A Brief Guide to LUCID Learning for Understanding through Culturally

A Brief Guide to LUCID Learning for Understanding through Culturally Inclusive Imaginative Development A Community-University Research Alliance project The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 1. LUCID in a nutshell The project LUCID is a five-year research project, funded for the years 2004-2008, which explores the potential of imaginative education to improve academic and other educational outcomes in B.C. public school districts with high numbers of Aboriginal students. The initial partners ÿ The Imaginative Education Research Group, Simon Fraser University ÿ BC School District 33 (Chilliwack) and the Sto:lo Nation ÿ BC School District 50 (Haida Gwaii) and the Haida Nation ÿ BC School District 52 (Prince Rupert) and the Ts’msyen Nation Contacts and collaboration with other districts and First Nations are welcome. Please contact us! The work in progress Initially, in each district, small groups of teachers in grades 4-7 were invited to participate in workshops and planning sessions on ways to engage their students’ emotions in learning, using the principles of imaginative education. At the same time, teachers were given opportunities to learn more about the history and culture of the communities from which their students are drawn, so that they could draw on a wider range of imaginative tools and connections in their classrooms. As the project has progressed, it has expanded to include both primary and high school grades, and to finding ways of involving students in experiences outside the classroom. Resource development has also become increasingly important. Eventually, it is hoped to have a self-sustaining learning community in each school district that will continue to develop imaginative resources and teaching expertise, in collaboration with Aboriginal communities and as part of a province-wide network. 2 The results so far ÿ Teachers have found imaginative approaches to be beneficial for many of their students, particularly some of those least engaged by other forms of instruction. ÿ One of the main changes for teachers themselves has been a heightened awareness of students’ emotional lives and their relevance for learning. ÿ Different teachers’ uses of imaginative education have been quite diverse, and the opportunity to work with colleagues has been essential in order to better understand the underlying ideas and identify new possibilities. ÿ Making new connections with First Nations communities, and finding ways to make them part of the students’ learning in the academic curriculum, has been exciting and rewarding for many teachers in the project. ÿ Support outside the classroom is essential to make this approach work consistently. For detailed research reports from LUCID, see www.ierg.net/lucid. A few sample titles: ÿ Inclusive teaching through imagination: Pathways of teacher development ÿ Inclusion and empowerment in imaginative classrooms ÿ The art of the storyteller: Liberating literacy through imagination ÿ Combating stereotypes through imaginative media education ÿ A river ran wild: Imagination and sustainability in a Grade 4 science classroom 3 2. Teaching for the imagination Learning with head and heart Imagination is a many-sided concept, but one way of thinking of it is as head and heart working together — feeling about a topic at the same time as one is thinking about it. Imaginative education puts emotional and intellectual engagement at the centre of the teaching and learning experience. LUCID teachers develop a new kind of awareness of their students and a new way of thinking about the curriculum. The latter is seen not just as a list of facts, concepts, and skills to be acquired, but as a great storehouse of tools for engaging the imagination: contrasts and tensions, sounds and images, narratives and heroes, wonder and mystery, and so on. Students come to school with the ability to understand and use many of these tools in the context of their daily lives, but soon come to see them as separate from classroom learning. LUCID teachers, in contrast, seek to use and develop them further. Nurturing understanding According to SFU professor Kieran Egan, students’ imaginative lives develop in somewhat distinct and predictable ways, depending on the cultural tools they have access to. He distinguishes the following five kinds of understanding that involve the imagination: ÿ Somatic, which relies on direct bodily experience; ÿ Mythic, which develops through immersion in an oral culture; ÿ Romantic, which develops as literacy becomes ingrained and widespread; ÿ Philosophic, which develops in contact with particular fields and disciplines; ÿ Ironic, in which Philosophic thinking comes to terms with its own limitations. LUCID teachers try to develop at least the first three kinds of understanding routinely in their teaching, and so writing, talk, and experience all play large roles in their classrooms. 4 Teaching at three levels of meaning When planning a curriculum unit, LUCID teachers often find themselves thinking about the material at three levels simultaneously. ÿ The transcendent level answers the question “why?” — why is this worth learning? This level may or may not be made explicit to the students, but the teacher needs to keep it in mind: What values and commitments am I appealing to by teaching this subject in this way? What about it can inspire students to become more than they are? ÿ The narrative level shapes the overall emotional landscape of the learning experience, from a beginning that sets up a particular contrast, tension, image, or problem; a middle that elaborates and complicates it; and an end that provides an emotional highlight and conveys a feeling of completion. ÿ The strategic level involves choices about student grouping, activities, assignments, assessment, and so on. These choices are faced by all teachers, but LUCID teachers find that they make different strategic decisions when they are able to keep the transcendent and narrative levels of their teaching in mind. At all of these levels, it is essential that teachers be emotionally and intellectually engaged themselves — which is what makes this way of teaching both demanding and energizing. 5 Tools of imaginative engagement Central to LUCID teaching strategies are long-established ways of using language, images, symbols, and so on to capture and hold an audience’s attention. The same devices that make a film, a book, a song or an advertisement interesting and memorable can be used to make learning interesting and memorable as well. Kieran Egan calls these “cognitive tools;” another term used in LUCID is “tools of imaginative engagement,” or TIEs. There is a set of TIEs for each kind of understanding that the teacher wishes to develop, as summarized in the following table. While they do not constitute strategies on their own, they provide clues as to how existing strategies can be made more engaging and successful. The table is arranged so as to highlight the ways in which the TIEs of one kind of understanding are absorbed and transformed within the next. Throughout the years of schooling, the Romantic TIEs provide a particularly powerful starting point for planning effective imaginative units and lessons. Tools for: Grasping wholes Grasping composition Somatic TIEs Joyful participation Pattern of rhythm and movement Intent observation (all senses) Beginnings and endings Prediction and control Mimesis Interactive play and exploration Effort and achievement Incongruity Mythic TIEs Wonderful stories Music of spoken language Romantic TIEs Heroic feats and quests Beauty of written form Lively description (written) Extremes of reality Collecting and organizing Personification Fantasy and formal play Philosophic TIEs Powerful theories Elegance of argument Grasping detail Grasping limits Grasping regularity Grasping agency Grasping possibility Grasping struggle Grasping inconsistency Vivid imagery (oral) Binary contrasts Naming and characterizing Metaphor Gossip and social play Conflict and resolution Jokes Fine-grained analysis Universals and anomalies Systematization and generalization Abstract agency Hypothesis and experiment Contradiction, paradox, and proof Irony and satire Revolt and idealism Comedy 6 3. Teaching in cultur al cont ext Inclusion through imagination Making teaching more imaginatively engaging is good for its own sake. But in LUCID it is also a means towards another end—that of making schools more successful places for students from varied cultural and social backgrounds, and particularly for Aboriginal students. There are many reasons why middle-class students from the culture that designs and runs the school system tend to do better in that system. Many of these reasons can’t be addressed at the level of curriculum and pedagogy alone. The hiring of staff, communication with parents, expectations towards students, and many other aspects of school culture play a huge role. But there is no doubt that the time spent with teachers is central to children’s experience of school. LUCID therefore makes it a priority to expand teachers’ knowledge of and connections with the First Nations communities in their district. Not only are students from these communities among the least successful in the public school system, but First Nations also have important things to teach educators in any environment —particularly those working with imagination. Beyond cultural add-ons One of the most widespread approaches to inclusion involves teaching students about aspects of their own culture. In principle, this can be beneficial, particularly if good materials are available and teachers are trained in their use. Yet if such cultural units are taught separately from the rest of the curriculum, their impact on student academic success is marginal. LUCID encourages teachers to look for ways of connecting the provincially prescribed curriculum with First Nations history and contemporary culture. In order that this not be done in a forced or superficial way, teachers need to understand the imaginative resources present in both curriculum and community, and find an overall narrative framework that enables the students to work with both. Even on a small scale, this kind of teaching can make a significant difference for students who have experienced little success in school. As teachers become more knowledgeable and confident, they may find themselves planning on larger and larger scales, until eventually their whole year is structured so as to bring curriculum, community, and imagination together. 7 Building local resources Imaginative teaching is resource-intensive, since students who are engaged with a topic typically demand to know much more than any one source can provide. While libraries and the Internet are invaluable, they usually offer relatively little in terms of local history, culture, and knowledge. Thus LUCID has increasingly become involved in the development of resource materials of various kinds, including: ÿ Curriculum units, outlines, and frameworks, some of which are summarized in the next section; ÿ Compilations of historical and contemporary texts; ÿ Original stories and games for use in the classroom; ÿ Resource guides to existing publications, web sites, organizations, and experts in the community; ÿ Teaching guides connected to First Nation role model programs. Districts interested in adopting the LUCID approach should foresee increased demand for such materials. 8 Building teacher-community relationships From the start, LUCID has tried to build small groups of teachers who work together on a regular basis. This has been facilitated by Project Leaders in each district who are experienced in working both with schools and with First Nation communities. A two-year Master of Education program offered by SFU in connection with the project has involved some teachers in a more intensive cohort experience. Occasional conferences have also contributed to the process of professional development. The intent is that the process model the kind of cross-cultural learning that LUCID tries to bring to classrooms. Some of the steps we have found valuable: ÿ Workshops led by First Nations educators; ÿ Teachers participate in community events and debrief with a mentor; ÿ Groups read articles and books and watch films on Aboriginal education; ÿ Teachers from public schools and band schools plan joint units and events. In each district, LUCID has put together an Advisory Committee that includes First Nations educators and community members along with district teachers and administrators. The project also reports regularly to the district-First Nation education councils. Co-ownership of the project by First Nations people is an essential part of making the LUCID approach work. 9 4. Some samp le LUC ID units The following list is intended to give an idea of the range of approaches that is possible within the general framework of curriculum, imagination, and community. Some have been taught, others have not, but all make use of the ideas outlined earlier. A RIVER RAN WILD (Grade 4 Science / Social Studies) Students learn about the science of water and its importance in local ecosystems and communities in the context of a story about the cleaning up of a polluted river. They take on the roles of different actors in the story: First Nations, scientists, factory workers, consumers. The unit concludes with a courtroom showdown. A TIME FOR… HA’LI (Grade 7 Year-long Curriculum) Students move through the year in five phases tied to the cycle of the seasons in the traditional Ts’msyen calendar. The fall is a time for community-building and learning about origins, including astronomy and geology; the winter a time for conserving resources and studying energy and matter; the spring a time for exploration and becoming knowledgeable about biological systems, survival, and self-reliance. Major events (a feast, a formal presentation, a multiday field trip) celebrate students’ accomplishments together with parents and elders. SYSTEMS FOR SURVIVAL (Grade 8-9 Science) Students study the systems of the body in order to understand possible threats to their survival and ways to counter them. The unit is introduced by means of dramatic real-life stories of survival, and basic survival techniques are taught by relating them to the needs and functions of each body system. Students apply and explain their knowledge in the course of preparing for field trips and responding to accident scenarios. CSI: CAN SPELLING IMPROVE (Grade 4-5 English) Students take on the roles of spelling detectives in order to solve a mystery. A local girl has disappeared and clues are scattered around the community, but only the best spellers will be able to track her down. Followup writing activities help cement knowledge of spelling rules. SEARCHING FOR BA’WIS (B IGFOOT) (Year 2 Sm’algyax Language) Students set off to look for the legendary Ba’wis hidden in the mountains and learn the vocabulary and phrase structure needed to head out on such a journey. The unit is introduced through traditional local stories of the Ba’wis and sighting accounts. Future, present and past tense are explored as the students prepare for their journey, participate in or enact the journey, and reflect on it. At the end the students share their journey with community members and young children through the Sm’algyax picture books they have created. RIVER OF TIME (Grade 6 Social Studies) Students keep journals of their journey down the river of time as they study Canadian history from ancient times to the 20th century. In each period they are asked to put themselves in the place of First Nations and other people living at that time. As the unit goes on, students become caught up in the search for vivid details and extraordinary facts to bring their stories alive. 10 THE S PIRIT OF HAIDA GWAII (Grade 8 English) Students study the Bill Reid sculpture The Black Canoe as a metaphor of community and an artwork that poses the question: Where are we going, and why? Over the course of the unit, each student builds a portfolio for one character in the canoe (description, poem, resume, achievement award) that answers that question for themselves. PAPARAZZI FOR THE COMMUNITY (Grade 8-9 English) Students are first cast as tabloid paparazzi, writing about media celebrities. They learn how to gather information and find ways to capture the attention of readers. They then take on the challenge of doing the same for amazing local people, including participants in the First Nation Role Model Program. Polished texts are mounted and framed with photographs of the interviewees. THEME WIZARDRY (Grade 8 English) In the guise of learning to become wizards, or wise people in the community, students learn to identify and comment on themes in oral and written texts. The unit gradually progresses from stories of everyday life, to a class novel, to independent projects that use a theme to design a poster featuring individual novels. Students gain wizardry points for each assignment. PRINCE SNAIL (Grade 5-6 Fine Arts / English) Students learn about dramatic movement through the stylized medieval European art form known as Commedia dell’Arte, and then use what they’ve learned to script and perform a traditional Ts’msyen adaawx, or true telling. 5. Contact In for mation There are a variety of ways to learn more about LUCID. In addition, the Imaginative Education Research Group at Simon Fraser University offers a wealth of information and resources on imaginative education on its website www.ierg.net. LUCID website More detailed information on the project is available at www.ierg.net/LUCID/ including: ÿ Project documents, from the initial proposal to the Midterm Report; ÿ Conference presentations, including slideshows and papers; ÿ Curriculum units in a searchable database; ÿ Descriptions and images of LUCID districts, schools, teachers and classrooms. Mailing list and newsletter To be added to our mailing list or to receive our newsletter via email please contact us at lucid-info@sfu.ca. 11 SFU office ÿ Dr. Mark Fettes LUCID Project Director mtfettes@sfu.ca ÿ Kym Stewart LUCID Project Coordinator kyms@sfu.ca ÿ Tannis Calder LUCID Curriculum Developer tmcalder@sfu.ca ÿ LUCID Research Project Faculty of Education Simon Fraser University 8888 University Dr. Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 Phone: 778-782-4479 Fax: 778-782-7014 School districts ÿ Brenda Point Chilliwack Project Leader Aboriginal Curriculum Coordinator Kipp Conference Center 46370 Portage Ave, Chilliwack, BC V2P 3E6 (604-701-6175) brenda_point@sd33.bc.ca ÿ Vonnie Hutchingson Haida Gwaii Project Leader Director of Haida Education 107 - 3rd Avenue, PO Box 69, Queen Charlotte, BC V0T 1S0 Tel: (250) 559-8471 1-888-771-3131 (w/in BC) Fax: (250) 559-8849 vhutchingson@sd50.bc.ca ÿ Susan Crowley Prince Rupert Project Leader First Nations Education Services 317 - West 9th Ave Prince Rupert, B.C. Phone: 250-627-1536 Fax 250-627-1443 crowley@sd52.bc.ca ÿ Debbie Leighton-Stephens Prince Rupert Project Leader District Principal, First Nations Ed. 317 - West 9th Ave Prince Rupert, B.C. Phone: 250-627-1536 Fax 250-627-1443 dls@sd52.bc.ca 12