Students as Designers
Principle
Good learning designs engage students in using content to
construct meaningful outcomes by comprehensively scaffolding students’ ability
to design.
A few of my students value and admit to their creativity, but most of the
students don’t feel that they’re “creative.” I often feel the same way. Flexibility
in thinking and designing helps with the Creative Spirit of Design. The three
characteristics of design are imagination, being creation-oriented, and
inter-disciplinary. With interdisciplinary action in mind, I love the idea of
bringing together students with different knowledge or strengths and having
them work together to create new ideas, or new ways to show what they know. I
often pair patient students who know how to use technology well with students
who are still learning – kids are usually great teachers to other kids. I like
the idea of students engaging their brains in constructing meaningful products
to demonstrate their learning. Students need to be able to use their judgment
to decide how best to demonstrate their learning. Am I hearing support for the
PICKLE again??
Being able to create and use imagination is
something we assume kids are good at – I think about the age of the imaginary
friend, being princesses, space explorers, and dragon-fighters. However, I find
that my third graders are often afraid of “getting it wrong,” so they want to
know exactly what I am expecting. Third grade is the year parents push for
FUTURA and perfect 4s on every assignment, despite the fact that we try to
stress to parents and kids that 3s demonstrate mastery and 4s are sometimes not
possible. When I tell the kids there is no one right answer, they look at me
like I’m crazy and then ask for more parameters. They also don’t always have the
endurance to try, try again, or the communication skills to express what they
need, how they’re feeling, or what they need a partner to help with.
In practice, we need to create the
environment right from the start that we expect and accept that we won’t always
solve our problems the first time, and that’s okay. We should all expect to
encourage each other, work together, and expect to work. Our class expectations
this year are pretty much this idea, but getting the students to live these
expectations is a bit more of a struggle. When you have a few students who
expect to do very little to get by, a couple others who are the first to point
out that someone did or said something wrong (and see themselves as perfect
victims who are always getting picked on), and a handful of others who are
willing to answer every single question while the other students sit there and
wait to be told an answer, it’s an uphill struggle. I’ll keep working to get
everyone on board!
Oh my goodness I can completely relate to your last paragraph! I'm sorry you’re still seeing those things in 3rd grade.
ReplyDeleteThe pressure that kids and parents are putting on themselves today is insane. I'm hoping that using the pickle and the different principles in my lessons will help students get past their fears and help their parents see past the test scores.
Haha just like Ellie said, your last paragraph seems to describe my class perfectly!
ReplyDeleteI've started using this activity (type wodb.ca into the url bar) as a warm up once a week to really push the idea that there's no one right answer. The first time we did it they were mind blown, and now after several weeks they're having a lot of fun finding reasons for each object to not belong!
The wodb.ca website is great! I like how it has so many different models - visual, number, etc. I have a morning work thing that I often used last year that has a couple of open-ended activities, and the one that challenged students most in the beginning is a list of 4 things, and the kids had to choose which one didn't fit the other 3. I know the authors were expecting 1 particular answer, but I asked the kids to find all the different ways they could pick out one and then justify their reason. Out of boot, flip-flop, sandal, and mitten, kids would usually pick out mitten because it's worn on the hand instead of the foot. However, students also pointed out that boot is 1 syllable and the other 3 are 2 syllables. It definitely took practice to break the "what's the one right answer?" mentality, which is very important now that SOL tests ask you to choose ALL the correct answers...
DeleteI, too, struggle with getting students to be creative. It really can be exasperating how many directions students want from me when I try to give them “voice and choice” in an assignment - this frustration is further complicated that when I give extremely explicit instructions like I want you write your name in the upper right hand corner of your paper and I will have no less than 5 students write it somewhere else and at least 1 student that doesn’t write their name (and I will repeat this direction 4 or 5 times while walking around the room and pointing to students papers and finding the name missing or in the wrong location). In retrospect I guess I should not be so surprised as they have taken the kitchen play area out of kindergarten as some refer to K the new 1st grade and each year seems to become more and more academically rigorous. In my classroom I have a lot of posters that support Growth Mindset and as students get frustrated I try to point to them to remind them that things are not going to be easy but we aren’t going to give up. Helping students embrace their creativity and become designers will help them to apply their learning in all areas - not just on the topic we are learning and not just on the test we are taking. I agree with you, it is an environment we have to create and support from the beginning.
ReplyDelete