No Citizens Left? NCLB Takes a Toll on Social Studies Part 1

This last week I've been writing about ways to make social studies projects really count. This is especially important today as social studies subjects are given less time in the school program in favor of other subjects. I wondered, how much time do we have for social studies?

Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that schools increase student performance on tests of reading and math, it's not surprising that increased instructional time is being spent on reading and math. The corollary is, of course, less time time for art, physical education, science, and social studies.

In 2008, Year 5 of NCLB, the Center on Education Policy published a report that describes shifts in time in instruction as school districts respond to NCLB. If you want to drill down to the particulars, here is the report: From the Capital to the Classroom: Year 5 of the No Child Left Behind Act

Self-contained K-5 classrooms and middle and high schools report differently, so I'll break them out here.

Grades K-5 Among districts that reported increasing time for English/language arts and math, i.e., most of them, 72% indicated that their elementary schools reduced time by a total of at least 75 minutes per week for one or more other subjects. Of these, more than half (53%) cut instructional time in social studies from 239 to 164 minutes, or exactly 75 minutes.

Grades 6-12 Middle and high school programs have increased credit requirements for math and science, and in low-performing schools, increased the number of reading/language arts credits students must take. Reporting for these grade bands isn't as tidy as for K-5, but any way you look at it, for most of their school career, today's students are spending less time learning social studies.

Why is this a problem? Diminished time for social studies is unfortunate because competence in these subjects has a benefit that goes beyond the individual. The ideals embodied in the study of culture, history, economics, government, geography, and global issues are central to a functioning society. Quality learning experiences help students develop character, a sense of connectedness, and civic responsibility.

So, returning to my central thesis, it's important that the social studies experiences students do have be rigorous and meaningful. To that end, I've identified three principles to guide social studies project design. I'll share these in my next post.

A Grand Experiment in Twitter Collaboration

Since I'm not in any schools right now, I've been looking for a way to get to teacher's smart ideas. I've recently mined a whole new Twitter vein-- teacher hash groups. For any one not aware, these are topical hash tag "umbrellas" under which users organize their tweets. This allows for organized discussion. These hash tags are proving to be invaluable to me: # sschat (social studies), # engchat (english/language arts) # mathchat, # realmath, and # pbl. (rrr blogger dn allow hashtags-- you probably know there's no space between the hash mark and the tag) Your twitter client should let you sort incoming tweets by hash tag, which filters them from the entire twitterverse (not just tweets of folks you follow). Chrome's Silverbird has a field at top right for hash tags. A picture might explain better. In my tweet I asked people to review, improve and add project sketches to a growing collection. Several followers of #pbl have retweeted since I posted a few minutes ago. I've used hash posting and sorting for events (# ISTE11) and such, but I'm coming late to the game on this functionality. Very cool! What hash groups do you recommend?

Oh, and here's a link to the Google doc Project Sketches I've asked folks to contribute to. Have some ideas you'd like to add? Have at it!

Buuhindo Joan

Buuhindo Joan
Originally uploaded by cowyeow

This little miss has some opinions, I can tell! Joan is a student at Kilembe Valley Humanist Primary School in western Uganda. The photo was posted by one of the 66 contributors to the Flickr group I moderate called Schools Around the World. Please post yours!

Trendspotting at ISTE

Who else is still catching their breath after the whirlwind of ISTE11?
I just shared a few post-ISTE reflections at Edutopia.
Thanks to those who took part in my Ripped from the Headlines session, especially my three great guests--Paul Allison, Matt Van Kouwenberg, and Katherine Schulten. Details from the session, including links to resources and a guide to using the New York Times Learning Network, are available on the ISTE Ning. And if you're interested in working with colleagues to plan a newsy project for the upcoming school year, be sure to check out the Edutopia wiki. It's bare-bones now, but will grow as we begin brainstorming and adding resources.
Finally, if you didn't get a chance to come to Philadelphia, take a few minutes to listen to the closing keynote by Chris Lehmann, principal of Science Leadership Academy. Guaranteed to inspire!

Infographics, Headlines, and More at ISTE

ISTE 2011 is just around the corner, and Jane and I are looking forward to connecting with PBL colleagues and new friends in Philadelphia.
Hope you'll join us at these sessions:

• Tuesday: Jane facilitates Beyond Words: Using Infographics to Help Kids Grapple with Complexity. This is a BYO Laptop session (sign-up required) from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Room: PACC 118C.
• Wednesday: Suzie facilitates Ripped from the Headlines: Real Events Yield Relevant Projects. It's from 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Room PACC 113B. No advance registration necessary.

We've each invited some special guests to join us and look forward to productive conversations.
Hope to see you there!

Drawing on Student Experts

A classroom visit from a guest speaker is a time-honored way to kick off a project. Ideally, the guest will spark curiosity about the subject in which he or she has expertise. Sometimes, guests are so passionate about their topic that students are similarly infected, in a good way, and ready to dive into an inquiry project.
But how often do we invite students to fill the role of guest expert?
A program called eXpressions, designed and funded by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, taps student expertise with powerful results. The goal of this ambitious effort is to expand the pipeline of students preparing for careers across the health services spectrum, from nursing to research to medicine. A cornerstone of the project is a student research internship during the summer. But that's just the start. What makes eXpressions stand out from other STEM initiatives is the addition of arts and creative writing to the equation. Once summer scholars complete their research, they present their findings to art students--who then take up the challenge of interpreting science through the arts.
I go into more detail in this Edutopia post, but the two images above offer a hint of the creativity that this project is unleashing. At right is summer scholar Charles Hayes's project about patients' experiences with blood transfusions. At left is artist Kate Humphrey's interpretation of that research in an intricately woven piece of wearable art. As she explains in her artist statement, "I almost wanted my dress to seem pained and exhausted from giving and receiving blood so often, like it had been pricked by a cold medical syringe one too many times and was wary from the whole experience."
I'm willing to bet that both students came away with a deep understanding of the related science content, as well as a new appreciation for each other's ways of understanding the world.

Choose Your Own (PBL) Adventure

Jane recently described the travel metaphors we like to use in professional development settings where we’re introducing teachers to project-based learning. We advise travelers who are new to PBL that they may encounter some turbulence and occasional detours ahead, but also unanticipated wonders.

This week I happened to read two dispatches from thoughtful teachers who are on quite different journeys with project-based learning. One is moving full-steam-ahead, teaching core content through challenging projects. She seems to have good support from colleagues and coaches. The other, restricted by a test-prep school culture, is making side trips into PBL—but only with only some students, and only some of the time.

Shelley Wright, high school teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, writes a series of posts to describe how an ambitious Holocaust museum project has unfolded. Part 1 describes her decision to “take the plunge” and part company with familiar teaching practices. (Spoiler alert: There’s no yellow brick road. Doubts emerge. But courage and patience win the day.) In Part 2, initially wary students warm up to their new role as creators; our traveler gets more comfortable in her new role as co-learner. She reports, “To be honest, this project is so interesting, I want to be part of it. I want to help make and design it, and I’ve never had that impulse while teaching before.” In Part 3, empowered students race the clock to prepare their museum exhibits for a showcase event. Shelley comes up for air long enough to offer three nuggets of wisdom that are guiding her PBL journey: improvise, learn the hard way, and don’t regret.

Steven Davis is in his tenth year teaching high school English in an urban setting in northern California. In a guest post on Larry Cuban’s blog, Steven describes the learning that is happening not during regular class time, but instead through less formal experiences before school and during lunch. That’s when he invites a group of students who are English language learners to take part in hands-on activities. These aren’t full-blown projects, but they give students time and opportunity to experience things like curiosity and persistence. As he considers what students are gaining from learning to use a soldering iron or assemble electronic kits, Steven reflects, “The project has been less about teaching than it has been about providing students with mentoring, tools, and the setting in which they can learn for themselves.” He ends by considering, “Who knows where project-based learning experiences will lead?”

Sounds like more PBL adventures await. More postcards, please!