A couple of weeks ago, I worked with our seniors in doing the Sidewalk Selfie Quickfire.  I shared what the teacher and I had done with a 4th grade teacher, the AMAZING Ms. Diaz, and she already planning on doing some STEAM/Maker kinds of things with her class, so she was ready to go to do a chalk activity with her class - AWESOME!  In their school, they are using the True Success program.  As they were already talking about RESPECT, we decided that would be something that all the students could relate to and would make a great visual topic.

The day before our activity, the teacher did brainstorming activity with the students and asked them, "What does RESPECT look like/sound like to you?".  In one of the previous activities the class had done about respect, they had talked about how it is like a boomerang and it will return when it is given away.  I thought it was a great analogy and the students really took the boomerang idea!

Some of examples of respect from the students are below.

After a little introduction to our activity, we headed outside to the sidewalk in front of the school and got to work.  The students were randomly sorted into groups of 3, and each were given a sidewalk square to decorate with a representation of RESPECT.  Before they could receive their chalk and start drawing, they had to share their ideas with their group and come up with a GROUP plan for what they were going to draw.  Their teacher pointed out that the drawings had to look like a group created them, not separate people doing their own thing.  We knew this was going to be a challenge for them because it was something new, included group cooperation, and had a large audience.

When they were about 3/4 of the way through their drawings, we had them stop and rotate to another group (that was not right next to their own) and see what they had done.  We had a clipboard for each group with a Feedback Form on it where groups had to leave feedback for the artists.  It was amazing to hear the conversations and responses that some of the students came up with!  We discussed this part briefly in the classroom before heading out, but they really didn't need much help in leaving feedback.  I explained how we were using this to help out each other and help everyone to make their drawings the best possible work of art.  After returning to their own artwork, the students could read the feedback left for them and then finish their drawings.

It was so cute to look out the front of the school sidewalk and see bright colors and students sharing about RESPECT.  You can tell through their drawings and conversations that they have been working on different ways to be respectful (I love the "every flower is different" phrase on one of them!).  The teacher closed out the activity by pointing out some of the great things she saw and heard while they were working and then asked them to think about what their favorite part was of the activity.  After some think time, they shared with a shoulder partner their favorite part.  Some of their answers were kind of what I expected to hear ("I liked working outside."  "I liked using the chalk."), but there were also several surprising ones where the students really liked doing the little gallery walk and looking at others and even having the chance to leave them some feedback.  I love those 4th grade deep thinkers!

Last year I was introduced to the concept of Quickfires by Mary Wever and the MAET program at Michigan State University.  It seemed like a great way to engage students with new tools, ideas, and concepts - I was hooked!

A Quickfire is a challenge that is presented to an students that has constraints and a time frame (think about the TV show Top Chef!).  These activities are meant to be a time to learn new tools and push student thinking. Therefore, students should feel comfortable trying out a new tool rather than going with the same old tool they may be really good at already. As part of the Quickfire process, teachers should NOT take a grade on these activities - they should encourage students to think outside the box and be quick about their thinking. The Quickfire activities that I created to do with teachers are rooted in the design thinking process and were intended to be completed within 45-60 minutes (roughly 1 class period).  Each time, students will produce a product (although some may not consider their products as “complete” and that is completely acceptable - the purpose is to begin designing a solution to something that you had not previously conceived of before).

As part of my approach to implementing Quickfires, I created a leveled chart that show how the students are connecting to the project.  This helps me to see where we are in our scaffolding process and ways we can push our students to think outside of themselves.

For the first Quickfire of the school year, I worked with a 12th grade ELA teacher.  She and I started planning last year focusing in on skills that would benefit students for their culminating Senior Capstone project.  Our goal was to scaffold the Quickfire projects throughout the year and make the activities fun, while the students are learning through collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and building confidence (as this aligns to our district's 6C Learner Profile).