Author, former teacher, and international speaker Jamie McKenzie visited Rossford on June 9th to work with teachers as part of the I-LITE grant series, which also included sessions on June 7 and 8. Jamie presented a session called "Beyond Cut and Paste" for over a dozen educators from Rossford and surrounding school districts. Below are a few of the highlights and pictures from his session and Jamie's discussion with participants:
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For research projects, change from "Scoop and Smush" (topic research projects) to researching "Questions of Import" (see his article here).
An example... rather than assign students to do a research paper on "Captain James Cook" or some other explorer, have them answer this question: "Which of the following captains was the best at navigation? (Captain James Cook, Captain Matthew Flinders, Captain George Vancouver, or Captain William Bligh)"
And as Jamie states, "This type of research is much more demanding than copy-and-paste research, but ultimately more rewarding and more empowering because it equips students to wrestle with the real issues of their own lives." Students must "think toward the top" (of Bloom's taxonomy) -- analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In other words, students should not be required to just paraphrase or regurgitate, but have and articulate original ideas.
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Jamie speaks to participants about "Beyond Cut-and-Paste" research...
"Replacing Topical Research with Inquiry that Matters"... (aka - "Questions of Import")
Teachers hard at work crafting their "Questions of Import" lessons...
Teachers share their lessons and view others'...
Two sample lessons from pictures...
