Light, camera, action!

NEW PEDAGOGIES

In most of my recent posts, I have talked about what we are doing as a school in general, and sometimes as a division, department, or individually. In the end, it all adds to what we are doing as a school, and, to be fair, my perspective is just one opinion in a broader scenario.

In chapter five of A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep Learning by Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy, they share the Continuum of New Pedagogies figure.

This figure works as a rubric to evaluate our practices individually or as a community. If I had to use it to assess how we are doing in my Middle School, I would say that we are doing a fantastic job. We are not at the Advanced Stage in all four areas, and we are not consistent, but teachers are repeatedly hitting many of these standards.

DOCUMENTARIES

I have observed and consumed the new knowledge created as a result of diverse learning experiences at ISP in which the planning hits many of the advanced stages for these significant areas: Pedagogy, Tasks and Assessments, Tech Use by Teachers, and Tech Use by Students.

Let’s refer to a specific recent event: the Documentaries Unit in grades 7 and 8 English.

For the second year, students took part in this project created by my colleague, María Clara Fernandez. The first time, she asked me to help her revise the learning unit.

One of the simple things I love about this unit is the use of Slidesgo to put together a slide deck that is visually appealing and engaging, and at the same time shows every step in such a creative way.

Another essential aspect to mention is the checklist students can use to guide their process and understand the expectations. It will later help to assess students more authentically.

Then, when it comes to the assessment part, it is not only guaranteed that students have options and tools to create new knowledge (the script, the documentary video, and their Digital Writing Notebook), but they have also mastered their learning.

One of the big things about Deep Learning is the connection to students’ passions and real-world issues. For this assessment, students can pick ideas from the ones presented, including the UN sustainable goals, or choose their own topic.

The teachers offered students many resources and examples.

As we have learned in previous COETAIL courses, students are instructed and encouraged to understand and put into practice Copyright and Fair Use when creating their documentaries.

This year, my colleague asked me to train students on some tech tools that they could use to create their documentaries. I wanted them to have more than one option, and to have tools for different levels of expertise or that, when combined, could make a semiprofessional outcome. So I trained students on Screencastify and Adobe Spark, and some students on Olive.

One of the documentaries was about J Balvin.

Yesterday, when I attended the presentation of some of these documentaries, it was evident how this learning experience represents the right steps toward putting Deep Learning into practice.

So light, camera, action!