III.

Mastery of Content
"At my old school when we did research, the teacher would just tell us what to research and we would do it. In Mr. Shaddox's class, we got to choose what to research. The funnest part was asking questions - we got to come up with them ourselves!" - Rochelle As my students co-designed their learning, I saw them engage the content in a way that I had never seen. Now free of traditional curriculum constraints, they could pursue their inquiries and define the boundaries of their own learning. A teacher did not hand them a list of things to know. They developed their own list, based around original questions. Students had to figure out what they needed to do and know, if they wanted to answer a question like, Will diseases cause the end of the world? They literally discovered the content. This approach led to a deeper level of content mastery. When I talk about content mastery I am referring to students who transcend the lower levels of cognition like knowledge and comprehension. Im talking about learning that surpasses the assessment of a standardized, multiple-choice exam. Content mastery means applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information in original ways. Students built their own webs of knowledge around their inquiries, so they owned that knowlege in unique ways. This allowed them to do more sophisticated things with that information. Many groups in our project achieved this deep level of content mastery. In the following section, I will highlight two groups that demonstrated content mastery and examine their process. After topic selection and group formation, students began their research in the same way that we began our project design. They wrote their questions. These questions became the foundation for their research guides (which they used to take notes). By the end of the first week, students created posters exhibiting their essential questions, key terms and a summary of their early findings. This was generated by the students and facilitated by the teachers. When we saw students heading off in a fruitless direction or missing crucial information, we offered advice and suggested possible questions.

The Human Diseases Group: Infected By Deeper Learning

Javen, Destiny and Gwyns first week of research showed impressive growth (with little teacher facilitation). At the beginning, this trios topic was simply Diseases. After a day of research (using books and websites), the students realized that they had selected a very large topic. After some discussion, Destiny suggested refining their research to infectious, human diseases. Gwyn and Javen agreed. Gwyn had an interest in HIV/AIDS, Javen chose malaria and Destiny selected cancer. They summarized their first weeks findings in a poster:

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Human Diseases by Destiny, Gwyn & Javen Our Essential Questions: 1. What are the main diseases? 2. How do people gain the diseases? 3. How does malaria effect people? 4. Where do most diseases come from? 5. How does AIDS effect people? 6. How many people die from diseases? 7. Is there cures for the diseases? 8. What does cancer effect? Key Terms Pandemic AIDS HIV Tumor Insulin Immune System Definitions A epidemic of infectious disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Human Immunodeficiency Virus Extra cells made by cancer all together A hormone in your pancreas that controls the amount of sugar you receive A system that protects you from diseases

Summary of Our Learning We have learned that the main diseases are AIDS, Cancer, Influenza, The Plague, Smallpox and Malaria. You get HIV from one persons infected body fluids and spreads into someone elses body. You get smallpox from the air traveling and spreading. You get cancer when your immune system is not working properly. People gain malaria when there is a parasite in the mosquitoes and you are bitten. You get effected with many bad symptoms. When you receive malaria, you get fever, chill, muscle ache, headaches, nausea, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating and jaundice. Small pox started over 3,000 years ago in Africa spreading to india and china. Malaria came from Africa Haiti and Dimitrian Republic, Eastern Europe and South Pacific. When you get AIDS youre body gets very weak because your white blood cells run low. So when you get sick people without aids can fight people without aids cant fight it and they would get very sic. 20 out of 30 people with smallpox have died. 300-500 million people die of malaria per year. People die from cancer, but if you catch it early Docters can help. Cancer affects DNA. How would the quality of this groups learning compare to that of students studying infectious, human diseases within a prescribed or teacher-driven curriculum? A skeptic might find this groups research rife with errors and lacking crucial

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information. However, if we examine Destiny, Javen and Gwyns process, we see students using skills that dont emerge under an autocratic approach to learning. These three students had to analyze and assess information in order to refine and establish their inquiry. They connected concepts, identified key terms and created an original infrastructure for their ideas. This helped them develop deeper familiarity with and ownership over the content. Throughout the following weeks, this process continued. In week two, Destiny discovered that there were so many types of cancer that she couldnt possibly cover them all in her article. After teaching herself about the major cancer types, she narrowed her topic down to skin cancer. She felt that skin cancer had a closer connection to the end of the world because of its alarming growth and connection to environmental damage (depletion of the ozone). Gwyn ran into a hurdle with her HIV/AIDS research. She discovered that she needed to first learn about how the immune system worked in order to fully understand her topic. In a moment of agency and self-direction, she created a homework assignment for herself to master this content: a cartoon strip. Javen discovered that a teacher at High Tech Middle had contracted malaria on a trip in Tanzania. He and his group arranged an interview with Mr. Greg to learn all about the frightening symptoms. The group was able to apply Javens foundational research when constructing informed questions for Mr. Greg. The first draft of Destiny, Gwyn and Javens article, Malaria, HIV & Cancer: The Next Plague? outlined these three diseases, their causes, symptoms, effects and ways to prevent them. They concluded: Diseases put peoples lives at risk every single day. This is a threat to people all around the world. Diseases cannot end the world, but could impose severe limitations on human life. For example, it can cause a major drop in the population. That is why it is very important to get vaccines, have regular doctors appointments, and take preventative measures against disease. On exhibition night, Destiny, Javen and Gwyn stood by a blow-up of their article (see Appendix F), mounted on an easel, and their Flash animation, displayed on a laptop. The three of them eagerly greeted visitors and educated them on the diseases that they had researched. They had no script or note cards with facts to recite. They spoke comfortably and fluidly about their topics and answered questions spontaneously. The experience showed that they gone beyond understanding the content. They mastered it. Gwyn wrote in her journal: I thought it was super cool getting to teach people new things and know that they know new things because of me. The thing I enjoyed the most was when I explained to her what HIV does to white blood cells when it enters your body. And she got all of these new ideas and got really happy. Then she gave me a big

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high five and said I should be a doctor. That really made me happy because I taught her these new things and got her to really think and try to get an answer.

Meteors & Asteroids Group: Escaping The Orbit of Prescribed Learning

Everyone is learning what they need to learn when they need to learn it. This wouldnt happen in a carefully constructed box with prescribed outcomes and step-by-step learning. This is real learning. - Excerpt from my journal (November 23, 2012) Cameron, Sutton and Isaac are another group worthy of examining in their path towards mastery of content. The group began the research with a lot of excitement, questions and many misconceptions. However, by the end of the project, they had defined the parameters of knowledge for their topic and mastered the content. During the first day of research the boys struggled to differentiate some key terms: meteors, meteorites, comets and asteroids. Just defining their topic was a great exercise in learning! They also become fascinated (and subsequently sidetracked) with a meteor called Apophis. When doing this type of open-ended research, it is often up to students to evaluate the resources they access. Unfortunately, when it comes to researching meteors, there is no lack of false Web prophets offering misinformation about space objects on a terminal trajectory with Earth. These boys discovered for themselves the idea that truth is not something handed down to us in a tidy package. Its something we must construct for ourselves, based on multiple experiences and sources. Sutton wrote in his journal, What surprised me [about our research] was that a meteor called Apophis might hit L.A. and destroy San Diego too or it might hit the Pacific Ocean or it might not hit Earth at all. What confused me was how the scientists found out that the meteor might hit in the year 2036. Cameron also wrote, Something challenging for us was finding the right thing to read on the computer to get the right information. In response to reading about Apophis, he wrote, Many people have already evacuated L.A. It might destroy San Diego too because San Diego is only 125 miles away. We really didnt want to box the boys in with their research, but didnt want them to get scared out of their wits either. So Ms. Wong and I offered them some tips on checking the validity of sources and how to compare information. I also sent them links to helpful articles and websites. These approaches were in-line with our co-design and the democratic spirit of the project. We werent giving them the answers, just the tools.

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By the end of the first week, the group produced this poster sharing their research: Meteor Crashing by Isaac, Cameron and Sutton Our Essential Questions 1. Will the meteor Apophis hit earth? 2. Will we survive a meteor crashing? 3. How big is the biggest meteor? 4. How fast do meteors fly? 5. Was earth made out of meteors? 6. How many meteors have crashed on earth? 7. Was the moon created by a meteor? 8. Are meteors made of something harder than diamonds? 9. When will the next meteor crash on earth? 10. What is a comets tail made of? Key Terms Asteroid Orbit Coma Nucleus Astronomic Meteor Comet NEO Definitions Any one of thousands of small planets To move around an object The haze around the main part of the nucleus The solid part of the comet Of or relating to astronomy A piece of metal that burns or glows brightly in the sky as it falls from outer space into Earths atmosphere An object in outer space that develops a long, bright tail when it passes near the sun. Near Earth Object

Summary of our Learning This week my group and I learned a lot about meteors. Meteors are giant rocks that orbit around the sun and are mostly made of dust, rocks, and gases. There are different meteor types like asteroids and comets that also orbit around the sun. A comet is made of ice, dust and gases. Asteroids are made of rock, dust and gases and they orbit around the sun in a form called The Main Asteroid Belt. The next meteor that may crash into Earth is a meteor named Apophis that is headed straight for L.A. This meteor may crash into L.A. in the year 2036. It may also hit the Pacific Ocean or miss Earth. This meteor is the side of a football stadium and if it hits earth it will have the force of 100 atomic bombs!

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Apophis is a big part of their summary. This raised some questions for us. Is the quality and accuracy of the content at risk in this self-directed approach to research? Why should these students be permitted to struggle like this? This hurdle in research (which other groups also experienced) was certainly not our intention. However, we saw this struggle as an opportunity, rather than a failure. We knew it was more valuable for students to discover how to compare sources and evaluate their reliability, than for us to feed them the truth. And so we continued to trust in this process. Students continually revisited and revised their lists of questions. Ms. Wong and I met with each group to discuss their essential questions. We read over their research, asked them to explain what they had written and facilitated further question formulation. By the second week of research, this groups questions had evolved. Isaac 1. Are meteors becoming a threat to our planet? 2. If a meteor hits the Earth, will we survive? 3. How have humans throughout history perceived comets? Sutton 1. What are meteors? asteroids? comets? meteorites? 2. What are they made of? 3. How can meteors, asteroids and comets harm us? Cameron 1. When may the next meteor hit Earth? 2. What are some of the most unique comets discovered? Why? 3. How are comets, asteroids and meteors discovered, tracked and named? One aspect of our project was authentic research. Students arranged field trips and interviews with experts to find answers to their questions and construct knowledge. Cameron, Sutton and Isaac made contact with Jason Hammond, an educator from the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. Hammond came to our school for an hour-long interview with the boys. Isaac reviewed his research before Hammonds visit and developed these questions to fill in the gaps of his groups knowledge. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Do you believe that meteors caused the extinction of dinosaurs? When comets hit the atmosphere how does it strengthen the atmosphere? How many meteors crashed on Earth? Are there thing(s) besides meteors, comets, and asteroids that are near Earth objects (NEOs)? What is the biggest meteor that has hit Earth? 121


6. What is the fastest speed recorded from a meteor? Most of his questions dug deeper than the groups original questions. However, at this point, I also saw students like Isaac retreading the same territory with questions. For instance, Isaac already knew the biggest meteor to hit Earth happened 65 million years ago. In this project, there was no textbook with an answer key in the back. I started wondering, How will students know when theyve sufficiently answered their questions? Did the boys ever find out the truth about Apophis? An excerpt from their final draft article (see Appendix G) demonstrates how they put together the information from the literature and their interview to construct their own understanding: There is one meteor called Apophis that may hit Earth in the year 2036. It used to be that the chances that Apophis would hit was 1 in 48,000, but now it has dropped to 4 in a million. Astronomers determined the angle is enough that Apophis is not going to hit us, says Jason Hammond, an expert on meteors, comets, and asteroids. Apophis is the size of two and a half football fields. It will hurtle past Earth at a speed of 28,000 miles per hour! Right now Apophis is approximately between 930,000 and 9,300,000 miles away from Earth. Apophis will only hit Earth if something unusual happens like another meteor hits it. It should fly 20,000 miles away from Earth. As far as we know right now we are safe from the meteor Apophis, says Jason Hammond. Apophis is an exciting thing to research and will most likely not hit Earth. When co-design is carried throughout the project, students engage the content in a new way. Cameron, Sutton and Isaacs self-directed inquiry allowed them to define, analyze, evaluate and apply information for themselves. This group, like many in our project, showed that a students capacity to master content is elevated when they truly own the path of their learning.

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