I appreciated this further explanation on the research project as with each article I've read I've gotten a better understanding of what this project might look like in class. The article opening up with an inspiring anecdote of the culminating presentation of a project like this helped me to better see how this part of the project would play out.
Hughes goes through a list of objectives that the students will master, one of them being that they will, "Learn the skills needed to successfully collaborate with interviewees, peers, teachers, community members, and family members who contribute to their research". Having just done this in a project I just completed, this was truly like pulling teeth at the same time as bashing my head into a brick wall. Yes that bad. The logistics around this were so complex and frustratingly out of my control that much of the project was spent holding students' hands to help them plan an interview (metaphorically: if only it was that easy.) I think this is a great objective that Hughes includes for this reason precisely: this MUST be practiced from young years of school, not only in high school.
One question that I still have is how all of these teachers helped their students pick a certain research area, if they helped at all that is. I fear that my students would have a difficult time with this. One of the other articles mentioned a theme of overcoming adversity, but I wonder if this makes it too narrow of a lens for an upper school grade or whether this is exactly what they need. I predict this needs to be figured out through trial and error with each class taught.
Although Kittle talks about the beauty of a writing workshop, and how even her reluctant writers will eventually write something, I find it harrowing to imagine my students easily finding a topic, like you mentioned. What exactly is the strategy to support the students who don't easily come up with topics? This type of project seems ideal for students who are self-starters, but leaves many questions about students who are not.
ReplyDeleteTopics, if they come too easily, are often things that kids have done over and over again. This girl Jadah once wrote her "life story" for something in my class and another student said "you're writing that thing AGAIN?" Obviously, whenever teachers had asked her to write expressively, she'd turned to the same old story. While we want our students to embrace their stories and their lives, they also need to branch out.
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