See the 2017-2018 version of this post here.
2/13 Update: We’ll be using this year’s set of data on February 13-15 to tackle motivation and engagement in the makerspace. Load a reader- and printer-friendly version of the responses here: https://tinyurl.com/SSCP-19.
The original instructional post is below.
Strategic Coherence
One of the first texts given to students each year is Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on educational paradigms. It introduces one of the animating beliefs of this makerspace, which is that traditional education does not prepare students for the world they will join after high school. That world demands a different kind of intelligence, and it’s a far cry from the “model of the mind” that Robinson criticizes.
Watch the whole thing periodically to remind yourself why we do what we do.
For most students, what this nebulous “real world” will demand matters less than getting into college and/or starting a career. That’s why district’s like ours look more specifically at what those colleges and careers value. That list always starts with empathy, but it also always includes the rest of the nontraditional skills and traits we centralize in this course. As a reminder, the instructional, assessment, and feedback structures in the makerspace are all linked by universal languages:
The GAP Process
Two of these universal skill and traits are self-awareness and self-efficacy, which we loop together like so:
Students need to understand why we do what we do. They need self-awareness and a sense of self-efficacy. There is a permanent place on this website to discuss the Dunning-Kruger effect and imposter syndrome, for instance, because an accurate sense of self is difficult at any age. And as that post on empathy and college readiness notes, we always need an answer to the question, “When am I ever going to have to use this?”
The Most Important Skill
That’s what we have here. The makerspace makes explicit connections to college-, career-, and world-relevance in order to reshape the geometry of traditional education. Our work is rooted in a shared sense of purpose.
Part of that is our focus on metacognition and reflection. Tracking the arc of our learning over time gives us the necessary self-efficacy. And that applies to all stakeholders: Teachers in the makerspace practice metacognition and reflection. Brewster, as a district, also reflects on its progress in order to improve.
Which brings us to the BCSD Strategic Coherence Plan:
This Strategic Coherence Plan has been available to the public for a while, but January 11, 2018 saw the formal release in that post. In late January of 2018, the Tri-State Consortium visited the district for three days to evaluate the SCP, which has led to even more innovation.
A quick aside: You can learn more about the Consortium here. I’ve been involved as a team member for almost a decade, and many of the innovations of this course started with Tri-State. I first heard of Alfie Kohn’s essay on de-grading through one of their study groups, for instance.
Our job as stakeholders is to help the district, and we do that by highlighting the extent to which our Humanities makerspace fits the Strategic Coherence Plan. Through the support of district- and building-level administration, we’ve been able to develop a unique and uniquely nontraditional learning environment, and it aligns perfectly with the SCP:
Load a PDF explaining how by clicking here.
Our particular innovations beyond the SCP are just that: innovations particular to our classroom. We have a unique assessment model, grade abatement, based on growth in universal skills and traits; an interstitial model of instruction that improves on the flipped classroom; and makerspace-inspired assignments that reframe and individualize the important work of the Humanities.
Students in this course can speak specifically to the district’s vision. It’s why feedback and advocacy are essential. The district values that perspective as much as I do, and a sense of how this SCP is enacted on the frontlines will help to shape what happens next. The feedback provided in 2018 is available here:
We do this at the halfway point of the year for two reasons: First, students are now fully immersed in a different way of learning and creating meaning. Like any makerspace, we need time to learn the basics and establish good habits. For a reminder of how this works, load the following post:
The Big Sky
Second, this gives us another semester to use the feedback. As you look at those responses from January of 2018, you’ll be able to see how each prompt is tied to student goals and growth. There needs to be time and space to process the responses while still in the makerspace.
With that said, there are a few notes for current students in the makerspace, who are probably reading this as part of the formal assignment.
Students, recognize this as an opportunity for self-awareness and self-efficacy. It requires the most important kind of reflection and metacognition, which is why this assignment is replacing the usual self-assessment writing that accompanies the GAP report process.
There is also an extrinsic motivation: This form will help you to generate evidence for the top tiers of grade abatement: the use of “inquiry-based tools and structures” in an attempt to “demonstrably improve the learning environment,” for instance. The cited language comes from the fourth tier directly:
This is also an opportunity to “do more than just what is required,” since the quality of your responses is entirely in your control. Those of you who take advantage of this opportunity will find more clarity and purpose, but you will also receive more feedback from me and the other teachers in the makerspace.
Review the questions first, and then write your initial responses in a separate document. Copy them into the Google Form when you’re ready. You can submit multiple responses at different times, edit your answers after you submit them, and get feedback before posting anything. Try to answer as many prompts as you can, and ask for help on prompts that are unclear.
The formal assignment will be posted to Google Classroom. Look there for any other pertinent information. Like everything else in our makerspace, this process is about looped feedback and shared understanding, so you need to work together. You might start by asking questions in the comment section below.
