KarenProject

After reading Tony Wagner’s //Global Achievement Gap// and the National Council of Teachers of English statement on 21st Century Literacies this summer, I shared the following document with Academic Department Chairs, as a guide to our thinking about the students we are working with and the challenge to develop an evolving curriculum. ** 21st Century students must be able to: **
 * // Upper //****// School //****// English Elective: Experiments with Collaboration //**
 * // Karen Gallagher, Spring 2010 //**
 * Think critically, analyzing information from multiple sources simultaneously
 * Solve complex, open-ended problems
 * Collaborate with teams of people from across cultural, geographic and language boundaries
 * Forge relationships
 * Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability
 * Create solutions
 * Make ethical judgments and reactive with a sense of responsibility and care
 * Communicate effectively, spontaneously, orally, in writing, and in new technological modes
 * //Karen Gallagher, Director of Studies,// ****// Academic Committee, August 31, 2009 //**

The problem //**//: A program which emphasized independence and isolation in research and writing // **// The paradigm shift: //**// A course which required collaboration, both in research, writing, and // //presentations //
 * // I had no idea in August that my journey as a member of PLP would profoundly shift my classroom approach over the course of the year. //**

**// The process: //**// Design a course which valued group research and required collaborative products // //(Wiki pages, Google Documents, Google Presentations, Group designed Posters) // //Intentional group review of approaches and tools on a regular basis as part of the // //course //

**// The challenges: //**// Creating a collaborative climate // //Assessing group work // //Managing new, unfamiliar tools (learning as we went along) //

**// The obstacles: //**// Something entirely untested in a classroom setting in the English department //

**// The opportunities: //**// Creating a flat classroom—all of us as learners // //Wisdom from every corner of the room // //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">Learning a new approach **together** //

// **Learning experimentally:** Our Class Moodle Page, a new initiative for me as a teacher, served as a first tool to help us experiment with collaborative WIKI pages and collaborative Google documents. We have just begun to scratch the surface. //

**// The path for future development: //** //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">Create teams of students and faculty who can support and train others in the approaches // //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">we have found successful. One option is to create Teachers Learning Circles // //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">(TLC) run by a team of students …throughout next year (biweekly?); another is to create // //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">teams of students to support 9th grade Peace & Justice and Health classes as they // //<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">develop research skills and generate presentations. //

**// Assessment: //**// At the end of the course this spring, I hope students will present recommendations for essential collaborative tools for faculty review. Over 75 % of 11th and 12th grade students participate in the History Department NING forums. Developing a way for those students to assess the new opportunities that NING offers, as well as my English students assessing the experience of collaboration as a formal course requirement will be essential if our approach to learning is to shift. //