Thinkering Studio - Grade Levels

Overview

Design, Make, Remix, Hack, Create, Build, Program, Craft, Etc.

Welcome to the Thinkering Studio. Thinkering Studio is a collaborative space/class/studio for students to:

explore questions, challenges, topics or technologies of interest, at their own pace, and in directions of their choosing
collaborate informally and formally, in person and electronically, synchronously and asynchronously
plan and reflect on their creations, processes, successes, difficulties, and learning through a multimodal journal and portfolio
create footsteps, examples, resources, or other artifacts for themselves & others who might follow
integrate technology as appropriate
(think 3M, Bell Labs, Google's 20% time, Apple's Blue Sky program, etc.)

Ungraded
Journal - bulleted plans from beginning of year
- Effort & Achievement - Effort added Q3 and Achievement Q4
- Weekly plan includes SMART goals
Reflections - 1 per month
Proposals - for every new project
Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
Peer critiques - monthly - sharing followed by questions
Mini-Lessons
- When have you discovered for yourself or taught yourself something? (Inside or outside of school)
- How is learning how to play soccer, play an instrument, learn English, learn a language at school, write a story, etc. similar/different?
- Using the documentation and reflection prompts for journal ideas (end of first month)
- What is failure? How can failure be beneficial? How do you overcome failures?
  - Are there levels of failure?
  - What is a smart failure?
  - If you achieve an "Epic Fail," have you learned more than most people who easily succeed or succeed by following a "recipe"?
- Creating and curating a learning portfolio (end of Q1)
- Marzano's Effort and Achievement Rubric (starting Q3)

Ungraded
Journal - plans and effort & achievement weekly
Reflections - every other week
Proposals - for every new project
Peer critiques - monthly for first marking period, every other week for 2nd-4th marking periods
Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
Mini-Lessons
- What are some general strategies to learn something? Which do you seem to prefer? What are some things that make it harder to learn? How do different technologies help/hinder your learning?
- How do you know when to stop/give up on a project? What is grit? Perseverance? (see habit 1)
- Providing critical feedback (end of first month)
- Consumption versus Production discussion - Q4

Graded
Journal - plans and effort & achievement weekly
Reflections - every other week
Proposals - for every new project
Peer critiques - every other week
Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
Mini-Lessons
- Can anyone else actually teach you anything? "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." Socrates
- Reflection Rubric