Exciting Examples of Project-Based Learning in the Northeast - Posted by Cady Staff

There is an inspiring collection of schools in the Northeast working on exciting projects with their students. They are a concentrated group of innovators and collaborators at Darlington Learning Village, George Stephenson High School, Cramlington Learning Village and Park View School.

Darlington is challenging every department to use project-based learning strategies to design meaningful projects for their students. They are planning to get the structures and support in place for project-based learning to take root in Year 7. Currently, they are planning a day-long workshop (in June) inviting student leaders from a variety of schools developing project-based learning. These student leaders will be trained in critique and project planning to support the further development of project-based learning at their school sites around the area.

George Stephenson High School has a program called iLearn that takes students out of their ability groupings to focus on collaboration and skill-building in Year 7. They are looking to strengthen their iLearn projects even more and use more critique to create beautiful work across Year 7 during iLearn and beyond. They know that if iLearn goes well, students will crave more meaningful projects as they move throughout their high school experience.

Cramlington Learning Village has been a leader of innovation and project-based learning for some time.  When I mention working on project-based learning in England, I am often asked if I have visited the Cramlington Learning Village. I can now say that I have. There is consistently more impressive student work being displayed around the school with each new project (the picture above and to the right is an example of a school-wide project displayed recently). They are working on tuning projects across the school to promote more quality project work. They are also gearing up for their Fortnight (two-weeks of intensive projects across the school that students sign up for in completely re-mixed groupings) which will take place in June.

Park View is also using project tunings and critique to strengthen the projects they are working on and to present beautiful work. There is a great focus on making community connections and improving the community surrounding the school (and in the wide world beyond). There are strong local community connections being made, as well as school links with a school in Nigeria. I was so impressed with the work I saw in one of the Year 12 classes working on a project inspired by Randy Scherer’s Tagature Project. The students in Alison Moore’s class were creating beautiful work and giving thoughtful kind, helpful and specific feedback to each other, strengthening next drafts.

There is really so much to celebrate in the Northeast. I am looking forward to returning in June to see how their projects are developing further and to be a part of the workshop for student leaders at each school site. If you are interested in exciting innovation going on in UK schools, I highly recommend a trip to the Northeast (with a stop off at the Angel of the North, on your way).

Yewlands, Sowing Seeds of Change - Posted by Cady Staff

Yewlands is putting so much thought and positive energy into really creating a strong project-based learning experience for their incoming Year 7 students next year. Over the past month, they have tuned initial project ideas; they have brought in consultants to offer expertise (focusing on Maths and Literacy); they have thoughtfully presented their plans for next year to their whole staff; they have been working on transforming the timetable for Year 7 to make the necessary structural changes for project-based learning to work best; and they have been working with their feeder primary schools to help transition incoming students and families.

Project Tunings

We used this Project Tuning Protocol to tune project ideas including a project proposed by Lucie called Re-Inventing the Wheel (challenging students to create simple machines to solve problems) and a Survival Project designed by Dean and Carolyn with the driving question: how would we survive in a post-apocalyptic world? The group has been including current Year 7 students in their project tunings and incorporating both teacher and student passions in order to set foundations for more engagement.

Planning Transition Day

The Year 7 teachers have also been planning a project for Transition Day, when the incoming Year 7 students get their first experience working together at Yewlands. They have been co-planning a transition project with primary teachers that will be done in the majority of the primary feeder schools. Students will then be coming in from a variety of different schools for the Yewlands Transition Day (July 4^th). On that day, Year 7 teachers will lead a project that will allow them to get to know their students and their passions; and give incoming students the chance to pitch and plan their first field trip together at Yewlands.

Celebrating Current Beautiful Work and Recruiting Supporters

During my time at Yewlands, I have gotten to meet with many different teachers who are currently developing or have previously done beautiful project work with their students.  For example, I met with David Blake (a Design and Technology teacher) about his work on the annual Christmas Fayre. This meeting pointed out how there are already impressive pockets of project-based learning at Yewlands. Besides the beautiful work created and sold at the Christmas Fayre for a charity, I also saw evidence of great project-based learning happening in the rooms I visited that day with David. For example, I walked into a cooking class and students had just baked amazing pastries and breads that were truly real world, delicious work. What could be more authentic than savoring your project by eating it and serving it to others? Their proud instructor emphasized how they cannot truly understand the concepts and science behind the cooking until they get to work - experimenting and seeing the principles in action. When we left the Design and Technology area, I saw the current Year 7s asking each other survey questions and tallying the answers – already getting used to more interactive and dynamic ways of working together.

Presenting to the Staff

Yewlands has been planning for some exciting and bold changes for next year with a core group of school leaders and teachers. They really allowed the teachers involved to drive the planning process and make decisions about BIG ideas and structures for next year. It seems easier and more natural to trust and empower your students when you feel trusted and empowered, yourself, as a teacher, first. The teachers involved have been entrusted and empowered through this planning process. Once a plan materialized that could be communicated and shared with the whole staff, the teacher-leaders were given the chance to present their plan and the thoughts/ inspiration behind it. Their presentation and the meeting went really well. More and more teachers are interested in becoming involved in “the movement” towards enquiry-based/ project-based learning. The key seems to be that the program Yewlands is creating is being driven by the teachers and students themselves. They made a conscious choice to have the teachers present to the staff about work they are excited about, rather than having school leaders present a plan that must be followed.

Visiting High Tech High

Next month, a core group of school leaders and teachers involved in transforming Year 7 next year (along with school leaders and teachers from primary schools in the area) will be visiting High Tech High.  They are planning a visit that will focus on their enquiries and help them strengthen their plans for next year.

Next Steps…

Every step of the way, Yewlands has been building a strong foundation for the changes ahead. Every week, I look forward to being a part of the next step of the process. They are sowing the seeds of change as they inspire and recruit more and more willing, enthusiastic planters in their midst. It is not a sweeping change that is being forced on a school, but rather change that has been carefully planted over time. The blossoming of beautiful work is naturally strengthening the interest and enthusiasm for project-based learning at Yewlands.

Final Chapter of the ACS Sign Design Project - Posted by Cady Staff

At Atherton Community School, two sessions before our scheduled field trips to the Bolton Design Centre and the new school construction site, we had students build individual cereal boxes with their personal logos and branding.  We wanted the students to think about the deeper meaning behind signage by creating a sign to represent themselves, first. They shared their personal cereal boxes with their peers before we broke them up in groups of four for their next challenge. In their groups, students developed logos for their school representing both their individual logos and a connection they shared. Students went through the design process to create strips for a display tube that would then house their individual cereal boxes in the school. It was truly a spirited day of design challenges and creativity!

On our last project day at school before our field trips, we divided students into three groups for three rotating challenges. Students worked on symbolic representations in one class, a design challenge focusing on budgeting limited resources in another class, and researching subject area topics and quotes in their last class. It was a calmer day having the students rotate in smaller groups, rather than working as a large team.

Field Trip Days       

Students were divided into two groups of 20 and 21 during our two field trip days. One of the groups went to the Bolton Design Centre to work on designing signs for the new school, along with creating sign samples on the laser printer. The other group worked on their exhibition presentation preparation and got to go on a walking field trip to the construction site of the new school building. I was really impressed by how well the Bolton Design Centre organized the day of team building and design challenges for the students. I also learned so much about Atherton on our walking field trip to the construction site of their new school building (which is rebuilding the old high school). Some of the teachers worked at the old school building and I learned about the history of the school. Atherton Community School is filling the gap left behind in the community when the old high school closed.

Presentations and Exhibition

The final step of the Sign Design project involved students presenting their learning to each other, their teachers, their parents and to a panel of school leaders and architects. In their Sign Design groups of four, students created PowerPoint presentations using these Roles and Guidelines. Students presented their laser cut sign prototypes and their top design idea to Chloe Andersen, an architect working on the signage for the new building. After formal presentations to their peers, teachers and architect (who completed a Rubric the students were given beforehand), students exhibited their work to parents and community members at a Friday exhibition and showcase of both the process and final work.  As one teacher described the communication exhibition by saying, “There was a real buzz about the place!”

For more details on this project, please visit the Sign Design Project Web Page.

The Goole Docks Project Update - Posted by Cady Staff

It was so wonderful to have the time to really plan out the Goole Docks Project before we started it off with our group of Year 9 students. After Louise came back from her trip to High Tech High, she said she was energized and inspired, and definitely wanted to do the project first, which is advice that Jeff Robin (a brilliant art teacher at High Tech High) gives any teacher involved in project-based learning. Here is a video created by Jeff Robin called WhatPBL Is, which emphasizes the merits of doing the project first. (Here is a link to more videos created by Jeff Robin.)

Louise and I spent some of the day meeting and planning with Helen. Helen is helping to coordinate Goole Studio School, opening next year, and she is a logistical genius when it comes to juggling community connections and planning fieldtrips. She helped us plan the Goole Docks fieldtrip that was coming up in a couple of weeks and she helped organize interviews with Goole Dock workers (scheduled for two weeks after our project kick-off).

After our meeting with Helen, I shared a project web page template with Louise and we worked on filling it in with information about the Goole Docks Project. Louise totally took ownership of the web page and continues to update it with the project plan and resources for students. You can visit the Goole Docks 2013: Part I project web page here.

On part of the web page, we created a shared calendar and began mapping out each day with the students. We also decided to create a book as a final product, as well as a visual display for the exhibition. This first part of the Goole Docks Project will be built on next year in the Studio School as students delve deeper into answering the question: What can be done with an empty dock?

Doing the Project Ourselves, First

We did the project ourselves (including the field trip) before the students during the half-term break. We went to the Goole Docks, drove the route we would drive the students around and we completed each step involved in creating a chapter for the Goole Docks book. We recorded our interview with Daniel Wells during our trial field trip. Later, we transcribed that interview to complete an example of our book chapter for students. We used our example on the project web page to help guide students as they go through the same process.

Goole Docks Fieldtrip

Slideshows of Student Work 

After many hours of planning and working with community connections, the dream of the Goole Docks field trip became a reality. Students interacted with Goole Dock workers, experienced a boat and driving tour of the docks, and then met in the boardroom to discuss the future of the Goole Docks. It was a successful, inspiring kick-off to the project.

The Interviews

The next step of the project was when all of the interviewees came to Goole to be interviewed by students about the past and their vision for the future. Students divided into groups of 3-4 and conducted interviews with six different individuals connected with the Goole Docks. They gave up half of their day to answer students questions and get their pictures taken for the book. Students were a little nervous at the start, but really got into their interviews. They recorded the interviews on iPads, checked out from the school for the day. 

The next step of the process was transcribing the interviews and choosing their favourite few quotes and summarizing the heart of the stories they heard. Following the interviews and a project work day, all of the Goole students had a day off the normal time schedule. A group of 40 students who signed up for a Project-Based Learning day worked on thank you notes for the interviewees, designed the cover for the book and created artwork for each portrait.  The project and the book are well on their way…