The final two weeks of the mini-sabbatical involve teachers pilot testing the curriculum unit. The goal is for teachers and students to take center-stage in an exploration of the issues involved in implementing "Classrooms that Work."
Each teacher is assigned seven to eight students who are in class for two hours per day. Teachers and students will complete daily journals and short surveys about the learning experience. Some classroom activity will be videotaped. The videotapes will be shown to teachers daily to give them feedback on the progress of their units and to facilitate reflection on and transformation of their habits of practice.
The faculty will circulate throughout the classrooms to observe students and teachers. Faculty will focus their observations on aspects of the CTW instructional model. On the final day of the mini-sabbatical, teachers will make a final presentation of their instructional design. The outcome for each teacher is presentation of a fully specified instructional design and curriculum unit that reflects authentic practice.
In Weeks 3 and 4, teachers have already designed initial versions of their curricular units and instructional design. The pilot will enable teachers to refine their designs. Daily assessments will be used to capture introduced alternative perspectives and carefully document the classroom activity. These include (1) what students learned (student journal); (2) what activities students involved themselves in during classroom sessions (student activity report); (3) classroom dynamics (teacher journal and coaching panel); and (4) planned classroom and project/investigation activities (revision log). The presentation of the final design is the formal close of the mini-sabbatical.
The curriculum documents, journals, and survey data also serve the purpose of inquiry into school-to-career and integration reforms. The mini-sabbatical project team will use this data to evaluate what the mini-sabbatical accomplishes in the following areas: (1) providing an alternative professional development model for school-to-career and integration reforms; (2) developing technical assistance methods for introducing constructivist teaching and learning into high schools; and (3) better understanding tradeoffs between the "official" curriculum (as represented in standards or state frameworks), the "implemented" curriculum (what teachers develop in the mini-sabbatical), and the "attained" curriculum (what students learn).
Materials provided: Student handbooks, notepaper, pens, chart paper for examples, blank student checklist forms
On the first day of the class pilot test, we begin with an opening assembly. It is an opportunity for all participants in the pilot test to become clear about the purpose of the mini-sabbatical and their part in it. The assembly agenda includes mutual introductions of mini-sabbatical project staff, teachers, and students. Students will receive their class assignments, meet their class teacher, and learn how to complete journal entries and checklist activity reports.
On subsequent days, students will report directly to their teachers. Mini-sabbatical faculty and teachers will continue to hold brief meetings at the beginning of each day. Announcements, modifications, and organizational questions will be handled at this time.
Training for completing the journal and checklist report is as follows. Discuss the purpose of the journal and checklist. Ask the following questions:
Students should understand that their daily reports and journals are important to the project. The mini-sabbatical is intended to help teachers develop some new classroom methods, and student feedback is needed to help determine how new methods work for students.
Explain identifiers used on journals and checklists: teacher name and ID, and student name and ID. Students then practice journalling. The subject is "I am a student" and each student is asked to respond to the following prompts:
Students then engage in open discussion of the journal assignment. Working in groups, students discuss the assignment, answer each other's questions, and list questions that the group is unable to answer.
Someone from each group will ask the group's question(s) to the full class; the mini-sabbatical leaders will join the discussion at this point.
After journalling, students will practice writing checklist reports. First they will discuss the purpose. Leaders will distribute sample reports and blank practice forms and ask students to review the sample "activities report" by sections:
Using a blank report, the project faculty will offer examples and ask students to "report" the activity--for example, draw examples from the CTW report.
At the end of each class session, students will gather in a common area for reflection and discussion. Each student will make a one-page journal entry and complete a checklist report.
Teachers are also "learners" during the pilot test. They will address this experience in their own journals. Teachers will make daily entries of two to three pages (10-15 minutes of reflection and writing) at any time during the day.
The journals have several purposes. One is to encourage teachers to reflect on the experience of trying to implement the curriculum they have designed. Another is to provide teachers a regular opportunity to record their impressions and reactions to new types of teacher roles. In addition, teachers' journals will be useful to the project staff as we provide feedback and when we attempt to evaluate the success of the mini-sabbatical and consider how to improve it.
The journals can take any form and may contain any content that teachers wish. In other contexts, such journals have been used to move across several lines of thought:
Typically, one cannot move through all these stages of thought on every topic. Sometimes one can describe an activity but not evaluate it; or one can describe and evaluate it, but not diagnose reasons for success or failure, or figure out what to do differently in the future.
In terms of topics, it may be useful to think of the CTW model. For instance, the teachers may focus on whether students are using and learning generic skills and attempt to record evidence of such learning.
After journalling, teachers will practice completing the curriculum revision log (see Appendix B-1). The goal of the logs is to track changes in the specification of instructional goals, content, resources, learner activities, and organizational support. Teachers will complete a detailed baseline survey record on the first day, and submit daily revision logs thereafter.
In the training session on keeping revision logs, teachers will discuss the purpose and format of the logs. Leaders will distribute a sample log and blank practice forms and ask teacher participants to review the sample "revision log" by sections:
Using a blank report, the project facilitator will offer examples and ask teachers to "report" the activity (e.g., draw examples from the CTW report).
Each section has a rationale column. Participants will practice writing a rationale note for two to three examples and discuss what constitutes a "good" rationale note.
Beginning the second class day and continuing daily, the project staff will select interesting video segments from the day's class. Teachers will spend 15 minutes viewing the selected video segments followed by 15 minutes of (voluntary) discussion of observations.
This activity is based on the concept of filmmakers' use of dailies to know what they "have" in order to make revisions. Alternatively, some teachers may want to use video segments in the way that coaches and athletes use game films to critique and improve their play.
Observations should focus on the following:
This activity is repeated daily for the remainder of the mini-sabbatical. Based on the day's events in the classroom, teachers make adjustments in their instructional design and curriculum unit. The final 75 minutes of the day is set aside for this purpose. The project faculty will circulate throughout classrooms to assist teachers.
On the very last day of the mini-sabbatical, students, teachers, and project staff convene for a final presentation. Teachers present final versions of their instructional design and curricular unit. In this iteration, they discuss the technical and professional judgments involved in developing curricula.
The audience for the performance may also include worksite mentors; school, community, and district guests; guests of mini-sabbatical project faculty; and guests of teachers.
[4] The mini-sabbatical project leaders collect, review, and summarize the daily journal entries. The privacy of student authors and confidentiality will be maintained.