Service Projects, Games and Mascots

All ten of my homeroom students are in the early stages of planning service projects for Summers-Knoll.

• Isobel is matching middle schoolers with kindergarteners and first graders in a buddy program.
• Jianmarco is outlining the parameters and logistics of an SK student government. Mike is helping him.
• Saul is organizing work crews, using the Scattergood system as a model: atrium clean-up, teacher assistance, that kind of thing.
• Trent is focusing that effort upon the PE program--figuring out which equipment we might acquire, how to arrange the materials we have, providing some assistance with the younger students.
• Danny is coordinating with Trent and Dr. George to construct a gaga pit for use on the playground and in PE classes. Ask the kids what a gaga pit is--it was a big hit at the Howell Nature Center.
• Jonathan is developing designs for outdoor areas: the courtyard just outside the atrium; the one between the garage and the main building; the space bordered by the art room and library. He has plans for themed gardens.
• Denali, a talented artist, is planning a mural for one of these outdoor spaces, consulting with Val, Tracy, and Joanna.
• Taylor is working with Evan and Dr. George to create a technology best practices document for all members of the SK community--students as well as adults.
• Mike is taking the lead on the kindergarten playground. (Val's children wanted a swimming pool, which we've amended to 'some kind of water feature'.)
• With Taylor's assistance, Evan is drawing up plans for the development of SK's athletic program. This will entail both intramural and interscholastic sports. This will embrace conventional competition, like basketball, track & field, and cross-country, as well as modified versions befitting a small school like ours, like futsal or five-a-side soccer. Better still--this is my favorite part--Evan and Taylor are developing proposals for interscholastic competition in non-traditional sports, including--but not limited to--kickball, quidditch, rip-stik, zombie tag, paper-rock-scissors, and so forth.

In a related development, and in a similar spirit, Jason's newspaper EB asked for suggestions on the following question: What should Summers-Knoll's mascot be? When our teams take the court--or whatever (where does a thumb-wrestling match occur?)--they just might do so under one of the following monikers . . . . .

Argonauts
Astronauts
Cats
Dogs
Dragons
Fireflies
Hobbits
Knaves
Knights
Ninjas
Puppies
Robots
Salamanders
Sneaky Ninjas
Squirrels*
Wombats
Zombies

*The squirrels have a nut allergy. Special tip o' th' hat to Sydney Bayoneto for that one.

My Hero, Zero

On one of our first days with Michael Paul Goldenberg in math, a student casually asserted that 'Zero is not a number'. We wondered about that assumption, and asked students to come in with arguments for and against zero's legitimacy as a number.

Here are a half-dozen of the best metaphors students used in the discussion.

Zero is a border.

Zero is nothing.

Zero is a hole that's been filled.

Zero is the foundation of a house.

Zero is the bottom.

Zero is the middle.

And I can't resist one of my favorite metaphors, courtesy of Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3huvvxUHDmM

(There's also a terrific cover of this song by The Lemonheads.)

True Math

A few words about middle school math at Summers-Knoll.

Our objective is to graduate students who are numerate. This is precisely analogous to literate. A literate person can read, but that isn't the whole picture. A truly literate person can use words precisely, practically, powerfully, and with an exciting sense of possibility. 

A truly numerate person can do all that with numbers. This is a critically, even criminally undervalued skill. It is why Tom Magliozzi of Car Talk fame--he of the PhD in from MIT--wrote, chagrined:

The purpose of learning math . . . . . is only to prepare us for further math courses.

In 2011, journalist, author and social entrepreneur David Bornstein opined, in The New York Times:

Imagine if someone at a dinner party casually announced, “I’m illiterate.” It would never happen, of course; the shame would be too great. But it’s not unusual to hear a successful adult say, “I can’t do math.” That’s because we think of math ability as something we’re born with, as if there’s a “math gene” that you either inherit or you don’t.

It’s hard to imagine what society might look like if we could undermine the math hierarchies that get solidified in grade school. These patterns tend to play out across society, often in negative ways. Wasn’t it the whiz kids who invented financial derivatives and subprime mortgages? And how many adults got themselves into hot water with their mortgages because, at bottom, they didn’t really understand the risks?

How will we produce thoughtful, numerate graduates at SK? There are three corners to this program: math in the world; math on the page; and project-based math.

IN THE WORLD
Math in the world asks real questions. Why was the 2012 Presidential election primarily fought in seven states? Why is zero a revolutionary concept? How much money should an adult save per paycheck? How does one build a safe playground structure? How much mulch is enough mulch underneath a set of monkey bars? Michael Paul Goldenberg has been posing such questions with students of all ages for three decades, and we are fortunate to have him driving these questions in the SK middle school. Answering them requires hard-core, gory, flat-out arithmetical axioms, theorems, operations, and principles. But answering them also requires the ability to identify which skills and operations are relevant. 

ON THE PAGE
Those skills have historically been practiced at SK via Singapore Math, an innovative approach to basic skills that gained global credibility and popularity approximately a decade ago, after it prompted rapid advances in test results from that Asian city-state's elementary students. Singapore has been joined in recent years by the uber-viral website Khan Academy.

Khan and Singapore are terrific practice, and we expect our students to spend fifteen minutes per day with their noses in the book or screen, because, in mathematics, as in second-language study, there is no substitute for exercise. Not for nothing do our students attend math on a regular basis, even in a project-based curriculum. Jason DePasquale is masterminding our students' work in these programs, and in a school the size of SK, we are able to individualize these work programs and goals to an unusual degree.

PROJECT-BASED
In keeping with the theme of Ancient Civilizations, students in my section of math have been divided into Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Each will build a pyramid in the style of its civilization. The math will emerge as necessary as each group decides what materials it will use, the dimensions of its building, the geometry required, the physics of architectural design. These projects should be on display at the performances of 'Gilgamesh' in mid-December. Other projects will evolve as our school service and theme-based work in Global Citizenship and Circle of Life develops over the course of the academic year.

NEXT STEPS
We have settled upon the work of an innovative scholar, teacher, mentor, and gamer, Henri Picciotto of Beirut and San Francisco, to help shape the direction of our seventh and eighth grade students. Henri is the author of a highly regarded algebra textbook--after whose publication, he founded a professional organization called Escape the Textbook. For more on his approach, and more of his plentiful materials, go to http://www.mathedpage.org/. Henri is also a former colleague of mine from the Urban School of San Francisco. His vision of math education, in part:

Mathematics education is not just about preparing students for "practical" matters and helping the economy. It is an important part of human culture of sense-making, and should be introduced as such to all students from a young age. In addition to being useful, math is fun and beautiful. We should not lose sight of this as we attempt to make the curriculum more relevant through greater reliance on applications.

Finally, another word from David Bornstein.
Even deeper, for children, math looms large; there’s something about doing well in math that makes kids feel they are smart in everything. In that sense, math can be a powerful tool to promote social justice. “When you have all the kids in a class succeeding in a subject, you see that they’re competing against the problem, not one another,” says [Canadian mathematician and teacher John] Mighton. “It’s like they’re climbing a mountain together. You see a very healthy kind of competition. And it makes kids more generous to one another. Math can save us.

The Latest on Exhibitions

When in doubt, my ten students should be working on their exhibitions, all of which will take place this week.

To summarize, an exhibition is a thirty-minute show featuring two lessons of approximately equal length.

Each student will teach a lesson on his or her Farm-to-Table topic, and one on any other piece of portfolio work undertaken at SK in the fall of 2012.

Exhibitions are formal events and are attended by the homeroom teacher, at least one other SK staff member, family members, and at least two peers (though most will be attended by our full homeroom).

Here are the times and topics.

Trent (12:45-1:15, November 13)
FTT: How does a cow become a steak?
Portfolio: 'Maus', Art Spiegelman

Taylor (1:30-2:00, November 14)
FTT: What is the history of corn?
Portfolio: hoop house


Evan (2:15-2:40, November 14)
FTT: How does Iowa soil compare to Michigan soil?
Portfolio: exercise and brain (esp. archery)



Denali (3:00-3:30, November 14)
FTT: What is the most popular livestock raised in the US?
Portfolio: tapestry


Jonathan (3:30-4:00, November 15)
FTT: How is poison used in agriculture?
Portfolio: themed gardens design for Summers-Knoll


Saul (4:15-4:45, November 15)
FTT: From bean to bar, how is chocolate made?
Portfolio: trebuchet from Science Club


Jianmarco (5:00-5:30, November 15)
FTT: What is the best way to transport food?
Portfolio: origins and consequences of farming in Mesopotamia


Mike (1:30-2:00, November 16)
FTT: How do old farming methods compare to new ones?
Portfolio: fiction writing


Isobel (2:15-2:45, November 16)
FTT: How are piglets raised in family and factory farms?
Portfolio: American Math Race


Daniel (3:45-4:15, November 16)
FTT: How has wheat changed in recent years?
Portfolio: 'Hero', Christopher Moore

'Gilgamesh' Rehearsal Schedule

Here is our schedule of  remaining 'Gilgamesh' rehearsals and key dates. Please note that the actors will be setting down their scripts for good on Monday, November 19.

Gilgamesh schedule
12 11:30-12:30: Jianmarco, Isobel, Taylor, Aristea, Denali, Saul (pp 2-19)	13 11:30-12:30: measure for costumes (Eileen, Robbin) 3:30-4:30: Jianmarco, Isobel, Evan, Danny, Kaeli, Melissa (pp 21-31)	14 11:30-12:30: Alexandra, HK, Cory, Mike, Trent, Jianmarco (pp 4-6, 17-19, 31-34) 12:30-1:30: run show (all 5-8s)	15 11:30-12:30: HA, Jonathan, Noah, Jianmarco, Alexandra, Matthew (pp 1-2, 20-21)	16 10:00-11:00: all third and fourth graders, Saul, Jianmarco, Alexandra, Cory, Trent, Aristea, Isobel, Evan, HK, Mike (pp 4-6, 31-34)
19 11:30-12:30: Jianmarco, Isobel, Evan, Danny, Kaeli, Melissa (pp 21-31)—OFF BOOK (lines must be memorized) production meeting 3.30	20 3:30-4:30:  Jianmarco, Isobel, Taylor, Aristea, Denali, Saul (pp 2-19)— OFF BOOK (lines must be memorized)	21 Thanksgiving holiday	22 Thanksgiving holiday	23 Thanksgiving holiday
26 REHEARSE ALL FILMING THIS WEEK specifics await scheduling with Brian Lillie, videographer 11:30-12:30: Huwawa battle	27 Entire cast and all production support called for after-school rehearsal, 4:00-6:00	28 2:30-3:30 run show (entire cast, including third & fourth graders) OFF BOOK (lines must be memorized)	29 11:30-12:30: Huwawa battle production meeting 3.30	30     2:30-3:30 run show 10:00-11:00: all third and fourth graders, Saul, Jianmarco, Alexandra, Cory, Trent, Aristea, Isobel, Evan, HK, Mike (pp 4-6, 31-34) OFF BOOK   film pantheon scene? (lines must be memorized)
1-3 (including weekend) prepare lighting and set construction 11:30-12:30: Huwawa battle Film Scorpions & Ishtar?	4 Entire cast and all production support called for after-school rehearsal, 4:00-6:00 OFF BOOK (lines must be memorized)	5 12:30-2:00 run show (entire cast, including third & fourth graders)	6 11:30-12:30: Huwawa battle production meeting 3.30	7 10:00-11:00: all third and fourth graders, Saul, Jianmarco, Alexandra, Cory, Trent, Aristea, Isobel, Evan, HK, Mike (pp 4-6, 31-34)
10 rehearsals to be announced	11 rehearsals to be announced	12 Scenes performed for younger students during the school day Entire cast and all production support called for after-school rehearsal, 4:00-6:00	13 PERFORMANCE call is 5:45 pm curtain at 7:00	14 & 15 (including Saturday) PERFORMANCES call is 5:45 pm curtain at 7:00

'Gilgamesh' in Production

We have been rehearsing 'Gilgamesh' for three weeks now. In some ways, it is a simple production; in others, the most complex I've undertaken.

Unlike any previous play I've directed, 'Gilgamesh' is woven into the fabric of my students' ongoing academic work and their daily schedule. This is one of the great assets of working at a school like Summers-Knoll, where our objective is to make the experience of learning as authentic as possible. Authentic experiences are more inspiring, more durable, and deeper than conventional seat-work study, though that aspect plays a crucial role in skill development.

To this end, we embrace project-based learning, theme-based learning, and public exhibitions.

Project-based learning requires students to organize their work around deliverable, integrated, and interest-driven plans. A solid project has greater value, develops skills, requires collaboration and support, and pays off with a demonstration or clear product. 'Gilgamesh' achieves all of these, in addition to deepening everyone's understanding of the fall's primary theme, Ancient Civilizations.

Its value is in the entertainment and education it provides its audience, the academic knowledge it promotes regarding early civilizations and universal themes (love and loss in particular), and the deep and challenging experiences its actors and crew must undertake. It develops a multitude of skills, but I will highlight one, articulated by Isobel Roosevelt, who plays Gilgamesh's mother, Ninsun: empathy. Isobel pointed out that acting requires you to get into the skin of another person, to understand her on a deep level. As a history teacher, I always held that history and literature teach empathy above all else--an understanding of why people make the decisions they do. Isobel emphasized the degree to which this happens in theater.

The collaboration required in a production is unrivalled. To that end, I want to thank the many faculty and families who have stepped in: Tracy Gallup and Val Tibbs-Wynne, designing art and backdrops with their students; Eileen Weiser, who, with Robbin Hitchins' help, is masterminding a massive costuming job; Brian Lillie, who is filming three sequences that will be shown during the performance; Cara Talaska and Adam Riccinto, who are combining forces to develop the music score, both live and recorded; Dennis Bowman, who has volunteered to be our master carpenter; Chris Barbeau, who is both choreographing our combat dances and overseeing the lighting of the production; George Albercook, who is developing our special effects (like a bowl of water that spontaneously begins to steam).

Joanna Hastings, Matt Berg, and Karen Bayoneto are continuing my education in the culture of Summers-Knoll, consistently raising the questions that need to be answered, often answering them before they even rise to my attention. Chris Swinko, Mark Benglian, Jason DePasquale, and Shan Cook have been flexible with their schedules and thoughtful in helping me organize a rehearsal schedule for no fewer than 36 students--about 42% of the SK student body. Joanna Hastings has been a theatrical colleague of mine for years, and we've been talking about 'Gilgamesh' since the summer.

You can see that this is a community-wide experience. There's still room for more help, of course--especially with costuming. Please let me know if you're interested in pitching in.

Let's hope the pay-off will be worthwhile. I have high hopes indeed.

Exhibitions of Learning

Exhibitions 

o f   l e a r n i n g

This project will demonstrate a sample of what you learned over the course of this academic quarter, and a sample of how you learned it. It is to be attended by your classmates, parents and teachers. Other invited guests may include other family and other SK students, especially fifth graders.

The first is a PORTFOLIO lesson, in which you recreate and/or demonstrate an assignment on a topic you enjoyed over the course of the autumn.

The second is a PROJECT lesson, in which you teach a brief lesson on your Farm-to-Table project.

dates: november 7-9

length: 30 minutes

exhibition schedule

Wednesday, November 7	Thursday, November 8	Friday, November 9
1:30-2:00: taylor	3:30-4:00: jonathan	1:30-2:00: mike
2:15-2:45: evan	5:00-5:30: jianmarco	2:15-2:45: isobel
3:00-3:30: denali		3:00-3:30: trent
4:00-4:30: saul		3:45-4:15: danny

Portfolio lesson

1.       Select a topic. Examples include, but are not limited to: work in math, science, French, Mandarin, Latin, art, music, Gilgamesh, The Red Pony, the discovery of farming…..

2.       Show, or recreate, the assignment, explaining to the audience three elements: first, the 5-8 most important facts about the topic; second, the essential characteristics of the assignment you carried out; third, why you chose that particular topic to exhibit.

3.       Great portfolio pieces will include a paragraph of factual writing, a demonstration of the assignment, and a visual support piece (e.g., original art, photo, video, performance).

Project lesson

1. Produce a two- to three-page paper answering the question posed in your Farm-to-Table topic.
2. Create a new activity that engages the audience on this topic (examples: artwork, seminar, outdoor assignment, poem, game, dramatic scene, informal writing). No word searches or crossword puzzles.
3. The activity will engage the most important facts about the topic. When completed, the audience will understand these key facts.
4. Great lessons will include a brief outline of the 5-8 most important facts, lesson plan, and an audience activity. No word searches or crossword puzzles.

ExhIbItIon lesson plan

What do you want your audience to learn about this topic?

How will they learn it? 

What materials do you need? 

How will you know they learned it?

checklist

underway

¨     selections made

¨     exhibition scheduled

¨     invitations issued

Portfolio

¨     portfolio topic selected

¨     first draft of paragraph

¨     second draft of paragraph

¨     copies made for audience

¨     demonstration of assignment (original or recreated)

¨     visual support piece

¨     timed rehearsal of portfolio piece

¨     another timed rehearsal of portfolio piece

project

¨     lesson topic selected

¨     outline written

¨     first draft of 2-3 page paper

¨     second draft of 2-3 page paper

¨     first draft of lesson plan

¨     second draft of lesson plan

¨     first draft of activity

¨     second draft of activity

¨     materials gathered and prepared for activity

¨     copies made for audience

¨     timed rehearsal of lesson

¨     another timed rehearsal of lesson

all done.

Dances and Faux Battles in 'Gilgamesh'

Our three scenes of physical conflict will be exciting and carefully crafted. The key term is choreography. These will be stylized scenes. One sequence will feature two characters wrestling; there will be no weapons brandished. The boys have already begun preparing this scene.

In another set piece, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, armed with swords and/or axes made from spray-painted Nerf material, will do battle with a bit of outsized art representing the monster Huwawa. This creature will either be played by half a dozen fifth graders inside a giant puppet produced in our Art classes, or by a shadow on a screen.

The final battle is planned to occur offstage. There will be sound effects, and soft objects like bundles of clothing may be tossed out onto the playing area, but no actual fight choreography will occur.

Open for Business

The library in our classroom has been organized, after a fashion.

The cart outside the room has a mixture of books reflecting the first-semester themes of Farm to Table and Ancient Civilizations. Inside the room, the monolithic northern wall of books includes a full bookcase on American Studies (literature, history, sociology) and another full bookcase on Schools and Learning (there's a lot of great research there, and a lot of Harry Potter too).

Smaller sections of one or two shelves include Asia, Africa, Europe, and Britain (all four comprising a combination of literature and history), Soccer and Other Sports, Science & Math, Young Adult Fiction, and Little Kids.

There's a sign-out sheet posted on the wall between the bookshelves and the closet. This is a lending library, so stop in anytime.

Keeping Track

With an eye toward the middle school portfolio, to be organized via digication.com, and the November exhibitions, we are tracking each child's progress more closely.

The method we're using for that is to triangulate. There are three ways to track a given student's work. There is the weekly syllabus and the portfolio list, referred to in previous posts. These cover primarily the general, class-wide assignments.

Now, as the end of the quarter approaches, I have begun producing weekly individual assignment sheets. These are fairly simple, but have had a striking effect on the kids. When there is work time during the day, they carry these around and refer to them frequently.


The students' computers have at long last arrived, and are currently being prepared for distribution by Matt Berg. The integration of the kids' work into these miracles of the machine age will also simplify the tracking of their progress, beginning after our return from the long weekend on Tuesday.

Here's a sample:

ASSIGNMENT	DUE DATE	RETURNED	REVISION DUE
prepare history of the week	oct 10
revise and type Why Mesopotamia?	oct 10
revise and type consequences of farming	oct 10
complete chart: project frame/pay-off	oct 10
watch Candy Chang TED talk	oct 10
propose prompts project	oct 10
revise and type Mesopotamia lesson plan	oct 11
write on Letters to Julia	oct 11
read Gilgamesh script; write journal paragraph	oct 12
list books for personal library	oct 12
write on The Red Pony	oct 12
propose songwriting project	oct 15
write on Tortilla Flat	oct 15