Recursive Writing Spirals for Resilience: Active Hope Journaling and Metacognition in Eighth-Grade Math

• In Event: A Radical, Rooted Curriculum for Climate Catastrophe: Resourcefulness, Regeneration, Connection, and Community

Abstract

This descriptive research uses the spiral to inspire curricular design resilience through student storytelling. The research describes a model to support students gaining resilience visualized as a deepening and widening, iterated spiral. This inquiry fits into the larger questions of how to support learners in gaining resilience for other kinds of difficult knowledge.

Objectives: The research has three main objectives: first, to build a model of curricular design inspired by biomimetic and natural pattern geometries; second, to achieve an integration of literary arts, mathematics and natural patterning (in a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or STEAM model); and third, to gain insight into empowering student resilience as they encounter difficult knowledge in a time of climate peril.

Theoretical Frameworks: At the college level, liberal arts math learners prefer (and learn more from) experienced teachers using activity-based culturally responsive instruction (Judd, Tsay, Hauk, & Powers, 2011). This preference may carry into middle school, particularly when personal narratives are shared referents (Saifer, Edwards, Ellis, Ko, & Stuczynski, 2011). Narrative approaches and storytelling in math education have proved useful (Gerofsky, 2004; Zazkis & Liljedahl, 2009). Building from this foundation, the research reported here used an Active Hope lens (Macy & Brown, 2014). It leveraged The Work that Reconnects to inspire resilience thinking through widening circles of connection, including through reflective writing exercises (Macy & Johnstone, 2012). In particular, this research focuses on the use of the imagination in curriculum design for a strengths-based approach to building resilience, perseverance, and stamina in undertaking difficult learning (Judson, 2015; Egan & Judson, 2016).

Methods: The study is a curricular design in the context of a class of challenged eighth grade learners in a co-taught math course in a feeder arts academy in an urban/suburban district in the Pacific Northwest. This research used biomimicry and natural pattern to inspire curricular design and innovation (Benyus, 2009; Gerofsky et al, 2018) and spiral geometries were particularly emphasized (Ball, 2012, 2016; Stewart, 2018).

Evidence/Materials: The curricular designer used images and patterns from spiral natural pattern scholars to craft a multi-scale iteration of journaling prompts.

Initial Results: Journal prompts were designed to prompt students’ metacognitive reflection about their own learning, struggling, and resilience journey. The resulting curricular design and spiral prompts are elaborated in Table 5.1.

Significance: The significance of this research is to build learner stamina and resilience using arts-based approaches, adding spiral journaling to support Next Generation spiral curriculum. It invites exploration if these same approaches might also catalyze resilience and stamina for other kinds of difficult knowledge in the lives of learners.

Author

• Adam Masako Joy, Vancouver School District Arts Academy