Measures of Dispersion and Variability: Range, QD, AD and SD
Towards a Transdiciplinary Curriculum
1. Getting to Our Best Ideas:
Towards Transdisciplinary Curriculum
in the Middle School
Mark Silberberg
msilberberg@lrei.org - @silberbergmark
Sarah Barlow & Sara-Momii Roberts
sbarlow@lrei.org & smroberts@lrei.org
2. “What is the worst consequence of
your best idea?” - Chris Lehmann
• For the purpose of this
exercise “best” idea is moving
towards a more integrated
curriculum.
• Write down your response to
the question (anonymously or
you can sign).
• Put your card on the table
and take a card put down by
one of your colleagues.
• On the back of the card, write
a response that turns the
worst consequence into an
opportunity in support of the
"best" idea (i.e., see
obstacles as opportunities).
3. Are You Out of Sync With
Your Values?
-from Edgar Schein
4. Are You Out of Sync With
Your Values?
When all three levels are in alignment, you have
a powerful organizational culture.
“What we say is how we behave and the stuff
around us supports the cultural experience.”
5. Some espoused values
at LREI: Inquiry . . .
• a recursive questioning process
• a tool to unpack meaning
• opens us to the wonder inspired by the world around us
• an incubator for our innate ability to be curious and to seek
connections
• as structure to help us to live in the uncomfortable space
where we don't know the answer
• as vehicle for transforming culture
6.
7.
8. Where we want to be . . .
• More teacher conversation/co-planning
• Co-teaching interdisciplinary units
• Teaching around "affinities and passions"
• Learning with students
• Working on really rich problems.
• Seeing kids for longer blocks of time.
• More authentic; more like the real world
• Content serving problems/projects/skills
• Inquiry driving authentic learning
9. Where kids want to be . . .
• Investigating topics of personal interest
independently
• Investigating topics of personal interest in a group
with others who are interested in the same topic
• More “making" things and more connections across
classes
• More independent work time; more time for working
on projects
• A broader audience to share my work with
• Deciding what homework I need to do to improve my
learning
28. Students learn letter writing, phone calling,
email and interview skills that they use to
identify partner organizations
29. Some of our partners . . .
• New York Immigration Coalition • Housing Works
• Mercy Corps Action Center • Invisible Children
• Geoffrey Canada, • Ishmael Beah Foundation
• Promise Academy, Harlem • “It Gets Better" Project
Children’s Zone • GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and
• UN Conference on the Straight Education Network)
Millennium Goals • The Innocence Project
• NYC Million Trees • CAPP (Child Abuse Prevention
• Patricia McCormick Program)
• SPARK • GEMS (Girls Education and
• Common Ground Mentoring Services)
• Office of Disarmament Affairs • Global Kids
at the United Nations • Food Bank of New York
30. Groups create web sites on our Elgg social
media site to document their work
31. They blog about their site visits, interviews and
their developing understanding of the issues.
Peers and partners comment on their posts.
32. They join in with and initiate actions to
support their partner organizations
37. Our Obstacles and
Opportunities
• Where does the project demonstrate integration of various
disciplines?
• Where are there gaps? How can we better integrate with other
disciplines?
• Where have turned obstacles into opportunities?
• What's been tricky? What's been great? Where has this been
pushed?
• Privilege piece
• Logistics piece
• Time/Schedule piece for fieldwork and joint planning with other
teachers
• “Do the kids really care?” piece and/or what do they gain?
40. Getting to Our Best Ideas:
Towards Transdisciplinary Curriculum
in the Middle School
Mark Silberberg
msilberberg@lrei.org - @silberbergmark
Sarah Barlow & Sara-Momii Roberts
sbarlow@lrei.org & smroberts@lrei.org