What's happening in 6th grade?
One of the elements of Blended Learning which I have steadfastly held onto is student directed path, and with that, student choice. As I have alluded to, I have had much success in mixing up assessments in providing choices for students to show their learning at the end of each chapter. This is not new; teachers have been providing menus to students for quite a while. (I was in high school back in the late 2000's and unfortunately never saw these from my teachers, but know that menus even predate my time in high school.)
Traditionally in a Social Studies Classroom, each chapter or unit ends with a summative test and sometimes supplemented by a singular result-oriented project (e.g. everyone create a diorama, Slides presentation, poster, etc. Oh my gosh. I've found grading thirty of the same project can be sooooo boring. Can't imagine how some teachers have found any semblance of enjoyment in grading 100+ of the same project!!). I've found that the understanding of Social Studies content and standards cannot be solely assessed by assigning objective multiple choice, short answer tests/assessments. Some students cannot retain all these random facts, then apply in a short burst (class period) of time only to never use again. I mean... I (begrudgingly) admit only a small percentage of my students have been applying material outside the classroom (e.g. making connections to material, sharing learning, etc.) beyond what they are expected to know for tests. That small percentage of students is only applying a small amount of the material they have retained from class. How can I boost this?! Change this paradigm!? Most students are just not using/applying the curation of random facts and information spewed by Social Studies teachers around the world. This must change! Disclaimer: Granted, I have no data to support these specific conjectures, but there is plenty of data in the area of student memory. It's not pretty. Sorry (not sorry!) "old-school lecture-and-regurgitate" oriented educators! I have come to the conclusion in this makerspace culture that students need to be creating. Students need to be teaching one another, creating media showing their learning, then sharing this created content with an authentic audience. (Am I doing this perfectly yet? No! Am I making slow progress? Yes!) I digress. In my Social Studies Class, I have assigned several CYOA assignments in this first trimester and have seen much success so far. This week, I saw the fruits of student engagement in CYOA at Student-led conferences. Students were proud and excited to share with parents the choices that they had made in showing their learning this first trimester. For example, I was so proud and excited by one student who so eloquently explained to his parents the impact that tsunamis can have and have had on groups of people in history. (He created a Google Slides presentation. This was his choice to show his learning in the Physical Geography Intro chapter.) So... What is typically part of my CYOA menu? Here is a sample CYOA Menu.
Random Notes about CYOA:
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Newsflash! I've jumped on the EdCamp bandwagon! I wish I had found out about these sooner. Last weekend, I attended my second EdCamp in three weeks! I attended EdCamp IHM at the end of October as well. This past Saturday, I woke up at 5am to drive ~2.5 hours with a teacher friend to EdCamp NJ in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Very glad I did! So refreshing to connect with so many like-minded educators! I warned my friend, a first time attendee, it may be overwhelming due to the sheer magnitude of people (from what I heard, between 800-1,000 teachers). Being from out of the area, it was definitely overwhelming After making some quick connections in the Cafe, my friend and I headed to our first session together: Gamification and Game Based Learning. While this wasn't exactly what I had been hoping for, I certainly pulled some nuggets from the session. I had been looking for some wisdom and experience from teachers who had tried Badging Systems in their classrooms. Instead, I came away with some great resources/reminders: iCivics to use in my 7th/8th Grade Classroom, distinguishing the difference between gamification vs. game based learning. My understanding is that gamification is using game elements in conjunction with regular classroom tasks such as XP Points or badges for example. Game based learning is the use of games to learn skills or principles such as MineCraft, board games, etc. Students can also create video/board games under the "umbrella" of game based learning. Next: Grading Practices. This was perhaps the most intriguing conversation of the day. The session was led by Dr. Joseph Trybulski, a middle school principal. He shared his own experiences within his own school in district of trying to adopt more fair and equitable grading practices and policies. For the most part, I was quiet for the majority of this session and absorbed what many experienced educators shared. Some big points I took away from this session:
Third Session: Creating a Reflective Classroom led by Dan Kaplan. This was not quite what I expected but definitely came away with some valuable tools! In short, there is tremendous value and growth potential in asking students to give feedback following your own instruction. I had the stereotypical reservations: My middle school students would tear me to shreds. What thoughtful constructive criticism could a student provide? I don't know where and when I would do this in my teaching. Came away with a great palette of tools to construct, then conduct an evaluation. This is going to be hard, but how could it not help me grow and become a better teacher? Two keys: Anonymity, eventually. Practice with students in giving feedback before letting the reins loose. Finally, attended a session I was already super passionate about: Personalized Learning Strategies led by Angela Reading, a very passionate special educator. I feel like she says everything I'm thinking when I don't always articulate it! And, as she says, she's very "progressive." So passionate about creating 21st learners empowered to be the best they can be using the plethora of technology now available out there. In this session, I was able to share some of my experiences in using hyperdocs/playlists and my newly implemented CYOA (Choose Your Own Assessment) style of assessing student learning in my classroom. Some tools mentioned that I use: Edpuzzle and Seesaw. I also brought up one of my favorite podcast episodes from Cult of Pedagogy: The Apollo Model, which models the type of differentiation and individualization I hope to attain in my classroom. This was an awesome trek to EdCampNJ! So glad we went! There was the added bonus of doing some site seeing on the way home! Princeton University is an incredibly beautiful campus! Wow. It was like stepping outside of time for a bit. While I never could have/would have attended such a school, I can certainly appreciate the history and beautiful architecture! Wikimedia Commons.
Happy Thanksgiving! Blogging has really taken to the back burner since the beginning of this school year. I've wanted to many times, but there are just not enough minutes in a school day, regular day, week, month, etc! It's been a busy year. This is partly due to the usual workload I place on myself, but also due to the goals for this I've put in place for myself. Many goals were lofty, and I fell flat on my face, but others I have met! The good news is that I can now be reflective and make a plan for the next several months! For this blog, I will do a run down of the goals I set for myself and a self-evaluation of my progress:
Charging forward, failing forward, growing with my students, I'm moving ahead looking to continuing professional and personal growth this year. It's been a roller coaster ride, but I am so thankful for my vocation and my current teaching position. Thankful for supportive colleagues and an amazing professional learning network on Twitter, Voxer, and elsewhere! Stay tuned! There should be a few more posts coming your way in the next day or so! Right now, with blogging, my philosophy is: GET IT DOWN. GET IT OUT. Hence, rapid succession blog posting. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. |
About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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