I initially began by asking myself – “how can my middle school students know and use a thoughtful design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems? Specifically speaking when creating an argument how can my student’s design and test their ideas to solve their genuine problems?” I know there are a bunch of Problem Based Units and Project Based Learning inquiry curriculum already out there to work with, but I am not really looking to completely change my curriculum focus. I am looking to implement and apply the design process in the middle of a pretty formulaic instance of teaching my eighth-grade school students how to create a well-structured argumentative essay. They already have a choice with their topics, and therefore it is up to me to set up the classroom to foster their creativity. As ISTE said in their recent blog post “Here’s How you Teach Innovative Thinking,” “in order to thrive in a more complicated world, students will need to understand how to work collaboratively with collective intelligence. Collaboration necessitates communication. Solutions require tenacity, creativity, and critical thinking. While students need to possess core knowledge and skills, for the demands of the Innovation Age” (2016, January 19).
While trying to discover if my triggering question had answers, I came across some interesting and helpful resources. I ended narrowing my focus after reading a publication created by the “The Capacity Building Series” which is produced by the Student Achievement Division to support leadership and instructional effectiveness in Ontario, Canada schools (The Third Teacher). You can find out more information about their mission at this website. It is about designing the best learning environment for your students and “they suggest, [it] is “the third teacher” that can either enhance the kind of learning that optimizes our students’ potential to respond creatively and meaningfully to future challenges or detract from it” (2012, pg. 1). If the learning environment is set up in the right way, it can foster more design thinking from the students. The piece published by the Student Achievement Division also alludes to their methods connecting into students want of mystery and wonder, which builds off of my last blog post about empowering researchers. It then goes into a brief overview of some points you could follow for your whole classroom setup. I want to focus on the section about developing the social environment, specifically on number four and five, “Encourage real-world problem solving & Build self-efficacy” (2012, pg. 4-5). I think I might adapt their four roles that all students should take on; Meaning-Maker, Code User, Text User, and Text Analyzer and have student begin their work of argumentative writing by collaborating with their groups. They will collaborate to come up with a problem that they could argue and then work towards a solution or theory on solving it. Their argument should include a solid call to action which is reasonable and realistic. Something that their own peer group could accomplish almost immediately if they were so inspired. This publication about capacity helps expand the idea of designing and how I might facilitate the thought process with the way I set up this classroom activity.
So in the end, I want them to use their teams to come up with a real-world issue and a way to solve it. The students will work together to come up with a claim/thesis about the topic. The roles will help my middle schoolers stay accountable to their other members. The following Teach Channel video is in a ninth-grade classroom and with literature but the collaborative formula is similar. I want to add a collaborative technology into my situation and I think I would use Google Docs to allow the students to all simultaneously add and edit at the same time.
Resources:
Institute of Design at Stanford. An introduction to design thinking process guide. Retrieved from https://dschool.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf?sessionID=bef23daa7cc7c1d9e7f454f972105619a28d08ba
ISTE Connects. (2016, January 19). Here’s how you teach innovative thinking. International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=651
Mindshift, Sketchnote is by Sylvia Duckworth
Rosenzweig, J. (2012). Small Group Writing. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/high-school-writing-lesson-idea#
The Third Teacher Designing the Learning Environment for Mathematics and Literacy, K to 8. (2012, July). Retrieved February 7, 2017, from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_ThirdTeacher.pdf
Other Potential Helpful Resources:
Book outline Problems as Possibilities by Linda Torp and Sara Sage: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/101064/chapters/What_Does_Problem-Based_Learning_Look_Like_in_Classrooms%C2%A2.aspx
Design Thinking Unit Planning Sheet: http://www.caisca.org/event_info/320/presentation.pdf
