So Many WAYS for Students to Shine

Last week, my Grade 5/6 Literacy class finished presenting their What About You Shine project, aka WAYS. My newest Building Outside the Blocks project illustrates what’s possible when you invite students to share pieces of themselves with each other.  With no more than 3 presentations a day, our class learned about each other over 3 weeks. My students witnessed different arts styles and mediums of creation from their classmates. They saw aspects of each other’s lives beyond the walls of the building with BMX’ers tricks and anglers sharing tips, Lego master construction, and instrumental productions. There were committed athletes who shared their routines as they developed skills for on and off the volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, and we learned that students were singers, video editors, animators, and storytellers. I saw a variety of moves and belt testing for jiu jitsu, tae kwon do, and karate captured on video.  This newest addition to the BOBs line-up has done so much to build skill, autonomy, community and connection for our class.

The goal of the WAYS project is to share something that you do really well or makes you feel good. I blogged about it when I launched the project, but I’m only sure a BOB really works once I complete the product-cycle and read student reflections. All of my Building Outside the Blocks projects have a common thread where students have a variety of choices around their topic, medium, date, and style. They can even choose to present to just me if they aren’t yet ready to share with the class. While 4/28 students made that choice most of the class felt safe enough and excited to present their projects to the class community. Unedited student reflections included:

It was fun to work on, a lot of people thought it was really good!

I love presenting projects that I worked hard on. The feeling of being nervous and excited feels awesome to me. I also feel this way because I feel like everyone in my class is my friend so there is nothing to be worried about.

…everyone made me feel comfortable everyone was cheering at the start and the end when I started.

....everyone gave me good comments and someone said to make it longer which made me kind of happy.

I was really nervous but it was so fun to see the reactions.

…it was nice to be able to show my strengths to my friends.

…I like sharing stuff that people don't know about me

I felt like I belonged when sharing my WAYS.

The joy of creating a project that helps students build skills in writing composition, presenting, and reflecting is only part of the journey. Knowing the impact that this project has on students is what drives me to share them and the approach that underpins why they are so effective. In the weekly letters my students write to their parents called WHOW (What Happened in Our Week) but pronounced WOW, many students wrote about the WAYS presentations and presenters and how they were looking forward to learning the craft or skill from them. It was a wonderful reminder of the amplitude of projects like these for student voice, self awareness, self worth, and belonging. Parents commented in the WHOWs, in conversation, or by email about the positive impact the WAYS project had on their child and how much time and effort they put into it working at home.

I just presented for the AI Teach Smarter, Not Harder: Streamlining Workload for Teacher Well-being  summit for Martha Umana on Building a Learning Community with BOBs.  The WAYS was the first time I used AI to help me generate a BOB project outline. It created a comprehensive list of possible avenues for students to consider when trying to capture these pieces of themselves. It also generated the sign up for the presentation dates once putting in the parameters that I wanted. We can use AI to create spaces for student voice while easing our workload. The best part is that AI could be used to create the medium but not the essence of the content. These projects are both supported by AI while being AI-proof. The students can use tools to create their product, but the content has to be their ideas and experiences because it’s about them.

I love my projects because of what they do for students as individuals and members of the class community. I love to build the room around who is in the room. I enjoy problem solving with students who feel stuck or unsure about which part of themselves to share or how to tell their story. I love facilitating these projects in my classroom and building community through the year. Building Outside the Blocks projects do a lot in such little time, and I am glad to share my outlines and how to create your own. I’ll be presenting on the What About You Shines project and other BOBs for an upcoming event at The Mentoree. Register at bit.ly/MentoreeEventbrite, or just reach out and ask me how you can start bringing BOBs into your class community.