As I have been beginning to figure out exactly what my end product is going to look like, and how I am going to get there, I realize I keep frantically returning to this idea of balance. I don't want to set my students free upon the internet without any real researching skills, but I don't want to overly limit their options so that they feel disconnected from their end products. The instructional product I have created gives students opportunities to make authentic decisions within some confines designed to focus their work. These confines act as a support system, or training wheels for the students.
Each day students will be presented with a goal, or assignment, related to a research topic and will be presented with a variety of sources in which they can find the information they need to reach their goal. A variety of digital and non-digital, literary and non-literary resources should be provided each day. This will ensure that students are self-directing, becoming active participants in their own learning experience, but are still slightly confined by the materials that the teacher has provided. These confines can and should be loosened as students gain confidence and experience in decision making and as they get older. It is important to remember that any confines placed on students’ decision making, (i.e. their end product, resources they may use, time they may spend working on the assignment) should be designed specifically with the purpose of supporting the student through the decision making process. Students may struggle with time management or understanding expectations of their end products, so ample amounts of successful examples should be shown. Teachers should be cognitive, however, that examples are confines to student decision making. What is most important to remember when designing lessons implementing decision making is that there is a fine balance between giving students enough freedom to make authentic decisions and enough support to ensure that they are able to be successful, and a meaningful learning experience can be found in that balance.
3 Comments
Helen
4/8/2018 05:28:45 pm
Awesome product!!!!, I can't wait to see your work, the time it takes to create this is overwhelming, I am so glad we are working on this together, as it has our specific population in mind. And what a difficulty thing to do to attempt to teach just enough knowledge and skill to allow the students to understand but to be able to make their own sense and be able to apply their understanding to a new problem. ,
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Teresa Barron
4/9/2018 01:05:55 am
It sounds like your have a handle on your end product! I like how you will be presenting students with a goal and tools, yet still allowing them to self-direct.
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Stephanie Jones
4/10/2018 09:17:24 pm
Wow, you have really internalized the learning process and used your struggles to create a modified lesson design for your students. I think this is great! I can't wait to see how you deliver the lesson criteria while still allowing your students to be creative.
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May 2018
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