First PBL steps...great for kids & hard for the teacher

It felt very different in my room today....although I've always done inquiry science it has been more teacher-directed than I wanted.  This summer I took a class in "Unleashing Student Passion" hoping to find a better way....isn't that what you always do in the summer?  Look back at what worked well and what you could improve....I picked developing more independent and critical thinkers.

This class, led by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (@snbeach)  has been hard for me because it exposed so many places I want to be better.  Not just a little better.  A whole lot better.  Unleashing student passion for learning and specifically for science is my targeted area.  I needed to stop holding students back from becoming the learners they will need to be as they grow up....I have always helped them learn the science and be curious.  Now I feel like I need to take another step....help learners not need me anymore.

Today I took a plunge with implementing what I've been studying all summer.  It was hard because I wanted to be roaming the aisles looking for kids who needed help and encouragement.  Instead I chose to sit back and let them do all that for themselves using the skills we had been talking about in these weeks of defining and building teamwork and being a communicator.

So we're working on those opening school skills making observations and data collection....yawn!!!!  Oh no....no yawning if you please.  I decided it would be the perfect place to test out some of these ideas Sheryl's been teaching.  Besides we've spent hours talking about teamwork and defining what it takes to be a good teammate.  Beyond being a team member, they're also working on communicating clearly....becoming a communicator.  We've practiced body language and communicating with how we listen to each other.  So it was time for me to step back, hold my breath and watch them put all they've been developing into action.  While I've done inquiry before, this time I really , really let go.  I helped set them up with the background knowledge and then I let them go....and they posed questions that seemed to interest them.

I also purposefully let them do it without me hovering.  I told them I was strictly an observer of them today.  I tried to empower them by not just telling but showing them  that I trusted them to do the work.  Although it was hard, I sat at my desk, never strolled the aisles, asking questions or answering questions.  I sat there, intently concentrating on what they were doing and how they were interacting with each other.

Being present without being there

They knew I was present.   That's been a big point of the learning I've done this summer.  I was there without being depended on.  Does that make any sense?  But I think they were shocked at how well they were capable of doing and I learned so much about my students.  I was able to spend almost the entire 45 minutes making notes about who were the leaders, who struggling, how they worked with their partner.....an enormous cache of information about each of them I can use to do my lesson planning.  This valuable data will be the basis for the next lesson I teach.  Many thanks to my wayfinding teachers---Lani and Dean---for showing me this lesson.  I still have a long way to go but I think I'm getting it.

Ah.....how do I know they got anything out of the experience?  By the questions they asked.  Turned loose from teacher expectations, they investigated their own questions and then started exploring other things that were of interest to them.   We started at the typical dropping water on a penny and counting them up

they started asking better and better questions....

They worked and worked at all these questions...some of which I was very dubious about when they proposed it.  I'll admit that some worked and some ran into the troubles that I expected.  But here's the big ah-ha for most people....they learned it for themselves now.  It wasn't the teacher telling them "no" and here's why....they tried it, it didn't work, they re-grouped and formulated another question to test.  It wasn't a big deal.

I'm hoping that builds up their learning muscles so when we get to bigger topics, they'll feel the same way about roadblocks they encountered that will be harder.  This was the beginning steps students needed under their belt with a very simple activity.

Unexpected pleasures are usually the best ones just ask Sam and Ian

My biggest joy today was one of those goofy boy groups who you love and stresses you out all at the same time.  They finished and sat there just seeing what would happen if---mostly making a mess until....

    they discovered you could get a drop of water to "stick" to the penny even if you turned it upside down

 

Then everyone had to try and replicate the results....with that success under their belts, they starting firing off amazing questions. It was contagious.   Success breeding success everywhere that hour. They measured the bulge of the water bubble over the side of the penny concocting amazing ways of using rulers!!!  They conferred and shared and suggested alternative ways of doing everything.  All the while they were engaged.

I wish you could see their faces beaming and shouting across the room..."Hey Mrs. R look at this!" and then moving onto the next thing and the next.  I sent a big air high five across the room to congratulate them.  These were their questions, their experiments and they owned it.  Big time.

All because I got out of their way, and let them struggle a bit, so they could find their passion for learning science.

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7327560@N06/4307378745/ licensed under CC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68134711@N00/3172441452 licensed under Attribution CC

 

Comments

[Tracywatanabe]

Hi Marsha,
This is such a great post because you've captured that first step of letting go and realizing it not only works, it's better! Thanks for sharing this!
Kind regards,
Tracy

[Kathy Shields]

This post might have been named, "A New Kind of Flipped Classroom" (ref to penny discovery) I enjoyed hearing your thoughts about sitting in the background restraining yourself from trolling the room. This is counter intuitive and certainly would have raised eyebrows if admin appeared for an evaluation and had not been part of the SNB training. We are expected to sashay through the classroom as an integral part of the learning process, drawing students out, encouraging them to engage in higher order thinking. This new way, like a shiny penny, appeals to my sense of curiosity. It is my goal to get students thinking/working independently too. I have been stressing responsibility and citizenship. So what I am taking away from this is my need to prepare students for this kind of experience by teaching and guiding them in developing excellent team work, communications skills and highlighting the importance of listening in the discovery processes. I hope you will continue to share your observations of this process.

[Lani]

Yay! Bravo! I know you must be terribly pumped!

I hadn't yet posted an answer to your comment on my blog. And I didn't need to-- you found out for yourself!

Yes, it's hard but whoa, when what you describe occurs, the natural rush is extraordinary isn't it? for both you and for your students.

I absolutely love the story of your young man--

What's next? I can't wait,
Lani

[Marsha]

Dear Kathy,
You bring up an excellent point and one that I thought about when I wrote the post. I wondered if people would think I was just lazy by sitting at my desk.

Hopefully, like you, they would realize that I did all my "sashsaying"(love that phrase) before this activity and that I was allowing them to practice what I had taught them. It's not easy if you're used to jumping in and helping at every turn.

That said, I will admit that two or three of my pairs were floundering so badly that I did invite them up to my desk where I showed them what I had observed and written on my note card. I asked them if they knew what to do to improve before the hour was over, they said yes and went back to their work and kicked it into gear. Only 1 pair out of the 135 kids that I saw yesterday never really got it together. I think that's valuable information, too. Clearly this pair will need some extra guidance and I will have to be more involved in their training. But I fully intend to allow them to test it out AGAIN on their own until they learn how to do this.

Kathy, I wish you well on your work. This is the hardest work of my science class. Loving science content and passing that along to students is easy by comparison to getting them all to a state of independence and critical thinking. Maybe we can partner up and help each other? Thanks for adding your comment.

[Becky Bair]

What an amazing opportunity for your kids!

I'm hoping to take that course starting in October because I know that it is the next step for me. In the meantime, can you tell me a little bit about the introduction you did with your kiddos before you let them go? This is definitely my weak point, and would love the hear your thoughts about what worked in this case. Thanks!!

[Marsha]

Dear Becky,
The introduction is actually something that has lasted for 2 weeks. We started off by groups of 4 people finding things they have in common that would contribute to being a team. We did the typical activity where they brainstormed and filled out a single piece of a class jigsaw puzzle (I just made it out of bulletin board paper). Then we worked on what strengths each class had as a team and where we needed to work.
The next week we worked on being a communicator...started with brainstorming ways, moved to body language, to charades and then how they could be a communicator.
Partnered all this with moving along on science content so it wasn't all touchy-feely stuff. Along the way, I asked any parent that was a scientist to write us a letter explaining how scientists use teamwork and communication....and we summarized all that in a blog post.
This was our test if all this talking helped them know what to do when we started.

Does that help?