Failure to Launch (Rethink, Relaunch)

So yesterday (Tuesday) I launched my project with my 3^rd period freshmen. For my launch and entry event, I put this flyer up on the projector and had the kids read it. I have to say that I’ve changed this project from how we did it last year. I was a little wary of the changes I’d made, but I forged ahead and launched it anyway. After the kids read the flyer I knew it wasn’t going to go well. I had kids that were distracted and not reading what I put up there, and I think even if I’d given them a physical copy of it they wouldn’t have paid attention to it. So to try to recover the launch I read it out loud and then tried to spark a discussion with them. To make a long (and painful) story short…I did not capture their attention, which is the entire purpose of an entry event. I went on to explain the project, try to calm some of their frustration, and attempt to bring them back to me. I think I “salvaged” it, and I use that phrase very loosely.

I went home last night and the first thing I said to my husband was, “Ugh, I hate this new project already and the kids hate it, too!” I was so disappointed. That’s when I decided that I could still recover and save the project in my 7^th period. I immediately decided how I was going to change the launch and add to the entry event to try to capture their attention better than my 3^rd period students.

I came in today very nervous, and of course had to wait all the way until 7^th hour to launch. (Dan’s rocket fuel coffee this morning did not help calm my nerves, so thanks for that Dan!) After explaining the first step of PBL (Launch, Entry Event) I went into the new, and hopefully improved, launch.

This time I told the kids we were going to have “story time”. I told  them to put everything away and out of sight, including their phones, and then I asked if they wanted to sit in their desks or on the floor. Of course they opted for the floor. They all crowded around the chair I have in the front of the room and I explained the them that I was going to read them a story, and all I needed them to do was to be respectful and listen. I told them if they wanted to close their eyes while they listened they could but they had to stay sitting up.

I began to read (and attempted to hide my shaking hands as I went). Nine pages later I put down the final page and looked around. The kids were silent. I asked them what they thought. Some responses include, “I want to know what happens because it didn’t really have an end.” “I like the theme.” “I feel bad for the main character, the story sounds sad.” “I want to know what happened to her brother.” Etc.

Then I told them how much I’d loved to write in elementary school, but, much like my love of reading, I lost that love when I moved on to MS and HS. Then I told them that what I’d just read them was the first chapter of my book. (They know I’ve been writing because sometimes I share examples or my struggles with them, but I haven’t told them much more than that.) They were speechless. One girl asked, “YOU wrote that?!” After answering questions and details about length, plot, theme, etc. I told them that the reason I read it to them was because they were going to have to, on a much smaller scale, write a story like I am. J

I am so proud to say that I did not hear ONE. SINGLE. “Ughhhhhhh, are you kidding? No way.” SO EXCITED! I asked them to go back to their seats and THEN I showed them the attached flyer. At that point they started to ask questions and picked up on the idea that we’re going to try to publish it. We’re going to read our stories to others just like I did, and that we’re going to have an autograph session.

The last five minutes of class students were coming up to me with their ideas and questions. “Can I write about my life?” Sure. “Can I write about talking animals?” Why not? “Can I do a graphic novel?” I think that’d be really cool! “Can I bring in a story that I started last year but never finished?” Sure, that’d be a great starting point.

Yesterday was a failure.

Today was a huge success.

I just wanted to share that I don’t have this all figured out. I don’t know what I’m doing 100% of the time. But I’m willing to try things. I’m willing to fail. And I’m willing to try again. Not saying that you all are not (I don’t’ want it to come off that way), but I just felt like I needed to share that it’s so important to be ok with that. There is no perfect formula. There is no one, exact right way to do PBL. That is HUGE of this process and I can’t even begin to stress what an important part it is. I even shared my frustrations with my 7^th period before the launch and then asked for feedback at the end. Overwhelmingly, the class said that the launch was successful and grabbed their attention.

On that note, I want to invite anyone in on Friday who has 7^th period prep or if you can get someone to cover your kids. If you’d like to see step 2 of the project come on down!

Now that we’ve launched and the kids have their “Driving Question”, our next step is to write our “Problem Statement”. This is the part of the project that, as a class, we figure out how we’re going to answer the DQ. The statement is formed by filling in the blanks for the following statement.

We as __________ will __________________________ so that ______________________.

Summer -- PD -- All Write 2013 Conference

Kate Messner
Revision Workshop

Here is a poem I wrote (very, very rough draft) in the Revision workshop with Kate Messner.

One time on our porch in Warsaw

One time on my patio in Bloomington,

Where traffic rushed by noisily on the highway,

Where the unexpected woods butted up against our town home,

I would sit and dream.

Wonder, we’d be

in one year,

two years,

or ten years from here.

After school was said and done,

we moved on from

that patio next to the woods.

One time on my balcony in Lowell,

Looking down from high above.

Looking over the third story, plastic

railing sitting, perched on my black bar stool.

I listened as the water trickled,

from the fountain into the pond.

I took a deep breath of,

not so fresh, region air.

After two jobs, unemployment

and teaching take one,

we were ready to move on down Old 30

to the next chapter of our life.

One time in our flower bed in Mentone,

Yes, that’s right my flower bed.

At this duplex

there was no porch,

or patio,

or balcony.

In this town the roads are quiet,

the air is clear,

and the stars twinkle bright at night.

And here,

with no place for patio furniture

two green chairs sit in the rocks

to enjoy our 10x10 yard.

One time on our porch in Warsaw,

I sit and drink coffee

as Jethro sniffs along the fence.
Our fence.

The sound of birds tweet

from tree to tree.

There is a faint sound of cars in the distance,

but no semis or big rigs rumble.

One time on our porch in Warsaw,

the tomato plants blow in the faint breeze.

Jethro tosses a stick around the yard

and wages an epic battle

with a fragment of rawhide bone

he left to the rain a few days earlier.

On time on our porch in Warsaw,

I push in the chair on our patio furniture.

Whistle for the dog who

comes bounding up to our porch,

with his tongue hanging out.

As his nails tick across our deck

he drops the bone at our door.

One time on our porch in Warsaw,

I look back and think,

How far we’ve come.

From patio,

to balcony,

to nothing but a flower bed.

It’s hard to believe it took us

five years to find

our home.

9--Character Project Reflection

So I'm finally sitting down and reading students reflections from the project. They filled out a reflection packet that reviewed everything we did for this project (beginning - end), and then we shared as a class. The kids did a quick think-pair-group-share activity. Here are the steps we went through this time:

1. Review your answers to the reflection sheet. Make changes adjustments as needed. Choose one or two things you'd most like to share.
2. Find a partner and take 2 minutes to share one thing from your reflection sheet. Remember to give your partner equal share time. 
3. After 2 minutes we switched partners. I really pushed groups of 2 (3 if we have an odd #) here. 
4. Stay with your current partner and find another pair to talk with. Take 4 minutes and go around the group. Each person should share something new from their reflection sheet, good or bad. 
5. Then I gave each group a dry erase marker. 
6. I wrote on the board--"Successes", "Struggles", "Things to Change (Me, you, project)" 
7. Each group must put two pieces of feedback up on the board, in any of the three categories. After each group wrote on the board we discussed as a class

Here are some of the things from their reflections and feedback that I'd like to take into consideration next year.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Working with the kids and going to the elementary schools	Come up with idea sooner so we can work on the project more
Ability to show creativity, choose their own projects & values	Work on enforcing the contract more
Choose values that would benefit kids	Equal group sizes
Creating projects appropriate for grade level	Time management, rusing the week everything was due
Elementary kids had fun & learned at the same time!	Making sure all group members are on the same page, have work responsibilities
Never a dull moment in class, always had something to work on	Needed to give rubric up front to help with understanding
	Time to practice presentations for our classes to get feedback (add to CFG).
	More exit tickets at the end of class to help see where groups stand on project work
	Time management, project deadlines, using work time more effectively Talk to each group individually more, get feedback daily from them.

Click here to view PDF Copies of the students reflections. 

9-Presentation Day! Going to elementary schools...

Today was the day.

I was nervous. I was excited.

They were nervous. They were excited (possibly just to miss school, but excited none the less).

By the time the 8:25 bell rang there was a staggering stack of permission slips piled on my desk. It was an oversight on my part, and I had to rush these all out yesterday afternoon. After sorting through and checking off names I was relieved to see that everyone remembered their slip. Note to self: don't accept an more excuses about forgetting homework.

First, second, and third period flew by, and as soon as I was able to scarf down some lunch it was time to go. The bell for fourth hour rang and kids rushed to meet in the cafeteria carrying posters, markers, files folders filled with papers, even a bag of stuffed animals (and of course lots of candy for bribery).

As I reviewed expectations, reminded them about rubrics, and upholding these character values we were going to teach, we boarded the buses and I sent Ms. Tillman off to Akron. We headed for Mentone.

I could hear students rehearsing, discussing last minute plans and details, and talking about what they might expect once we arrived. When we got there we put on name tags, announced room numbers, and headed for the classrooms.

The next hour passed so quickly, especially since I was bouncing around from room to room.

The kids did great! As I visited classrooms there were kids speaking up, taking charge, and stepping up as leaders or working with kids individually that I've seen nothing from all year! This is what I truly love about PBL is seeing the kids in a totally different environment. I believe I wrote about this after the Baker Youth Club project/visit. Seeing students who don't normally excel in the classroom engaged, involved, and communicating is so exciting. I so truly believe that PBL really engages those students we might normally lose. They get to see this project that they've worked so hard to create actually being applied, and they're making it happen!

I received a lot of positive feedback; I'll post their rubrics/evaluations that the teachers gave them later. For now here is a slideshow of pictures!

9 -- Character Ed. Project Due Date has Come and Gone :-\

The character education projects were due yesterday for my Freshmen.

*Sigh*

Needless to say I was disappointed in what was turned in. However, I do want to take some responsibility for their failures (and successes) throughout this project. I know that there are a lot of things I would do differently with this project calendar, assessment, and expectations leading up to that final due date.

Project Calendar: 
Despite having this same issue with the short story project and Baker Youth Club, I didn't give enough time between the due date and that final presentation date. I think if I had the kids going to the elementary schools next week rather than this Friday I'd have more time for revision and feedback for groups that are struggling. At the same time they received way more feedback throughout the project process than last semester. They had a full blown critical friends group session and worked with both elementary school principals to get some feedback. I think next year it'll be important to discuss what to do with that feedback. So I think giving myself more time between final "due date" and presentation date will help me keep some of my sanity.

Rubrics (will be the death of me): 
I think my expectations as far as requirements could've been more specific for this project. I really gave the kids a lot of freedom and choice with the final product, which is great, but I fear that I needed to give them a rubric or checklist to also keep them in the guidelines and purpose of the project. I tried to steer them in the right direction during discussion, feedback, group work time, etc but I can see now where a physical, written product would've helped some groups reach their final goal, more successfully.

What I'm really struggling with and don't really have answers for is how to guide the kids through a project more. I think My Big Campus will be helpful next year because the project calendar will be there rather than on paper. I think the freshmen struggle with keeping track of deadlines, and setting out a project timeline. I had multiple checkpoints this time and chances for feedback.

I just expected to get more turned in yesterday.

12--Project 4--Rough Draft Checkpoint Reflection

Rough Draft Checkpoint:

For this project I was really unsure what to expect from each group. It's not that I hadn't been checking in, talking with them, working with them, etc, but it was the fact that the groups really took this project in different directions than what I'd expected. I think the timing of the rough drafts was way better for this project than it was for my freshmen. I set the rough draft date a full week before the final drafts were due and it really gave me time to assess and give feedback. I was able to see what groups were in trouble and discuss that with them. I think next time I might have the groups make a list of the items they think they should turn in and then when we conference the class before I can add a couple things I  expect to see with their rough drafts as well. This will help ensure that we're all on the same page. Many of the rough draft pieces that were turned in didn't have much more information than the pitches I'd seen a few weeks earlier. I know from talking with the groups that many had made progress but I don't think they were clear on what needed to be turned in and what I wanted to see.

12--Project 4--Rough Draft Submission Samples

9 -- Critical Friends Group -- Feedback Session

Today we did a "Critical Friends Group (CFG)" Feedback Session in all of my English 9 classes.

Yesterday groups were given a "lesson plan worksheet" to set up the steps they would go through when they're at the elementary schools. They had to fill in a rough draft and discuss it as a group. They were also instructed that once they were finished with the lesson plan sheet they needed to prepare a short 1 minute presentation they would share with the class during our CFG feedback protocol.

When they came into class I had the desks arranged so that the presenters would be the center of attention but could sit rather than standing in front of the class. I knew this would make most of my students more comfortable and put the group up on a "podium" so the rest of the class could casually direct their feedback at that group rather than me as the facilitator. During presentations each group also had a group member up front at the document camera showing their lesson plans worksheet from Monday.

The directions for the feedback protocol are outlined in this Google Doc titled CFG Protocol Outline. You could always adjust the times if you want the rounds to go longer. For this group 45 seconds seems like forever!

I invited teachers, staff, administrators to come in and be a part of the feedback sessions as well.

After going over the expectations and reminding them of our classroom expectations (Communication, Respect, Responsibility) we started the protocol with a group who offered to volunteer.

I have to say that I was really surprised by how well my freshmen went through this activity. I asked each student to participate at least three times in the protocol, which I tallied on a roster for points. I encouraged those who tend to dominate conversation to sit back and be OK with silence so others are encouraged to speak up. The students also had to write down 1 "I like", 1 "I wonder", and 1 "next step for each group that presented; this was another way for me to tally participation. (The template for that piece can be found in this Google Doc titled CFG Feedback Tracker). There is a page with small boxes for each group, and there is a page with larger boxes for the students when their group is in the "presenter" role and needs to take notes of all the feedback they're receiving.

I think most groups received very valuable feedback and suggestions. I even had one student in a group who, during their reflection time in the last round, said, "This made me realize that our group has a lot of struggles to overcome and that we need to use our time more wisely because we have a lot to do."

Here is some feedback from those who came in from outside our classroom to observe and give feedback.

"I thought it was very well organized as far as having established structure which allowed for all sides of the conversation. I enjoyed getting to hear what each group was doing, thought maybe if there could be more input from all the group members (I know that they have a selected facilitator/leader) to round out what the plan/idea was.Overall I was very impressed.  Some of the students who spoke were ones who I would not have expected and they did so enough that it went beyond the 'I just want my participation points' issue."  --Assistant Principal Jon Hutton

"I had a great time in the class just listening to the students plan a lesson for the [elementary schools].  The topic was great as some of the students could also use a few pointers on manners and good behavior.  The pace of the class really surprised me in a good way.  Man you students better be sharp and ready to participate.  I wish more students would have vocalized their thoughts as I saw some great ones written down on paper but not vocalized.  Nice group work with every student having a job to do." -- Math teacher Terry Screeton

"Giving the students an opportunity to discuss this plan amongst their peers and a chance for reflection and suggestions is also a wonderful idea. I was impressed with the participation of many students and how the class as a whole conducted itself.  A couple of students started to add more than a suggestion or two and I would have liked to see others step in and contribute; however, overall it was good. This is a great way to promote confidence with speaking in front of other people and the freedom to express constructive criticism appropriately" -- Counselor Scott Bibler

 Looking back after the conclusion of the project -- 3/12/13: 

 I don't know how to encourage or help students take the feedback they receive from CFGs like this and better apply it to their projects. I also think we should do the CFG earlier in the project timeline...or at least not so close to the final deadline. I think doing the CFG on a block day would be more beneficial because groups would have time after we're finished to decompress and discuss how they're going to change their path and adjust their management logs.

"Digital" Management Log Resource!

Found an awesome resource for taking our "Project Management Logs" (source: bie.org) online! Perfect for going digital next year. I think the kids will really like these and I think this digital version allows for more changes, adjustment, and I can monitor 24/7! There is a "pro" version but the free one seems to work fine as long as students remember to post their links to their Edmodo small groups and write down the links.

http://scrumy.com/Project3Mason 

http://scrumy.com/Project3Mason

9--Project 4--Community Partner Visit

Akron Elementary School Principal Chrissy Mills visited today to talk about the status of character education at the elementary schools, how students are already taught about character through the PBIS program and where the program or students are having difficulties.

She also spend about 10 minutes talking with each group to hear the project pitches, ideas, worries, and struggles. She gave each group valuable feedback that will help them as they move forward with their projects.

12--Project #3: End of Week 1 (K&N2K, starting reading)

So the seniors started the Making Macbeth Modern project his week. We read a brief piece of Taming of the Shrew and then had a discussion about why we fear Shakespeare. I like starting Shakespeare this way because I try to be honest and share with my kids that in college I was TERRIFIED of Shakespeare so I just didn't read it.

Starting out with our fears and how we're going to try to overcome them is important. We also discussed how we can relate to Macbeth we just have to be open to the idea.

Students started reading the first, shortest, and in my opinion easiest part of the story -- Act 1 Scene 1. We discussed how to take notes and I showed them a new way to track characters, mood, setting, and meaning in their notebooks. We read that first section out loud, broke it down, and discussed.

We also used this opportunity to make our Knows & N2Ks list. Here is a picture of what we ended up with on our project poster! This poster is displayed in the classroom throughout the entire project and I try to reference it often.

Knows & N2Ks: 

After launching the project and doing the activity above we discussed what we would know and need to know for this project. Students worked in a think-pair-share environment and I had one student writing our ideas down up at the board. I have to say they came up with multiple things that I wouldn't have thought to put on our list. They really wanted to know about a lot of background on the story (history, lifestyle, etc) that I wouldn't have thought to do a workshop on. Because of this N2K this was one of the first lessons myself and my student teacher did.

I was a little disappointed to still see some of the following N2K comments on students lists in their notebooks:
"Why are we doing this project?"
"What is the point of this?"
I try to take these in stride and keep in mind these were from students who have drifted through school for the past 11 years and are frustrated with the fact that I'm making them think, asking them to go outside of their comfort zone, and asking them to actually do something other than a worksheet.
I addressed these items on an indivudal level by asking the students if we'd already asnwered their questions when we formed our problem statement (PS). When we create a PS as a class we fill in the statement "We as ____what is our title?______ will ______what will we do?_______ so that _____why are we doing this?__________." I asked the students if we'd already outlined that? If they gave input to that discussion? I told them that was their chance to speak up and make meaning out of the project. This usually got them to cross the items of their list or add it to their "Know" column instead.

However, I can see the students same bad attitude at the end of the project with their lack-luster final products. This is just one struggle when it comes to changing the expectations and culture with seniors!

Update: 4/3/13

Looking back on this project I needed to incorporate and revisit the K&N2K list more throughout the project. They had great "Need to Knows" for reading the story and we covered most of them throughout our reading process. Because we didn't revisit the N2K list I think there were many need to knows that had to do with creating their modernizations that I didn't do workshops on. I had them do an exit ticket sharing what workshops they needed rather than coming back to our N2K list. I guess I didn't think to do it as a class since they were all doing very different projects. I think next time I'll have each group create a N2K list on top of our class N2K list, especially once we get to the project creation part of the project.

12--Project #3--Making Macbeth Modern

Today we launched project #3 for the seniors. The base of this project came from the PBLU.org website as I am taking their courses this semester. I chose to adapt the Cyrano's Funk project in a few ways to fit Macbeth.

I think the launch went well....better than expected I have to admit. The seniors seemed engaged and interested especially when we started bringing in and discussing social media.

So to start this project out we went through the following steps: (Any resources mentioned are listed at the end of this post).

Step 1) I gave students a scene from Taming of the Shrew to start our discussion of why we "fear" Shakespeare. They had to annotate the text as they read marking the phrases or words they thought they knew or recognized along with writing their best guess at a meaning. Then they also had to mark the things they didn't understand or recognize. After annotating they had to answer two questions (a) why do we "fear" Shakespeare? What makes it difficult to understand? And (b) What can we do to overcome our fears/obstacles and learn to understand Shakespeare?

Step 2) Upon returning to class students were asked to review their annotations and answers. Then we went through the annotation together on the computer marking everything people understood and didn't understand. We did not really focus on the meaning of the text because that wasn't the intended purpose of the exercise. When we finished we looked at our class annotated text and moved on to answer the two questions and put our "fears" and strategies up on the board. Once discussion started to slow down on the last question I posed a new one. "So, why don't we (yes even me) read Shakespeare in our free time?" And beautifully one student answered,"because we can't relate to it." Perfect transition...

Step 3) After that discussion and getting our lists on the board I challenged the students comment about relating to classic literature, or as they put it "those OLD stories". I told them that's why our goal for this project is going to be to "Modernize Macbeth". I explained that we'd be looking at using various forms of technology to "translate", understand, and adapt/create modern adaptations of Macbeth to share with others and help them understand and relate to the story's themes to modern social issues.

Step 4) After giving them an idea of what we'd be doing I pulled up some examples of modernization on the computer. We looked at a blog post that talks about a Twitter performance of Taming of the Shrew and I showed them Kate's twitter account and we pulled a few lines from Feb 13th that matches up with dialogue in the scene we read. We looked at a blog that is supposed to be written by Juliet and a playlist on GrooveShark that was supposed to be created by Romeo complete with the opening song, "Foxy Lady". This really got the students talking about different types of social media and technology that they might be able to use, which was exciting.


Resources Used: 
Taming of the Shrew on Twitter
Article--http://mybigcampus.com/items/shakespeare-and-twitter-make-an-odd-couple---4795689?u57efbcb0-3a94-0130-4ab8-02aa22cab53c
Katherine--https://twitter.com/ShrewKate

Romeo and Juliet Blog:
http://julietisthesun.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=5

Romeo Montague GrooveShark playlist:
http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Romeo+And+Juliet/61494496

Freshmen Project #3 -- Odysseus: A Man of Character

Project Launch (Entry Event): 

For the entry event for this project we watch the very beginning of The Odyssey movie (available free on YouTube).

Before watching I wrote "Epic Hero" up on the dry erase board and I posed the question, "What makes someone an epic hero?" I told the students that we were heading into reading The Odyssey, which is an epic with an epic hero, named Odysseus. I prompted the students to think about what it means to be a hero. We discussed and bullet point our ideas on the board.

Then I posed the following questions on the board:

• What makes Odysseus an epic hero?
• Why him? What makes him so special?
• What does he do in the beginning of this film that shows us or others that he's a hero?
• What does he say in the beginning of this film that tells us he's a hero?

We watched the beginning of The Odyssey.  (Up to 26:01) Students should've been taking notes in their notebooks by creating a bullet list that focuses on the questions above. They should reference events and/or quotes from the story as they watch Odysseus.

After we stop the film we had a brief circle share about what we saw in the movie. Then I asked students to choose three words they'd use to describe Odysseus using our list on the white board. Then we shared those traits.

This will help us move into a discussion of character and that all heroes should have good character.

The second half of this entry event brings in the modern, authentic element and introduces our community partner.

We'll listen to a podcast about a modern, real life hero named Alex. She's a little girl who had cancer and started "Alex's Lemonade Stand" to raise money for her hospital. After her death it turned into a nationwide organization that raises money for hospitals and kids with cancer.

While they're listening I encouraged them to create a bullet list of "traits" that Alex's possessed (words they'd use to describe her). 

http://www.values.com/inspirational-audio-stories/2-Alexandra-Alex-Scott 

After listening we'll share the traits on a Google Doc on the projector. Then we'll highlight the traits that students also see on their Odysseus list form earlier. This is to show students that character mattered back in the days of Odysseus and it's still important today. I love Alex's story because it really shows that even young kids can be inspirational and teach others what it means to have good character. This will transition us really well into our authentic final product -- teaching the elementary students what it means to have good character.

Character educaiton is one of our pillars in our school corporation and I think my students will really see the purpose and authenticity. The idea of good character can follow through all of our reading, discussion, as well as through the final deliverable.