We all talk the “21st century talk” about helping students become more engaged and take ownership of their learning. I doubt anyone would argue the need for that.
However, how many of us design lessons that allow students to really be PRODUCERS, and not just CONSUMERS?
What percentage of your lessons asks your students to sit and listen to you for information? What percentage asks them to find the information themselves and then demonstrate their understanding to you?
When I was in school, we were inundated with reports: book reports, science reports, persuasive essays… you name it. While I wholeheartedly believe in the power of writing for kids, I don’t think the standard report is always the way to go.
What if I asked my students to read a book, and then design their own projects to tell me what they learned and understood? If I provided them a set of objectives/parameters, as well as the rubric I would use to grade the projects, would that be engaging? Would they have ownership of their learning?
How about a persuasive essay? Maybe I could ask my students to work in groups and create a PSA (public service announcement) instead. I could require a script, a recorded version on iMovie or MovieMaker, or maybe a live performance, as well as anything else that would allow the students to make some decisions, solve some problems, and be creative.
What kind of lessons would you design to:
a) engage your students more,
b) incorporate 21st century skills (I follow http://www.21stcenturyskills.org for a definition of those skills),
and
c) move your students from CONSUMERS to PRODUCERS?
Please contribute an idea or two in the comments section… I’ll follow up with another post with some of the highlighted ideas, or even a wiki where we could continue to add lesson ideas.
Thanks in advance!
Here is one project I do:
Song for Lord of the Flies
Objective: Students will create a song that musically interprets a scene from the book. The song must fit the mood or tone of the scene.
Guidelines: The song will run between 2 minutes 30 seconds and 4 minutes. The song title must reflect the scene of the book. Student must use at least 4 different loops during the song. These loops may be from the GarageBand library or created by the student. Vocal tracks are optional.
Grading: The song will be graded on a revised six-trait rubric, 30 points total. Song information sheet is 10 points.
Here is the song sheet info:
Student’s Name:
Song Title:
Length of song (Min:sec):
List of instruments or loops used
Scene from book (Summary with page number and chapter number):
How does your song fit this scene?