20 Time in the
History Classroom
Early Stages
In recent years, students in my 7th grade social studies
classes have engaged in a
20 Time project. Initially, students may
question how this “fits” into traditional work they’re accustom to, but with
introducing basic parameters and
general rules, students can quickly begin to
see the concrete components for which they are responsible for, balanced with
the freedom to experiment and personalize the content of the unit. During my
first year, piloting the project in just my own classes, students had complete
control over their topic, and the products reflected that freedom with a
diverse range of projects. In the second year, when the project was implemented
across the entire 7th grade, an additional
“content anchor” was added to ground the
project in US history. This move added a level of rigor and challenge to the
assignment.
The Pitch
After
a few weeks, students have developed projects with a goal, found basic
background information, thought about how their final product will benefit the
greater community, and have reached their first milestone,
Pitch Day. To support their brief, elevator
speech-style presentations, students create a
Pitch Day Cover Sheet with basic
information about themselves as well as
providing access to their initial project blog postings. Guests at Pitch Day
are provided specific forms to provide qualitative feedback to the students
regarding their presentation skills and critique of their project, including
identifying pitfalls and offering strategies for success.
The 3 R’s:
Reflection, Research, and Revision
Students next take their Pitch Day feedback and begin the
process of
Impact mapping. During this refinement phase,
students begin brainstorming who, what, how, where, when, and why their work as
so far envisioned will be of importance, and then identify gaps and next steps
to research. At its core, this is an empathy activity, and one meant for
students to critically reflect upon their work up to this point.
This is also the point at which my
school librarian becomes an important ally, as
the focus shifts to more traditional research skills where students are
presented with explicit lessons using the
Big 6 framework. In addition to demonstrating
the cyclical nature of research, students develop refined skills such as
keywording,
generating secondary questions, managing
research databases, and documenting resources. Through impact mapping and more
targeted research, students are able to further develop and advance their
projects.
The Presentation
After
several months of regular work, students complete their final products and
spend time
reflecting in writing on their journey before
an afternoon and evening of presentations to a public audience of teachers and
parents that is broken into two parts: an open, tri-fold gallery-style
presentation and the more intimate,
TED-style
talks. Both presentation media focus upon the content of the
research and the product that was created, the successes the students achieved
during the unit, the challenges they contended with, and what we’ve come to
call the “learning curve,” the ultimate lessons that the students learned that
can be applied not just to research and this class, but to their journeys as
learners overall. This culminating experience is especially important as the
students are speaking as experts to a critical, though supportive, audience.
Takeaways
The
main objectives to piloting 20 Time were to complement traditional curriculum
with autonomous student learning, exploring a personal passion project, and
repeated, effective communication and collaboration with peers and a public
audience. Having finished two years of piloting, the takeaways are: First,
innovative thinking can be uncomfortable for all stakeholders as teachers have
to give up an increased sense of control within the classroom and students
struggle with the uncertainty and magnitude of a large, decentralized project.
Second, identifying what you need to know and asking the right questions to
find that information can be difficult. In our digital, instant-access world,
students have become too accustomed to finding information immediately, and
working to break down a complicated problem and tackle its component parts is
often a foreign experience. Third, passion builds student engagement because
they are personally invested in their work as they felt their ideas were
honored and magnified in ways that they had not been previously.
