Prelude At Home

Families can also play Prelude at home. The following are testimonials and photos of a few teachers who played with their own families. Research shows that families that play together stay together. Up to age 18, youth spend 13% of waking hours in school, and 87% of time with their family and in the community. There are two basic types of family activities. Core activities are everyday, low-cost, and home-based. Balance activities are generally novel and require a greater investment of time, effort, planning, and capital. Both activities are positively correlated with family cohesiveness, emotional bonding, and adaptability. All of which embraces quality of home life and relationships. According to UNESCO this ‘Curriculum of the Home’ is a more powerful predictor of academic learning than the family’s status.

Testimonials

Prelude was a lot of fun and very interesting!! My favorite part was the energy in the room as family [18 participants] at different stages worked to complete their Star Graph and iTag … Lots of discussion ensued. - Heather MacTaggart, CEO Classroom Connections

Our experience with Prelude started at a family dinner. We were discussing where my teenagers (ages 16 and 19) were going to go after High School and CEGEP.  I mentioned seeing Prelude in action at a local high school and suggested they try it.  They asked my wife and I to do it as well! Over the next few weeks we all did our Keynotes. We ultimately “presented” our results at another dinner. It was a great source of self-reflection and led to lots more family dialogue. We all got new perspectives on each other. It was simple to follow, fun and quick! I’ve recommended Prelude to co-workers, friends and other students. - Dale McKenzie, Educator and Technologist, Eastern Townships School Board

The following reviews a two-year Prelude Pilot at Windsor Park Collegiate in Winnipeg. WPC is part of the Louis Riel School Division. It has 510 Students [Grades 9 -12], 38 teachers, and 36 support staff.  Over two seasons, Prelude was piloted over with 274 Students in Grade 9 and Grade 12. This involved two curriculum areas, English Language Arts and Career Education respectively.

Pilot I: Winter 2010

Overall 150 Students participated. The pilot had two parts. -

Grade 12  Career Internship Program [January]: The Pilot involved one Class of 20 Students. They first played Prelude for their own learning experience. They also then provided support to the Grade 9 Students and Teachers.

Grade 9 Homeroom [February]: The Pilot involved 130 Students from Grade 9 Homeroom Classes. They all played Prelude together in the same space. The Grade 12 Students provided support.

Teacher Commentary: As a teacher I found Prelude was beneficial and very worthwhile. Prelude enables individuals – Students and teachers – to discover their special attributes and tendencies, and then to appreciate others’ differences in a series of dynamic activities that promote teamwork. Prelude has excellent potential to build a person’s confidence and nurture a prospective team. Overall it was a fascinating experience, and one worth trying again. – Adriano Magnifico

Pilot II: Fall 2010/Spring 2011

Based on the initial results of the first pilot, a second pilot was implemented. Given lessons learned, further adaptations occurred. In total 124 Students participated in Pilot II.

Grade 12 Career Education & English Language Arts

Career Internship Program: This award winning program challenges Students to discover and build transferable skills of the 21st century workplace: Creativity, problem solving, design, and big picture thinking.

Language and Technical Communication (40S): English 40S Language and Technical Communication provides Students with a theoretical framework regarding collaboration and with opportunities to experience themselves in various collaborative roles. This emphasis on collaboration prepares Students for the realities of post- secondary education, personal relationships, community organizations, and contemporary workplaces where much of the work individuals do is co-operative.

As in the first year, Grade 12 Students played Prelude first for their own edification. They also worked again with Grade 9 Students. However this time, the Grade 12 Students also chose Prelude for a major project. They ultimately developed a Prelude Business Plan, Website, and actually facilitated Prelude for a Grade 9 Class. They also created unique “Prelude Colour/Element Scenarios” for role-playing game lessons.

This project was an audacious undertaking. Essentially the Grade 12 Students took on three interrelated Projects.  Their project was had real risks and along the way they did run into challenges, such as negative Grade 9 Student attitudes and behaviours.

Grade 9  English Language Arts [2011]: In Pilot II further innovation occurred. Prelude was introduced in Grade 9 English Language Arts classes. This involved 9 ELA Classes and 120 Students. It occurred over Semester 1 and 2. The new Grade 12 Students again provided support.

The pilot goal was to see if Prelude could enhance General Learning Outcome 1 of the ELA Curriculum. There are four other General Learning Outcomes. All five are the same. However, their application and specific goals becomes progressively more challenging and encompassing as Students mature and becomes more skilled until Grade 12.

Post Pilot, the ELA Teacher consensus was that Prelude does effectively complement and enhance General Learning Outcome 1. It provides a safe zone within which to practice GLO 1 skills experientially and holistically. Prelude provides concentrated, engaging learning moments that prepare Students for further modules in terms of self-awareness, critical thinking, peer respect, communication – collaborative skills, and appreciation for diversity.

Teacher Commentary: Prelude works extremely well with this major foundation of the ELA curriculum in Manitoba. – Adriano Magnifico

Location: Lloydminster, Saskatchewan

Program: Jack Kemp Community School, Elementary K-6 serves approximately 400 students. It is part of the Lloydminster SK Public School Division. LSKPSD serves 3878 students from Pre-K to High School. It has 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 1 senior high school, and 1 outreach school.

Website: http://jackkemp.lpsd.ca/

Description: A novel Prelude Pilot occurred from February to April 2011. This involved twenty-one Grade 6 students as part of their career education and health class. David Heculuck B. ED facilitated the pilot. This was part of his work within the after degree program at the University of Calgary. David is based in Lloydminster, bordering Alberta and Saskatchewan. The actual program is operated out of Lakeland College. When David learned about Prelude he asked if he could use it as part of his practicum and for the related action-based class research. The second part of Prelude Pilot involved David facilitating the learning game for his fellow student teachers.

David also presented the results of his action-based research to peers and program coordinators.  The presentation is entitled Student Transitions: Prelude To Classroom Relationship Building. This involved:

A. Pre-assessment student survey

B. Anecdotal notes from student comments and teaching

C. Student work:  STAR graph/Journal Design Work

D. Career Education Checklist: Student Self-checks – Formative & Summative

E. Final Student Interviews Post-Prelude

Students responded as follows –

100% feel they can describe themselves positively

83% feel they can describe others in a positive way

67% feel that students do not treat one another with respect

42% say that students help one another even if they are not friends

76% feel they are a part of a team

77% feel that they know what is expected to do their best as a team

Based on the overall research findings, it was recommended that a learning game like Prelude can be interwoven throughout curriculum for continued social and emotional learning.

Quote: I have been truly astounded by what they have accomplished in showing their newfound abilities in themselves and others.  Students who have shown difficulties in behaviour are finding ways now to stay on task and become deeply involved in the collaborative process and design work.  I have new insights into other students’ abilities for leadership and compromise that I do not believe I would have seen before Prelude.  Among my Structured Success students whom I have mentioned to you previously, their behaviour has been 180 degrees in many cases compared to what I would have expected before Prelude.

Photos:

The following reviews a Prelude Pilot at Laval Junior High School [LJHS]. LJHS serves approximately 300 students. It offers the general provincial curriculum and a range of special programs and services. LJHS is part of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board [SWLSB]. A second SWLSB school – Mountain View North HS – also piloted Prelude. Both SWLSB schools were introduced to Prelude through Batshaw Youth & Family Centres [BYFC]. BYFC provides psychosocial rehabilitation and social integration services. It uses Prelude within its A.R.T. program. Aggression Replacement Training is a “cognitive-behavioural intervention model”. Mountain View features an A.R.T. program to which Prelude was added. The LJHS Principal, Richard Mason, learned about this work. He asked if any teaching staff might be interested in piloting Prelude. Aline Khozozian, a Secondary I Teacher, volunteered. All four of her Language Arts classes participated, from November 2010 to February 2011.

• Class 1 – 30 Students – Regular Program
• Class 2 – 30 Students – Regular Program
• Class 3 – 33 Students – Enriched Program
• Class 4 – 16 Students – Modified Program

INNOVATIVE SPIRIT

The LJHS Prelude Pilot was a significant undertaking. Typically teachers will start with one class when facilitating for the first time. Ms. Khozozian introduced Prelude simultaneously to four classes with different learning styles. In addition, one particular class had a bullying clique. She hoped Prelude would help here specifically. Another challenge was the pilot started late in the year. This resulted in a time gap of several weeks from start to finish. Normally Prelude is played with a one to two week time frame.

Ms. Khozozian also chose to participate in the Prelude experience. Thus she created and shared learning game artifacts with her students and vice versa. This created a deeper sense of mutual understanding all around.  As well, Ms. Khozozian designed a post game Language Arts exercise that would enable students to apply their new knowledge in a novel way.

Thanks to Ms. Khozozian’s considerable efforts, the overall Prelude Pilot experience was positive for the majority of students and for her too. Moreover, she created a powerful display of the Prelude learning experience for the school’s Parents Open House. The Prelude Pilot is also featured on the Laval Junior High School website.

TEACHER COMMENTARY

The following is Ms. Khozozian’s commentary on the Prelude Pilot, drawn from several emails during the pilot and from a post-pilot telephone debrief meeting.

Pilot Goals

• To bring my students together and closer to one another (they are divided into many cliques)
• Tie the ideas of respect, acceptance, differences, ignorance, bullying, etc. to the novel we are reading (Crash) and also to their own personal life experiences within our school environment

General Comments

The online orientation was fairly simple and well detailed. Prelude was an eye-opening experience for me. I wish I had done something similar when I was a teenager—a time when everyone is looking to further understand his or her strengths and weaknesses.  Overall, it’s been a fun project… the students seemed to have enjoyed the program. There were a few challenges and some great discoveries were made along the way. I wanted my students to be their best, and to be that, they needed practice, and practice is achieved through the application of oneself.

Students really enjoyed finding out their positive character/personality traits. They were also very excited about the goals they set for themselves at the end, and are working on achieving them. I’ve had a parent contact me to thank me for helping her daughter choose that goal because she has been working on it for years! The students are enjoying the weTag activity module and they understand better. And because they have to put all their iTags into ONE drawing, they’re able to share and communicate their ideas.

Prelude: A Novel Use

I plan to use Prelude as part of my Novel study. My students will be asked to create a Keynote for the main character of the Novel – Crash – which we read in class, using the same adjectives that Keynote Report provides. I want them to create a Keynote bar graph, using what they’ve learned from their elemental colors, to see where they think the main character lies. This will be an interesting alternative to a more traditional novel characterization exercise.

One Class Challenge

In one regular class there’s a disruptive clique of several boys. They’re generally defiant and difficult to deal with. They also relentlessly bully one boy in their group by making inappropriate comments. This group had a challenging time understanding the objective and they didn’t necessarily want to participate. They did it unwillingly (most of them, not all). Prelude could not help resolve the underlying problem.

STUDENT LESSONS

• Learning to understand and work with students with different characteristics (Keynote) applies to everyday life too
• Everyone needs to be accepted for who they are, respected for their differences, and for those differences to even be embraced
• Collaboration enables students to complement each other’s strengths and to develop their less developed ones in tandem
• There is no perfect person, but there could be a “better you”.

COMMENTARY

As the LJHS pilot illustrates, Prelude is an ideal complement to Formative and Student Involved Assessment. The game process helps participants to understand their experience on three levels.

• Self-Focus – What students learn about themselves vis-à-vis positive strengths and assets
• Peer Focus – What students learn about each other vis-à-vis positive strengths and assets
• Teacher Focus – What teacher learns about the class and the other way around

NEXT STEPS

Based on Ms. Khozozian’s overall positive experience with Prelude, discussions are underway for continued Prelude use for the fall 2011 school term at Laval Junior High School.

The following is a review of a Prelude Pilot at Perseus House fall 2010. Perseus House is a non-profit organization based in Erie, Pennsylvania. It provides preventative and intervention services for families, children, adolescents, and young adults. This includes a variety of educational programs and resources for school-aged youth, both in the school setting and in the Erie community.

The Charter School of Excellence is a division of Perseus House,. It serves students in Grades 6 through 12. Although any student can attend, the school’s focus is directed toward those youth who have had significant difficulties with academic performance in previous education settings.

The goal of this Prelude Pilot was for Perseus House staff members to gain first hand experience to assess its usefulness and practicality. Their reviews are featured below in italics. In all, 118 students participated. Consensus is that Prelude provided a positive, engaging learning experience, generated important individual and peer insights, and encouraged collaboration.

PILOT 1:  MARTIME CENTER – MIDDLE SCHOOL

In September 2010, Prelude was piloted at the Maritime Center – Middle School, which is part of Perseus House Charter School of Excellence. The pilot facilitator was Lisa Panko, a Reading Specialist in Language Arts.  The Maritime Center – Middle School offers Grades 6 – 8 for students from ages 11 to 14.  It emphasizes hands-on learning, developing critical and creative thinking, computer technology, healthy lifestyles, citizenship, and service to others. The enrolment is approximately 100 students. All students from the three grade levels participated in the Prelude pilot.

Teacher Quote

“The students have been very receptive to Prelude.  I have been real happy with the outcomes and I really enjoyed the game.  It was eye opening to some students to see what their traits may be. It is my hope that the students understand where they fall in the elements and use it to work together with other students in a more successful way.  Learning to work in groups is an important skill and dealing with others is a common goal in our building..  It has been a big help in my classroom with projects and activities. It has been my practice to look at my grouping and plan projects that are conducive to their element styles The Prelude model will hopefully be used again for our students.”

PILOT 2: RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITY

Overview

In October 2010, Prelude was piloted within these two Residential Treatment Facility programs, which are part of Perseus House. The pilot facilitator was Stacie Luebbert, M.Ed. a teacher. Ms. Luebbert piloting Prelude first with the Boys RTF. Given the success of this pilot, Ms. Luebbert than volunteered to pilot Prelude with the second Enhanced RTF.

Boys Residential Treatment Facility RTF

This is a 12-bed facility for delinquent and child-welfare dependent boys (ages 12-18) with possible mental health needs. There were 12 students who participated in the Prelude pilot.

Enhanced Residential Treatment Facility

This 6-bed facility is for seriously emotionally disturbed high-risk adolescent males.  An intensive staffing pattern immerses each young man in a new world experience toward the development of a new self/world view. There were 6 students who participated in this second Prelude pilot.

Teacher Quote

“These activities have been well received by the students. We are really learning a lot ourselves and the other individuals in the class  … It encourages cooperation and facilitates understanding the differences we each have in how we respond to situations … One participant stated he would like copies of their iTags and Keynotes to post on their bedroom doors as reminders to themselves and others the best way to they interact in a group and to remember that we are all individuals and respond differently.  The project really brightened up the community in our room.  Thanks for this opportunity to facilitate the program, I had fun and learned a lot about the individuals in this classroom.”

UPDATE: September 2011

Perseus House has integrated Prelude into its regular programming.

The report underscores Prelude’s versatility. Curriculum and program areas include: Language Arts, Ethics, Pro Social Behaviour, Life & Work Skills, Drop Out Prevention, Leadership, and Mentorship. It’s used with youth, ages 12 to 20+, who may be mainstream, learning challenged, and/or at risk. Participants include new immigrants, high school dropouts, rural youth, and Aboriginal youth. Prelude is used in diverse cultures. It also helps bring those from diverse cultures together. Over several thousand youth have benefited.

This report concludes with a brief explanation of Prelude’s genesis followed by a summary of key lessons. The accompanying Prelude Gallery PDF features participants playing Prelude and the artefacts they created individually, as teams, and as whole groups. To see the full report and gallery  please go to Prelude Reports.

Website: http://www.bayview.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca

Location: Richmond Hill, Ontario

Program: Grade 11 Workplace Math

Description: Part of the York District School Board, Bayview Secondary School offers Grades 9–12 and serves approximately 1800 students. Prelude was piloted within a Grade 11 Workplace Math Class with 29 students, of which half require Special Education support. Another novel adaptation involved students creating their allTag on a blackboard instead of paper. This is because this grade level doesn’t have permanent classrooms. However blackboard creativity has a long pedigree in education. For more please see Chalkboard Drawing.

Educator Commentary: Prelude is a remarkably effective way for students to recognize and reflect on their own gifts and aptitudes. It makes it easy to begin a conversation about personal capital and the value of collaboration. This held real meaning relative to the lives my students are living today. By playing Prelude, our classroom became a more energized place to learn. Students definitely became more invested in their own learning experiences. – Eric Rosenberg, Teacher [www.healthymoney.ca]

Photos:

Website http://www.mckenzie.edu

Location: Moncton, New Brunswick

Program: Visual Arts Foundation

Description: On Friday November 26, McKenzie College students and staff in the foundation program played Prelude.

Facilitator Commentary

It’s always interesting to see how individuals with specialized art and design training play Prelude. While Prelude uses visual design and expression throughout, it’s meant for the majority of youth and adults without this specialized experience. No doubt there’s a qualitative difference between the artifacts designed by both groups. [It’d be ideal if the Prelude  process could actually enhance the graphic skills of the general player. Everyone should feel comfortable with a crayon in hand.]  However, the underpinning lessons and outcomes are the same for both the designer and the layperson. That is that creative thinking, empathy, collaboration, and appreciation for diversity are essential skills that can be developed naturally through serious games and play. This was the case at the college. It was an engaging and energizing Prelude session. – H. B. Esbin, PhD. Facilitator

Participants Commentary

• Working together as a group went very well, very well executed, Prelude taught good lessons.
• Prelude is good for schools, camps, sports teams, and the workplace.
• The allTag, the mural turned out fantastic! Use this game as an icebreaker.
• I enjoyed the group painting because we worked together to accomplish something.
• The weTag! It was great to merge everyone’s ideas.
• Interesting learning more about myself.

Photos: