Schools to Watch

CRITERION: Instructional strategies include a variety of challenging and engaging activities that are clearly related to the concepts and skills being taught.

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Teachers use real-world problems and role-playing as they coach learning through probing, questioning, and challenging student thinking.

A teacher dressed as "Friar James," a medieval monk, enters a classroom where students are working on a medieval history problem. He pulls out a proclamation, which is neatly scripted in a variety of fonts and begins to read.

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Seventh-graders are working independently at various computer stations around the computer lab. Each student has chosen a seventh grade topic in mathematics in which to become proficient. The student's task is to study the topic and then teach it to the other students through use of a PowerPoint presentation. The goal is for all students to develop a set of mathematical concepts, while at the same time learning PowerPoint.

The teacher, Mr. Johnson, is very proud of this week-long activity. He says that when students get to high school, they will be asked to develop their PowerPoint skills and he wants to give them a jumpstart. He provides direct instruction during the first day or two; after that, students apply what they've learned. By the end of the week, he expects virtually all the students to be able to use the program.

Mr. Johnson prepared for this unit by looking at the pre-algebra textbook and the Illinois state goals to identify a set of possible topics, from which students were asked to choose just one. Students then had five days to carry out their research on the topic and develop their PowerPoint presentation. Topics chosen include bar graphs, fractions, perimeter, and the Pythagorean theorem. Students were also asked to seek answers to three questions: What is a percent? What is volume? What is the greatest common factor?

Problem-Based Learning: Beware of Pestilence

Some teachers at Jefferson are experimenting with problem-based learning (PBL). Using PBL, educators seek out or design scenarios that provide rich opportunities for demonstrating learning through projects and presentations. A good unit involves a problem that grows out of the students' own interests, involves significant concepts, and has real-world connections. Teachers use real-world problems and role-playing as they coach learning through probing, questioning, and challenging student thinking. According to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, PBL has multiple benefits: It increases student motivation, makes learning more relevant, encourages learning how to learn, promotes higher-order thinking, and requires authenticity.

"Friar James" (a teacher dressed as a medieval monk) enters a classroom, where 25 students are working on a medieval history problem. Friar James pulls out a proclamation, which is neatly scripted. He reads:

To my loyal subjects at Stanford:

Be it known that word has reached the Royal Castle at Windsor that pestilence is sweeping through the lands to the east across the Channel. Accordingly, we have ordered the Lord High Admiral to make haste and travel to your town. Upon his arrival there, we have instructed him to take such steps as are necessary to secure the safety and well-being of our realm. He shall arrive about the Feast of St. Gyles the Leper.

Edward III
By the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France

After Friar James has gone, the teacher tells her students, "As a collective town, we must figure out how to address the problem contained in the king's message." She asks the students to read the proclamation. Next, she asks them to list the words they don't understand. Then, the following dialogue ensues:

Teacher: What do we know about the problem?
Student 1: Something bad is happening in the east.
Teacher: How do you know that?
S2: Because pestilence is bad.
Teacher: What is pestilence?
S2: Pestilence means a sickness or disease.
Teacher: Julie will look it up in the dictionary. Julie: "Pestilence is a widespread and often fatal illness or disease."
Teacher: What else do we know?
S4: The Lord High Admiral is coming to help us around the Feast of St. Gyles the Leper.

The teacher draws two columns on the board: "What we know" and "What we need to know". She then facilitates a rapid-fire brainstorm about all the things the students already know or need to know. For example: What disease is it? Is it the plague? Why do you need to know this? Students call out questions: When is the feast? How fast will the disease travel? How is the disease spread?

The conversation then turns to political questions: "Why did the king send us this message? Is it because he's concerned for our safety, or because we're his major source of income and he wants to keep us alive? What should we do with this information-tell others in the kingdom? Go back to the king for help?

Students realize that they first need to determine when the feast of St. Gyles the Leper will take place, and they discuss how to do this. In medieval times, they'd go to the church or monastery for this information, since encyclopedias didn't exist. They could hunt down Friar James and ask him, but the students aren't really sure that he's official. They discuss whether or not they can trust him. Several point out that he was dressed as a friar, had an official stamp, and could read. Yet perhaps he was a father, rather than a friar.

Students agree that what they really need to know is how the illness spreads. Is the plague airborne or not? Does it mutate? What do we know about it? How would we find out, given the technology of the time? The teacher gives students some reading for homework and says, "From tonight's reading see if you can answer the questions we raised today."

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