Socialization of School?!

A curious teacher contacted me with a desire to enhance a learning experience designed and used from the past. The lesson was based on discussion of perceptions of socialization in society. The foundation was school violence and the target to understand was what influenced the "student" to commit an act of school violence.

The teacher and I collaborated and created the following lesson. If you would like more access to materials please contact me and we will be sure to get those to you ASAP. 

I observed (and engaged with students) as the teacher facilitated the learning experience beautifully. Students were put into small teams of 4-5 and were provided laminated cutouts of the images RIGHT that represented the various areas to align along the spectrum of blame: community, school, home, media, and peers. The teacher used a google presentation to formally present to the class the content necessary to empower them to be content literate as they discussed their perspectives.

Each group was provided a CLAIM SHEET to organize their warrants for each claim that states their perspective of each area along the "SPECTRUM OF BLAME."

Students engaged in this by discussing and arguing for their personal views as well as listening to their peers' viewpoints until the team reached consensus. 

TECHNOLOGY TIME! Stoodle was the tool! The teacher provided the students a link that welcomed the entire class to collaboratively create an artifact that individually communicated their teams perspectives for each area along the blame spectrum (the live feed was being projected for the entire class to see in real time). 

Below is a screenshot of what was the end result.

This image was the ROCK that promoted discussion between teams and guided by the teacher. Some of the high level and critical thinking questions I observed:

• Why is the perspective of parental blame so various in range compared to community?
• Describe a home that would produce the least likely student to commit this crime?
• Why is media considered by most to be most blame-worthy?
• How should media respond to these events
• How could school be more safe? What power does the school have?

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

The teacher wanted to collect student perspective data about the class after the learning experience. Plickers was the student feedback system of choice and it has many benefits that appealed to me. The teacher must download the app (any smartphone) and print the answer cards (preferably card stock and matte laminated). The students clear desks of everything but the response card and when prompted they rotate their card to their answer. The teacher scans the room with her camera and all responses are compiled and the teacher has the option to display immediately or wait until the end. The responses are graphically represented to engage further discussion.

Just think how powerful it is to provide a learning experience challenging students to understand how five different areas influence school violence and then making it relevant by getting DATA from those students immediately and discussing the concept even more deeply as it relates to NVHS. 

BOOM!!

Another great day the Wildcat Way!