Yesterday I read an older post of Bruce Hammonds entitled “Powerful Processes or In depth Learning – or both?” There were a few words in one of his sentences that grabbed me.

It grabbed me because as a Teacher one of my desires is to see my students finding their passions and taking opportunities to develop them. In my mind, our passions are linked to our talents/gifts. I believe everyone has one but sometimes it takes a long time to identify it.

So my question to you is “What are we doing to help our students identify and develop their passion/s?”

Here are two successful ways I feel I have done this, this year:

Example A “Multiple Intelligences“: Teaching these has given my students and myself a window into their talents, strengths and possible passions. The survey I discussed in an earlier post identified some common M.I’s my class demonstrate and has given me ideas for possible learning contexts. I discovered that I have a strong contingent of nature and visual “smart” learners. I have therefore planned with these in mind so that the students with these talents/smarts/passions can have an opportunity to flourish.

Example B “Contracts”: I run a management system where by if the students have finished an activity early there are two sections on the board they look to. The first is called “Must Do’s” and the second is “Can Do’s”. The first is obviously things they need to finish but the “Can Do’s” section gives them opportunity to explore and be extended in activities.

One such activity is where they negotiate a contract with me. Past examples of contracts are student initiated inquiries/projects and student responsibilities. It is has given space for students with a particular passion or bent to develop these further. I have loved observing my students “take off” on projects they have negotiated with me. One example recently has been a small group of boys in my class who love sport and wanted to take it further. We have negotiated a contract where by they are responsible for organising the “Teachers vs Students” sport matches. They are buzzing with this negotiated contract.

So back to my question: “What are we doing to help our students identify and develop their passion/s?” Are we squashing our students passions or allowing them to fly?

Picture Authors:

- Flying Eagle www.birdwatchersdigest.com/slideshow/gallery.php?Show_ID=3&Slide_ID=169

- Contract www.mma-analyst.com/post/Can-Couture-escape-his-contract-A-brief-look-at-contract-law.aspx

The W.A.L.Ts (We Are Learning To) for our Poetry unit this Term were:

• Write a poem using similes to support and emphasise your message.
• Write an acrostic poem using alliteration.
• Write a palindrome poem using onomatopoeias.
• Write a cinquain poem using verbs, adjectives and nouns correctly.
• Recite our poems fluently and with expression to our buddy class.

Yellow Hat Thinking (Positive Reflections):

1. Finding Poetry examples on the net supported the teaching of new poetry forms.
2. The use of visual images on our class W.A.L.Ts (I found these easily using a ‘Google Image’ search)
3. Teaching a variety of poems meant that students learnt and experiemented with different poems.
4. The students were encouraged to keep an “Ideas Book” which enabled them to run with an idea when it was time to write.
5. Sharing our poems with our buddy class via a web conference meant that our students had a live audience.
6. Recording our spoken poems onto a voicethread meant that others could listen and our successful poems were celebrated!

What have you done to make your poetry units successful?

What other ICT tools could be used to enhance a unit like this?

Every year the Year 6 (Grade 5s) do “Chocolate” as a unit of work. This was my first year teaching this age and unit so I was interested in seeing how it went. The motivation and enthusiasm I saw from my students was impressive!

The overal aim of this unit was for students to work co-operatively as a company to design and create a new type of chocolate bar and to produce a visual presentation outlining the process.

The following is a list of the activities the children had to complete:

1. In your chosen Company of 5 members assign the following roles: Co-ordinator, Recorder, Creative Arts Director, Communicator and Collator.
2. Design a Company name, logo and jingle.
3. Develop a timeline showing the history of chocolate.
4. Survey 60 people regarding:
   1. Their favourite chocolate.
   2. Time of day they enjoyed eating chocolate.
   3. How often they ate chocolate each week.
5. Sort, display and comment on the findings of the survey.
6. From these findings design a chocolate to enter into E3’s Chocolate competition.
7. Design a wrapper for your chocolate bar that includes your logo, company name and list of ingredients.
8. Make the chocolate.
9. Present your Company chocolate to the class and include in the presentation:
   1. Graphs displaying the survey and written comments.
   2. Description of the chocolate making process.
   3. Jingle.
   4. An advert for your chocolate eg: Newspaper, T.V or Radio.
   5. A timeline depicting the history of chocolate.
   6. Company chocolate ready for the taste test! (Of course I had the privledge of doing this part)

Green Hat Thinking (creative thoughts) If I was to do the unit again I would…

• Do it at the beginning of the Term when the students are less grumpy/tired. The co-operative nature of the unit was socially very demanding.
• Give the rubric out earlier in the process so students had a clearer picture of the expectations.
• Give more demonstrations and examples of the successful criteria set out in the rubric.

Overall it was a very successful unit as students worked through a motivating subject overcoming relationship issues to produce a tangible and tasty product :+)

Has anyone else taught a similar unit? What worked well for the students/teaching in your unit?

Picture Authors:
http://www.chocolate-world.net/images/Chocolate.png