Neighbourhood Maps for Out of Eden Learn Project

Recently, our students have been participating in the Out of Eden Learn Project. Here is a blurb about it from their website:


Out of Eden Learn is a unique online learning community designed to accompany Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk. Through Out of Eden Learn, students from around the world can engage in Paul’s journey and all that it represents. They explore their own neighbourhoods, investigate contemporary global issues, and reflect on how they as individuals fit into a broader geographical and historical context. In addition, they share their perspectives and interact with one another on an exciting digital platform that uses social media as a springboard for deep, meaningful learning. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in the wider world and support them to become more informed, thoughtful, and engaged “global citizens.”


Out of Eden Learn is an initiative of Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in collaboration with Paul Salopek.


As part of the project our students will complete six footsteps. We have completed the second one in which students took a walk around their neighbourhood and drew a map of what they had observed. A sampling of these can be seen below. They also interviewed their parents or neighbours and wrote stories to accompany the maps. By engaging in the slow journalism that Paul has modelled, they are able to make observations and, hopefully, connections to their environment. I have included a few of the stories as well.


Example #1: Luis

Kite Flying

One afternoon, there was a strong wind so we decided to go to the beach and fly my kite. We went outside with our bikes and slowly drove to the beach. the ride took about two minutes and we passed many plots that were empty or under construction. As we neared the sea, the breeze increased and became a strong wind, coming from the sea and going into the land. As we unpacked the kite, it already strained and fought to be free. After some preparation, we granted this wish by letting it fly free and the spool spinning out. High, higher, higher the kite flew. Higher than ever before! The wind tugged, pulled and played with the black triangle. The spool was out, so the kite flew at around 100 meters above the sea! There the wind held the wonderful kite, flying it stable. All other times that we had flown it, it always bucked up and down like a wild pony but here it flew very calm. Sadly, we had to reel it in after some time as we wanted to go home. The black shape slowly descended. This took forever but finally it fell down to the ground. Following this, we carefully packed the beauty onto our cycles and swiftly cycled back home. At home, my mother waited for us with a nice dinner and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our rabbits and ducks. I hope we do this again and often as it was a lot of fun.

I have lived in this house since summer 2013. I came from Malaysia and now I am living in India for three years. My house is painted white and has a huge garden. In this garden, we have one area of grass where we play soccer. We also have two ducks that walk around freely, two rabbits in an enclosure, two love birds in a cage and 14 fish swimming in an enclosure to separate them from the ducks. I love my house as it has a big garden and a wonderful pool. Also, it only takes two minutes to go to the sea side and the beach is wonderful. My neighbourhood is very calm and I enjoy every minute of being there.


Example #2: Luca

• I have lived here since 2012
• We have a great guard dog outside the gate named Domy.
• I live in Injambakkam.
• I live next to Hot Kitchen
• They plan to pave our road
• They plan to instal solar-powered street lights on our road.
• To the East is the Bay of Bengal and in the North end of our house we have a Wilvam Tree or Kubar Tree
• Wilvam/Kubar Trees belong to Lord Shiva
• When we open the kitchen door we see a Thulasi Leaf Plant, this plant belongs to Lord Vishnu
• In our house we have Sandhana Vathana Marble. In the summer season, it gets very hot outside but inside we feel cool and chilly.
• The main road to our house is privately owned by one man.
• All the residents on our street need to pay a one time fee to the owner of the street to use the access.
• At the end of our road, there is a tennis court being built by a professional tennis player but was stopped due to the owner of the road disapproving of the dump trucks using the road.
• The entire land around us is owned by one family.

Example #3 Rahul

I live in an apartment surrounded by many trees around the neighbourhood. Not much construction goes on and the it’s usually pretty quiet. Many people take their dogs for walks including my family and I. I live very close to the beach so I could go to the beach any time I want. The beach is only 3 minutes away from my house. There are about 5 churches and 1 temple nearby. In the evening, a nice breeze from the sea blows across making it very pleasant. A lot of planes fly over the neighbourhood. In my apartment complex, I have 3 friends. Almost every evening, we play soccer down in the compound.


The journey to my school normally takes about 10 minutes in the morning. In the evening, it’s a whole nother story. It could take up to 40 minutes in the evening. There is so much traffic from people coming back from work. I have lived in my apartment since I came to Chennai which was about 1 year ago. I think I won’t move at all for the time that I live in Chennai. I really like my neighbourhood a lot.

Other Examples of Maps

Blabberize!

This project was a lot of fun for students and they were able to work alone or with a partner. The concept is that they write a book talk from the point of view of the main character or the author. They use a program called "Blabberize" which is free. For this program you need to upload a picture of either the main character or the author and then you use the program to make the mouth of the character move to look like they are speaking. Students then write a script which they record so that it appears that they are talking. We had the students prepare the scripts ahead of time and practice because you have to do the tech part in one shot and publish it.

This project allowed students to summarize their book, without giving away too much. It also required that they write up a script of what they would say and practice this (fluency) so that they could record it without errors. At the end of the project, students self-assessed their performance. The Checkbric they used is copied below the examples. In retrospect, I would like to have a different rubric next time we do this project. This was an idea that I found last year so we tried it out, but I think a more traditional rubric with Meets, Approaching, and Developing would have been less confusing for students.

What we notice about this project is that those students who are sometimes shy to speak up a lot in class seem to enjoy this because they can record their voice at home and re-do the recording as many times as they want. It seems to build confidence in them and they enjoy the project. Also, the students enjoy playing around with the technology and making the mouth move in a lifelike manner so they are engaged in creating the final product.

Student 1
Student 2 (2 students)
Student 3

Blabberize ChecBric

Student Checklist

Teacher Rubric

_____My finished product (Blabber) shows a great amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive. My script is long enough (minimum 1 minute after recorded).  _____  (5 points) _____ My script shows excellent understanding or insight of my book (ex. character or author, setting, plot, conflict, etc).  There were no spoilers! _____ (5 points) _____ My pronunciation was clear and correct; my message was communicated easily; my blabber was animated and I showed enthusiasm. _____ (5 points) _____ I embedded my final product on my school blog. _____ (3 = yes; 0 =  no) Student Reflection: 1. What did you do best on this assignment? 2. How do you feel about using Blabberize as a technology/Web 2.0 tool in the future?  Did you like it or not like it? Explain.

5= excellent, outstanding ideas and content; easy meeting of expectations; animated; way above expectations - Wow! 4= proficient, interesting ideas and content; meets expectations 3= inadequate ideas and content; close, but overly broad or simplistic; revision still needed to meet expectations; some voice inflection. 2= limited, obvious ideas and content; unclear or minimal; tried to meet expectations, major revision needed to meet expectations 1= missing, absent ideas and content; lacks central idea or purpose; way off on the requirements; message poorly communicated on final Blabberize clip; not at all animated.  OR: no attempt to meet expectations Total ______ / 18 points

Using Cogge It- Technology to help Note-Taking Skills

Note-taking skills are a big focus for us in grade 6 with our social studies units. We aim to teach students many strategies for taking notes and showing that they understand what they have read in our textbooks and online.

While we use our notebooks to model and practice taking notes, we also like to use technology to enhance, motivate, and solidify our learning.

For a recent section of our textbook on the Sumerian City-States and the Changes in Leadership, we used a site called Coggle It which is a mind-mapping tool that allows students to collaborate on their map. Students can add images and even other media. For this assignment, students worked in small groups on their Coggle and were given time to read the section assigned to them and to develop their part of the project. After completing this, students presented their section to the other members of the group.

Here is an example. Click on the image to see it in full screen.

Book Blogs: Engaging and Building a Community of Readers

"I need a book recommendation." 
"I don't know what to read."
These are just a few of the questions middle school readers may have when they enter the library or a classroom. To help them select books and to give them a chance to make recommendations about the great books they are reading, they only have to head to our Grade 6 Book Blog!

We have all students as authors on this blog and we show them how to write a Book Review (see anchor chart below). After some lessons that talk about the ingredients of a persuasive book review, we set the to work on writing their very own review and encourage them to comment and write reviews every time they finish a book they want to share. 

All students enjoy sharing their reading and this blog builds a strong community feeling as they are all able to share, no matter what their interests and reading levels might be.  Even the most reticent student will write a review and get encouragement from peers when they make a comment. This encourages a community feeling in our class and among our grade 6 students.

We also have a rubric to accompany these reviews and at certain points in the year we ask that a review be assessed according to this rubric. Here is the rubric we use.

There is a link to our Book Blog in the links section. Here is a typical example from one of this year's students. I particularly like the voice in the last line.

   The book I finished is called The 39 Clues: The Maze Of Bones. The author's name is Rick Riordan. Every page was worth reading. It was filled with mystery and action. It's about Amy and Dan Cahill(sister and brother) whose parents have died and they are living with their Grandmother. Then suddenly their Grandmother also dies. All of Amy and Dan's relatives come to the funeral and Grace(the Grandmother) wrote in her will, that there would be a contest where there would be clues all around the world and only one team would succeed. They could either accept the challenge or take the 1,000,000 dollars which was under each one of their chairs. Of course, Amy and Dan accepted the challenge(I would have gone for the 1,000,000 dollars). They had a babysitter called Nellie who was also going with them around the world to find clues. All their relatives would do anything to win the contest. Even if it meant hurting other relatives. That is only the beginning. Little did they know that their journeys would take them to Paris, Italy and many more places; but I won't spoil the rest. You just need to read this book to find out what happens next.

   I would rate this book 5 stars because it has the 2 genres I like: action and mystery. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fast pace action and mystery books. Like I said, EVERY PAGE IS WORTH READING.

How Does Multitasking Affect the Way Kids Learn?

How Does Multitasking Affect the Way Kids Learn?

I recently read this great article from MindShift and wanted to share some thoughts. About a year ago I watched a documentary during my summer vacation about University students and their perceptions on their effectiveness when they were multitasking on their laptops during their classes and while doing their coursework. So, this article piqued my curiosity. I am interested in learning more about studies relating to this topic. Do students perceive themselves as learning content? Are they really able to absorb information or is the multitasking getting in the way of deeper learning? These are just some of the interesting questions I wonder about as technology becomes more pervasive. And, most importantly, how can I decide as a teacher when to allow my students to use their devices to enhance their learning and when do I ask them to switch them off?


How quickly do students start going "off-task"?

In one study where students knew they were being observed:

"Students’ “on-task behavior” started declining around the two-minute mark as they began responding to arriving texts or checking their Facebook feeds."

How deep is their learning when they multi-task?

"But evidence from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience suggests that when students multitask while doing schoolwork, their learning is far spottier and shallower than if the work had their full attention. They understand and remember less, and they have greater difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts."

Can the Brain Multi-task?
David Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan who’s studied the effects of divided attention on learning, takes a firm line on the brain’s ability to multitask:

“Under most conditions, the brain simply cannot do two complex tasks at the same time. It can happen only when the two tasks are both very simple and when they don’t compete with each other for the same mental resources. An example would be folding laundry and listening to the weather report on the radio. That’s fine. But listening to a lecture while texting, or doing homework and being on Facebook—each of these tasks is very demanding, and each of them uses the same area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex.”

What happens when students multitask while doing homework?

1. The assignment takes longer to complete.
2. The student suffers mental fatigue because they are constantly switching between tasks.
3. Because their attention is divided, the memory of what they are working on is also impaired.
4. When we are distracted, our brains process and store information differently and in less useful ways.

How can we help students prioritize?

1. Limit the use of devices for studying purposes.
2. Encourage tech breaks following by time to check their social media sites.
3. Teach students the value of concentrating on one thing at a time.

Cave Art Motivates all Learners

Cave Art

Here is an example of a hands-on project our class did recently. We were studying about early humans in social studies and we were learning about the Lascaux Caves. After learning the historical significance of the caves, students took a virtual tour to the caves. 

The next step involved partners coming up with a list of characteristics of the cave paintings. These were shared with the class so that we had a shared list of the characteristics. Students also blogged about the cave paintings and their significance.

Finally, the students were given grey butcher paper and pastels of the typical colours used in the caves. Using their devices to look at the cave paintings online as a resource, they set about making their own drawings in keeping with the originals. 

This activity was engaging and motivating to all learners in the classroom and they were very proud of their masterpieces.