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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About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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