1. iLab Academic Program
1.1. Technology-rich space where students can explore their own areas of interest, work with community experts, and take ownership of their learning
1.1.1. Students choose to investigate topics important to them which revolve around authentic, real-world issues
1.1.1.1. Students follow a project-based learning process which allows them to create STEAM-based projects, which can model real tasks done in different career pathways
1.2. Started in 2013, used in Winooski High School
1.3. Created as a response to decreasing student engagement at the HS and to address recent Vermont educational policy reform Act 77: The Flexible Pathways Initiative (2013)
1.3.1. Mandated proficiency-based education, promoted expanded learning opportunities in and out of school, and created personal pathways for students that lead to high school graduation and college and career readiness
2. Think It-Learn It-Make It-Share It Framework
2.1. Origin and purpose
2.1.1. Has its origins in project-based learning and proficiency-based education
2.1.1.1. Developed to engage students in creating projects
2.1.1.1.1. No tests, quizzes, or final exams
2.1.1.2. Project-based learning allows for student voice and choice in their learning
2.1.1.2.1. Requires research question about a specific topic or issue
2.1.1.2.2. Mandates an action plan to complete the project within a particular time frame
2.1.1.2.3. Identifies specific skills that will be learned or practiced
2.1.1.2.4. Expects the project to drive the learning
2.1.2. The purpose is to prepare new Americans and other students for the rigors of college, career, and civic engagement while developing the most important skills required for this century's education like critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity
2.1.2.1. Students are held accountable to their project goals, action steps, and learning
2.1.2.1.1. Students must create their own timeline to complete each step of the project
2.2. What does it stand for?
2.2.1. Think it: Setting goals and creating an action plan to investigate a semester-long project
2.2.1.1. Performance Task in Project: Devise research question and set project goals and action stepts
2.2.1.2. Collaboration: Conference with peers for critiques and feedback
2.2.1.3. 2 week timeline
2.2.2. Learn it: Learning about their project based on the action plan
2.2.2.1. Performance Task in Project: Create annotations and community connections, conduct interviews
2.2.2.2. Collaboration: Share notes of articles, observations, and interviews
2.2.2.3. 4-6 week timeline
2.2.3. Make it: creating a final product
2.2.3.1. Performance Task in project: project development
2.2.3.2. Collaboration: Conference with peers on stages of product development
2.2.3.3. 4-6 week timeline
2.2.4. Share it: Writing a paper about the learning process and presenting the product and the learning process to the school community in a multimedia format
2.2.4.1. Performance tasks: present presentation and write reflective essay
2.2.4.2. Collaboration: Practice presentation in from of peers, peer review of essay drafts
2.2.4.3. 2-4 week timeline
2.3. How has it changed over the years?
2.3.1. It's been modified to make the problem-based learning process more transparent for students and address gaps in student learning that aren't addressed in traditional problem-based learning
2.3.1.1. Created a set of literacy tasks that requires students to work on the 4 literacy domains (reading, writing, listening, speaking) through a genre-based approach
3. Performance Tasks as School-Based Science Genres
3.1. There are specific performance tasks built into the TLMS* framework that help students learn or practice specific literary skills in the literary domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
3.1.1. While each phase typically emphasizes a particular domain, advisors and peers consult with students as they work on their project within each phase so that all domains are continuously practiced
3.1.2. For each task, the advisors model, co-construct, and provide feedback to students as students work through these tasks in their project
3.1.2.1. Similar to Derewianka's (1990) curriculum cycle of preparation, modeling, joint construction, and independent construction
3.1.2.1.1. This cycle provides a way to explore the different language components and structures of the performance tasks so students can understand how they can create real-world authentic meaning in the context of their project
3.1.3. The performance tasks guide students through the different phases of the framework so students have the opportunity to learn and practice literacy throughout the duration of their project
3.2. The TLMS* takes on a functional approach to language, which is described as how language allows us to do things in the real world, and how people use real language for real purposes
3.2.1. iLab uses this functional approach to inform the writing instruction by being "'proactive in focusing on language structure students are not already using in their writing'" (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008, pp. 112-113).
4. *TLMS: Think It-Learn It-Make It-Share it
5. Making School-Based Science Genres Work for the TLMS Framework
5.1. Follows the idea that genres are not static and need to be adapted to local contexts so that they are discipline-specific and serve larger curricular purposes
5.1.1. Advisors of the high school adapted school-based science genres to the "local" context of iLab, which allowed them to explicitly teach these genres to students as they work on their projects
5.1.2. To make genres serve the curricular purposes, advisors adapted them to address specific performance tasks
5.2. What are the school-based science genres?
5.2.1. Procedure
5.2.2. Procedural recount
5.2.3. Explanation
5.2.4. Exposition