Learning Circles Training Course
Phase 3 - Class Investigation
Activity 4
Conduct an investigation and prepare questions to send to the Circle.
Learning Circle Projects
One of the goals of this guide is to help you find a way to integrate the Learning Network into your existing curriculum. Learning Circle projects are most successful when they are part of a larger framework of activities that you organize in your classroom. The project that you sponsor should ideally be drawn from or easily integrated with your curriculum. Your students will also have the opportunity to participate in projects sponsored by other classes. Depending on your own time constraints, there are many ways to organize how your class will respond to other projects. In this guide we will suggest ways to participate that help teachers work within their own curriculum. We suggest that you read this section carefully for ideas on how to integrate Learning Circle projects with your specific educational goals.
Managing a Learning Circle Investigation
Managing a Learning Circle project means selecting a topic to investigate, proposing the type of information you want to receive from the other sites, organizing the project material exchanged on the network, and preparing a summary of your project for inclusion in the Circle publication.
Responsibilities of the Teacher
Select a project topic. Let your partners know why you selected it and how it is related to the educational activities taking place in your classroom.
Describe the type of information. Your students will need to let the other classes in the Learning Circle know exactly what type of information you want them to send for your project (essays, surveys, data collection, questionnaires). You should provide an example that can help guide the distant collaborators.
Examine the information. The students who are carrying out the investigation are responsible for using the information received and making comparisons across the different regions or for collecting and editing written material that is requested.
Organize and summarize the information. The students who are carrying out the investigation are the ones who share their invetigation findings with the Circle publication for distribution to the other schools. This can be done online or in print depending on the arrangements made by the Learning Circles.
An effective way to integrate Learning Circle projects into your curriculum is to begin with your own teaching plans. Consider the activities or demonstrations that you use to involve your students in their lessons. It is likely that one or more of these activities would be much more informative with input from students in different social situations and from different geographic regions. The comparison of local and distant information can provide a rich learning experience for your students.
As you consider project ideas, it is helpful to think about the characteristics of successful Learning Circle projects.
Participating in Invesitgations Conducted by Others
"Participating" in an investigation means responding to an information request from another classroom. Each class in your Learning Circle will carry out an investigation on a topic of their choice. Your students will have the opportunity to send information for all of the investigations in the Learning Circle. Your Learning Circle partners will be expecting to receive some information on their investigation from your students. This does not mean, however, that you need to have your whole class respond to each information request.
There are many ways you can organize your students to assure that they will be able to respond to requests from other classrooms. If the information request fits well into your curriculum, you may want to involve all of your students. If it does not, you might make it an extra credit project for a small group of students who finish their regular classroom work.
Other classes and students at your school may want to be involved in a particular investigation. Perhaps a science, math, or foreign language teacher at your school is working on a similar topic and would welcome the opportunity to become involved in the Learning Circle exchange. You might find that one of the investigations of another classroom is perfect for students in your school's computer club. As a Learning Circle teacher, your role is to organize the information responses from your school and to provide your partners with weekly updates so that they know when to expect the information for their investigations.
The important thing to remember is that your participation is a vital part of the Learning Circle. Your partners in distant locations will be eager to hear from you and your students. If you log on and read messages but do not respond or send messages of your own, no one will know you are there. So, let your partners know you're there and you appreciate hearing from them.
Selecting Your Learning Circle Investigation
Planning Learning Circle projects can be done by either the teacher or the students or it can be a team effort of both. Involving the students in the planning phase gives them a sense of ownership that often results in higher motivation. Integrating the Circle activities with something you already have planned in the curriculum gives you the advantage of extending the learning by using your own teaching materials.
Ideas for, examples of, and resources related to Learning Circles projects are arranged according to themes. This material is designed to help you create a Circle project related to your teaching style and curricular goals.
Investigations and Themes:
There are also many sites on the internet that list projects that might serve as sources of ideas. California State University, Northridge have collected sites, resources and lesson plans from the Internet for teachers to use in their classrooms.
The Educators' Reference Desk and Teacher's Edition Online lists lesson plans by subject area. At Education Place (Houghton-Mifflin) there is a great activity search by grade and curriculum. Blue Web'n has a list of lesson plans and activities per subject.
InvestigationsYour Classroom Investigation
The invesitgation takes place both in the classroom and on the Learning Circle. Your classroom activities on your investigation can be as involved as you and your students want them to be. You might arrange for a classroom visitor, a field trip, books, films, or other enrichment materials. You and your students will be the "primary investigators" on the investigation. You are the ones who keep the process moving and who evaluate, compile, and share the results in a way that helps everyone learn from the project.
Your Request for Information
The students in your Learning Circle partner classes may benefit from hearing about your classroom activities, but they are not likely to have the time to participate in all aspects of your investigation. Your investigation will need to include a simple activity that can be done by all of the participating classrooms in a relatively short amount of time.
For example, your class might want to create a short survey for students or they might be looking for interviews of community representatives on their topic. Generally, the request for information should be something that a small number of students in other classrooms can complete across two class periods. It is a good idea for your students to respond to their own information request before they send it to their Learning Circle partners. This way they will be able to tell others how long it took to collect the information and make any modifications in their request based on their own experiences.
Course Activity:
Plan your investigation and request for information.
Introducing the Learning Circle Investigation to the Circle
The Learning Circle project should be introduced to the circle by the teacher. Some teachers like to begin with a rough idea for an investigation, introduce it into the Circle for comments and then have their students propose the final investigation. Other teachers prefer to design the investigation completely - there is no right or wrong way.
Teacher's First Planning Message
Once you have a rough idea of the Learning Circle investigation you want to conduct, you may want to send a teacher's project planning message. This message describes the investigation and the type of participation you would like from the other classrooms. It is often helpful to have the teacher take an active role in planning activities and participating in activities planned by others. Please be aware that your Learning Circle Coordinator has volunteered to help facilitate the interaction in your Learning Circle. He or she is not responsible for creating it. Each teacher is the team leader at their specific site.
Course Activity:
Send a message to the group in which you describe your investigation and intended request for information. Include your class number and the word "Planning" in your subject line. For example, if you were class 1 your e-mail message would have subject line:
Class 1: Planning
Keeping Track of Project Work
The longest phase of the Learning Circle is devoted to the exchange of work on Learning Circle investigations. But this time goes by very quickly. It is important to begin right now with procedures for monitoring the group progress toward the goal. This is a shared responsibility. It is part of the work of a team to be aware of the goal and to know at each point what all players are doing to advance toward the final goal.
Weekly Circle Update
A weekly Circle Update message helps everyone to keep track of what is happening on each of the projects in the Circle. This is done by the Learning Circle Facilitator
Investigation Time Line
It is important for each classroom to select and plan their investigations quickly to assure enough time for other classes to participate.
Course Activity:
The class should be conducting its investigation during this phase. Requests for information should be prepared and sent either now or early in the next phase. Requestions should be sent in an e-mail message with the subject line including your class number and the word "Request". For example, if you are class 1, your message will have the subject line:
Class 1: Request
Phase 4 - Data Collection Adapted for ASEAN Schoolnet from Learning Circle Teachers' Guide by Margaret Riel