The Evolution of an Innovative Middle School Teacher: From PBL to Competencies and Pathways
By Tara Quigley, Director of Miss Fine’s Center for Interdisciplinary Education and Humanities Teacher, Princeton Day School (NJ) and OESIS Network Leader
Sixth graders use the 4Cs Visible Thinking Strategy to compare and contrast cultures in preparation for a class-wide debate on the “fairness” of the Roman use of the term barbarian.
In 2014 it finally registered that I needed to change the way I approached teaching my students. Until then, my middle school Humanities classes had always conducted several research projects, increasing in complexity during the year. However, my colleagues and I began to notice that students were less on task and engaged in the steps involved with researching and writing a paper. At the same time, I became interested in both Project-Based Learning and Guided Inquiry Design, thinking an increased level of student autonomy and opportunity in my classes might help. Over the next five years, my colleagues and I found these approaches to be effective at promoting student agency and engagement, and have 20 Intrepid
slowly transitioned most of our content and instruction to this more student-centered model for our Social Studies curriculum. The more we stepped aside in the classroom, the more we allowed student autonomy and choice; however, the more frustrated we became with our grading system. With a traditional grade book focused on categories such as homework, reading, and writing, we couldn’t seem to recognize and provide feedback on the skills and competencies we were encouraging students to develop: collaboration, communication, and problemsolving. Here is the story of how we reinvented our student experience within the context of a demanding and competitive learning culture.
The OESIS Network Innovation Quarterly
March 2020
