How Do I Love Thee: A Synthesis in Three Parts

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Use 7 creative tools to help engage students, promote higher order thinking, and add to your own understanding. Visit: msmacs.blogspot.com

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In the book Sparks of Genius, the authors, Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, present a multitude of tools to help develop creativity. These tools include reimaging, perceiving, patterning, abstracting, embodied thinking, modeling, playing, and synthesizing. All of these tools can be used not only to foster creativity but also to deepen understanding. All of these tools should be used in today’s classrooms to engage students and promote higher level thinking skills. Furthermore, educators should use these tools to help deepen their own understanding of the subject matter and bring more cross-curriculum lessons into their classrooms.

After working with each of these tools over the course of the semester, it is quite evident why educators should be implementing them in their classroom. First of all, these creativity tools are excellent ways to engage students and keep them interested in the content material. When we as teachers ask students to think about a concept in a new and meaningful way, we are more apt to capture their attention, cause them to think critically and lead them towards a deeper understanding. This principle is quite evident in my experience using embodied thinking to teach about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement. While I had taught my students about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights movement, it was not until we took a field trip to the Henry Ford Museum where my students could sit in the actual seat Ms. Parks sat in that they truly understood her. Prior to the trip, many still clung to the misconception that she refused to give up her seat because she was tired. However, when they themselves had to give up their seat for new students getting on the bus, they began to empathize with Ms. Parks and understand the humiliation that came along with segregation.

Other tools, like reimaging and perception, can also have huge impacts on student engagement. Reimaging allows students to look at the familiar through a new perspective. Students spend time observing and really thinking about what that topic looks, sounds, moves, acts, feels, smells, and tastes like. Teaching students good observation skills can also enhance their abilities to describe. Once they have completed their observation, they can then reimagine or reimage the topic. During my focus on rights, I focused on the Bill of Right, which is a long and complicated document important to our nation’s government and history. If we plug the text into Wordle, we now have a different perception of the Bill of Rights.


Wordle generates word clouds from text that the user inputs. The more often a particular word is used in a passage of text, the larger it will appear in the word cloud. Once you have a visual aid of how often certain words might be used over and over again, students can think about its importance within the text. You can even take it a step further and have students think about their understanding of the word and how it might be different now that they see how often it is used and how important it is to the document. Students can also be asked to predict what words will be the largest in the word cloud. Even if they are not able to accurately predict which words are the largest, knowing what words they think will be the largest can be a valuable tool for teachers to help assess misconceptions and correct them. Students can also use this tool to judge the accuracy of their own observation and perception. Being faced with the reality that they may make incorrect observations can be very powerful to students.

Once students have seen the importance of good observation, you can build on that skill by teaching them about patterns. Patterns are everywhere and can easily be found if we open our eyes and use good observation. Often time in Social Studies courses we focus too much on history as the underlying pattern in the concept. What can we learn from the past? What pattern do we not want to have repeated? Often times, we overlook other patterns that exist that connect the difficult and more abstract concepts, like the one I chose for this project: rights. We can easily describe rights and many governments have a written list of basic rights and/or rights guaranteed by the government. But how can you show a pattern in rights? One way to "see" a world-wide pattern is through the use of maps. Looking at political and demographic statistics on maps, we can find patterns. For example, if you compare a map of government types to a map that depicts the Freedom of Press Index you can see that countries with strong central governments like military dictatorships and absolute monarchies have a poor ranking on the Freedom of Press Index.

As an educator if we start to point out and reveal patterns to our students, they are more likely to start looking for the patterns themselves. I easily found four patterns within my maps in my original posting. When I presented the information to students, I challenged them to find more patterns. I was amazed how many they found as a class and how easily the discussion flowed. Students suggested ideas and then discussed whether or not it could be considered a pattern. Most importantly, understanding the patterns and the connections can help students understand the turmoil and chaos that we see in the world today and reflect on how those patterns reflect in the content that they are learning.

Another creative tool that is highly engaging is play. Play is not just for young children and can be a wonderful teaching tool for complicated concepts and tasks. Play is very important for the learner because it allows them to work through new ideas and concepts without the extreme consequences that they might have in the real world. The students feel the some of the same pressures to perform, but the mistakes are not as costly. Thus, the learners feel safe and more trusting in play scenarios. Play keeps interests sparked and allows learners to become more creative. I have used play in my classroom in the form of mock crime scene investigations and mock trials. Students learn the process through which suspects are accused and processed through the court system by playing roles that include the detective, the prosecutor, the defense attorney, the judge, the jury, etc. Play is not limited to a mock trial. It can take many forms in a variety of subject matters. In my own classroom, I am excited to try out a play scenario where students are asked to make huge decisions such as whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II or how to respond to potential homeland security threats.

Many of the tools presented by the Root-Bernsteins can and should be used together. For example, we need to have good observation and perception skills to recognize and develop patterns. To make an accurate, helpful model we also need good observation, perception, and patterning skills. We might even need to call upon abstraction skills to make a model. Take the double helix model of DNA. It is a model of something that is just too small for us to see. But to represent its shape and the patterns of the sugar-phosphates and the bases that make up a strand of DNA, the model’s creators had to be able to imagine an abstract illustration of what those components would look like and how they would be arranged.

While all the creativity skills can and should be used with students, they should also be used by teachers to help deepen their own professional understanding of their content. Abstracting is the act of taking a complicated subject matter and stripping away all other details to focus on one important characteristic of that subject. In a way, it is asking someone to describe or represent a complicated issue or topic in a simple way. Abstracting can be very difficult. It is a process of looking for only the essential qualities of something as a way to define it or describe it. By thinking about and creating abstractions for concepts as teachers, we force ourselves to decide what the essential parts of the concept are. That discovery can help us as teachers streamline our teaching and focus it in a more controlled way. Too often teachers get overwhelmed with teaching to the standards and benchmarks, causing them to miss the essential aspects of the topic. If teachers focus on the essentials, they will leave students with a well thought out overall picture of the topic. As a bonus learning to abstract as a teacher means you can teach your students how to abstract in the classroom. Abstracting can be used as a discussion starter for a class to help teachers see what their students already know about a subject. Teachers can also have students create abstractions and reflect on them as a way to demonstrate their understanding, rather than use a traditional test.

As a final point, it is important for teachers to use these creative tools as a way to foster higher level thinking in their classrooms. Higher level thinking skills are the skills that are needed and desired in today’s work place. Employers are not interested in rote memorization and regurgitation. They are looking for employees who can think creatively and find solutions to real world problems. Higher order thinking skills allow students to be able to comprehend and utilize new knowledge to address problems and projects in the future. In other words we can not possibly teach students everything they need to know for the rest of their lives, but we can teach them skills to help them acquire new information, sort through it, and use that information to make well thought out and sound decisions in the future. The same of course can go for teachers and educators. We did not learn everything we needed to know in our high school and college careers. Teachers should use these tool to nurture their understanding of the curriculum they teach and to spark new ideas and new connections with it. As always, a teacher’s learning should be perpetual.

In summary, the seven creative tools highlighted by the Root-Bernsteins in their book, Sparks of Genius, can have many positive effects on teachers and their students. If used properly, tools like perceiving, patterning, abstracting, embodied thinking, modeling, playing, and synthesizing, can both engage students and promote higher level thinking skills. Teachers can also use these tools to further their own understanding and continue to look at their material and curriculum through a fresh, creative perspective.

Play

Play is an essential tool in learning for every individual.  When you are an infant, much of what you learn is through play.  You learn object permanence through the play of the game Peek-a-boo.  Children play and practice manners and chores when they "play house".  The importance of rules and many math concepts are also learned through board games.  I first learned to budget by playing games like Monopoly and Life as a child.

Play also no knows no age limit.  Even adults learn through play.  Many games shows, like Jeopardy for example, are geared towards adults.  Many professional programs, from law school to med school also use play.  Law students play in their mock trials and mock juries.  Many medical programs use role play and run their med students through pretend scenarios like breaking tough news to patients to treating pretend patients.  Some programs even use highly sophisticated dummies and robots to mimic patient symptoms and reactions as part of this play.

Play is very important for the learner because it allows them to work through new ideas and concepts without the extreme consequences that they might have in the real world.  In the med student scenario, for example, their mistake in the play scenario could ultimately cost a real patient their life.  The students feels the some of the same pressures to perform, but the mistakes are not as costly.  Thus, the learners feel safe and more trusting in play scenarios.  Play keeps interests sparked and allows learners to become more creative.

Each year, usually before a holiday break, I use play scenarios with my students.  They are excellent ways to burn off built up energy and excitement while still learning.  This year, I have planned to use two play scenarios together to teach students about rights.

The first play scenario is that of crime scene investigation.  Years ago, I found a crime scene investigation webquest created by a group of Michigan State students.  The webquest sets up the details of a crime scene and has students work through the evidence and (hopefully) determine which suspect(s) committed the crime.  In past years, I have not been able to use the webquest the way it is set up either because it is blocked on school computers or because the computer lab has not been available.  Thus, I usually end up providing the information to students in a presentation or we go through a packet of information as a group.  We then look at the pictures and evidence via overhead or digital projector and then I ask students to work through the evidence as if they were the detective.  They must pretend that they are responsible for figuring out who killed the victims.  Students always get excited about this project and really get into the play scenarios. 


We completed this initial play scenario prior to the Thanksgiving break.  My students worked in teams/groups.  In each group, one student was designated as a detective in charge of interviewing suspects.  Another was in charge of sketching the crime scene.  Another was in charge of reviewing the physical evidence.  Many students fought over this because it was like watching an episode of CSI.  Then as a group they had to discuss the evidence they each had, decide who they believed the killer(s) was/were, and present their findings.

I will then continue the play scenario with a mock trial.  In class we will review the steps related to arrests and trials.  We will also review the rights of the accused and how those rights are guaranteed by the constitution.  We will reference the concept map from my modeling post and use that to guide us in the direction of our play.  I will then ask students to act out various parts of the process.  The detective, for example, will act out the arrest, making sure to read Miranda rights.  Students will also be split into teams of prosecution and defense.  They will prepare and deliver opening arguments.  They will prepare witness lists and ask for evidence to be admitted into trial.  Both prosecution and defense will examine witnesses on the stand.  Some students will have to role play as witnesses.  One student will play the judge.  Some students will play jury members.  I am looking forward to the students acting out the questioning and the cross examinations in the court room.  And students of course will have to decided if the suspects/accused will exercise their 5th Amendment rights or if they will get on the stand in their own defense.

Mock trials are an excellent example of play.  They allow students to see what the trial process would be like.  They will also be able to role play in the safe environment of the classroom.  Furthermore, students will have to think critically and use their analytical skills as they play through this scenario. I am look forward to the end result.

Below is a picture of another class's mock trial so that you can visualize the play scenario.  It comes from the blog of a school in New York: http://blog.ps119amersfort.com/?p=1099

How Do I Love Thee: Modeling

Modeling is the act of creating something to represent a complex object or idea. At the very basic level, modeling is constructing a miniature version of an object as way to better understand that object. For example, people build model planes, model cars, and models of buildings. The act of creating these models helps the learner understand more about the actual or in some cases, full-size, object. However, modeling can go far beyond making a smaller version of a large object. In some cases, we might make a larger version of a very small object. Take the double helix model of DNA. We can create a physical representation of DNA that represents the sugar-phosphates and the bases that make up a strand of DNA. As described by the Root-Bersteins, the double-helix model is "physical embodiment of something that is simply to small to see." (239) From this model, the learner can see what we cannot normally see: the structure of DNA and how its components fit together. That is main idea behind modeling: to represent how something works, looks, or perhaps, fits together.

Models of all kinds represent the original object, usually in a way that makes that object more accessible to the viewer/learner. For example, I obviously can't have the Titanic at my disposal any time I would like. It is a massive ship that is at the bottom of the Atlantic. But I can learn more about the Titanic with a model. By looking at a model of the ship I can see what it would have looked like and how the iceberg might have damaged the ship. If I build the model myself, and go one step further, I will have a better understanding of the spatial relationships on board. I would have a better understanding how small a room in steerage was compared to that of someone traveling in first class.

Other models, may not be physical embodiments of the original. In other words, not all models are objects that we can reach out and touch. Sometimes they are diagrams, such as a diagram of an atom. Sometimes they might be virtual, like a flight simulator or a training program for police officers to run through life-like weapons scenarios. Furthermore, they might simply be representational in a more abstract way.

For example, my content area that I have been focusing on over the course of the semester has been rights and freedom. But how do you build a model of somethttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhing you can not see, touch, taste, or smell? In this case, I created a model of freedom and rights in the United States by using a concept map. A concept map is a model in the sense that it represents the components of the original and helps the learner understand how its parts fit together and how ideas are connected.



To view the concept map as a webpage, click: http://www.gliffy.com/publish/3083436/

The above model shows depicts some of the key components of rights and freedoms in the United States: civil liberties and due process. The concept map then goes on to show the connections to the U.S. constitution. While this concept map does not show all rights and freedoms in the U.S., it does indicate how rights and freedoms are directly related to the Bill of Rights and the subsequent amendments to the constitution. To fully understand due process, I found a concept map that shows the complexities of due process in the judicial system. The diagram below was created by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and goes a long way to show how complicated this system is:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif


This image can also be viewed at:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/largechart.cfm

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cjsflowco.svg





Without these models, students can read about these rights and freedoms, but might not fully understand the interconnectedness of them. If given the time, one could even add pictures to either concept map, to show examples of each detail. For example, suffrage could be represented by an image of a voting booth while the 4th Amendment might be represented with an image of a police search or warrant.

Models are an excellent way to represent something that is much larger, either in size or in idea, to make it more accessible to the learner. Models help us to think about their original or their muse in a deeper fashion. Finally, we should strive to model more, as modeling is a higher order of thinking and requires the use of observation, spatial understanding, and patterns.

Embodied Thinking

One of the best ways to understand history and other subjects in Social Studies is through embodied thinking.  It is a vital way to understand new ideas and concepts at a deeper level.  It can involve kinesthetic thinking and emphasizing.  Kinesthetic thinking is thinking with your body.  It can range from thinking and explaining through movement (such as a dance) to tapping into sensations associated with something (how something feels, smells, etc) to connecting to the feelings (like tension or stress) one has with an experience.  Empathizing on the other hand is the act of thinking through and understanding what it would be like to be in someone else's position or perhaps to imagine yourself as the thing you are studying.

Empathizing is critical to many subjects in social science.  It can help historians understand the reasoning behind critical decisions made by leaders.  It can also help them to understand what it would have been like to live in a certain time period and understand what the social climate was like at that time.  Empathizing is also critical in terms of government and civics.  When politicians make decisions, they must be able to empathize with those who will be directly affected by those decisions.  The same concept goes for voters.  For example, take the upcoming election.  Many communities are voting on millages and tax increases to keep services like police and fire.  As they weigh their decision, they will first think about the affect on their budget.  Next they will think about what would happen if they themselves might have an emergency.  They might also consider how their neighbors would be affected.  They might even consider the jobs of the officers and firefighters.  Voters who empathize have a better understanding of their role in the larger community.

In the classroom, it can be very advantageous to have students do kinesthetic thinking and empathizing.  When teaching concepts like rights and freedom, there are many ways to get students into this line of thinking. On a field trip to the Henry Ford Museum, my students used kinesthetic thinking and empathizing to relate to Rosa Parks and develop a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement.  On display at the museum is the actual bus from the incident that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  It is open for visitors to climb on board and get a feel for what it was like to ride the bus. Once on the bus, many of my students asked to seat in the very seat Rosa Parks had sat in.  We even took pictures to recreate the famous editorial picture of the event.

While on the bus, a larger group came on, forcing those students who were not already in the back to have to move to the back.  Here they moved out of social etiquette to give others the chance to experience the bus.  But the physical act of moving to accommodate someone else, sparked an understanding in students.  They went from having the misconception that Rosa Parks had remained seated out of laziness to having an understanding of why refusing to move not only made a statement but might also have given her some personal satisfaction.  Now, I should note that we reviewed the event prior to the field trip.  But when we returned to school and I prompted a discussion, the first thing my students were quick to say was how they did not want to have to move to the back and how they related to Ms. Parks in that very instant.  I also used this field trip for a digital storytelling project in CEP800, as you can see in the video below:

Students were able to feel the seat on the bus.  They could get a sense of their proximity to the front and to the back.  They were able to see how she actually was already in the "colored section".  When the new group of students arrived, they were then able to experience the physical movement.  I asked them later to imagine themselves back on the bus as I described the scene again to them, having them think about the heat, the long work day, the history of discrimination that came before it as they sat in that seat on the bus.  This was all kinesthetic thinking.  Then in the discussion that followed, they were able to empathize with Rosa Parks all on their own.  The discussion we were having quickly went from praising Rosa Parks to students sharing "If that was me" statements.  I was surprised how even my toughest kids with the big egos, admitted that they would be nervous to do what she did, explaining that the fear of retaliation from whites would have overpowered them. 

After we left the bus we continued to explore the civil rights exhibit.  My camera died just as we made it to the "White Waiting Room" and the drinking fountains for Whites Only and Colored Only.  I was able to get on picture of the waiting room.  We staged this of course, talking about the irony of it.  My students were so disappointed that I could not take pictures of them drinking out of the "Whites Only" drinking fountain.

My students, who were primarily African American, had much to say and the comments were free flowing at this point. I knew the trip was a success even before we held our discussions back at school.  They were empathizing with those who had lived during that time period and thinking about how they would have felt to have been in their shoes.


That field trip was more powerful than any lesson I could have given on the subject and I hope I get to experience that true depth of learning with my students at least one more time in my career.   I say that not because I don't feel I teach well or that my students aren't learning.  But to accurately describe how incredible that experience was for both me and my students is just not possible.  In fact, if I could edit that digital storytelling project (other than the corrections I would make on the explanation of the pedagogy and as well as many other edits), I would add a slide at the end saying:  "This lesson brought to you by embodiment and empathizing" like the end of an episode of Sesame Street.

How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting

Abstracting is the act of taking a complicated subject matter and stripping away all other details to focus on one important characteristic of that subject. In a way, it is asking someone to describe or represent a complicated issue or topic in a simple way. Abstracting can be very difficult. It is a process of looking for only the essential qualities of something as a way to define it or describe it. Try thinking about how to abstract something complicated like justice or beauty. There is an infinite number of ways to abstract justice or beauty. The wonderful part is that there is no wrong answer and no wrong representation. The key to abstraction and the benefit of abstract is the thinking that goes behind it and the learning that occurs as a result of it.

For this series of assignments, I have been focusing on rights.  It has also been a topic that we have been discussing quite a bit the last week in my classes.  We recently had a student bring a gun to school.  As part of the discussion about the incident I had with my students, we talked a lot about rights and freedoms, the importance of those rights and freedoms, when you loose those rights and freedoms, and how those rights and those freedoms are maintained.

When you think about freedom, many ideas will pop into the mind.  For Americans, it can be easily abstracted as symbols of freedom in the United States such as the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.  The Star Spangled Banner actually started as a poem titled Defense of Fort McHenry written by Francis Scott Key, a witness to the British bombardment on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.

From this famous poem we now have key principles like "land of the free" and "home of the brave".  Once it was set to music, the first stanza of the poem became our national anthem, and when played, gives Americans the sense of freedom and pride in that freedom. Here it is played by The U.S. Army Band, under the direction of Colnel L. Bryan Shelburn:


http://www.thenationalanthemproject.org/sounds/Sing%20America%2001.mp3

Some might be interested in a vocal abstraction of the piece:


See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.


Or perhaps you might prefer the Jimi Hendrix abstraction:


Though, maybe fr some, the national anthem does not fully depict the essential aspects of freedom.One cannot fully understand freedom without understanding the lack of it.  Therefore, we might think of freedom when we see images of chains and shackles broken and images representing release.  All of these images below evoke the strong sense that now that freedom has been obtained, there is now the option of choice.

Freedom can also be abstracted in poetry.  Below is an acrostic poem I wrote.  I tried to include as many of the essential characteristics of freedom that I could think of.  Disclaimer: I do not proclaim it to be good poetry.)


          Free to think, say, or do what we choose
          Rights that are protected by others
          Every person deserves it
          Equality for all
          Democracy for all
          Opportunities for all
          Many died to preserve it for us



Perhaps we can abstract freedom in another way by depicting another essential aspect of freedom: its importance.  Freedom is so important to us that we celebrate those who serve us to protect that freedom and we lament the loss of those who die for that freedom.  Below are pictures my husband, a police officer, took at another officer's funeral who had died in the line of duty.  (I wrestled here with which pictures to use.  There were some extremely heart wrenching ones that would have had a deeper impact, though I did not want to use them out of respect for this family.)  These images and each funeral he has attended over the years reminds the two of us of how precious that freedom is that so many others are willing to risk their lives to protect it.

Finally, to end this on a lighter note, I would like to share one last thing: a video on freedom from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. This video is a spoof on "Freedom Packages" offered by the United States to other countries uses abstractions. The video itself is an abstraction of infomercials, keeping the key elements of an excited host or announcer with a headset on. Further along we see more abstractions. Notice that Sudan is represented by a bowl of sand; Egypt is represented by the bowl of sand with a pyramid on top; and Iraq is represented by the bowl of sand with oil on top. Not accurate representations, but commentary on how they believe the United States or perhaps Americans view these countries. Finally, the entire video represents the comedians' abstractions on American foreign policy. It strips away all of the complicated details related to foreign relations, revealing a simplistic view on how the United States deals with freedom and rights of citizens in other countries. Political commentary after all is naturally an abstraction that focuses on one important aspect and leaving the complicated details out of the explanation.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Resources:

1. Image, Defense of Fort McHenry by Francis Scott Key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Fort_McHenry
2. Star Spangled Banner, as played by the U.S. Army Band under the direction of Colnel L. Bryan Shelburn: http://www.thenationalanthemproject.org/sounds/Sing%20America%2001.mp3
3. Vocal of Star Spangled Banner: http://teachertube.com/members/music.php?music_id=6872&title=Star_Spangled_Banner___Full_Performance
4. Jimi Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L3JbKimTdMg
5. Image, Celebrating Our Freedom: http://www.saralandchristians.com/featured/celebrating-freedom/
6. Image, Broken egg, http://gargarita.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/libertate/freedom-2/
7. Image, Broken handcuffs: http://www.wednesdaynightservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Broken_Handcuffs.jpg 
8. Police Officer Funeral images, used with consent from Michael Jain
9. Video, America's Freedom Packages, The Daily Show:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-21-2011/america-s-freedom-packages

How Do I Love Thee: Patterning

What do you call a cow with no legs?

The answer: Ground Beef!

Based on the previous joke, you might be able to guess the answer to another joke. What do yo call a cow with two legs?

Lean beef! (Sorry no picture this time!)

The opening of the Chapter Six in Sparks of Genius by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein reminded me of these corny jokes my father used to tell. The fact is though, once you notice a pattern, you can learn and predict a great deal from it. How we dress for the day based on how the weather looks outside is a result of patterns. Knowing how your boss will react to a new problem is a result of learning from patterns. Learning a new way to multiply by nines or twelves is the result of patterns. Patterns are vital to our everyday life and they are a key to learning from the world around us.

Often time in Social Studies courses we focus too much on history as the underlying pattern in the concept. What can we learn from the past? Often times, we overlook other patterns that exist that connect the difficult and more abstract concepts, like the one I chose for this project: rights. We can easily describe rights and many governments have a written list of basic rights and/or rights guaranteed by the government. But how can you show a pattern in rights? One way to "see" a world-wide pattern is through the use of maps.

Below is a map showing the different forms of government throughout world.

via chartsbin.com

On the map, we see all types of governments from Full Presidential Republics (like the United States) to military dictatorships (like Libya, Niger, Mauritania, and Burma) to one party states (like China). Not only can you think about the patterns in where the different types of government are found and link it to the history of each country and even more specifically the history of exploration and colonization,, you can also look for how these forms of governments reveal a link to a pattern in different rights.

Take freedom of speech for example. If you were to walk into any high school classroom and ask for the class to name the American Bill of Rights, the most popular response would be freedom of speech, just one portion of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Teenagers love to exercise this right and can easily relate to it. So lets compare freedom of speech and press to types of government. Below is a map of the World Press Freedom Index:


via chartsbin.com 
(Click the Key button to lower or raise the map's key/legend.)

Right away, you might notice that Burma and Libya, two of the military dictatorships listed previously, are ranked the worst for freedom of press ("Very serious situation" on the map's key).  One might also notice that Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, is ranked this poorly as well.

But does the pattern always hold true?  Where would you expect the United States to fall?  Did you expect it to have the best rating and the most freedom of press?  Were you surprised that we were only given a satisfactory rating?  And you would expect countries with Presidential Republics, a system we have in the U.S., to have similar ratings of at least a satisfactory situation.  This does not seem to hold true, especially when you look at South American and African countries with Presidential Republics.  While patterns can help us link important ideas, we must know their limitations.   They are not always the rule but can provide important insights.

We often associate rights with freedom.  The more rights you have, the more freedom you have.  (Another pattern.)  Now let us compare what we have learned so far to a map of "Freedom in the World" which looks at political rights and civil liberties:

via chartsbin.com

Here we see a map that reflects patterns that we see in history and we see in the current events throughout the world:  the United States, Canada, and most of Europe and South America are considered free.  Areas that are rich in a history of conflict are not free, such as many countries in Africa and Asia.  Now let's look at the same data in a different form:

Now we see that the countries that are free or partly free are considered electoral democracies, or countries that have governments founded on the principle that elected officials represent the people. By this definition, the electoral democracies would be the presidential republics, presidential-parliamentary systems, parliamentary republics, and constitutional monarchies we saw in the first map. Thus we can see a link but we also see exceptions to the pattern: not all presidential and parliamentary systems provide their citizens with rights.

Finally one more connection to make and one more pattern to bring to light. Are rights connected to peace? If you lack rights, are you more likely to have conflict in your country? Compare this map to the map above on freedom:


via chartsbin.com

You see again that Africa and Asia, areas of the world that are known for civil war, conflict, and terrorism, are the same regions with a low or very low peace index.  You can of course, look country by country and compare.  You could even look at each country's individual history and link it to it's peace index rating.

Patterns are everywhere.  Understanding the patterns and the connections can help us understand the turmoil that we see in the world today.  You can even choose to look for the patterns that show us that the glass is indeed half-full and see the positive patterns that are happening around the world.  The important thing is that we open our eyes, start seeing those connections, and find those patterns!

Citations and Resources:

1. Ground Beef picture courtesy of: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2432588
2. Systems of Government by Country Map: ChartsBin.com, http://chartsbin.com/view/6kx.
3. World Press Freedom Index: ChartsBin.com, http://chartsbin.com/view/1329
4. Freedom in the World Map: ChartsBin.com, http://chartsbin.com/view/1250.
5. Global Peace Index Map, ChartsBin.com, http://chartsbin.com/view/1529

How Do I Love Thee: Perception – Reflection

Perception is vital to creating understanding. As described by Robert and Michele Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, “All knowledge begins in observation. We must be able to perceive our world accurately to be able to discern patterns of action, abstract their principles, make analogies between properties of things, create models of behaviors, and innovate fruitfully.” (30) We cannot make connections to the past, to our present, or to our future without observation and perception. Nor can we make connections from one discipline to another. Finally, we cannot foster true understanding without making observations in what we are doing, whether it be performing an experiment or reading a historical document.

A huge challenge that I face with my students in any of my Social Studies classes is reading comprehension, especially of primary documents. Though I have been working with students to improve their comprehension and vocabulary, they spend so much time trying to decipher and decode text, that they miss the important concepts within the text. They don’t take the time or perhaps never even get a chance to observe the connections and the patterns within the reading. Thus, when I started thinking about how the Bill of Rights might be perceived by my students, I started thinking about the important and repeated concepts that they might overlook trying to comprehend the text. In other words, they would be so intent on learning the vocabulary within the text, they might not observe the ideas and concepts that are continually repeated throughout.

That is why I decided to use Wordle to create a visual representation of the Bill of Rights. (There is a link to the Wordle I created in the previous post.)

Wordle generates word clouds from text that the user inputs. The more often a particular word is used in a passage of text, the larger it will appear in the word cloud. For my students that would mean being able to see all of the repeated words and concepts that they might not of observed while they were busy trying to define and understand the vocabulary. Showing this resource to students even just one time can be a valuable tool. Once you realize how often certain words might be used over and over again, you can think about why and what are the different connections to the word or concept within different parts of the text. You can even take it a step further and think about your understanding of the word and how it might be different now that you see how often it is used and how important it is to the document. Students can also be asked to predict what words will be the largest in the word cloud. Even if they are not able to accurately predict which words are the largest, knowing what words they think will be the largest can be a valuable tool for teachers to help assess misconceptions and correct them.

There are many different ways that I could have re-imaged the Bill of Rights. I had thought about creating a video with images that might represent the Bill of Rights. I had even thought of collecting sounds that might be associated with the Bill of Rights. However, I wanted to create something that would have the largest shock factor with my students and something that would connect with their struggles with comprehension. I plan on using it for a writing exercise this upcoming week and look forward to the outcomes.

< P . E . R . C . E . P . T . I . O . N >

Below is my perception of rights, or more specifically, the Bill of Rights. Click the image to see the larger version on Wordle.

Veja Du Reveal

I guess I made mine a little too easy.  Everyone was right!  It was a straw carousel/straw holder.

Thanks for all the responses!

Content Area Topic

This year, in my content area, I currently teach U.S. History, World History, Economics, and Government along with three courses in science (which are not my content area/certification).

For the assignments in CEP 818, I would like to focus on rights as my content area topic.  This could be rights of a U.S. citizen (which would relate to my U.S. History and Government students) or perhaps rights of people in other countries and at different times (which I could relate to my World History students.

I hope this topic is broad enough to work, yet not too broad.  Any thoughts?

Véjà Du

CEP 800 - Lesson Plan Reflection

Lesson Plan Reflection

To recap: I currently teach in the Alternative Education department for my school district.  Recently, my district has switched from PLATO to Compass Learning as a more cost-effective way to provide online classes to use in the Alternative Ed program, the Credit Recovery Program, and the Summer School program.  While the district paid for and set up training for teachers when we first made the switch to Compass Learning, staffing has changed dramatically since it was initially implemented.  As a result, teachers who have never administered Compass Learning classes have now been assigned these online classes with no training. As a tech savvy teacher who has been using Compass Learning for years now, I have been asked to train other staff members to use the program.  

Thus, for my lesson, I created and partially implemented a Compass Learning training session.  Though I have been scheduled to conduct a larger training session before the start of school, for this assignment I did a training with one teacher who has been newly placed in the Alternative Ed program.  The plan was to conduct a presentation using a PowerPoint (a technology that teachers in my district are familiar with) and the demonstration function on Vision, a program used in the computer labs to monitor student computers that also allows the teacher to take control of the student computers.  I would demonstrate how to do key functions in the Compass Learning program including the following:

• ·         Create classes in CL (Compass Learning)
• ·         Search directory for students in CL and add them to classes.
• ·         Create profiles and usernames for new students.
• ·         Add new students to CL classes.
• ·         Create new assignments in the Assignment Builder.
• ·         Access assignments in the Assignment Archive.
• ·         Assign the new assignments to students.

I arranged to meet with the other teacher (who we will call Mary) at the school in one of the computer labs.  I had planned to use a PowerPoint I had created along with the Vision classroom management program with a demonstration function for the lesson.  However, upon arriving at the computer lab I ran into a road block.  Due to a virus throughout the district’s network, email has been temporary suspended, so I brought the PowerPoint on a USB flash drive and also uploaded it to my Google docs.  Once in the lab, we realized none of the computers would read my USB drive and the district has blocked Google docs.  Equally frustrating was that the USB drive would then no longer read on my laptop.  Therefore, I was limited to using the paper handout I had brought Mary of the PowerPoint and the demonstration function on the Vision program.

I started off with my Anticipatory Set.  I did not have to introduce myself as I have known Mary for a few years now.  I did however explain the purpose of the training and reassured her that what I was going to show her would be useful and the training would help her get set up for the first day of classes.  I explained that the training would not only show her how to use Compass Learning, she would also get more experience with Vision as we worked through the tasks.  

Without having my PowerPoint, I decided to dive into the lesson with a direct demonstration using Vision.  What Vision allows me to do is go through all of the steps on my computer and the student(s) watches the demonstration on their own computer.  I started off using this function to show Mary around the program and showing her where to find various menus and functions.  She expressed that the demonstration window was too small, so I decided to try a different method.  Still using the Vision program, I took control of her student computer and did a direct demonstration where I controlled her mouse on her computer.  This actually worked better because I would show her how to complete a task, such as creating a new class, by controlling her computer.  Then I would delete what I had just done and essentially reset everything, give her back control of her computer and ask her to complete the task on her own.  If she struggled, I would be there to help guide her along.  As I demonstrated she jotted notes down on the paper copy of the PowerPoint.

Though I had to alter the delivery method, I felt the lesson actually went very well.  As we worked through, Mary was able to successfully demonstrate that she could create a class, add students to it, create an assignment based on Michigan benchmarks, and then assign that assignment to the class and students she had just created.  Once we had worked all the through all of the steps necessary to do all of those things, I asked Mary to create two more classes and assign them a new assignment she created.  She needed a little prompting on the second class and assignment she created, but by the final class and assignment she was confident and even telling me I didn’t have to watch her do it and that I could work on my own classes if I wanted.  She had forgotten that I needed to focus on the lesson at hand for this reflection but her confidence in saying that I could work on my own classes demonstrated to me that she had mastered all of the steps and skills she needed to be successful.  

Question Set One

As stated previously, the goals of this lesson were for the teacher(s) to learn how to set up classes in the Compass Learning software, add students to those classes, create assignments, and assign the assignments to the newly created classes.  It was assumed that the teacher already had working knowledge of how to use an Internet browser, which is how students and staff access the Compass Learning online program.  Trainees/teachers are expected to be familiar with the Michigan Standards and Benchmarks in their subject area in order to create assignments that are aligned to the benchmarks HSCEs and GLCEs.  Since the trainees were proficient in the use of a web browser and the Michigan Standards and Benchmarks for their subject area, the goals of this lesson were accomplished.

The Vision program, which was the technology that I ended up solely using to present this lesson plan, has several affordances.  First of all, it has many functions that I was able to use to do the direct demonstration.  I could use the demo function to show the demo on multiple computers from the teacher workstation.  I could (and did) switch to another way to conduct the demonstration by taking direct control of a student workstation and using their mouse, control and demonstrate all of the steps in the process of creating a class, etc. in the Compass Learning software.  Finally, if I had been able to access my PowerPoint file, I could have also directly shared the file with all student computers through Vision’s file sharing option.  On the flipside, the constraint of the Vision program was the small screen size that students see using the demo function.  This was alleviated by controlling the student computer directly to do the demo which uses the actual student screen, at full size.  The other constraints of technology were described previously with the inability to access the PowerPoint via USB or Google Docs.  These issues can be addressed for a future training, though the success of the direct demonstration in Vision leads one to question whether or not the PowerPoint itself is necessary or if the handout sheets with room for notes are all that is needed.

In this implementation of the lesson, learning occurs as a result of the direct demonstration and the hands on activity of creating the classes and assignments in Compass Learning.   Behaviorism is being utilized to demonstrate the skill.  The learner (the teacher being trained) is given reinforcement first through the successful completion of a task or an error message for a mistake and additionally through feedback from me.  If I had more students in the training, I would have had them work in partners or in groups to discuss the tasks they were asked to do in order to incorporate more constructivism.  Mary and I did have quite a few discussions as she tried to create her own assignments and complete the other tasks, but I feel more participants would have added to the experience in terms of adding more ideas and asking more critical questions.  Finally, I was able to incorporate concepts from andragogy to make this lesson appeal to the teachers who are being trained by solving a problem for them, building on their previous experiences, and making it relevant to their needs.

This lesson was not intended to supplement or supplant existing curriculum, as I am not teaching students, but training teachers.  Since the district cannot afford to pay a trainer from Compass Learning to come back, in essence I am supplanting the official training.  This training is intended to prepare new teachers for the online program.

Differences among learners are addressed in the lesson through the multiple delivery methods. The learners are able to see the demonstration directly which accommodates visual learners.  Auditory learners are accommodated with the auditory directions and presentation during the demo.  I accommodated even more learners by giving hands on tasks that allowed the learners to try out the program and manipulate it themselves.  Finally, the use of the PowerPoint handouts accommodates learners that prefer to read directions or write directions for themselves in their own words.

First of all I assessed Mary as we went through the initial demonstration by asking her comprehension and follow up review questions on each section as we moved along.  If I had felt she did not grasp the concepts, I would have went back over them.  Fortunately, she picked up on the new program quickly since I had related it back to our old program, PLATO.  I also assessed the student by requiring her to complete all of the tasks taught on her own.  Mary was required to create two new classes, add students to those classes, create assignments for those class based on HSCEs and GLCEs, and assign the assignments to the classes.  I could assess the level of learning and understanding first through the questions that arose as Mary worked through the tasks on her own.  As she gained confidence and constructed her knowledge the questions became fewer.  The program itself also has built in sequences and error messages that allow users to know when they have made a mistake.  An assignment cannot be published if the steps are not completed correctly.  Therefore completion signifies success.

Question Set Two

Technology played a vital role in my lesson plan.  My lesson would not have been successful if I had not been able to directly demonstrate how to navigate through the Compass Learning program.  It is very important, especially with an older audience, to be able to show which button or drop down menu you are talking about and referring to.  I have also found during other professional development trainings that an older audience can sometimes have a hard time seeing something put up on a screen, especially if it is small with a lot of detail such as a website with buttons and dropdown menus.  The advantage of using the Vision program is its ability to do a direct demonstration on the screen that is directly in front of the learner.  It helps eliminate the eye straining and the questions like “Where is that button?” The disadvantage I experienced with technology for this lesson was that the PowerPoint option failed for me this time due to the USB drive failing and Google docs being blocked.  The important thing to remember is that technology will fail or present problems from time to time and as a teacher you must always have a “Plan B” and be able to find a way to work around the problem. 

Prior to the lesson I expected Mary to be nervous about learning a new program on the computer and I expected the training to be long and arduous.  I also was expecting Mary to struggle with learning the new program.  Much to my surprise, though Mary was indeed nervous, the training/lesson went very well.  Mary was very confident with the program by the end and felt that she probably wouldn’t even need to refer back to the notes she had made during the initial demonstrations.  While working through creating her first class and assignment entirely on her own, Mary remembered the steps fairly well, yet repeatedly asked if she was hitting the right button or wanted me to double check if she had everything checked off correctly before she hit a submit button.  At first I was directly answering her questions and reassuring her.  Towards the end of creating her first assignment, I began answering her by responding, “What happens if you push that?  Does it work or do you get an error message?”  Those responses forced her to try things out on her own and she was able to have a better connection with the process.

It was definitely clear that Mary was making sense of the Compass Learning program with the direct demonstrations through the Vision program.  By seeing me model the steps to create the classes and assignments, Mary was able to become successful and confident at it in a short amount of time.  The Vision program was vital to this lesson’s success.