Vertical Horizons

The idea of connectivity, in a vertical and horizontal sense. Horizontal in this case meaning connection to other class work, to other students, to the teacher, to those things within the classroom. Vertical being connection to bigger or smaller ideas. Making connections outside of the class to related situations.

This was sparked by a situation in my classroom where students worked on “procedures” for a week with various activities, but the connections to bigger ideas and the connection to previous work was tenuous at best in my mind. Sure, as a teacher and scientist, I can see the importance of writing good procedures but do students? As a teacher I can see the flow of events from writing procedures of PB& J sandwiches, to writing procedures for legos, to writing procedures for a “helicopter” lab, do students? Is it enough that students are practicing skills?

This led to the idea of student work, and how it functions. How often does what a student does actually change what happens in the classroom? Perhaps more important, how often does it impact their future work. Sure, when it is part of the same assignment and connections are explicit, but how does a teacher incorporate student work?