Name It, Claim It, Aim It
I'm a Leaner. I knew this before I even took the StrengthsFinder, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it appear on my test. As a teacher, my instinct to learn and explore the world guides my choice of curriculum. And as a teacher, I know that there are many times where students (or even me!) have a question about the world that may or may not be directly related to the lesson. This week, I decided to lean into these questions and see where they took me and my classes.
Honors LA 10
My students are reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I found a great unit online that incorporates learning about modern day scientific breakthroughs and connecting them back to the pseudo-science presented in the novel. The first mini-unit derived from this novel is a research unit on In Vitro Fertilization. Students were shown their end goal and how it relates to the novel, language arts, and their lives outside of school. First, students read and took notes from a variety of perspectives regarding In Vitro Fertilization. Then, they were given the due date and told to work on their assessment as homework. While students were working, many of them asked questions about their assessment. It was assigned to be an opinion piece of a newspaper, but students were struggling with what an opinion piece should look like, sound like, and feel like.
My first instinct as an Honors and AP teacher was to ask students to do additional research to identify what I'm looking for. As an Honors and AP teacher, I am completely okay with that being my response from time to time, but with my Strength as a Learner in mind, I decided to lean in to the question and explore different methods to share this information with the class.
I decided on the discovery approach, so I cut some opinion articles from the newspaper, glued them to larger pieces of paper, and asked students to work in a group and annotate an article for it's features. What makes an Opinion Piece an Opinion Piece? Students traded with other groups when they finished so they were able to experience a variety of writing styles and topics. During the final 15 minutes of class, I pulled the class together for a brainstorming discussion. I asked students to share patterns they found that were similar among each article. One group would share an observation and the other groups would confirm it and add on more detail about the pattern.
Once my whiteboard was full of information, we grouped it together and used it to create the rubric for the assessment. The next day I presented the rubric to the class and it was clear they felt much more comfortable with the assessment. This would not have happened had I not leaned in to my Strength as a Learner and chosen a discovery approach to this mini unit.
LA 9
This experience is a lot shorter, but led to a really great discussion with my 9th graders in which I learned something new about the material I was teaching. Students got to witness that moment as I unpacked how they helped me learn something super interesting about our curriculum.
Students have begun reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. In the novel, the animals sing a rallying song titled "Beasts of England." What's interesting in that George Orwell includes, in the text, that this song can be sung to either "La Cucaracha" or "Clementine." Many of my students had never heard either of these songs before (shocker, I know) so we looked them up on Youtube.
Students were saddened by "Clementine", not only because of the words but because of the music; conversely, when they listened to "La Cucaracha" they felt energetic and happy. Then someone asked an important question - one that I hadn't thought of before.
With the screen still projected, I typed the words into Google and clicked on the Wikipedia article - a chorus of "You're not supposed to use Wikipedia!!" erupted and I was able to explain to them an appropriate situation and reason to use Wikipedia, so that was a fun side-lesson - but it was in the Wikipedia article that I learned something new:
"La Cucaracha" was originally created as a song of Rebellion. The song "Beasts of England" is literally about a Revolution and rallying the animals together to rebel against Mr. Jones! I had never heard this before, and my excitement was evident. I thanked the students for asking the question and leading us to discover a new element of a decades-old story.
Honors LA 10
My students are reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I found a great unit online that incorporates learning about modern day scientific breakthroughs and connecting them back to the pseudo-science presented in the novel. The first mini-unit derived from this novel is a research unit on In Vitro Fertilization. Students were shown their end goal and how it relates to the novel, language arts, and their lives outside of school. First, students read and took notes from a variety of perspectives regarding In Vitro Fertilization. Then, they were given the due date and told to work on their assessment as homework. While students were working, many of them asked questions about their assessment. It was assigned to be an opinion piece of a newspaper, but students were struggling with what an opinion piece should look like, sound like, and feel like.
My first instinct as an Honors and AP teacher was to ask students to do additional research to identify what I'm looking for. As an Honors and AP teacher, I am completely okay with that being my response from time to time, but with my Strength as a Learner in mind, I decided to lean in to the question and explore different methods to share this information with the class.
I decided on the discovery approach, so I cut some opinion articles from the newspaper, glued them to larger pieces of paper, and asked students to work in a group and annotate an article for it's features. What makes an Opinion Piece an Opinion Piece? Students traded with other groups when they finished so they were able to experience a variety of writing styles and topics. During the final 15 minutes of class, I pulled the class together for a brainstorming discussion. I asked students to share patterns they found that were similar among each article. One group would share an observation and the other groups would confirm it and add on more detail about the pattern.
Once my whiteboard was full of information, we grouped it together and used it to create the rubric for the assessment. The next day I presented the rubric to the class and it was clear they felt much more comfortable with the assessment. This would not have happened had I not leaned in to my Strength as a Learner and chosen a discovery approach to this mini unit.
LA 9
This experience is a lot shorter, but led to a really great discussion with my 9th graders in which I learned something new about the material I was teaching. Students got to witness that moment as I unpacked how they helped me learn something super interesting about our curriculum.
Students have begun reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. In the novel, the animals sing a rallying song titled "Beasts of England." What's interesting in that George Orwell includes, in the text, that this song can be sung to either "La Cucaracha" or "Clementine." Many of my students had never heard either of these songs before (shocker, I know) so we looked them up on Youtube.
Students were saddened by "Clementine", not only because of the words but because of the music; conversely, when they listened to "La Cucaracha" they felt energetic and happy. Then someone asked an important question - one that I hadn't thought of before.
Why are they singing about cockroaches?I stopped for a second and again decided to lean in to being a Learner. I said, "You know what? I don't know. Let's look it up."
With the screen still projected, I typed the words into Google and clicked on the Wikipedia article - a chorus of "You're not supposed to use Wikipedia!!" erupted and I was able to explain to them an appropriate situation and reason to use Wikipedia, so that was a fun side-lesson - but it was in the Wikipedia article that I learned something new:
"La Cucaracha" was originally created as a song of Rebellion. The song "Beasts of England" is literally about a Revolution and rallying the animals together to rebel against Mr. Jones! I had never heard this before, and my excitement was evident. I thanked the students for asking the question and leading us to discover a new element of a decades-old story.
I love that story about your 9th graders! You showed them that you were willing to learn new things, even as their teacher. Hopefully it inspires them to keep learning more about the world around them! Do you have other activities in mind where you could continue these types of conversations with your class?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I just finished reading A Brave New World over spring break. It really made me wonder about if what is talked about in the novel could ever be possible, so I got in touch with my Learner strength (even though it wasn't one of my top 5). I really like that you used a discovery strategy to help your students answer their questions. I feel that deeper learning takes place when they are in the driver's seat. How might you implement discovery-based learning more regularly into your curriculum?
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