Winter 2017

Young Scholars: A Model for Success Giving Underrepresented Students Access, Affirmation and Advocacy in Advanced Academics.

When asked to describe what it was like to be in a challenging classroom, a student once said, “It’s like a room with tall

ceilings and a soft carpet. You can rise as high as you can but if you fall the landing is soft.” This summer Dogwood ES

ran two summer programs – one was the Young Scholars Summer School and the other was the 21st Century Girls Pro-

gram, a STEM program for girls in grades 4 - 6. Overall 100 students , between the two Problem-Based Learning pro-

grams, were served. Six teachers took on the challenge of learning more about problem-based learning from curriculum

design to delivery. It was a chance for the teachers and students to rise as high as they could but land softly if they fell.

The teachers used curriculum from the Jason Project and the

Chesapeake Bay unit in the AAP framework, organizing it

around a driving question. What can we as environmentalists

do to keep our local watershed clean? The students

were hooked when they saw the effect of pollution on wildlife.

They saw first-hand on a field trip to our local pond and col-

lected evidence using smartphones, water samples, and de-

bris to analyze back in the classroom. They saw for them-

selves the devastating affect that pollution has on people,

plants, and animals. Many questions popped up like “Why do

people throw trash away without thinking?” “How does all this

trash get here?” “Is there a way we can help?”

Danielle Wynne, an ecologist, from Fairfax County Govern-

(Continued on page 2)

Finding Solutions with Problem-based Learning

by Linda Martin, AART Dogwood ES

Winter 2017

ment, was the science expert in residence. She helped

inform us of how trash blows into gutters, streams, and

ponds and eventually ends up in the bay and our ocean.

She showed us the efforts that some are making to stop

this from happening. Ms. Wynne listened to students talk

about their solutions and gave them advice on their ap-

proach to the problem.

On the instructional resource side, Dogwood principal,

Mie Devers, assigned Linda Martin, the Advanced Aca-

demics Resource Teacher to be the PBL coach to guide

teachers through the PBL process. Mrs. Devers estab-

lished a day in August for the staff of six to get back to-

gether to reflect and plan next steps. She gave them the

time to work together to develop a new unit to be used their classrooms when school began again. Since then, two fourth

and sixth grade teachers created a PBL unit to help students engage in their learning around the United States Constitu-

tion. Their team members took on the PBL unit, too. Another teacher extended the fifth grade landforms unit so that stu-

dents could see the relationship of erosion and flooding in places like Baton Rouge, LA and even in Reston where

streambed erosion is a becoming a big problem for homeowners and businesses. PBL is gradually growing as a result of

the teachers getting the chance to try it out in the summer pro-

grams and share their learning with their teams this fall.

As the teachers communicated their learning to their teams, the

students shared out as a part of the process. They formed col-

laborative groups to present solutions to the problem of water

pollution. Each group presented their ideas – some thought

their ideas could best be shared in an entertaining and informa-

tive puppet show, others prepared a PowerPoint with photos

from our field trips and evidence from the science investiga-

tions they did. Others prepared a step by step citizen action

plan and shared that with the parents and students. Overall

the importance of communication and sharing a message was

key to the PBL process.

As a result of this summer’s thoughtful plan to experiment and

investigate through PBL, students and teachers alike feel em-

powered to make changes with what they have learned. They

each have been given license to make a difference and to

solve problems. When PBL is used to solve real-world prob-

lems, positive and powerful changes can occur.

(Continued from page 1)

Winter 2017

This summer students at Holmes Middle School were fortunate to participate in the Make Mu-

sic Counts program, a mathematics curriculum taught through playing the piano. Each day of our

summer program, a college student employed by MMC came to our school and instructed the stu-

dents for one hour in both math and music, relating the

two disciplines in a fun and engaging way for our students.

Our students had access to small, personal keyboards

and their own songbook full of popular songs. Students

used algebraic concepts to decode the notes to each

song, and then were able to check their mathematical un-

derstandings by playing the notes that their mathematical

computations generated. Students could literally hear

whether or not their solutions were correct, and were ea-

ger to correct any errors they may have made, so that they

could successfully play each song.

MMC’s founder, Marcus Blackwell Jr., also stopped

by throughout our program to work with the students and talk about the value and relevancy of music

and mathematics to our lives. Many students initially felt hesitant about starting the program, feeling

unsure of either their math or musical skills, but after the first session, the students were instantly

hooked! The program is designed for all students to be successful and the look of pride and accom-

plishment were evident on our students’ faces

from the very first time they successfully per-

formed a song they had solved and learned to

play. We concluded our MMC program this sum-

mer with a final concert, featuring their own perfor-

mances of Katy Perry, Fetty Wap, and Ke$ha

songs, showcasing the hard work and dedication

students put in throughout their summer. The

Make Music Counts program was a valuable ex-

perience for our students resulting in increasing

our students’ engagement in math, reinforcing

mathematical concepts and foundations for alge-

bra, as well as sparking interest and developing

the talents of Holmes’ finest new musicians!

Make Music Count

By Meredith Mitchell Holmes Middle School

Winter 2017

Developing globally minded citizens is our mission at Belvedere.

I attended Harvard University’s Project Zero conference this fall,

discussing the need for learning that is long lasting, matters to

students and is relevant. I used this inspiration to drive my

focus for my 5th grade Young Scholars group. We have spent

the year on current events and social justice issues that they

found interesting and inspiring them to take action. This has cre-

ated a group of students who see themselves as kids who live

in, care about and are inspired to change the world.

Our most recent project from the Obama Foundation looks to

hear from everyday citizens about what projects it should devel-

op. I used this as the crux for our next unit for the 5th grade

Young Scholars. To kick off the unit the Young Scholars worked

on concept maps. The concepts we focused on were action, citizenship, inspiration, and community. Students work on de-

veloping their understandings and ideas around the four concepts.

The next step was to watch “Pass the Mic” on the Obama Foundation website. (https://www.obama.org/) The students were awestruck by the video and requested to view it multiple times. Academic conversation ensued and students focused on the following two questions:

What do you think makes a good citizen?

We are inspired by everyday citizens making a dif-ference in communities across the globe.

Who inspires you?

By Ellen Rogers , AART Belvedere ES

Pick up the Mic

Winter 2017

At Belvedere all 5th graders must work on a capstone project that involves organizing and taking action. The Obama Foun-

dation project is a great way to get them thinking about citizens and how they create change in their communities. The

Young Scholars are motivated by the project and even ask to work on it during their free time. Young Scholar Valeria put it

best...

“Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”

Winter 2017

The Young Scholars program offers a platform for educators to enrich a

population of children who show potential but might lack a paved road to-

wards their future. This summer, 18 rising 4th-6

th grade Young Scholars

walked back into the classroom at Crestwood Elementary School. They

did so with the intention of learning and having fun with the underlying

theme of engineering. The AAP department equips us with the knowledge

to teach curriculum designed to target critical and creative thinking, and the

flexibility to fill the rest of the time with intentional instruction. Support is

provided in the form of student volunteers: Thomas Jefferson STEMbassa-

dors. These volunteers have brought an aspect to the summer program

that has given our students the opportunity to learn something above and

beyond what we were set to accomplish.

Fortunately, we were provided with two computer science STEMbassadors, eager to fulfill my request to teach coding to our

children. Through the use of Scratch programming language, students spent an hour every day using block coding to create

games. The activities were outlined by Google’s CS-First, with daily lessons that built upon each other. Students learned to

set their story, change their “sprites” (“flurbs” for those who use code.org), race, add platforms, create mazes, and plan the

amazing escape. These activities coupled nicely with the theme of engi-

neering and the plethora of design challenges we executed daily.

Why coding?

No one will argue that education has shifted dramatically with the use of

technology. As our children surpass us in its use, few know how it actu-

ally works, making it more critical to teach a population of children al-

ready one step behind the rest. Similar to any engineering design chal-

lenge, students must create, fail, problem solve, and sometimes, start

over. This resilience and critical thinking is helping our Young Scholars

become FCPS’ Portrait of a Graduate.

References

Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/) is a computer programming language, designed as blocks for kid friendly use.

Google (https://www.cs-first.com) uses the Scratch language, in a club environment were “gurus” are provided with clear cut

activities under different themes ranging from Storytelling, Fashion and Design, Sports, Animation, and Game Design, to

name a few.

Code.org (https://code.org/) another computer programming language designed for use in schools. They even offer local,

free classes for educators and a plethora of “unplugged” activities to ignite conceptual knowledge of programming. The

“unplugged” activities enables even schools with limited computer access to bridge that gap and prepare our students for a

career in programming.

STEMbassadors’ Create Coders Out of Crestwood Elementary Young Scholars

By Christina Weber Crestwood ES

Please speak to your SBTS to make sure you adhere to FCPS rules and regulations on using technology

in the classroom.

Winter 2017

Technology is everywhere. Sometimes we feel that it has a mind of its own as we struggle to make it work. For even the

youngest of our Young Scholars it is a way to connect with the world if they have access at home. That’s why the Provi-

dence Elementary Young Scholars Summer Program looks for opportunities to immerse our students in the digital world of

collaboration.

Exploring Wetlands was our overall theme for the summer. With the Young Scholars rotating through three classrooms. For

one hour each day they immersed themselves in discussions of Geometry, Wetlands, and Technology.

With wetland studies and math as the driving forces, technology became the tool by which the students would explain their

thinking. Each morning the students would use Google Classroom or FCPS 24/7 (Blackboard) to answer a prompt from the

teachers about their learning from the previous day. Throughout the program they would create or upload pictures about

their understanding of wetlands and would comment on the posts of other learners.

Based on the age of the group they would use technology in different ways to solve the given problem of the day or to cre-

ate digital projects.

With rising 1st and 2

nd graders just learning the basics of keyboarding, their task was to create a digital scrapbook of the

plants and animals found in Virginia wetlands. In addition to that project the 3rd

and 4th graders were additionally tasked

with creating a Scratch 2.0 project that would teach younger students about our wetlands. As a part of their capstone pro-

ject the 5th and 6

th graders were given the task of programming Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots to simulate the cleaning up of

wetlands after a pollution spill.

During our final week the 1st and 2

nd graders had their chance to learn about programming robots through the use of

Scratch and Lego WeDo robots, excited to show their parents all their new skills. For the upper grades we had a visit from

the Project CodeT students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. They helped the students

learn how to make their own web pages using CSS coding and online resources. All this technology for these digital natives

has made them request more during the school year.

By Alan Borhauer , AART Providence ES

Digital Natives

Winter 2017

I’ve used Socratic Seminar many times as a classroom teacher and as an AART. It wasn’t until the end of last year, that I realized how much MORE Socratic Seminar can be; especially for English Language Learners, Young Scholars, and students in primary grades.

At the end of the 2015-2016 school year, I began collaborating with Joanne Warner, a Kindergarten teacher at Bailey’s ES. She was enthusiastic about planning and implementing Socratic Seminar in her classroom but wanted to change the format to include Arts Integration strategies. Our student popula-tion at Bailey’s is diverse and unique. We made changes to the Socratic Seminar format based on our students’ needs as learners and previous experiences in and outside of school.

After many hours of discussion and refining our goals/desired outcomes for the seminar, we came up with a wonderful format. This link takes you to a Google Docu-ment that explains the format. You must be an FCPS teacher to access the link. There is a four day progression to our integration of So-cratic Seminar and the Arts. First we introduce the idea of questioning. Next we read the passage and make mean-ing of the text and vocabulary through dramatization. On day three we ask “thick” questions about the passage and on day four we have our Socratic seminar using academic conversation to discuss literature at deep

Why Socratic Seminar + Arts Integration works:

The Arts Integration approach provided students with the opportunity to build back-ground knowledge at a deeper level.

Teacher modeling of questioning tech-niques helped students better understand ex-pectations and routines.

A Dramatic Approach to Socratic Seminar

By Sara Quesenbery AART, Bailey’s Elementary School for the Arts

Winter 2017

Students demonstrated a clearer understanding of the vocabulary, especially English Language

Using creative movement to explore cause and effect scenarios increased student engagement and participation as well as motivation and ownership of the story.

Arts Integration naturally incorporates:

Critical and Creative Thinking skills

Active learning with authentic problems for students to solve

Engagement of multiple intelligences/learning preferences

Various forms to assess student learning

Opportunities for students to revise and improve their ideas/work Although Socratic Seminar is extremely meaningful alone, incorporating an Arts Integration approach provided students a with a deeper understanding of the text and a more cooperative learning environ-ment. Socratic Seminar + Arts Integration extended the learning experiences of all students by offer-ing them the opportunity to connect art forms with academic content. This is a powerful experience for our Young Scholars. They have the access to deeper thinking, their ideas are confirmed or challenged through conversation and they can consider multiple points of view.