Dr. Dan Keller is our principal at the Saigon South International School elementary school. In preparation for the upcoming Project X weeklong research and design thinking experience, Dan shared his research on how to help our students’ craft inquiry questions. The following are some helpful slides from Dan’s presentation.
I believe in mind/concept maps, having written about them over the years. Mind maps support UDL while often enhancing learning strategies (e.g., brain dump, chunking, grouping, showing connections, etc.) When web-based mind mapping tools like Mindmeister came onto the scene, we made a giant leap in how digital mind maps can help Replace – Augment/Amplify – Transform (RAT Model) learning that previously used analog tools. The collaborative nature of online concept maps between students and teachers can help the process, create, and communicate one’s understanding.
In chats with a learning support teacher and a history teacher, I made a mental list of how digital mind maps could support their excellent instructional strategies. The following are their strategies and my take on how concept maps could augment/amplify or transform learning.
Brain Dump: The teachers described what we sometimes see in students who struggle to get their ideas from their minds down their arms and out into text. Brainstorming for ideas and just getting the story out of one’s head are supported by mind maps. One can keypad the ideas or use voice-to-text tools to support this process. Mind maps with this function go a step further by giving students a big digital bucket to make their ideas visible or intentionally saving them from separating buckets from the start. This connects to…
Chunking: Voice-to-text or typing in mind maps helps students break information down into more bite-size pieces. Students can take the whole brain dump, cut sections and paste them into their branch cells. They can also do their initial dumps into individual buckets. Mindmeister on a mobile device allows for voice-to-text by using the microphone key on the keypad. Digital mind maps provide a place to embed images-sketches-connection arrows-video-audio-web links, in other words, sketchnoting. 🙂 Back to UDL, giving students multiple ways to express their ideas is supported by concept maps.
Jigsaws: When topics and research are divided between individuals or groups, an online mind map can provide the workspace to curate information, resources, images, etc. When the jigsaw comes together, the connector tool shows relationships. Tools like Inspiration that give you the text box on the connector augment the learning pushing students to think and label the connections.
Routines and Protocols: My Web Resources for Learning site demonstrates ways technology can support and enhance visible thinking routines. The NSRF puts out an extensive listing of protocols to review to see where concept maps come in handy. Look through the routines to see where mind maps are listed as the supporting tool.
Templates & Charts: Question prompts around text, etc., are a mainstay for teachers providing students with scaffolding using labeled textboxes, charts with input areas, listed procedures, supporting vocabulary with text, and drawing areas to visualize the words. Focusing on mind maps, one can see how they support sequencing, grouping by categories, cause, and effect, big ideas supported by details, compare and contrast, etc.
There are entire websites dedicated to mind maps and how they can support a great many instructional strategies and thinking processes. My effort here hopefully connects to what others are sharing.
Our Kindergarten students just completed their unit of inquiry on water. Over the past several weeks, the students used the Educreations app to make their thinking visible in response to questions drawn from the lines of inquiry for the unit. Here is a short video about the project with examples of student work in Spanish and French.
Cecilia Rios, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire, worked with her students to create an eBook using the Book Creator app for their early childhood assembly. It is an excellent example of using technology with preliterate students to use their artistic and oral speaking skills to share their understanding. In this case, they communicated their understanding of how they demonstrated respect. Check out the link to the video of their presentation.
As we are a dual language school here at the Washington International School, finding apps in Spanish and French that meet our needs sometimes takes lots of work. Generative apps like Educreations, Draw Free, etc. are our best bets for several reasons, including that they give the students the avenue to make their thinking visible in language and visuals as they also are language free with the tools/functions represented by symbols/icons. Explain Everything, though, does come in French and Spanish with the directions/commands offered in both languages.
This leads me to a lesson I did today in one of our French immersion Pre-K classes. The teacher, Sonia Mena, is one of our school leaders trying new approaches to teaching and learning in her classroom. She already has used video to record her students sharing their understanding of a concept for one of their PYP units. She then used her iPad to recreate a story in French with the students as narrators.
Her most recent strategy is to have me help her students write letters and numbers using iPads. The iWriteWords app is an excellent choice for this activity. One can even get it in French and Spanish. But before making the purchase, I wanted to try the free version to see if it would benefit the students.
We had the students use the app drawing letters and the provided practice words in English. The app smashing came into play as we switched from iWriteWords to the Draw Free art app. It was a transfer task as the students again drew the numbers without the benefit of the structure provided by iWriteWords. They spoke the numbers in French as they drew them. We then used the projector and screen to display the French word “Deux.” The students then applied their letter drawing in French.
We should bring in a third app to have the students screencast as they draw, speak, and record the numbers, letters, and words in French. The practice today was beneficial for the students. The technology did more than replace paper and pencil as students easily erased, chose different colors, and was very engaged.
I wrote in the Spring that I would start a new job at Washington International School (WIS) in the District of Columbia. The move would offer me new learning opportunities and a return to working with international students and educators. It would also offer new topics for what I share in this blog and on the Edtech Co-Op podcast. So here is some of my learning as things get rolling at WIS.
The Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IB) is new as I only have experience with the high school diploma curriculum. After spending many years in elementary schools working to develop a curriculum, I found the holy grail with the PYP as I spent much of my summer reading about the program. I now see the PYP in action and look forward to sharing my learning as the year progresses.
So, if you are already a PYP teacher, I will present much of what you already know. However, the Washington International School’s take on the PYP might offer new ideas. I will record podcasts and videos with our teachers as they teach the PYP and in several languages, as WIS is a total immersion, dual language school. I am told that not all PYP schools teach the entire curriculum in the second and local languages.
If you are new to the PYP and are looking for a fully developed curriculum built around interdisciplinary units focusing on inquiry, learning goals based upon big ideas/concepts in UbD-developed units, transdisciplinary skills, global awareness, and many habits of mind, then get ready to learn with me.
Now, look at the photo at the top of the post. It is a display that can be found when you walk into the school, the hallways, and the teacher lounge. It lists all the units of inquiry by grade level. One could not ask for a more direct and validating reminder to students, parents, and staff members of what we teach at the primary school.
Here are a couple of close-ups for Grade 3 and 5 start-of-the-year units of study.
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