Making Conncections Across the Grades

This post is a catch up post reflecting on three recent meetings and some of the work that has developed from them.
Last week I met with fifth grade to discuss how to intentionally put into the curriculum cyber safety and citizenship. Originally, I wanted to have the fourth and fifth graders create public service announcements (PSA’s) for the sixth and seventh grade to review and discuss. Middle school students would be given a form to structure feedback. Questions for the student to consider would include:

1. What is the message?
2. Have you ever seen or experienced this before?
3. How have you dealt with this?

As you can see, the goal is more to ignite a conversation. The plan was for the movies to be reviewed throughout the year and feedback given to the fourth and fifth graders. The PSA’s were to add continuous fuel to the conversation. However, there was some feeling that younger students creating for older students could be too much pressure to impress. Also inhibiting the process was the possibility of the older students teasing the younger students. It was suggested that the older students create the movies and have the younger students review the work. I have discussed this some with Roseanne Sessa, who has been working this summer from the middle school perspective. We are looking for the best place to meld this into the middle school curriculum. As I reflected on this, a further concern occurred to me. Younger students creating movies for middle school students, for the most part, will not cross lines of age inappropriateness. However, do we ask the middle school students, if this is in fact the direction we move in, to be aware of the age of their audience? Does this help or hinder the conversation? Also, how will the student feedback form work to spark conversation? Will it work at all? This is an area that I would love any and all feedback, please. If you have an idea, a thought or a suggestion, please post it below so we can all benefit.
We also discussed the most natural fit for cyber safety and citizenship. This needs to be an ongoing conversation so both wellness and social studies were identified as areas this discussion could fit in. Speaking of social studies, we talked about what technology would further student learning. Jane and Anne plan to do government first, so we will be looking intently at campaign advertisements in print and on the screen. This is a perfect place to weave in media literacy. Since the elections will be happening at the same time students are studying government we will be able to gather real time information about the process and how this affects the students.
Anne and Jane are also exploring the use of a blog for student writing. As earlier posts have indicated, this is becoming more of a common tool throughout AFS. For instance sixth grade social studies is planning on using a social network to gather information for the students on what they are learning. Embedded in this network will be blogs. One of the purposes of the blog is for students to have a place to go for big ideas that have been developed. Students will take turns as the class scribe, responsible for collecting and posting notes. Another use is for the students to work in discussion groups, with one person responsible for summarizing the group’s posts.
If fifth grade incorporates the blog as well, we are adding another scaffold to the process. But what is really great about this whole process is that second grade wants the students to have more of a voice in their classroom blogs. With this in mind the teachers are going to write blog posts with the students, beginning as a whole class activity. Students actively participate in their blog while learning how to write for a larger audience. This is exciting because we are beginning to see this writing form develop across the curriculum and the grades. Creating blogs as a class is a perfect modeling of the skill while having a chance to actively participate. Since the three classes mentioned are using the blogs for different purposes, students coming up the grades will be able to see the tool from different perspectives.
Second grade is also planning on doing a Community unit with a Jenkintown focus. This dovetails nicely with the government unit fifth grade wants to do, also within Jenkintown. Second grade would still prefer not to use Twitter however, would like to follow another second grade class blog. I have developed connections in New Zealand and British Columbia and will be able to help establish that connection.
A new unit for second grade is the History of Communication. Sandy, Jeanne and Betsy plan to explore with the students how communication has changed throughout the years and the effects of the changing communication. This is a developing unit that has a lot of potential for teaching media literacy.
I had the opportunity to work again with Andrea about the third grade and the work that has happened thus far this summer. As I stated in an earlier post, the six areas of technology that are happening in the school, was a larger part of our discussion.
We also talked about third grade specifically. Cyber citizenship and safety are an important part of the curriculum in third grade for me. This is a time when students will transition into becoming much more independent school netizens
At a previous meeting with both Andrea and Felix we also discussed creating a PowerPoint for their animal research projects, and using iMovie again for Family History.
This summer is quickly winding down. Connections and opportunities are beginning to show. I am starting to have a better understanding of where we have the opportunity to create transformative moments using technology. We aren’t there yet, but it is on the horizon.

Beginning to Synthesize

The summer is already coming to an end and here I am feeling unfinished.  Three weeks spent working, reading, studying, meeting with teachers and administrators not to mention all the time put in both before and after the official three weeks from home. And still I feel as though I am only just beginning to establish a cohesive picture of what technology education looks like from kindergarten through eighth grade at AFS.  

This fellowship started with two major goals: map where we are and define where we want to go. I definitely have a better picture in lower school as to what is happening in almost every grade.  There remain holes, even at this late hour mostly because one to two hour conversations barely allow us to peek into the world of the students as they process across a year at any level.  In middle school, the many teachers that are actually part of the student’s educational journey in one week let alone the whole three years further complicate this.  However, together we have created at least an outline of the tools used by the students and teachers in all grades. I know they are not yet all published. All maps will be available, hopefully before the end of the summer.

From this research of current practice, coupled with conversations with teachers, reading and studying across the web I have developed an outline of the six major ways technology is integrated throughout the curriculum.  This is an unfinished work in progress and will be continually updated. The goal is to eventually have this information for all grades defined in one space attached to a calendar. This will allow us to easily see the progression of our students, educational career.  This is not a map of 21^st century skills but instead specific to technology although 21^st century skills are naturally embedded, they do not live here alone.

The schema delineates six areas of technology in our curriculum:

1.     Digital Citizenship and Safety

2.     Media Literacy

3.     Internet Research

4.     Software Proficiency

5.     Programming

6.     Keyboarding

Most of this was already in the curriculum, such as the Internet Research, Programming (Scratch) and Software Proficiency.  However, as there are no longer any formed tech classes there is a need to know where the skills are being embedded into the curriculum and what teachers can reasonably expect their students to be able to do when they come into their classes. Other skills such as Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship will need to have an intentional and spiraling focus through out the life of the student as they progress through the years. As I said in an earlier post, I felt this was a glaring omission and one I would like to fix.

There are other ways of approaching the curriculum that are not listed here, including e learning or learning online, design and gaming.  I thought that we should start with what we are doing and where we can move reasonably in the next few years.  For now these skills, as well as others live under other headings including Media Literacy and Software Proficiency.  As we continue to grow as a school this map will adapt to grow with us.

On a personal note, I know that I have not been so prolific a writer as of late and there have been several meetings and progress that has not been noted.  I hope to catch up over the next week before I go away with my family. I appreciate your support and patience as I work through this process over the next few weeks and the upcoming school year.