Teachers and community members had an opportunity Monday night to hear about using the community as a classroom from Ron Berger, one of the nation’s leaders in what he calls expeditionary learning.
Mr. Berger was a public school teacher and master carpenter in rural Massachusetts for more than 25 years. Now, he helps found public high schools in low-income communities that send all graduates to college. He also strives to transform existing public schools, intensifying their focus on high student achievement, character, and citizenship.
He opened the conversation with pointed comments that teachers are not training students to compete on Jeopardy by stuffing their brains with memorized facts and figures.
He spent about 75 minutes on Monday sharing slides of beautiful work crafted by students that he has observed over the years and another tool to help teachers press students to achieve great things.
“Kids are capable of being leaders and creating great work,” he said.
Mr. Berger suggested that a student’s audience shouldn’t be limited to their teacher, and that their work should be displayed in a very public forum.
“When students are preparing for a presentation, a play, or some performance, whether it is athletic or academic, they work harder,” he said. “They want their community to be proud of their work.”
Mr. Berger shared examples collected during his work across the country and pointed out that the work designed in the building where he was speaking, the Whitfield Career Academy, was a prime example of how authentic learning can lead to higher student achievement. Teachers at the academy, particularly in the 21st Century Learning Academy comprised of ninth- and 10th-graders, are among Whitfield County’s teachers weaving state standards into community projects for the past several years. Many of those students are now scoring higher on standardized tests.
One of Mr. Berger’s colleagues is Dr. Howard Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Gardner said “good work” has three attributes: it must be of high quality, it must be fulfilling for the student, and it must give something back to the world.
The slides Mr. Berger shared during his talk illustrated Dr. Gardner’s beliefs:
A-Z Guide to Homelessness
Elementary school students in urban Washington D.C. who walked past homeless people every day on the way to school came to the grim realization that they didn’t really see the homeless as “real people” and set out to change that. They began to ask questions:
-“How do people become homeless?”
-“What can we do to help them?”
-“How do we help other people understand the challenges homeless people face every day?”
Those students interviewed people who worked for local social service agencies. They went outside their school and talked to the homeless people around their building. The students learned their names, heard about their situations, and designed a project that could help them. They produced the A-Z Guide to Homelessness.
The book was illustrated with student artwork and shared some of the stories of the homeless people in the streets around the school. They were able to find funds to publish the book. They gave a copy to President Barack Obama during a visit that is now a part of the White House library.
Field Guides to Local Wildlife
Representatives of state government in Massachusetts asked for a report documenting the amphibious wildlife living in communities throughout the state.
The small community where Mr. Berger lives did not have the money to hire a herpetologist to conduct a local study so leaders turned to their local experts, the young students who loved to play outside in the mud and waterways of their community.
They worked with their teachers to get out of the classroom and into the mud to catalog the amphibians in the area. They learned to identify adults and amphibians in their larval state.
At some point in their work, they realized that weren’t just playing in the water any more. They were doing real scientific work. They were real scientists.
They sent their final report to the state office and later learned it was among the most comprehensive document it received, but there was a problem. One of the listed amphibians could not possibly live in that part of the state. The students respectfully disagreed.
Scientists from the state came to investigate and students led them to a remote site where the amphibians lived. The students were correct.
Two more products came out of their work. They published a Field Guide of Local Amphibians sold in area stores and found a way to keep native spotted salamanders from getting squished on the roads by passing traffic.
They designed and built a salamander tunnel, which led the spotted creatures to safe passage under the pavement. They even designed the “Salamander Crossing” signs produced by the state department for the area.
Mr. Berger said he has seen the field guide project reproduced in many communities. It gets students out in the real world, taking photos and drawing pictures of local wildlife. Students weren’t allowed to find pictures on the Internet, even if that meant putting on a wetsuit and snorkeling with an underwater camera to capture the images used in their publications.
Children from a school in Portland, Maine, published a field guide that was sold by the state park service. Students at High Tech High in San Diego, Ca., have so far produced six field guides of the greater San Diego area. Their work captured the attention of noted biologists Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson, who wrote forewords in their guides that are published and sold throughout the city.
Municipal Energy Study
Yet another wonderful project launched head on by students was a municipal energy study in one city. They toured city buildings, made observations, analyzed utility bills, and made recommendations for improvements to government officials.
City officials listened to the students and agreed to invest in the suggested improvements. It took only two years for the city to save enough money to pay for the improvements those students discovered. They lowered the carbon footprint of that community while saving taxpayer dollars.
Again and again, Mr. Berger cited students who did good work that was of high quality, was fulfilling, and gave something back to their communities. He said, “Kids grow and achieve at higher levels when they are able to be proud of their work.”
And yes, their performance on state tests improved as well.
Mr. Berger completed his graduate work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and continues to work closely with the Harvard Project Zero research team. He is an Annenberg Foundation Teacher Scholar and received the Autodesk Foundation National Teacher of the Year award.
Mr. Berger is the author of two books, An Ethic of Excellence and A Culture of Quality.
His writing and speaking center on inspiring quality and character in students, specifically through original scientific and historical research, service learning, and the infusing art into the work provided for students. He works with the national character education movement to embed character values into the core of academic work.
Mr. Berger is now chief program officer for Expeditionary Learning, a non-profit school improvement network of more than 160 public schools.
The Student-Focused Speaker Series brings nationally and internationally known educators to Whitfield County to talk about public education with teachers, school staff, and community stakeholders.
Mr. Berger led the third of four sessions planned for the 2010-2011 school year. Founding High Tech High Principal Larry Rosenstock visited in November followed in January by Yong Zhao, presidential chair and associate dean for global education at the University of Oregon’s College of Education.
Schlechty Center President George Thompson, the fourth and final speaker in the series, will engage in a conversation with the community at the Whitfield Career Academy on Apr. 14, from 6-7:30 p.m.