Equity & Access Professional Learning Teacher Inquiry

Let ‘Em Shine ~ Elevating PBL

By Sandra McLaughlin and Angela Stokes

Curators notes:
Energized by recent community debates over local Confederate monuments, The Let ‘Em Shine project invited students to help unite the community by creating a symbolic “monument” that tells a broader story and honors the rich cultural history of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Summary:
A year-long project-based learning project called Let It Shine which connected students across three high schools to ask questions surrounding local monuments and their stories.

The Back Story: In May of 2017 Albemarle County was awarded an LRNG Innovators grant sponsored through the National Writing Project and John Legend’s Show Me Campaign. Let ‘Em Shine was born. A year long PBL project for high school students that asked students to consider four central questions. Why do we have monuments? Whose stories have been told through the monuments in our community? Whose stories are missing and how do we want to memorialize them?

On a broader scale, the project served to transform PBL work in our division as interdisciplinary teachers from all three high schools collaborated to elevate student thinking, curiosity and creativity.

Visit the Let ‘Em Shine Google Site for the whole story.

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Lessons in Linked Learning and Maker Education from the Wonder Workshop

By Paula Mitchell

As a small public school in Oakland, California embarked on a culture shift, these educators moved away from whole-class, lockstep instruction, and toward small-group, personalized learning with differentiated instruction based on students’ interests and needs.

Exploring Our Environment Together: Green Is the New Pink

By Ellen Shelton

Green Is the New Pink supported young women in grades 8-11 to tap into their interests through environmental research and problem-solving. They learned citizen science procedures linked to career pathways in environmental science and conservation alongside teachers associated with The University of Mississippi Writing Project, the University of Mississippi Field Station, and the Audubon Society’s Strawberry Plains.

Disrupting the Prolonged Silence: Youth Inquiry of the Tulsa Race Massacre

By Shanedra Nowell

The Oklahoma State University Writing Project partnered with the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation to disrupt the prolonged silence by empowering Oklahoma 6-12 grade teachers and students to answer the question, “What can we learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre to make the world a better place?”

Teaching Democracy Across the Curriculum

Educators from the Boise State Writing Project studied together and created units of study across the curriculum that give students opportunities to be citizen historians.

For the Sake of Argument: Teaching Evidence-Based Writing

By Linda Friedrich, Rachel Bear, and Tom Fox

The instructional resources contained in this article are designed to develop specific argument skills and include text sets that represent multiple perspectives on a topic. The resources also emphasize iterative reading and writing practices, the recursive development of claims, organizing and structuring writing, and embedding formative assessment opportunities. The formative assessment tools help teachers assess students' written arguments and provide specific feedback.

The Write Time with Songwriter/Storyteller Rob Rokicki and Educator Kevin Hodgson

By National Writing Project

Songwriter/storyteller Rob Rokicki is interviewed by Western Mass Writing Project teacher-consultant, Kevin Hodgson in this episode of The Write Time.