Category: Student-centered

being a teacher, Student-centered, writing

Student Feedback on Writing

Pernille Ripp
On our last day of school I like to pull out the student questionnaires from the first day of school and have the students revisit them.  We laugh over some of the things we wrote, we share what we still believe our strengths are and then the students tell me what they still don’t like about school.  How often do we ask students that?

As we went around the circle one thing was made abundantly clear; writing was not a favorite subject.  Writing!  These students who have blogged more than 700 posts, blown me away with their superhero creations, and handed out heartfelt thank you letters to all of their teachers, they hated writing.  In the past, I would have shrugged and not thought further of it, “Oh well, I tried…”  But this year I asked them to tell me why and how I could fix it.  So here are some of the ideas my 5th graders gave me:

  • Let one of the daily journal prompts be a complete free write (easy!)
  • We use the 6 traits curriculum so every week focus on one specific skills also in their journals.  They can write about whatever they want but what we are looking to improve is that one skill.
  • Give them more time to delve deeper into their stories.
  • Have a culminating writing project (which we did this year) but make it free choice.
  • Once a week do a pop definition hunt of a word where students are not allowed to use computers.

As I look at this list I see two things; free choice and how easy all of this would be to implement.  So once again I remind myself to give the students time to speak, to add their voice to the curriculum, and then to actually follow through.  I am already excited to add some of this to my writing next year.

challenge, hopes, Innovation Day, Student-centered

What Is Innovation Day and Why Should You Care?

Pernille Ripp
On May 7th, I was lucky enough to witness almost seventy 5th grade students take full control of their learning, their time, their outcomes, and their work ethic.  How you may ask?  By having them all partake in Innovation Day, my second annual one.  For those who do not know Innovation Day is the school version of FedEx Day (although they want to rename it); a day where students get to choose what they want to learn about as long as they create something to deliver.  These creations are varied as can be seen by the different pictures in our video, but the one thing they all have in common is passion.

You see Innovation Day is all about passionate self-directed learning.  I do not dictate what the students have to do or what topic they study.  I do not give them output restrictions.  I do not grade it.  I do not guide them.  What I do though is help them find a way to create, I guide them through discussion and preparation before the day and then on the day I step aside, fully confident that they can indeed achieve without me.  And that is truly what is hardest about Innovation day; getting out of the way.  not offering your help, not showing students how to do something or research something, but trusting their abilities and talents to navigate through every obstacle.  Of course, I am there in the room with them, but I mainly film their progress and then stay in my own corner.  In fact, most students are so focused on what they are trying to create that they have little time or desire to speak to me.

So why should you take the Innovation day challenge, because it is a challenge indeed!  You should take it because the trust you hand over to your students is palpable.  Because students realize that they can direct their own learning.  Because students get excited about learning and see that many things can be accomplished at school.  Because students get to show off their interests and their skills in new ways.  Because this may just inspire you to do this more often, perhaps as a genius hour?  Because this allows students to prove to you that they can manage their own time, that they can get things done within a deadline, that they do have a great work ethic; all things we tend to use homework for.  Because my students voted Innovation Day their second most favorite thing of the whol e year and that says a lot.

So how do you get started?  Well, here is my planning sheet  I have students fill out a couple weeks prior.  Here is the first post I ever wrote about it.  Here is the post I wrote after my first one where I was totally blown away.  Here are Josh Stumpenhorsts’ resources that I have used.  And finally here are two videos to show you the results.  One is of the day, the other is created on Innovation Day by Jacob who decided to do stop motion and by golly figured it out on his own.  And that truly is what it is all about.  So this year or next take the Innovation day challenge; give your students a whole day to direct their own learning and let them astound you.  You will not be disappointed.

assumptions, being a teacher, lessons learned, Student-centered

Even With Our Changed Classrooms, Have We Changed Anything At All?

Pernille Ripp
Image from icanread

It relates to school because there are calculators…

It relates to school because he uses math in counting out the tickets …

It has to do with math and that is why it has to do with school…

My students are journaling about the movie “Caine’s Arcade” and how it relates to school.  These wonderfully creative, powerfully imaginative students don’t see the deep connections between the environment that I try to create and that of Caine.  They don’t see how I try to challenge them to problemsolve, to create, to use materials in different ways.  to try, to fail and to have hope and perseverance.

Instead they see a 9-year-old boy who realized life was more than calculators and math.  That you could build something with what you have and have a little bit of hope.  They see that boy as an inspiration, his arcade as incredible, but not those things in the environment we create here, at school. 

What a lesson for me to be taught; school is still seen as its own world with set rules.  Segmented and regimented.  As something departmentalized from creativity, or at least where creativity is built into the day, scripted and called for.  School is viewed as something to be lived through so the real experimenting can happen afterwards.  I may think I do things differently, but I may be the only one.

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New Adventure, Student-centered, technology, video

Well Hello Adobe and Thank You For Coming To Our Room!

Pernille Ripp
Being a teacher with pretty tech savvy 5th graders means I am constantly on the look out for ideas of how to integrate technology into our lessons.  And while I do love technology, I never want to integrate it just for the sake of the tool, but rather to ensure a deeper level of exploration and inquiry for my students.  We use Flip video cameras quite a bit in our room whether to record our learning, create video projects, or even make presentations for other students.  Yet whenever we had recorded footage we always ran into a major obstacle; no editing software other than Flipshare or Windows Movie Maker.  And sure these programs work alright, they just are not that kid friendly and definitely not up to what our students want to create.  So when Adobe contacted me and wanted to know if I would be interested in trying out some of their software for them and then review it, I jumped at the chance.  Maybe, just maybe, their Premier Elements software is exactly what we have been looking for.

So I told my students about this opportunity and they got as excited as I did.  I am in constant awe of their fearlessness of new technology.  Talk about a huge lesson we as teachers should learn!  Yesterday the software was finally installed on my computer at school thanks to my awesome tech integrator Linda and I cannot wait to have the students use it.  So far the first project we will use the software for will be creating 5th grade survival videos for the incoming 4th graders as a way of working on our script writing and fluency/expression.  I cannot wait to share our honest opinion about the Adobe software and how it worked in the hands of my talented 5th graders.

So from time to time, you may see a post about Adobe and as always it will feature my unbiased opinion – or even better, that of my students. I am as curious as many other elementary educators whether Adobe software can be used at our level, so there will be no holds barred when it comes to reviews.  For now, if you already have access to Adobe software at your school, do check out the Adobe Education Exchange; super great resource for ways to integrate their technology created by other teachers.  I have been exploring it and finding it easy to access and search for grade specific resources.

Related articles

    challenge, Science, Student-centered

    The Spaghetti and Marshmallow Tower Challenge

    Pernille Ripp
    Thanks to Bill Ferriter for sharing the idea for this wonderful science challenge here.  I also garnished ideas from this PDF created by the BA.

    As part of our team building and creative problem solving efforts, we have done several challenges throughout the year.  This one therefore fit perfectly in with science as we were able to discuss variables, perseverance, and working as a team.

    Goal:
    To build the tallest marshmallow and spaghetti tower within 30 minutes.  The tallest tip will be the marshmallow that is furthest off the ground

    Process:

    • You will create or be assigned a team; 3 people to each team.
    • You will be given 100g of spaghetti and 50 grams of mini marshmallows.
    • You will have 5 minutes to plan your approach.
    • You will have 30 minutes of build time.
    • Spaghetti and marshmallows may be broken but marshmallows may not be made wet.
    • You may not actively seek out other groups to poach ideas but you may spot ideas from your work station.
    • Once time is called a full minute will be waited before teacher measures height.  This is to ensure tower stability.

    Learning Goals:
    Students will work on

    • Determining variables and controlling them
    • Team work
    • Time management
    • Creative problem solving
    • Engineering for structural strength
    • Perseverance and idea adaptation

    Here is a video showing parts of the challenge and the winning design

     
    assumptions, authentic learning, discussion, kids, learning, Student-centered, students

    Do You Dare Ask for Student Feedback?

    Pernille Ripp
    Yesterday, in a quiet moment of inspiration, as my students were presenting their super hero projects and getting a little droopy eyed, I stopped them and asked for feedback.  And not just great postive statements, but things I should change, things I should keep, things thats hould be removed altogether.  We started with the positives; they loved how I didn’t make them write a comic book but rather focused it on character and setting.  They loved the creative aspect, the shared writing, and all of the exmples.  And then I asked what they would change.  After one brave student raised their hand and gave me a suggestion of more partner share, then many joined in and added their suggestions.  These suggestions were better than my original ideas!  I sat there 10 minutes of listening and writing, dumbfounded that I hadn’t done this for every single project.

    When we decide to ask students how they really feel we run the risk of being told that we suck, to use a favorite 5th grade word.  We run the risk of being told we are boring, that the project was uninspired, and that they would never do it to another student.  (You know a project is bad when it is “done” to you).  But we also run the risk of getting better ideas, constructive criticism, and valid points that propel our projects further into student-directed learning, further into deeper knowledge acquisition.  My students took ownership of the project as well as their criticism.  They didn’t feel the need to apologize for what they were about to say but  phrased it specifically and unemotionally.  They knew that I knew it wasn’t an attack on me.

    So do we dare to ask the students for feedback on all their learning?  Do we dare take 10 minutes of our day to ask for suggestions, even if just one in a while?  Do we dare to actually do something with those suggestions because any fool can listen but it takes courage and dedication to do.  My students showed me yesterday that they trust me enough to share their opinions, they know I will take their words to heart and I will actually change what I did.  They know this because I have proved to them what my intentions are.  What a huge success in a 5th grade classroom.  So ask yourself; have I involved my students?  Have I asked for their feedback and opinion? Those that the learning affect the most?  Or am I too scared to do it?