Richard+Finding+Plan+B

Early Adopter: Inquiry & Design Challenge
Questions to consider : Answers: Resources :
 * Multiple Intelligences and 21st Century Thinking Guru ** // **-** Howard Gardner (Professor in Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education) //
 * In order of significance, what benefits would Gardner recognize to embedding technology in practice?
 * How might mobilizing technologies support better instruction for MI?
 * According to Gardner, what are the four most significant components of sustainable educational improvement?
 * In order of significance, what benefits would Gardner recognize to embedding technology in practice?
 * Technology allows for projects that produces learning that sticks
 * Technology can be used to connect to all of the different MIs
 * Technology provides for authentic learning
 * How might mobilizing technologies support better instruction for MI?
 * See above
 * According to Gardner, what are the four most significant components of sustainable educational improvement?
 * Ability to make learning stick
 * Ability to address all MIs
 * Enrichment of experiences
 * Ability to make learning authentic
 * []
 * [[file:sbisdlearnsymphony/Can Technology Exploit Our Many Ways of Knowing.pdf|Can Technology Exploit Our Many Ways of Knowing.pdf]]
 * [|Theory of Multiple Intelligences]

Soft skills being developed:
 * persistence
 * problem solving
 * problem recognition
 * risk taking
 * computer skills
 * literacies- information, digital,
 * research
 * questioning
 * love of reading
 * lifelong learners

Mantra: Questions drive learning; answers are the brakes.
Prototype: Students need to think before they ask questions. When students ask a poorly worded or vague question, I need to respond with a question that will help them focus on a specific problem that requires a more specific question.

1. I want students to ask specific questions instead of broad-topic, general questions. 2. Students need to learn to narrow the focus of their questions. 3. Students need to understand their problem and be able to articulate it, and only then will they ask their question.

[|Early Adopters Glog-fanningr]

Six Word Memoir: Questions are the root of learning.
Destination Postcard: Students need to learn to identify specific problems, how to construct options for solving them, and then determine a strategy for making an informed decision on how best to proceed.
 * //Students need more opportunities to experience uncertainty in the library in order to go through the process of problem identification and solution. Anytime they are here is an opportunity for them to learn.//**

Name:
 * Spring Forest Middle School
 * Grades 6th - 8th
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Librarian
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Draft a focus question and subquestions, that include student learning, and be prepared to revise these throughout the challenge
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Search for existing resources (articles, websites, blogs, videos, etc.) - post below and be sure to add them to your campus Diigo
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jigsaw notetaking and sharing of resources
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Individually, design a student resource, activity type, or project to try in the classroom over the next month to test. Then, get feedback from partners.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Try out resource, activity type, or project during the month(s), documenting plan, process, execution and reflection and collect student work samples.
 * Focus Question:
 * In student-owned learning, how do we assess real-world learning that is meaningful to students that aren't necessarily letter or number grades?
 * What kinds of real-world assessments are appropriate for students?
 * How would this real-world assessment fit into the real-world practice of grades in school?

How is your journey like that of a storyteller? Of a researcher?
 * An Opportunity in Overalls**

What question did you start out to find answer(s) to? How do I get students to take responsibility for finding the answers to their own questions? >>
 * What tweaks, edits, modifications have you made to your focus question?
 * The question becomes, "What do I have to do or provide for students in order to get them to take responsibility for their own questions?
 * When asked a question, my reply should probably be, "How do YOU think you could answer this question, yourself?
 * What question(s) remain?
 * What or how can I motivate students to find their own answers/solutions?
 * What new questions have surfaced as a result of your exploration this far?
 * How can I motivate them to become more personally responsible for their own learning?

As a researcher: What are you measuring?
 * What patterns are surfacing?
 * Students are imprinted with the idea of coming to the librarian for answers.
 * What themes are emerging?
 * I believe students think that I am there to answer their every question.
 * What does your data suggest?
 * As I direct students to resources that will help them, with constant reinforcement they do begin to go straight to the computer for answers.

As a learner:
 * In what way(s) has your professional perception been expanded?
 * How are you allowing yourself and your authentic, real, professional learning to be 'seen'?
 * In what way(s) have you found the courage to be 'imperfect'?
 * How do you define vulnerability in the context of our work?What about this process makes you feel vulnerable?
 * What strategies are you using through this process that might benefit your students as well?
 * What **//a-ha!//** moments, or elements of a 'spiritual awakening'/'breakdown' have you experienced? What might these insights suggested to you?

What story is unfolding from your research?
 * To be more effective collaborating with teachers, we need to agree on more lead time for preparation
 * Students need a resource that will answer FAQs, perhaps a wiki
 * Too many times we are too far ahead of our students in understanding--we believe that what we have explained/taught was understood by our students
 * Just because students don't ask questions when we ask them to doesn't mean that they understand anything
 * As I read //The Art of Explanation//from Lee Lefever of Common Craft, it is clear that many of my explanations have been too fact oriented and not simple enough for the middle school student mind
 * Considering the ideas learned from the above book I look at how Lefever looks at the spectrum of understanding: a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.j.k.l.m.n.o.p.q.r.s.t.u.v.w.x.y.z--if the abc side is the lowest in understanding, and xyz is the highest understanding, and the spectrum falls all in between. We need to structure what we are teaching/explaining where the students are (down in the abc area) in order to get them to the understanding we want for them (up to the stuv... area).
 * Packaging ideas in short, visual ways will help students understand at a higher level

**Resources**:
 * Documentation & Reflection - http://balancedtech.wikispaces.com/Documentation+and+Reflection+Prompts
 * Inquiry - http://balancedtech.wikispaces.com/Inquiry
 * Resources: search for existing resources (articles, websites, blogs, videos, etc.) - please be sure to add them to our [|Diigo]
 * []


 * **Activities:**
 * Round One
 * Round Two
 * Round Three