Final Report
Project Description:
Participants
We originally started with two classes of grade 8 students. The goal was to indigenize their grade 8 english/humanities curriculum. Many of the topics we aimed to cover in english curriculum overlapped with the grade 8 social studies curriculum, therefore we included both. Our project included Kathleen, the Aboriginal Education teacher, Kelly, the classroom teacher, and MANY community members, elders and knowledge keepers. Due to unforeseen circumstances, one of the divisions was dropped from the grant project, so in actuality, our project included one division (approximately 28 students) of grade 8s.
Goals
There were many goals to our project, but the overlaying goal was to have students engage with the 94 calls to action, write a slam poem in response to a call to action, and create a video to go along with their poem. On a larger scale, we aimed to indigenize the grade 8 english curriculum, teaching students about the importance of Aboriginal people in Canada, build their foundational knowledge of the past while inspiring them to engage in reconcilation.
Outcome
The anticipated outcome was a video and slam poem created by students in response to one of the 94 calls to action. In addition to the poem, student also produced worldview mind maps, origin stories, trailers for their origin stories, original Coast Salish inspired art and, original music.
Themes and Activities
We began the year teaching students about worldview. Students were to identify key aspects of their worldview. We felt this was an important (essential) starting point for our year. Next students moved into writing their Origin Stories. Leading up to this, we had an elder come in and tell local origin stories to inspire the students. Also prior to writing their origin stories, students participated in literature circles of short stories, some with indigenous authors and content. Students created a movie trailer in imovie for their origin story. Moving into slam poetry, students were introduced to slam poems and watched several examples. Students analyzed both the slam poem and the videos (if they had videos). Throughout our project elders were invited in for various activities. Students had two drumming workshop, participated in the blanket exercise, and spoke with a law professor about the Calls to Action.
Technology
We were given five ipad Pros, apple pens, and keyboards. Over the course of our project, students used the ipads to draw, record music, take pictures and video, and create video. We also found we required a projector, and dongle. Students often had access to a mobile chromebook cart as well.
Unfolding of our Project:
Introducing Students to Technology
No specific training took place prior to or during the project. We spent some time after school and during professional development days playing around with the technology. Neither of us are tech pros so we had to fiddle with the apps and try them out ourselves. We decided we wanted to roll the technology out to students gradually. Keeping our final project in mind, where students would have to create a video with many components, we worked backwards by design. We started with the end goal in mind, and gradually had students work with the technology during the year so when they were tasked with completing a video, they had been exposed to all the elements throughout the year. For example, during our first worldview assignment, students were to use the iPads to draw a Coast Salish inspired representation of their most important influence in their worldview. This exposed students to drawing on the iPads and had them experimenting, all while we knew one of the final components of their videos would be original art. During our worldview assignment, we also had the students complete their mind maps with the iPads. Similarly, during our origin story unit, students were to use iMovie to create trailers for their origin stories. This had students experimenting and learning about iMovie, as this was the program they used for their final videos. We tried to model the technology as much as possible, but often found the students were able to figure it out faster than us!
The final project videos have been completed on the iPads. Students used the iPads to film, record music, draw, edit and compile their videos.
Challenges
Most of the challenges we encountered were due to a lack of familiarity with the iPads. We tried our best to use the iPads as much as possible, but with little background information on the apps we were given, we found the technology often had us delayed. A key example of this happened early during the year when we tried to use mindmup (a website on the iPads) to have students make their worldview mind maps. After several students had completed their work and wanted to upload it to their google drive, we realized we had to pay for this service and thus, students had to start over. We ended up using Canva, but also ran into issues. The students were not able to add as much detail on one canvas in Canva, so again, we adapted to have their influences on separate pages and not all on one digital canvas.
Another challenge we ran into was having students draw on the explain everything app. We were having students draw Coast Salish inspired art and they were to draw a rough copy on paper first. Many of the students wanted to photograph their rough copies and trace them on the iPads. This was not possible in explain everything so we ended up switching apps to _________ where students could add layers to their work, therefore having their rough copy in the background and drawing on a new layer.
Another challenge faced right from the beginning of our project was having five iPads and 28 students. As such, we had to create some, arguably unnecessary, paper/pencil work that students had to complete in order for them to move onto the iPads. For example, in the example above, the rough copy of the Coast Salish inspired art could have been done right on the iPads, which may have been a better, given one of the benefits of an iPad and digital art is that students can edit and manipulate their art immediately. However, with only five iPads, we needed to provide students another step, so those not using an iPad could still be participating. We encountered this challenge all the way through our project and ultimately it was this factor that influenced having our students write their slam poem in partners.
Equally sharing the iPads was another challenge. This was overcome with us keeping track of who had the iPads when so we could evenly distribute them. We also had some limited access to additional iPads in our school, albeit not on a regular basis, that helped with students use.
As students needed to complete their videos (add and edit) all on one iPad, we also had to colour code our iPads so students knew which one they were using. We did this with coloured star stickers and library binding tape placed over top, but this could easily be done in any way.
Successes
While our project had many successful elements, it would be hard to overlook the main success which, we feel, is students exposure to the calls to action and indigenous perspectives as well as the act and duty of reconciliation. Our students spent their grade 8 english year learning about indigenous perspectives, worldview and culture, with the ultimate goal of bringing light to a call to action and how it affects and connects to them. While the new BC curriculum added more indigenous perspectives and curricular outcomes, watching our students engage in reconciliation that went beyond the curriculum was inspiring. We feel we have provided our students a foundational understanding of indigenous history and rights that we hope will last them a life time. The SET BC grant was the push we needed to fully indigenize our curriculum and create this project that had students engaging with the calls to action, something many adults have not done or know very little of.
In addition to the knowledge gained, we saw enhanced student engagement with our topics and content due to the technology. Students looked forward to using the iPads and, as such, were fully engaged in the topic. Students learned skills on the iPads, such as drawing and video editing. Because we had the technology, we feel we students were inspired to stay on task and participate as we brought their learning to the 21st century.
Future Projects:
Recommendations for Future Projects
The first recommendation we would make would be to, where possible, increase the number of iPads. If possible, fundraise for additional technology so more of the work could be done on the iPads as opposed to first starting the students on paper. In an ideal world, students would have more access to the iPads so much of the paper pencil work wouldn't have to be completed. Having said that, we were able to successfully complete our project with five iPads, so it is possible with some time.
Participants
We originally started with two classes of grade 8 students. The goal was to indigenize their grade 8 english/humanities curriculum. Many of the topics we aimed to cover in english curriculum overlapped with the grade 8 social studies curriculum, therefore we included both. Our project included Kathleen, the Aboriginal Education teacher, Kelly, the classroom teacher, and MANY community members, elders and knowledge keepers. Due to unforeseen circumstances, one of the divisions was dropped from the grant project, so in actuality, our project included one division (approximately 28 students) of grade 8s.
Goals
There were many goals to our project, but the overlaying goal was to have students engage with the 94 calls to action, write a slam poem in response to a call to action, and create a video to go along with their poem. On a larger scale, we aimed to indigenize the grade 8 english curriculum, teaching students about the importance of Aboriginal people in Canada, build their foundational knowledge of the past while inspiring them to engage in reconcilation.
Outcome
The anticipated outcome was a video and slam poem created by students in response to one of the 94 calls to action. In addition to the poem, student also produced worldview mind maps, origin stories, trailers for their origin stories, original Coast Salish inspired art and, original music.
Themes and Activities
We began the year teaching students about worldview. Students were to identify key aspects of their worldview. We felt this was an important (essential) starting point for our year. Next students moved into writing their Origin Stories. Leading up to this, we had an elder come in and tell local origin stories to inspire the students. Also prior to writing their origin stories, students participated in literature circles of short stories, some with indigenous authors and content. Students created a movie trailer in imovie for their origin story. Moving into slam poetry, students were introduced to slam poems and watched several examples. Students analyzed both the slam poem and the videos (if they had videos). Throughout our project elders were invited in for various activities. Students had two drumming workshop, participated in the blanket exercise, and spoke with a law professor about the Calls to Action.
Technology
We were given five ipad Pros, apple pens, and keyboards. Over the course of our project, students used the ipads to draw, record music, take pictures and video, and create video. We also found we required a projector, and dongle. Students often had access to a mobile chromebook cart as well.
Unfolding of our Project:
Introducing Students to Technology
No specific training took place prior to or during the project. We spent some time after school and during professional development days playing around with the technology. Neither of us are tech pros so we had to fiddle with the apps and try them out ourselves. We decided we wanted to roll the technology out to students gradually. Keeping our final project in mind, where students would have to create a video with many components, we worked backwards by design. We started with the end goal in mind, and gradually had students work with the technology during the year so when they were tasked with completing a video, they had been exposed to all the elements throughout the year. For example, during our first worldview assignment, students were to use the iPads to draw a Coast Salish inspired representation of their most important influence in their worldview. This exposed students to drawing on the iPads and had them experimenting, all while we knew one of the final components of their videos would be original art. During our worldview assignment, we also had the students complete their mind maps with the iPads. Similarly, during our origin story unit, students were to use iMovie to create trailers for their origin stories. This had students experimenting and learning about iMovie, as this was the program they used for their final videos. We tried to model the technology as much as possible, but often found the students were able to figure it out faster than us!
The final project videos have been completed on the iPads. Students used the iPads to film, record music, draw, edit and compile their videos.
Challenges
Most of the challenges we encountered were due to a lack of familiarity with the iPads. We tried our best to use the iPads as much as possible, but with little background information on the apps we were given, we found the technology often had us delayed. A key example of this happened early during the year when we tried to use mindmup (a website on the iPads) to have students make their worldview mind maps. After several students had completed their work and wanted to upload it to their google drive, we realized we had to pay for this service and thus, students had to start over. We ended up using Canva, but also ran into issues. The students were not able to add as much detail on one canvas in Canva, so again, we adapted to have their influences on separate pages and not all on one digital canvas.
Another challenge we ran into was having students draw on the explain everything app. We were having students draw Coast Salish inspired art and they were to draw a rough copy on paper first. Many of the students wanted to photograph their rough copies and trace them on the iPads. This was not possible in explain everything so we ended up switching apps to _________ where students could add layers to their work, therefore having their rough copy in the background and drawing on a new layer.
Another challenge faced right from the beginning of our project was having five iPads and 28 students. As such, we had to create some, arguably unnecessary, paper/pencil work that students had to complete in order for them to move onto the iPads. For example, in the example above, the rough copy of the Coast Salish inspired art could have been done right on the iPads, which may have been a better, given one of the benefits of an iPad and digital art is that students can edit and manipulate their art immediately. However, with only five iPads, we needed to provide students another step, so those not using an iPad could still be participating. We encountered this challenge all the way through our project and ultimately it was this factor that influenced having our students write their slam poem in partners.
Equally sharing the iPads was another challenge. This was overcome with us keeping track of who had the iPads when so we could evenly distribute them. We also had some limited access to additional iPads in our school, albeit not on a regular basis, that helped with students use.
As students needed to complete their videos (add and edit) all on one iPad, we also had to colour code our iPads so students knew which one they were using. We did this with coloured star stickers and library binding tape placed over top, but this could easily be done in any way.
Successes
While our project had many successful elements, it would be hard to overlook the main success which, we feel, is students exposure to the calls to action and indigenous perspectives as well as the act and duty of reconciliation. Our students spent their grade 8 english year learning about indigenous perspectives, worldview and culture, with the ultimate goal of bringing light to a call to action and how it affects and connects to them. While the new BC curriculum added more indigenous perspectives and curricular outcomes, watching our students engage in reconciliation that went beyond the curriculum was inspiring. We feel we have provided our students a foundational understanding of indigenous history and rights that we hope will last them a life time. The SET BC grant was the push we needed to fully indigenize our curriculum and create this project that had students engaging with the calls to action, something many adults have not done or know very little of.
In addition to the knowledge gained, we saw enhanced student engagement with our topics and content due to the technology. Students looked forward to using the iPads and, as such, were fully engaged in the topic. Students learned skills on the iPads, such as drawing and video editing. Because we had the technology, we feel we students were inspired to stay on task and participate as we brought their learning to the 21st century.
Future Projects:
Recommendations for Future Projects
The first recommendation we would make would be to, where possible, increase the number of iPads. If possible, fundraise for additional technology so more of the work could be done on the iPads as opposed to first starting the students on paper. In an ideal world, students would have more access to the iPads so much of the paper pencil work wouldn't have to be completed. Having said that, we were able to successfully complete our project with five iPads, so it is possible with some time.
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