What's cool
in middle school? That's a tough question for anyone over, say,
age 13. But as a teacher of gifted adolescents in suburban Atlanta,
I can tell you what isn't cool: It is not cool to take schoolwork
to lunch. (The word punishment comes more readily to
mind.) And it's definitely not cool to ask to take schoolwork
to lunch.
Which is
what my student Tyler and his friend did last year after I introduced
a mapping project that combined technology with constructivist
teaching practices. The idea was to have the students divide
into teams and design cost-effective and ecologically sensitive
road projects on imaginary regional maps.
Tyler is
unusually intelligent. He's also a class clown, more interested
in making the work seem effortless than in actually doing it.
(This is seventh grade, remember.) So "floored" would
be the best way to describe my reaction when Tyler and his friend
asked to work on their maps at lunch -- something they did for
the next two weeks.
There was
nothing unique about the response to my mapping project. I've
received similar reactions to other activities that combined
technology and a new, more experiential way of teaching. I've
used a stock market game with my sixth-graders and helped other
students form imaginary companies that build paper airplanes.
The point is that the class moved from a teacher-
centered,
lecture-oriented format to a more student-centered one devoted
to problem-based activities. And technology helped make it happen.
More
than technology
As any
educator in 2001 knows, technology is playing a large part in
efforts to reform education. But technology itself won't be
enough to accomplish the needed changes. A shift in pedagogy
must also occur, one that includes the use of best teaching
practices and constructivism.
Research
has shown that computers have changed the way teachers approach
various topics. That is as true in north Georgia as it is across
North America. Teachers are emphasizing small-group collaboration
and allowing students to choose their own software and other
materials. Technology is becoming a stimulus for change that
empowers both the teacher and the student.
My school,
Lovejoy Middle School, lies about 20 miles south of downtown
Atlanta in a booming suburb where new roads and homes are being
built at an astonishing pace. Along with that growth have come
problems common to many suburbs: smog, traffic congestion, creeping
urbanization, and the loss of natural areas.
Of course,
some of my students were well aware of these problems, if not
totally versed in the issues that underlie them. For the road-building
project, I wanted them to wrestle with some of the same questions
that confound adults in our community every day: How do you
accommodate growth and still preserve open space? How do you
develop road systems that meet the region's transportation needs
while minimizing the environmental impact?
Most of
my students knew something about endangered species. The project
helped them to build on that knowledge, to put it in context
and use their new understanding to solve complex problems.
We formed
"construction companies" of about four students each. The companies
were charged with creating road systems and master development
plans while attempting to protect the environment and please
the residents. Toward the end of the project, the groups gave
multimedia presentations to an elected classroom "council,"
which determined the contract-winning proposal.
By dividing
into groups, we created an environment in which students could
share materials, ideas, and knowledge. Through collaboration,
they learned to recognize that there are multiple ways of approaching
a problem and that the best course is often a matter of interpretation.
My role was to be a facilitator and a content expert, to provide
resources and feedback, to pose questions, and to keep the class
focused.
Questions
and analysis
To begin,
the students were asked to pose questions in their groups and
then use the Internet to investigate environmental and development
issues. The students also used e-mail to query local officials,
institutions, and experts. One day, a member of the region's
Greenspace Commission attended class to answer students' questions.
Students
were asked to choose a region of the country for their projects,
and, not surprisingly, most chose the Southeast. Their imaginary
regional maps contained forests, hills, marshes, and rivers.
The groups were asked to create a nature preserve as part of
their development plan. They used a semantic mapping software
program to organize their work in a visual manner. Later, the
semantic map was used in an outline and included in the final
presentation.
This type
of project is contextualized; that is, the students encountered
learning assignments that were based in some real-life task
or simulated through a problem-based activity. As they planned
their road systems and developments, they were faced with environmental
and economic concerns. All the property they "destroyed" incurred
a "price-per-mile" or a "price-per-lot" charge as they "constructed"
roads and buildings. As they analyzed their designs, they experimented
with various options to best contain their costs.
Entering
data into a spreadsheet program allowed them to determine the
monetary costs of their development plans before deciding on
final proposals. The students had to then integrate their findings
on the monetary costs with their knowledge of the environmental
costs. As the challenge became more complex, the students reformulated
and retested their ideas to create their final development plans.
They became problem finders as well as problem solvers.
The final
assessment was a multimedia presentation by each group. Some
of the information that various groups chose to include were
the company name, logo, slogan, and mission statement; the completed
development blueprint; the nature preserve plan and justification;
the monetary costs incurred; the environmental costs incurred;
and a sales pitch convincing the class council to hire their
company.
In addition
to multimedia/presentation software, the students used other
technology, including scanners to insert blueprints, other drawings,
and pictures; digital cameras to photograph company members
and other images; and drawing software for logo designs. Some
groups also enhanced their presentations with video and music.
Before
the final presentations, the students selected a small group
of peers to be the class council, which would make the final
decision on awarding a development contract. Each group presented
its proposal to the council members, who posed questions and
made comments. These discussions created a reflective learning
environment in which students had to analyze what they thought,
felt, and learned. They had to compare and contrast their ideas
with those of their classmates and discuss the issues involved.
An
empowering tool
To improve
classroom instruction, educators need to consider both what
is being taught and how it is being taught. At every grade level
and in all subjects, students need to learn particular skills.
These include being able to form precise questions, search for
relevant information, generate good reasons, analyze key concepts,
derive reasonable inferences, recognize questionable information,
and think within different points of view.
As the
mapping project shows, teachers can help by creating an environment
and structure that encourage students to think both critically
and creatively -- yes, even in seventh grade, and even if their
minds are often on something other than school. Technology
alone can't teach children to become competent thinkers. But
combined with the best teaching practices, it can act as an
empowering educational tool and a stimulus for change.
Katherine
Williams
is a teacher at Lovejoy Middle School in Lovejoy, Ga.
