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Middle Grade Engagement: Experiential Learning for Real-Life College and Career Readiness Skills

“The most lasting learning comes through direct experience and interaction with the intellectual, social, and physical environments.”

(Active Learning in the Middle Grades, 2015)

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Introduction

Engaging Practices

Inquiry Process

Project-Based Learning

Experiential Learning

Career and College Connections

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

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Young Learner in Action

(Maya Penn: Meet a Young Entrepreneur, Cartoonist, Designer, Activist TEDWomen 2013_http://www.ted.com/talks/maya_penn_meet_a_young_entrepreneur_cartoonist_designer_activist)

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Inquiring Minds

Elements of Powerful Learning

• Student-Centered – aligned with student interests, needs, assets, lives

• Ownership – empowered to shape own learning outcomes; autonomy, voice, leadership

• Experiential – real-world authentic experiences; relevant, interactive, thought-provoking

• Out of Comfort Zone – students take risks outside of established areas of competence

• Multifaceted Support – formal and informal support systems; engaging and supportive

learning environment, community resources, tapping into peer cohorts and peer learning

• Reflective – review of experiences, contemplate successes and challenges, growth mindset

(Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents, 2014)

Young teens learn best when they feel positive about the learning process, experience strong connections with others, and perceive value in the task.

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Inquiring Minds

Elements of Powerful Learning

• Teachers treat knowledge as something to be constructed, investigated, and disputed.

• Teachers model open-ended inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, and processes for solving non-routine problems.

• Teachers set up instruction so students learn to collaborate with and lead peers in productive ways.

• Students set personal learning goals in the context of authentic real-world tasks.

(A New Era of Education Reform: Preparing All Students for Success in College, Career and Life, 2010)

Students are more likely to develop motivation, perseverance, and self-regulation when given opportunities to become self-directed learners,

and when they are provided instruction responsive to their individual needs.

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Inquiring Minds

Elements of Powerful Learning

(Glen Waverley Secondary College 21st Century Skills, 2016) (P21 Framework for 21st Century Learning, 2016)

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Inquiring Minds

The Inquiry Process

1. Question – ponder ideas; connect interests, prior knowledge, real world

2. Plan – decide on driving question, make predictions, plan approach, gather resources

3. Investigate – research, experiment, produce

4. Report – analyze and interpret findings, share and explain results

5. Reflect – review learning process; consider new questions; apply knowledge

(Teaching and Learning Strategies: Inquiry-Based Learning, 2016)

Question what to do. Plan what to do. Investigate to discover answers. Report what happened. Reflect on what happened.

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In-Depth Exploration

Project-Based Learning

• Empowers students to investigate important ideas and questions.

• Framed around the inquiry process.

• Differentiated according to student needs and interests.

• Driven by student independent production and presentation.

• Requires use of creative thinking, critical thinking, information skills.

• Connected to real world and authentic problems and issues.

(Project-Based Learning: Inspiring Middle School Students to Engage in Deep and Active Learning, 2009)

PBL is a student-centered approach that occurs over an extended period of time,

during which students work collaboratively to select, plan, investigate, and

produce a product, presentation, or performance that answers real-world questions.

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In-Depth Exploration

Project-Based Learning

Present a Real World Problem That Students Can Connect

Set the Parameters

for Completing the Project

Provide Consultation

Input/Feedback

Final Product Share, Reflect,

Assess

Model Inquiry Process and New Skills

Provide Scaffolding of

Support

Projects

START with a driving

QUESTION Students

INQUIRE

Students have

VOICE and

CHOICE Students learn as they

NEED TO KNOW

Students

REVISE

and

REFLECT

Students

present to an

AUDIENCE

(Project-Based Learning: Inspiring Middle School Students to Engage in Deep and Active Learning, 2009)

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In-Depth Exploration

Experiential Learning

(Opportunities for Skill Building: Experiential Learning Model, 2014)

Do the activity before being told or shown how.

Describe the experience and/or reactions.

Reflect about what happened; discuss the learning process.

Relate the experience and utilized skills to everyday experiences.

Apply what was learned to another situation or activity.

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Real-World Experiences

Maya’s Computer Experiences

Experiential Learning

1. Took apart an old computer.

2. Put the computer back together.

3. Learned how a computer worked from inside out.

4. Spurred greater curiosity to expand computer skills.

5. Built her own website. Learned computer programming.

Inquiry Process and PBL

1. Faced with the problem of a computer virus.

2. Considered the meaning of “virus.”

3. Spurred creative idea of animated virus characters.

4. Created her own animated series about virus characters.

5. Produced and shared her animated series with audiences.

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Real-World Experiences

Career and College Connections

(Ready for College and Career: Achieving the Common Core Standards and Beyond through Deeper, Student-Centered Learning, 2014) (Creating a Collaborative Career Development Program for Middle Grades Students, 2010)

• Student-centered learning approaches create the ideal conditions for students to acquire and practice the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for future success.

• During the middle grade years, students need the opportunities to gain greater self-awareness, access to information about college and career options, and develop skills and competencies to make informed decisions about their future.

• Students need to be able to take what they have learned in school and apply it to other situations, including college, the workplace, home, and communities.

Preparing middle grade students for their future requires challenging them with real world problems and contexts.

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Real-World Experiences

Career and College Connections

Tapping into Student Interests, Needs, and Lives through Experiential Discovery:

Baseline for Inquiry - Have students visit local places and communities, to quietly

take notes about what they observe, what in particular captures their attention,

questions they have about what they see and hear, and prompting them to

speculate about how it ties into their own future – their part of the big picture,

possible issues and dilemmas they might face, and what they’d like to change.

Partnering with professionals in career pathways to provide authentic learning experiences for students in the middle grades can increase motivation, engagement, and depth of learning.

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Prompt for Inquiry

Real-World Experiences

Question 1:

What are some other ways to tap into student interests, needs, and lives

as a baseline for inquiry?

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Prompt for Inquiry

Real-World Experiences

Question 1:

What are some other ways to tap into student interests, needs, and lives

as a baseline for inquiry?

TV shows

Social media

Hobbies and extracurricular activities

Observing their choices during free time and lunch time

Student interest inventories, journal entries, conversations

Virtual online shopping to see what “top three items” they choose

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Real-World Experiences

Career Connections

(Career & College Clubs, 2016)

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Real-World Experiences

Career and Lifestyle Connections

(Career & College Clubs, 2016) (The Game of Social Life: An Assessment of a Multidimensional Poverty Simulation, 2015)

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Real-World Experiences

College Connections simulations and immersion

(Career & College Clubs, 2016)

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Real-World Experiences

College Connections simulations and immersion

(Career & College Clubs, 2016) (Facilitating College Readiness through Campus Life Experiences, 2014)

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Engaging Exploration

Real-World Experiences

Question 2:

What career and community themes would be relevant and meaningful

for your students to experience in planning for their future?

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Engaging Exploration

Real-World Experiences

Question 2:

What career and community themes would be relevant and meaningful

for your students to experience in planning for their future?

Keep in mind the big picture: Beyond providing individual students with motivation to go onto postsecondary education and career training, it’s about having these young minds help redefine the problems we are facing today, and in a few years, with some acquired skills, working with us to solve them.

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Discussion

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Conclusion

Karen Hall Education Coordinator Career & College Clubs

(310) 242-8809 khall@allmc.org

www.careerandcollegeclubs.org

Next Webinar: Middle Grade Engagement: Elevating the Expectations and Outcomes of At-Risk Students

Webinar On-Demand: http://careerandcollegeclubs.org/webinar-series/