Every year, when we begin school, we are told that the classes are not set – and usually won’t be until the following week – because we might be getting a new division, or there are a lot of new students, or various other reasons. Because of this, I’ve developed a pattern for the beginning of the school year.

We do assessments. Reading assessments using the Alberta Diagnostics, basic mathematical operations assessments using worksheets I’ve found or someone has written, writing assessments (although frequently we give students the choice of what to write, “What I Did on my Summer Vacation” tends to be the most common title). We even do PE assessments (though we’re more looking for athleticism, leadership, participation, groupings) and art assessments (effort, creativity, ability to follow criteria). While the students do their assessments, I stand at the front of the class and attempt to memorize names.

I should note that we mix the grade sevens up in different configurations, both so that they don’t know what class they are going to be in and so that we can see how different students work together. Although we, the grade six teachers, the learning support team, the counselor and the administration spent an inordinate amount of time in June attempting to make the best classroom organizations we could, everyone knows that things change over the summer. It’s good to see the students in different groupings.

But the assessments are boring. They are boring for me, and they are boring for the students – and they’re not a good sense of how either I or the other grade seven teachers run our classrooms. They give us some information, true; but I find that more of my knowledge of the students comes from interacting with them within the classroom setting than marking assessments they did (right after coming back from two months off).

So my grade group partner and I decided to try something different this year. We’re going to launch the year – still without class groupings and still varying the student organization so that we can see them in various configurations – with an inquiry project: Creating a Learning-Oriented Classroom.

(You try thinking of a better name the last weekend of summer!)

The point of the project is for students to group themselves (they choose) and make an argument for what physical and social-organizational model is the best for optimizing learning in the classrooms. The mathematical aspect (which my partner is organizing) will involve measuring the space available and the furniture, and finding the best physical layout of the classroom to increase student learning. The language aspect (that’s my area) is to figure out what routines and social expectations would best help students be able to learn. They have a budget of $50.

In order to see the different configurations of students, most of the research and measurement they will need to do won’t actually be done in their presentation groups. Rather, they will be randomly grouped – and grouped in different ways for different parts of the project – in order to find their information, and then bring that information back to their groups to decide what to do with it. It – I hope – will mean that they have access to a lot more research and information than they would if they stayed in their self-chosen groups.

At the end, each group will present their plan to the rest of the grade sevens, and each group will choose the plan they think is the best and explain why it will optimize learning.

I’m nervous about this project. There’s a lot that could go wrong, and a lot that I don’t think I’ve clearly thought through in terms of the planning. I don’t want students to be overwhelmed, or confused – because what a horrible way that would be to start the year! – but I think this is worth a try anyway.

If nothing else, it’s a learning experience for me, and an indication to my students of the focus I want to place on project-based learning this year. We can work through it together.