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Literacy and Math through Making - Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

2/22/2019

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
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By: Melesa Swartz

Today, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Rachael our leader had us do many different activities after reading children’s books to us. The first book was The Dot, by Peter Reynolds about a young child who was apprehensive about drawing. She eventually was able to help someone else after her teacher helped her feel better about her drawing.

After reading this book, we had to use markers to draw circles on our tables. We drew circles of various sizes; we drew circles inside of circles; we filled in circles, etc. We eventually had to move tables and add to circles already created. Finally, we had to make the circles into gardens.

I do something similar to this in my PHYS 340 class. We talk about how everyone interprets things differently. I have students draw a squiggle and trade papers with a peer. The peer then has to draw a picture from the squiggle. I often get snakes or roller coasters, but sometimes I get a more unique picture, like this alien.

Next, we made scribble bots. While I am somewhat familiar with them, I had never actually made one myself. I loved that everyone made a unique one. Some had three markers, some had four. One group even made a fan on their bot. I was able to see this because we each got a chance to talk about our bots and discuss what went well and what did not go well.

I really enjoyed our next book, Flashlight by Lizi Boyd. It is about a child walking through the forest at night with a flashlight. There are no words in the book. The photos on each page are of what the flashlight is focusing on as well as other background scenery that is quite gray. It was pointed out by others in the class that some of the animals were reoccurring on each page, making the book like an I-spy book.

After reading this book, we were walked through how to make our own flashlights. My mind was already planning how I could use this activity with my students and elementary students. We have an optical illusion STEAM event coming up with the aid of a SWN grant I helped write. We are discussing shadows and this could go right along with it. In addition, my students are running science demos and hands-on activities during the science fair. This would be a great make and take activity, but I worry about the costs. The copper tape is costly, apparently. In general, this is a great activity to talk about actively observing surroundings.

The next book we read was Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. This book is about how someone can see a box for its potential. A box isn’t just a box; it could be a rocket ship or a mountain. My own kiddos love to make cars and forts out of boxes.

From this book, our activity was to make a sculpture of our choosing out of recycled materials. I saw a small container that looked like the bottom two portions of a snowman and I really enjoyed making the flashlight and scribble bot with lights. I decided to make a snowman with a nose that lit up too. Some of the other sculptures that were made were a musical man (maraca and drum), an airplane, and a pontoon boat.

The afternoon was spent using fiber. We first learned how to weave using cardboard looms. I was working on an Easter basket here. We discussed how it could be used for making a scene from a book, self-portrait, and more.

We were read the book Bugs in a blanket by Beatrice Alemagna. It is about a little bug that is excited about meeting new friends so they can dance in a blanket. When he gets to the blanket, he discovers that all of the bugs are different, some are big, some are little, some are different colors, and some even have different sized features. It is discussed that even though they were all born the way they are, they can all dance together in the blanket and be friends.

The activity we completed after this book was so therapeutic. We used thick foam with felt over the top of it to create our own creative expression using wool roving and the felting needles/holders. My youngest is in love with unicorns so I made one using the roving, which they said was dyed using Kool-aid. I am wondering if cotton balls could be used for a cheaper version. I may have a new hobby.We finished the day by finger weaving. We used thick yarn to make long chains. It was also calming.

I really enjoyed my day at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. I highly recommend attending a workshop there in the future. Their ideas and goals align well with our ideals within Fluency.

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The Evolution of a Culminating Assessment: Throw Some Fluency on That!

2/8/2019

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This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
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By: Kristen Fischer

My colleague Wendy and I joke that sometimes, an assignment or unit needs a little “sprinkle” of fluency: “How can I throw some ‘Fluency’ into this?” isn’t an unusual line for us. While it isn’t always a one-step process and usually isn’t as easy as it sounds, I’ve had some successes. The evolution of my culminating assessment for The Crucible is an example.

I’ve taught Arthur Miller’s The Crucible almost every year of my career, and in three different schools, each with different cultures. I’ve rarely taught it the same way, or assessed it the same way, more than once—not even in the same school. For those unfamiliar, the play depicts the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, with some basis in actual history, but is also meant as an allegory of the McCarthy era.

At first, my culminating assessment focused on theme, or some other literary element. I do think this work has a rightful place in ELA classrooms, but many students aren’t engaged by that work, and the internet offers endless temptation for inauthentic shortcuts. (These days, I usually make these in-class exercises or formative assessments of smaller point value.)

Later, I introduced a research element, where students looked at how a concept--such as pride--functions in the play, and compared it to a real-world scenario. It involved some choice, and some research; it was better, but not great.

Since my work with The Fluency Project, my culminating assignment for this unit has take a much more relevant direction: I threw some Fluency into the mix.

By the end of Fluency “boot camp” during my first summer of involvement, I crafted the Witch Hunt Infographic Project, which involving researching modern-day witch hunts, creating an infographic displaying numbers and narratives about a chosen incident, and writing a one-page analysis of how the Salem events and chosen event were similar. My advocacy element consisted of a gallery walk to review the prevalence and diversity of witch hunts and of a discussion on preventing and combating them. Both the students and I enjoyed this project, and it also challenged students to produce contemporary media that would engage and educate each other.

Though mostly satisfied, my teacher brain is rarely at rest, and I inevitably struggled with some aspects of the project. Some students wanted to look at topics that weren’t quite witch hunts, yet seemed to have some connection worth looking into, and I wondered how to frame my assignment so it would welcome these inquiries. Additionally, while the project engaged students in the traditional skills of researching, reading, analyzing, and writing, I wanted deeper analysis, and I also wanted to amplify the writing and research more.

This fall, I themed my unit around misinformation and how misinformation can be used to empower and disempower. While studying the play, we looked at fallacies used by some in power—like Danforth, Parris, and Putnam—to preserve their power, and how circulators of misinformation—like Giles Corey, or perhaps Hale, at times—sometimes did so unknowingly, for various reasons ranging from ignorance to confirmation bias, yet perpetuated injustice by doing so. We looked at testimony from 1692 and the 1950s (primary source documents!) to examine what this looked like in history, not just literature. At the end of the play, after a “Can you spot the fake news?” activity, the students worked in groups to complete a new assignment: a three-part misinformation project, which involved investigating an incident of misinformation and analyzing its roots, consequences, and more. Topics ranged from historical incidents (The Cardiff Giant, the June Bug Epidemic, from my list of suggestions) to present-day 2016-election related subjects.

This misinformation project involved an annotated bibliography (skills: researching, reading, summarizing, and evaluating), an outline (skills: formatting, organizing, citing, and deciding between quotes, summaries, or paraphrasing), and a public service announcement on a misinformation-related topic, such as responsible social media usage of confirmation bias (skills: analyzing audience & purpose, articulating & supporting an argument, designing, and more).

I concede that this culminating project took longer than my prior projects. Maybe I am okay with that, or maybe I will look for ways to expedite the unit in the future; I’d also like to improve how I circulate the PSAs. Nonetheless, my students have a deep understanding of the consequences of misinformation, and have looked critically at the media they consume. They also became producers of media themselves. The project is my favorite version so far, and surely the most rigorous one.

So, this is one version of what happens when you “sprinkle some Fluency” on a unit!

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Literacy and Math through Making - Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

The Evolution of a Culminating Assessment: Throw Some Fluency on That!

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