Turning the Table
“I’ve taught you everything I am to teach you this year. I’ve taught you new content and strategies to use to understand that content. Now it’s time for you to choose what you would like to learn more about and use what I’ve taught you this year.”
How does this sound to you? Interested? Here’s an idea to put your students to work on learning something new while you take on the role of facilitator. It gives your students the chance to use what they’ve learned and you a chance to see the fruition of your hard work.
Nuts and Bolts:
- Assign an in-class project. Let every student choose any topic they want to learn more about. They can work alone or in pairs. Giving your students the choice adds motivation to their endeavors. The topic doesn’t really matter. What you are wanting your students to do is to USE what you’ve taught them.
- List skills, processes, and facts you’ve taught them this year. For example you may have taught them how to use a particular search engine, summarize information without copying, find the main idea of an article, and differentiate main ideas from supporting details. Think of all of the skills they’ll need to create a quality product.
- Encourage your students to come up with a creative way to teach the class what they learned. They may want to make a poster, game, PowerPoint presentation, or a book. The sky’s the limit as long as they have the basic skills to complete their vision. Of course, they’ll need your input and guidance along the way.
- Make sure the class realizes they must learn about their topic well enough to teach the class about it. If they haven’t done much of this, you’ll need to teach some mini lessons about catching and keeping someone’s attention.
- Give the students a timeline of when work is to be finished. For instance, “By May 24, I must see your topic and how you will present it. I need a rough sketch of what it will look like.” Not only will this keep them on track, but it will help you slow them down or speed them up. It, also, forces you to set aside time for each student to share his or her work.
- Whenever students finish their assignments during the day, they can work on their projects. During silent reading time they can research their topic. There are lots of opportunities the kids can have to pick up where they left off on their project. Note that this is an in-class project and not one to be completed at home. You want to make sure your students are using what you taught them, and in-class allows you to fill in gaps in their learning.
- With this project good communication between you and your students, peers, and peers to a group is essential to completing a quality project. Every project that communicates what it’s supposed to communicate is successful!
Giving our students choice and independence are two of the greatest gifts we can give them. Both help them prepare to be successful adults!