Time management and revisiting the Design Brief
Commentary
This text provided a starting point for the English as a Second Language teacher, who assisted the student by focusing on sentence beginnings. The student's ability to write a recount and the notion of organising ideas in point form, using (a) and (b), is developing well.
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As the student explained the plan, the teacher realised that there were some misspellings that needed to be attended to. However, the major purpose of the plan development was for students to apply their understandings in developing designs. Ideas should flow in this type of task. The teacher made a note of the main misspellings and let the student know that there were some misspellings that needed to be corrected later, through activities involving a 'Space' unit vocabulary list. These words were later added to the student's personal list.
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Organisation of Resources
Since our classroom has minimal storage space, we decided to put some extra tables along the wall in the corridor outside our classroom. As students began construction on their models, the models were displayed as 'work in progress' for other students to observe.
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This plan was developed by the teacher as a way of overcoming resource management limitations.
Our plans for the evolving display in the corridor never came to fruition as the space was needed to prepare the scenery for our end-of-year item. Our Science and Technology models therefore had to be stored around the classroom. The approach that most students took was to reserve a bench area, use a large cardboard box with their names clearly marked and include a message for the cleaner: 'Please do not disturb.' However, I plan to use the 'work in progress' idea this year. To value work as it evolves, rather than only in its complete state, is not only interesting for others but also educationally important.
Revisiting the Design Brief
During this time it became evident that the students did not fully understand the cycles in nature, and the importance of these cycles to human existence. Their thinking was too narrow; if they were to design settlements for planets in other solar systems, they would have to broaden their ideas. This became a challenge not only for the students, but also for me, their teacher. How could I challenge them to change their thinking without providing them with a solution?
Students reconsidered their plans and I questioned them about whether or not they had fulfilled their design briefs. They identified the various changes they had made from plans to models, and we discussed the reasons for these and the need to reflect on why these happened. In the limited time available, we worked towards the completion of the students' settlement models.
Did We Satisfy the Design Brief?
In some cases, yes; in others, no.
Did we learn new skills along the way? Definitely YES! For example, students learned how to:
- explore needs
- draw and annotate plans
- evaluate designs and models
in terms of a design brief. Other skills that have improved include organisation and cooperation in group tasks.
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One student's evaluation of a group model. This student devised a system for expressing feelings about the group's work on a LIKERT scale. It is an honest account, well expressed. Several misspellings are evident in this recount, including the misuse of was/were. This was noted by the teacher, who modelled appropriate spelling strategies and subject-verb agreement.
Commentary
Ongoing evaluation/reflection is an essential part of Science and Technology tasks. Evaluation can be undertaken by individual students, peers, experts, target audiences and others. Referring students back to design criteria to make sure that students continue to have a good understanding of what a project entails, or what specific concepts mean, is an effective teaching strategy that encourages students to reflect on their progress.
This proved a most worthwhile means of keeping students actively involved until the end of the school year. There was no time available for inattentive behaviour, as each group had a task to complete.
But where to from here? This year I hope to complete a Science and Technology unit on 'Advertising' with my new class. Again I want to ensure that students have a good understanding about what it means to use the design process and to carry out meaningful investigations. As well as this, I'd like to further develop students' use of learning logs to reflect on their learning and to use the 'work in progress' display discussed previously.
Acknowledgement
The Board of Studies NSW would like to extend its sincere thanks to Jan Hancock, the students of 5/6H, 1997, and other staff and students from Penshurst West Public School.