Dream-catcher serves key role in 8th grade algebra study
In an education system crowded with academic specialists, curriculum managers and instructional theorists – Robyn Fisher’s role might be overlooked or even unappreciated in some settings and yet, it could be argued, it is as fundamental to student success as any other.
Her job is to get children to dream.
A consultant on a $5 million federal study using project-based learning as a centerpiece for teaching algebra to at-risk eighth graders, Fisher’s team is saddled with the task of illustrating for students the real-world path one would take from the middle school classroom to a career based in science and technology.
“Every child has some expectation about what they want to do and they get messages about those expectations from many different places,” Fisher said. “And if they are seeing or hearing messages about where they can and cannot go next or what they can or cannot do next, that can have an impact in the classroom.
“So what we are trying to do is connect the project-based learning they are doing in the classroom; with what’s going on in