Images of Greatness 2011: Letting it Rip...

 When working with a group of students who you do not know, and asking them to produce a large project in a few short days is a huge "leap of faith".  

This is the Challenge Centre.....letting the students "Go For It..." and creating something spectacular.  I have to rely on the fact that  I am asking them to step out of their comfort zone and create projects that are open ended and do not have a specific format.  I want them to decide on how they will share their learning and create their own interpretations.

 I give the students lots of criteria, show them lots of examples, and give them lots of options. 

 However, I rely on them to come up with their projects.  I am there to help them and facilitate the learning, but I really leave it up to them to decide what they want to create. 

 For some students, this is new and frightening.  For others, this is what they always do.  However, I have clear expectations about how we make this place safe so that all of our learning, wherever we are, is encouraged, and accepted.

 Celebrated. 

 In this particular unit, I wanted students to learn from the lives of "famous" people....and take this learning and apply to their own lives.  I want them to ask themselves, "What did this person do?"   and "Why are their accomplishments important to us, now?"  and "what hardships did this person have to overcome?".

 I also encouraged students to dress "in role" of the person they studied, to get into character of being this person.  Because of time constraints, and depending upon who the person is, some students were able to be in role, while others found it more difficult.

Students were encouraged to bring in laptops to work on their projects

 Many chose to do powerpoint presentations: this one is on Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party

 A great project on Leonardo daVinci

 An alphabet book about Steve Jobs

 Martin Luther King Jr.

 Products of learning:  a model (bird's eye view) of Washington Monument when MLK jr. made his famous "I have a dream" speech

 Model of Martin Luther King Jr.

 Backboard projects

A painting

 Model of Anne Frank's annex; where her family and her hid; an interesting interpretation of the project....I appreciated the diversity of ideas.

 Time line of Anne Frank's life

 Project on David Suzuki; well researched and displayed.

 Project on Nefertiti, in a question and answer format.

An alphabet book was a popular choice.

 Queen Elizabeth 1

 Nefertiti time line...tea stained to make it look like an artifact.

Models of DaVinci's famous inventions.

I encourage the students to experiment, and make mistakes. I encourage them to try new things.....for example, one student spent a great deal of time on a product of learning and then decided not to use it in her presentation.  It was a valuable lesson and learning opportunity to realize we create things that may not be part of our overall plan, but it is still worthwhile to explore.

I was impressed with all the hard work and valuable learning.  We crammed all of our presentations into the afternoon and a bit of the morning, and we barely had time for questions, or feedback.

As well, I had no time to edit and proofread student's work.  If I had them for another day or two, I would have built this into the program -  so much of the work is not edited and in its "raw format".  I am always struggling with this aspect of the program, but since we have such as short time together, I have to "let this go", so to speak.

Thank you grade six and sevens; you are well on your way to being powerful and engaged learners!