I am frequently asked, "Can I use the principles of blended learning if I am not in a "blended class?" My answer is always "Yes, absolutely!" I have asked Eric Chandler, an English teacher at Cary-Grove High School, to share a project that he developed this year to increase student agency in his classroom. Student agency is one of the key components of blended learning; it allows for students have some control of the time, place and path of their learning. As a district, we are moving towards a more personalized model of instruction. As part of our professional development, we were trained in Design-Based Thinking by Future Design Schools. The design thinking process is a highly structured framework by which the students identify problems, develop prototypes to solve the problem, refine their ideas, and test out their solutions.
Over the last few years, in our district and across the educational stratosphere, a need for experiential and problem-based learning has become abundantly clear. The common thread with each new professional development opportunity or guest speaker is a desire to repeal the transactional educational model and cultivate an environment of inquiry and personalization. George Couros says we must reimagine our classrooms as not bound by four walls but as dynamic and interconnected global environments where students take ownership of their learning. Sir Ken Robinson says that in order to stop stripping our students of their natural divergent thinking that we must reimagine our archaic and linear education system. Design thinking says we must do away with rote memorization and simplistic skill acquisition and provide students with applicable problems and allow them to grapple with the process and products related to the solution. The responsibility of the 21st century educator is equal parts empowering and daunting. There is not enough coffee in the world to take on all those tasks in a single year.
Our 2019-2020 school year started with a design thinking professional development. Instead of feeling the pressure to change all aspects of our current pedagogy, we were smartly tasked with choosing one area of focus for the year. So, in the spirit of design thinking, I presented myself with my own question to ponder within my classes: How can we create engaging and authentic products and assessments while maintaining integrity to the skills and standards of our curriculum? My simplified translation to the world of English: How can we cultivate the skills of reading, writing, and speaking while creating something students will be proud to share with others?
I first attempted to answer this question when starting a unit I had never tried before. After reading Catcher in the Rye as a mentor text, students would choose their own book and their own groups while tackling literature and presentation standards in a literature circle unit. The annual ire of every English teacher is motivating students to read a stinkin’ book. As educators, we see the benefits of life-long readership and personal growth, but selling the importance of reading Catcher in the Rye on a Thursday night when Netflix exists is an uphill battle. The lack of teen readership is where we started our conversation, and students candidly shared their struggle to prioritize reading in a world filled with distraction. Some students even admitted to not having read all, or much, of the novel we had just finished as a class. Like eating vegetables, students fully understand that reading is good for them, but many students reflected on their experiences of reading as laborious rather than empowering. Through our conversation, we identified two important questions:
How can we inspire the next generation of readers in the digital age? How can we reach the next generation of readers on the platforms they frequent?
With these questions driving our inquiry, students discussed the lack of “face-time” books received on common social media platforms such as Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Instagram. Students identified a need for an increase in both the volume and intrigue of advertisements.
Thus, we started down the path of creating a marketing plan for the books students read in small group literature circles. Literature circles can manifest in a variety of ways in a variety of content areas, but we defined our literature circles as a group of students reading the same book, at the same time, with a set of tasks related to the book.
For this project, students had complete autonomy over the selected novel.
- With the help of group survey data and our librarian, Ray Krystal, student groups selected books based on their own interests.
- After creating the elements of the marketing assignment and scheduling literature circle seminars, the unit became highly student-driven.
- Students created a reading schedule, structured work time to meet formative assessments due dates, and prepared a cumulative presentation for the class.
- Students used a variety of ed-tech tools to create a target audience analysis, social media plan, alternate cover, movie trailer, and sequel proposal.
For many units, I feel as if I am the driving force behind student learning. The most empowering part of this unit was the fact that I was simply a passenger and advisor to students who took ownership of their own learning. This, I believe, is the power of design thinking.
Without question, this unit will undergo multiple iterations to improve upon a number of needed changes. While I feel fully invested in a similar process, the ambition of the list of products students were tasked with creating diluted the success of the presentations. After utilizing the design-thinking process, I came away with three distinct reflections:
1. Students are more invested when they have a choice (especially with books).
2. Don’t hesitate to use ed-tech resources you haven’t mastered (students are very resilient when using new technology).
3. Create summative product opportunities that leave room for personalization but are highly focused.
My favorite moment in the unit came weeks after completion. A student came up to me and said she finished another book after completing the literature circle book. She also mentioned, vehemently, that she does not like reading. That’s a good start.
Educator Bio: Eric is in his fifth year of teaching English at Cary-Grove High School. He also coaches football and baseball. His educational passions include student-choice reading, creative nonfiction writing, and utilizing educational technology to enhance instruction. He would love to learn more about your educational journey through social media! (@TrojanChan)
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