Addicted to questioning

In a study of owls in K-1 the curiosity is palpable.  Is this owl alive?  How did it die? Why are the feathers so soft?  Why is it called a barred owl, or a horned owl?  How do the wings work?  Can I touch it?   The questions rule the day.  Observational drawings come next.  Students are developing the skill of noticing details. And asking even more questions.  And then the teacher brings out...the owl pellets...!

In this article in MindShift, How to Bring More Beautiful Questions Back to School, Katerina Schwartz  contends that after about age 5 or 6, questioning falls off.  Yet a questioning mind is a highly desired skill in any modern work place - it's the value added in the technology age.

For questioning minds to thrive, children need lots of time - not a curriculum that "covers" material. They need a culture that rewards intellectual risk-taking - not one that penalizes wrong answers.  

Schwatrz says, "Kids are lighting up their pleasure zones and getting dopamine hits every time they learn something that solves something they were curious about."  Sounds addictive!

Effective teachers set up a topic and trigger questioning - then find ways to follow where kids' curiosity takes them.  They allow for a deep dive into a juicy problem or topic.  What's the result? A classroom filled with knowledge addicts - confident kids who crave to question and to learn more.

Vera's drawing of the barred owl's wing

Dissecting owl pellets

How often do students get to do important work?

Once a student creates work of value for an authentic audience beyond the classroom -- work that is sophisticated, accurate, important and beautiful -- that student is never the same. When you have done quality work, deeper work, you know you are always capable of doing more.                           ~Ron Berger

Ron Berger is an amazing educator.  He used to teach fifth grade in Western Massachusetts, and is now Chief Program Officer at Expeditionary Learning Schools.  He wrote two books that we use as a guide for how we teach at Parker: A Culture of Quality and An Ethic of Excellence.  I love these books.  

I recommend that you read an article he wrote that is part of a series about Deeper Learning in Edutopia, Highlighting Student Work. Ron writes about the exceptional work that is possible for every student to produce.  When students have projects with an authentic purpose, that are done for real reasons and audiences beyond the teacher, they can rise to heights they didn't know were possible.  

This is what we strive for at Parker.  Stream to River in 2-3 and 6-7, the Thesis Project in 8th, and our upcoming hydrogen fuel cell project with local company Plug Power all come to mind.  When 6-7's present their persuasive arguments about energy to the executives at Plug Power, their ideas and delivery will matter.  High stakes - high expectations - high motivation - high achievement.

Work worth doing

At the recent Next World Conference, Thomas Freidman hosted a panel on challenges in education.  Tony Wagner from Harvard's Innovation Lab said, "Content knowledge has to be engaging to kids.  If kids aren’t motivated, you can pour content knowledge in their heads and it comes right out the other ear."  Richard Miller, president and professor at Olin College said he hoped that "...students will leave school thinking about how they can change the world, not about what job they will get."

STEM projects are inherently motivating to most kids and there is a move in education circles to emphasize them as vehicles for igniting imagination, cooperation and innovation. We have certainly seen this to be true at Parker.  From the middle school's Engine Project, Rube Goldberg Challenge, STEM week and First LEGO League competition to designing water wheels in second and third grade, students love these projects.

There are also many projects beyond STEM that engage students.  It seems to be immersion and choice within a topic that are the most motivating factors.  Students, when given agency within a framework, gleefully embrace the biggest and most complex - or even small or tedious - challenges.

Witness the recent areas of study across the grades at Parker.  Students worked in and out of school, in their spare time, feverishly near the end, to build models of historic regional landscapes (2-3) or displays of historic change-makers (4-5).  Kindergarteners carefully researched, drew, wrote, and invited peers and parents to an exhibition about communities.  8th graders honed speeches and coordinated photographs, made soup and researched world hunger to mount their complex and compelling Empty Bowls event. 

Basic skills like reading, writing, and problem solving were practiced.  The content knowledge gained was topic-specific and rich in detail and nuance.  Students also learned those larger lessons that are embedded in the school's mission: passion, curiosity and confidence.  And they practiced values like responsibility and ethics.

In a curriculum designed around projects of all types, students get to do work worth doing.  What a difference it can make!

Getting to a Deeper Level of Learning

Creating rich learning experiences that move young minds beyond factual memory - experiences that require them to dig deep for understanding - is a goal here at Parker.  On a walk through classrooms on Friday here are a few of the activities I saw that engendered deeper thinking:

4-5 students had divided into to teams to write several bills for the state legislature. They were deciding which bills were worthy of taking all the way through the legislative process in a mock session.  Bills and laws sponsored by Parker assembly members and senators that were deemed worthy: Recess Law, Medication Bill and Apple Pie Bill (new state dessert).

6th graders were launching toy cars around the room, making them crash.  They were testing Newton's laws of force and motion by sending one car faster than the one it hit, or at the same speed, and investigating and interpreting the results.  Next up: teams began brainstorming and drawing designs for Rube-Goldberg contraptions that would demonstrate five types of energy transfer.

Pre K students were baking pumpkin bread. "Cooking calls for identifying, sorting, ordering, measuring, counting, timing and observing, while at the same time providing exercise of small motor skills," teacher JoAnn Bennett says.  To find out about more the learning that happens while cooking together, scroll down in JoAnn's Pre K blog to the Looking Deeper section. 

Katarina Schwatrz in her article Beyond Knowing Facts: How Do We Create Rich Learning Experiences for All Students describes the competencies that define deeper learning:  mastering content, critical thinking, effective written and oral communication, collaboration, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets.

Deeper learning is a crucial component for developing curiosity, passion and confidence.  Plus, it's just so fun!