ideas explored in the presentation flow and are coherently bound together in a logical progression or sequence. It is clear throughout the presentation from the introduction, through the body, to the conclusion your inquiry question and topic.
Evidence/ Supporting details /8	The three big ideas taken up in the presentation are lacking specific evidence. There are no specific practical possibilities for how these insights could be applied within an elementary classroom context.	At least two of the big ideas taken up in the presentation are comprehensively supported with powerful evidence often reflecting recent research in the field. There is evidence of ways teachers have attempted to live out these insights showing how they could be applied within an elementary classroom context.	Each of three big ideas taken up in the presentation are comprehensively supported with exceptionally powerful evidence often reflecting recent research in the field. There is ongoing evidence of ways teachers have attempted to live out these insights showing how they could be applied within an elementary classroom context.

Here are the Pecha Kuchas they created: 

Second Pecha Kucha:



Third Pecha Kucha






Fourth Pecha Kucha:





Fifth Pecha Kucha:


Aboriginal Perspectives in the Classroom from Richard Russell on Vimeo.