Here is a video and presentation from my session at Pedagoo London from 2nd March 2013.

Please listen to this before you watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwMgZQbIvFU

Billy Bragg recently talked about the impending loss of creativity in schools due to the EBacc reform; the video below is taken from his John Peel Lecture in November of this year.

Now, I love Billy Bragg and hang on his every word but I think he’s wrong here, sorry Billy!

Creativity shouldn’t be reserved for certain subjects. We shouldn’t talk about specific subjects being creative. Students should be encouraged and allowed to think creatively in all their subjects. For me, a subject like Science can be just as creative as a subject like Art…but only if we allow our students to truly create their own learning and have the freedom and confidence to be creative.

“We’re challenging complacency” Mick Jones 

We need to create opportunities for creativity. Creativity isn’t just making a stunning picture, or an amazing sculpture, or a beautiful piece of work, though it can be. Creativity can also be the way that our students think, how they organise their learning, how they look at things differently and how they learn.

It’s fundamentally wrong to say ‘that as a Maths teacher, I don’t need to be creative’ or ‘I’ll leave that to the Drama teacher’. In many schools in the foreseeable future there may be a lack of the so-called ‘creative’ subjects in Key Stage 4 due to the aberration that is the EBacc. Doesn’t this mean that we need to model, inspire and generate student creativity in all of our subjects?

“At its best New Wave/punk represents a fundamental and age-old Utopian dream: that if you give people the license to be as outrageous as they want in absolutely any fashion they can dream up, they’ll be creative about it, and do something good besides.” Lester Bangs

Below is a small selection of how the Punk Learners are being creative in their lessons, you can read more about them here.

Punk Learning isn’t about following guidelines and rules but here is a list of strategies and mind sets that we have developed that allows my students to become more creative:

• Allow complete control of learning; student ownership is a powerful thing and if harnessed, encouraged and expected can lead to creativity and creative students.
• Never simply let students “get on with it”. This is not “Free Form Jazz” this is Heavy Duty Learning where every students knows what they are learning, how they are learning and most importantly, why they are learning.
• Do not be afraid to create opportunities for creativity – fear is just another commodity.
• Model creative thinking, be creative in your approach to teaching; do things differently.
• Be supportive of students’ ideas, even if you know it won’t work or there is a high probability that it will go wrong. This is a key part of learning and must be encouraged. Students need the confidence to try different ideas; they also need the confidence to know it’s OK if it goes wrong.
• Support certain students that need more help in finding their creativity. Provide them with examples or suggestions of ways to do things. Don’t tell them; give them options. Also, encourage that they look and speak to other students. Punk Learners don’t copy; Punk Learners steal and make it their own.
• Believe in what you are doing every single second of your lesson because…

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” Georg Wilheim Fridrich Hegel (I think he may have been a Punk Learner!)

And you know, sometimes that’s all we’ve got…sometimes that’s all we need.

I was lucky enough to be invited to talk at the Pedagoo Xmas Party recently, where I talked about Punk Learning and the need for creativity. I also cobbled together a little something for the evening TeachMeet about the need for awe and (Stevie) wonder in our lessons. Below is the Prezi I used; it might not make much sense, but the images are good!

Prezi

These are Punk Learners.

For me, this was the start of real Punk Learning.

During our lessons this week, students were taking complete ownership of their learning. Each group were using their SOLO Taxonomy planning sheets to provide them with structure for their learning exploits. Remember, this is Self Organised Differentiation. Each sheet had been assessed by me with written feedback in the style of questions to focus their learning even more.

Each group were constantly referring to their Punk driving questions and looking at the big picture of how they will finally present to the rest of the class at the end of the topic. Every student was using their Punk Progress Chart to assess how and where their learning was going. Self generated targets were being set and self-generated targets were being met.

Students have volunteering to circulate around the class to assess the group’s understanding using our Group Progress Chart. At the end of each lesson the “best” Punk Learners have been chosen by the class and the reasons why they have been chosen has been discussed.

Who needs a teacher?

So what’s going on in this Molotov Cocktail of enquiry? Students are dividing their teams up (all self-regulated) with some researching on laptops, some creatively presenting their findings and others completing practical work.

My students are resiliently struggling with the Internet research as most of the Punk driving questions are not Googleable!

All new information and learning generated by the Punk Learners is being presented and recorded in books, big sheets of paper, post it notes and windows. All of this work is constantly critiqued, updated and improved.

In the experimental arena, model digestive systems are being created by students, different foods are being tested for glucose, carbohydrates are being tested to see how long they take to ‘digest’ in body core temperatures with different concentrations of Hydrochloric Acid, gases are being collected from model stomachs and tested, sample cow and sheep ‘diets’ are being made and investigated. Using bog standard Science apparatus and ‘Food Test’ chemicals that any KS3 student would use, my students now have a real desire to enquire. Why? Well, because they have complete control over their learning.

These are some more Punk Learners.

And my job in all of this? Constantly probing and coaching the students ensuring that their learning will enable them to answer their Punk driving question. I am continually asking questions about their learning and targets, regularly ‘testing’ what they know and don’t know and frequently encouraging them to reflect on what they are learning and more importantly how they are learning.

For one class (the one that my school categorises as “bottom” set) I’ve also delivered five minute seminars; the content of the these impromptu lectures are agreed on by the students based on what they are unsure of or want to know more about.

“I’m tired of being told what to think. I’m tired of being told what to do” Mr. Suit – Wire

So how do I know Punk Learning is working? I have spoken to and listened, yes listened, to my students. I have asked them to tell me how they are feeling (see image below) and what changes and improvements they wanted, which is a genuine indication that they’re totally buying into the ethos and culture of Punk Learning. For example, my students wanted the five minute seminars and the voting of the best Punk Learners of the lesson. My students are genuinely thinking about their self assessment and their targets – something that as we know, doesn’t always happen.

I have had absolutely no behavioural issues whatsoever with these classes and during a recent fire alarm this week an audible groan of disappointment could be heard from the students as they had to leave their lesson halfway through.

Oh, and they’re learning shed loads too!

I interviewed five Punk Learners this week; these are the unadulterated thoughts of Pierce, Maddie, Beccy, Kasey and Nathan.

Punk Learning

Punk Learning 2

Punk Learning 3

Interestingly the ‘depressed’ comment was written by a student from another class – I share my room with other teachers

Student X has achieved a level 5b.

What does this actually mean? Is Student X a good learner? Is Student X a level 5b at everything they try and do? How does Student X get to the next arbitrary level? Does Student X actually know what a level 5b represents? Does the teacher? Is a 5b in English equivalent or as difficult to achieve as a 5b in MFL? If I type in 5b in a spreadsheet do I know how good a learner that student is, or the potential they have?

Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly aware that data is important (as long as it is used effectively to plan for learning) but can we really measure learning using numbers and letters? I’m not so sure…

Learning is messy. Learning is multi faceted. Learning is not linear. Learning is not incremental. Learning is too complex to hang numbers on to.

“Anger is an energy” Rise – Public Image Limited

And so I find myself angered at what I constantly read, see and hear when it comes to number chasing and classifying learning into neat, singular arbitrary levels.

Rather than blathering on about hypothetical ideal scenarios or talking about what teachers could do, or what schools should do, I’m going to tell you what the Punk Learners have been doing in my classroom.

Each group has created their driving question; by answering the question successfully they will learn the content of the topic.

Each group has used SOLO Taxonomy to plan WHAT they need to learn and HOW they will learn it (including deciding on resources). Ultimately they are planning their own Scheme of Learning. Complete Control

Although each group are working on successfully answering their own questions, they will all have the opportunity to fully understand the content of the topic that we are looking at but at different depths of understanding. You could call this Self Organised Differentiation or SOD for short.

I know my students well, I know which students need more help than others and which students need the freedom to soar. So one of my jobs was to coach two groups in encouraging them to tweak and improve their questions in order for them to have the full possibility of reaching an answer that will allow them to learn and understand the topic. This Self Organised Differentiation was developed by Omnipresent Facilitator Feedback, or SOD OFF.

So on our Learning walls, constantly on display in the rooms, we have: what a Punk Learner is, skills a Punk Learner needs, our driving questions and how we will answer them and full size diagrams of what the students believe the human digestive system looks like; I’m using these misconceptions to enable effective feedback to groups on what they know or don’t know. We are using this for whole class assessment and progress – or as we like to call it, learning.

One of our Punk Learning Walls

We have group assessment and progress, or affectionately known by the Punk Learners as learning, via the chart below. Each SOLO level has content attached to it (not shown in picture) which allows students to see where they’re at and what they need to do to get to the next level.

Which leads us on to assessing individual learning…

I have created a Punk Learning rubric that focuses on attributes that my students are working towards: DIY Learning (which the more I think about it could be described as Self Regulation a la Hattie) Being Creative, Team Work and Being Reflective. The “levels” we have used are below Punk standard, at Punk standard and above Punk standard. This simple rubric allows the students to self assess what they are doing well and what their next steps are to improve.

“Oh we make the standards and we make the rules. And if you don’t abide by them you must be a fool. We have the power to control the whole land. You never must question our motives or plans” Standards – The Jam

If I created the rubric and statements it wouldn’t have been Punk Learning. So I asked my students to look at my first draft and critique it for improvements – I must have taught them well; they changed it considerably! Including the colour coding and date idea, the safety pins, the font and the space for targets. This is now an assessment framework designed and agreed on by my students.

So there you have it – assessment, without a number in sight…just a few safety pins!

]]> http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/punk-learning-away-from-the-numbers/feed/ 4 taitcoles IMG_1180 IMG_1188 IMG_1182 IMG_1189 Punk Standards IMG_1192 IMG_1193 IMG_1191 IMG_1190 http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/punk-learning-i-want-to-be-free-free-to-learn-to-be-me/ http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/punk-learning-i-want-to-be-free-free-to-learn-to-be-me/#comments Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:35:17 +0000 taitcoles http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/?p=1003 ]]> “Well I hate to go to school and listen to the stupid rules. Just to keep me out of the way. So they can have an easy day. I want to be free, free to learn to be me” I Hate School – Suburban Studs

The research by George Land, undertaken way back into the late sixties is a staggering study. He used a creativity test adopted by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists on 1,600 5-year olds; he retested the same children at 10 years of age and again at 15 years of age. The following results were obtained: 98% of 5-year olds were deemed to be creative and innovative, compared to 30% of 10-year olds and only 12% of 15-year olds. Fascinating isn’t it? So what can we do about it?

Rather than righteously banging on about the lack of creativity in student’s work, or complaining about the SoW (that we religiously follow) not allowing our students to be creative or blaming external variables for the lack of imaginative lessons that we have to deliver. Let’s do something about it…

“Something’s happening and it’s happening right now. You’re too blind to see it. Something’s happening and it’s happening right now. Ain’t got time to wait. I said something better change.” Something Better Change – The Stranglers

As an example, if you had to teach your class about George Orwell’s Animal Farm, why on earth would you just teach them (or tell them, which is probably more accurate) about the book? Wouldn’t you let them become engrossed and inspired by the author himself or what the novel has influenced? The Spanish Civil War, Northern Coal Mining, social repression, Stalin, The Russian Revolution, Big Brother, Room 101, all instantly jump out at me when I think about how I would create stimulating, awe-inspiring learning experiences.

If you’re still reading this and thinking, “yes, fair point but we haven’t got the time, we’ve got a lot of content to get through” then answer this question. Is what you’re doing enabling your students to become submerged in deep, meaningful, memorable, relational and interesting learning that they want to know and will remember for a long time? Sometimes, there is only one learner that is engaged and inspired by the lesson and that is the person that wrote the bloody lesson plan!

So, how can you quickly and genuinely get your students to take complete control of what they want to learn? I must point out here, that it’s vital that we have the structure and ethos to encourage our students to think creatively about the content that they need to learn. Tell them the topic/concept that they need to know (In my case it was food and digestion) and then get them to do some QFT (Question Formulation Technique). WARNING. Do not attempt this if your students aren’t Punk Learners.

As teachers, we tend to ask a lot of questions, don’t we? Don’t get me wrong, effective questioning is key to many successful learning experiences and underpins excellent AfL but…we tend to ask a lot of questions, don’t we?

It stands to reason that if a student creates their own question, they are more likely to take ownership of it and actually want to answer it. Why? Well, because they haven’t been told to answer it, it is their question. They’ve asked it because they want to know the answer!

Students can learn more from asking questions than they can answering them and given the chance, students will be creative in what they want to learn and therefore their questions will be little inquisitive gems of creativity! We’re turning Punk Learning from a noun to a verb; we’re coming up with questions Punk Learning style!

Click to view slideshow.

My Punk Learners created these questions using QFT;

• How long does different food take to digest?
• What happens inside our digestive system when we get Salmonella?
• Why do we get constipated?
• How can not eating damage vital organs within your body?
• Why do onions make you cry?
• Why do you get cravings?
• What does the stomach do and does it do it?
• What is poo made of?
• Which foods are the hardest to digest?
• Why is fish called fish?
• Why is poo brown?
• Why are beans orange?
• Why is bird poo white, baby poo yellow and our poo brown?
• Is most of the American population fat and if so, why is that?
• What is the job of the intestines in the digestive system?
• What makes hiccups and burps?
• How does the digestive system work?
• Why do certain animals eat certain foods?
• What are the stages of digestion?
• What does the brain have to do with the digestive system?
• What is stomach acid made from?
• Why can’t sweetcorn be digested?
• How and why do some mushrooms kill us?
• What food is in the desert?
• Why do we get stomach ache?
• Could human poo be used as manure for farms?

In Punk Learning (Part 5) my students will construct and create how they will answer these questions and learn about food and digestion.

“And they put pressure on my brain. Examinations they’re insane. Learning things I’ll never need. Yeah, I give school 50 C’s.” I Hate School – Suburban Studs

Two lessons in and:

• we’ve launched Punk Learning and the DIY ethos using music, images, iconography, discussion, reactions and media

• we’ve looked at what a Punk Learner is using examples of famous Punk Learners such as Charles Darwin, George Orwell and Jessie J

• we’ve used our manifesto to look at scenarios and attacked them in a different and creative way

• we’ve articulated what skills and attributes we need to become a Punk Learners

To quote the thoughts of one group – “Be Creative; be resourceful use everything around to help, not just what you have been told to do. Take Risks; take creative risks even if they sound bad it could be good. Be Different; make your own style. Be Yourself; Don’t just do what people tell you to; follow your own path”

My students are “getting” the concept – why wouldn’t they?

“Freedom is given, speak how you feel. I have no freedom, how do you feel? They can lie to my face, but not to my heart. If we all stand together, it will just be the start. If the kids are united then we’ll never be divided. If the kids are united then we’ll never be divided” If the Kids are United, Sham 69

Click to view slideshow.

Part 4, in nasty green vinyl, will show how we created our punk driving questions using QFT to help us plan and create our learning – proper Do It Yourself Learning.

This is the plan – launch Punk Learning with my two Year 8 classes after half term.

As students enter with a cacophony of punk music they are asked to make a link between the three images on their tables. The pictures are of: George Orwell, Jessie J and Charles Darwin. My students will be left for a moment to allow them to respond to the images before  the three famous people are identified.

Each group will then be given a short biography of the three and a few more minutes to see if they can decide on what they have in common. Finally a short excerpt of their lives will be given, detailing how they have all been successful and achieved in a controversial, unique and anti establishment way – they are all Punk Learners. Highlighting the power of DIY learning and constructivism I want my students to ‘get this’ on their own. I’m confident that they will – I know my kids! We will be using this document Punk Learners for the “spitting” starter.

“What did you learn at school today? Jack shit. The minute the teacher turns away. That’s it. How many times were you truly intrigued? Not any. Is boredom a symptom of mental fatigue? Not many” Jack Shit George, Ian Dury and the Blockheads

To crystallise what we have just learnt, a brief introduction of what the punk ethos is will be shown using this;  http://www.tubechop.com/watch/626585  This will explain the youth culture, the impact it had on music, fashion, imagery and importantly the very real idea of a DIY ethos. SMSC and exploration will be at the heart of this opening lesson. We are then going to answer this question; “What do you think we need, to be a Punk Learner?” – in groups we’re looking for ideas about taking risks, thinking for themselves, having a choice, doing stuff that they’re interesting in and learning about things differently.

I’m confident that one class will come up with these ideas as I have taught them all of last year and we worked on PBL together – the other class however, may come up with far more pedestrian ideas such as listen to the teacher, always raise hands, underline the title etc – only time will tell! All of the brainstorms, thought showers and punk pourings will be displayed in our room; I want my students to own their learning space. We will cover an entire wall of all our work, thoughts and ideas as a constant reference and also to show progress across the lessons.

We will then discuss what skills and attributes a Punk Learner needs – reminding them of Orwell, Darwin, J and any others we have agreed upon. These skills will underpin (or safety-pin) the successful learning that will take place. I will also articulate and clarify our manifesto: encouraging my students to endeavour to follow this throughout this experience, reminding them that they have made it their own. This is fundamental to Punk Learning being different and memorable. We’ll consolidate with a “Pogo” plenary.

“I was taught that to create anything you had to believe in failure, simply because you had to be prepared to go through an idea without any fear. Failure, you learned, as I did in art school, to be a wonderful thing. It allowed you to get up in the morning and take the pillow off your head.” Malcolm McLaren

Students will be given various scenarios to consider – such as: if we could design a classroom – what would it look like? If we had to set up a business – how would we do it? If we had to create a new language – what would it sound like? The question will be asked; how would a Punk Learner go about dealing with these? Leading nicely onto, how would a Punk Learner go about learning some Science…

My students will need to learn about Food and Digestion (one group will look solely at the digestive system while the other will look at that plus what is a balanced diet and where do we get it from). The next part I’m really excited about; this is where we are going to create the driving questions (or the punk questions) for the learning. We will be using Question Formulating Technique or QFT, I have written about this before here.

Using the first four stages of QFT, my students will have created a single, indeed several questions that they will want to answer that encourages curiosity and discovery and has potential for experimental, hands-on exploration. This is the key to the success of Punk Learning; the buy in from the students, the constructivist approach, this is the COMPLETE CONTROL that I am passing over to my students. QFT works, I know this because I have used it on numerous occasions and the reason I like it is because of the first stage – ‘the anything is possible stage’. When you ask students to list as many questions as they can about a certain topic or subject there is no ceiling; their imagination and creativity runs a mock; they get excited. They get worried in case their questions are seen to be silly; they get passionate about things that they’ve just thought about; they now have a desire to answer these questions – why? Because they’ve just come up with them.

The QFT idea reminds me of Egan’s Skilled Helper Model where a new scenario needs to be created to change a current dispersion, for me the creative part is the free-form stage of creating ideals and possibilities without worrying or taking into context practicalities, logistics or barriers – we have too many of them in learning, Punk Learning eradicates these.

“Penetrating voices going through my head, I haven’t listened to a thing they said, Always they removed the answers, I won’t suffer the consequences. Torn between the two, Right or wrong there is no answer, Don’t tell me what to do, It’s my choice I’m taking a chance yeah, Don’t dictate” Don’t Dictate - Penetration 

We will be using SOLO Taxonomy (both groups are experts in SOLO) to create our learning. Basically, my students will tell me what they will need to know, find out, remember, use and need to understand to answer their Punk questions. In essence I am asking them to write their own scheme of learning – detailing what knowledge and content they need to help them link and connect ideas in turn to create a new piece of learning that will answer our driving questions.

And what will I be doing? Do Punk Learners need a teacher? I know they do – based on my experience with PBL the teaching comes in the form of developing workshops in response to what I will notice in student work. This organic teaching will come in the form of mini-lessons, guided practice, application, sharing and critique. So I won’t be planning my ‘direct instruction’ monologues; instead, they will be delivered to groups and individuals when they require it – and if I can’t teach students “off the cuff” KS3 Science without the assistance of a PowerPoint behind me then I shouldn’t be bloody teaching!

“It’s a thing that’s worth, having yes I would. Buys you your life sir if it could. I…I want you. Autonomy. It leaves us all wondering and it should. On risking something for the good. I…I want you. Autonomy.” Autonomy – Buzzcocks

You need to watch this short video clip to understand (or be reminded of) what the Punk ethos is all about…

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/626585

The “Do it Yourself” culture of Punk is something that still holds today – think fashion, art, films, imagery, journalism and music or indeed a way of life. If you want to do something, then what’s stopping you? Take risks, do things differently, think for yourself and succeed. As the ‘Sniffing Glue” poster of 1977 (above) showed us – anyone can do it!

Arguably Punk was the most important social culture in its influence and legacy, encouraging kids in the suburbs to take up instruments, with little or no musical training. It represented a DIY ethos and a shake-up of the old-established order. It was a change.

And boy, do we need a change in this current educational landscape!

There were and are many reasons why Punk Learning has been launched, as Alternative TV once sang “Action Time and Vision”…well this was my own personal ATV. I was recently “reminded’ that I needed to fulfil my departmental obligation of producing 32 lesson’s worth of PowerPoint presentations for a Biology scheme of work…I declined the kind offer. Why? Is it because I am lazy? Well, yes I guess I am…but only in the Jim Smith ‘Lazy Teacher” type of way.

I’ll tell you why – it’s because I think it’s fundamentally wrong to have the audacity to choose or even guess how WE WANT our students to learn. Yes, of course we don’t have much say in what we are asking them to learn but do we really think it should be our decision or that we have the right or intelligence to understand how all of our students in our class want to learn.

(Talking about Britain’s school education) ”They take your soul away. They take your brains away. They don’t let you have an opinion that’s different from theirs. You’ve got to think what they tell you to think. So when you leave school, your only future is getting married. And by the time you’re about 29 you got two kids, and you just wanna commit suicide.” Johnny Rotten

I’ve recently seen and read lot’s of presentations on “giving students choice in the curriculum” which basically entails that the teacher is being really brave and asking students how many lessons they would like to spend on a certain piece of content – which is all very well, but come on!

The Punk Learning Manifesto states that WE as Punk Learners take risks, do things differently, think for ourselves and decide how we want to learn – this is DIY Learning!

As the great Sultans of Ping FC once sang “What do you think of my manifesto?” ”I like your manifesto, put it to the testo”

In John Hattie’s Visible Learning for Teacher – Maximizing Impact on Learning he talks about the need for teachers  to “…understand the attitudes and dispositions that students bring to the lesson, and aim to enhance theses so that they are a positive part of learning.”

Hattie in 2008 published work on his ‘rope model’ of self concept, arguing that there is no single strand underlying our self concept, but that it is made up of many concepts or ‘fibres’ of self. He points out that the major claim of this ‘rope model’ is that “students are “choosers” and aim to impose some sense of order, coherence, and predictability in their world; we make choices about how to interpret events, about alternative courses of action, and about the value of making these decisions or not” Hattie’s concludes that “A major purpose of schooling is to enable students to ‘back-themselves’ as learners of what we consider worth knowing”

And isn’t that what we’re striving for? Students “backing themselves” to succeed and being “choosers’ of their own learning? This is where Punk Learning comes in…

After Half Term I am teaching two Year 8 groups – both of these groups will be learning about Food and Digestion – specifically they will be learning about 1.growth, development, behaviour and health can be affected by diet 2.importance of healthy eating is complemented by regular exercise and 3.life processes are supported by the organisation of cells into tissues, organs and body systems (National Curriculum KS3 Science 2007)

They need to learn about what a balanced diet is, what the seven food groups do and where we get them from and how the digestive system works. Am I to assume that I know HOW all my students (48) will want to learn? Am I kidding myself that all of them will actually WANT to learn it? Where’s the buy in? What’s in it for them? And if you’ve just answered that question “because it will help them for their exams in KS4″ then you’re missing the point…

Recently I have been engrossed and inspired by Expeditionary Learning; Core Practices – A vision for improving schools. Thank you to Simon Brown for showing me the way on this one. I’ve successfully carried out PBL and am a huge advocate of it and I’ve used some of the Expeditionary Learning core practices to help me crystallise Punk Learning. In their vision they talk about “A Different Approach to Teaching and Learning” where;

• Learning is active
• Learning is challenging
• Learning is meaningful
• Learning is public
• Learning is collaborative

If you disagree with any of them, then I would recommend that you stop reading immediately. Or as Jean Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers once said to a Young Conservatives audience that they had been unintentionally booked for “You may as well go home now, cos’ you’re not going to like what we do”…or words to that effect!

Punk Learning – Part 1 will be published very soon.

“And so now I’d like to say – people can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks – I am one of them. But we’ve all got to stop just following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything – this is something that I’m beginning to learn.” Joe Strummer

References

• Expeditionary Learning; Core Practices – A vision for improving schools.
• Visible Learning for Teacher – Maximizing Impact on Learning. John Hattie 2012
• Oops! Helping children learn accidentally. Hywel Roberts 2012
• The Hidden Lives of Learners. Graham Nuthall 2007
• The Clash – Return of the Last Gang in Town. Marcus Gray 2003
• My Record Collection

This post would not have been written if it wasn’t for Hywel Roberts – thanks Hywel for getting me off my arse and getting me to do something!

…and now Punk Learning has been critiqued! Read here 

Welcome Back…..

If you haven’t read Chris Harte’s first blog post on SOLO Mysteries then click here “Brains on the SOLO Table – Part 1″

Relational and the Mystery “webbing’ and “sequencing’ stage

When students reach the webbing and sequencing stage the responses are qualitatively different (just like the huge jump of student understanding and thinking from multistructural to relational). The students are now linking the cards together in a coherent manner that will enable them to reach a conclusion that is consistent with the data. Here the student teams are moving towards theories and explanations. For me, this is the most fascinating stage as students’ reasoning skills are at the forefront – and if the mystery has been launched and devised appropriately the webbing and sequencing stage will promote effective social constructivist learning. There is a distinction both in the structure and cognitive difficulty of the two stages – the ‘sequencing’ stage will mean that students are finding and articulating linear connections between cards while “webbing” and ultimately more conceptually difficult, is where students are creating multiple connections between the cards.

Sequencing

Sequencing

Webbing

Webbing

Using hexagons as your card templates can certainly make the idea of making multiple connections clearer; Chris explains more about this here (hyperlink to http://chrisharte.typepad.com/learner_evolution_chris_h/2011/04/solo-im-ridin-solo.html) .