Making complex arguments

For the past week students have been debating whether the Khmer Rouge and the U.S. committed acts of terrorism between 1969-1975 in Cambodia. The location and facts are not the key point here as students could just as easily discuss the legality of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan although Cambodia is the focus of the book they just finished call Never Fall down. The skill I want them to practice is the act of developing a complex argument.



In class, students wrote out charts explaining their thinking and then wrote reports that put their thoughts in paragraph form. While essay writing is not as sexy as tweeting, I believe the act of writing is deeply linked to the act of thinking, and students benefit from the practice of putting their words on the page. The final step in this process was to vlog their opinion, something I learned about during a session at the Schools of the Future Conference.



"Vlogging" stands for video blogging and it involves students filming themselves or something they draw while they explain their point. It is an excellent practice in delivery, as many students may have job interviews in the future via skype. The recording also provides a format for students to view one another's work and comment on it, providing an excellent feedback loop.

Politics in the U.S.

Students are learning about the U.S. political system by examining several bills designed to take money out of politics. During our meeting at the capitol building with Common Cause Hawaii, students learned how financing takes up much of legislators time and prevents them from working with their constituents more directly.

 

The students took notes about three bills (the clean elections act, the fair elections now act, and the tranceparency bill which recently became a law) all aimed at creating more equitable elections between contestants.

Students are now working on creating infographics that will explain these bills to the average teenager. In teams this week they drafted their ideas for the images of their infographics.

MPX10 students are also cruising through the novel Never Fall Down--I've assigned though chapter 8 and several told me they already finished it!

 

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Personal interest projects

A teaching mentor once told me that you lose student’s engagement as soon as you tell them what you are going to do for the year. They didn’t choose it, so why should they care? They will go through the motions, but the heart is missing.

This year, with the personal interest project, my co-collaborator Mr. Hines and I are trying to give ownership of some of the content back to the students.

Students select an essential question to explore such as “how can I teach electromagnetism to elementary school kids?” or “How could I demonstrate my knowledge of U.S. history in the form of a novel?” and spend the semester creating a project that effectively answers that question.

Empowered by this ownership, students are often enthusiastic, but suddenly dwarfed by the enormity of the task ahead. Mr. Hines and I are regularly reminded that the difference between a great idea failing or succeeding is scaffolding. We try to provide this in the following ways:

1. Provide clear rubrics of project expectations.

2. Indicate draft deadlines that lead up to project deadlines.

3. Chunk the project down into several steps.

This is surprisingly difficult to do as each project is unique and requires a different series of sub tasks. As students get a period a week to work on their self-designed projects in each of our classes, they get feedback from both of us on their projects as they develop. It is scary as a teacher to give up this much class time to completely self-directed student projects, but students regularly report that this is the most meaningful work for them because they chose it.

Ethan getting excited about rubrics cubes

 

 

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