American History Myth Busters Project: Exploring Summit School Curriculum

American History Myth Busters Project: Exploring Summit School Curriculum

By Joanna Murray

History Teacher

Last summer, along with Dr. Gaines and a team of other teachers and administrators, I was able to spend a week at Summit Schools Base Camp training to learn about the Summit Schools approach to personalized learning. There, I learned about the interesting components that make up the Summit Schools Model of Instruction. Developed by the teachers at Summit Public Schools, the PLP is an online tool that allows teachers to serve as instructional coaches while students set individual goals, create roadmaps to achieve them, learn content at their own pace, and engage in meaningful projects that connect to the real world.

This model includes:

Competency-Based Content Progression - Where students progress at their own pace through playlists of content and then take assessments on demand. 

Self-Directed Learning - Students set their own long-term goals and connect them to their daily actions.

1:1 Mentorship - Each student using the PLP has at least one adult mentor who works with them individually to set goals, make a plan to achieve those goals and develop Habits of Success. Because mentors monitor student achievement across all classes in the PLP, they can support the whole student during coaching conversations.

Understanding performance data - Student performance data in the PLP helps teachers understand trends at a glance, identify intervention opportunities, and provide quality feedback.

Facilitating Project-Based Learning - Teachers can create and customize projects for their students, provide feedback on student work and progress, and assess the final product on an interdisciplinary rubric of cognitive skills.

Project-Based Learning - Students build and demonstrate cognitive skills by working through rich, meaningful projects.

In an effort to learn more about the personalized approach to learning, and about the Summit Schools model of instruction, I have been engaging my US History students in a project called American History Myth Busters.  To prepare, I took components of this project from the Summit site, and transfered and customized them on the Hapara learning platform. There, students have been working through a series of menu options to complete the unit. The Project-Based Learning component of the Summit Schools model is framed around age and developmentally appropriate Cognitive Skills that are measured using a rubric. For the Mythbusters project, thus far, my students have mastered, or at least impoved in the Cognitive Skills of Comparing/Contrasting, Contextualizing Sources, Explaination of Evidence, and Point of View. Evidence of learning came as students completed a fairly complex essay that challenged them to analyze a poem about the story of Paul Revere's famous ride and compare what is written there to an article on Revere. Students had to use Evidence to support their claims. A challenge was allowing for students to learn at their own pace, in a self-directed manner, when it quickly became apparent that most of them had no idea how to write a well-crafted analysis essay and even less experience using evidence to support claims. To this end, I added many more resources to the original Mythbusters project to teach students how to write all parts of an analysis essay. Students were able to go back to each video to learn everything from how to write a strong introduction paragraph, to what goes into each body paragraph, and how to write a strong conclusion paragraph. Students went about the task of writing the essays at their own pace, but with a great deal of support not only from me, as I met with individual students in one-on-one conferencing, but also with college AVID students who were able to work with students one-on-one as well. Students also sent the essay drafts to me through Google Drive and I was able to send feedback to each in a customized manner toward helping them each grow in their writing skills. 

Now, most students have completed their essays and are on another part of the Myth Busters project. This is were I have seen even stronger evidence of students setting strong goals toward completion of a project. In this phase of the project, students were put into groups of 4-5. They started the project by engaging in a task to learn the differences between myth romantic exageration, folklore, other types of writing. Next, the group engaged in their first shared project as a group called the Spaceship project. They had to agree, based on a list of seven characters, who would be able to escape a dying planet and who would stay. This project was immediately followed by the students creating and signing a group contract. The idea was that, having spent time working on the Spaceshipproject, students learned about their groups' strengths and weaknesses, and would build their group contract goals and expectations around what they learned while doing the Spaceship project. The final project is for each group to choose a historical character or event in American history and develop a visual project using multiple presentation tools (a presentation platform, video, photographic images) to compare and contrast a mythical, romanticized version to a factual version of that person or historical event. Students must conduct research, toward this end, and cooperate to put together their final projects. At the end of this project, in addition to having mastered, or at least moved over o the rubric continuum, the additional cognitive skills of Multimedia in Oral Presentations, and Selection of Evidence. The project will also have them revisit the cognitive areas of Comparing/Contrasting, Contextualizing Sources, and Explanation of Evidence. All of these cognitive skills will be of great value as these students will soon gratuate and continue to use them in their years and high school and beyond.

Digital Discovery Genius Hour Project

Digital Discovery Genius Hour Project

By Joanna Murray

RMMS Teacher

Most students at Rancho Minerva take a unique course called Digital Discover. Over the course of the school year, students in this course have engaged in many projects related to using technology and a problem-solving approach to learning. A main focus, with regard to this course, is having students learn in a very personalized manner.
The latest project that our students engaged in was a Genius Hour project. Genius Hour is a program that allows for students to learn about a topic, or learn how to do something that interests them. Students chose from a wide range of topics. Some became program designers, others built You Tube videos of game design, A large group of sixth graders became obsessed with geocaching. Still others decided to learn to knit, crochet, and paint. One very ambitious 8th grader wrote an entire story and then learned how to publish as a young writer. Another 8th grader loves Japanese culture and decided to learn the language. Some students learned how to play soccer, and techniques of playing other sports, while several learned how to play checkers and chess. Some studied other cultures, and interesting places they would like to visit, including outer space.
To ensure that students would be successful in completing this project, the quarter started with several other tasks including that students learned to identify the difference between credible and noncredible sources. Next, they were challenged to learn search engine techniques. After that, each student built a Google Site. Finally, they each learned to blog, and posted and responded what was, for many students, their first blog posting experience using their Google Site. Along their individual pathway to learning, each student spent time blogging about their experience. Reflecting in this manner allowed for me to hold students individually accountable for thier learning, but more, allowed for students to hold themselves accountable. Though blogging, some even came to the realization that they were not as passionate about what they were learning as when they made their Genius Hour choice, and switched to something more engaging.
Every student was held to the task of experiencing their learning through research, blogging, interaction with the topic, and the preparation and delivery of a final project that they shared with their classmates and teacher.
Reflecting on the Genius Hour project, students at all three grade levels reported that they had a lot of fund learning about topics that truly interested them.

Reflecting on Our 2016 RMMS 8th Grade Career Expo

 RMMS 2016 Career Expo

On January 22, 2016, Rancho Minerva hosted a Career Expo for our 8th grade students. Our Career Expo was created to help our 8th grade students, who will so soon be working their way through high school and beyond, learn about career options, and more, learn that a pathway for achieving their goals is within reach with careful planning and hard work. It started with Mrs.

Santangelo’s ABC Printing Bulls designing a flyer for

distribution.

Several planning meetings followed, and what culminated was the event itself, which took place for over two instructional periods, in several key locations on campus, including the quad, the gym, our innovation spaces, and most of the Ewing buildings.

Although we strive to provide the best instructional experiences we can for our students, having these presenters on campus, and interacting with our students provided a real-life experience as they engaged with these amazing professionals in real-time, having intimate dialogues about what they do for a living, but more, how choices along the way contributed to the success of our presenters.

RMMS 8th graders will surely remember these passionate presentations as a source of inspiration and motivation as they pursue their educational and occupational interests. Through a series of rotations, students were able to choose who they wanted to see by reading a profile ahead of time. We prepared a powerpoint presentation for you to view, if you want to see all of the

wonderful volunteers who attended [click here].

As a traditional middle school in Vista, CA, we are passionate about 21st Century learning and creating an environment where students thrive through collaboration, relationships, effort, academics & technology EVERYDAY. We know that Rancho Minerva’s goal of preparing all students to be successful in life is only possible with the support of our families, staff, and generous community partners.  Rancho Minerva Middle School is a “family” community united around its students. We look forward to continuing to nurture experiences such as these toward this vision.

Inspiring our 8th Graders

Rancho Minerva hosted a community career fair this Friday as part of an effort to inspire our students beyond the classroom.  

Eighth Grade students had the privelage to connect and learn from industry experts from around the county.  Students attended sessions led by individuals in the field of enviornmental science, engineering and computer software development.  Students also met with authors, policemen, firemen, a veterinarian, fashion designer, entrepreneur, lawyer, and more.
Students learned the pathway each participant took to arrive at the career they were in. Students asked questions, participated and discussed careers with each expert.  


The event gave students the opportunity to learn about careers and interact with community experts in a variety of fields.  

Implementing Personalized Learning Using the Summit Model to Deepen Student Learning in the U.S. History Class: Blog Post 2

Joanna Murray, NBCT

  

I am piloting a Summit Model approach to teaching and learning in an attempt to learn how to infuse deeper, innovative, next generation learning. To this end, I chose to implement one of the Summit Personalized Learning (PL) projects to use as curriculum for my 8th Grade U.S. History students.

To back up, over the summer, along with several colleagues and our school administration team, I was able to participate in a Summit Base-Camp training in the Bay Area of Northern California. There, I learned The 4 Elements that make up the course structure of their PL program including Project-based and Experiential Learning, Competency-based Learning, College Readiness and Success. After completing the base-camp training, I was excited to start using some of the elements in my own instruction. I decided to implement one of the PL learning projects for my 8th grade history students.

Fortunately, after the base-camp training, Summit made some of the project components available. While I could not use their platform because of it being a live resource for their students, I was able to load the components of the project to Hapara, an online learning workspace.

At the moment, the project my students are engaged in is called “American Myth Busters.” The work begins with students creating stories about their own lives. Students spend time learning key concepts related to myth, and also physically map out Revere's ride. It continues with comparing Longfellow’s great poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” to a factual account of what happened on that historic night. The project will culminate with students choosing an historical event, topic, or character and researching and creating  a project of their own to explore a mythical account, versus an historical account centered around that exploration.

The projects used in the Summit PL model are assessed using a Cognitive Skills Rubric, therefore, learning is assessed based on level of specific skills.

As Summit describes it, Cognitive Skills are practices identified as necessary for success in college and career. Summit culminated these skills by researching and synthesizing nationally accepted standards. The cognitive skills are broad in order to be used in all content areas, but customized to assess course-specific skills as well.

At this point, most students have finished dissecting the Revere poem, and are examining the factual account of the event. When they are done, they will create a compare and contrast essay exploring the similarities and differences between these two texts. Their work will be scored based on the rubric connected to the cognitive skill dimension Compare and Contrast which states that students will be: Identifying similarities and differences and using them to support, refine, or sharpen an argument or exploration. The  domain associated with comparing/contrasting is categorized as analysis and synthesis. The language of a level 6 (the highest rubric indicator) reads: Analyzes or evaluates similarities and differences relevant to a specific claim/main idea/thesis. Thoroughly explains why the similarities/differences are meaningful with the frame of reference. Organizes comparison in a logical order. It is easy to see that the cognitive skills Dimension is one that students will need across the curriculum and in college and careers. But the Myth Busters unit will include five other Dimensions including: Contextualizing Sources, Explanation of Evidence, Multimedia in Oral Presentation, Point of View, and Selection of Evidence, and therefore, this unit supports students in building deeper cognitive skills as linked to the Summit Cognitive Skills Rubric. While teaching students to write compare and contrast essays are nothing new, using the Summit approach to project-based learning is a measure construct I am anxious to explore.

Challenges, thus far, in implementing the Summit PL curriculum include maintaining a balance of using that curriculum to build cognitive skills, and content delivery. A true Summit approach, in the humanities classroom, includes a blend of the two. A second of The 4 Elements of the Summit Schools Model focuses on Content Knowledge. This element is designed to engage students using a personalized approach to, ideally, fill learning gaps and move student toward competency in each subject area. Using an online learning system, with an expanse of learning resources, in a true Summit classroom, students can learn history, and their other core content in a self-delivered system and at a pace right for them. When a given set of curricula is mastered, the student can move on. It is the goal that, by the end of the school year, each student will have mastered the grade level content, even those who may have started the year with knowledge gaps. Unfortunately, the Content Knowledge platform is not available to non-Summit schools. Therefore, to ensure that students in my course are given a balance of both Cognitive Skill development, and Content Knowledge in the U.S History curriculum, we have Me Days and T Days. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Me Days, students engage on the Hapara platform to work on the American Myth Busters project. On T Days, (Teacher Days) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work through the course content using resources more closely aligned to traditional instruction.  

There are two other pieces of The Four Elements of the Summit Schools Model: also Expeditions, and Habits of Success. The later, Habits of Mind, is designed to empower students to self-direct their learning and develop habits of mind that will help them toward success in college and career. At Base-Camp, we learned that this is done through a mentor model wherein teachers are paired with students that they mentor through the course of their middle school education. Expeditions are immersions in real-world experiences to discover and explore passions and careers, and apply learning in authentic ways. While other projects I am involved in begin to explore these last two of The 4 Elements, I am still working to better implement those into the U.S. History classroom in a way that more closely mirrors the Summit approach, but one step at a time!

Resource:

Summit Academics. Cog skills: the rubric and look for’s. Retrieved from: https://goo.gl/xg9NIA

For the past few years Mrs. Joanna Murray and I had been running with the RMMS Cross Country team. In the beginning of the season there were a lot of girls who eventually stopped participating. After looking into various programs I thought Girls on the Run would be a great program for girls at our site. One impediment initially was the cost but luckily we qualified for a grant that covered our team. I was really worried we couldn't come up with the minimum number of girls but word got out and we populated our team with the maximum allowed for a first year team. Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Paradee were instrumental in recruiting from their classes bringing a lot of sixth-grade enthusiasm. I was so thankful that my running buddies Mrs. Murray and Mr. Donovan were willing to volunteer their time. Eventually the enthusiasm for our team grew and other staff members began participating from providing snacks to walking and running with us. We encouraged everyone at any fitness level to join us. Our motto became, "Walk or run, we get it done." Parents, siblings and other family members joined us at our practices and at the 5K. In fact, at the December 5K we had 1-2 running buddies per girl, more than any team.

The focus of Girls on the run Heart & Sole middle school lesson is a Big Idea. The very first lesson's Big Idea was "Becoming a team takes time, effort and support." This theme runs throughout the Girls on the Run Heart & Sole season. This program is so much more than a running club for girls. Interweaved into the interactive Girls on the Run lessons are life skills: confidence, caring, connections and competence. The girls are consistently given opportunities to reflect and identify areas of strength using the Girl Wheel. The Girl Wheel is the program's central focus and concentrates on the "whole girl". This program is so much more than lessons, big ideas, and physical conditioning to complete a 5K. I believe it can shape the culture of our campus with a focus on living a healthy lifestyle and teamwork for the girls and staff alike. My hope is that we can find funding for a spring season of GOTR to keep our momentum growing. We will find a way to fund our program for the spring season. I think what we've started at RMMS is too important to wait until Fall. Please join us!