We get MAIL …

Take a look at some of the comments we receive when visitors download the +100 MORE LID TOPICS list.

My daughter is in her first year of LiD at Irvington K-8. Her topic is rodents, and even at age six, I’m starting to see her move among accumulating knowledge to making connections. I’m witnessing the pride and engagement of ownership of her topic. I’m thrilled that she has this. My daughter is on the Autistic spectrum and has SPD, and sometimes she is not successful in the traditional classroom. This is another way for her to soar and demonstrate her talents.
As a teacher myself, I’ve been talking to my principal about bring LiD to our middle school. He’s enthusiastic and we are both reading Kieran Egan’s book.

Whitford Middle School

Its a very good concept and can be introduced in the various club activities that we have. The 100+ topics list will be of great help.Thank you for sharing.

G D Salwan Public School – India

I am interested in learning more about how we could implement LID at our school for girls in grades 6-12. My own daughters (ages 9 and 12) are very intrigued by this idea.

The Ethel Walker School

I love LiD!!! I wish more schools could do it. As a parent, I’m getting my kids involved at home. This fuels family outings, exploration and creating in the home.

Jennifer – SD41 BC, Canada

I am piloting this with my homeroom kids, grades 4-7. We are an online k-12 school. This is part of an Advisory class. Although there will be no grading, it will be part of their responsibilities in their Advisory course that includes other things like journaling, note-taking, etc.

Baker Web Academy

I am exploring the idea of homeschooling my 15 year old daughter. She is currently in the ninth grade at a private school for children who ‘learn differently’. She is intelligent but has ADD and ‘executive function’ and ‘processing’ issues. I suspect that she may also be somewhere on the Autism spectrum, perhaps mild Aspergers.
She is doing well at this school but I feel that she would benefit from one on one instruction and time for more in depth investigation into subject matter.
I saw the ‘Learning in Depth’ book in the library and it looked interesting.

Holly W. Homeschooling

We originally considered a Learning in Depth pilot program as an extension opportunity for our Talented and Gifted students, but due to parent interest we have expanded it to anyone interested. We are a K-8 school located in Portland, Oregon. My team of volunteer staff and parents are hoping the teachers choose to adopt it school wide next year after seeing the program success firsthand. Since it is an extracurricular activity this year we are implementing weekly check-ins with students and monthly research evenings. Parent support is high thanks to a presentation from Bob & Sheri Dunton in September. We have 131 of our 481 students participating. We are adapting Corbett’s “Library of Alexandria” theme and are having great fun preparing. Thank you for providing us with this opportunity!

Irvington School, Portland Public Schools

LiD in the media

WISE has launched the ed.hub to help practitioners share their knowledge and experience, building bridges between challenges and solutions.

The ed.hub is a platform where experts and practitioners support each other by engaging in conversations on particular education issues. It allows thinkers and doers to connect and explore new collaborations and partnerships to tackle educational challenges.

The ed.hub also showcases innovative projects and successful practices that have had a transformative impact on education and societies. Projects featured here cover a variety of fields, a wide range of sectors and all regions of the world.

Featured project: Learning in Depth

 

www.wise-qatar.org

University Highlands Elementary School

UNIVERSITY HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Presents:

2015 Learning in Depth Open House & Celebration!

Where: UHE, Burnaby, BC
When: May 22nd – 1.00 pm – 2.30 pm

Come and join us!

UHE 2015 LID Celebration

“Yes, it’s LiD day!”

Capitol Hill Elementary, Burnaby

Contact: Olwen Cowan – MACC Teacher – 4/5 Class

“Yes, it’s LiD day!” is the most common thing I hear when greeting my students on Friday mornings.

This fall I implemented the Learning in Depth program with my classroom of high ability learners (part of Burnaby’s Multi-age Cluster Classroom pilot program for gifted/high ability children in grades 4 and 5). My intention was to maintain and sustain the love of learning the majority of my students have. But, of course, some questions lingered. Would the students feel engaged with the topics? Would they see the interconnections that LiD provides? Could LiD help in building community with students who travel from all across the school district for this specialized program? The answer to the above questions is a resounding, deafening “YES”.

Read more …

LiD blog

BOOK SALE

The Great Chicago Book Sale
LEARNING IN DEPTH Book ON SALE: $ 7
Prices valid until 2/27/2015lid-pic1

http://goo.gl/4u0Sfv

 

 

St Alcuin College in North Vancouver wants to be a LiD school

Our introduction to LiD was delivered with a visual provocation. The students watched a short video of the wonders of the world around us, landforms, insects, animals, technology, history, and environmentalism were briefly shown in short 6-second videos. Parents and students listened to a brief description of the LiD program and all adults present, including administrators, teachers and parents pledged to support the students along the journey. A short celebration ended the day and involved a small snack and pictures.

Quotes on LiD from our students

“ I like my topic because I like to cook and it is fun because I am learning about stuff that I didn’t know.”

“I think LiD is about starting on one thing and learning more and more about it, going deeper and deeper.”

“I like LiD because it lets you learn lots about a subject.”

“I like LiD because I find it interesting because you get to decide what you do.”

“I love my topic because it is totally me.”

“LiD is a topic that you master.”

“LiD is my favourite subject in school.”

LiD in a grade 2 French Immersion classroom

“It’s what students do with what they learn when they can do what they want to do that is the real measure of educational achievement.” (Eisner, 2001)

As an IE educator, this quote by Elliot Eisner has stuck with me and is my driving force.

I ventured upon implementing Learning in Depth (LiD) in my grade 2 French Immersion classroom last year. It was a challenge to say the least, but I believe that anything worth doing will present challenges and, in all honesty, is there any avenue of effective teaching that is challenge-free?

I noticed very early on that, despite the challenges an additional language and early-literacy stages presented, the students in my class enthusiastically took on their LiD topics and quickly made them their own. There were Lego castles and Lego pirate ships coming to class which the students had made on their own time with no requests on my part. When presenting speeches, objects that were brought in were connected to their LiD topics. When we were at the Children’s Festival, students waited extra time in line, just so they could have the costume that represented their topics, got henna tattoos connected to their topics, molded clay representations of their topics, explained that they just saw something which was connected to another child’s topic, and were sharing facts out of the blue with me regarding their topics.

The epitome of it all involved two students near the end of the school year. One little girl, let’s call her Lisa, came to school one day having spent the weekend working on drawing and creating a flag that represented her topic of birds. In Social Studies, we had been learning about Canada and how particular symbols and colors can represent its different features. Lisa used symbols and colors effectively and appropriately in creating a flag to represent birds. She took her learning from one area of schooling and applied it to another (her LiD topic) by her own initiative and in her own time.

Jacob’s topic was bees. One day, his father caught up to me in the school parking lot and asked if I had a moment. I was in a hurry, but, of course, said, “Yes.” He proceeded to show me a little video Jacob had taken using his dad’s phone of a little bee in their yard on Thanksgiving weekend. He narrated it and here are some of the comments he made in his narration:

“I found this bee, my topic. He could be dead, or he could be alive. You can see the pollen on his legs. He’s cool, isn’t he? It’s [the date]…………on Thanksgiving day, I find a bee …….. my topic.” Again, this precious video clip was filmed by Jacob in his own time and of his own initiative.

(link to the video: http://ierg.ca/LID/videos-about-lid/ )

LiD has provided an avenue by which my students take ownership of, make connections with and are emotionally engaged and excited about their learning. It’s the fact that they took these elements outside the four walls of the classroom that is true cause for celebration.

                                                                        Kavita Hoonjan

KB Woodward Elementary

At KB Woodward Elementary we began LiD in 2011/2012 with 1 class taking the challenge. During the 2012/2013 School Year we had 3 classes working on LiD. During the 2013/14 school year we had 7 classes participating in LiD. Each class had weekly research time with their teacher. We also met twice a month in the gym as a whole group to show off and share our discoveries. It was an amazing experience for everyone involved. This year more teachers are on board and KB Woodward now has 11 classes, grades 1-7 participating in LiD. We are all so excited.

David Futter and new LiD program

David Futter is piloting a student engagement program based around LID, supported by his School Board in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Last year several disengaged students at his school all told the principal that the only thing they liked the previous year was LID. He designed a program based on one student’s LiD topic in such a way that it covered all the mandated core areas. This year he will have two afternoons a week to work with 4-6 students to establish and monitor a LID program as their main program of study. Look for a future report on how the program goes. Good luck, David!

Newsletter AUG 2014

2014 has been a great year for LiD so far, as it spreads increasingly around the galaxy, becoming a staple of the curriculum in more and more schools. Since our last Newsletter, we have had additional schools take on the program in Chile, England, Australia, Ireland, U.S.A. and Canada, and no doubt other places we have not yet heard from.

Read More …