Embedded Files
This website was created by a group of Grade 7 teachers with the goal of helping students engage in and reflect on learning activities, both before and after the Muskoka Woods trip, that connect with and relate to the experience they will have while there. Seven significant themes have been identified as central to students' experience at Muskoka Woods:
This website was created by a group of Grade 7 teachers with the goal of helping students engage in and reflect on learning activities, both before and after the Muskoka Woods trip, that connect with and relate to the experience they will have while there. Seven significant themes have been identified as central to students' experience at Muskoka Woods:
Each theme has been matched with an Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectation (OCGE) that most closely applies to it and reflects the visions and objectives listed in the next section. Every themes has a page on this site for further exploration, which includes: Goals; an OCGE in student friendly language; and a number of activities that help students reflect on the theme and apply learning around the Muskoka Woods experience.
Each theme has been matched with an Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectation (OCGE) that most closely applies to it and reflects the visions and objectives listed in the next section. Every themes has a page on this site for further exploration, which includes: Goals; an OCGE in student friendly language; and a number of activities that help students reflect on the theme and apply learning around the Muskoka Woods experience.
Muskoka Woods Vision and Program Objectives
Muskoka Woods Vision and Program Objectives
Vision for Grade 7 Students attending Muskoka Woods:
Vision for Grade 7 Students attending Muskoka Woods:
To provide a rich “challenge-by-choice” experiential learning opportunity, in the culture of the Catholic school, for Grade 7 students that increases their capacity to embrace opportunities for growth and leadership modeled by the example of secondary students, framed around these two questions:
How can the Muskoka Woods experience help students prepare, experience, and reflect on opportunities to embrace growth?
How can the Muskoka Woods experience call students to influence and serve their community by embracing their God-given talents?
Program Objectives:
Program Objectives:
- Provide age-appropriate large and small group faith experiences
- Leverage the power of positive friendships through a highly relational program between elementary and secondary students and staff
- Increase levels of self-assessment, self-reflection and self-correction through experiential learning and positive modeling
- Build confidence through challenge-by-choice opportunities
- Develop collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills
- Encourage resilience through overcoming obstacles and maximizing opportunities
The Experiential Learning Cycle
The Experiential Learning Cycle
The experiential learning cycle is depicted in the figure to the right. Although the “participate-reflect-apply” cycle appears as a three-stage process, it is not a strictly sequential process but rather a dynamic and highly personal one. Three questions – What?, So what?, and Now what? – are associated with each stage of the process, respectively, and help to focus students’ thinking and drive the process, as follows:
- Participate: What? Students are immersed in an experience, acknowledging what they are doing, what they are thinking, and what they are feeling during the experience.
- Reflect: So what? Students think about their experience, guided by reflective questions and prompts, and identify what they learned as a result of the experience – about themselves, their opportunities, other people, the world, or the subject of study.
- Apply: Now what? Students describe how their learning stimulates further inquiry; how it has influenced – or may influence – their decisions, opinions, goals, and plans; and what they might do differently if they have a similar experience in future.
Experience in itself is neither productive or unproductive, it is how you reflect on it that makes it significant or not significant...
Experience in itself is neither productive or unproductive, it is how you reflect on it that makes it significant or not significant...
Gavin Bolton, 1979 | Towards a Theory of Drama in Education
All students benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of reflection, and from assistance in developing the habit of looking for what can be learned from lived experience. The simplicity of the experiential learning cycle makes it appropriate for all students. By adapting guiding questions and prompts in each phase of the cycle, educators and students can adjust the complexity, focus, and depth of the process to suit the student’s particular developmental needs.
All students benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of reflection, and from assistance in developing the habit of looking for what can be learned from lived experience. The simplicity of the experiential learning cycle makes it appropriate for all students. By adapting guiding questions and prompts in each phase of the cycle, educators and students can adjust the complexity, focus, and depth of the process to suit the student’s particular developmental needs.
Activities
Activities
Each page contains a variety of activities that fit the goals and intention of that theme. Each lesson contains the following:
Each page contains a variety of activities that fit the goals and intention of that theme. Each lesson contains the following:
- Title
- Curriculum, Learning Skills, and Global Competencies Connections
- Time and Material requirements
- Participate - Facilitator Instructions
- Reflect - Questions and Prompts to help students describe, interpret, and generalize the experience
- Apply - Questions and Prompts for students to consider next steps, goals, change in behavior, etc.
- References (if applicable)
The example to the right is taking from Theme 4: Teamwork & Collaboration. Links to each of the themes can be found below.
The example to the right is taking from Theme 4: Teamwork & Collaboration. Links to each of the themes can be found below.
Report abuse