Session 3 Week 2 in Review

Elementary Studio

This week in Quest learners developed skills for making inferences. After completing a variety of inference activities, learners were able to create their own for their peers to complete! I decided to complete them as well! Learners chose to create a murder mystery dinner that included a hidden code, a variety of guess-the-occupation questions, and inferring details by looking at a picture. It’s only the second week of Session three but the Elementary learners are really getting the hang of the Detectives Quest! They’ve improved so much with their activities in just a week's time. I can only imagine what they’ll create next week. Stay tuned!In Civilization, their alien scientist continued learning about the Swahili coast by diving deeper into the Swahili merchant culture. Learners researched at least three objects with a partner that could be traded between Swahili and another country. After conducting research, they made prototypes of each item and began negotiating trades for each item. While negotiating, they had to consider the exchange rate, when it was necessary to walk away from negotiating, if their items were considered to be of equal value, and what a successful trade might look like. During share outs, we engaged in a juicy debate regarding which items were considered equal value and why!In Story Arts, we began Speechmaking! Joseph Sojourner introduced us to the curriculum by helping the learners brainstorm their own unique interests. During their work time, they brainstormed things they love and things that bother them. Next, they reviewed their notes and selected a topic they'd like to develop further into an inspirational speech. Lastly, they paired up with a partner to think deeply about their choices to determine if the topic was a good fit for an inspirational speech.

Middle School Studio

Week 2 was another busy week in the Middle School Studio! It usually takes a week or so to get back into the routine after a break, so this week was really getting back into the groove for Session 3! Morning Launches were definitely the highlight this week in our Studio. We had launches on the foreshadowing storytelling technique, Circles, preparing questions for our visiting Story Arts expert, an expert visit from YouTube Creator Paddy Doyle, and one on social capital and how we can leverage apprenticeships to gain social capital.In Quest we continued on with Crime Scene Forensics with the HS Studio. Learners explored a library of videos on how DNA evidence is collected from crime scenes and handled, and wrote outlines of the proper collection procedures. Wednesday and Friday, learners used their newfound knowledge of DNA evidence to go through a virtual crime scene, evaluating evidence, matching DNA samples to suspects, determining the murder weapon, and ultimately convicting the murderer. Learners worked in investigative teams to complete the evaluations, and valuable lessons were learned about how to best work collaboratively in the online environment!In Civ this week, we began our Civilizations in the Middle Ages badge, which focuses on civilizations and empires that were at their peak in the eastern hemisphere during the Middle Ages. Much of history from that time focuses on Europe, so it was fascinating for us to begin exploring some lesser known civilizations from the East. We began with the Swahili Coast Empire. After a launch that explored some existing ruins from this empire, learners researched different aspects of the empire and then created a one-pager including information they learned. A one-pager is a mix of text, photos, drawing, etc. that displays learning in a visual way. Learners created some really artistic one-pagers about the Swahili Coast Empire!We continued our YouTube Creator Story Arts this week by hearing from YouTuber Paddy Doyle, who has a travel channel in Asia with over 113,000 subscribers. He spent 45 minutes with us answering all kinds of questions about YouTube, editing, monetization, and creating original content. Several learners also shared their YouTube channel pages with Paddy, and he gave them constructive feedback on what they could improve to make their channels stand out. Well done to Maggie for getting a rave review of her channel art! Later that day, learners put what they learned from Paddy to use by creating a title and thumbnail image that they will upload with their finished video. Video titles and thumbnails are the first thing potential viewers see, and really need to stand out among other videos with similar content! Learners thought through what content they will include in their video, and played with different words and phrases to make their title both easily searchable and intriguing enough for viewers to click. Next they created their thumbnail, putting thought into how it enhanced the title they came up with, and what scene from their video they wanted to highlight. Next week, they will reverse engineer their video storyboard from their title and thumbnail image!

High School Studio

Week 2 of Session 3 was another busy week in the High School Studio. We enjoyed not one, not two, but three learner-led Socratic Launches this week during our Morning Launch time. Learners who led launches are working their way toward their Socratic Leader badge, and practicing their facilitation and presentation skills. We heard from Joshua about fitness and exercise, cinematography from Andres, and how music affects our emotions from Taina. Thursday morning saw us in our school-wide Town Hall session, where our Chair and Vice Chair led the school through the self-governance process, and a variety of new clubs were proposed. On Friday morning, the Morning Launch focused on social capital and the apprenticeship requirement, to get the wheels turning about how networking and apprenticeships can enhance learners’ social capital.We continued our joint Forensics Quest with the Middle School Studio this week, focusing on fingerprinting, DNA testing, and crime scene investigation. After reviewing some introductory resources and videos, learners worked together in small groups to review photographs and footage from a fake crime scene, and make their assessments about what had happened. This practice will prove useful for the upcoming exhibition project which will call on similar skills.In Civilization this session, the high school studio is examining the phenomenon of conspiracy theories. Lessons include a deep dive into the psychology and sociology of conspiracy theories, with topics such as group think, critical thinking, and media literacy examined and discussed. By the end of this unit, learners will have practice critically examining media sources and using persuasive techniques to argue against misinformation in the media. We began this week by researching common conspiracy theories, and what faulty evidence is used to reinforce them.Our Public Speaking Story Arts unit continued with more brainstorming and research; learners zeroed in on the topic that they will write their 3-5 minute speech about, and used class work time to research and begin mapping out content for their speeches, including what main takeaways they want listeners to leave with, and what actions they hope the audience will take after hearing their speech. In our Socratic discussion, we talked about how to get an audience to care about a topic, how to use persuasive language in written and verbal forms, and how to begin getting more comfortable with persuasive speaking. After sharing their work with their peers, learners left the lesson with a loose outline of their speeches, which will be written next week. On top of all of this, running partners and check-ins continued as always, making for a busy week in the High School Studio!