The exercise was engaging and interesting to most of the students. We now have ideas for labs ranging from crash-testing busses, to racing fighter jets, to skydiving with eggs. Translating these to practical labs might be a trick, but most of the students spent the class-time engaged in kinematics and other types of physics.

We unpacked the lyrics through class dialogue. The skill of asking "how else could I say this" was also present in the sense that when students gave input to the discussion, there were times calling for clarification (e.g. asking "what do you mean by that?") that prompted students to have to rephrase an explanation or a question (with even I, the teacher, at one point modeling this for students when they didn't understand a comment I made, stating, "Hm... how else could I say that?").

Following discussion, students jotted down a summary of the song in response to the question, "How else could you say what the songwriter is trying to say?"

Ideas for further learning / deeper connection: harkening back to the "3 Whys" for why the message is meaningful to students, community and world; "how else" could we perform the music to better reflect the meaning / tone of the text; "what other" (a variant of "how else") pieces of music could we program to create a cohesive artistic message in the program?

How has the fight over birth control impacted the women’s rights movement beyond the 19th Amendment?

Initial Statement

What I want to say is…..

Reflective Iterations

Ask yourself:  How else can I say this?  And why?

Explore different ways to communicate your ideas.  Think about how your message might be received by different audiences, including those with different historical or cultural backgrounds.

Repeat question:  How else can I say this? And why? 

The issue of birth control definitely creates differences of opinion. I included one student response posted above. While most considered gender when communicating views, students generally avoided communicating across religious differences--probably because it can be uncomfortable and controversial. Sanger went to jail for opening a clinic and disseminating information on contraception. "No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body." Sanger's sentiments shocked leaders in the moral purity movement who feared the corruption and degradation of America. Surprisingly, most students supported Sanger's assertions and civil disobedience. I thought there would have been a greater diversity of positions on the topic given the ongoing "culture wars." Much of American history is a struggle between continuity and change.

"How else can you visually demonstrate your understanding of these color relationships? Why did you choose this method?"

Then, we used the "How else?" and "Why?" protocol with a writing assignment where students had to rewrite the ending. They had to keep the narrative style and tone the same, but were able to think about "how else" the novel could reach an appropriate ending. They also needed to think of "how else" to include situational irony in their own versions, and explained "why" their ending was an appropriate alternative.

We watched the movie ending (1930s version) as an activator and exemplar of "how else" you could imagine the ending and "why" it still worked, even though it was different from the novel's ending. Students did a great job with this (in the interest of not spoiling the end of the book, I won't include student samples 😉)

OBSERVATION-look at/watch/be curious

QUESTION-how/why/learn more about

HYPOTHESIS-try it out/what will happen if

EXPERIMENT-test/try/collect info/write it

CONCLUSION-what happened/first/last

We also talked about the WHY this was important. The students came up with, we needed an easier way to help us remember and I didn't know what these were before. This concept helped the students to come full circle with their learning.

Students are currently learning about the different forms of thermal energy transfer. The unit focuses on conduction, convection, and radiation which students learn about through their own experiments and demonstrations performed for them.

How I implemented the How Else & Why routine is through a "ELI5" assignment. ELI5 is internet slang for "Explain It Like I'm Five". Students were asked to think about how they would explain the different forms of energy transfer to a five year old who wouldn't have the same vocabulary or background knowledge they possessed.

I the assignment worked well as a formative assessment because it allowed me to gauge how well each student could apply what they had learned in a new way rather than repeating back what I taught them. Furthermore, students had creative freedom as they could choose to provide a written explanation or create an annotated model.

We use positive statements to build self-esteem and also to give children a different option. For example, if we say "Don't drag your coat" the child may not know how else to carry their coat, so we could say "Hold up your coat so it stays off the ground."

We also talked about "You statements." This is used to validate the child's feelings and lets them know that you hear and understand what is bothering them.

This routine worked well to help students explore all perspectives first, rather than just "go with their gut" when answering a question. For example, the routine asks them to come up with the two possible answers to the question first ("East" & "West") and then brainstorm evidence to support each possible answer ("North" or "need to know facts"). Once they had all the possible answers and evidence, they could evaluate their evidence to determine which answer is the strongest claim or stance ("South"). I found the routine helpful, although I didn't find the compass visual to be super helpful because it doesn't list the order in which to follow the steps, so I ended up just making my own handout to put the four steps in a more logical order.

In 9th grade English, after reading a chapter that has a clear character dilemma, students reflected from the character's perspective using the compass points.

We were finishing up a team-building activity, and for our recap of it we went over a few talking points

1. What are benefits of team building? Not just in the gym, but in other aspects of life too?

2. What are some concerns about team building activities? Why do you struggle to fully participate in them? What are some downfalls of little participation?

3. What are your opinions on it, and why do you think it's important, or not important?

Although it does not 100% line up with the compass points completely, it still lead to some good conversations and a better class understanding as to why team building is so important and why it is something that needs to be practiced.

"Is there a better way to talk to yourself/your teammate?"

"What are some other ways you can encourage your teammates instead of bringing them down?"

This was also a great thing to talk about at the end of class, as a reminder to everyone that how we talk to ourselves and each other really matters!

Typically, students use a decision matrix to evaluate their ideas. This year students will also provide feedback on other's selected designs using the compass points routine. The routine will serve as a scaffold to help make the peer feedback relevant and productive. 

I plan on modifying the compass into a checklist and changing the wording of the questions to make it more relevant to my specific purpose.

N = What do you want to know about the route you are about to travel?

E= What excites you about this route? Or what is most interesting to you?

W = What worries you? Do you have questions, or can you foresee challenges with the route?

S = Stance - I'll tweak this a bit to ask about how students feel about their confidence in completing the route on a scale of 1-10. Then I'll ask again after they complete the route.

For a younger student who needs modified directions and has a unique learning style, we will work on a familiar route, and I will focus the compass directions on externalizing my own thought process about the route so the student can learn as we go.

N: What investigating/research do we need to do before we can develop a plan for reconstruction? How should we go about gathering information related to what problems the nation was facing at the time?

E: What do we want the U.S. states to look like post reconstruction? How can we work to create a society free of the problems that existed pre-reconstruction?

S: What organization/institutions need creating in order for your plans to go into place?

W: What challenges with your plan for reconstruction do you anticipate moving forward?

Objective: To understand the processes involved in the carbon cycle and how it affects the environment.

Introduction: I start by discussing the basic carbon cycle stages: Photosynthesis, Cellular Respiration, Decomposition, and Combustion. I ask the students to describe what they know about each of these processes. As we walk through the different stages of the carbon cycle I ask them…

"Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and water using the energy from the sun.”

How Else Question: "How else can carbon dioxide be removed from the air besides photosynthesis?"

Why Question: "Why does photosynthesis only occur during the day time?"

"Cellular Respiration makes carbon dioxide, water and ATP from food.” 

How Else Question: "How else can carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere besides being produced by animals?"

Why Question: "Why does the carbon dioxide rise up into the air instead of staying on the ground?"

"Decomposition occurs when dead organisms are broken down by bacteria, fungi, insects and worms.” 

How Else Question: "How else could the process of decomposition be described in terms of obtaining energy?"

Why Question: "Why is decomposition important in ecosystems other than producing carbon dioxide?"

"Combustion occurs when fossil fuels are burned in order to run machines like cars and factories.” 

How Else Question: "How else can human activities affect the carbon cycle?"

Why Question: "Why is the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere a bad thing?"

Final Why Question: "Why do you think the carbon cycle is essential for life on Earth?"

The exercise was engaging and interesting to most of the students. We now have ideas for labs ranging from crash-testing busses, to racing fighter jets, to skydiving with eggs. Translating these to practical labs might be a trick, but most of the students spent the class-time engaged in kinematics and other types of physics.