The 2 girls in the photo are using literacy to determine how and what their robot will do. They are using pre-planning to develop the course and obstacles their robot will follow. They are also using speech and writing to communicate, not just to each others, but to the coaches what their plan of action will be for the next 3 sessions. The girls learned that this is a fluid document that they could change whenever the need arose. The other sheet of paper is a list of materials they will need to complete their project. This was an organizing skill for them. This group followed their plan and were able to complete their project in the amount of time allowed.
Later in their project they used a programming language to run their robot through a maze. This part of the project used visual literacy.
Your photo and the explanation about it suggest that there's a literacy of learning, don't you think? Effective learning starts with pre-planning (maybe this could also be called "purpose setting"), careful explanation and understanding of instructions/procedures, accurate communication among learners when working as a team, continuous assessment of progress, clarification and redirection (when needed) and an understanding of when the purpose (objective) has been accomplished.
ReplyDeleteWe should think more about this idea of a literacy of learning, mapping the language to the thinking/reading strategies we've been studying to see if there's an overlap and if certain learning situations demand more use of one/two strategies than others.
Once again, I find support in the idea that group, project-based work is an effect way to incorporate literacy into the classroom. This photograph perfectly depicts the benefits of project based learning that fosters literacy skills using pencil, paper, hands-on work, and technology while simultaneously building communication skills. You hone in on the development of accurate communication between learners as an essential component of effective learning. How do students develop clear communication skills? I think part of the answer lies in group work whereby student dialogue and conversation through nonverbal models like drawing, graphing, constructing, writing, and physically modeling, as Michel's post explores. These girls are developing their literacy skills and critical thinking skills, both integral to the process standards for mathematics. I would hope these skills are integral in process standards for other content areas as well!
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