My Origami Learning Curve

I was looking for a guinea pig.  But of course, there's never one around when you really need one.

I am in the middle of researching and writing my monthly post for Leadertalk and my column in The Big Idea.  I am writing about lesson designs, learning styles, and time.  It's still a mish-mash of random thoughts, post-it notes on the laptop screen, and comments written in the margins of my reference books.  But I was boxed in.  It wasn't writer's block exactly.  It was a case of needing some real world reference points to give my examples flight while my theories remained well-grounded.

Which brings me back to the guinea pig.  I needed to interview some students, observe a well-designed lesson, or somehow obtain first hand input about some of the issues I was writing about.  But it was Saturday afternoon and my wife (who teaches college and kindergarten) was at a baby shower.  My son (who teaches 5th grade) was hanging Christmas lights at his house, his wife (also a 5th grade teacher) was at the baby shower (a good thing, too, since it was for her), and basically everyone I could think of was tied up.  My choice came down to postponing everything, writing about something else, or volunteering myself as the guinea pig.

After some further thought, I decided that if I volunteered myself, it might give me a totally different slant.  Sounded like fun.  So I chose to find something new that I could learn.  I would write about the process as I was actually engaged in it.  The more the idea developed, the more certain I was that I would experience first hand several "Personal Affirmations" of a variety of the lesson design attributes, standards, and concepts we've been discussing lately.

The immediate problem was identifying something I wanted to learn.  It had to be fairly simple (while Chaos Theory sounds like fun - CHAOS! - I'm pretty sure it's complicated...what with all that science and math...).  It couldn't take that long (if I had that much time, I'd be working on another degree).  And it had to be something for which I had all the skills (as much as I'd love to master Debussy's Clair de Lune, there's that pesky pre-requisite of being able to play the piano).

So, I headed over to my Personal Thinking Spot - the one place I go when I need to relax, take a break, be inspired, or shake off the cobb webs.  My kinda "get-away" and just three miles west of my house: Barnes and Nobel with an in-store Starbucks (a fine example of marketing genius if ever there was one!).  I bought a venti Gingerbread latte with whipped cream and extra cinnamon sprinkled on top and then just strolled around in my Not-Really-Looking-But-Receiving-Input-Mode.  You know that mode of shopping, don't you?  I let the store displays, end racks, book covers, and assorted merchandise speak to me. I knew from years of experience that if I cruised around in this fashion long enough, I'd eventually run aground on some island of interest.

I passed just such an "island" somewhere between the Romance and Science Fiction sections - a large table stacked with discounted items.  Sure enough, there it was...just like it had been waiting for me:  a six-sided brightly colored box of Origami lessons.  I picked up the box and realized this met my needs perfectly.  It was a pre-packaged set of lessons. It included Origami paper... and best of all: an actual completed Origami piece.  It dawned on me I was actually holding FOUR STANDARDS of Schlechty's WOW.  Content and Substance, Organization of Knowledge, Product Focus, and Clear and Compelling Product standards were all packed into the box.  Elegant.  Talk about Wiggin's understanding by design, this was it.  Marketing a complete learning experience had clear indications of a well-thought out design.  From the attractive (inviting) box to the contents and words of encouragement on the outside of the box...I hadn't even paid for it yet and it had me hooked.  [Hmmm, make a note: strong anticipatory set established.]  No doubt about it, I was going to learn the basics of Origami, master the art form, and write about the experience all at the same time.

Now, I did notice the lesson was made in China.  Let's take a moment for a real quick Corrective Re-Teach here: Origami is a Japanese art form.  I decided that if I was careful and washed my hands before and after the lessons, the likelihood of lead poisoning was small.  So I bought the box of Origami lessons for $9.95 and headed home.

Personal Affirmation #1: The Need for an Objective. Clearly, there is a need to establish a starting point and define what the whole point is. Obviously there is a need to develop a clear objective, if nothing else, to at least get the learning experience started.  Now, this may seem like a "No Duh!" kind of affirmation...but I still encounter teachers who don't seem to grasp this most basic of lesson design components.  It was critical to establish what I wanted to accomplish. 

After some thought and looking through the instruction book, I decided that my objective for the weekend would be to produce three final products - each one more difficult than the other.  I defined "more difficult" as taking more steps and folds to create.

Personal Affirmation #2: Relevance Must be Present.  Why did Origami catch my attention?  Why was I actually excited about tackling this project?  It held relevance for me.  Growing up in Hawaii I was exposed to a wide variety of cultural experiences - food, dress, religion, art.  Origami was a respected art form.  I remember a restaurant where the meals came with a small piece of Origami served as a decoration on the side of the main course plate.  I remember a friend of the family with a real talent for the art.  Whenever he visited my family, I would ask him to make something.  He once made me a small bird that would flap its wings when you pulled on a leg.  I had childhood memories of Origami frogs, turtles, birds, and even a beating heart.

Personal Affirmation #3: Engagement is Critical.  At this point in the process I was HIGHLY engaged.  However, knowing my learning style, frustration level, and attention span, I anticipated that my engagement level was going to move all over the map.  Because of this, I decided to keep a graph that would reflect my levels of engagement along with a time line and activity notations.

With everything in place, I began the lesson.

Wisely, I had chosen to start with an EASY object - a three-sided hexagonal prism which the instruction book said could be used as a picture frame or pencil holder.  (Now that is product versatility!)  I started at 4pm Saturday afternoon.  This object took one piece of paper and 5 steps.

I completed the object within minutes.

My initial learning data was off the charts.  Success within minutes, frustration level at 0 and satisfaction with work product was very high. 

   

See why I said "wisely" at the start of this section?  If I started anywhere else - knowing what I know now - I would have shredded the instruction book and set fire to the Origami paper.  But for the moment, I was in a "safe place" with the learning.

Personal Affirmation #4: Accommodations are Often Necessary.  For the next lesson activity I chose The Box.  This is where things began to get harder.  The folds became tighter and the smaller.  Can you spot the problem?

The paper that came with the lessons measured 6" x 6".  There was clearly a discrepancy between the size of the paper and the size of my hands and fingers.  I was ripping the paper.  I just could not reach under flaps to refold corners when required. 

My Big Hands + Small Origami Paper = Bull in a Glass House.

It was decided that a modification to the learning process was clearly called for.  Fortunately, being over 18 years old and working in the privacy of my own home, I was able to waive the ARD meeting and just make the needed modifications without my parent's permission.  I took out a pad of large art paper and cut out several squares which were larger and easier for my big hands to handle.

But even then there was a section in the process that I just could not figure out.  There was a fold that I could see plain as day, but just could not translate into reality.

Are you familiar with those diagrams on the SAT tests of figures disassembled and you have to picture what they will look like?  I never could get those.  But hey, if you were good at them, you really should take up Origami for fun...

Personal Affirmation #5: Live Aid is Invaluable.  By around 7pm I was close to exploding. 

This was without a doubt the STUPIDEST idea I'd had in years!  What can I possibly learn by folding paper?  The damn paper rips, the stupid illustrations were drawn by an idiot and cannot possibly be right...why the heck am I not sitting on my porch with a good book and a cold beverage?  All my efforts at building The Box had been doomed to the trash heap growing in the corner.

And then my wife came home from the baby shower.  She glanced at the growing trash heap in the corner.  She saw that the closest I had come was a box that resembled a crushed Chinese food take home carton:

My frustration was at the About-Ready-To-Throw-The-Book-Out-The-Window-Phase. 

For all my Schlechty colleagues - you know that engagement phase of rebellion?  I was so there!

Well, maybe it's the 31 years as a kindergarten teacher or perhaps it's her abilities as a seamstress (have you ever seen a dress pattern??), whatever it was, my wife looked at the instruction book, looked at my attempts, took a piece of paper and SHOWED me how to make the folds.

Personal Affirmation #6: The Huge Difference Between Visual and Hands-On Learning.  Once I saw my wife master the complicated fold, I practiced it under her supervision and guidance and soon had it down pat.  Still using the Big Paper for Big Hands, I finally produced a Box which I was proud of, but not terribly excited about:

Personal Affirmation #7: Some Level of Success and Positive Feedback Is Essential.  It was 9pm.  I was 5 hours into my learning experience, and now that I had two very simple items built, I was feeling pretty good again.  I knew I was making progress.  If I hadn't felt that way, I would have quit by now.

But my positive feelings were dampened somewhat by the honest admission that I had really only accomplished two Origami designs that any 6 year old could probably have mastered in half the time.  It was time to have dinner, read some fluff material, and get some sleep.

Sunday would be my 2nd day of activities.

Sunday Morning - 6am.  I've been up long enough to feed the cat, make coffee, play with the cat, read the paper, and play with the cat some more (he discovered the pile of trash and each piece became a new toy). 

I'm ready to start the day's lessons.  I have two goals for the day.  If I can reach these goals, I will have had a meaningful learning experience and added a small and totally frivolous talent to My Bag o'Skills.

Objective One is to reduce the paper size.  Most Origami figures are small, delicate pieces of art - not huge balls of paper that resemble mutated creatures or moving and storage crates.  I will attempt to make The Box with the smaller, real Origami paper.  Objective Two will be to make one "artistic" design in the intermediate difficulty range.

I start with The Box.  To my surprise I find that after a night of rest, and untold initial failures at folding a box, something has changed.  I am able to produce a box withing a fairly short period of time.  Not including time out to make another pot of coffee and getting cleaned up and dressed, by 8am I had produced a down-right wonderful l'il ol' Origami Box.

Check it out:

Personal Affirmation #8: True Mastery Requires Performance at a Higher Level.  I decided to pick an object design that would be more complicated.  Thinking it made sense to solicit additional help, I went to YouTube and searched through Origami lessons.  The object that caught my attention was a cat.  I'm thinking this will be a breeze - afterall, on-line help to walk me through it.

Personal Affirmation #9: Yes, the Quality of Teacher Prep and Presentation Does Matter.  Uh Oh!  A problem.  If you've visited The Sticking Point (Shannon's Lesson Design Wiki), you might have read the information about The Curse of Knowledge.  The on-line instructor was cursed with prior knowledge and made too many assumptions that the students were at her level of understanding and craftsmanship.  Besides that, the camera angle and the instructor's hands often blocked the specific fold I needed to see.  When I could no longer tell if we were working on the cat's ears or eyes, I felt my frustration level growing.  In the learning curve I had reached that point at which I knew just enough to be dangerous and over-confident.  I was now judging the quality of the teaching and would have probably withdrawn or confronted the instructor had she been "live".

Maybe it was too much coffee, but if I didn't turn off the YouTube teacher, it was just a matter of time before the Origami Cat and my laptop would be flying out the window.

Luckily for all parties involved, around 9am The Voice of Calm enters the room.  My wife is up and dressed and ready to join me for her first cup of coffee.  "Take a break and try a different item...maybe this six-pointed star since it's so Christmasy."  How does my wife always know just what to say?  Am I REALLY that much still like a kindergartner?  Don't answer that...

I agree that the star will meet my requirement as a more difficult item and will be "artsy".  It doesn't hurt that according to my wife, it's also "Christmasy".

Remembering the previous day's experience, and knowing this star has lots of itsy-bitsy folds, I decided to begin with my Big Paper for Big Hands.

My engagement level is all over the chart on this lesson.  I get close and then the paper rips, I think it looks right, but a left fold-over somewhere should have been a right fold-under...it's too deep to get to now.  My Christmas Star keeps morphing into a Christmas trash ball.  But the attempts continue, my anger mounts, my head aches, and the trash pile grows...

After two hours my best star still looks like it has imploded...pulling all my work, energy, and motivation into a huge Black Hole.  It was NOT supposed to look like this...not at any stage...

I take a break, eat some breakfast, turn on some Christmas music (Bette Midler's Cool Yule), sing along with the songs and refuse to give up.  In the Learning Curve I'm seeing just enough improvement / progress within a time frame that remains borderline acceptable.

Finally, at 10am a break through.  I produce a Big Paper Big Hand version of the six point star that looks pretty good.

It's time for the Final Exam.  Can I produce a six-point star with the smaller Origami paper?

10:30am.  I missed an internal series of folds and the star looks like a sand dollar.  Not a bad looking little thing, but again, it was not supposed to look anything close to this:

11:30 - At last.  The Final Work Product:

If it were being graded, it's probably a good B or B-.  The creases could be sharper, and overall it could be a tad more symmetrical.  But considering I never had Origami'd 24 hours ago, I feel pretty good about this final work product.

I met my learning objective.  I have learned a new skill.  And in the process I have affirmed for myself nine design components, standards, call them what you wish.  Overall, it's been a very revealing bit of self-discovery.  I cannot remember ever really focusing so closely on my reactions to learning.  Here's what I gained: A) I answered some questions I had about the Learning Curve, Levels of Engagement, and the importance that TIME plays in the educational process; B) I learned that although I became frustrated, with the right interventions, I remained on task (and never threw anything out the window; and C) I ended up with three kewl Origami thing-a-ma-bobs:

All this just to gather a little grist for the mill.  It was worth it, and now I'm off to work on my "real" articles.

[You're invited to follow my more serious academic meanderings at both Leadertalk and Big Ideas.  This blog posting will eventually end up on the Shannon Design Team Wiki, it's called The Sticking Point. You're invited to drop in and visit it anytime - leave comments, post articles, and be a part of the collaborative effort as we continue our quest for well-designed meaningful learning experiences.]

...and if you ever need a small hand-made paper box, call me.

Comments

[Scott McLeod]

This is a GREAT post. I never thought I'd be in such suspense waiting to see how someone's attempts to fold paper would turn out! Loved the charts!

[Meg]

I think you would have had a much easier time with the Origami if you had worked backward from your desired goal! ;)

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I loved this part: "Are you familiar with those diagrams on the SAT tests of figures disassembled and you have to picture what they will look like? I never could get those. But hey, if you were good at them, you really should take up Origami for fun..."

I was! Off the scale. I can also look at a dress and sketch an idea of what the sewing pattern might look like. And kids in the public schools where I do workshops call me "The Origami Lady" (while folks in stores that sell wrapping paper call me "The Paper Lady").

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