Thursday, March 5, 2020

Co-Creating Norms

It's that time of year again! The students' very favorite STEAM unit of the year: Deconstructing electronics! For the past few years, students have been taking apart broken electronics to figure out how they work, as well as to consider how much work and effort goes into making these household items we take for granted. This year, not only are students going to take the "guts" out of these electronics to make individual pieces of art, but we are hoping to make a STEAM mural that will star in Library for years to come!

First we watched this video for inspiration!



Before we can begin handing out hammers, screwdrivers and hot glue guns, Ms. Kniffin and I thought it best that we co-create norms about student behavior. The kids were very motivated to have a voice in the process of how we can not only collaborate successfully and safely, but also how to communicate decisions about the mural (which is to be co-created by three different grade levels) from class to class. They worked in small groups to determine their top five norms, then shared out the three they decided were most important.















After three class discussions, here are the final norms that we can all agree on to be successful and safe as we move forward in our deconstruction! Student voice helps create more buy in, and when I remind kids that we all created and agreed on these norms if there are any disagreements, I know the fact that they had a part in the decision-making will help settle any problems. 


Looking forward to bringing the Art to STEAM!

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