DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 413 417 CE 074 770

AUTHOR Berman, Tamara; Steinberg, AdriaTITLE The VIA Book. A Best Practices Manual from the Vocational

Integration with Academics Project at the Rindge School ofTechnical Arts.

INSTITUTION Rindge School of Technical Arts, Cambridge, MA.SPONS AGENCY Office of Vocational and Adult Education (ED), Washington,

DCPUB DATE 1997-00-00NOTE 84p.PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom (055)EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Academic Education; Apprenticeships; *Curriculum

Development; Demonstration Programs; High Schools;Independent Study; *Integrated Curriculum;*Interdisciplinary Approach; Program Descriptions; *ProgramDevelopment; Service Learning; Technology Education;*Vocational Education

IDENTIFIERS Cambridge Public Schools MA

ABSTRACT

This book suggests strategies for creating meaningfulproject and work-based learning experiences that were developed by teams ofvocational and academic teachers and addresses the support issues necessaryto sustain successful efforts. It begins with a description of the designteam model and activities of the Vocational Integration with Academics (VIA)Project in Years 1 and 2. It lists the five principles of academic andvocational integration that form the framework within which the design teamswent about their work of creating VIA projects and curriculum units. The mainbody of the manual consists of the seven best practices foracademic-vocational integration that form the cornerstone of the VIAProject's work on integration. The strategies shape the organization of themanual, with one to four appropriate VIA curriculum examples used asillustrators for each strategy. Each curriculum example may contain some orall of these components: description of units or themes; course summary;curriculum outline; and examples of group projects. The seven integrationstrategies are as follows: (1) a drive for authenticity; (2) students asproducers of knowledge; (3) building transferable skills; (4) technologyeducation for science; (5) doing well and doing good; (6) work as context;and (7) self-determined learning. An appendix contains addresses andtelephone numbers of contact people for projects, programs, and curriculahighlighted in the manual. (YLB)

********************************************************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made ** from the original document. *

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The VIA project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education'sOffice of Adult and Vocational Education. This book, and much of

the curriculum outlined within it, were created by teams ofvocational and academic teachers from :

The Kinc15 5c-hool of Te,c,hnic-al Artsand the

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459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

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Mary Lou McGrath

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Patrick J. Murphy

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Gail Nordmo

Pire,thor of IZST-A and VIA Froje,c--1- GoPimaor

Larry Rosenstock

C-oordinator of R.STA and VIA F'rojeth C-oPir&:forAdria Steinberg

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PrefaceVocational Integration With Academics:The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Ac iolowle,dpm&nl-s

InfroduthiortRSTA Curriculum Integration: The Design Team Model

Int&eption 9-rairtm A Priv& for Alrthemtic:rtiiCity WorksPathways

lectrafion 51-rairvi 9vd&trts aS Procivc&rs of Know led.?Global and Human StudiesTimes of Our Lives ProductionsU.S. Immigration Through VideoCulture and Design

Inte.jration Strafe? 43: 15vitclinjr.Thnsfe,rabl&Image CenterElectronic Technology Center

Iniwation 9rafw T-echnolom Education for Se.iew-eIntroduction to TechnologyWindmills

Iniettrafion 51-ralw 45: Pot_ Well and Pot,. woodCambridge Service Corps:Community Problem Solving 101The Community Service Learning Project

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Intertion 9rafetm 46: Work. as Golfo+ F. 5SThe RSTA Career Internship Program

Inferfion 9frafem 4t-7: 5e-If P&I-&rwiineci 1.-&arnin6_ 175. 64Senior Projects

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IA" is both an acronym and a word. As an acronym, it stands for ourProject's name: Vocational Integration with Academics. As a word, it signifies our understand-ing that this integration is not an end in itself, but rather a means for detracking and restruc-turing high schools. At its best, the Project demonstrates that both the vocational and the aca-demic wings of the comprehensive high school have something substantial to bring to therestructuring table.

Confucius said, "In order to change a society you must change its language first." Words likevocational conjure up images of the industrial age, of shops, of tracking, of programs for the non-college bound, and of "other people's children." We use it here to mean the use of tools, tech-niques, and materials in contextual and experiential learning environments. The word acade-mic in the American Heritage Dictionary is defined as "relating to studies that are liberal orclassical rather than technical or vocational". We use it here to mean creative intellectual work,which the VIA Project sought to bring to all students through learning to use their hands andtheir minds, and to use both well.

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ne hundred years ago, John Dewey predicted the undemocratic and inefficient result ofseparating hand and mind, of cleaving training for narrow occupations from preparationfor citizenship and for further learning. Through the VIA Project we have come to a deep-

er understanding of this predicted result, and of the influences a school must get itself clear ofin order to "cut across" the disciplinary divide.

Integrated studies by its very nature bumps up against the deeply-ingrained high school cul-ture of fragmented, discipline-based study. Seventy-five years ago the creation of the Carnegieunits of English, history, math, and science gave rise to the current powerful constituencies foreach subject area supported by separate departments, teacher training and certification, pro-fessional organizations, textbooks, curriculum frameworks, and standards. These supportingstructures give rise to a high school culture characterized by teacher loyalty to discipline andthe subject status hierarchy of the Carnegie "big four" (English, history, math, and science) overall other endeavors (e.g. art, music, vocational education, and school to work). The evidence ofthis hierarchy can be found in, among other things, student transcripts, school schedules,teaching assignments, and local budget priorities.

Into such a high school structure and culture come the Perkins Applied Technology andVocational Education Act of 1990 and the School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994. At the coreof these Acts, codified and writ large, is a call for integrated study that reflects realities of cit-izenship and of the workplace, as opposed to the artificial fragmentation and segregation ofknowledge and skill. Thus the work of the VIA Project is situated at the interstices between twoworlds: the world of high schools and the world beyond. The structure and culture of the for-mer remains fundamentally unchanged and has become increasingly anachronistic, while thelatter has seen profound economic and cultural change in families, communities, workplaces, andtechnologies.

othing is more emblematic of this growing disparity than high school exit requirements,which, hand-in-glove with post-secondary entrance requirements, drive the high schoolcurriculum. These have not changed in seventy-five years. It is significant, and symbol-

ic, that the Carnegie Foundation should be the sponsor of Breaking Ranks , the report of theNational Association of Secondary School Principals [NASSP] which calls for an end to Carnegieunits. This important report, like its predecessor,Prisoners of Time, recognizes that the prob-lem with the Carnegie units lies not only in its fragmentation of curriculum, but also in itsdelivery through a time-based, rather than a performance-based, system. We are all products ofthis time-based system: four years of English, three of math, etc. But this system is not a reli-able indicator of what a student knows and is able to do. This view is supported by the past fif-teen years of research in cognitive science, as well as by employers, who have little regard forthe predictive validity of the high school diploma.

Schools cannot achieve vocational and academic integration without a deep rethinking of teach-ing and learning. In doing so, they must struggle with more authentic means of assessment thanthe typical, Carnegie unit-based, high school transcript. Schools which are having a truly trans-formative effect on their students, as a few schools are, must demonstrate these results to par-ents, community partners, and college admissions officers. Some such schools have workedclosely with admissions officers over years to demonstrate the rigor and predictive validity ofmore authentic assessment and documentation.

Our work on the VIA Project comes out of this history, present federal policy, and our experi-ence and understanding of the structural impediments to the substantial school change requiredfor significantly improved student performance. It is important to note that we do not make thecase for integrated study in lieu of student achievement in literacy, numeracy, and other essen-tial academic skills; but rather see the efficacy of creative intellectual development within thecontext of real world-related, project-based study. What follows, in this regard, is the work ofone small school.

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his book is the creation of many educators. An attempt to recognize everyone whoplayed a role in the VIA [Vocational Integration with Academics] Project is not easy, as so manypeople contributed in so many ways.

We thank first the students of the Rindge School of Technical Arts and of the Cambridge Rindgeand Latin School. They are the pioneers who first ventured through this curricula, and whoseenergy, critical eye, and sense of contrivance helped to make it more real and more vital. Thisbook was created for them, and for their successors in Cambridge and in other communities.

Funding for this work came from the National Demonstration Program of the Office of Vocationaland Adult Education of the U.S. Department of Education. We thank, in particular, our programofficer Pariece Wilkins, whose patience, support, and good humor helped to carry us through theinevitable snags and hurdles of a project of this size.

VIA was a project of the Hands and Minds Collaborative, a joint venture of Rindge and the Centerfor Law and Education. Paul Weckstein, co-director of the Center, is the tireless advocate andarchitect of federal policy regarding the integration of vocational and academic education.

Mary Lou McGrath, Superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools, launched us with a chargeto "turn it upside down and inside out", and always encouraged and supported us as we endeav-ored to do so.

Pat Murphy, Deputy Superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools, helped us negotiate ourway through institutional mazes with his caring style, wit, and humanism.

David Kale, of the Cambridge Schools Financial Management Office, gave us hours of assistancewith both the big and little financial picture.

Adria Steinberg, Academic Coordinator of the Rindge School of Technical Arts, is, more thananyone, the brains and drive behind this effort. As co-director of the VIA Project, she employedher uncanny ability to find the root of a problem, and a laser-like focus that leads us all to itssolution.

Tamara Berman is, with Adria, the principal author of this book. She brings the rare blend of ateacher who both does it and describes it well.

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David Stephen, teacher and artist, designed the layout of this book. His creative gifts are evi-dent here and in his work as the principal force behind City Works, our best known program.

Rob Riordan, Language Arts Coordinator K-12 for the Cambridge Schools, taught us how to bringthe humanities to vocational education and how to bring vocational education to the humanities.His seasoned emphasis on students' "writing to learn" is a guiding light that deepens our under-standing and our practice.

This book contains selected exemplars written by David Stephen, Manny Goncalves, Greg Zaff,Tamara Berman, Vinny Finn, Francesca Binisecchi, Tony Russo, John Shea, and Roy Carter,Serafim da Cunha, Maria Ferri, Phyllis Bretholtz, Chris Hal lice, Li li Allen, and Adria Steinberg.VIA Project Team participants include Larry Aaronson, Martha Bedrosian, Jorge Cardoso, RoyCarter, Bernie Cullen, Jim Delena, Brad Derocher, Phil Dussault, Riley Hart, Tom Hsu, HollingtonLee, Linda Lipkin, Tom Lividoti, Peter Kastner, Frank McCarthy, Nadine Nelson, Albert Newton,Al Stowell, Bill Tobin, John Urbahn, Julie Ann Villa, and Rosalie Williams.

The photographs for this book were taken of students involved in VIA projects and courses dur-ing the 1995-1996 school year. Primary photographs were taken by Jethro Rice and PhyllisBretholz, with additional contributions by Tamara Berman, Maria Ferri, and John Shea.

We benefit from the very special talents of outsiders that an academic community like Cambridgeaffords: Tom Hsu of the Cambridge Physics Outlet, Margaret Vickers of TERC, and CherylAlmeida and Bruce Astrein [documentation and evaluation].

Larry RosenstockCo-Director15 February 1997

9

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n September 1990, a little over 100 years after its 1888 founding as the second publicvocational high school in the United States, the Rindge School of Technical Arts (RSTA) under-took a major restructuring effort. The school's veteran faculty, new executive director, and newacademic coordinator, operating with the full support of the superintendent of the CambridgePublic Schools, set out to "turn the [vocational] program upside down and inside out."

The goal was to create a challenging core academic program that would be integrated with tradi-tional technical shop programs that were isolated and autonomous. Toward this end, newly-established team meeting periods were built into both vocational and academic teachers' dailyschedules, creating significant blocks of collaborative time.

Underlying this structural change was an assumption that set this effort apart from many effortsto reform schools. Instead of relying on packaged materials or training programs, the Rindgereform initiative relied on design teams of teachers. As academic coordinator, Adria Steinberg,put it: "We knew if we wanted a program where students become smarter, we had to create onewhich called upon teachers to be smart." No longer operating in isolation, vocational and acad-emic teachers for the first time began to explore together the possibilities inherent in taking amore collaborative and integrated approach to educating young people.

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The VIA- FrojocA:

n early 1994, RSTA became one of eleven programs nationally to receive a grant from theU.S. Department of Education to develop new ways to integrate vocational and academic learning.The resulting Vocational Integration with Academics Project (VIA) of RSTA and the CambridgePublic Schools set about its now federally-mandated integration work framed by two centralassumptions: 1) Combining vocational and academic methodologies, content and skills resultsin more powerful learning than either vocational or academic courses taught in isolation fromone another. 2) When learning in the school connects with the needs and resources of the out-side community, students' motivation and interest in learning dramatically increases and theirfuture options broaden.

The first year of VIA began with the establishment of four multi-disciplinary design teams ofteachers, each corresponding to a broad career pathIndustrial Technologies and Engineering;Business and Entrepreneurship; Health and Human Services; and Arts and Communications.The main goal of Year 1 was to create innovative projects that would integrate academic and voca-tional methods and content. These projects would become the building blocks for modifyingexisting courses, for developing new courses, and eventually for creating career paths thatwould offer students opportunities to enter internships through which they could reinforce andextend classroom learning and contribute to the revitalization of their community.

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rawing on lessons learned in the first several years of reform at Rindge, the VIA co-direc-tors and staff agreed on five overall principles of academic and vocational integration.These became the framework within which the design teams went about their work ofcreating VIA projects and curriculum units.

1. In an into ffatcd and avtlicnfic Icarnin cnvironrvIcnt it is difficult to toll whothcrto coftin5._ is an 'acadcmic classroom' or a 'vocational chop."

2.. School work re-volve,c around proicctc that rcccrviblc mai world problcmC and-asks. Such proiccfc:

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arc multidicciplinari and multicraftrcvirc invcctiFtionboncfit from collaborationrcvirc appropriate took and +cc hnoloAiccrovirc a fan5iblc result or end product

5. Stvolcnts on5.aF in corm/mill and workplace loarnin5_ projoctc. Thccc mihtinch/do communitli dcvolopmcnt proicc+C in which slvdcnts act as czncultanTcon cztvirvivniiii issues as vvc11 ac job chadowtr or rotations at work-CH-cc.

4. Students rcflcct on and connoct what thci arc Icarnin5_ and doin45,_ in school withwhat thel arc Icarmin5_ and doin5_ outside,

5. Proicctc culminate in presentations to real avolionccc vvhocc mctvibcrc have a Flivinin&y- oci- and a mat cfakr, in what students arc cloin5.,

orking within this framework and within the structure of design teams, teachers devel-oped 24 curricular projects during this first year. These ranged in scope from 3-4 weekunits within a larger course to plans for whole new courses and programs.

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The VIA Fv-cjoc,-I-:

he goals of the second year of VIA were to identify and articulate an emerging list ofworkable strategies for academic-vocational integration, to apply the work begun in the first yearspecifically to those strategies, and to refine and combine VIA curriculum products into a conciseand workable model of integration that other high schools around the country might choose toreplicate.

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he seven Best Practices Strategies for Academic-Vocational Integration that follow formthe cornerstone of the VIA Project's work on integration. These strategies shape the orga-nization of this manual, with appropriate VIA curriculum examples used as illustratorsfor each strategy.

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CityWorks: Combines key characteristics of vocational programs a pro-ject approach, apprentice-master relationships, and real clientswith thebroader content and essential skills of academic education, with a particu-lar emphasis on communicating ideas in written and oral form, as well asthrough two and three-dimensional modeling. Working in teams with acad-emic and vocational teacher-leaders, students identify unmet communityneeds and then produce projects for presentation to selected community rep-resentatives.

Trans form oxicFinr czursoc and .1-c-linic-al/prodvc-fion aaiviticc throvAli c.ombinin5_ aninfix -fed, ini-rdicc-iplinarii approx.-1i and a 'mal world' focus. Sfivdcnfic bocztvipro vcrc of knowlc.dc, both in and ovt of c..lacc.

Street Kids Around the World: Integrates science with humanities,bringing an architectural design, building and engineering focus to the tra-ditional social studies classroom. Students study the problems and effectsof child homelessness, and design, build and test prototypes of inexpensivetemporary shelter for homeless people.

Transform traditional chops to cli-t-crc of -1-ex-hviolom-base.c1 pro joc:1-s, prodvc--1-c, and

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IMAGE Center: Transforms the old-fashioned "print shop" into an up-to-date Image Center. Students use computer-based technology to create imagesthat customers need to promote their products or services, including cus-tomized logos for stationery, tee shirts, newsletters, and banners.

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Tech Ed: Brings construction, energy and transportation projects andtechnologies directly from the vocational shops into the Tech Ed science labwhere students are able to engage in hands-on learning of key scienceprinciples.

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Cambridge Service Corps: Human relations government and economics areinvestigated through a combination of classroom study and extensive commu-nity-based work. Working in partnership with a wide array of public, non-profit, and private sector representatives, students design and carry out theirown community initiative, after participating in a community needs assess-ment and developing a shared vision for their collective community.

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RSTA Internship Program: Students spend half of their junior or senior yearin an internship placement, learning skills that help prepare them for the inde-pendent learning environment of college, as well as for the workplace. The pro-grams include a concrete context for learning (the workplace); a reflective contextfor learning (the integrative seminar); relationships with adult mentors; action-based projects that link the seminar, the workplace and academic disciplines; andpublic presentations and exhibitions of student work.

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Senior Project: This is a culminating experience where upper-level students,working under the guidance of teacher-advisors from a wide array of disciplines,and community mentors, undertake a significant piece of independent work.Successful projects build upon students' previous work in integrated contentexploration, presentation and community building activities.

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We cannot eliminate the academic subjects themselves, nor can we do away withthe occupations and trades. Even if we do not like the structures for knowledge cre-ation that shape both practical and theoretical knowledge in the adult world, wehave to live with them. The best thing curriculum developers can do is to ensurethat the school subjects are not presented as independent and inert constellations ofknowledge, but rather as richly interdependent ways of making sense of the world."

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Margaret Vickers, Working to Learn Project

A DRIVE FOR AUTHENTICITYCreating New Project-Based CoursesThat Are 100% Academic and 100%Vocational

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o do well in school, studentshave to learn to answer questions and carryout assignments made by the teacher, and tocome up with correct responses on tests.Doing well in life requires an entirely dif-ferent set of skillsplanning, organizing,finding information, working with others,testing out ideas and trying again. By thetime students leave high school, it is impor-tant that they have learned how to carry outcomplex, multi-step projects.Unfortunately, schools do little to fosterthis knowledge.

"Students need an apprenticeship in pro-ject-doing," is the way VIA co-director,Adria Steinberg explains it. The first inte-gration strategy is thus to create new pro-ject-based courses where freshmen andsophomores become adept at doing projectsdeveloping and contributing their ownskills as they address real problems outsidethe classroom walls.

Project-based courses, formed from cur-riculum frameworks that incorporate acade-mic and vocational knowledge, skills anddispositions, offer the greatest chance forauthenticity. Because it is within an inte-grated environment of project-based, hands-on, and intellectual labor that much of thework occurring in the "real world" (outsideof schools) takes place, it becomes increas-ingly essential that we replicate theseefforts in the classroom.

If we want our students to take the work oflearning seriously, we must show them thatthere are adults on the outside, actuallydoing similar work, who take the students'work seriously. One way to achieve this isto create learning environments that are not

bound and separated by the artificiallyimposed lines of academic versus vocation-al disciplines.

New hybrid, academic-vocational, project-based courses allow teachers to bring a

much higher level of workplace authentici-ty to students. The very look and feel ofsuch courses is essentially much more"real." Student productivity and invest-ment in "real-world" work is alwaysgreater than that given to artificially-cre-ated "school-world" work (which oftentends to be either exclusively academic orvocational). In fact, the very notion thateither discipline could operate on its own,without the other, would seem to insure itsinauthenticity since in the real world thetwo are rarely separated.

hybrid, project-based courseanchors both the freshman and thesophomore years in RSTA.

City Works (freshman year) and Pathways(sophomore year) offer abundant opportu-nities for invention and creativity, team-work, time and resource management, prob-lem-solving, and public presentation. Theyalso offer gateways to student empower-ment, as students become much more awareof and responsible for their own learning,and as they see themselves as contributorsand producers, not just consumers.City Works and Pathways provide an actionlab setting for doing project work. Whenproject work occurs in other classes, stu-dents often are not given the time and sup-port to do them well. In City Works andPathways, the project drives the curriculumand students can count on coaching andsupport from both teachers and communitypartners.

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he City Works program at the RindgeSchool of Technical Arts allowsninth grade students to spend a

portion of each school day actively engagedin investigating the industries, neighbor-hoods, systems, people, needs andresources that comprise their urban com-munity. Working on individual and groupprojects, they bring aspects of the commu-nity into the classroom by creating numer-ous "artifacts" three dimensional mapsand models, photographic essays,brochures, video tapes and oral histories.These projects extend into the study ofhumanities, as students read and discusstexts related to their investigations andwrite about their experiences and ideas.

Several features make this program unusu-al. First, CityWorks combines key charac-teristics of vocational programs a projectapproach, apprentice-master relationshipsand real clients with the broader contentand essential skills of academic education.Projects involve "hands-on" work, likemaking a wall-sized map of the city andwiring it to light up selected landmarks.At the same time, students engage in prob-lem-solving, like deciding where on themap to locate a new teen center that wouldattract youth from all ethnic and racialcommunities of the city.

Secondly, CityWorks is taught in a spacedesigned for collaborative project work.Looking for an alternative to both shops andclassrooms, we borrowed the notion of "stu-dios" from design schools. There is an openarea at one end of the room for large-groupactivities such as demonstrations and exhi-

bitions, but most of the room is subdividedinto studios where teachers work on pro-jects with small groups of students. Thisarrangement gives participants the flexi-bility to team up, or borrow tools as the pro-ject necessitates.

Thirdly, community representatives areinvited to help create a context for students'efforts. Staff members from city agenciesand programs identify unmet communityneeds that students might address and alsoserve as an authentic audience for students'finished products and presentations.

matelyaffect

n overall goal of CityWorks is tohelp students understand theircommunity and its needs, and ulti-to see themselves as people who canthat community and create new

opportunities for themselves and others wholive or work there. Through the lens of com-munity development, students arrive at avery different and more positive vision ofwhat it means to be a vocational student.The point is not just to make things, learnsome skills and get a job, but rather tobecome thinkers and solvers of problems,who work well together in teams and commu-nicate well with various audiences.

Because many students entering Rindge arereluctant writers, emphasis is also placedon giving them new ways to relate to the taskof writing. The approach is two-pronged:"Write it down" and "Write it up." Studentslearn the habit and value of reflection andthinking on paper through keeping journalsand work logs (write it down) and they also

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learn what's involved in preparing theirwritings for public presentation (write itup). The work logs students keep inCity Works can also be brought to a relatedhumanities class if they want to "write up"any of the entries in more finished form foreither exhibition or inclusion in a finalportfolio.

Many students also enter high schoolalready phobic about mathematics. "I'm notgood at math" is a frequently heard com-ment. City Works includes a number of mathapplications that are challenging and engag-

ing for studentsand entirely different fromthe textbook math they have come to reject.From an early project of constructing theirown portfolio to later model-building pro-jects, students learn the value of precisemeasurements and build their facility withdecimals and fractions. The process ofdesigning and constructing scale models ofproposed buildings and services in the cityinvolves students in using ratios and pro-portion. Students learn that their difficul-ties with such topics in math class can beovercome in the process of using the skillson a project that matters to them.

Worktr. W4 withRands and Minds:

CityWorks Skills

1. Prob foto So I*,The ability to thYnk through and test out alternative

tant in school and in the workplace.solutions to a problem is impor-

2. Work* as a foam.A good Kam works together to combine each player's skills to

mance. Team members show each other mutual respect.

3. Gommvnic-all%Being able to nmmunicate ideas and information

is essential in the workplace. Information can be

insure a good perfor-

to fellow workers and employerscommunicated in many different

ways such as: writing, drawing, interviewing, and presentation.

#. Knewiv . aSee-c-fe of an inckProduction skills are only part of what is involved in industry.

nical skills, it's important to understand about planning,labor, and community issues.

In addition to tech-management, finance, safety,

57 (151 ma-fh on fhe job.Doing careful and accurate work in any industry requires an understanding of mea-

surement systems and basic math.

6. Known 1/16 commvniiiii< mourc6c- and n6ds'.As students and workers in the community, it is important to know about the city's

neighborhoods, residents, and industries, what they can offer, and what you can offerthem.

7. Prodvc.-IrK_ hl h tvali-fi 1 work.Working Yare lly to produce high quality work lets you take pride in what you have

done. Keeping accurate portfolio records of the work you do allows a teacher or employ-er to see first hand the skills which you have developed.

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20

Gib' Worfcc:Course Summary

The CityWorks year is organized around the following large thematic modules:

1. Itands and MindsAn introduction to important communication, technical and academicmic skills needed for the workplace.

2. WakAbov+ C-ambridApAn investigation of rhe neighborhood surrounding the high school.

3. Tun Visions for C.-anibridpThe creation of new buildings and services to be located in the city, based ona student-produced assessment of community needs.

4. Puffin 1+ All TOrthr/Porffolio 1Z.&i&pvirransifionSAssemble and review of final portfolio including student resume andsamples of best process work. Forge early "preview" connectionbetween work in CityWorks and what will follow in the next year'sPathways and Tech Ed courses.

C. -vrric.v tyro Outlime,Within these modules, students cyclethrough ten broad curriculum units:

itaViolS Minds

1. Worki% WGII Acc a 1-&avi(1 Wks)

Cooperative Learning Activities andteam building games which include groupprocess skill building and an orienteeringactivity that takes place on school grounds.

2.. 1.-carnt_ Problovl Skilk

New Tool or Utensil Design Project inwhich students follow a step-by-stepprocess to create new designs for either atool or utensil of their choice. Students canbuild a model of their designs using model-ing clay or cardboard. They will prepareshort written presentations about theirproduct design.

176H-folio Makin. kc-fivifti(2. Wr.k.$)

Students design and build their ownportfolios using cardboard, decorativepaper and other media. They then create aportfolio entry, which chronicles how theymade their portfolio and includes diagrams,photos, and a written description of thedesign/build process. Students meet withtheir "portfolio advisors" to discuss thepurpose of their portfolios and theexpectations about them.

5. Frocivc-t_ d2valifti Work-Wce-tc..)

Studio Ownership Project in which stu-dents customize their studios throughpainting, building, and decorating activities(i.e. painting tables, making studio num-ber signs, designing group logos and identi-ties, making rule signs, etc. . .). Studentscan also bring in things from home tomake the studio feel more "homey". Atthe end of the week each group will hold an"open house" in their studio for the rest ofthe group to see. Students will also com-plete a journal entry about the experience.

4. Knowing... Gorrrvivnif Kocovv-c-os and

Nc-cdc (5-6 Wook-0

Walk About Cambridge serves as anintroduction to community development andneeds assessment. Visitors from theCommunity Development Office presentbasic development practices and introducecommunity development themes suchas: housing; transportation; social ser-vices;ment;ation;

the environment; business; employ-new development; parks andrecre-

tourism; etc. . Broader questions areintroduced such as: Who can afford tolive in Cambridge? Why do so many newimmigrants come to Cambridge? DoesCambridgeUniversity?go? What

benefit from having HarvardWhy do businesses come and

are the city's greatest needs?Studio groups choose a theme, and thenselect a building or site to visit wherethey can collect first-hand informationabout that theme, through observations,interviews, and video documentation. Theirwork culminates in the development of apresentation board summarizing their find-ings.

5. Gambrid Prccen+ and firturcViciolic (5 Wce.k.c)

Students work individually to buildscale models of existing or new landmarkswhich relate to Cambridge and to at least oneof the Community Development themesintroduced in the last unit. If they preferthey may develop ideas (and models) for a

new business or service to be located inCambridge.

Te,&n Visions for C.-anibricl

6. Gormunifti Dcv IoPmonfi Projc.:t-( 1 0 14/c-c-k.$)

Each year, the staff and students pick adifferent focus for the community develop-ment project. The goal is to identify a pro-ject that relates to existing community orga-

nizations and initiatives. Thus one yearthe project was to help a tourism agencyplan for a Cambridge heritage museum; inseveral other years, the community devel-opment project focused on different neigh-borhoods of the city in the throes of revital-ization and redevelopment efforts. Theprojects involve a mixture of simulation(e.g. designs for and models of new build-ings) and products with an immediate use(e.g. tee shirts and brochures).

7. 6.-orotvivnifi ExhibHion

(2 Wc.c4c.0At the end of each of the community

development projects, the students preparea formal presentation of their work to a

panel of experts, including the director ofcommunity development for the city, localschool board and city council members,staff from city agencies, architects, design-ers, and community activists. The panelresponds to the work, asking students ques-tions about what they have done and offeringsuggestions as to how to move forward withthe effort. In the evening, the school hostsan exhibition of the students' work for fam-ily and friends. Both of these audiences arevitally important, helping to "up the ante"on quality.

Firtfin§, It kit "ropthe,r

S. Pori-I-06c (5 Wc-c*.c)

Students complete course and self-eval-uations, compile portfolios, resumes andstatements of purpose in preparation fornext year's work in the Pathways course.

9. Oltiropic-c Pv-oj&c.:4 (5 Wook-c)

Students devise Egg Drop and Egg Crash con-tainers for a competitive event. A "budgeting" sys-tem awards students a limited amount of City WorksDollars from which they can rent eggs (you-break-it, you-buy-it) as well as buy materials for theirtest and final designs. The notion of limitedresources for development requires students tobring a level of "real world" practicality to theexercise, along with the expected measure of prob-lem solving skill and creativity.

22

10. re,<-11 Ed and/or GarccrWce-fcc)

Working with students and teachersfrom these two 10th grade core RSTA cours-es, City Works students are briefly intro-duced to the standards and methods of thecourses while completing a small groupproject. (See details on Pathways and TechEd in later sections of this book).

it

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Gorvirmmi-hi Koprocovrtafivoc

04.1 ityWorks has been a course over fouryears in the making. Much of its evo-lutionary process has been a direct

result of initiatives undertaken in theweekly design team meetings of vocationaland academic teachers (who are the groupleaders/instructors of the course), RSTA'sCurriculum Coordinator, and the City WorksProgram Director. Creating a time and placefor these teachers to do the actual work ofintegration is vital to the success of the pro-gram. Because these meetings are such anintegral part of the City Works program,time is built into each participatingteacher's school day schedule to allow theweekly development meetings to take placeduring school hours.

Another important feature of the City Worksprogram is its low student-teacher ratios.While a section of City Works might averageas many as thirty-two students, as many asfour adults will be assigned to work withthose students in studio groups of no morethan eight students per teacher. Theseratios are possible because LarryRosenstock, the Executive Director of RSTA,made the decision early on to shut down theold model of delivering vocational educationto freshmen via shop exploratories. Insteadof spending several periods each day in theisolation of their own shops, with differentstudents rotating through every few weeks,teachers now work together in City Works,forming relationships with students for thewhole year.

The necessity of moving away from a largeclass atmosphere into more intimate studio"teams" or "groups" cannot be underscoredenough in relation to City Works' success.City Works is after all, a course that hasbeen specifically designed to emulate actu-al working environments, where small"teams" of professionals are involved intackling problems and inventing solutionstogether. The development of teamworkskills, a greater sense of responsibility forproject outcomes, and the pride, ownershipand investment that come with membershipin a City Works studio, are some of the pay-offs of this small-group learning model.

The physical space where the course istaught also reflects work settings in whichsmall teams work together with the toolsthey need to do the job well. Ideally, smallstudio spaces should be available as perma-nent work environments for the teams. Teammembers should be encouraged to take own-ership of their space, organizing and deco-rating it in a way that is agreed upon by thegroup. The idea that the studio is a workspace for team projects should be empha-sized. Additional large-group exhibitionspace is also needed where teams can dis-play and present their work to each otherand to members of the outside community.

final key feature of City Works suc-cess is the interest and involvementof business and community develop-

ment professionals in the students' workand the program as a whole. Project advi-

23

sors and evaluators from throughout thecity of Cambridge are regular visitors to theCity Works studios. These professionalsdiscuss community needs with students,offer guidance on the creation of their com-munity development project ideas, andserve on evaluation committees when pro-jects are presented at community-wideexhibitions each spring. These outsideprofessionals bring a necessary "realism"to the work being undertaken by the stu-dents, making the City Works experience amuch more authentic one than that whichtakes place within the more traditional highschool classroom setting. In fact, the strongcommunity link has even made it possiblefor some particularly strong student pro-jects relating to tourism to find their wayinto the packets of handouts given by thetourist board to the thousands of visitorswho come to the city of Cambridge everyyear.

0-f-hor 4P1

C-ourcoc PovlopoolUm;lor VIA-:

Faliwaiic: Job Shadowing...

pathways is a year-long core courserequirement for 10th grade studentsat the Rindge School of Technical

Arts. The community development focus ofthe ninth grade shifts somewhat to a morecareer-focused curriculum in the 10thgrade. Like City Works, the course empha-sizes real world projects and connections,and it reinforces the skills of project-doingand on-site investigation. This time howev-er, work issues, rather than communityneeds provide the context for the learning.

We created the Pathways program for ourtenth graders in order to help them discov-er more about their own interests, and how

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

these interests might connect to careers.The pathways program is designed toaddress the needs of urban youth for morework-centered, and hence more motivatinglearning experiences. Pathways is abouthelping students feel purposeful and pow-erful. By offering an experiential curricu-lum through which each student exploresthe world of work and expresses his/herown talents, Pathways enables students tocarve their own path and to discover mean-ing in their learning.

Pa-thvvatis Program:

Rotates students through work-place experiences (job shadows)that give meaning and focus totheir classroom learning.

Teaches students how to obtainreliable and relevant career infor-mation.

Connects students with adults whocan help them learn about work, itsrelation to schooling, and theskills different careers require.

Engages students in classroom pro-jects that call upon them to relateacademic skills to demands of theworkplace.

Involves students in reflecting onthe value and meaning of work intheir lives.

athways offers students two distinctbut complementary methods of learn-ing: school experiences in which stu-

dents develop and use academic skills tocarry out classroom projects that simulatecareer demands; and job shadows in whichindividual students carry out research onparticular careers and then shadow individ-uals in those careers in the Boston area.

The program is divided into four curricularunits or pathways: Business &

Entrepreneurship, Industrial Technology &Engineering, Health & Human Services, andArts & Communications. Within each of

24

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Q)

these specific pathways, classroom lessonplans combine with workplace visits to pro-vide students with a context for learningskills and exploring careers.

Individual Pathways students visit a mini-mum of four workplaces one each duringtheir study of the four topic area pathways.Each quarter of the year, students hear froma panel of adults from the workplaces offer-ing shadowing opportunities that term. Theythen select the workplaces that sound inter-esting to them, and spend three or fourhours at the site in the company of an adultwho works there. Whenever possible,Pathways placesstudents in stimu-lating workplaceenvironments, suchas an emergencyroom at the Brighamand Women'sHospital, the cock-pit of a US Air DC-10, and the tradingfloor of the BostonStock Exchange.Although each jobshadow only lastsfor about 3 hours, itbecomes the focalpoint of a greatmany other activi-ties.

Al

o prepare for their shadowing experi-ences, students do preliminaryresearch about the types of careee(s)

that they will observe (they usually makeuse of the career resource center in theschool, or the public library next door).Based on this information, they come upwith a list of questions to ask at the site.Before going out, students have to verify theappointment through a phone call to thework site, have their parents approve a

transportation plan (students go on theirown to the job shadow) and get permissionfrom teachers to miss their classes for theday. After the shadow, students are expect-ed to write a thank you note and, combiningthe earlier research with what they learnedon site, to prepare a job shadow report.

The four individual job shadows are supple-mented by at least one group field trip perpathway. This group visit is meant tochange the dynamic of the students' expo-sures so that they also have an opportunityto learn and to share as a team a collabo-rative process intended to mirror anapproach to learning and training that isbecoming more popular in the work world.

These out-of-school experiences are com-plimented by project-based work whichtakes place in the classroom. For example,students visiting Smith Barney did a studyof the interrelationship among stocks,

bonds and interestrates which theypresented to theirclassmates, whilestudents shadowinga Cambridge PoliceOfficer enacted amock trial requir-ing them to speakpublicly, wrestlewith their conceptsof guilt and inno-cence, and applyprinciples of law

.47

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17}Tje,c,-1-, Graf fait/oscinc-cc 4, Etlfrefmnovrchp and 'AT-1c

Gomnivnic-ationc Paffilva 110

tudents conduct research on craftsfairs and develop a business plan topresent to school administrators for

permission to host a crafts fair in the schoolbuilding. Upon approval, they do outreachto local artists, design the booth spaces, andhandle all logistical arrangements. Theythen do a promotional/marketing campaign,culminating in early December with thefair. They determine profits/losses andanalyze the success of their venture.

25

51-vdort- Voic.oc about Faiiivvaiic:I personally think that Pathways is a great pro-

gram for kids who are thinking about their futures. I think thisbecause when you go on a job shadow you start to think aboutwhether or not that job is something you would like to do in yourfuture. At the beginning of the school year the only thing I likedabout Pathways was job shadowing, but now I feel that the in-classwork has helped me improve some of my skills. For example,using the Mac Lab has helped me improve my typing skills.Writing journal entries and summaries of newspaper articleshelped improve my reading and writing skills. Also, followinginstructions and giving directions is something I learned to dowell that will be helpful to me in the future.

Sandra doAlamo, Pathways student

2

t.

Liii A i

"I started theyear thinking itwas my mission tobring humanitiesinto vocationaleducation. Now Ibelieve we mustbring vocationalmethodologiesinto the humani-ties "

Rob Riordan,Language ArtsCoordinator

orA

STUDENTS AS PRODUCERS

OF KNOWLEDGE:Transform Existing Courses andTechnical/Production Activitiesthrough an Integrated Approach andReal World Focus.

27

n strategy #2, our approach is totake the goal of making school work moreauthentic and apply it to existing academiccourses within the high school. In doingthis, we are very clearly recognizing theuse, strength, value, and importance of theacademic disciplines. However, we knowthat in order to improve schools, we must domore than simply create a few new courses.We must simultaneously move to transformthose courses that are already in place.

In most academic courses, students have tra-ditionally been passive consumers of sub-ject matter knowledge. That is, students areoffered a time-honored "menu" of informa-tion from which they choose to "ingest" someor all of what is offered, possibly to be usedand applied in some way, at a later date. Inmost vocational courses students have tradi-tionally played a more active role, learningand applying new skills, usually in theprocess of constructing or producing some-

thing specific. However, the skills are oftennarrowly defined and the products of limit-ed use.

hen vocational methodologies aref brought to the academic class-.' V room, the possibility for training

students to be active producers (as well asconsumers) of knowledge is great. This inte-grated classroom is one in which, by its verynature, the teacher does not know exactlywhat is going to happen. The integratedclassroom gives students an opportunity toact as educational "co-constructors," pur-suing academic learning in the context ofidentifying and solving problems that arereal and that matter in the world outside ofschool. We are aware that students may notcover as much academic content, but, in theprocess of doing projects, they will uncoverand discover important aspects of the disci-pline, as well as learn important problem-solving and thinking skills.

A

Global amd ftwam 5-t-udioc:Lihkah Picc,iplivioc avid Mc-t-hocic

t the comprehensive Cambridge, Massachusetts high school that the Rindge School ofTechnical Arts (RSTA) is a part of, all ninth grade students take a year of World Historyor Global Studies. In RSTA we offer a humanities course called Global and Human

Studies that meets the World History requirement.

While the integration of English and Social Studies curricula has been widely and successfullyachieved at many high schools, it is rare to find integration between social studies and the otheracademic disciplines (i.e. science and math), or between social studies and vocational studies.The goal of Global and Human Studies is to maintain rigorous academic standards related to thehigh school's requirements in World History and English, while engaging students in projectsthat are multi-disciplinary.

&710bal avid i-t-Yrnam Stvoh&c:

Course Summary and Outline

Global and Human Studies explores people: the ways in which they interact anddivide themselves into groups and larger nations; the conflicts and tensions thatarise out of those groupings; and the resolutions, solutions and outcomes that areachieved through mediation and diplomacy as a means to end (or avoid) conflict.

fit ve.c-horiS fraro

1. Wha-1- dons nflan +o k. human?Wherein the generic "human being" is defined.

2. Whi do humans ovp the-rvisolvoc?A look at important human behaviors.

3. What am -lino sfmn he and danprc of 5roups?A look at the result of human behaviors.

4 What is a nation?Wherein the generic "nation" is defined.

S. Now can individuals maintain fiheir own ac me,ilit,Y-S of

Arovpc and nations?'`A focus on the importance and meaning of individuality and iden-tity in different cultures.

29 BEST COPY MOW

hese questions are woven througheight interconnected but flexiblecurriculum units (see below).

Depending on the interests of the students inthe class, the teacher selects four or five ofthese units and encourages students to helpher develop other ones, as long as they speakto the essential questions of the course.

Selection of units for study is based largelyon student/teacher interest, and on currentworld issues. For example, during the1994/95 Ebola virus outbreak in Africa,student interest in a "disease unit" was par-ticularly high. This interest was grown inpart from student exposure to an avalancheof graphic television news and print stories,the release of two major Hollywood featurefilms and several best-selling non-fictionbooks.

The compelling outside factors cited had theeffect of making our work in the classroomon the "disease unit" more real to the stu-dents. Teacher flexibility in regard to con-tent coverage was a key point in making thisunit a success. In essence, the teacher hadto be willing to accept the notion that in aclass where students are expected to beactive producers of knowledge, those stu-dents must be free, to some extent, to deter-mine the direction of course content cover-age.

As the Ebola outbreak progressed, studentsdid indeed become co-producers of the veryknowledge and information contained withinthe unit. It is partly due to their researchefforts in fact, that the extraordinarilytimely contents of the unit were able to becompiled with great efficiency and com-pleteness.

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for &itobal and t-turvlan 5-1-vdicc

aro:

1. Ico lafion and Povolorioni- of flioIndividualA study of humans raised in isolation,

or outside of civilization, and a look at theshared and individual characteristics ofhuman beings. Similarities and differencesbetween humans and other animals are alsoexplored.'

2.. 15o5raphi, Avtobio5raphii and6.-hart-cStories told and recorded about our-

selves, our development and our identities.Work on this unit leads to the creation of aprofessional-quality resume that is includ-ed in all RSTA student work portfolios.

5. Imm iption/Mi$rafiionSocietal movements and cultural

exchanges are explored National, ethnic,and racial self-identification, and theeffects of movement on identity arealso focused on.

Piccacc and Milian Ke,lafionchipcA look at the physical effects of group-

ing on human beings and the social/psycho-logical implications of disease-based isola-tion, plagues, superstition, folk medicineand other "cures" are studied, as are thedevelopments in science and technology thathave led to new methods for identifying andtreating disease.

S. 5-fre-M- Kick, &ianA.c and 1-tonn&le-ccnc-ScA study of the effects of economics and

poverty, racism and prejudice, disease andsubstance abuse, and violence and war (inparticular) on children in our society.Specifically, we look at why and how chil-dren throughout the ages and throughouttime have been made homeless. We alsoaddress questions about an individual's andsociety's responsibility to the homelesspopulation.6. Tho ftifilcr You l h Movcroon+ in Nazi

&IcrniantiUsing a "case study" approach, themes

of national identity, (youth) power andresponsibility are explored through thelens of aberrant group behavior.

While the other curriculum units rotate from year to year, this particular unitis always included as the opening segment of Global and Human Studies. It is

essentially the foundation piece upon which the rest of the course is built.

30

7. Ke,liion, 5c.icnc-c,and l'ovvicStudents consider long-standing rival-

ries between scientists and theologians overthe origins of man and the universe.Current arguments about the place of reli-gion in public schools are debated, and theoverall effects of technological and scientif-ic development on religious thought areexplored.

S. E-c-onomic. 5licte411cStudents compare world economic theory

and practice against a background of themodern global economy. A specific empha-sis is placed on the role of media and adver-tising in the consumer-oriented society.Also, such headline-grabbing issues as theillegal immigrant workforce, welfarereform, minimum wage and workplace stan-dards, etc. . . are explored.

Jrcal

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t-twavi 5-1-udioc:

tionn order to create students who are pro-ducers of knowledge, it is necessary forschoolwork to have some kind of techni-or production focus. Clearly, in an aca-

demic classroom, we are not talking about acurriculum of hammering nails or rewiringelectrical sockets (although these activitiesmight actually be included as part of a pro-ject being completed for an academic class).The emphasis on production in an academicclass should be thought of as something thatmeans a new product will result from theprocess of learning. It means learning isactive, and the student is no longer simply astorage vessel for the teacher's knowledge.The expectation is that students will bringsomething new (and valuable) to the learn-ing equation.

Operating within this model, it becomesquite natural (and necessary even) to crossthe artificially imposed barriers that existboth within the academic disciplines, and

31

between the academic and vocational areas.An example of the authentic and sponta-neous way that this kind of integrationoccurs can be found in the "Street Kids"unit that is part of the Global and HumanStudies curriculum:

ailed Street Kids Around the Worldand the Biology of Homelessness, theunit engages students in a study of

homelessness an issue and topic that isfamiliar to anyone living in an urban envi-ronment. The academic disciplines aremade immediately more "hands-on" througha culminating project that requires studentsto design, draw and build a prototype of aninexpensive, temporary shelter for home-less people in Cambridge. Elements ofarchitectural design, engineering, cityplanning, cost analysis, (and yes), hammer-ing nails are all brought to the fore in thecompletion of this one project. Social/psy-chological concerns related to the housingof homeless people are also explored, as aregovernment policies and zoning laws.

Students begin the twelve week unit byexploring their personal feelings abouthomelessness. They then move through sev-eral case studies of street kids from theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries,

exploring the social and economic landscapeof this problem in the past. Finally, theytake on the cases of street children in mod-ern times, in various countries throughoutthe world.

A strong science current runs through theentire "Street Kids" unit. For example,while students are reading Dickens' OliverTwist and watching documentaries abouthomeless children in India, they are alsoexploring the effects of homelessness onboth mind and body, with a close investiga-tion of health care issues related to home-less people, and children in particular.Bodily systems and sanitation are dis-cussed, as is the physiological impact ofadverse climactic conditions, improper nutri-tion and substance abuse on children.

Students also complete research and writingprojects meant to raise public awarenessabout the problems of street children aroundthe world. Interviews done with youth work-ers and street kids themselves may wind up aspart of a student-written article for the localpaper. Photo essays may be mounted for exhi-bition at the high school or even at City Hall.Letters are written to state representatives.Organizing is done to bring more volunteersto work in homeless shelters, after researchhas been completed to both locate such shel-ters and find out what their needs are.

The purpose of the Street Kids unit, and, morebroadly, the Global and Human Studiescourse, is to teach students how to use theresources, tools and knowledge available inacademic and vocational disciplines, so theycan produce solutions to problems that theythemselves uncover through their study. Bynot limiting inclusion of "outside" disci-plines, we enable students to realize thispurpose in a much more authentic and power-ful way.

Support* Issues:

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Flarm*,_ and Tac-iiivi5 Povble,15Toc,k6, and Glaccroorn

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ost teachers today are themselvesproducts of the very same compart-mentalized systems of education

that we are trying to transform. They havebeen trained and certified as either English,social studies, math or science teachers, orthey have specific expertise in one of thevocational trades or the fine arts.Occasionally teachers have duel certifica-tion or professional training in an area thatis seen as complimentary to their primarycertification area. Mostly these two-for-onecertifications seem to wed either math withscience or English with social studies. Ingeneral, however, math teachers teach mathand English teachers teach English, and car-pentry teachers teach carpentryperiod!

Given this state of affairs, it becomes verydifficult for one teacher alone to teach anintegrated course like Global and HumanStudies. The biology component itself isenough to overwhelm most social studiesteachers. And the reverse is also true. Fewbiology teachers would relish the chance toexplore say, nineteenth century socio-eco-nomic theory. And then there is the techni-cal/production piece. In several of thecourse's units, students undertake signifi-cant design and construction projects. It issimply not feasible for a single academicteacher to handle these curriculum require-ments alone. A team approach must betaken.

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The first order of business for the team, isto identify who the key players are and whatessential skills will be addressed throughtheir work in the classroom. In RSTA, theninth grade team of teachers is composed ofmembers from each of the academic disci-plines, the City Works director and the pro-gram's curriculum coordinator. Ourcoursework skill requirements are verymuch related to the City Works skills (seeprevious chapter on City Works), asCity Works forms the centerpiece of theRSTA ninth grade program.

ithin this landscape, much of thework in the RSTA ninth grade aca-demic classes is oriented in a way

that is complimentary to that in all theother classes. During team meetings, eachteacher is made very much aware of what isbeing taught by other members of the team,and curriculum decisions are made thatenable students to "pick up" on topics thatare being covered in all of their other class-es. Integration happens between the class-rooms, not just within a single classroom.

For example, students studying what itmeans to be human in Global Studies, may bereading Mary Shelly's Frankenstein in theHumanities class while simultaneouslystudying animal classification in science,and completing a statistical analysis ofworld population data in math. Studentsregularly make connections between theirwork in the various classrooms, and mem-bers of the team act as support personnel foreach other, particularly in the area of cur-riculum development.

The support engendered from the use ofcomplimentary curricula cannot be under-estimated in the success of a course likeGlobal and Human Studies. Because the cur-riculum is so wide-reaching and compre-hensive, in and of itself, it is absolutelyessential that students have a chance to viewfrom another angle, and debrief, their socialstudies work in progress, while they arecompleting work for their other courses. Ineffect, all of the academic classes in partic-ular, act as support pieces for each other.

The piece of integration that happens with-in the Global Studies classroom itself is

33

best achieved through team-teaching.Currently in RSTA, the Global Studies teamis made up of a dual-certifiedEnglish/social studies teacher, and a Math-certified teacher with a strong English andsocial studies background.

Team teaching with faculty members fromdifferent disciplines would seem a fairlyobvious way to insure that some form ofintegration is taking place within the class-room. However, unless the teaching teamcreates an actual combined and integratedcurriculum, it may be that classroom time issimply divided into an English and a mathsegment, with teachers taking turns (tag-team teaching) rather than actually inte-grating work. To this end, curriculum-planning time must be built into the team-teachers' schedules.

Another important factor in the success ofthe Global and Human Studies course is it'sdouble-block time period. Because Englishand Social studies are combined for creditin this course, each class meeting is doublein length. Two single blocks are scheduledto create one double-long block of time,rather than two separate shorter timeblocks. These long blocks are essential forcompleting the project work that is such anintegral part of the course. We view theselong blocks in much the same way that larg-er blocks of time have traditionally beengranted to the vocational classes with theirproject focus. Clearly, we cannot conductproject-oriented academic classes without asimilar commitment to allowing studentsthe in-class time necessary for completingtheir work.

final note about the integrated, pro-ject-oriented, academic classroomrelates to its physical layout. In the

Global and Human Studies classroom, all ofthe individual high school student deskshave been replaced by (student-construct-ed) work tables similar to those found inmany lower-grade elementary school class-rooms (where, incidentally, students tend tospend much of their day actively involved in"project work"). The work tables in ourroom are light and easily moved to accommo-date a variety of work needs. They may bejoined together to form a large conferencetable, separated and placed throughout theroom to allow for small team project work,

organized end-to-end in a large half-rec-tangle facing a single front-of-the-roompresenter, or laid out in some variation oftraditional classroom rows.

All of these furniture plans are utilizedthroughout the year, depending on the class'needs on a given day. What is so appealingand necessary about the tables is that theydo not inhibit students from working onlarge-scale projects, due to lack of space, asthe individual student desks ordinarily do.The tables also promote a team feelingamong the students, creating within theroom an atmosphere of collegiality among allthe working members of the class.

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he outcomes realized by bringing a problem-based and production focus to academiccoursework can sometimes be achieved by bringing an academic focus (and hence credit)to an existing school production activity (which may be extracurricular). Times of Our

lives Productions is an example of such a strategy.

School yearbooks are often a collection of photographs with, at most, short captions written bygraduating seniors. Compilation of these books is generally left to an after-school group ofinterested class members, led by a faculty advisor. Because of its after school status, and itslack of academic focus, school credit is typically not awarded for production work completed bystudent members of the yearbook staff.

Times of Our Lives Productions grew from a recognition of the enormous learning potential avail-able from involvement in school yearbook production activities. The full-year course calls uponstudents to develop and use skills relating to journalism, art, photography, historiography, per-sonnel management, marketing, sales, advertising, and finance, in the production of an accuratepictorial and written record of their years in high school.

34

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he yearbook project incorporatesaccounts of events that took placewithin the school, the local communi-

ty and around the world, during the stu-dents' high school years. Through theirproject-work, students gain an understand-ing of how a historical record is compiled,designed, printed, preserved and presentedto a wide audience. Students also gain anunderstanding of how a small businessoperates, as Time of Our Lives Productionsfunctions as a commercial, profit-makingenterprise. The course offers a hands-onapproach to establishing and running a

business that produces a viable, salableproduct, and returns a profit on the initialinvestment.

As the product (the school yearbook) movesthrough its various stages of production,students gain exposure to several aspects ofprint-journalism, graphic arts, and com-mercial printing and photographic careers.The set-up, layout, and manufacture of theproduct requires the use of many computer-related skills. These include both the oper-ation of computer hardware, and the imple-mentation of a variety of desktop publish-ing/printing software programs. Studentsare also exposed to the financial aspects ofrunning a small business, including fund-ing, identifying markets, creating and sell-ing advertising, collecting money, keepingaccounts and drawing up balance sheets.

In terms of academic accountability, work inthis course meets the requirements for workstandards set in several disciplines:

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35

ne of the underlying strengths of theTimes of Our Lives course is that itso naturally incorporates an inte-

grated approach to production that authen-tically mirrors approaches taken in the out-side, professional world.

Students participating in the course areprovided a learning situation that offersthem exposure to a wide variety of career-related skills related to and including:

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Upon completion of the course, studentshave produced a meaningful pictorial andwritten record of the academic, athletic,and social experiences acquired throughfour years of participation in the highschool and the community. This recordis made available to the high school andthe city of Cambridge, and can be placedon file for historical purposes as well asfor use as reference and resource mater-ial. It serves as part of a communicationlink between the high school and thewider community, and offers a service toadvertisers within the community whowish to convey their own message to thepublic.

V.S.

ImiprationThrou511 Video

FroducAioviwit for

If the USA is a nation of immigrants,and if immigration provides a critical the-matic lens for viewing American history,then bilingual students are ideally situat-ed, not only to pursue that study, but also tocontribute to it. For they are living now thequintessential American experience: thepromise of a new world, the sense of longingfor what has been left behind.

As they capture their ownstories on video, students learn history bydoing history. Their explorations of per-.sonal experience lead them to broad under-standings of US history, as well as to therealization that they are not alone, and thattheir experience is a truly American expe-rience.

Lenore Prueser, BilingualCoordinator

Jkcollaboration between an ESLteacher, a graphic design teacher anda video technician, the U.S.

Immigration Through Video project isdesigned to engage ESL History students inartistically expressing their visions oftheir native cultures, through the medium ofvideo. The end-product of the project is aseries of videos highlighting the differentcultures within the student group. Thesevideos air on a local cable television chan-nel.

The Immigration Through Video projectserves as one unit in a thematically-taughtESL U.S. History Class.' Producing video isa powerful way for students to both processwhat they are learning and to express theirfeelings and opinions about what they arelearning. Like any non-traditional class-room activity, video canwith different learningthem a new medium

encourage studentsstyles, by giving

through which to

explore and express themselves creatively.Using video also creates a "real" audience,allowing for more authentic and perfor-mance-based student. assessment. Drawingthe community of Cambridge Cable viewersinto the classrooin encourages students totake pride in their work because they aresharing it with a genuine audience.

Video can be a classroom "leveler." With aheterogeneous group of students, video pro-duction is an activity to which all studentscan contribute and at which all students cansucceed. Video production allows andrequires a range and a variety of skills, forstudents of all levels and learning styles.Video production is also important becauseit allows and requires students to take indi-vidual responsibility while simultaneouslyrequiring students to work as a team towarda common goal.

n most interdisciplinary English-SocialStudies classes, students are asked toperform only academic tasks, most of

which involve reading and writing. By

incorporating video into an academica broader range of students haveopportunities to express their ideas

class,more

whilesimultaneously practicing new technicalskills.

Students involved in the ImmigrationThrough Video project learn a full range ofvideo production skills, such as planning aprogram, pre-production, shooting, editingand reviewing their work. Students are ableto explore creative ideas through the use of

2 Interested students from the graphic design teacher's class participate in the project as part of their work in Graphic Arts.

36

new technology, and can demonstrate in bothan academic and a technical way, that theyhave mastered the course content.

Students from a non-ESL graphic designclass, as well as students from within theESL class, work in teams, learning to oper-ate professional-grade video cameras, andthen taping U.S. History class sessions onimmigration. In addition to these class ses-sions, student video crews tape interviewswith individual students who tell the sto-ries of their own immigration experiences.Students from the ESL class also visit theschool's graphic design studio to help createthe graphic design materials (based on theimmigrant students' cultural artifacts), thatare used for the video series. Finally, underthe direction of a professional video techni-cian, students from the ESL History andGraphic Design Groups, work to turn theirvideos into a television series for the localcable television channel.

3728

While the benefits of incorporating videoproduction work into a traditional academicclass have already been discussed, theadded benefits of integrating ESL studentswith their English-speaking peers, in a

work setting, cannot be overlooked.Traditionally, students from these twogroups have been isolated from each other,both physically and socially. Classes forthe two groups often meet in different partsof the school building, and there is littleopportunity for genuine interaction. Itwould appear, that if we are to create trulyintegrated schools, then cultural integra-tion must be fostered along both the voca-tional-academic path and the human one.The U.S. Immigration Through VideoProduction project helps us achieve thislevel of full integration.

Gvl-1'vre avid Pociv:Dream house for a ProaW

he Rindge School of Technical Arts' Culture and Design course grew out of an architectur-al design teacher's recognition of the potential classroom benefit that could be gleanedfrom his students' widely varied cultural backgrounds. One purpose of the course is to

he p students understand how designers' individual cultural identities influence the buildingsthey design. Through detailed examination of building technologies, choices of building andfinish materials, design relationships between indoor and outdoor space, the size and type ofspaces provided for in buildings, the general aesthetics of buildings, uses of color, etc. . . , stu-dents begin to understand that design does not happen in a vacuum. It is heavily influenced byfactors such as prevailing social and cultural traditions, available technology and materials, cli-mate and topography, practical building usage, and contemporary notions of what is aesthetical-ly beautiful.

The students in Culture and Design study themselves and their own cultural backgrounds as ameans to understanding the many cultural factors that influence and help shape the designs theycreate. They also explore the history and traditions of architectural design throughout theworld, looking at finished buildings against the background of cultural traditions and technolo-gies of the people who created and built the structures. In essence, Culture and Design studentsundertake an in-depth study of architectural design through a social/cultural lens.

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1. rradifion and A-&cflivtic-cStudents discuss human needs and collective value systems, and historicalstandards of beauty in the built environment.

Z. Sfruc-fwal Mafe,rialStudents explore physics and engineering concepts related to how buildings standup and fall down. Also, indigenous materials and technologies used in buildingconstruction, and comparisons between buildings and the human body (structuralanalysis) are explored.

3. Shol-f&rStudents focus on the ways shelter protects us from the elements, comparingbuilding types in various climate zones, and evaluating strategies for energyefficient design in traditional architecture.

4. C-Icnien-l-c of Cliood g-tovci pc,ciThe "do's and don'ts" of efficient layout and circulation are discussed, along withideas about public and private domains, the effects of color, light and texture ondesign, and traditional and modern influences in design.

5. The Pcs n Proc,c,ccStudents explore the notion of drawing as a language. They also cover such concreteskill areas as concept development, schematic design, building design models, andproject presentation.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE38

he course begins with a briefoverview of the above-listed designfactors. Then, after choosing a par-

ticular culture on which to focus, studentscreate a "culture collage" in which theycombine Xeroxed and drawn visual imageswith words, in order to paint a picture oftheir chosen culture. Information is gath-ered about, traditional values, daily life,climate and terrain, structural and materi-al technology, existing architecture, indi-vidual and community identity, standard ofliving, and local use of color. The collagework is combined with a broad historicalexploration which focuses on how the builtenvironment has been influenced by all ofthese elements within distinct periods ofarchitectural history.

Next, students get into some of the nuts andbolts (literally) of what it takes to put abuilding together. They review some basicprinciples about the forces of structure, thecomponents of a building, and the use ofbuilding materials as they relate to culture,climate, and technological development.Hands-on exercises which employ the use ofstraws, cardboard and other simple materi-als are utilized to illustrate the principlesof force. The development of modern build-ing materials and structural systems arealso discussed. Climactic influences areintroduced within the context of the earth'sthree main climate zones: hot and dry; hotand humid; and cold and we.t. Examples ofbuilding types throughout the world areused to illustrate the effect that climate hason the form a building takes.

39

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inally, students learn about thedesign process which will enable them

_1- to take a design idea and move it fromthe initial concept stage, through schematicand design development, to final presenta-tion. The various phases of this process areintroduced, modeled, and practiced by thestudents before they begin to design theirown "dream" houses.

Each student locates their dream house in aparticular area of the world, of their ownchoosing. This might be the country whichthey, or their family is from, or simply aculture they have an interest in. Theirdream house designs should show that theyhave developed an integrated understandingof the cultural, climactic, and technical fac-tors that would influence the builders of ahouse constructed in their chosen part ofthe world. For those who have a particularinterest in architectural history, housesmay be designed to fit within a chosen his-torical period as well.

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"The beauty of theshop experience formany students isthat it's kinetic, it'sreal, and it's of theadult world."

Larry Rosenstock,

4.

BUILDINGTRANSFERABLE SKILLSTransforming Traditional Shops intoIntegrated Centers of Technology-Based Projects, Products, and Services

ocational education has suf-fered in the past because of its occupation-al specificity and narrowly-defined "shop"environment, and because the occupationsthat it has trained students for requiiedlittle or no education beyond high school.State competency requirements for trainingin the vocational areas led teachers todefine their roles in terms of moving stu-dents through a discrete series of technicaltasks. Most students graduating from suchprograms never spent even one day working

in the trade area for which they had beentrained. Consequently, the long-term bene-fit of the skills acquired during years spentworking in the school shops was question-able at best.

Since the passage of the Carl Perkins Act,the emphasis has shifted. Vocational cur-ricula are now to include knowledge of andexperience in all aspects of an industry.The intent of this legislation is for studentsto learn transferable skills that are neces-sary for success in both work and academicworlds. This has been a difficult transitionfor many vocational programs. VIA Strategy3 builds on the strengths of vocational pro-grams while also transforming vocationalshops into centers for technology-basedprojects, products and services.

The alc of 5-1-ra-1-6 5 aro threefold:1. To allow qtvolenfc 1-o spend time (3,0dt/el-iell in fhe, Shops, whe-ther or no-l- thctlwill over 50 'fb work. in the chop's cpeeific, frade area.

By turning shops into broad-based production centers, students can be taught usefulproblem-solving skills that will serve them in a wide range of occupations. In addi-tion, students actively engaged in "real" production activities will tend to view theirefforts in the shop as useful to them in the long term, rather than simply as vocation-al training for its own sake.

2.. TO rede,finc the trades in ieehnoloAieallii appropriate broader) wat1S, ac a*atom for feaehin5_ -transferable

In making school shop work more suited to the modern workplace it becomes necessaryto explore the wider uses of current shop technologies. The thinking. work, and skillsused in the shop must be made transferable to both the academic and the other tradeareas.

3. 75 coniertvalize vocational vvork wil-hov+ frainin5_ silk:lees for speeifie ocevpafionS.

As a means of addressing current rapid shifts in occupations and technology, shopsmust become places where the trades are presented within the wider frame of project-work itself. That is, trade-related work must be placed into a context of production orproject-oriented work in general, rather than set aside as part of a narrow skill thatis prone to rapid obsolescence.

In recognizing these goals, one overall object stands out: Vocational shops must bemade to produce useful products, through whose production, competent and creativestudent thinkers and producers can be born.

MST Can AVAEAMIS 4 2

lrna Coiert-r:1-11 Shop as ah

FroducAom

In the traditional Print Shop, vocationalstudents learned how to set type, designa page, develop film, strip a negative,

make an offset plate, run a small press,choose, cut, load and print paper. They alsoprinted cards and envelopes. They punched,stitched, stapled and glued, and made use ofcertain hand and power tools. Occasionallythe printing teacher branched out andtaught photo silk-screening. The shop pro-duced record forms and stationary for theschool, and if time was available, studentsmade pads with their names on them.

These skills prepared students for entry-level jobs in the printing trade. However,the majority of the students never again

made use of these skills. In contrast,RSTA's Image Center is focused on helpingstudents to develop technological anddesign skills that will be useful to them infurther learning and in whatever careersthey enter. In today's complex world, it is atremendous benefit to know how to presentideas powerfully, using a range of tools andtechnologies.

1n RSTA's Image Center, students learnthe new digital technologies and designprocesses involved in image production

today. In the process, they also master tra-ditional tools and processes, such as silk-screening and book-binding. In their timein the Image Center, students engage bothin individual and group projects. For indi-vidual projects, students are encouraged torelate their image-making abilities to otherschool courses and activities. For example,one student may design a cover for a histo-ry research report and bind it in a specialway. Another student may create an origi-nal computer illustration for a story thatwas written in English class. Still anotherstudent may be creating a three dimension-al graphic image for a calculus assignmentor an illustration for science.

E-xample,s of ivrt.5.1,a+c-ci rup

1. The Importance of Dolor in Our LivesGraphics History Language Arts Mathematics Building Trades Science Art History

An exploration into the uses and effects of color. The history of paints, technologicalrevolutions in the paint and dye industries, scientific and mathematical principlesrelated to color and the chemical compounds found in paints and dye, the general sub-ject of color, and related advertising and marketing principles connected to its use, areall pieces of this integrated curriculum unit.

2.. Visions of FOwe,r and 9abili-I-1 in &tovernmerrt and Our LivesGraphics History Language Arts Mathematics Architecture Building TradesScience Art History

By examining the pervasive use of classical and neoclassical motifs in governmentbuildings, domestic buildings in the United States, and the former colonies of variousnations, teachers and students discover the constantly recurring themes of power, per-ceived power, oppression and liberation that these motifs have come to represent.Students draw, build models, paint and complete a computer-morphing project relatedto an important existing monument or government building. National symbols and mot-tos are also examined.

A variety of models and projects related to several disciplines result from work com-pleted in these two units alone. Curriculum proposals for other integrated ImageCenter units are regularly developed.'

See U.S. Immigration Through Video Productionproject detailed in chapter two of this manual. 43

Opoyi Lab

Mockljfn addition to specific course offerings,the Image Center is open on a drop-in(space-available) basis for use by all

school students and faculty. Essentially,the Image Center is always in session.Students are free to come in and apply theirgraphics skills to projects from other class-es. Humanities, math and science teachersmake use of the center, developing projectsof mutual interest to students in a variety ofdisciplines. Ideally, this is a lab wherestudent and teacher ideas can be pulledtogether to form interactive proposals, pro-jects, products, solutions, etc. . .

Along these lines have come the develop-ment of Graphics Study Project Proposals,where students assigned to study hall mayarrange to work on specifically outlinedgraphics' projects during unscheduledtime-blocks. Also in place are posted pro-ject ideas meant to encourage the creationand implementation of integrated curricu-lum units by teachers outside of the graph-ic area. Outreach work is done by the ImageCenter teacher-director, to forge connec-tions with other academic teachers, as a wayof encouraging integration.

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En order to create an Image Center thatoperates at full speed, a variety ofissues must be addressed. The first of

these deals with staffing. Specifically, thecenter requires two separate staff memberpositions in order to function at peek capac-ity:

1. The Teacher/Director is a competentteacher, well versed not only in the techni-cal aspects of imaging (computers, computerperipherals, production tools, multimediatools, and art tools), but also one who canreach out, understand and make connectionswith staff membersof the school (i.e.health, art, music,

in the other disciplinesscience, math, history,drama, literature, lan-

guages, etc. . .). An imaging lab withresources, but lacking a person with inte-grated vision, will likely not be terriblyeffective at bridging the gap between disci-plines.

2. The Technician/Monitor is a staff mem-ber assigned to the Image Center, who has aparticular expertise in solving equipmentproblems and keeping equipment in toprunning order. This person's primary taskis to manage equipment issues so that theteacher's time can be spent on creativeproblem solving and graphics production.The Technician/Monitor's duties may alsoinclude providing interested students withequipment repair and maintenance instruc-tion.

Assuming this level of staffing isavailable, it should be possible tokeep the Image Center open for stu-

dent and teacher use during the full schoolday, and even well into the after-schoolhours. In relation to scheduling, it shouldbe noted that any time conflicting staffschedules require the Image Center's doorsto be locked, student production work iseffectively halted. Appropriate monitoring

44

staff must be available and present whenev-er students are working because of theexpensive and potentially dangerous natureof the tools and equipment contained with-in the center.

Ample and well maintained equipment andsupplies are of course vital to the successof the Image Center program. The center'sneeds however require that in maintainingadequate materials' levels, the center'ssuppliers take into account those teachersand students who will use the center whilenot being formally scheduled into a classthere. Supplies may become quicklydepleted if these additional users are notcounted when materials and supplies areordered. And, while it might appear thatformally-scheduled graphics studentsought to be counted first in being assignedto use the most "choice" materials, in actu-ality, all materials and equipment in theImage Center are meant to be shared, on anequal basis, by everyone who elects to workthere.

4 5

ikfinal point necessary for creating aninterdisciplinary Image Centerrelates to the outreach work to be

undertaken by the center's main Teacher-Director. At the very least, a series ofworkshops outlining the center's uses andpotential, for outside teachers unfamiliarwith its offerings, is required. Beyond this,curriculum meetings with teachers from avariety of disciplines (both academic andtechnical) will help ensure the widest pos-sible usage of the center's resources.

Most teachers outside of the graphics areawill need some help in imagining and creat-ing integrated units or projects that "fit"with graphics. Fortunately, in addition tothe Image Center's outreach person, graph-ics' students who use the center on a regu-lar basis can play an enormously valuablerole in devising integrated projects. Indeed,the very process of "brainstorming" to envi-sion such projects is a highly productivelearning activity.

°Thor 5-1-ratom 45 Frojoc,-t-c 17ovolopoci

Uncior VIA-:

The RSTA electronics' shop operatesas a fully-functioning "TechnologyCenter." Under the direction of an

electronics' teacher and a science profes-sional, students participating in electronicshop programs explore a wide range of pro-ject activities meant to simulate real-world,technologically-based problems. For exam-ple, the "Weather Station" offers studentsan opportunity to act as actual meteorolo-gists as they collect weather-related dataand predict atmospheric conditions.

In this project, students construct and oper-ate a professional-grade weather station.An antennae constructed and set up by stu-dents on the roof of the school building,picks up signals from weather satellitesthat are relayed to the station's computer's(loaded with appropriate weather-trackingsoftware). Students collect weather data(i.e. outside and inside temperatures, wind

direction, wind chill, etc. . .) from the sys-tem on a daily basis. This data is then ana-lyzed by the student meteorologists as theyproduce their weather newsletters.

In order to become more knowledgeableabout weather-related topics, WeatherStation students view videos and completescience lab experiments related to climateand atmospheric phenomena. Using whatthey have learned, and their collected data,students produce a newsletter of weatherfacts and information for elementary schoolchildren.

he inclusion of an outside "audi-ence" and the elementary school"clients" in the Weather Station pro-

ject, encourages a high level of quality inthe finished Weather Station newsletterproduct. It also pushes studentsfaultless work in the collectionpretation of their data. There is

to aspire toand inter-even some

level of competition born between the pro-ject's students and professional meteorolo-gists, to see whose weather predictions aremore accurate.

46

O

H

Ln addition to the weather station, TheTechnology Center at RSTA's electronicshop offers learning modules related to

a host of additional topic areas including:

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he work focus in all TechnologyCenter project areas revolves aroundthe design and development of new

technologies, and around problem solving.This emphasis is meant to afford studentsthe greatest opportunity to transfer theirshop-learned skills to their (problem-solv-ing) work in other areas.

goo

47

14,

"Technology education means making thecomplex technological world approachableby young people, so that they do not have togo through life afraid and intimidated bythings that they cannot imagine under-standing."

Tom Hsu,Cambridge Physics Outlet

"In the context of the science curriculum,technology education changes both what istaught and how it is taught. Classroom ped-agogy becomes more "hands on "as designchallenges become a central learning strate-gy. Course content changes as students learnabout the social roles of technology, and asthey learn to understand,evaluate, and usetechnology."

MargaretVickers,Working To Learn Project

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION FORSCIENCECombining the Teaching of TechnicalProcedures with the ScientificPrinciples Underlying thoseProcedures

4 SI

n traditional vocational coursesstudents learn a great deal about how tooperate equipment and machines, but theylearn little about why these operationswork. Shop and workplace practices arerarely explored on a scientific or technolog-ical level.

In traditional science courses, studentslearn a great deal about the "big ideas" of aparticular scientific discipline, and aboutabstract scientific theory, but they learnlittle about how to use or do anything withtheir newly-acquired knowledge. Real andpractical applications and uses for abstracttheory rarely occur in most science courses.

Combining the teaching of technical proce-dures with the scientific principles under-lying those procedures is the basis for a newbrand of hybrid learning called"Technology Education" or "tech ed." Seenas more than a means to offering vocationaleducation students greater success in a sci-ence classroom setting, tech ed offers allstudents a more useful and satisfying expe-rience in the science and math disciplines.The tech ed approach is much more likely tocaptivate students' minds and get themengaged in learning.

What ic it?fisc.fine,c1:

j{

n technology education, studentsaddress real world problems, ones thatprofessional practitioners face in their

daily work.tasks are: 1)in addressingto's); and 2)

The tech ed students' mainto work out what is involved

or solving a problem (the howto understand why a solution

works (i.e. what scientific principles andprinciples of technology lie behind thesolution).

Technology education is chiefly concernedwith broad concepts rather than specificcompetencies of technologies. Studentslearn to design, develop and use systems(e.g. information systems, electrical sys-tems, mechanical systems and fluid powersystems). Concern is significantly lessfocused on how proficient the studentbecomes at a certain skill, but rather isdirected at his or her understanding of con-cepts, relationships, problem-solving,analysis and evaluation.

echnology education involves a syner-gistic approach; it is not a series of so

unrelated "projects." Teachers devel-op problems for students to solve, thatinvolve the students in designing and devel-oping systems, from simple to complex.

An example of an early tech ed design prob-lem would be figuring out how to use a com-puter to control a motor. Later, studentscould be given the problem of introducing amechanical component (a switch) into theirnewly-designed system. Finally, the prob-lem of designing and constructing a comput-er-controlled system to move an object fromone point to another, and documenting theresults, could be added.

Technology education students work inteams, affording students at different acad-emic and vocational levels an opportunity towork successfully together. Fully-outfittedtech ed labs provide the opportunities,materials and equipment for students tosolve any technological problem they chooseto address.

Technology education labs are places wherestudents can come to experience the appli-cation of science and math knowledge.Students can also use technology labs todevelop presentations and demonstrationsfor other classes. Eventually these labs canbecome learning centers for the entireschool.'

See realted discussion of the Image Center lab under integrationstrategy #3.

50

filfrOch/CA-11011 to MC.1111010511:

A Po Sim and ProblemSolvin5... Approach to-1&ac.-1/415._ a Proje.,af5aceJ 5c.-ie,nc. Gorse,

The Introduction to Technology course at the Rindge School of Technical Arts teachesstudents a clear problem-solving process. While there are many different descriptionsand variations of this process in general, Intro to Tech's over-all sequence of problemsolving tasks is as follows:

1. Ar human need or rovire,nick1- is

2. Posciblo wails of meefin5., the need are investi5ated and developed.

3. Information iS 5a-f-licrezi and an action plan is prepared towards product_. the closiroci

4. The plan is implementeol (Note: This is an act of 5:incorins5,.;

Se,okin5.. practical Solutions to perceived human needs orrevirerrent0.

5. The outc-orre (Prod vet, Process, SiiSteni) is evaluated with concernfor adelyavi and elves for furflier development

As an example of this process, IntroTech students might be challengedto design a structure capable of sup-

porting a specified load. The studentswould do research into the principles ofstructural systems, select methods, materi-als and tools, and if appropriate, utilizecomputer assisted design (CAD) technology.Finally, they would engineer their designs,evaluate them against the previously identi-fied need, and make further adjustments anddesign refinements as part of the analysis oftheir structural systems.

Within this design and problem-solvingframework, the Intro Tech course employs acomplete project-based approach to thestudy of science and technology. A modelcar design unit, for example, utilizes struc-tural, mechanical, electrical, electronic,pneumatic and hydraulic, solar, and com-puter-control technological systems as a

means to teach the principles of physics.

51

As elements from each of these systems areused in the completion of the car project, theprinciples of physics behind the system areintroduced. With great advantage beingtaken of the proliferation of "teachablemoments" occurring during the design-build process, students learn the scientifictheories related to the project. Once again,learning takes place in context.

The project-based curriculum has anotherenormous advantage in the Intro Tech sci-ence class: It provides students with oppor-tunities to practice important skill sets uti-lized in most technology fields such asworking in design teams, investigating andresearching, brainstorming, webbing (alsoknown as mind mapping, graphic organizing,and bubble diagramming), prototyping,testing, evaluating, documenting and pre-senting work, and using the computer (forword processing, graphing and data-basing).

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The Irtroduc,+ion +0 c..ourc is orynizod throu511 four vartorlon5. unitc:

1 In+roduofion +0 Moacumnion+,Pociyi and Te,e-linoloel

Students are introduced to the differenttechnical shops and complete several smallprojects. These might be a mousetrap, car,windmill, or similar project that can becompleted in two weeks. The goal is to getstudents into the design/engineering spiritof the course and to introduce them to theavailable resources. Long-term projects arenot appropriate until the students have asufficient successful experience base to beable to work confidently towards a projectthat will come to fruition only after manyweeks.

2.. F5vildin5. on -filo Plane- rfki

Students are introduced to building con-struction and engineering considered inthe context of geologic and meteorologicaldisasters. Scale models of structures arebuilt and tested on an earthquake and hur-ricane simulation table designed jointly bythe Boston Science Museum and theCambridge Physics Outlet.' Topics forinvestigation include the strength of mate-rials, trusses, bridge building, aestheticsand architecture, earth science, seismology,map-making and surveying, and others.

3. re,c-linolom in I-turnan Environmon+c

In this unit students learn about build-ing technology as applied to maintaining acomfortable human environment, with care-ful attention paid to energy management.Topics include HVAC, energy flow, elec-tricity and it's uses, building health issues,and temperature and human comfort levels.Student projects revolve around their evalu-ation of the high school building on manyof these areas.

2 The Woburn, Massachusetts-based Cambridge Physics Outlet(CPO), manufactures and distributes teaching and learningtools that promote a hands-on approach to the study of sci-ence and mathematics for grades 5-12.

Aorodiraroic-c and Vohic-le, Poc i5.11

This unit uses the bottle rocket and aflow tank as test facilities. Students studyforce and fluid motion through the c o n-struction and evaluation of different scalemodels for vehicles that will move throughwater or air. Topics include air foils,streamlining, fluid motion, and design.Students finish the unit with a critique ofcommercial automobile, truck, or boatdesigns from the perspective of aerodynam-ic efficiency.

52

-*

Activities emphasized in thestudy of the four above-outlined units include:

Historic-al re-c&arc-li intorclatcd fcc-kinoto5ic-al Sutrc--t-c.

Sifc vici-ts to vicesclicte-nic unolcr stuck!, in

the coninivnifii and/or in theschool.

Incorporation of analicic, ctin-

flie,cic and cvalvafiv& forms ofthink-tr. into +Plc, t6c-linolojric-al

proce4c.

Rzalization of ctudemf-planne.4

and cKe,atc,d dc4iNic, in profo-flpe-c and at full Scalp.

Pouirocnfation and pre4c,ntation

of projcz-fc bc,fore, an at/clic-tux,

of pocK, adrviinicfra--

forc and commvnifii-t)asodprofe4Sionak vvork4 infcc-linolo5.1 mlatcd

In terms of science, theIntroduction to Technologycourse teaches the concepts of

physics (measurement, motion,structures, heat, electricity andelectronics), and skills in docu-menting and solving practicalproblems in the technology lab,around the school, and in the stu-dents' larger environment. Thecourse also teaches a designprocess for scientific discoverythat helps students establish pro-cedures to identify, clarify andarticulate the principles inherentin their studies.

53

itita COPY MAU=

Support- (ccvoc:mak:015.. i-t- work..

5-taffinb, P9)art-rvivrt-vivic:fiovici Frofe,ccional

.Pvloprvi&vrt- arid Lab

n important goal in the creation ofthe Introduction to technologycourse was not just to develop a

course that would teach kids some sciencein a fun way, but also to meet the highschool's (and the state's) science require-ments. In order to award students sciencecredit, the course had to fall under the sci-ence department's offerings. But, Intro toTech is a science course taught by vocation-ally-certified teachers, not science-certi-fied teachers. The issues of certificationand credits were important to address.

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tr.,1

RSTA chose a science-certified faculty mem-ber to oversee the program, and to create itscurriculum. In addition to attending regularcurriculum meetings with the head of thescience department, this teacher/programdirector works with the vocational/technicalstaff to direct their own training in scienceteaching and learning. The teacher is alsopresent during class meeting times andoccasionally conducts lessons with stu-

dents. Presently, there are four vocation-al/technical teachers leading studentgroups in Intro to Tech, working togetherwith the science teacher/program director.The technical teachers come from the car-pentry, electronics and electrical shopareas.

jintroduction to Technology is not simplyan errant science course that has been"allowed in" as one of the science

department's "real" course offerings. It isin fact a highly-regarded academic programrequiring a one year science prerequisitefor entrance. Furthermore, by developingand maintaining its connection with theschool's science department, the Intro toTech program has proven influential inhelping to move the school's entire scienceprogram in a more technical, project-baseddirection. We cannot stress enough the ben-efits of developing similar technical-sci-ence programs in concert with sciencedepartment administrators and staff mem-bers (rather than simply with the vocation-al/technical staff). This type of departmen-tal collaboration insures that Intro to Tech-type courses do not fall into the no-man'sland of "elective" courses. It also helps inbringing a full range of students to thecourse, easing parental fears that a techni-cal, project-based science class may not beappropriate for college-bound students.It is important to emphasize here that the

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vocational-technical teachers involved inIntro to Tech do receive ongoing scienceteacher training. And, while they are notscience-certified, they do work under thedirection of the science teacher programdirector. They also attend regular scienceeducation-related workshops, and partici-pate in weekly program meetings with thehead science teacher. Most important, theybring a vital technical area expertise to theprogram, that many science-certified teach-ers simply do not possess.

final support issue related to theIntroduction to Technology programhas to do with it's laboratory setting.

In RSTA, a carpentry shop was converted tohouse the Technology Lab. The conversionproject was extensive. Details of the con-version, with specific equipment, materials,and construction particulars will not bedealt with in this manual, although detailedinformation on the conversion project isavailable.' For our purposes here, it isimportant to note that traditional sciencelab or technical shop facilities may not ade-quately house the Intro to Tech program.Ideally, a new hybrid space containing keyelements from both settings is desired inorder to run the program most effectively.

3 Please refer to Appendix I.

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4 W indmills" is an extensiveenergy unit that can be incor-porated into a variety of sci-

ence or technical courses. The unit beginswith a design problem: to develop and buildan efficient windmill capable of producingenough energy to light a presentation boardor a large wall map.

Students working on the windmill-designproblem first complete a research investi-gation into how windmills work. This inves-tigation includes dismantling and analyzingthe components of a generator, runningexperiments with gear system apparatus,speaking with mechanical experts, andreading about windmills, gears and genera-tors.

In the next phase of the unit, students workin teams to design and build small wind-mills that meet previously-detailed designspecifications. Once team design models arecompleted, students take part in a testing,evaluating and redesign/refine process thatresults in the completion of a functioningfinished windmill product.

The study of windmills offers students anopportunity to explore the inter-relation-ships between technology, energy, architec-ture, climate, and socio-economic develop-ment. It also helps students to begin tofocus on the uses and importance of non-pollutant energy sources.

55

ifn terms of integration, the Windmillsunit covers themes that relate to a num-ber of disciplines:

1. lan5.vap Ark

Sfudovrte road roeourco works andwri+e comparative papGrc. Thoi road,write, disc-KC and olcba-i-o issues related focultural difforencoe and olociy, and eoc.-ialand economic needs.

2. Social cfudioc

Similar to lan5vage arts, but alsoincludes work. on the hiefori of vvindmillcand Fo5raphti and climate.

3. Math

9-udenk perforrvi basic mathematicalcomputation, work with measurement,fractions, algr.clwaio and tri5onomofricovations, and build scale models.

4. Scionco

Stud rovolvoe around work with simpleand compound machines, motion, onorm andon5inee, pollvfion and ar-l-erna--five forme of enorm aro also explored.

5. Technologies

Praftin5, 17, electronics, elearical,cay-penfri, oompvfere and model malcin5,,aro all used in the completing. of the pro

ject-.

The Windmills unit covers the above-men-tioned content area concepts by offering ahands-on, design and problem-solvingapproach that directs students to experi-ment with gears, small generators, andwind-power systems. They also learn aboutweather and windmill farms, and their ownfinished models are used as a performance-based test of the principles learned.

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"We need to show stu-dents that their educationis relevant, and that theyare relevant. That whatthey're learning matters,and what they can do withit matters. Then they willdevelop an appreciationfor the true value of edu-cation, and they willgraduate with more than adeep understanding of theworld They will gradu-ate knowing they have apurposeful role in it "

John Shea, CambridgeService Corps Teacher

DOING WELL ANDDOING GOOD:Connecting Coursework to CommunityResources and Needs.

57

hen teachers begin con-necting coursework to community resourcesand needs, several aims can be achieved:

1. Students are able to make use oftheir ample (and often underval-ued) stores of prior knowledge.

2. The school is able to bring newadults from the larger outsidecommunity, into the learningequation.

3. Learning in the classroom iscontextualized in an immediatelyuseful way.

4. Teachers model the sociallyresponsible behaviors desired ofcitizens in a democratic society.

5. Students tap into their owndesires to play a role in somethingthat is meaningful, and of lastingvalue.

aken separately, any one of theseaims offers undeniable benefits in alearning environment. However, the

combination of all five creates the possibil-ity for dynamic, long-lasting learning totake place throughout the school and withinthe community.

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(prior Kvloworking off of prior knowledge isalways an effective teachingstrategy. It allows students to be

recognized for what they have alreadyachieved and what they know, rather thanhaving this knowledge dismissed as lessimportant than that which will be freshlytaught. When students are faced with newinformation that is couched in a familiarfoundation, there is a much greater chancethat they will embrace learning and devel-op beyond the point where they already are.Additionally, when the knowledge to bebuilt upon relates to the students' own com-munity, there is the added bonus of stu-dents' retaining a significant personalinvestment in what they are building orexploring. Students often know much moreabout their communities than their teach-ers are aware of, or give them credit forknowing, yet, it also true that there is muchmore for them to learn.

Ovicidohe desirability of making publicschools "community schools" is evi-dent, particularly in densely-popu-

lated urban areas where the school stands

58

poised to meet a variety of community needsbeyond simply educating the community'syoung people. Part of the community schoolconcept is the idea that the communityitself must take responsibility for educat-ing and training its future workers, mem-bers and leaders. That said, many poten-tially valuable resource people outside ofthe school, while feeling a genuine desire to"get involved," are not familiar with orcomfortable negotiating (alone) the some-times bumpy road to establishing a schoolconnection. When a "community curricu-lum" is brought into the classroom, part ofwhat is achieved is this important connec-tion with outside resource people.

e have already seen in earlier inte-gration strategy chapters how andwhy Contextualization of knowl-

edge is beneficial to students. Community-oriented learning is particularly effectivein helping students to see the usefulness ofknowledge.

Social KccpohSibilipart of the work of schools is to teachstudents lessons in social responsi-bility so that they may one day leave

school and take their places as usefuldemocratic citizens. Talking about socialand community responsibility is a far cry(in terms of effectiveness) from practicing

these ideals. Teachers who actively seekout and forge working connections withmembers of the students' own communityeffectively model democratic behavior forstudents through their actual "active"behavior. "Do as I do, and as I say" becomesthe motto of the community-investedteacher, and students do tend to followsuit.

and Valuehile none of the five aims outlinedunder integration strategy #6 is ofgreater importance than the oth-

ers, investing student work with meaningand lasting value evidences perhaps themost dramatic effect in its impact on stu-dent achievement levels and enjoyment inlearning. Students are known to regularlybemoan the lack of importance attached tomuch of the work they complete (or choosenot to complete) for school. Finding notonly academic relevance, but also truemeaning and value in the tasks one engagesin on a daily basis (for twelve public-schoolyears), is the key to forming students whowill be life-long learners. Yet students alltoo often are left feeling that school has nobearing on their lives, and that what they dothere allows them no path toward making avaluable contribution to society. Connect-ing coursework to community resources andneeds allows meaning and value to enter theclassroom, thus enriching enormously thelearning experience for everyone involved.

59

0.

aroylbrio1 5orvico C-orpc:c-orywymewhi Frobloryi-solvt_. 101

"Most of all we want to succeed in establishing a course that teaches young people a littlebit about the world, and the world a little bit about young people. We want to establish acourse that will prepare young people to be critical thinkers, effective activists, and awarecitizens."

Mara Sanchez, CSC student class of 1997

Aimed at pushing the extremes ofwhat young people are capable ofcontributing to their community and

capable of learning in the process,Cambridge's Community Service Corps (CSC)challenges high school juniors and seniorsto put their heads, hands and hearts to workleading a community-wide effort to targetand address critical local needs.

The learning component of the CSC centersaround a rigorous experiential course,Community Problem-Solving 101, that runsthe length of the school year, comprisesclose to half of the students' entire courseload, mixes classroom studies with exten-sive community-based work, and is creditedas a combination of social studies/civics,English/language arts, and vocational/tech-nical arts.

At the core of the CSC curriculum is a com-plete a-to-z community problem solvingprocess. Students participate in a commu-nity needs assessment, create a sharedvision for the city, evaluate current healthand human services, and identify criticalgaps and problem areas. They produce aninventory of their own skills and abilities,conduct an investigation of availableresources, and debate and decide, as a team,what particular issue to target. Working inpartnership with a wide array of public,nonprofit, and private sector representa-tives, the students then design their owncommunity initiative.

Leading the development and executionof this initiative (whether it be thecompletion of a one-time project or the

creation of an ongoing program), the CSCstudents follow a detailed plan of actionwhich they themselves have produced andfor which they take responsibility forsecuring all necessary resources includingvolunteers, money, materials and services.Reaching out to involve their high schoolpeers and teachers, their old elementaryschools, area college students, local busi-nesses, friends, and their families, the CSCstudents in effect become the organizers anddirectors of a large-scale community-wideeffort-- and they become genuine advocatesfor positive social change.

social studies/civics, English/languagearts, and, to a lesser degree, math andscience are the fundamental academic

disciplines integrated into the CSC course.The vast range of social studies and civicstopics explored include: government, poli-tics and social policy; immigration, civilrights and school desegregation; unemploy-ment, inflation and economic development;health, welfare and education reform; andthe relevance of local history to currentissues.

English/language arts applications notonly include numerous authenticwriting opportunities such as the

composition of letters, proposals, pressreleases, and fliers, but also include bookreviews, research papers and daily journalentries. Students study relevant literature(fiction, nonfiction, classic, and contempo-rary), music, and art. The exploration ofthese creative works also serves to inspirethe CSC students to create their own liter-ary, musical, and artistic expositions.

6 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

ath and science skills are devel-oped and utilized in such diverseareas as statistical analysis, prob-

ability, demographics, budgets, taxes,spending, scientific investigation, biology,health, conservation, ecology, and the envi-ronment. And the study and application ofpractical hands-on vocational/technicalarts prospectively includes (depending onspecific projects undertaken) carpentry,mechanics, electronics, graphic arts, designconstruction, communications, and comput-er technologies.

4;

v

aculty expertise from throughout thehigh school and the community,numerous guest speakers, multi-

media instruction, current events, case-method teaching, active discussion anddebate, and project-based studies are amongthe tactics used to generate powerful coop-erative learning. However, it is the exten-sive community-based work, utilizingCambridge and the greater Boston area asthe text, that cements student understand-ing and brings their studies to life.

The entire CSC curriculum is grounded inpersonal growth, self-understanding, com-munity building, teamwork, and leadershipdevelopment. Student imagination and cre-ativity is channeled into entrepreneurial,critical thinking and problem solvingskills. CSC students, fostered by a growingself-confidence, learn to become articulate

public speakers and effective leaders. Theycome to understand, through direct experi-ence and deliberate analysis, the process ofteam building, the value of collaboration,the power of diversity, the importance oflistening, and the meaning of tolerance andrespect. They explore the virtues ofresponsibility, caring and service, and theydevelop the habit of frequent and seriousreflection so crucial to the learning process.

student assessment is based on groupexhibitions, the achievement of teamgoals, individual performance,

authentic portfolios, and a personal demon-stration of the knowledge, skills, and valuesthat drive the CSC. The CSC strives to grad-uate students with character, a keen curios-ity, a passion for exploration and discovery,a deeper understanding of their own selfworth, and well-rounded preparation forsuccess and fulfillment in work, furthereducation, and life.

The CSC offers students the opportunity towork together with the full support oftheir school district and in collaborationwith the greater community to master,integrate, and apply core academic disci-plines. Practical hands-on vocationalcrafts, and creative problem solving skills,to achieve goals they themselves have set.The CSC also supports the dissemination ofservice-learning practices throughout thehigh school and the school district.

Beyond producing an immediate and signif-icant impact on pressing local needs, theCSC is responsible for building a powerfulforce of student role models, future commu-nity leaders, and catalysts for responsible,idealistic, and active citizenship. Instilledwith a deep appreciation for the true valueof education namely its creative applica-tion to positive action the newly inspiredcorps of life-long learners graduates fromhigh school with more than a better under-standing of their world. They graduateknowing they have a purposeful role to playin it.

C,ambrici Sorvic,o GorpcConfirm! Problem So 1

Gource 5vromani/C-vrric,vlurvi

The year long Community Problem Solving 101 course is divided into three large (over-lapping) curriculum sections:

1. F'retarin5_ G-real-e. SoUal Ghanc (59)-1-erv&r fe-bwarti)2- rakin5.. Action Glianc. (Janvari June)3. Poc-vryilifin5, Year -1.-on5_ Procc.cc June)

Within each of these sections the following skill units are explored:

1. Pmparinjr -Vo C-re.a-Ve. Soe.ial Ghanip

Build an effective team with a common vision

Create a foundation of self-understanding and personal growth.Come to know, respect, and celebrate one another.Agree on working norms & decision making process, and commit to a sharedpurpose.Cultivate community support and build a base of power.

Develop Necessary Knowledge (Civic Intelligence)

Explore and know Cambridge (local emphasis - in a comparative context).Understand the "Seven Circles of Well-Being" (i.e. social problems/issues).Study the "Five Forces" (i.e. successful, failed, potential solutions).

Develop and Refine Critical Skills

Skills for building and understanding / critical analysis.Communication skills (including computer technology)Community organizing, leadership, and action skills

Cultivate the Passion and Untap the Will to make a Difference

2. Takin5... action and Grcafinj... Ghana

Group selection of target issueGenerate project/program ideaDevelop and lead community-wide initiativeSecure feedback and evaluate results

3. Po...vme,vrtt_ Froc-occ

Reflect on and learn from complete September-June experienceShare the experience and the process with others

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Govrt-v- Suporl-c,

No-l-work.c avid A-cAoloroic.

Koc-o6i-tion

As members of the high school's flag-ship service learning organization, amajor task of the CSC students and

faculty is the dissemination and systematicintegration of service-learning projects andcurriculum throughout the high school andamong the district's fifteen elemen-tary/middle schools. In order to achievethis, the CSC classroom has been designed tofunction as a schoolwide community serviceresource center. As the school's full-timecommunity service specialist, thedirector/teacher needs the supportresources necessary to effectively

CSCand

leadthese expansive efforts. Necessary supportand resources include (but are not limitedto) telephone, fax and computer communica-tions equipment; access to printing andcopy facilities; ample filing and displayareas; and transportation/travel resources.

In addition to material supports, the CSCand its resource center must cultivate andmaintain extensive collaborations withinterested individuals from the larger com-munity in order to exist and function prop-erly. In effect, the task of the CSC is both todevelop a kind of service network within theschool and between the school and the com-munity, and insure that this network growsand prospers. Toward this end, it isextremely beneficial if the CSC students canbe led by a director/teacher who alreadyhas service contacts within the community.Building upon these contacts can then bringabout the kind of wide-spread communitysupport necessary for creating a thrivingprogram.

A final support issue related to the ServiceCorps program has to do with achieving aca-demic recognition from academic depart-ments within the high school. It is too oftenthe case that academic departments findthemselves vying for each others' (student)territory. That is, Department faculty feelthat they must maintain a certain level ofstudent registration in department-offeredcourses in order to stay viable. A drop instudent interest, some fear, may result inthe dismissal of department faculty num-bers. One unfortunate result of this type ofinterdepartmental competition is that acad-emic department heads are sometimesreluctant to award credit in their disciplineareas to courses that are taught by facultyoutside the department, or that do not comeunder the department's heading in theschool's course catalog.

- - t is hard to argue against the legitimacyof awarding social studies credit to a

service-learning course where studentsare honing their skills in social analysis,data analysis, and other research methods.However, seeing their mission as teachinghistory (especially if that mission is rein-forced by state exams), a social studiesdepartment might decide to deny credits.Where the credit issue becomes truly prob-lematical, is when students begin to feelthat the school does not recognize theimportance and academic relevance of their

3

work in the Service Corps, and thus refusesto support their efforts. Our main taskthen, in relation to this issue, has been towork extensively with academic departmentleaders and curriculum coordinators to tryto insure their continued support of theprogram. This "public relations" effortgenerally falls to the CSC director/teacherto undertake, in addition to his or her otherprogram-related/teaching duties.

The Community Service LearningProject takes a different approach tobringing service opportunities to stu-

dents. Participants in this project are actu-ally members of existing academic classesthat have been infused with a service-learn-ing component. Students in the newly-inte-grated courses receive the academic creditsoriginally offered by the class (whose pri-mary goals and objectives remain academi-cally-based). However, the added servicedimension brings students a fuller learningexperience than that offered by a tradition-

al academic class.Students develop and refine reading,writ-ing, analytical, observational and profes-sional skills through participation in com-munity service activities relevant to theiracademic studies. Upon completion of a CSLcourse, students have gained a betterunderstanding of their community and theirpotential role in it as human serviceproviders and as citizens.

Academic courses that lend themselves par-ticularly well to community service activi-ties include English or social studiescourses built around themes related to ado-lescents, law, communications and massmedia, human values, immigration, groupsin conflict,where thereappropriatetion.

etc.is afor

. . Also science classeshealth/medicine focus areservice-learning integra-

Tiqelow are just two examples of commu-nity service and career related activi-

1 ties that could be integrated intoexisting English department courses offeredat the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School:

Govrc E39

1. Sivdontc re,coarc-h and volun-foor for proAramc tha+ providBrvidancc and-cupporf for`foonarc c-oncid&rIng,_horvi,u cc-hool,'

grvo and alcohol.Sorvic-c rcla- afiivrhe.i in -ludo:

Examining research and casehistories, examining the goals andagenda of the service agency, andcollating information on successrates of participants who have leftthe program.

Developing curriculum for theadolescent program that will helpeffectively address the issues thatparticipants face as adolescents.Presenting workshops, developingcollections of appropriate readingmaterials, and making video pre-sentations are all project examples.

64

450

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2. 51-vdoni-c researchGarvlbridp Teenand --ecn Support drovpc. Sovvic.

re.lafr,d

Providing specific suggestionsas to what program changes couldbe made that would make the pro-gram more effective, and submit-ting these in proposal form.

Applying the issues these pro-grams address to characters andissues in the books read in theEnglish class, and determiningwhether these programs would havebeen adequate for the situationspresented in the literature.Finally, putting together formalsuggestions for changes in thehealth center and support groups,in relation to this analysis, andassisting in the implementation ofthese suggestions.

Govv-c 4rf,52.4Gornrvimic,a+ion and

Macc Media

1. 91vdoni-c volt/dr-or of varioucr nizalionc that work (nal or

for baitcre,d women. Service

rclafedDrawing on their direct experi-

ence at a clinic or home for bat-tered women, and through anexploration of how the media pre-sents these women, students con-duct an analysis of the power of themedia in influencing public policyand public opinion about batteredwomen. Further analysis mightextend to an exploration of theenforcement of and changes in thelaws related to this issue.

2. 51-vdc,n+c foc-vs on fundraicin5_

and on how variovc non-profitor?niz-ationS vco ft-ic media +onice ateN/DMVIC-cc and flivc

increase fundinA., Sewice relatedac-fivificc

Picking a specific organization,such as a mental health clinic, TheEaster Seals Society, or an organi-zation for non-violence, and work-ing closely with the public rela-tions coordinator to explore howthe organizations use the mediaand advertising to raise publicawareness and support. A finalproject might be the creation of anawareness campaign and its imple-mentation either at the high schoolor in the larger community.

These short examples offer a tiny glimpse into the curricular possibilities that integration of servicelearning projects into existing academic courses might offer. Development of additional ideas dependsheavily on the specific academic courses taught at a particular high school, and the willingness of aca-

demic teachers to work with a Community Service Learning project director on the integration. Clearly though,this kind of service learning approach is possible (and beneficial) for students in a large number of academ-ic classes across almost all disciplines.

The integration of community service learning into an established academic curriculum requires a very clear-ly defined job placement to be outlined and understood by both the student, teacher, and personnel at theplacement site. It also may require slight adjustments to class hours and the re-arrangement of the syllabusand course requirements.

As initiator and organizer of the project, the CSL project director works closely with teachers to provide con-nections between community agencies and the school, and to help re-evaluate and re-organize curriculum sothat the issues studied in class and the experiences in the community agency will most directly complementeach other. Responsibility for the documentation of the project also falls to this person, therefore teachersneed not view participation in the project as another huge responsibility to be added to their schedules.

65

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""If school work couldbecome more like the"real work" young peo-

ple willingly engagein, schools might dobetter at capturing theattention and alle-giance of youth."

Adria Steinberg,VIA Co-Director

WORK AS CONTEXT:Creating Opportunities forWork-Based Learning

67

ost young peopleare motivated by the idea of performing"real work" at paying jobs. Jobs loom largein the teenage mind, even though most of thejobs teenagers work involve the performanceof dull repetitive tasks that the youngemployee soon finds boring. In addition,beyond the short initial training stage, mostjobs held by teenagers offer very littleopportunity for learning. Yet, in spite ofthese shortcomings, kids do care about theirjobs. And, interestingly, students who maybe irresponsible and resistant to working inthe classroom are often extremely conscien-tious and productive in the workplace.

Creating opportunities for work-basedlearning allows a connection between schooland job site to take place, so that the studentreceives the benefits of both as learningenvironments. Students participating inschool-sponsored, work-based learninginternships are engaged, open, and willingto work at their job sites, and this more"ready attitude" generally carries over intotheir school classroom activities.

-Internships, as defined here, are notsimply job sites where students go andspend a requisite number of (during

school) hours working at tasks for whichthey possibly get paid while receiving highschool credit. In order to make an intern-ship a real opportunity for learning, theinternship definition must be broadenedand consist of:

1. Job plaeenionfc where ci+e Personnelaro involved in explorin5._ fho loarninA_potential of 1-he 1-asks Performed af vvork.,wish the ci-vdon+ inform and +eac.41&rcfrorvi the cc-hool.

At the Rindge School of Technical Arts, the college-going rate for graduating internship students is 85%.This compares favorably with the 75% rate for the corn-

2. vvork on 1-ho job ci+o +ha+ lendsitcelf to +he czniplefion of a final cAilmi-na1-in5_ projec.-+ (+ha+ dorooncfra+es learnin5)

for pre,c&nfation 1-he intern to Schooland vvork. porconnel.

5. An opportunitii for a ciplific-an+ porfion

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n order to be effective as vehicles forlearning, school-sponsored internshipsmust be comprised of three major com-

ponents: school-based activities, work-based activities and connecting activities.When properly organized these types ofinternships are able to form a more coherentwhole, for the student, from the previouslyseparate experiences of school and work.

A final benefit of the internship is its suc-cess in bringing students to more advancedprograms of study after high school. In thepast, students participating in school-spon-sored internship programs were seen as lesslikely to go on to college or any form ofpost-secondary study after graduation fromhigh school. Recent evidence shows howev-er, that students graduating from schoolafter completing an internship program likethat described above, enroll in college at ahigher proportion than students completingany other high school course of study.'

prehensive high school in Cambridge as a whole, and is far ahead ofthe 50-60% rate for students who were once solely involved in a voca-tional course of study.

68

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3. C..-arvibricIF-1-r./slui Careers in Education Internship Froff-annE.-ducal-ion and Te-ac-hin.§..

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Students in the internships spend a portion of each school day working on site, undera job supervisor. Beyond this, they participate with other interns in a high schoolteacher-led, on site seminar, for which they receive academic credit. An additionalmandatory seminar held at the high school rounds out the internship experience, forwhich students receive a total of forty credits.2

More detailed descriptions of RSTA's four internship program options follow:

finanual 5orvic,ocleorvichip Fro5.rani

r he Financial Services Internship isoffered to Cambridge high school stu-dents as a collaboration between the

high school and the Citywide YouthEmployment Office. The objective of theprogram is to provide interns actual fieldexperience in banking and related careerareas, and to integrate the interns' workexperience with classroom study.

Students in the program work, often inpairs, at local banks, credit unions, andother financial institutions while concur-rently participating in a related academic

Regular year -long academic courses at the high schoolreceive ten credits.

seminar. The seminar curriculum, devel-oped cooperatively by high school staff andthe program's banking partners, covershumanities topics as well as growth andpersonal development, and all aspects ofthe banking/financial industry. Readingsand writing selections are based around thetheme of work, the monetary system, andthe world of finance. Students keep dailyjournals, recording worksite experiences,and they complete a final project at the endof the internship year.

Students spend one half of each school dayworking in the Financial ServicesInternship Program. This time is divideddaily between seminar work and job siteduties. Students are paid a stipend for allinternship-related activities, includingtime spent in the connected seminar.

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liert-orrichip Programsimilar in structure to the FinancialServices Internship, the HarvardInternship offers students the opportu-

nity to spend one half of each school dayworking and learning on site at HarvardUniversity while receiving a paid stipend.Students keep daily journals and attend a

humanities seminar (for English and socialstudies credit) at the work site. Readings,writings and discussions revolve aroundissues related to work and industry (i.e. tradeunions and labor law, economic structures,employee-management relations, job safety,race and gender discrimination, etc. . .).

Specific work placements offered throughthe Harvard Internship are varied andinclude the Harvard motor pool, Harvarddining services, Harvard real estate, andHarvard administrative offices. Studentsare assigned to a variety of tasks that mayhave them working with computers, doinggeneral office work, monitoring and dis-patching vehicles in a busy transportationsystem, catering university events, workingon electrical, plumbing or carpentry pro-jects, and/or handling general facilitiesmaintenance problems.

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CareersThis internship program is a collabo-ration between Cambridge Rindgeand Latin school and Lesley College

in Boston, MA. It is designed as a uniquetransition between theschool, college and work.high school juniors and

worlds of highIt is open to allseniors who are

interested in working with young children.

Students participating in this internshipwork as teacher's aides for two and a halfhours, two mornings per week in a localpublic school kindergarten or first gradeclassroom. The work involves collaboratingwith an elementary teacher to create mean-ingful learning experiences for individualchildren, or small groups of young stu-dents. Near the end of the year, each stu-dent designs and implements a month-longeducation-related project with clearlydefined teaching and learning goals andobjectives, a research paper based on rele-vant professional journal readings, and asystematic method of documenting the pro-ject. The cuiminating activity is a presen-tation before a large audience that includesthe superintendent of schools, all cooperat-ing teachers, administrators of the highschool, parents, and representative staffand administrators from Lesley College.

On the three mornings per week that stu-dent interns are not working at elementaryschools, they participate in a seminar thatfocuses on early childhood development, aswell as related English and social studiestopics that connect the on-site experienceswith these academic subjects. One objectiveof the seminar is to involve students in aprocess of meta-cognition in which theythink about themselves as both learners andteachers, and may then take steps to applywhat they are learning in both the highschool and elementary school.

since another goal of this program is togive students an introduction to col-lege level work, the English class por-

tion of the seminar is taught by a LesleyCollege professor who structures the course

70

much as she would a typical college fresh-man English class, with similar expecta-tions. While this is sometimes a stretch forsome of the students, considerable supportservices are made available to them, and theexperience does prepare these high schoolstudents well for the college experience.

The Cambridge-Lesley internship programrequires students to show a high level ofresponsibility and resourcefulness.Interns take all of their seminar courses oncampus at Lesley College. They must bepresent at their elementary school place-ment sites before the children arrive, andthey must meet regularly with their cooper-ating teachers, and keep daily site logs oftheir observations. They are treated profes-sionally at their sites, and are often includ-ed in teacher conferences about individualstudents.

The Cambridge-Lesley Careers in EducationProgram creates opportunities for highschool students to combine academics withreal life experiences in an environmentwhere they must be mature, reflective, ana-lytical and creative. Rarely do studentsparticipating in the program fail to live upto these requirements and expectations.

1-toaHli

Prorarnhe Health Sciences InternshipProgram offers students an opportu-nity to work in a hospital setting

while concurrently doing coursework inAnatomy and Physiology and the Literatureof Disease and Health. An on-site hospitalHealth Sciences seminar rounds out the aca-demic portion of the program, making thisperhaps the most all-inclusive (and time-intensive) of the four RSTA internshipofferings.

Health Sciences interns are placed in a vari-ety of hospital departments including:Interpreter Services; Laboratory Pathology;Orthopedics; Radiology; Pediatrics;Pharmacy; and Human Resources. Much ofthe work that the student interns perform is

r

valuable to the hospital as well as to thestudents themselves. For example, in theHistology/Cytology (tissues and cells) Lab,interns cover, stain and file slide samples.In Orthopedics, interns assist techniciansin putting up traction beds and applyingcasts. In Radiology, interns registerpatients, schedule exams, pull x-ray jacketsfrom the film library, observe the perfor-mance of imaging procedures, andreview/critique x-ray films with qualitycontrol personnel.

tudents in the Health SciencesInternship Program do not simplystand around and watch the hospital

personnel perform their jobs. They becomepart of the health care team at the hospital,while at the same time learning about thewide range of career opportunities in thehealth care field. Students graduating fromthe program are prepared to succeed inpost-secondary education in the health andmedical areas, although some do realize,after completing the program, that these areno longer areas of career interest for them.Yet even these students are well preparedafter their internship experience, to go onsuccessfully to further study (in unrelatedfields).

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n the internship program, the main con-duit and most vital link between theschool and the workplace is the

Internship Coordinator. The Coordinatorplays an essential role in managing thelogistics of the internship program, and inmaking sure the needs of student interns,workplace managers and school personnelare being met (with respect to the intern-ship program requirements). TheCoordinator is also responsible for makinginformation about the program available tostudents within the larger high school, andfor continually seeking additional intern-ship opportunities for students, so that theprogram's offerings can be constantlyexpanded. In addition to all of this, theInternship Coordinator hosts visitors fromother school systems and from interestedbusiness and community representatives,who desire in depth information and "tours"of the program.

A second important element in making theinternships work is the ability to scheduleinternship students "out of the building"for regular large blocks of the school day.Generally this can be accomplished bybreaking student interns' school schedulesinto a morning or afternoon "internshipblock," and then allowing the other portionof the school day to be fitted with regularacademic classes that follow the school'sschedule. This type of scheduling canbecome difficult however when a school isoperating on a full-day rotating schedule,and occasionally other scheduling arrange-ments may have to be made. For example, itmay be necessary for student interns todivide their school year into a worksite halfand a full-time classes half, meaning thatfor one half of the school year interns wouldbe on-site at the workplace for the fullschool day, and then there would be a halfyear full-day of classes. Or, it may simply

become necessary to schedule all or a por-tion of a student's worksite experienceeither before or after the regular schoolday. While this type of arrangement is cer-tainly not ideal, it should still allow theconnected academic seminar piece of theinternship to be scheduled during theschool day.

Obviously, scheduling specifics will varydepending on school and worksite require-ments, but the key to making the internshipwork, in terms of scheduling, is for greatflexibility and creativity to be applied tothe scheduling process. Essentially, wehave found that it is possible to accommo-date almost any school schedule, and stillhave students at the worksite for some por-tion of the regular school day.

n often overlooked piece of theinternship picture is the socialneeds of interns as teenage high

school students. While students respondextremely well to the freedom and responsi-bility that come with an off campus place-ment, some also feel a loss at not being "reg-ular high school kids" anymore. They mayfor example, not be on campus during theschool's regular morning announcement andhomeroom period, because they are at theirworksites. This can result in students feel-ing "out of the loop" with respect to schoolsocial activities like dances and yearbookpicture taking, etc. . . Internship studentsmay also have less opportunity to partici-pate in after school activities and sports,because of a possible extra time commit-ment necessary for the completion of theirinternship work. Or, students may simplynot be able to take part in some of the regu-lar school day social activities like thelunch period, because they are off campusduring this time.

Clearly, there are choices to be made if astudent is interested in taking part in aninternship. Still, every effort should bemade by school personnel to insure thatinternship students are not left out of theimportant social experiences of high school,simply because they are off campus for aportion of the school day.

72

a

"I can't even begin to list themany things that I learnedfrom doing this. I learned tolisten to ideas, to come upwith ideas, to work individu-ally and as part of a team, tospeak in front of a large groupof people, to teach peopleabout something that can ben-efit them, to work under pres-sure, to organize, to help pre-pare a workshop, but mostimportant of all, I learnedthat for something thatseemed so far-fetched at thebeginning, and turned morethan possible at the end, inthis world, anything can bedone."

Melissa Guillen,Senior ProjectStudent

SELF-DETERMINED

LEARNING:Involve Students in Developing IndependentProjects that Have Lasting Value Beyond theClassroom and Culminate in an Assessmentby Outside Experts

73

n this chapter we will break withthe format followed throughout the preced-ing chapters of the VIA Manual, in order toshow the process of implementation forIntegration Strategy #7. For this strategy,which deals with student self-determinedlearning, we have chosen to highlight theSenior Projects Program begun at CambridgeRindge and Latin School, under the VIAgrant, in September 1995.

What follows is a detailed Study GroupReport submitted to the Cambridge,Massachusetts School Department by VIAco-director Adria Steinberg in June 1996.The report recounts the steps taken towardimplementation of Senior Projects at thehigh school, the activities of studentsinvolved in the program, important mile-stones and target dates related to the com-pletion of student work, and overall reflec-tions on the entire process.

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En September of 1995, a group of admin-istrators and teachers began meeting todiscuss the feasibility of giving seniors

at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School theopportunity to participate in doing a SeniorProject. As a process that combines stu-dent-centered inquiry and research withthe development of product(s) that areshared with an authentic audience, theSenior Project seemed like an ideal culmina-tion of four years of high school. We feltthat this type of experience would be ofvital importance to students as they pre-pared for the transition to life after highschooland the various combinations ofwork and learning in which they might findthemselves.

Nationally, over one-half of the studentswho begin college do not complete it withina six year period. The majority of those wholeave do so within the first six months.Although we do not have good follow-up dataon graduates from CRLS, many of us fear thatour students are no exception, that the col-lege-going plans of June turn into a searchfor full-time employment by January.

everal of us on the Senior Project com-mittee had been involved in the devel-opment of the CRLS school-to-career

internships. We had experienced first-hand how valuable it was for students tocarry out major projects, using the worksiteas a context for their investigations, relyingon a seminar of their peers as a support net-work, and using their supervisors as theaudience for the presentation of their work.We wondered if it would be possible toreplicate important aspects of this experi-ence outside of the context of a school-to-career program.

We had seen from our internship programsthat work settings provide a context for stu-

dents to practice and develop "learning tolearn" skills in such vital areas as informa-tion gathering and analysis, problem posingand solving, data analysis, report writing,and oral presentation. Although many of usat CRLS believe in the importance of suchskills, traditionally structured classroomssimply do not afford enough opportunitiesfor modeling and teaching them. The seniorproject seemed like an ideal vehicle forreinforcing such skills.

ifn writing about the graduation portfolioprocess at the highly acclaimed CentralPark East Secondary School in NYC,

Linda Darling Hammond and JacquelineAncess, articulate the tremendous value toyoung people of delving deeply into issuesthat they care about and then sharing thatwork with others: "Being told by respectedcolleagues precisely why and how one'swork is interesting, valued, and understoodis a confidence-building and competence-building experience for any of us, and onemost teenagers rarely encounter."

We also saw the value of Senior Projects as aform of alternative assessment. AsTheodore Sizer of the Coalition of EssentialSchools has written, exhibitions such as theSenior Project "elicits proof both of the stu-dent's understanding and of some imagina-tive capabilityit serves at once as evalua-tive agent and expressive tool."

We decided to meet on a weekly basis, set-ting ourselves the challenge of designing asenior project experience that would makeuse of the best feature of the internshipprojects and yet be available to any studentin the high school. When the MassachusettsDepartment of Education offered a requestfor proposals for district study groupgrants, we saw this as the perfect opportu-nity to intensify our work.

Rather than spending the 1995-96 schoolyear planning how to implement CRLS SeniorProjects in the Fall of 1996. we decided toengage in a form of "action research"pilot-ing CRLS Senior Projects as we continued todesign them. using what we learned to reviseand modify our plans. Perhaps the simplestway to describe this is as a "Ready. Fire.Aim," approach to program design.

9-velii Group Ar,-1-iv ifioc/Frocx,cc

0 nee we were assured of a study groupgrant. we began the process of lettingseniors know that they could elect to

do a Senior Project during the second semes-ter of the 1995-96 school year. We held ourfirst meeting with interested seniors inmid-December. The action phase of ourstudy group had begun. From early Januarythrough late May. the study group met atleast once each week. After an initial"hunting and gathering" effort, to findmaterials developed by other schools, webegan to design the materials for students,mentors, seminar leaders and panelists. Wealso used our meetings to assess how thingswere going and to make necessary adjust-ments in our plan.

The study group meetings were vital tokeeping us on track throughout the designand evaluation process. The convener/chairof the study group was Adria Steinberg, theAcademic Coordinator of the Rindge Schoolof Technical Arts. who had been one of theconceptualizers of the RSTA internship pro-grams. From January to June, the member-ship of the study group included: the threeteachers who were leading Senior Projectseminars, one teachers who was serving as amentor, one staff member from a local non-profit agency who was leading a SeniorProject seminar for four students doing agroup projectLanguage Artsthe Assistant

on immigrant rights, theCoordinator for Cambridge.Principal of CRLS for

Curriculum and Instruction, and theDramatic Arts Coordinator for Cambridge.Cheryl Almeida. an outside consultantattended most study group meetings as a

documentor/ evaluator.

/Ai le,c-Vone,s

1) Studer* expres interectm waling.

We did a broad outreach to all seniorsin the high school. By early January,we had received written expressionsof interest from 38 students.

2) Seminar 5rovpin5s are formed.

Our expectation was that all of thestudents interested in doing seniorprojects would be placed in a seminarwith 8-10 of their peers. This provedto be-a,very problematic requirement,especially since the Senior Projectseminar had not been built into theschedule when students originallysigned up for the courses they wouldtake for this period. By late Januarywhen the-second semester began; only14 of the initial group of interestedstudents could find a way to fit a sem-inar into their schedules. (8 took usup on an offer of after-school semi-nars in order to be part of SeniorProjects).

3. Stick- is

Our expectation was that every stu-dent would have an adult mentor whowould meet with the student on a reg-ular basis to help guide the student'swork. We encouraged students tochoose someone they knew with aninterest and, hopefully. expertise inthe subject area of their project. Ifthey did not know such a person, wewould help to match them with anappropriate mentor. In most cases.students did come up with their ownmentors. Several students had morethan one mentor, relying, for exam-ple. on a teacher for ongoing supportand then occasionally meeting withsomeone with special expertise. A

member of the senior project commit-tee helped match the four studentswho did a project on immigrant rightswith law students at NortheasternUniversity.

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31-

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proposak arc dvc.

Students brought a draft of a projectproposal with them to the first meet-ing with their mentor and to theirfirst seminar meeting. Over the nextseveral weeks they helped one anoth-er and received help from their men-tors in revising these proposals.Typed, final proposals were dueshortly thereafter.

5) 5tvdcnic carrii ovt the invirt1and action phascs of the przjccf.

Once the proposal was approved, weexpected students to begin doing theproject with the help of their mentorsand with the help of their peers in theseminar. (Several students ended upnot being able to join a seminar, anddid the project just with the help oftheir mentors). All students knewthat in addition to whatever experi-ential or "hands on" components theirproject might have, they were expect-ed to produce an inquiry paper, inwhich they described the question orproblem with which they began, whatthey learned about this issue, andhow their work connected with workdone by other people in this field.They were also to keep a journal asthey went about doing their projectsso that, at the end, they could write areflection paper that would tell thestory of how they went about doingtheir projects and what they learnedabout themselves as learners in theprocess.

6) Ina r>7 and Kcfle,c,-1-ion paper arcdue.

As students entered the final phasesof writing and revising their papers,we asked them to think about theirwork in relation to four broad cate-gories: purpose, findings, reflection,and communication. Specifically, weencouraged them to be as clear as pos-sible about their reasons for doingthe project; to identify a coherent setof findings; to tell the story of their

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projects and analyze what theylearned about learning; and to pre-sent their work in a way that wouldhighlight its strengths and wouldobserve the conventions of writtenand oral communication. In the sem-inar, students shared drafts of theirpapers. They also received copies ofthe guidelines that went out to projectreview panelists.

51vdartc cliccuss flicir workwith a pawl of advisors and clerk.

Each student presented/discussedhis/her work with a panel of interest-ed people. Members of the panelreceived the papers students hadwritten, along with a feedback form,several days before the panel. Ourexpectation was that the panels wouldinclude the seminar teacher (as con-vener), the mentor(s), and additionalsubject area experts or friends orfamily whom the student wanted toinvite. We tried to keep the panels tono more than seven people. The pur-poses of the panel were to provide areal audience for students' work; togive students an opportunity toengage in conversation about theirwork with adults; and to give studentsfeedback on the strengths of the workas well as on aspects that needed fur-ther development. The format for thepanel was for the student to beginwith a 15-20 minute presentation ofthe work, followed by about 20 min-utes of panel response, and finally bya closing statement from the student.Then panelists took an additional 5-10 minutes to complete their assess-ment /feedback forms.

5) 9vdcyrfc prcccni- ID an avdcnr...cof parcn-tc, I-caciicrc, and fricndc.

On May 23, all of the students whodid Senior Projects came together topresent their projects to one anotherand to invited teachers, friends, andfamily. Each student took about 15minutes to describe their project,using audio visual aids to enhance thepresentation.

77

What Wo 1,oarvioci1. Our "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to doing a study group had some very positive outcomes. The

pressure of having students actually engaged in doing projects made the study group veryproductive and efficient. Because students, mentors, and seminar teachers were all relyingon us, we had to develop curricular materials quickly and become clear as to our intentions,definitions, and expectations.

2. The students who had the most successful experiences doing Senior Projects shared somecharacteristics, including:

- They came to the work with a passion or a mission (and were, in most cases, not simplydoing it for the 5 English credits that were being offered).

- They already had a relationship with the mentor they chose, and/or were in a program orcourse that provided a context for the independent work.

3. Most students felt that they were not prepared by previous academic work to do major inde-pendent work such as a Senior Project, and they found the experience of doing a SeniorProject to be harder than they expected it to be.

if. Most students felt the experience was extremely worthwhile and would choose it again, evenknowing how much work it was.

S. All of the students learned things they did not expect to learn. When asked to specify whatthey learned from doing Senior Projects, most students brought up both the new content andskills they acquired and their deepening understanding of themselves as learners.

6. The Senior Project curriculum and criteria we developed worked equally well for individualand team projects.

7. The Senior Project curriculum and criteria we developed worked equally well for projectsbased on student artistic expression (e.g. dance performance), for projects centering aroundan academic study (e.g. research on black achievement), and for projects based on work orvolunteer experience (e.g. teaching in an elementary school classroom).

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What We (confinvocl)

B. Mentors wanted and needed additional orientation and support.

9. Students identified three qualities that are important for a mentor to have: expertise in thecontent/skills called for in the project; willingness to be accessible; openness to developinga relationship with the student.

10. Panels were most productive when at least one member of the panel was an outside personwith expertise in a domain related to the project.

11. The distinction between the inquiry paper and the reflection paper was not always clear tostudents or to panel members.

17.. Students needed more help (and more time) preparing to present their work, both to thepanel and the larger exhibition audience. Most made improvements (e.g. additional audio-visual aids) between the panel and the larger exhibition.

15. The roles of the seminar teacher and mentor overlapped somewhat, but also had distinctiveaspects. Students generally viewed the seminar teacher as the person who kept them on task,moving along at the necessary pace, and the person to whom they looked for feedback on thewritten products. They looked to the mentor for help with the research design and with someof the content aspects of the project.

14. Seminar teachers found that they needed to be available to students outside of the seminartime, and to be very aware of the differing levels of support and assistance needed by dif-ferent students.

Nort- Sfffoc

1he Senior Project study group contin-ued to meet to complete the cycle ofevaluation and planning. By the end

of the school year they had created a seriesof recommendations for expanding theSenior Project program in 1996-97. Theyalso worked on documenting the 1995-96year's projects. In addition to students'written work, the documentation includesvideo footage of one panel, and of the finalexhibition. Plans are under way to makeslides of some of the visual work producedby students. All of these materials shouldbe available as exemplars for next year'sstudents.

At this point, the Senior Project seminar ison the master school schedule for 1996-97.This should help to alleviate the schedulingdifficulties experienced during 1995-96.

79

Many important questions remain to beworked out. Among these are the following:

What will be the duration of the Seminar(and of the projects)? In 1995-96, stu-dents were expected to do a Senior Projectin a semester. Will there also be anoption to spend most of the year doing aproject?

How will we get time with the mentors toprovide them with support and training?

How will we ensure that the seminarteachers have a weekly time (like thestudy group) to make curricularadjustments/improvements and to sharestudent work?

How can we ensure that students whoneed it get enough support from an adultwith whom they have a relationship?

How can we get more people with domainexpertise involved as mentors and pan-elists?

What incentives will help students tomake the decision to participate in thisprogram?

If Senior Projects remain an ungradedexperience, what formats/descriptionscan we design to communicate projectdesign and project quality to the stu-dents, their parents, their futurecolleges or employers, the schooldistrict?

final Tilovgjerf-c

reviously, the internship programstaught us the value (to students) ofmeeting regularly in small seminars

in which students could help one another todevelop and carry out complex multi-stepprojects. Our challenge now is to providethis type of experience and support for allstudents, not just those involved in intern-ships. In addition, we want to give all stu-dents the opportunity to learn to work

together in a seminar setting. Toward thisend, we feel the Senior Project frameworknaturally lends itself to accomplishingthese goals.

As to the usefulness of this approach inpreparing students for learning after highschool, we feel that although the emphasis incollege is still very much on individualachievement, there is evidence that peer sup-port can also be a very important factor inschool success. Particularly for "nontradi-tional" students, that is, students whose

\\

backgrounds make it unusual for them to bein college, participation in study circles isassociated with higher grades and highercompletion rates. Clearly teamwork is animportant feature, not just in high perfor-mance work organizations, but in the academ-ic world as well.

nologywork.many

final point on the benefit of SeniorProjects deals with technology,specifically, the ability to use tech-appropriately both in school and atIn an attempt to prepare students,

schools now require a technologicalproficiency "exam" to be added as a gradua-tion requirement. Too often, this comes downto students learning to keyboard, using oldequipment and outdated software. No matterhow hard high schools try to keep up withadvancing technologies, students are morelikely to encounter and master sophisticatedhardware, software and other new tools in theworkplace, and/or while trying to solve realworld problems (as opposed to simply tryingto pass a standard technology test). Studentsengaged in Senior Projects are much more

motivated to overcome the technologicalhurdles that lie in the path of their achieve-ment of their project goals. The interest andwillingness of these students is similar tothat of internship students who must solvetechnological problems in their worksites.

In an assessment of his Senior Projectexperience, one student recently offeredthe following list of new skills he had

acquired:

. . I'm learning new computer skillswhich will be very helpful in busi-ness. I've learned how to make aspreadsheet and how to use that infor-mation to find a new vendor. I learnedhow to compare vendors and am moreaware of how they are selected. . . I'vealso learned a lot of skills in terms ofbeing aware of how offices are man-aged and learning the different jobsthat people have."

e envisioned the Senior Project as aculminating experience of fouryears of high school. It was an

opportunity for students to delve deeplyinto something, to produce something ofvalue, and to present this work to others.Our goals were largely realized, through aprocess that combined student-centeredinquiry and research, and the developmentof products) that were shared with anauthentic audience.

81

82

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To obtain more detailed information about any of the projects, programs or curricula highlight-ed in the VIA manual, please direct inquiries to the appropriate contact people listed below:

Infrocive-tiom: he VIA &wavri-

Larry RosenstockThe Big Picture118 Magazine StreetCambridge, MA 02139

Telephone: (617) 492-5335

Gliarfor 1: C-i-hporkc

David StephenThe Big Picture118 Magazine StreetCambridge, MA 02139

Telephone: (617) 492-6066

Adria SteinbergJobs For the Future1 Bowdoin Sq.Boston, MA

Telephone: (617) 742-5995

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Manny GoncalvesCRLS RSTA459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

Telephone (617) 349-6751

Ghap+or itirnam 51-velioc Tirnoc of Ow Lives Frod.Tamara BermanCRLS RSTA459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6765

Vinny FinnCRLS FUNDAMENTAL459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6680

V.S. Immi +ion Tlirov5h Video Froduc,fiom

Debbie AndelmanCRLS- BILINGUAL459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6661

David Stephen(see above)

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74 83

Gharfor Irtiabc Gender T&cAinoloyi Gender

Francesca Bichisecchi Tony RussoCRLS-RSTA CRLS-RSTA459 Broadway 459 BroadwayCamridge, MA 02138 Cambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6751 Telephone: (617) 349-6751

6,11aptor 4: 111-1-yo to -1c,Irmologrti

Roy Carter Serafim da CunhaCRLS-RSTA CRLS-RSTA459 Broadway 459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138 Cambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6751 Telephone: (617) 349-6751

6,atrbriel Ovtlt (CFO)Tom Hsu10 Green StreetWoburn, MA 01801

Telephone: 1- (800) 932-5227

C,hapi-or GaviTi:1 SVAAW 60114 SewiwJohn SheaShea Laurie BurnettCRLS-RSTA 8 Warren Rd.459 Broadway Stowe, MA 01775Cambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6769 Telephone: (508) 965-1487

Ghat/I-or 6: KSTA Garer Infiernchip Fro ram

Maria FerriCRLS-RSTA459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138

Telephone: (617) 349-6751

C-hap-I-or 7: Senior FroicA-c

Adria Steinberg(see above)

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