E-MERGING ISSUES
What We See @Three: Preparing for the
Summer Institute
Randy Bass and the VKP Staff
When the fifty participants in the Visible
Knowledge Project gather for the Summer
Institute in late July, the Project will be three years old. With
two full years of research projects completed, we have not only built
up a critical mass of work, but are starting to see some patterns emerge
across the themes of that work. These patterns and themes, in turn, provide
a good place to begin thinking about moving from individual to collaborative
work.
Focusing on the work of individuals as a way of advancing our
work together has always been an important feature of the summer
institutes. During this past year we have been able to focus on individual
projects through their electronic “posters”
created by faculty, as more and more of their work becomes public and
on the Web. For this Summer Institute, we hope to take advantage not only
of individual projects but of the “visibility” of this work
through the VKP website.
We also hope to make an important expansion in the project, from looking
at individual projects to thinking about projects in juxtaposition, as
well. We are planning for this collaboration to take two forms at the
Summer Institute: (1) Faculty with similar thematic projects will discuss
ways to publish their findings collaboratively (or dialogically) in one
of several venues we will discuss there and later here in the newsletter.
(2) Some participants will also plan to engage in some collaborative inquiry
in the year or two ahead, exploring how their future investigations might
share frameworks, rubrics, assignments, types of evidence, etc. (Of course,
after the Summer Institute we will work very hard to insure that all VKP
participants, not just those in attendance, will be part of these plans.)
Interactive List: Transforming the Working Group
Process
In this issue of the newsletter, we have created an interactive
list of all participants (and their project posters) who are attending
the Summer Institute. We have arranged the Working Groups according
to themes
shared across individual projects. Naturally, there are many ways to
organize the projects and all projects have multiple dimensions.
But these research
threads seem to make sense as starting places for conversation.
In each thematic area are listed five or six names. The first
three projects in each group, most of which
have already gone through the working group process in previous years,
will be considered in a collective manner. These participants will give
shorter presentations than in the past, and the discussion will focus
on the projects collectively and on common issues across them.
Secondly, within each group are names with the letters
(WG) after them. These are projects that will go through the traditional
Working Group process, where the whole group focuses on each member's
project in turn. In general, these are projects that have not gone through
the working group process before, or they are projects that have not had,
in their post-investigation phase, a lot of collaborative interaction
throughout the year.
Our intention is that these projects will be looked at, to some extent,
as a grouping. We hope that the whole group can explore some of the shared
themes, methods, and findings as part of the emerging collective work
of the project. On the third day, we will spend the working
group time engaged in activities designed to foster this collaboration.
We are asking those attending the Summer Institute to prepare
by reading—at least—all the posters in their assigned group,
thinking especially about the commonalities and connections across
these projects. We are also asking that all participants read
the first two readings, listed under "common readings," on our
Summer
Institute Readings page.
This is a critical and exciting moment in the Project, as we see not
only the ongoing development of new projects and new faculty participants—whose
launch we want to facilitate in every way—but also the evolution
of the work into more fine-grained, detailed inquiries into student learning.
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Interactive Working
Groups List
Participants in the VKP Summer Institute
2003 can use this interactive list to learn about how the Institute working
groups are organized.
[Please note: On Friday,
July 25th, the VKP poster tool will be upgraded. Users may not be able
to access their posters for editing on that day. This interactive list
links to the current poster tool, and these posters should remain
available.]
To navigate the list:
- All participants' names in the chart are linked to their VKP project
posters. Find your group on the list and then click on name of others
from your group.
- You may also click on the working group themes listed below to find
that particular group.
WORKING GROUPS
Tools and scaffolding for increased comprehension
Close reading
Visual texts (Using)
Visual texts (Creating)
Visual texts (Reading)
Making skills visible
Making meaning of/connections with texts
Discussion and other tools to enhance discussion/writing/
performance
- Tools
and scaffolding
for increased comprehension
- Making meaning of/connections with
texts
- Discussion
and other tools
to enhance discussion/writing/ performance
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