I.    Abstract

II.    Introduction
         -Significance of the Problem
         -Setting and Overview of Strategic Instructional Plan

III.    Data Collection
        -Claim #1
        -Claim #2
        -Claim #3
        -Claim #4

IV.   Conclusion

V.   Works Cited

VI.   Team Member Biographies

Three teachers at Metz Junior High School in Manassas, Virginia, determined that helping their students learn more about themselves and the way they learn was one strategy in helping the students become agents of their own learning. They also examined the extent to which individual personality types impact on learning styles and the development of agency.

They administered a personality sorter and learning style inventory to 171 ninth-grade students in their geometry and Spanish II classes. Strategies for using the students’ preferred learning styles to maximize learning were suggested to the students.

Several strategies for using the different learning styles were modeled by the teachers in the classrooms. The students were encouraged to share strategies with their peers that they had used successfully to learn new material. Projects were assigned which allowed students to combine several learning modalities to learn new concepts and to display their new knowledge.

The teachers determined that students were enthusiastic about learning about themselves. The students benefitted from their teachers’ consistent attention to the differences in their learning styles. The teachers’ attempts to develop activities, which would allow learning to take place through a variety of methods, were appreciated by the students. Many students began to demonstrate, through their journal entries and in conversations with their teachers, that they had accepted responsibility for their own learning.

When we began our research project, we wondered "What happens to a student's attitude about learning when he develops an appreciation of and an understanding for his cultural background and unique perspective?" Based on our research this year in three different classrooms in three different curriculum areas, we believe that when students see the connections of the content studied to their own lives, in a classroom atmosphere of strong interpersonal relationships, they engage with their learning. To support this argument, we make four claims. Most importantly, trust and openness on the part of the teacher and the student are key attributes necessary for a student to make personal connections to his learning. Secondly, the focus on teaching the "whole child" has an impact on his attitude; it improves because he has connected the learning to himself in a variety of ways. When a student has made a personal connection to the content, he engages with the content when he demonstrates the desire to share his work with others and asks for immediate feedback from the teacher about his work. Finally, involvement in classroom activities and commitment to one’s work increase when a student connects to his learning.

We first began to consider the detachment of students to their learning when one team member, Pat, referred throughout the year to her own daughter’s disillusionment and indifference to her high school classes. Many times we would all shake our heads and wonder what a teacher could do to make Pat’s daughter’s experience more meaningful to her. As we began our second year of study, we began to "connect" the content of the course work and our discussions about our own positive classroom experiences to our team member’s concerns about her daughter. We began to think of ways that school could become a more fulfilling experience for her. We were, in fact, beginning to see the emergence of our research project.

The significance and importance of involving students in their own education and assisting them in making the connection to learning through their personal experiences became even more apparent as we worked through the first and second Language and Culture classes. Our discussions in these IET courses gave us insight into what it meant to feel excluded as a minority or to be considered "one who does not matter." We recognized that some students must feel separate and apart, not able to fit the content of the curriculum to their life. Lisa Delpit illustrates this point in her study of the problems of Native children coming from a small village school to a predominantly white high school. When those Native students were labeled as failures, one of their elementary teachers remarked, "I guess that’s one way for a dominant culture to maintain dominance – not to recognize any of the strengths of another group" (114-115). As we delved further into the idea of culture, we recognized that we are all unique and must fight "cultural hegemony…by insisting that children be allowed to express themselves in their own language" (Delpit 37). Culture does not necessarily depend on ethnic identification but on many divergent facets of each person’s world. We then recognized the educational opportunity inherent in allowing students to define their learning through their own experience. Delpit calls us "to reassess what we are doing in public schools and universities to include other voices, other experiences" (20).

As we considered what it meant to be a moral professional educator, we could not deny the importance of connecting elements of curriculum with student individual experience. It made sense to us as educators to allow for the flow of their ideas, their interpretation and their experience in response to the course content or components of the curriculum. Having the courage to change the technique of our teaching and accepting the interpretations that our students presented to us demonstrated a collaboration of student and teacher which exemplifies caring about individual student learning. This educational setting which fostered tolerance and acceptance of those with different insight and cultures enabled our students to demonstrate growth in their perceptions.

It has become apparent to us, however, that the movement for standardization of our educational practices by the state of Virginia could serve to "lump" students into neat little packages, which claim no notice of any individuality or uniqueness. The name of the process - "standardization" - assumes that there should be no leeway for special talents or special needs. It stifles the process of individual interpretation and expression and denies the cultural richness and diversity of our society. It presents the potential for doing great harm to the self-esteem and self-acceptance of our student population and runs the risk of pushing back gains we have made in our profession.

Unfortunately, the major stumbling block to our research was the pressure on the two core teachers to meet the content demands of the state-mandated Standards of Learning assessment program and the atmosphere of conformity to curriculum that permeated our school. As Elkind recognizes, "postmodern schools are curriculum-centered in the sense that the educational demands made on children are primarily based on subject matter, rather than child-development, considerations" (125). Our research placed us in opposition to the national movement to have all students master the same established content, all at the same time, in core subject areas, without regard for the student’s individuality. John Dewey would describe the current assessment-driven education program as one with "passivity of attitude, mechanical massing of children, uniformity of curriculum and method. It can be summed up by stating that the center of gravity is outside the child" (34). Contrary to meeting all of the needs of a student, a content-driven curriculum forces the exclusion of valuable learning. Pamela Moss zeroes in on the consequences of a uniform standards-driven curriculum when she notes that "what isn’t assessed tends to disappear from the curriculum" (6). Moss continues her discussion of testing programs by saying that "there are certain intellectual activities that standardized assessments can neither document nor promote; these include encouraging students to find their own purposes for reading and writing, encouraging teachers to make informed decisions consistent with the needs of individual students, and encouraging students and teachers to collaborate on criteria and standards to evaluate their work" (6). The very claims that support our argument are not commiserate with the criteria used to assess the components of the SOLs. However, we agree with Moss that the intellectual activities she identifies have much more value.

Lawrence Levine suggests that in teaching we must "confront and comprehend" studies that recognize "the complexity of knowledge, the complexity of culture, the complexity of the world, and the complexity of the changing United States" (64-65). We believe that the findings of our research enabled us to welcome that complexity, and the students’ varied connections to that complexity, into our classrooms.

Finally, in the aftermath of the April 20, 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, when two students murdered their peers and teacher, in part because they felt that they were not accepted by the members of their school community, teachers, parents, and children have all called for increased emphasis on "connecting" to students. Adults have been encouraged to listen to the individual voices of students in order to prevent the disaffection evident in that shooting rampage.

Pat, Margaret, and David all teach at Osbourn High School in Manassas, Virginia. Osbourn High School is the only high school in the City of Manassas Public Schools System. One of its strengths is that it is very community oriented; teachers and students know each other and their families. We all know our superintendent by first name as well as the other members of the Central Office staff. Because of this closeness, there is a strong sense of caring within the school system and within the school itself. For a school of its size – 1100 students in Grades 10-12 – Osbourn offers an extensive program of studies and activities. Our student body is strengthened by its diversity – a 22% minority population. We also encompass a large range of cultural and economic groups within the city limits. Our school was one of the first schools in Virginia to develop an Eight-Block scheduling program. We are currently in the midst of a $25-million building and renovation of our school, set to open in fall of 1999.

Pat teaches a battery of electives, all of which deal with Photography. Margaret teaches English, a required course for graduation, and an elective, SAT Prep, while David teaches U.S. History, Sociology and Psychology. Pat, Margaret, and David’s setting and overview of strategic instructional plans are described below.

Margaret selected one English 11 class of 20 students as the group for her research. Although these students’ scores indicate that they were "on-level" in terms of their ability last year, over one-half of the students made C’s or below in English, and four of them failed last year due to attendance. During English 11 the curriculum calls for the study of American literature, work on analytical essay writing skills, completion of a research project, and preparation for the English 11 - Writing and English 11 -Reading/Literature/Research SOL tests. Margaret's research activities focused on having the students to the SOL curriculum in a meaningful way.

Margaret planned to connect the curriculum to students’ lives in two major ways: some part of every class discussion was about the students’ lives as they related to the assigned curriculum and specific projects or assignments were designed to bring out personal experiences or ideas. As an introduction to American society, in order for students to see their own lives as a part of the overall American culture, she assigned the design of a personal Time Capsule that would reflect the student’s view of 1998. The students brought to class either the items or representations of the items that they would place in their individual capsules. They explained the reasons for their selections in a presentation to the class. Hoping to learn even more about each student, at Back-to-School Night, she asked the parents to write on an index card something that they wanted her to know about their child. She wanted to know not only the student’s perception of her learning experience, which would emerge in classroom activities and interactions, but also the parents’ perceptions of the student’s learning needs. During the year she called each of those parents to respond to what they had written in regard to their child’s progress in class.

The first formal student activity - specifically designed to connect to a student’s life and to tie directly to the content being studied - was an interview with a family member or friend who had lived during the Depression. The student then compared the attitudes and experiences in that person’s life to that of the characters in the novel, Of Mice and Men. From that point on, Margaret tried to incorporate assignments that required students to connect their "whole" learning and experiences to the specific curriculum in English 11. For example, when reading The Crucible students wrote about how they felt in experiences when they had been unjustly accused. This assignment mirrored the experiences of the main character, John Proctor, in the play, as well as the experiences of those accused of Communist infiltration in America during the McCarthy era. In the study of Edgar Allen Poe, students composed "scary" personal narratives. They had already studied the techniques Poe used to express strong emotion generated by a single narrator in a seemingly "normal" situation. They were applying the same technique to the events in their own lives. Another component, designed to connect student’s learning to their lives when they were reading The Scarlet Letter and some short stories by Hawthorne, consisted of a series of journal writings concerning students’ feelings about right and wrong. Students discussed such topics as the "rightness" of revenge, the burdens of guilt, and the nature of commitment and trust. They started class by discussing each day’s issue.

The most comprehensive curriculum plan, however, was the development of a Student Individuality Portfolio when they studied the American Transcendentalists. In developing the portfolio, students made their own "masks" that represented how they saw themselves, analyzed their learning styles, wrote stories about the influences of their family values and specific family members, and wrote personal statements of their opinions on controversial issues. They then selected the items for their portfolio that best defined how they saw themselves. Each portfolio included a preface or an epilogue designed to tie the pieces together in a meaningful way.

The classroom climate could be described as one in which students were frequently active in small and large group discussions, in developing writing assignments, and in working on individual projects in the writing lab or in the library. Study guides and vocabulary building activities were used to support the students through the reading of more difficult material. Margaret usually functioned as the facilitator of the activities or consulted with students individually or in small groups.

For Pat, selecting a class to research was simple; in fact she looked forward to working with her Advanced Photographic Methods students, knowing it would be a fun class populated by students who were there because they had chosen to be there. The students had successfully completed the Photography I and the Advanced Photography classes, and were either eleventh or twelfth graders. This was the first year that the class was offered, and it was held first semester. Basically, it was a darkroom-based course, which utilized various experimental techniques of photography, leaning more to the artistic side of the medium than to the photojournalistic side. The core or theme of the course was individual expression and experimentation, and the atmosphere was intended to encourage student expression.

In the first category of the curriculum, the student used the medium of photography to communicate his personal interpretations of the connections he made in his life. This assignment, a portfolio of four black-and-white 8 x 10 photographs, was given at the beginning of the course and completed at the end of the semester as a "Final Exam Portfolio." The first photograph was to be the student’s choice. There was no right or wrong selection of subject and the students usually chose a favorite image, which they tied to themselves in some way. The second photograph was a self portrait that the student set up, not just to portray his image but his personality as well. The only requirement was that his image must be an integral part of the photograph. After completion of this project the student wrote a one-page paper which justified his selection and explained his interpretation. The third image was of a member of the community that the student felt made a difference. Once again, while community was emphasized, the student was allowed leeway in the interpretation of the term. The final image was a family portrait. The student selected which family members were to be in the portrait, as well as the setting and the photograph’s composition. This project revealed a wide range of interpretation, which Pat felt confirmed that the students were experiencing. Again, there was no right or wrong way to translate the project.

In the second curricular category, the student combined personal ideas and interpretations with technical and experimental aspects of photography. These photographs included blending meaningful text into an image, hand painting, vignetting an image, and creating an abstract piece that had to be manipulated in at least 2 ways. With all of these course requirements, the mainstay was the element of self-expression and communication. Because of Pat’s need to communicate with her students and to encourage them to communicate with her, she requested that they not only speak of their personal interpretations, but also communicate to her how they felt about the course, the projects, and what they would like to learn more about. Pat gave them surveys, spoke with them on an individual basis, in small groups, and in class discussions.

When starting his research David had selected one of his U.S./VA. History classes. He had originally chosen this class because he wanted to try to make history come alive by connecting the students’ experience to history. On a September teacher work day, however, he was presented with his first roadblock. The principal had decided to "semesterize" the social studies classes, an action in which social studies credits would be earned by the semester instead of by the year. This policy was designed to accommodate the block schedule and to enable students to have more choices in scheduling classes each semester. As a result David moved some activities and units around in order to accommodate his research in the semester. Immediately after he altered his curriculum, another standardization decision further limited his research. In discussing the upcoming Standards of Learning Test the social studies department discovered that the test would be given in March of 1999. (Months later the Commonwealth moved the test date to May.) Realizing that the curriculum would have to be accelerated, the department decided to cover 36 weeks of material in just 27 weeks. He realized it would be impossible to implement any of the activities designed to test his research under these constraints. David had to drop his original plans of using his history class to test his research and go with an alternative, his sociology class.

Introduction to Sociology is an elective course that is open to tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students. There are no prerequisites. The class is a general overview course that exposes the student to the early history of sociology with an emphasis on major theories and concepts as proposed by prominent sociologists. The class consisted of 21 students, 12 females and 9 males with a majority of them being juniors. All of the students were on level or above level in academic ability.

The reason David chose this class because he really had no other choice. He selected it because it was not a U.S. History class. Sociology was also being offered first semester so he could begin his research immediately.

In planning what he wanted to do with this class, David selected a few projects to use in his research that fit into the new time limitations. The three projects he chose were the Culture Box, Life Choices, and Teach a Lesson. All three of these assignments provided great opportunities for the students. The Culture Box coincided with the unit on culture at the beginning of the semester. The assignment asked each student to design a box and include in that box several items that would relate to his own individual cultures. The second project, Life Choices, which coincided with the unit on human development, required each student to complete three parts of an overall project. Part one in Life Choices had the student view a video of case studies involving choices people had made concerning the direction their lives had taken and identify the impact that those choices had on each of them. This film helped the students to recognize that not all choices are good or bad. Part two of the project asked each student to predict his life at ten- year intervals starting at 20 years of age. And the third portion of the project required that each student interview someone over the age of 40 about the choices that person had made as they had gone through life and then share those interviews in small discussion groups. The final Sociology project " Teach a Lesson" encompassed the entire semester’s material asking that each student or group of students teach a lesson covering a topic that they had connected to during the semester. This project was done in place of a traditional exam format.

In gathering our data for our research we utilized a wide variety of methods which reflected the diversity of our own teaching backgrounds, styles and experiences. In all we used a total of eight different strategies which included the following: 1) Student journals were used to have students share information related to their experiences in and out of class and how they related to our research question. 2) Student Products proved invaluable in demonstrating what progress the students were making and how they made individual connections to the content of the class. 3) Class Discussions also proved to be fruitful to get direct and immediate feedback on the content and activities in the class. Often we reflected on these discussions in our journals or discussed them at team meetings. 4) Peer Discussions were enlightening to us as we talked to our colleagues about our research activities in the classroom. 5) Teacher-Student Dialogue was very helpful but at times somewhat harrowing when students shared very personal and intimate details of what had been occurring in their lives. We documented these dialogues in observational notes or in journal entries. 6) Observations were also valuable. Not only did we collect much data through observation, but we also had more time to observe because many of the activities were directed by students rather than by the teacher. We each kept an observation notebook. 7) Our own Teacher Journals proved most important as we began to develop our individual stories and realized how our experiences contributed to our research. 8) While all of the above proved to be important and helpful, we believe our Team Meetings were most valuable through a number of avenues. We met once a week for discussion and to report on our progress. It was at these meetings that we offered critical dialogue and developed strategies of teamwork. Working collaboratively was most critical. We believe this became increasingly evident as we read in the forum and developed lesson plans for the Language and Culture II class. All of our lesson plans for the Language and Culture Project helped provide research that we could use in our report. Margaret’s Individuality Portfolio, Pat’s Final Exam Portfolio, and David’s Culture Box were all born, in part, out of this team collaboration. In addition the process of clarifying ideas and generating new ideas helped us remain in focus as we proceeded with our research.

Our team work was able to provide us with different lenses to interpret the data. For example, at one meeting, Pat brought in some student self-portraits that she felt were not very revealing about her students. Both Margaret and David were able to offer a different perspective about each portrait that broadened Pat’s evaluation of the students’ works. We analyzed all of our data in the same collaborative manner throughout the project.

To say we did not have problems during this data collection process would be untrue. Three stumbling blocks for us were as follows: 1) We struggled with the definition of achievement. Were grades a true indicator of progress? We realized that what grade a student received was not really a true evaluation of what a student was learning. Additionally, we realized that sometimes no matter how creative the assignment was or how interesting the content was, not all students would perform at the anticipated level. 2) The issue of trust between student and teacher was another problem. We spent many an hour discussing ways in which a student would open up to us. What we discovered was that in order for that to occur, we had to be open with the student first. 3) Our last problem centered on evaluation of student work. How could we evaluate products that were so different? We had to set some basic guidelines for the students to follow but at the same time give them the autonomy they needed to make a connection to their own learning.

By determining patterns as we collected and analyzed our data, we were able to develop our conclusions very systematically. After much discussion among ourselves and with our advisor, we saw four clear claims emerging. We then color-coded our data to support each separate claim. By spreading the data out on a table, we could visualize whether or not our research clearly supported our suppositions.

Overall we feel we were able to tap into a wealth of information given the diversity of our collection strategies. We feel this gave us the desired information in order to complete this research.

Margaret’s Story:

I had never considered the importance trust and openness played in the success of students’ learning. When we started the research project, I thought that students would immediately gravitate to questions and opportunities that allowed them to connect their personal life to their learning. The students, however, did not respond as I would have liked. When asked if they preferred the October assignment of interviewing a family member or doing research in the library about the McCarthy era, less than half of the class preferred the interview. They liked doing research because, as Mark said, " The information is right in front of me and easy to get. I don’t have to think about it and I don’t have to deal with feelings that I have about my family." I noted in my journal on November 14, 1998 that "I was just drifting with what I was doing…going nowhere." I decided to talk to a student from last year’s research study on developing student voice. This student, Brandi, had clear insight into complicated problems and she had the ability to express herself well. After telling her of my frustrations, she suggested that I go back to "square one." She told me that I had not been focusing on developing trust with my student first; therefore, they did not feel comfortable opening up to me. She said that I had expected too much too soon. Brandi added that she felt that one of my greatest strengths was my intuition about my students; now I had to work on developing those intuitions into a bridge of mutual understanding. I realized that she was right.

I reassessed my relationships with my students to that point. I had already established a rapport with Sarah and Matt B. who had written about very personal experiences in their "scary" stories, but they risked telling their stories not because I invited them but because they had the need to tell their stories. I needed to "invite" my other students to risk making connections of their learning to their own lives.

The development of the Individuality Portfolio was the first formal step to developing trust. As my students wrote their own personal statements, I wrote mine and shared them with the class. I wrote a personal narrative about my mother, who in spite of years of debilitating depression, had been the major positive influence in my life. A number of students then wrote about parents who had been strong influences in their lives, although they too had had significant obstacles to overcome. Steve B.’s parents are divorced but his father and paternal grandfather have stuck by him throughout the separation. Once the two had driven straight from their home in Pennsylvania when Steve was having some trouble at school and they stayed in Manassas until Steve was able to work out his problems. Cheyenne wrote about strong admiration for her stepfather with whom she and her young son now live; her stepfather had been forced to resort to the courts to protect Cheyenne from her abusive, drug-addicted mother.

During the development of the portfolio, I interviewed Jenna to get feedback about the atmosphere of the class. I needed to know if I was fostering openness. She said, "I think that if we were to always have open discussions, it would make it easier to learn, because not only are you saying how you feel, you get a chance to hear your peers’ point of view on the topic. I also believe that students would rather listen to other students, rather than just teachers." This comment lead me to look not only at the trust being developed between the teacher and the student, but also at the trust being developed in the classroom. The students began to share experiences and feelings more with each other. When we were discussing what we discovered about ourselves after completing a learning styles inventory, Judy revealed how she made most of her decisions independently since her parents’ divorce when she was eight. Sabby immediately leaned forward in her seat and asked how Judy felt about making her own decisions. Judy replied that she liked the situation although it made her grow up faster. I wrote in my journal on December 15, 1998, "I kind of let that hang in the air for a minute, and then I asked Sabby why she asked that question. Sabby said that she had two friends – one who had to make her own decisions and one who was dominated by her mother. She has tried to look at both of them to see which way was better. Sabby went on to talk about what she might do in raising her own children." I felt that my students were being more open with each other as well as learning from each other.

Because the establishment of trust is not clear-cut, it was difficult to assess how much trust has developed in a classroom. I could see that my students demonstrated a commitment to revealing themselves by completing elaborate Individuality Portfolios. An observation by the librarian, however, also indicated to me that trust-building was evolving. After a session in the library during which my students all had frequent and demanding questions, I collapsed into a chair when the bell finally rang. The librarian asked me about the level of the students in the class (average to below-average) and commented that she recognized many of them as school "trouble-makers." However, on this day, she might have thought they were "honors" students. But the interesting comment was that she couldn’t get over how I treated the students. She said that I acted as if they could do anything, as I treated them respectfully and expected them to be responsible. In reflection, I see that I trusted my students to be able to complete a difficult assignment and they responded positively. They, in turn, felt comfortable enough with me to ask many questions and to seek my feedback.

The success of the curriculum in a class like Advanced Photographic Methods is built on firm openness and trust. To get my students to think about their work as a form of personal expression, I provided opportunities to write about their feelings concerning projects we were working on, asking for their interpretations and perceptions. My focus was to create an atmosphere in which the student went a layer deeper in using the medium of photography as a form of personal communication. In the photography classes preceding this one, the students concentrated on the technical aspects of how to use the medium. In setting the atmosphere for this new course, it was important to develop the mindset of student autonomy in subject selection and to foster the concept that the student should initiate the learning, not the teacher. Initially, my students were reluctant to share some aspects of their feelings with me. Stephanie stated in class when asked to fill out a survey, "Some of these questions are personal, do we have to answer them?" I told her and the class not to answer anything that made them feel vulnerable or uncomfortable. As we developed our relationship through the semester, the students began to feel more relaxed in exploring their ideas and sharing them with me. We began to slowly form a bond of trust. I trusted them to honestly explore their perceptions and insights into their choices of project interpretation, and they trusted me to be truthful and helpful when they revealed their thoughts and feelings concerning their assignments.

This development of trust began when I brought in some of my favorite photographic works and discussed my reasoning for the images I had chosen to photograph. I revealed what I liked about these works and what bothered me about them. I discussed future ideas I hoped to explore and works that were in progress. In presenting my work to students, I always felt an element of vulnerability, because my work was so personal to me. These students sensed that and responded with thoughtful and reflective questions and comments. Reacting to my series on the Vietnam Memorial, Heacter asked, "Why did you choose it to photograph? Did you know anyone in the war?" I explained that I lost two friends, and that visiting the memorial always evoked many emotions for me.

While I often shared my negatives and contact sheets with them, to show various possibilities of choices of subjects, I was also opening my work as well as myself up to criticism. By sitting down and talking with them one on one, by sharing ideas and experiences, and by letting them know that their opinions and ideas were important to me, we grew more comfortable exchanging our ideas and opinions student to teacher and student to student. At one point, Duane revealed that he had lost his father when he was small and he showed me several pictures he had taken of his grave. I told him about losing my father when I was four and that I still missed him. I showed him my contact sheet with photos of my father’s grave. I wanted to model the openness about one’s work that I hoped the students would adopt.

The second project presented to the class was the most personal - a self-portrait - in which I hoped all our discussions and conversations about using the medium of photography for communication would pay off. To introduce the concept of "self," we took the Keirsey Temperment Test and discussed each student's alignment with the various personality modes. We discussed whether or not they felt comfortable with their type and each person revealed to the class how their mode felt to them. "I really liked the psychology test. They are useful in helping us to know ourselves a little better," Hector wrote. I wanted them to thoughtfully examine their personalities before setting up a photograph that portrayed themselves. When they received their "Self Portrait" assignment, they had many questions and concerns. They asked if they had to show their face in their portraits. They also wondered if it was acceptable for someone else to take the picture. We discussed the importance of them setting up the scene and either using the self-timer or a friend to activate the shutter. We discussed how important the element of "self" was in the assignment. The only requirement was that their image had to be in the photograph; other than that they were encouraged to be as creative and individualistic as they needed to be. I reminded them that there was not a correct or incorrect representation that I expected to see in this assignment. Once again we discussed the importance of being true to themselves in their work, and to express what they needed to express, not what they thought I wanted to see.

I was very pleased with their portraits. They thought not only about their images, but also some tied those images to depth of field, focus and texture as it related to their personalities. They used not only technological interpretations, but also symbolic revelations about their self-interpretation. In considering Kilynn’s interpretation of her self portrait, she freely admitted to me, "I wanted the drama of the dark background, but I also wanted to make sure that I looked good in the portrait. I was afraid that I wouldn’t look good. The self portrait is the best picture I have seen of myself." Our conversations and her narratives assured me that Kilynn was quite candid in revealing her fears in putting herself up for others to critique. She stated that she does not welcome the attention of others; ironically, however, she dresses in unique and individual ways that invite notice. Another student, Sasha, put off doing her self portrait for most of the semester; finally she grappled with the fact that she would have to get the project done. In revealing her interpretation of her work she says, "The trees are representative of my duality. The tree on the left is smooth and is representative of my inner personality. I feel that inside, I am very kind and caring. The tree on the right is representative of who I am often seen. People sometimes see me as being mean or harsh, but that is only on the outside. If people knew me better, they would see me as a kinder person." Sasha is a private shy girl who revealed her feelings about photography in the following statement. "I feel I was able to express my feelings in a more realistic and symbolic way with photography. It helps me express my feeling through nature and in a more realistic way than paintings and other medium can."

The majority of the class felt comfortable working in an atmosphere where they felt they were a "team." The majority of the reflections written about their self portraits were honest and thoughtful, and I was pleased with their willingness to develop the courage to reveal themselves to me as well as their classmates. Trust and openness had become key components of the classroom atmosphere.

Through the course of my research I have found that many students do not feel that they can truly be open with teachers especially when expressing their opinion. As the school year began my sociology class was not very open with me when participating in class activities. They would answer questions directly addressed to them but they did not initiate the discussion of ideas nor engage in any student-to-student dialogue. It was not until I began to share my own opinions that the students began to trust me and to express their own ideas and views.

As a teacher I had always felt my students were not very open when voicing their opinions. For example, in most cases one student would express an idea, and then others would simply agree with it in order to be taken off the "hot seat" of having to respond to him. It was not until Margaret shared a conversation she had with a student that we had a great revelation. Margaret’s former student Brandi informed us that in order for us to elicit the responses we needed from students in class there had to be a level of trust established between the student and the teacher. It was an obvious value for a moral professional, but somehow we had not seen its importance to our research.

After discussing this idea in our team meetings, my team members and I felt we needed to institute some changes in our methods of teaching. The first thing I decided to do was to complete the same assignments my students were doing. Selecting the Culture Box assignment was an opportunity to share something about my background with my students. If I were open with them, hopefully they would be more open with me, which would foster the level of trust that would be needed. The Culture Box activity required that each student identify and bring in items that represented his own culture. This could include family photographs, mementos, stories, journals, religious items, and even food samples. On the day the assignments were due I decided to present mine first in hopes that it would set many students’ minds at ease about having to get up in front of the class. After presenting my Box the class seemed electrified. The students asked me many questions about what I had included in my box, and they all scrambled to be the next presenter. With relative ease, each student then went to the front of the class and presented his personal Box too. Comments about the project were mixed. For example, Chris L. stated, " It gave me a chance to explore my heritage and the heritage of my classmates, but what was very interesting was your presentation, it was interesting to learn something personal about a teacher." Rashan F. offered another comment about the project: "Some people had only one item in their box. They could have put more effort into the assignment." I believe that the students were at different levels of trust with this first project with some being more invested in the class than others. An overwhelming majority of students liked the assignment. It was not until after the assignment was completed and I asked students to critique the assignment that Irealized that a change had taken place in my class. My students gave very candid responses as far as likes and dislikes of the assignment. I believe this reaction can be attributed to my being open about my own Culture Box.

The benefits of this freedom became apparent with the exit interviews completed by the students in this class. Many of the students enjoyed the chance to express

themselves as the semester progressed. In the exit interview many students explained why this was important. Phil H. stated, " I like them [the Culture Boxes]. I think society puts a big emphasis on perception and personal beliefs. If you do not establish those beliefs people will give them to you." This statement was very poignant to me. It made me realize that the activities that I instituted had fostered an atmosphere of trust in which the student could develop confidence in his own ideas.

Not only does our data lend support to our claim that trust and openness are essential, but other educators also support our findings. Lisa Delpit, in a series of interviews with teachers, identifies the following common elements of "good" teachers: caring whether or not students learn, not being "time- bound to a curriculum," connecting all learning to "real life," pushing students to think – to make their own decisions, and communicating with, observing, and getting to know their students and their students’ backgrounds (118).

Early in the year, we were frustrated because we felt that our students were not responding to our assignments, were not taking the connection between self and learning seriously, or were reacting superficially. It was a painful process for us to realize a concept introduced in Delpit’s writings. She supports a teaching model that might look like this:

She categorized this model as one "where the strongest relationship is between student and teacher, with content only one aspect of the relationship" (139-141). We began to realize how essential it was to establish trust in the classroom before a student felt comfortable connecting his studies to his own life and experiences. Sockett suggests that "the professional teacher constructs a classroom complex in which trust, among other things, is paramount" (67). We had to be open with our students about ourselves and be willing to accept what they said or did as valid; we had to be authentic. Sockett agrees that trust, which is established "through stability and reliability," must be "totally dependent on the absence of deceit if it is to be authentic" (114). To establish Bruner’s Mutualist Model of Education – one in which there is "an exchange of understanding between the teacher and the child" (Bruner 57) - we had to foster the virtues that constitute trust: "fidelity, veracity (honesty and an absence of deception), friendliness, and care" (Sockett 115). This epiphany opened the door for us!

Margaret’s Story:

We were not sure if the focus on the "whole child" (that is, the child’s past experiences, individual perceptions, life influences, as well as his intellectual abilities) would increase student achievement levels or impact his attitude. I first began to notice a change in the student’s attitude toward the teacher or toward the class, but not necessarily in his grades, once he made a connection to the learning. In the first assignment designed to connect to the student’s family – the interview of a family member or close friend who had lived during the Depression – several students commented about the new facts that they had learned about their grandparents. Steve stayed after class to talk to me about how upset he was to hear his grandparent condoning violent acts such as lynching. In the next class discussion, I made the mistake of asking Steve to talk to the others about these feelings, but Steve acted as if he had no idea what I was asking him. When I asked him privately about this incident, he said that his feelings about his family were very personal to him. I looked at this experience in two ways: first, he had felt comfortable enough with me to confide about his family, and, secondly, I need to be more careful about discussing student’s personal experiences in a larger group. It was a valuable lesson that attitudes do not necessarily need to be shared, and I remembered that principle in all subsequent discussions of students’ personal experiences.

In order to tap into student experiences outside the classroom, they composed "scary" personal narratives when we were studying Edgar Allan Poe. The students had great excitement about telling their own stories. I was surprised, however, by the seriousness of the experiences of some of the students. They revealed harrowing stories. I responded in my journal on November 4 that "I guess I’m saying that I don’t know what to do with all of this information. Yes, it helps me see the whole student and to be responsive to his individual needs, but what else should I be doing with these insights?" When looking beyond the material studied in the classroom, students reveal much more complexity than I had originally anticipated.

The most comprehensive curriculum plan for looking at the "whole child," however, was an Individuality Portfolio developed when we studied the American Transcendentalists. In creating the parts of the portfolio, students made their own "masks" that represented how they saw themselves, analyzed their learning styles, wrote stories about the influences of their family values and specific family members, and wrote personal statements of their opinions on controversial issues. In the preface to her portfolio, Katie said, "Throughout the making of this portfolio I have learned many things about myself as an individual. I have learned that I can make my life what I wish, stand tall for what is right, and decide what is right for myself…I believe that everything I have ever learned has been in my subconscious all along, and it took a little prying to get it out. Now that I have realized that, I am ready to gain all that I possibly can about everything there is to learn." She had truly connected the ideas of the Transcendentalists to the possibilities in her own life.

In this focus on content as it relates to the "whole child," the most significant improvement in attitudes was observed in those students with the poorest achievement history, specifically Claudia, Scott F., and Jimmy. By the first of December, Claudia was only coming to school to go to English which was the last period of the day. She approached each assignment with enthusiasm and interest, although her attendance was so poor that most assignments were never completed. She would write me notes at the end of class that said, "You’re the best" or "Have a great week-end, love from your favorite student." Scott F. had the same positive attitude about the class, although he dropped out of school at the end of first semester to get his GED. He was in class every day and active in class activities; when I asked him to help others edit their writings, he became the "writing zealot" of the class. Unfortunately, Scott never completed his own writing assignments, but I believe a physical handicap of his hand and arm were a significant factor in his inability to complete his work. A third student, Jimmy, also only came to school for English class on B days. I began to notice how my journal entries began to focus on student attitudes such as this entry on January 4, 1999:

The biggest obstacle to overcome when trying to teach the "whole child" has been the pressures to teach the specific content to be covered on the English 11 SOL tests. I felt this conflict several times during the year. When studying The Crucible I wrote in my journal on October 20, 1998 that I had to find ways to address all of the specific content as well as "the affective influence of a student’s background and his connection to learning." When we were developing the Individuality Portfolios, I wrote on December 22, 1998, that "I feel that we are straying too far from the [SOL] curriculum. They need to write a critical analysis paper and do a formal research project. I am feeling guilty." But I felt that students were gaining more from my holistic approach than they would if I were focusing on teaching the straight facts identified in the curriculum guide.

When developing content to encompass the "whole child," I wanted to begin with self and community to provide an opportunity for unique expression. I was teaching a new course this year, and it was important to me that my students felt empowered through their participation in the class. It was also important that they express to me the activities that they found rewarding as well as those they felt needed to be refined or changed. I asked them many questions relative to how they felt about their community. They were responsive and honest in their replies. They defined their community in personal ways: friends and family, church and school, the City of Manassas. The most fortuitous part of this exchange was the fact that they shared so much with me pertaining to our team research. "This portfolio has taught me that I need to take action in the community and pay more attention to my surroundings. It has given me a better understanding of my community as well," Sasha wrote in response to her final exam portfolio. I found this attitude to be important as a reflection of her growing awareness of and connection to her own culture. Cameron stated, "I have never really looked into the community in depth before this project." In asking them to look at their community and its influence on them, several students noted their enlightenment about the place where they live. Some students interpreted the community to be their specific neighborhoods, others thought it was the City of Manassas, while still others saw it as their families, friends, and support structure.

It has always been a premise of mine that photography is not just a medium to document an occasion or place, but an opportunity to express a view or to communicate a feeling or emotion held by the photographer. I have attempted to introduce this expanded definition of the medium to my students. One of the survey questions I asked my pupils upon leaving this class requested that they express how photography allowed them to interpret their individual points of view. Debbie responded with "No 2 people look @ things the same way, and it’s interesting to see peoples’ ways of thinking." Another student, Hector, who had emigrated here from Mexico, replied, "If you see it [a subject] through your own 'eyes' yourself. You will interrupt it in your own way." I was inspired by Hector's level of endurance. Although he had had unfortunate failures with his film, he continued to persist in expressing himself. He did not give up and he felt great when he persevered and was successful. The overwhelming response of the students indicated that they enjoyed connecting to the photo subject as well as explaining their interpretation to the viewer. When asked whose opinion was more important hers or the viewer's, Kim responded, "I think of myself because if I don’t like it then I don’t care about the other's opinions." They were gaining more respect for their own opinions.

Several students discovered a sense of self worth through their endeavors in the class. This group had several challenging projects to produce, and each one had to be done as an individual interpretation of the assignment. While the students shared their photographs and project interpretations with one another, they were true to individuality and personal expression. Just completing a project to their satisfaction could produce a great feeling of satisfaction and self worth. "I completed every thing on time. It makes me feel great inside, and I express it in my work." says Ben. A student that I really saw take possession of the medium and truly work to express himself was Tony. He emigrated here from Vietnam several years ago, and struggled to be "one of the kids." He has been the most helpful of any of my students, assisting others to feel good about what they were producing in class and sharing what knowledge he had about the medium. In Advanced Photography and Photography I, he never seemed to feel good about his work, to be really "proud" of it. When he was encouraged to take charge of his interpretation of the projects and to inject himself into the enterprise, he says "It have cause me to feels that I could do something. I’m useful that what I mean." (sic) I was really pleased with his response because he worked very hard to achieve the level of success that he felt.

The majority of my students expressed satisfaction with the fact that their interpretations were being asked for in the class, and that they were able to decide what was important and relevant to them. Educating the whole child encourages each student to begin with himself and to broaden his focus as he develops awareness of his connection to his community.

When I started my research I was very much interested in discovering ways to improve student attitudes so they would take more ownership of their work. I wanted to develop assignments that would help a student discover something about himself as an individual and also provide an opportunity in which to learn something that he could apply to other life experiences.

Some of the first assignments in my Sociology class were not very attuned to what I wanted to do, and I could see that my students were not very open when it came time for class discussions. These assignments were directly connected to the textbook and had to be covered at the beginning of the semester, but I realized that if I did not begin to use the materials that would encourage my students to make personal connections to the content, then I would lose their interest.

The first assignment designed to connect to their lives was a movie called The Outsiders which dealt with two groups of kids living in a town in the nineteen-fifties. Both groups were representative of different cultural groups. In our discussion afterwards, students easily identified groups and cliques in our school similar to those in the movie. Camilla commented after the discussion, " Mr. Mac, we really enjoy assignments like this, that allow us to express what we are thinking about or own environment and surroundings. We need to do this everyday!" I realized that my students would take more interest in assignments if they could connect to their own experiences. This movie also highlighted the importance of students confronting the values of cultures other than their own.

Another activity that worked well with my students was a similar version of what Dr. Mark Hicks had presented in a graduate class session. He created a "Theater of Voices" which was a series of narratives of people of different cultural backgrounds. These people represented great diversity, including differences in racial background, sexual preferences, and physical capabilities (or inabilities). This experience helped me recognize the different cultural backgrounds of my own students. In my journal I wrote of the experience:

I did not observe a change in the attitudes of all of my students, however. I had a few students who throughout the semester continued to do as little as possible. Two students in particular did the bare minimum of work which resulted in very poor grades and placed them in danger of failing for the semester. At the end of the semester Jimmy and Cathy both decided to take control of their problem by giving a most impressive presentation for their exam, which resulted in the highest grade in the class! Their topic was about a local and national news event concerning the euthanasia of a man hooked to machines. Both of them had been closely following the local churches’ position about the right-to-die all semester. The controversy had also been a topic for discussion at both of their churches. I had the opportunity to ask them why they did such a good job and Jimmy commented that he saw it as "an opportunity to not only raise his grade but to show me what he was really good at." He continued by stating that, "you gave me the chance to do what I wanted with some loose guidelines and I like doing projects that allow me to be as creative as I want." I learned from this experience that students progress at different paces, but a connection to a student’s life experience and his unique personality will most likely produce a more positive attitude about learning.

These experiences helped us to realize that, once we had established an open and honest connection to our students, we had to elicit the "whole" child into the learning environment. Without their connections between their learning and their worlds, the students would not be able to make the learning their own. We had to, as Delpit suggests, acknowledge the existence of the worlds of others (XIV) before we can teach. Thus, we had the responsibility of teaching the "whole child." Elkind suggests that in this stressed-dominated world, teachers "need to attend to, and appreciate, each child’s uniqueness" (227). Lisa Delpit echoes his beliefs: "I am suggesting that we begin with a perspective that demands finding means to celebrate, not merely tolerate, diversity in our classrooms" (67). This realization lead us to welcome the culture and experiences of our students as they connected to the content of the classroom curriculum.

In addition to these previous claims, we found in our research that student success is not only measured in achievement; it may be more importantly gauged in student attitude. Elkind suggests that students in the postmodern era need an "emphasis on self-esteem, in contrast with the modern focus on personal adjustment" (85). This self-esteem should have it roots in autonomy and not in the student’s adaptation to society. Elkind continues that "self-esteem is believed by educational psychologists to be critical for academic achievement and for successful competition in all domains" (86). We do not know the long-range impact of our attempts to connect the whole child to the content. Although we hope it will lead to greater achievement, we do feel that more positive attitudes about learning have developed.

Margaret’s Story:

At the beginning of the year, I clearly observed the lack of students’ interest in feedback about their learning when they did not made a personal connection to it. For example, when my students designed Time Capsules to represent 1998, in my journal I noted that "I was really surprised at the results. Only two students designed capsules that reflected who they were. All of the others designed capsules about world events, people, and attitudes that they had little or no connection to. No one even asked what his grade was on the assignment." In the discussion that followed I again experienced difficulty in getting the students to connect to and then discuss the results of the assignment. They were just not interested in the content. In retrospect, I believe that the students would have difficulty even recalling now what they put into their Time Capsules.

Nevertheless, I continued to design assignments that asked students to make personal connections to their learning. Finally, I noticed a significant change in students’ responses to me when I asked them to write a "scary story" about an event in their own lives when we were reading stories by Edgar Allan Poe. As we worked in the computer lab, Sarah rushed up to me and thrust her story on the table; she insisted that I read it immediately. I noted later in my journal that "once you let kids know that you are open to the stories they have inside of them, then you will get some honest and unanticipated answers." Sarah’s scary story described at length her experiences as a five-year-old child who was raped repeatedly by her mother’s boyfriend. She wanted to talk with me at that very moment about her experiences; of course, I spent a great deal of time talking with her that day and in the immediate class periods that followed as we read the stories aloud in small groups. I was also unprepared for Matt’s scary story about his years of self-mutilation. Matt first shared the story with me, but he also wanted to share it with his peers in the small group reading. He was nervous at the beginning, but his voice became stronger as he talked about his recovery. Several days later I asked Matt if he would like to read his story to anyone else, perhaps his parents or his therapist. I noted in my journal how "he hesitated for a moment and then his eyes lit up and he asked if he could take his disk home and print it out for them." For several weeks after those stories were written, Matt stayed after at the end of class just to "chat" with me. I asked him one day why he kept staying and he said that he thought that my "opinions were pretty good about things." My students’ willingness to share their experiences openly with me had progressed from the sterile Time Capsules produced at the beginning of the year to the evidence of a strong connection to the teacher and to their peers and the need for feedback from us.

One of the most emotional classroom experiences came during a field testing in the fall of an SOL writing prompt. This incident told me that there was a sense of community in the classroom that was not artificially produced by my assignments that had asked for personal connections. They wanted to share with each other. Students were instructed in the SOL prompt to write about an event that had a great impact on their lives. Within five minutes one student, Jefferica, was sobbing uncontrollably. The students all stopped their work and moved to console her. Through her tears she told everyone the story of the killing of her father by an unknown assailant last year in her home in North Carolina. The supportive atmosphere in the classroom was wonderful to witness. Everyone was so concerned about her emotional state that they would not resume their writing until Jefferica felt well enough to write her own story (which, by the way, was a detailed account of her eye-witness to the shooting). Clearly, when students connect to the content, they want to immediately share those connections.

I also began to notice that the more personally related an assignment, the more the students wanted the product back immediately. When they made their personal masks after reading a short story by Hawthorne about each person wearing a mask, the students wanted to keep the masks instead of turning them in to me for a grade. Jenna insisted on taking her mask home that day so I had to make a photocopy for me to keep. The students asked me to hang the masks all over the room and for days they brought their friends by to see their handiwork. They were also open with each other about what the masks said about each other. When Jefferica designed a mask that "has a smile all the time, because I have to wear a fake smile all the time," the other students asked her leading questions about herself and encouraged her to design a mask that represented who she was under the smile.

The Individuality Unit that followed the masks brought out the same student enthusiasm. There was a difference, however, in their desire to share their personal statements with each other. During each class period the students wrote personal opinions about the ideas that we were reading in the Transcendentalists’ literature. They wrote about "What makes me different from other people," "What influence my background has had on my values," and "What I value most", to name a few topics. In these assignments, I had envisioned class and small group discussions for sharing their writings, but most students were unwilling to share these personal connections with their peers, although they willingly turned in their statements to me. I reached two conclusions about this experience: first, the students were beginning to feel "safe" in expressing themselves to me, but, secondly, the topics sometimes can be too personal to the students to share with their peers.

Because the techniques in Advanced Photographic Methods were new to the students, and required contemplation of subjects selected and methods of printing as well as experimentation, the students were pleased and proud of their efforts when they produced quality work that displayed their accomplishments. The success rate was hard fought in many instances, because there was such a large opportunity for failure to produce a unique well-worked piece. But the more they invested themselves in the products, the more they wanted feedback from me and from the other students.

The students were enthusiastic about their work during the entire 90-minute class. It was not unusual to have a student, after developing a roll of film, call me over to come see the images he had taken. There was excitement about which image seemed to be the best one for an individual project. Once the students discovered that there was a film drying cabinet over in the graphics lab, they asked to take their film over to that room to dry so that they could see their work in positive by making a contact sheet that period. Tony regularly stayed after the bell rang, because he hated to leave what he was doing. One day after I had scolded him about staying after the bell, he said, "But I am learning so much more in here than I am in Mr. XXXX’s class." I reflected on the fact that his commitment to Photography class was different because he was really personally invested in what he was doing; perhaps he wasn’t giving his science class the same commitment. I believe that connecting the content of a subject to a student's experiences fosters commitment and enthusiasm.

Feeling pride in a job well done increases a student's commitment to continuing the process of learning. Another of my students, Kilynn, took some photographs specifically for the "Family Portrait" part of the final portfolio. She put a great deal of thought into them and came up with a unique interpretation using her mother and younger sister. She developed her film and pulled it from the developing canister. As she was swiftly bringing it dripping wet up to me, holding it in the air towards the lights, Kilynn shouted, "Ms. Campbell, look at these! I took these for my family portrait. What do you think?" She finally hung them up to dry, and had to wait until the next class to print them. When her class time arrived, she was the first student in the classroom door and then in the darkroom. As she brought out a finished print, you could see her smile a mile away. She was quite pleased with her photographs, and I was too. When it was time for class to end, she requested that she be allowed to take them home so her mother could see them. I asked her if she should wait and show her mother one of the finished prints that she had "cleaned up." She said she wanted to show her mother what the prints looked like now, because they had turned out so well. Through Kilynn’s technical successes, she seemed more willing to explore her ability to develop a more creative approach to each of the assignments than did her classmates.

Another student who had the opposite experiences, yet expressed the same level of enthusiasm, was Hector. In asking the students how many rolls of film they had taken for the class, Hector replied, "I have taken 6 rolls, two were 36 frames. I am not getting good negatives. They are too light or scratched and some were not focused because of the movement." He was right. His film experiences had been a disaster. He had been excited about taking photographs of a Hispanic festival in Manassas, but the lighting conditions were not good for his shutter speed. Undaunted, he went to a Hispanic festival in Washington. Unfortunately, when he developed the two rolls of film he had taken, the film developer was weak and the images were almost too light to print. I was sick for him. He took his negatives into the darkroom trying every suggestion and filter I could give him; eventually he did come out with some acceptable images. He was satisfied, even though he had to work so hard to come up with his photographs; he had succeeded under such difficult circumstances. He was proud to show his work because he had invested so much of himself into its production.Within the next two weeks, on his own initiative, he took the Metro down to Dupont Circle and was back with images of architecture that he had found particularly interesting. "It is important to express what your feeling through your photographs. I like being able to show people what I like," Hector wrote one afternoon when he stayed after school to work on his portfolio. He had pride in his Hispanic culture and a desire for others to witness his experiences.

While these are the two extreme examples of the attitudes I have seen reflected by the students in this class, I think it shows the enthusiasm that drives individuals who have developed a personal attachment to what they are doing. My students regularly came in with a glint in their eye, telling me what they had taken pictures of and why. Almost always they wanted to develop their film "right now," and anticipated the end of the development process so they could actually see what they captured. Sometimes their images lived up to their anticipation and sometimes they were disappointing. On those occasions that we were able to manipulate the film and produce photos that were successful, they were anxious to share these with classmates and me, but especially to take them home to show their parents.

My students were always enthusiastic about sharing parts of their own lives and experiences with others in the class.Katie B. summed up her feelings about the Life Choices project: " I felt this assignment was interesting. I enjoyed doing the interview the most. Most projects I only do a half hearted job because they are just a grade, but this one is about you, so you want to do well on it."

The Life Choices assignment was developed to help students make a connection to the unit on Human Development. This assignment was an excellent way for students to connect the life choices people make to the effect those choices have on their lives. It was also one of the most rewarding assignments for both my students and me because we could closely examine the choices we were each making in our lives. Students seemed to especially enjoy making ten-year predictions about their own lives. I noticed that, as the students worked in small groups, there was a great deal of discussion about their plans for the future. The amount of sharing of information was the most I had seen since our work with the Culture Box assignment. Katie B. told me that it was really helpful for her to get feedback from the people in her group about how she could reach her goals. She enjoyed having another perspective.

After the Life Choices assignment, I could clearly see a pattern of sharing developing in the classroom. Gradually, beginning with the Culture Box and the viewing of The Outsiders, students became more willing to share their life’s experiences, personal stories, and opinions. Megan M. confirmed this assessment in her exit paper about the class: "Mr. Mac is one of the few teachers who allow me and others to express our opinions without judging us. It is so much easier to give an opinion or share an experience knowing you will not be ridiculed." This reinforced my resolve to encourage my students to express their ideas and discuss the issues that were important to them and to use those real-world issues to connect to the classroom’s curriculum.

In the classes that we selected for study, our research supported the theory that students become more involved in learning when they can connect to the content. Dewey suggests that "we learn from experience, and from books or the sayings of others only as they are related to experience" (17). The Carnegie Commission believes that "the curriculum should have a direct relationship to the students for whom it is intended and the times in which it is taught" (Levine 67). We discovered that students were more interested in the content when they could "rely on their own intelligence and their own motivation to benefit from what school had to offer" (Bruner 67). All of us observed students engaging with the content as they sought immediate feedback, shared freely with each other, relentlessly pursued a topic in spite of obstacles, and took on independent projects.

Margaret’s Story:

As we continued to discuss how the content connected to our lives, students became more involved in the class discussions and activities because they began making connections not only to their lives but connections to different pieces of what we were studying. For example, in a group discussion about the stereotypes of people seen in The Crucible and in the McCarthy era on which the plot of the play is based, several students made the connection of stereotypes to their own peers. A further leap occurred when the class began to re-visit the study of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. They suggested that the farm workers had stereotyped Lennie and George immediately. Sarah started to quote the workers' comments about Lennie and then Sabby finished the quote! Then they started to quote the stereotypical qualities of Lennie and George's dream of owning their own farm. It was evidence to me that they were involved in both texts and had related the concept of stereotypes to their own lives.

The students approached the assignments that required a personal connection with relish. In the "scary story" assignment, each had a personal story to tell and knew exactly which details and events to embellish. The only exception was Jimmy who was trying to create a fiction story instead of an autobiographical piece; in the end he was too detached from the assignment and could not complete his work, although all of the other students exceeded the expectations of the assignment. This was additional evidence that personal connection to content enhances learning.

The same enthusiastic behavior was observed when we were working on the pieces of the Individuality Portfolio. For example, when they picked a quote from Emerson’s "Self-Reliance" essay to illustrate on a poster, every student in the class ‘jumped" into the activity. Even Scott, who usually found some excuse to resist initial involvement in an activity, reached for the dictionary to define the word "autonomy." His poster reflected decisions in his life in which he felt autonomous. It was the first piece of work he completed on time; it was also well-done. In the same unit, they also enjoyed writing the narratives about their families and many of the students shared what they wrote with their family members. I wondered in my journal entry of January 13, 1999, if they had made the connection of the content to their own lives: "The unit really made them think. They had learned on their own and connected everything to their own viewpoints. Katie saw how they had used the book to ‘inspire’ but had been able to think for themselves."

Two other incidents illustrated to me the students’ commitment to their own learning. Matt, writing about his self-mutilation experiences for the third time, remarked that he repeatedly seemed to be connecting these events to his English readings. He added, however, that the writings were helping him move on in his life beyond those painful events. One piece of evidence that Matt had taken control of his learning is the fact that he completed a research paper this year and turned it in on time. His parents told me early in the year that Matt had been unable to write a research paper last year and that I shouldn’t expect that he would do it this year. Matt proved them wrong. The second incident involved a comment by Judy as we were immersed in the research paper. I had been taking the students step-by-step through the process. Judy interrupted me to say that her learning styles inventory indicated that she must see the "whole picture" first before she could process the "parts." She then asked other class members who scored the same on the inventory to raise their hands. By understanding her own learning and connecting it to the processes in class, Judy was able to get me to teach the research paper process in two different ways to accommodate two different learning styles. My students were not passive learners; they were actively involved in class activities and reflective about what we were studying.

As an educator of 25 years, I have found that a commitment to one’s work is linked to an individual’s learning and is perhaps one of the soundest elements in observing education in progress. In my Advanced Photographic Methods class, I watched as the students discovered the concepts of photography and developed subsequent ability to manipulate these variations to suit their interests. Providing students with a sense of autonomy and a framework in which to connect to what is being taught is a powerful means of drawing the student into an acceptance of his own learning. While the concept is simple, it can be easily overlooked in an educator’s diligence to impart information without providing classroom activities, which encourage that connection.

One of the most reflective responses that supports this argument was in an interview with Ben. He stated, "It seems to me that all my pictures are coming out better and better when I take the time and 'quality' to do the projects right." Last year as a 10^th grader in Photography I and Advanced Photography, Ben had been a little less mature than most of his classmates. The majority of the projects in these two classes had revolved less around the opportunity for self-expression than the projects in the Alternative Photography class. Later in the same interview, Ben reveals, "This year I realized how serious and how much you have to concentrate and observe things before taking a picture." Part of this reflection can be attributed to an increased degree of maturity, but in fact, Ben like so many students in this class, recognized the potential that connecting to one’s learning can provide. While we were involved in many experimental projects, the solid basis of the subject matter revolved around the individual photographer and his interpretation. Ben took advantage of this and made it work for him. He even requested a camera for Christmas and purchased lenses and filters to provide more opportunity for creative work.

As students realized the opportunity as the architects of their own learning, they began to establish more of a commitment to their work. "Photography is an interpretation of yourself. It shows what you love and you can be so creative in how you do it," said Stephanie. Ciara also reflected, "But this year I learned to take pictures that meant something to me and had a story to them and they also were important to me." She had real connection to her family portrait and in particular to her relationship with her mother. She had previously mentioned that she had shown her mother the Keirsey Temperament test on the Internet and she thought "it was neat because my mother and me are the same thing." As their teacher, I observed what subjects the students had taken photographs of in the past, and I could see a new investment of themselves in their projects. When the students had been encouraged to fully select subjects or interpret ideas, they began to see their input as a more personal and revealing reflection of themselves. Because I have been able to see increased student involvement as it connects to learning, I too have become more invested in seeing my students succeed. When a teacher reaches out to his students, in building a relationship of trust and respect, the success or failure of the students becomes a more personal commitment. As with any relationship in which one invests oneself, the outcome is important, but the construction and travel through that relationship is rewarding as well.

Kevin was encouraged to experiment with many of his ideas, not to just "play it safe." He had wanted to try new techniques but wasn’t sure they would be acceptable. I encouraged him and any other students who might feel comfortable with experimentation to give it a try. Learning takes place through failure as well as through our successes. He and Tony became the more courageous ones in the class, as they tested various possibilities with camera and darkroom methodology. On his survey he stated, "I have all of these awesome ideas. I just wish I made more time for my photography. I love it!!! Photography is so cool." Kevin expressed his enthusiasm and excitement in being able to invest himself in his work. Tony was not quite so sure of himself and his vulnerability surfaced in the following quote concerning revealing himself through his work: "I wasn’t feeling it, I was having trouble revealing thing about myself and what really bothered me." However, once he began trusting in himself and he found that his work was respected and that other students wanted him to help them, his security level increased. While most of the students were not as willing to jump into new arenas of innovation as Tony and Kevin, they welcomed the acceptance of their own self-expression and validation. "I feel I was able to express my feelings in a more realistic and symbolic way in this class," related Sasha. Indeed, as Audrey put it, "If you look at something in your own way, then it means a lot more."

I observed the majority of my students in this class as they developed their own personal technique or way of expressing an idea. The students who became involved in the more experimental aspects of the course used their individual concerns in representing their interests. The students who chose to follow the more traditional methods were also able to incorporate their individually into their photographs. Students described diverse ways of seeing and expressed their excitement as they connected to what we were doing in class. As student commitment toward developing a voice through the medium of photography grew, the student became more connected to his learning and his enthusiasm increased.

Since I walked through the door on my first day of teaching I always hoped that all of my students would be very involved in whatever activities I selected to present. As I recall that all came to an abrupt halt when my students in my very first class immediately had a vile reaction to the first assignment I gave them. Their comments included "This is dumb" and "Do we have to do this?" I was shocked into reality. For the last ten years the reactions from the students have been the same. The only change is that I’m not as shocked.

When I started my research I wanted to find a way to get my students to make more of a commitment to class activities and to see connections to their work. In my sociology class I attempted to let students have as much freedom in selecting activities as I could. In most cases, this proved successful. However, there is always an exception to the rule and in this class there were two, Jimmy S. and Cathy H. I knew they were fairly bright students. All semester they were always actively engaged in class discussions, but when it came time to complete products, they completely shut down; their participation in the Culture Box assignment was half hearted. They barely completed the assignment, and their presentation to the class was very short. As a result they maintained a minimal passing grade. This pattern repeated itself in the Life Choices Assignment. I was frustrated with them both, and it showed in my responses to them. The situation between the three of us became tense and at times confrontational. They would become defensive when I questioned them about missing work or hostile when I asked them to stay on task. I was beside myself as to what to do in order to help them. I could not understand why they were not working at the level of the other students.

It was not until we had completed the set of interview questions as a class and I read their responses that I began to understand why they were acting out in this way. Both Cathy and Jimmy were very opinionated. Cathy expressed strongly, "I’d prefer to give my opinion to people who respect it and don’t just sit there and tell me how wrong I am." This statement provided for quite an eye opening revelation. Even though I had provided them opportunities to choose, they felt I was still infringing on their right to choose what they wanted to do. By the time I realized this, it was close to the end of the semester and there was time for one more assignment. I decided against doing the traditional final exam and opted for an assignment that gave the student total autonomy in choosing what he wanted to do. I decided to let students teach a lesson to the class covering a topic that they had connected to during the semester. Cathy and Jimmy decided that they would work together. I was somewhat reluctant considering their past performances but I relinquished that to them. During the three weeks they had to work on the assignment I began to notice a genuine change in them both. When we went to the library, they were running around madly gathering information and questioning the librarian. It was an enthusiasm that I had never observed in them before. I must admit I remained skeptical. I thought this enthusiasm would be short lived, but they continued to prove me wrong. They worked diligently through the next couple of weeks. When it came time for their lesson they asked if they could have a TV and computer. What was presented that day was clearly a top-rate project. They directed students in the class to examine the ethical and sociological issues related to the recent case in a Manassas nursing home concerning removal of life-support systems for Hugh Finn. I was enthralled by the level of their personal interest in the topic as well as impressed by the sophistication of their Power Point presentation. I sat there in complete amazement along with my other students. My assignments in the past had not allowed them to utilize all of their actual talents. Cathy and Jimmy received the highest grade in the class for that presentation.

It is evident that I as a teacher had overlooked all aspects of those two students’ learning. The reason Jimmy and Cathy had made an investment in their Teach a Lesson project was because I allowed them to tap into their true talents and to be autonomous. When a student is given that opportunity, he will then become more involved in the class activities and more committed to his work.

Our specific strategies to connect the student to his learning resulted in the student’s increased involvement in the classroom and an obvious commitment to his work. We saw that the student valued his learning experiences with us. As Dewey advised, "From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning in school" (75). Dewey would endorse the learning approach in our research study: "The maximum appeal, and the full meaning in the life of the child, could be secured only when the studies were presented, not as bare essential studies, but from the standpoint of the relation they bear to the life of society" (100).

In conclusion, two distinct components emerged from our research that would be essential elements of a model for developing student connections to learning. These elements evolved as we were forced to challenge two underlying premises that were a part of our original question. At the beginning, we believed that if we did innovative projects that connected to a student’s own experiences and background, then that student would respond by immediately becoming involved in the content and raising his academic grades in the class. Unfortunately, this was a patriarchal point of view that promoted a didactic way of teaching. As we stumbled through the semester, we saw that our "projects" were not working as we planned. However, once we began to see that the learning in our classroom must be a part of a unified community that would connect to each other’s uniqueness – including that of the teacher – we began to notice significant changes in student behavior and attitude. As we all became more open with each other and developed trust that we were all interested in learning, student commitment and autonomy grew. We saw the importance of overtly making personal connections to the content being studied as well as interpersonal connections to the other people in the classroom. It was imperative that a mutual feeling of trust develop within the classroom.

In retrospect, we saw that the second essential element necessary for students to make connections was a clear definition and understanding of "culture." Originally we viewed our research as a project designed to foster the successful inclusion of ethnic minorities into the school community, especially after reading the Delpit and Heath books. In fact, such a study was our initial proposal for admission into the IET program. When we talked about "culture," we thought we were talking about a culture different from the mainstream culture. However, through our readings and discussions in Language and Culture classes I and II, and particularly through the presentation about culture by Dr. Mark Hicks to our graduate class, we redefined the meaning of "culture" for our classrooms. We realized the importance of connecting all components of a person’s life to the content of the curriculum: that is, learning styles and methods, ethnicity, experiences, talents, family, economic background, sexual orientation, multi- cultural heritage, and physical handicaps, to name a few. In order for all students to connect to the content, all students’ individualities must be recognized and included. In order to be successful with our educational model, the curriculum must be designed to access the broad cultural base of everyone in the class.

Did our research have an impact on our students? An anecdote from Margaret’s classroom can best answer that question. She was forced to stop the kinds of classroom activities discussed in this paper in order to review her students about usage rules and research process rules to prepare them for the SOL tests in March. When she was outlining the content they would study after the tests, Heidi responded," Mrs. Kaminsky, I really understand why you had to run class this way for the past six weeks, but could we PLEASE go back to the way it was before! I want to study everything just like we did with the Individuality Portfolio!" And the rest of the class cheered in agreement.

We now believe that when students see the connections of content to their own lives in an atmosphere of strong interpersonal relationships, they engage with their learning. The teaching and learning in our classrooms are irrevocably altered. On a broader scale, we are challenged to use the findings of our research to develop innovative ways to wed individual learning to the Commonwealth’s Standards of Learning mandate. As teachers and school divisions seek ways to raise students’ SOL scores, our voices will need to speak out loudly that the curriculum is meaningless to the student until he sees its relationship to his own life.

Bruner, Jerome. The Culture of Education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
    University Press, 1996.

Delpit, Lisa. Other People’s Children. New York: The New Press, 1995.

Dewey, John. The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago:
    The University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Elkind, David. Ties That Stress. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
    Press, 1994.

Levine, Lawrence. The Opening of the American Mind. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Moss. Pamela. "Can There Be Validity Without Reliability?" Educational Research,
    Vol. 23. March 1994, 5-11.

Sockett, Hugh. The Moral Base of Teacher Professionalism. New York: Teachers
    College Press, 1993.

Patricia M. Campbell is a member of the first Osbourn High School Faculty assembled twenty-two years ago, and an "original Eagle." She has been instrumental in developing an arts program through the years, which now includes three additional teachers and a number of electives in addition to the core arts curriculum. Currently, Pat teaches three levels of Photography, and also serves as an effective leader in the school, as Supervisor of the Fine Arts Department. In the past, she has served on the architectural design committee for the new Osbourn High School, sponsored numerous curricular activities, and coordinated the fine arts selection of candidates for The Governors School.

On a personal note, Pat is the mother of two children, Dandridge and Graham and a Doberman named "Peenie". Working out at the gym, reading, spending numerous hours at the DAR Library in genealogical research and taking photographs are a few of her interests; she enjoys people and looks forward to interacting with family and friends.
 
 

Margaret Kaminsky, who currently teaches students in English 11 and SAT Prep, is also an "original Eagle" who began teaching in Manassas thirty years ago. Throughout her career she has worked with students in grades 7-12 who vary in many skills and abilities. For many years she focused on helping low-motivated students to learn and develop skill based curriculums for slow learners; in the past ten years her endorsements has included gifted/talented education. Working with students with special needs is what she enjoys most. In addition to classroom instruction, Margaret has always been active in curriculum development, especially in designing and implementing innovative programs such as whole language and block scheduling. She has been honored as The Washington Post-Agnes Meyer Teacher of the Year, the Outstanding Teacher of the Gifted and is in Who's Who Among American Teachers. At Osbourn she is the supervisor of the English Department.

On the personal side Margaret and her husband reside on a farm in Fauquier Co. and spend their summers at their cottage on Chincoteague Island, reading, fishing and relaxing on the beach.
 
 

David McGlothlin, Jr., has been a Social Studies teacher at Osbourn High School for 10 years. He teaches U.S. History, Philosophy and Sociology. He has taught a variety of subjects at different academic levels. During his tenure at Osbourn he has been involved in numerous activities, from sponsoring extracurricular activities to his current Chairing of the S.A.C.S. Self-Study Committee. He has also been named Osbourn Teacher of the Year (1993), 1996 Girls' Soccer Coach of the Year by the Journal Messenger, and Who's Who Among American Teachers. He currently serves as President of the Manassas Education Association.

On the personal side, he currently resides in an older home in the Manassas historical District, where he enjoys working on his house and yard. He is also active in the Emory and Henry College Alumni Association and is active in fundraising for HIV/AIDS related charities in the Washington, D.C. area.