Do You Hear What I Hear? Teaching Music by Ear and Finding Student Strengths

Students in Grade 7 and 8 can choose to take music as a major focus, which runs throughout the year as a band program, or as a minor focus, which runs for half the year as a ukulele program. This approach, as well as the program within the major and minor music courses, allow students to personalize their music experience.

Music as a Major

The music major program involves students from varying backgrounds in music - from those who have taken instrumental or vocal lessons for years outside of school, to those who have never read or performed music before.

Many of the beginner musicians are scared away by the idea of reading music. There is a common misconception that being a musician requires the ability to read those black dots on a page; however, there are many famous musicians today and throughout history, particularly in genres such as jazz, who could not read music at all. In an effort to personalize learning and to draw attention to different types of music, the Grade 7 and 8 program includes a variety of experiences, including reading music and learning by ear. This allows students who are already experienced at reading music to expand their learning to aural retention, and vice versa. It also enables those who are new to music to find their strengths.

Earlier this month, students participated in the Ontario Band Association Festival, a formal competition where they performed notated band repertoire and received feedback from professional adjudicators. In a more recent undertaking, the Grade 7 and 8 band students have begun learning the skill of "getting off the page" by aurally learning a new piece of music.

To ensure the authenticity and engagement of the students' learning experience, the band voted on popular music to play. The students listened to popular songs by artists such as Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, then broke down the music into chunks and experimented on their instruments to emulate the notes being played. This type of learning is engaging for all students because it challenges students at their individual level of achievement:

• Beginner students focus on finding the melody or chorus.
• More experienced students attempt to create more advanced parts such as harmony and counter-melodies.

As each student finds his or her own way to contribute to the ensemble at an appropriate level of difficulty, the end result is a satisfying experience for both performer and audience.

Music as Minor

Students in the music minor program are also learning the skill of aurally learning music.

• Grade 8 students are currently studying the blues and experimenting with non-rehearsed techniques.
• Grade 7 students are learning traditional folk songs using imitation and repeat-after-me techniques.

All classes look forward to performing these pop pieces in the school community at upcoming events and assemblies.

Becky Stewart
Teacher, Music and French

Quel Mystère! Using Authentic Assessment Tasks to Enrich Language Learning

French teacher Emma Pickard discusses how authentic interactions can enrich and personalize language learning with an example from her Grade 7-8 Enriched French.

The Grade 7-8 Enriched French class solved a murder mystery!

In December, each student was given a specific character with their own secrets, motives and alibis. The assessment involved reading the character notes, writing journal entries expressing their character's thoughts and back story, and listening and speaking to exchange information and solve the mystery.

There are many benefits to this kind of experiential assessment. In a classroom situation, it isn't always easy to find authentic tasks for the students to complete. In order for a conversation to be considered "authentic," the two participants must genuinely need to exchange information (as opposed to them already knowing the outcome before they speak). Giving the students a mystery that needs to be solved means that they do not have all the information at the beginning of the activity and they have a vested interest in uncovering clues to find out who committed the crime.

An assessment of this type is also easy to personalize, as the teacher can assign individual characters, with more or less information, in order to meet the language needs of each student. For example, a student in need of extension can be given longer and more complicated clues to investigate, requiring them to complete more conversations in the same period of time. As the students were given their character information ahead of time, those in need of support could use references or discuss information with their teacher before the assessment.

Extending Learning Through a Unique Field Trip

On Tuesday, December 2, the Grade 12 Exercise Science and Grade 12 Biology classes traveled to the University of Guelph to visit the Human Anatomy and Exercise Physiology laboratories. 

In the Human Anatomy Laboratory, our students had the privilege to learn human anatomy using body donors. Studying the structures of the human body in this environment is unsurpassed by any other learning tool. Students explored the structures and functions of the muscular-skeletal system, the nervous system, the cardio-respiratory system, and the urinary/reproductive systems. This field trip challenged students academically by teaching them the anatomy of the human body in real form, rather than studying diagrams in a text book.

At each station, students investigated and were verbally tested on the anatomical properties of each human system mentioned above. For example, in the urinary/reproductive station, students could observe the location of the kidneys in the human body and how the ureters attach to the bladder. In female specimens, they could also make the connection between the bladder and the uterus and why pregnant women need to urinate often!

Students made real life connections such as these at each station, which were led by fourth-year Human Kinetics students who created a safe learning environment and gave our students an idea of the academic depth needed at the postsecondary level.

The specimens in the Human Anatomy Laboratory have come from people who have graciously donated their bodies for the betterment of science and education and thus granted us an immeasurable privilege. We would like to extend our utmost thanks for this learning opportunity they provided for us.

After the Human Anatomy Laboratory, we traveled to the Exercise Physiology Laboratory to learn about three physiology tests: the maximal oxygen uptake (VO2Max) test, the maximal anaerobic power (Wingate) test, and a body composition test. Students had the choice to complete any of these tests, which are normally completed by third-year Human Kinetics students.

In the VO2Max Test, students ride on a bike while progressively increasing the intensity and measuring ventilation and oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration of the inhaled and exhaled air. VO2Max is reached when oxygen consumption remains at a steady state despite an increase in workload.

The Wingate Test is used to measure peak power and anaerobic capacity. These two values are important indicators in sports that require quick, all-out efforts, such as a hockey shift, a football game or the sprints needed in Ultimate Frisbee.

These tests challenged students both physically and academically, as they were able to take what they learned in the classroom and apply it to real life situations. Students actively completed at least one of the three tests. Also, the University of Guelph post-graduate students demonstrated the knowledge and interest needed to succeed at the post-graduate level.

Carla DiFilippo
Director of Athletics

Using Songs to Enrich Learning and Engage Students

Learning a second language like French is an area of great vulnerability for some students. Trying to keep track of nouns, verbs, adjectives and other elements of a sentence or idea can be overwhelming, even though those concepts are essential. The risk is that a student can feel lost in the details and lose some of their motivation to persevere.

To prevent this potential roadblock, students in Grade 7 and 8 French are enriching their learning and creating a personal connection to the language and culture through song. Songs are not just learning tools for small children; on the contrary, since music plays a major role in the teenage experience, connecting curriculum to music increases student engagement, as well.

Here are some reasons why songs are effective enrichment tools.

Learning songs builds listening skills

When a new song is introduced, students are asked to listen and try to imitate the pronunciation without seeing lyrics. In order to do so, they need to actively listen and try to distinguish the sounds and words they are hearing. This builds practical skills, because real-life encounters with the French language rarely come with a written script.

Learning songs exposes students to culture

Growing up in Canada, almost every child is exposed to a common repertoire of songs that are used and referred to for the rest of their lives. Think of songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." When students are learning French, they are rarely equipped with this background knowledge of culturally common songs. By teaching them simple children's songs, they are learning what it is like to grow up in that culture. It also equips them to interact with French-speaking children should they have the opportunity. Nothing bridges a language gap like being able to sing a song together. Some songs for children that students have learned so far include "L'arbre est dans ses feuilles, "Dansons la capucine" (Grade 7) and "Je m'en vais chasser le lion" (Grade 8)

Students remember songs

Long after a teacher's lessons, handouts and drills are forgotten, the songs they use still stick in students' minds. Songs don't teach grammar explicitly, but they are models of correct sentences and vocabulary in a context that the students are much more likely to remember.

Alyssa LaRoque
French Teacher

How We Show Our Learning: Personalizing Learning through Assessment

There are many approaches our teachers use to personalize the learning experience for students. One way is by giving students different ways to demonstrate their learning. Edwin Bryson, Greenwood's Vice-Principal of Teacher and Staff Development, shares an example from his Grade 10 Introduction to Business class, in which differentiated assessments were used to personalize for student readiness, interest and learning profile.

Step 1: Identify what students should know, understand and be able to do (skills)

I began by identifying what each student should know, understand and be able to do as a result of a particular chunk of learning. In this case, students needed to "demonstrate financial planning skills and produce a...personal financial plan (e.g. monthly plan, budget)."

Step 2: Identify one or more formats for the product

Next, I brainstormed all of the types of evidence that a student could use to show they have met these learning outcomes. For example, they could

• Complete a monthly budget worksheet for themselves
• Analyze a case study that requires a monthly plan
• Complete a quiz on key terms and processes
• Role-play between a financial planner and client
• Create a board game that illustrates income, expenses and savings, etc.

The goal is to determine financial planning skills, but the teacher has the flexibility to create more than one type of assessment for this skill.

Step 3: Determine expectations for quality

The third step was to clearly describe the success criteria; it should be general enough that a student can achieve the top band of achievement, regardless of their choice of activity. I did this in the form of a rubric, using the following criteria to evaluate each assessment:

• The student understands the relationship between types of income, fixed and flexible expenses.
• The student demonstrates the use of planning skills (gathering information, organizing a budget/project).
• The student uses critical/creative thinking processes (evaluation of spending and saving goals, actual versus planned budgeting).
• The student makes connections between the financial planning process and future career and life goals.

Step 4: Decide on scaffolding needed

The fourth step was to select a few assessments that would meet the different levels of student readiness, interests and learning profile.

Complete a monthly budget using a template: This option would suit students who are still gaining confidence with financial planning, liked working individually and benefited from concrete and sequential tasks rather than abstract and non-sequential tasks.

Work in pairs and create a board game: The game should demonstrate the key concepts of income, personal income tax, expenses, savings and investment. This option would suit students who had attained a conceptual understanding of financial planning, liked working collaboratively and enjoyed abstract and non-sequential thinking.

Create a role-playing game: This option was created by a few students who wanted to modify the board game assessment to create a role-playing game. Since the rubric focused on learning outcomes, rather product specifications, it was very easy to accommodate this request.

Below is a summary of the differentiation found in each assessment.

Assessment	Readiness	Interests	Learning Profile
Create a monthly budget using a template	Basic understanding of terms and concepts	Wants concrete application of learning of this topic	Works best with clear instructions, small steps and linear approach. Prefers working on own assignment
Create a board game	Strong conceptual understanding	Wants to expand and extend their learning of this topic	Is stimulated by creative challenges and conceptual thinking. Prefers working with peers.
Create a role-playing game	Strong conceptual understanding	Wants to expand and extend their learning of this topic	Is stimulated by open-ended challenges and enjoys abstract thinking. Prefers working with peers.

Regardless of which assignment was chosen, students were engaged in an authentic learning experience and making meaning by linking the concepts to their own lives. Each assignment allowed students to reach the top level of achievement and provided different approaches to suit their learning styles. The end result was increased engagement and more accurate evaluation of each student's progress toward meeting the course's learning goals.

Note: Many of the concepts discussed here are borrowed from one of the foremost authors on the subject, Carol Ann Tomlinson, in her book How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2nd Edition).

Personalized Extensions in Grade 7 and 8 Science

The core skills that science students need to develop are effective scientific inquiry and problem-solving. In Grade 7 and 8 science, we focus on helping students to build those skills. 

To ensure all students push their personal limits, they are challenged through individualized extensions. Opportunities to do so are provided on a variety of scales and embedded into the program to ensure each student is consistently and appropriately challenged.

During labs, students have extension opportunities that expand their critical thinking skills and help them connect the material to other subjects. In our Grade 8 "Systems in Action" unit, students are investigating the mechanical advantage of pulleys. Students have the opportunity to extend their learning by building increasingly complex pulley systems with various mechanical advantages. They may also link their learning to math by creating a graph comparing the actual and ideal mechanical advantages.

In Gr. 8 "Systems in Action," students can extend their learning
through integrated mathematics .

In the classroom, students can challenge themselves when completing practice problems. In the same Grade 8 "Systems in Action" unit, some students are extended by being given more difficult challenge questions to complete when determining the work and mechanical advantage of various systems. The challenge questions are designed to push the students' conceptual understanding and may require more advanced computational skills. The focus of these questions is on different practice, not more practice.

Personalized choice in projects allows students
to communicate their understanding using their
individual strengths

Science is also personalized through a choice in projects. To convey their knowledge of cell organelles and their appearance during the Grade 8 cells unit, students are given the choice to build an edible cell model or write a creative story that incorporates cell organelles. This choice between written and visual expression allows students to communicate their understanding of cell organelles using their individual strengths.

Extension opportunities are also delivered on a larger scale to ensure each student is consistently challenged. Last year, a Grade 7 student demonstrated a keen interest in science and the ability to quickly learn new concepts and scientific skills. To ensure she remained challenged, she was given the opportunity to learn Grade 8 Science that same year. A self-paced program was developed for her, in which she had reduced work for Grade 7 Science to allow her time to focus on the Grade 8 curriculum as well. This individualized approach gave her the opportunity to explore a subject she was passionate about on a deeper level, develop time management skills and foster independent learning skills.

Elysia Jellema

Teacher, Science and Mathematics

Grade 12 Film Studies: Collaborating in the Arts

Each year, the Grade 12 Film class works collectively to create a series of films from a variety of genres. Film and Social Science teacher Doug Brown explains how this collaborative project enables connections between a variety of arts courses.

The current Grade 12 group is the largest class in the last six years of the Greenwood senior Film program. This group of students is notorious for producing ambitious bodies of work; from their visually dynamic music videos, to their carefully crafted, cerebral documentaries, the current Grade 12 Film class has a history of quality.

The size of this class will allow for rich cross-curricular connections between a variety of senior-level Arts courses. Each spring, all film students work collectively to produce a 30-minute television pilot. Having film students who are also in Fashion, Drama, Media Arts and Music will provide authentic opportunities to include skills from their other arts electives. In the past, the Grade 11 and 12 Music classes have composed film soundtracks. This year, Arts teacher Lisa West will be working closely with the Film class to find ways for her senior drama students to be characters in this pilot. In the past, acting in the pilot was an extra-curricular commitment. By making more facets of the production embedded in curriculum, students will be able to connect their classroom work to their passions.

The television pilot will debut in May at our 5th Annual Greenwood Oscars (aka the "Groscars"). To see some of the work produced by past film students, check out the video below.

Challenging Civics Students through Authentic Learning

If it were up to students in Grade 10 Civics at Greenwood College School, Toronto residents would face harsher fines for neglecting to pick up after their dogs; all new building projects in the city would have a green roof feature; it would be mandatory to offer your seat on the TTC to the elderly and pregnant; and wearing a  bike helmet would no longer be optional for people over the age of 18.

These and other new by-laws were enacted in class during a mock city council debate, where students proposed and voted on a series of new regulations that they considered to be in the best interest of their constituents. The heated debates that occurred leading up to the votes could be heard ringing in the Greenwood hallways and are testament to the potential for enthusiasm and passion from a generation that is too often labelled as apathetic and disengaged.

The process was part of a larger project we have been working on in the Civics classroom for the past month and will continue to work on until the municipal election on October 27. Students have been learning about democracy as a system of governance and the functions of the municipal government. Given recent happenings in our city and the upcoming election, it has been an exciting time to explore the many facets of local government and how this impacts our lives. The Civics teachers have worked to offer a variety of challenging learning opportunities and projects that suit individual interests as a way to prepare for our school's participation in Student Vote, a province-wide initiative run by CIVIX that allows high school students to vote on who they think should be mayor of their town or city.

By personalizing learning through choice, our students have been working on one of four different roles related to the election:

• Journalists have been covering the lead-up to the event from a number of angles and are finding ways to use social media to encourage a high voter turnout.
• Politicians have been spending time critically comparing the platforms of the front-running candidates and are preparing to campaign on their behalves on the day of the vote.
• Elections officers have been investigating issues related to voting such as citizenship requirements and electronic voting and will be running the election itself on October 23.
• Social justice activists are coming to a more in-depth understanding of some of the major issues facing the city of Toronto and will be on hand on Election Day to provide information for their fellow students and perhaps offer suggestions as to which candidate would be most likely to advance their causes.

All four options not only require students to engage in the research process, using tools such as the recently released Toronto Vital Signs report, but also have the added challenge of engaging with the entire student body, lending a degree of authenticity to the task.

To supplement the students' choices, visits from two recent guest speakers have been a real highlight of the unit. Journalist Desmond Cole, who writes for Torontoist and Now Magazine spoke to students about his passion for local government and his role as project manager for the City Vote campaign, which is aiming to give permanent residents the right to vote in municipal elections. And Luke Larocque, Ward 2 candidate, spoke with students about the campaigning process and the issues with our current voting system. Both speakers were quite engaging and have given students valuable insight into the political process.

The Civics class's collective goal is to encourage a high voter turnout on Student Vote day by sending the message of the importance of voting and engaging in local politics. We will look forward to receiving our school's election results from CIVIX and comparing them with the rest of the city's schools. Often, by factoring in the Student Vote tallies, the results of the official election would be very different. In that case, I would not be at all surprised to see a new by-law related to voting age proposed during the next council meeting in the Greenwood Civics class.

Michelle Johnson,

Teacher, Civics, Humanities and English

Enriching the Physical Education Program through New Ideas

Opening students' eyes to new experiences and understandings of physical activity, regardless of ability, helps to enrich the physical education experience, according to Greenwood teacher Cara Pennington.

The Grade 7 physical education students at Greenwood College School engage in a unique opportunity to explore different areas of physical education.

The students take a field trip to Variety Village, a Toronto facility that promotes a variety of physical activities, regardless of your ability. This facility is known for the physical activity programs it provides for individuals with diverse abilities ranging from physical to cognitive restrictions.

While at the Village, Greenwood students are exposed to a range of adapted activities, such as sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball and pillow polo, as well as simple adaptations to commonly played games such as dodgeball and obstacle courses. Students not only gain an appreciation for the physical strength required for some of these activities, but they also develop an understanding of the multitude of different ways that people can be physically active regardless of their ability.

It is truly an enriching and challenging day for our students as they try out new activities, modify old activities and push their boundaries in a whole new realm of physical activity. Some students are able to step outside of their comfort zone as they learn to run track as a visually impaired student might do, or learn to play basketball without the use of their legs.

Personalizing Reading Assignments in the English Classroom

English teacher Heather Wright explores how students become more engaged in literature when they are able to take an active role in their reading choices.

"There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book." - Frank Serafini

As an English teacher, getting students to not only read, but to enjoy their reading and reflect upon it critically is an ongoing challenge. I have found that in order for students to get the most out of the reading tasks, they need to first be reading the right book - a book that both challenges them academically and also peaks their interest. One of the ways we do this at Greenwood is by offering students choices for reading assignments.

Last spring, the Grade 12 students each read a novel as part of their unity on identity. Students were asked to develop and answer essential questions as part of their reading. Some questions that students created included:

• How does our cultural identity affect the decisions we make?
• How do others' perceptions influence how we view ourselves?
• In what ways do we assess our own worth?

In order to increase student engagement, students were offered three choices for their reading. The first choice was Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, a Canadian novel exploring the history of Aboriginal Canadians and the residential school system. This text, while dealing with very mature themes, tells the story through accessible language, short chapters and a charismatic male protagonist. The second choice offered to students was Camilla Gibb's A Complicated Kindness. This novel, also Canadian, tells the story of a young woman living in a Mennonite community and having to deal with the practice of ex-communication. Though the story also explores the theme of identity, the writing itself is more advanced, making greater use of literary techniques. The final choice offered to students was an enrichment option to read Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, comparing how masculine identity and socioeconomic class are explored in each text. 

By providing these choices, each student was able to select a text that provided them with an appropriate academic challenge and read a story that held their interest. This resulted in some very impressive final essays and presentations from students in each of the three groups.

I have found that encouraging students to take an active role in their reading choices helps them to develop their own reading tastes and practices outside the classroom. This was evident at our recent annual Summer Reading Book Fair. It was great to see so many Greenwood students engaged in selecting the books they wished to read over the holiday and being genuinely excited to push themselves to read new and more challenging texts. Hopefully, this enthusiasm keeps up as each student begins another year of English class this month.

Here's to a great year of reading!

Greenwood English Department Moves to Oxford Next

This week, English teacher Heather Wright explains how technology enriches the study of Shakespeare for Greenwood students.

This year during our Hamlet unit Grade 12 English students enjoyed using new software, Oxford Next, to support their learning. In the past, the English department has taught Shakespeare plays using a more traditional, teacher-led approach; however, Oxford Next allows for much greater personalization.

Oxford Next allows students to view Shakespeare
scenes, and to check their understanding with
short quizzes.

Using various online tools, students can work at their own pace, watch various film versions of each scene, and take self-check quizzes to assess their understanding of the material.  Scene summaries, definitions, and a study guide are also available for when students run into difficulty. With the great variety of learning tools at their disposal, students can use the resources that best meet their needs and learning styles.

Current Grade 12 students are in a unique position; they were taught Macbeth in Grade 10 without the use of Oxford Next, so they have been able to experience both approaches to learning Shakespeare. The feedback from students has been very positive, with each student using and appreciating different aspects of the software:

“I enjoyed Oxford Next very much. I specifically liked that there was a media center so that I could watch the films and understand the language more effectively. I also enjoyed being able to hover over words and see their definitions in modern English.” - Noah Flatt

“I really enjoyed having quizzes.  It was helpful to test my understanding and to ensure that I did not miss a major event in the story.” - Madeline Chisholm

“Compared to reading from the physical text, finding quotes was simple.  I liked having the ability to copy directly to an online notebook. Compiling a list of important quotes was easy.” -Thomas Cole

Given the positive feedback, the Oxford Next approach to Shakespeare has also been implemented at the Grade 10 and Grade 8 levels for the study of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  

Video: How do we know blended learning works?

It's a common question: how do we know blended learning makes a difference for students? Our three panelists share their evidence that this approach positively impacts student learning and engagement.

 

Personalizing for Interest: Elements of Fitness and Training Principles in Exercise Science

Students often ask, "When will I use this information in real life?" Carla DiFilippo, Health and Physical Education Instructional Leader and Director of Athletics, demonstrates how powerful it can be when students can draw clear links between what they're learning and their own experiences.

In Grade 12 Exercise Science, students work through an activity unit titled Human Performance and Skill Development.

To prepare for this activity, students first learned about the different elements of fitness and how to effectively train for each element, while keeping in mind the three metabolic energy systems and nutrition. The goal of the activity was for students to apply what they learned in the unit to their own experiences in sport. This activity was personalized for each student’s needs, and is outlined below:

• Students reflected on a sport that they played in the past. 
• As part of the reflection, students analyzed what they felt were the most important fitness attributes to compete in that sport at the highest level (cardiovascular endurance, muscular power, flexibility, etc.). 
• After some discussion (and friendly debate), students reflected on their personal fitness attributes and identified two perceived fitness-related weaknesses for their identified sport. For example, a volleyball player could have selected muscular power to increase their vertical jump, whereas a soccer player could have selected cardiovascular endurance. 

Once each student identified their two weaknesses, they used their knowledge of training principles to create a fitness program specifically designed for those weaknesses.

Students created an assignment that was specific to their interests. They used information learned in class and applied it directly to their own experiences. There was a great deal of self-assessment used in the preparatory phases of the assignment; as a result, students not only gained information about fitness and training, but were also able to reflect on their own needs as an athlete.

Video: Does blended learning work for all students?

It doesn't take a certain type of student to succeed in a blended environment. This approach increases student learning and engagement for students with a wide variety of strengths and needs. Our blended learning panelists share their views on this subject in the video below.

Video: What are the advantages of blended learning?

How does blended learning benefit students, both at the middle/high school and postsecondary levels? Our three Blended Learning panelists discuss the advantages of this learning approach.

Personalization Through Writing

This year and last we have had the unique opportunity in our Grade 11 Learning Strategies classes to work with Brock University to design and implement an online writing program. Academic-Zone™ is an innovative online learning resource that takes our students through a series of modules designed to enhance their writing and research skills and prepare them for postsecondary writing.

As this is an online program, it allows students to work at their own pace and, with teacher support, personalize their experience based on readiness. There are activities associated with each of the eight modules. A student is not able to move on to the next module until they have mastered the skill found in the current module.

As the classroom teacher, I am able to support or extend as needed based on each individual student. For example, in the “Developing a Thesis Statement” module, some students require additional support beyond the program. We work individually or in small groups on breaking down a thesis even further into concrete steps. Other students who need little support in this area can continue with the module and extend into developing thesis statements for argumentative, comparative and expository writing.

I find the Grade 11 students feel empowered and challenged knowing that they are able to work at their own pace and receive support when they need it. Because they are working on a writing program that is intended to prepare them for postsecondary writing, they see value in the program and want to learn.

Jennifer Lillie
Teacher, Student Success Centre

Making Education Relevant

Most teachers at some point in their career have been asked by students, ‘Why do I need to know this?’ or ‘When am I going to use this?’ Questions like this arise when students fail to see relevance in what they are learning.

One method, outlined in the Ontario Science Curriculum, to make science more relevant is to relate science to technology, society and the environment. For example, after students in a chemistry class learn about the properties of chemical compounds, they could analyze the chemical components of household cleaning products and discuss their effect on the environment. While this approach does illustrate how chemistry is applicable outside the classroom and helps students to develop an awareness of the environment, its ability to make chemistry relevant to students is questionable. 

A more effective way to make topics relevant is to take the theory in the curriculum and find ways for students to apply it in the classroom. Consider the previous example: instead of simply analyzing cleaning products, students could design their own. This approach would require students to apply their knowledge rather than to simply examine the problem from a distance. Not only would this approach make the topic more relevant and interesting to students, it will also require students to use higher-order thinking. When developing their product, students would need to consider many factors in their design such as chemical composition, concentration and environmental effects based on the intended use of their product (i.e. is it for industrial use or for a family with young children?).

I was recently talking to one of our math teachers. During this discussion, another example of how to make a course more applicable came up. We discussed how programming could be used to teach mathematics. Trigonometry, linear equations, quadratic equations and matrices are all important elements to both mathematics and programming languages. If students were to use the theory learned in math class to build simple computer applications, not only would math become more relevant, students would also learn the valuable skill of programming.

When students work with open-ended problems, they inevitably take different paths through the problem. As such, making content relevant through application helps to promote student independence and leads to a more personalized experience for each student.

Kyle Acres
Learning Technology Adviser

Reinventing the High School Experience

I read an interesting bit of commentary in a recent edition of Education Week which argues for a radical change in the organization and operation of high schools. According to Jerry Y. Diakiw, a former school board superintendent who now teaches at the Faculty of Education at York University, “we need to revolutionize our basic high school structures: We need to tear apart the school day, the high school timetable, the school year, the four-year diploma.”

Diakiw’s claim is supported by the sharp decline in student attendance and student engagement that takes place between the fifth grade and high school. According to a study by the Canadian Education Association in 2006, student engagement declined from 62 per cent to 30 per cent.

Diakiw attributes this lack of engagement to the structure of high school which, “imposes dependence on, and withholds responsibility from students.” Citing other reputable, educational commentators, Diakiw notes that high school students are often passive participants in classrooms dominated by teacher talk.

As followers of this blog will realize, personalized learning is one way of reorienting high school classrooms so that students - rather than teachers - are at the heart of the classroom experience.  Diakiw refers to the Khan Academy and flex schools in San Francisco which combine face-to-face learning with online learning as approaches which are transforming the traditional high school experience. Both of these models have been discussed in some detail in earlier entries on this blog.

Diakiw’s call to arms, “is that we must stop tinkering with an antiquated model.” As we have tried to articulate throughout First Person Plural, we share Diakiw’s viewpoint.

Ultimately, schools will only realize the full benefits of personalized learning, if they have the courage and wisdom to thoughtfully reinvent the high school experience.

Allan Hardy
Principal