Power of Cross Grade and School Collaboration

The parking lot conversation that sparked it all...

As I got out of my car and attempted to shield my hair from the torrential rain that was falling, I noticed one of the high school teachers huddled under an umbrella outside on morning bus supervision. As miserable as it was, she still had a big smile on her face as she greeted the less then excited high school students off their busses. I waved as I began my mad dash to the school doors. Before I could complete my journey, she hurdled a few puddles and was suddenly standing in front of me. Out of breath, she began to explain that she had an awesome project idea that she wanted me to review with her for her Communication Tech students.

As I became more soaked and gave up on saving any life I had left in my hair, she began to describe how her Communication Technology students at the Comp were learning about a new Raster graphics through Adobe Photoshop. The original assignment was to have the Comm Tech students create a magazine cover. The teacher envisioned her students having authentic clients to create a design for.

“Did you know of anyone or group who would be willing to take on the role of ‘playing’ clients for my students?” she asked.

As an Instructional Coach, I have the pleasure of being in different schools and learning spaces. I am able to connect and work closely with multiple teachers on a weekly basis. I have no idea why this conversation in the rain sparked an idea within the depths of my brain…it could have been the hypothermia setting in.  I had just collaborated with two grade 2 teachers from Red Deer Lake school. Their students had been focused on improving their descriptive writing.  The Grade 2’s most recent writing composition was to write about their dreams and aspirations for the future.

What they wanted to be, where they wanted to live…where they saw themselves in 10-20 years.

“Well, do you know of anyone who might be interested in being a client?” the water logged high school teacher questioned again.

In my mind I began to pair the two groups of vastly different aged students together. I might have an entire bus load of clients I thought to myself…

“I have clients for you…but they are only seven years old,” I offered.

The Dream Project was born!

Instead of the magazine cover, the high school students were given the task of working with a ‘real client,’--- a 7 year- old, who wanted their writing to come alive through digital design! The grade 2 students’ depth of understanding of the importance description in their writing also became a powerful focus.

The Clients Arrive…

Forty-four grade 2 students from Red Deer Lake school, travelled to the Foothills Composite to meet their high school Designer in person. First, the Culinary senior class prepared an amazing lunch for all the Red Deer Lake students and teachers. The Culinary Arts class was assessed on their preparation and serving of the food.

Designing Dreams…

Full to the brim, the grade 2 clients entered the Comm Tech and Lab and spent over an hour with their personal high school ‘Design Artist’ who had the task of making their dreams become a reality. The grade two students immediately began giving feedback and direction by describing the dream that they had written to their high school designers. The Comm tech students experienced real world ‘pressure’ placed on them by these young clients who knew exactly what they wanted.  These seven year olds, proved to be tough clients. 

Media on the Scene…

The High School FNN Media Team captured the entire afternoon of learning through videos and interviews. These media students had been given this collaboration event as an assignment to cover and create a short film segment for the Comp’s News FNN Broadcast, along with media for the Foothills School Division.

FNN News Broadcast Team

Watch the FNN News Broadcast!  Quick Link:  https://youtu.be/MBCTLFcQo_0

Descriptive Writing becomes a reality.

Future “rich” dentist…

The result was magic. Dreams really do come true.

The entire day was dedicated to collaboration and learning. The various connections to curriculum outcomes and competencies were countless. Relationships between students and FSD colleagues also were made.  All stakeholders within this project benefited. Designing a future Dream project for next year between these two schools has already started.

(Above) One page spread in the 2019 FCHS Yearbook: The Dream Project

Writing Gr 2 Rubric

Since, The Dream Project unfolded, more FSD schools have partnered with various FCHS departments and have been collaborating and learning together.

In FSD, we have a wealth of powerful programs and people who are dedicated to designing incredible learning. We do not need to look far to find authentic opportunities…

More Collaboration Projects and Learning:

Dr. Morris Gibson School students visit FCHS to engage in a writing task with 30-1 students.

Middle Years Conference

Middle Years Conference

Banff, AB- April 25-27, 2019

Written By Lindsay Kate Anderson

This past Thursday through Saturday, before the snows returned, I found myself in Banff, AB surrounded by mountain views and middle years teachers (MYT). During the Thursday night speed sessions, at small tables of 6-8, we unpacked topics including student mental health, staff burn-out, technology, and options for  10 minute each. We genuinely all agreed… MY students are smelly, awkward, diverse, and most of all uniquely unique. Putting your finger on the specific needs of MY students is like trying to catch a gnat with chopsticks. Sure, you might be successful grabbing one but the reality is there are a million other gnats to snare. This year’s keynote speaker brought some incredible ideas and insights to refresh approaches to teaching in the dreaded MIDDLE YEARS.

If you are not yet familiar with Rick Wormeli, please plan to make him part of your summer professional reading. https://www.rickwormeli.com, I’d had the pleasure of seeing Rick speak over six years ago and his words regarding equity vs equality have stuck with me ever since. Wormeli pushed us to reflect on the ethics and morals behind marking, assignments, and redos. He believes in good practices for all students, and even dressed as a time traveller, reminded us of to keep our standards high!

By far my favorite moment of the entire conference was when Wormeli presented Maria and the Von Trapp children as an example of excellent assessment practices. For you see, Maria begins by assessing student’s previous knowledge and connecting the new learning to what they already know. From there … well you decide! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM

I served double duty at the conference, both as a participant and presenter. For anyone toying with the idea of presenting at a convention, I would highly recommend the MYC. Sessions were small, intimate, and well received.

Grade 7s, Blankets & Smelly Socks

By Lindsay Kate Anderson

Over the past week I had the privilege of facilitating the Kairos Blanket Exercise with grade 7 students at both Ecole Senator Riley Middle School, and have started with the same age group at Ecole Okotoks Junior High School. With the breadth of Canadian history required to be covered within the grade 7 curriculum, the simulation brings big ideas and policies to students in an experiential manner. With four exercises complete and seven more to go, here are some thoughts and insights for schools considering doing the Blanket Exercise with their students.

1. Do not hesitate! Just do it!
2. They are more prepared than you think- students will behave better than you think they will.
3. Remind students to wear clean socks- it’s worth it for everyone involved.
4. Find a facilitator- as a teacher, if you have not been through the simulation before, take the opportunity to see how students react and behave while someone else takes charge.
5. Find a space- if possible run the simulation somewhere other than your classroom. This gives students a feeling of the activity being something special.
6. Listen- at the beginning and end of the simulation give students a chance to share questions and insights they may have.
7. Planning- facilitating can be exhausting. While a typical simulation takes just under an hour and a half, remember the energy your facilitator is putting into the event. Avoid scheduling more than two simulations per day.
8. Reach out- with three speaking roles; narrator, European, and nun, reach out to administration, learning coaches, and library staff to help with facilitation.
9. Include videos- over 200 years worth of history is being presented incorporating videos into the simulation provides students a chance to land someplace safe, breathe, and move forward.
10. Reflect- talk to your students and other participating teachers to see how the exercise has impacted your student learning and how it will impact your teaching.

Looking forward there are seven more exercises to go and I look forward to continuing to hear what students are learning and how their impressions of Indigenous experiences in Canada have changed and grown.

Vocabulary in the Math Claass

Vocabulary in the Math Class

Written by Marsi Quarin-WrightThis informationis based on the following website.  Please refer to this reading for more information: https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5108&context=hse_all

 

Digit, value, regroup…Oh my!  How do we remember to ask students for the sum, difference, product rather than asking for the answer?

 Using the number:  6 234 753?  What is the value of 6? What digit does the 7 represent?
How can we remember to use this language in our lessons?

Three Tiers of Words

Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown and Linda Kucan (2002, 2008) have outlined a useful model for conceptualizing categories of words readers encounter in texts and for understanding the instructional and learning challenges that words in each category present.

Tier One words are the words of everyday speech usually learned in the early grades, albeit not at the same rate by all children. They are not considered a challenge to the average native speaker, though English language learners of any age will have to attend carefully to them. While Tier One words are important, they are not the focus of this discussion.

Tier Two words (what the Standards refer to as general academic words) are far more likely to appear in written texts than in speech. They appear in all sorts of texts: informational texts (words such as relative, vary, formulate, specificity and accumulate), technical texts (calibrate, internalize, periphery), and literary texts (misfortune, dignified, falter, unabashedly). Tier Two words often represent subtle of precise ways to say relatively simple things –saunter, instead of walk, for example. Because Tier Two words are found across many types of texts, they are highly generalized

Tier Three words (what standards refer to as domain-specific words) are specific to a domain or field of study (lava, carburetor, legislature, circumference, aorta) and key to understanding a new concept within a text. Because of their specificity and close ties to content knowledge, Tier Three words are far more common in informational texts than in literature. Recognized as new and “hard” words for most readers (particularly student readers), they are often explicitly defined by the author of the text, repeatedly used and otherwise heavily scaffolded (eg. Made part of a glossary).

Helpful Tips:

Þ   If we think of the Tier Two words as words we see in the curriculum (represent, make statements of comparisons, symbolically represent)
 Þ    If we think of Tier Three words as  academic language related to a field of study (for math: product, quotient, sum, difference)

Tier 3 Words

Words with duplicate meaning in math.

I found this interesting that some math words have duplicate meanings and do our students know the math term?What other terms are there that have more than one meaning?

________________________________________________________________

Word                Common Definition                   Mathematical Definition 

          key                   a tool with which the                  something that gives an 

                                   bolt of a lock is turned                explanation or provides a

                                                                                       solution

_____________________________________________________________

         order                to command to do something      to put into sequence

______________________________________________________________

         another way    a different course of action         a way of equal value

______________________________________________________________

         table                a piece of furniture with              a visual display of 

                                  four legs                                      information

_______________________________________________________________

Tier 2 Words

The following is a list of words that fit into the tier 2 category. The more we can use these words in our classrooms, the more our students will know and in turn use them as well. 

The Twelve Powerful Words and Their Definitions

Word                                         Definition

analyse                            to break apart

compare                                ways they are the same

contrast                                 ways they are different

describe                                 tell about

formulate                              create

evaluate                                 judge

explain                                   tell how

infer                                        read between the lines

predict                                   what will happen next

summarize                           give a short version

support                                  back up with details

trace                                       list in steps

Putting it all together: 

Þ    And we can purposefully plan for math vocabulary in our lessons by using a simple table (see below)
 Þ    Then post these words/anchor charts for kids to reference as they work and for teachers to reference as they deliver a lesson 

Tier 3 Word	Meaning	When to Teach
Table	Visual display of info	Review
value	position of a digit in a number determines its value	Pre-teach
sum	Answer to addition Note: use instead of equals or “is” 7+5 is….	During Use find the sum
Tier 2	Focus on using Predict

Citizen Scientists

Citizen Scientists

By Julie Julian, Regional Instructional Coach

The benefits of learning outside is nothing new. We know students are often more engaged and learning is more authentic when we step beyond the walls of our schools. Providing opportunities for students to participate in Citizen Science is a great way to do this across the grades.

WHAT?

“Citizen science projects focus on, but are not limited to, nonscientists participating in the processes of scientific research, with the intended goal of advancing and using scientific knowledge.”-National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Learning Through Citizen Science: Enhancing Opportunities by Design” 

WHY?

“Current understandings of science learning also suggest that science learning extends well beyond content knowledge in a domain to include understanding of the nature and methods of science.”-National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

HOW?

Collect & record data, analyze, classify, and participate in discussions on various apps and websites:

Dark Night Star Light: The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory is calling on citizen scientists to make brightness observations of the night-time sky over their homes.

Calgary Captured: Help us classify trail camera photos by identifying the animals you see.

Alberta Plantwatch: By reporting when certain plants bloom and leaf out in spring, Albertans contribute vital information for climate change studies. This study of biological timing is called phenology, “the science of appearances”.

NatureLynx: Our users actively contribute to our scientific understanding of Alberta’s ecosystems. Beyond being an exciting, free tool for education, engagement and growth, NatureLynx encourages users to network and mobilize their efforts, both socially and scientifically.

Alberta Community Bat Program: The Neighbourhood Bat Watch website is a place where you can join people from across Canada in reporting your own roost or bat sightings, and participating in the annual bat count.

Call of the Wetlands: a citizen science program that enables the public to monitor amphibians as an important indicator of wetland health.

eBird: Our goal is to gather this information in the form of checklists of birds, archive it, and freely share it to power new data-driven approaches to science, conservation and education.    

eButterfly: A real-time, online checklist and photo storage program, e-Butterfly is providing a new way for the butterfly community to report, organize and access information about butterflies in North America.

WormWatch: monitoring program used to identify ecological changes that may be affecting our environment.

FrogWatch: Worldwide, many wetland species are declining in numbers or have recently become extinct. Monitoring frog and toad populations is one way to check the health of wetland areas.

Citizen Science Portal-Government of Canada: This site included even more citizen science project across the country. Use #ScienceAroundMe to find and share exciting ways to take part in science.