This has been among the strangest years of my teaching career, but it has also been blessed with many interesting opportunities. I have been exploring a lot of cool things outside of school, and I have been teaching a variety of subjects and students inside of school. For two thirds of my day, I teach MYP 1, 2 and 3 Individuals and Societies at an IB school. For those requiring translation, I teach Grade 6 Social Studies, as well as Grade 7 and 8 History and Geography through the amazing lens of the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate. In the middle third of my school-day sandwich, I move to my elementary classroom to teach Grade 4 Language Arts and Social Studies. Needless to say, I have a lot of marking and prep, but I also have a lot of BOBs.
BOBs are the playful name I use to refer to the approach that I developed to help my students engage in deep, meaningful learning. It involves personalizing projects that students sign up to prepare and present outside the blocks of time or units of inquiry. That is why I called it Building Outside the Blocks, and the goal is for students to build skills, autonomy and community in minimal class time. Right now, I have 5 BOBs on the go. While I have created dozens of one-off and tri-BOBs, I have never taught so many subjects at once, so I have a unique vantage point on the impact of the assignments at each grade level.
In Grade 4, the students are presenting the second stage of the Master Storyteller tri-BOB, the MST 2. Students find a picture book that they want to present to the class. For the first MST, they read it to the class focusing on fluency, expression and non-verbal presentation skills. In the second revisit, they present a different story in a creative way of their choice using visuals. I have already seen slideshows, a collage, a play and a few videos. I had never expected movie editing to be a residual skill at this grade level, but BOBs allow students to be self-directed, and they can teach themselves to do a lot of things when they are motivated.
In Grade 6, the students are in a unit of inquiry called A Better Life where they are investigating the push and pull factors that lead people to immigrate to Canada now and historically. I took an assignment that I had seen where students select an object that is meaningful to them that they would feel compelled to bring with them if they immigrated to a new country. In this version that I call Precious Cargo, students bring in the object (or a picture of it) and share with their class, revealing personal stories and entrusting our learning community with objects that have deep sentimental value. I continue to be amazed by each student's story and what the class can learn about their peers through the sharing of this assignment.
In Grade 7, the students are in their second phase of What’s Up, a current events-like project that has three iterations (like all tri-BOBs). We are in the second iteration where students add a visual to their presentation on the news article they analysed through annotations, a summary, asking questions and drawing conclusions. Among the conclusions, they have to identify and explain the biases they can detect in the article and justify their choice of visual that they present as a complement to the content. I used to have them just add a visual, but as I develop my ability to create opportunities for critical thinking, I added this which has already proven to be an interesting differentiator. I have seen slideshows, videos, a drawing and a collage, but these presentations have just begun and will continue with a few presentations a week until the end of April (What's Up Wednesdays).
In Grade 8, the students just presented News and Schmooze. It was interesting to be able to design scaffolded news-oriented projects for all three grade levels. They evolve from What’s News to What’s Up to News and Schmooze, and each is a tri-BOB of it’s own. I call that a trifecta of a tri-BOB. News and Schmooze has the shortest timeline of any BOB I've done, but it was equally powerful in terms of individualization and a very helpful platform for providing formative feedback for learning on individual and collaborative skills. The groups were assigned to agree on a news story of their choice, investigate it independently and prepare to show active listening and other cooperative learning skills when they discussed, or schmoozed, about the issue in front of the class (and the computer as they were being filmed for their reflection and growth). This was my first News and Schmooze, which was also my first BOB to have a collaborative learning component. It won't be my last.
In Grade 8, the students are also working on History Beats. This project transpires over several months with Monday designated for the presentations (Music Mondays has such a nice ring to in). Students choose a song that has historical context and analyse the lyrics and melody through a report that they present to the class. I learn something from every presentation, and we all look forward to Monday a little bit more as a result. History Beats was something I created last year when I taught this subject in Grade 8 for the first time. It was a way to reach beyond the Canada-centred curriculum and invite the world, through and across timelines, to the classroom. When students choose a song that is meaningful to them, they do some of their best work.
That is ultimately true of any BOB or other high yielding assignment. When work is meaningful and students can find a place to see and be themselves, their work improves. Students can then go from strength to strength, as once they achieve success in one aspect of class, they are more motivated to try and develop in other areas. If they accept this invitation to learning, then you pave the way for powerful personalized experiences where students reach beyond the assignment to challenge themselves and deepen their skills. With as many students and classes that I teach this year, one of the things that grounds me is that I know these projects are making an impact. In truth, building outside the blocks has always been my way; I just never expected that my way was paved in yellow bricks leading to an Emerald City named BOB.
