Natalie's+Reflections

May 7/12 since our meeting...

Students are planning a "Flight Day Event" for a primary class. Students are responsible for everything from set up to scheduling, invitations, and advertising. Connections to our curriculum and procedure writing are part of this.

We had a beautiful day for flying kites- it was during our "procedural writing" lessons and I gave each group a dollar store kite to "build using the instructions". After our outside time we discussed pros and cons of the instructions and improvements that could have been made.

Feb 1/12 -on the Monday for homework I asked students to bring "something that flies" to school for Wednesday -on Wednesday posted the word INQUIRY all over the classroom, on the door, on our agenda board for periods 5 and 6 -answered student "inquiries" about the word "INQUIRY" with comments like "I'm glad you asked that" or "I wonder what that means?" -at period 5 I had the students move their desks and chairs into a U-shape so that we had open space in the centre -we briefly reviewed attentive listening focusing on 2 aspects: withholding one's own comments, opinions, and need to talk AND using appropriate body language to show one is listening -I read an excerpt from the novel (AIRBORN) that our class has recently finished reading and asked them to listen for words related to air or flight -each student shared a "flying" item and demonstrated or talked about it to the class -we used the KBC "rules" for commenting about what we observed -students wrote in their new "INQUIRY" notebooks any comments, questions, observations, etc. and sketched a picture -we went outside for a "FLIGHT WALK" looking for at least 10 things that related to flight (about 10 minutes on a specified part of the yard, used my whistle to call them back) -back inside they rearranged the desks back to the usual form and were encouraged to finish the prompt "I wonder..." related to what they saw outside on their flight walk, I recorded these comments on the computer (data projector) and at the end I put in into a WORDLE which I printed and posted on our door

Strengths: caught the curiosity of most kids using the sharing time and the new word (INQUIRY) indoor and outdoor time during the 2 period block

Weaknesses: not all students remembered their items many paper airplanes were quickly constructed throughout the day to prepare for the sharing time outdoor time was not as focused, kids were scattered around the yard and I could not be a part of all conversations dirty boots and shoes track mud into the school and classroom if kids are not changing their indoor/outdoor shoes

Questions: can the interest level be maintained next time? what about students who were absent? how do they catch up? what's next?

Feb 6/12 -I collected two types of packing cardboard (one stronger, one flimsy) and some styrofoam to be used for next INQUIRY day -I read the journal entries from students and found some were basic observations, some detailed observations, questions, suggestions or hypotheses, comments about what they saw, only one student did not respond -I planned a flexible agenda for our INQUIRY time that started with a recap of the listening "rules" and how we answer and ask questions like the KBC rules, I had students recap the events of the last day for students who were absent -they got back their journals and I shared some of the questions that were written, I mentioned how some of them even started to write a "hypothesis" -we discussed some possible definitions for that word which I jotted on the board and I asked students to look in their own journal to see if they had developed any hypotheses -at the top of a new page they wrote down HYPOTHESIS- an idea that can be tested (this def'n came from a student) -I posed a question to start a KBC "How can some things fly and others can't fly?" and we used the rules to share ideas (I jotted down words that were related to air and flight and this lasted about 10 minutes) -I posed a challenge for groups of 6 to build two airplanes, one out of flimsy cardboard and one out of stronger cardboard, within a 25 minute block, afterwards we would be going outside to test these, safety precautions were discussed -before going outside, students wrote in journals why they thought their airplanes would fly and what would a "successful" flight would look like. If it did fly, what could they test? (time of flight, distance of flight, smoothness of glide, etc.) -each group stood to show their planes to the class before going outside -outside time included individual testing then each plane being "flown" from the same spot -back inside to rearrange desks and complete reflections in journal to indicate the success (or not) or the flights and what they would change for next time plus any other observations, comments, questions -ticket out the door was the journal handed to teacher

Strengths: sharing the questions from journals sparks ideas kids love the hands on challenge windy and sunny day!!!

Weaknesses: most kids tried to replicate a 'paper' airplane, only one student had separate parts (i.e. wings and body) one bloody nose when a plane crashed into a person absent students meant groups were not even giving students the choice of making own groups resulted in some popularity groupings

Questions: do I have to encourage more participation in the KBC from those that don't? when should the "assessment" rubric be introduced? my assessment right now is anecdotal regarding participation and response in the journal, when does this change to a different type of assessment? should students have had more knowledge before the build? what's next?

Feb13/12 -prior to our INQUIRY day, I asked students to ask their parents if they remembered any songs from their generation that included words like fly, air, or any words related to flight -I read over the journal entries looking for evidence of a “hypothesis” from each student about their cardboard airplanes, predicting whether they would fly or not and why, and then observations and changes that might be made to their planes -I circled vocabulary words in the journals that I wanted students to clarify and that might form the basis of our next conversation (heavy, light, flimsy, aerodynamic, etc.) -to start our INQUIRY time, students moved the desks into the U-shape and we handed our the journals, I asked students to look at their previous entries and we would share words related to FLIGHT which I began to record on chart paper -after many contributions to the word list, we began a KBC around the question “Can everything fly?” which was based on something one of the students had mentioned -the KBC continued under the rules we developed previously (attentive listening by withholding one’s comments and by showing appropriate body language, the person who speaks will choose the next person by saying their name) -I recorded the names of the people who contributed and listened for ideas that I thought would relate to the direction I wanted to move the group and when the sharing ended I summarized some important ideas that the students copied into their notebooks that came from our discussion, I also asked them to write down 6 words from our vocabulary list that really made them think of FLIGHT -the challenge for this week was to take the materials provided (two stryofoam plates, paper clip, elastic, clear tape) and create an airplane that was made from more than one part and that used “energy” from a stretched elastic (I pointed out that of all the airplanes made from the cardboard the previous week, only one was created with a separate body and wings, all the others were folded like paper airplanes, I showed the students an example of one that my daughter had made at school with the materials they were going to use) -it was a struggle for students to pick groups that had at least one or two different people than the last week, we paused for a short time to discuss whether it would be easier if the groups were chosen and assigned by the teacher (there was not a consensus) -students built their planes, recorded in their journals any predictions about the flight of the planes, tidied their work space, moved the desks back, and got ready for outside -outdoor flight testing, recording of flight observations and changes in the journal was the requirement for each student before the dismissal bell, I collected planes and journals at the door

Strengths: some great ideas came from students in the KBC, students were excited about the building challenge, almost everyone liked the outdoor testing of the planes

Weaknesses: ensuring that the KBC rules are followed by ALL students is a challenge when some have ideas they want to share and the person choosing the next speaker chooses someone else; choosing groups was like a popularity contest, two students didn’t even attempt to find a group, some students felt left out by their friends because of the limited number per group

Improvements/Questions: Can I sustain the interest of the students with the same format for INQUIRY each week? (review, discussion, hands-on) How can I make choosing groups easy for me and for students? The journal entries are wide-ranging in effort and content, so I am considering introducing Pamela’s journal entry rubric so that students have a better idea of my expectations. Even though we have two periods (100 minutes) it still feels like there is not enough time to fit in everything. Should the journal entry become part of homework? I am referring to a unit on flight to get my hands-on ideas and to help “order” the big ideas but I am also trying to be flexible in going with the ideas that come from the class- this is hard because it is unpredictable. My next KBC will be related to what we know about AIR because it is the knowledge of the properties of air that will help us to make improvements to our airplanes… I think.

Feb21/12 -journal entries from last day were reviewed and students who were absent were asked to pick 6 words from our vocabulary list that really made them think of “FLIGHT” -after reviewing KBC rules, I posed the question “How does air help things fly?” and many students contributed ideas from which I wrote some on the board to be copied -this week I introduced the “art and science” of folding paper airplanes, I had purchased a calendar that had instructions and coloured paper for a new paper airplane everyday, we reviewed the tips from the authors who were engineers and recorded the “factors” that influence flight of these planes -to each set of partners I gave one plane to build (one person being the instruction manager and one person being the builder), some planes were much trickier than others and some experts in the class helped other groups -predictions were made on how the planes would fly and students went to the hallway to experiment with adjusting the angle of the wings, adjusting the speed of the launch, and adjusting the angle that the plane is launched -desks were returned to position, observations were recorded in journals, I collected all planes and instructions

Strengths: I am still amazed at what information students bring to the discussion, the KBC is a great way for all students to be heard, choosing one partner was much easier than choosing a whole group, the paper airplane building was challenging yet exciting, the planes flew with great success

Weaknesses: because of the wet weather and the delicate nature of the materials we did not have an OUTDOOR component to this INQUIRY time, the testing of the factors was not controlled and students did not record specific observations, 3 groups of students had such a difficult construction that they did not get to do the testing

Questions/Improvements: What if something that is shared in the KBC is definitely not the “right” information and no one else in the circle knows it except the teacher? Is it ok for me to interject or should I address it at the end of the discussion? It is so important to help develop the connections between what students are observing to the BIG IDEAS of the curriculum- I need to introduce these ASAP. We have a (public) library visit booked for this week, in addition to our INQUIRY periods… I am debating whether to postpone INQUIRY to the library day…

Natalie, I am experiencing the same thing with my junior level grades. Some students are so certain that they know the correct answer that they confidently share it in a KBC and it is often completely incorrect. I wasn't sure if I should interject either. This is a good topic to add to the March meeting. I enjoy reading your reflections:) From Tamara.

Mar1/12 -INQUIRY became our visit to the public library, I had called to talk to the librarian to get a feel for what the program would entail and it really fit with where we are in our unit -the program began with a review of the technical names related to FLIGHT (of which we have only talked about in general terms), a true/false quiz on FLIGHT, this was followed with a short slide show on the history of FLIGHT -the majority of the program had the students in three groups, each group folding a particular paper airplane which the students then tested and competed for points in an "accuracy" flight -the program ended with a story about the first woman to fly the English Channel

Strengths: engaging for students to have some of the history portion shared by someone other than me in a different setting, many books on display related to FLIGHT, fun to test the paper planes in a contest scenario

Weaknesses: space was limited for construction and testing, time constraints also

Next Steps/Questions: I collected the paper airplanes and we are going to look at the design of the plane to see how the design influences the accuracy of the flight. We will discuss the other influences such as angle of the launch and speed of the launch to see whether students made use of those ideas to fly their planes. We will compare these library planes to the paper planes we had constructed the previous week to look for similarities and differences in design. I want to spend some time discussing the vocabulary words introduced at the library (THRUST, DRAG, GRAVITY, LIFT) and see what words we have used to discuss these things. I want the students to develop a question that they want to investigate further. We will use the school library and the Internet to further explore these ideas. I am uncertain whether students should work in partners or as individuals. I want to discuss some success criteria for this research so that the students know what is expected and then they can choose their own presentation method. I want to include curriculum expectations in this criteria also.