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.)

5th Grade

• 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)

6th Grade

• 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

7th Grade

• 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

8th Grade

• 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

• Final reflection/letter

• Mini-Lessons

  • add