Choice is a popular buzz word in education. Normally it’s used in the context of students—which is awesome. (See my previous post “History, 2019 Style.”) When we give students options, we encourage creativity and invite success.
Funny thing is, the same thing applies to teachers: when teachers have options, we encourage creativity and invite success.
This dawned on me as I sat at my kitchen table this Spring Break, drinking too much coffee and doing too much work. (It was Spring Break!) But I’m a bit of curriculum nerd, so it doesn’t always feel like work. So there I was, mapping out the next two weeks for my classes.
I have kind of a messy process for planning that to an outside viewer might seem bonkers, but I work through a method that involves brainstorming, draft plans, and an outrageous number of multicoloured sticky notes. I’m not quite sure exactly how it happens, but somewhere out of that chaos emerges my units and courses. And the key to the “magic” is in the options I have available to me.
It used to be that we taught some stuff. Then we assigned some stuff to see if students could work with the stuff. Then we tested them on the stuff.
It all seems so limiting now, and that’s because two key things have changed:
- we’ve shifted from content-based to competency-based, and
- we have the technology!
Technology is not the magic bullet to great teaching and learning. I don’t think that if you add an iPad to any class, BAM! it’s amazing. But what technology does is amplify good pedagogy.
In my messy, sticky note craze, I engage in backwards design that looks something like this:
- What do I want my students to understand? (Big Idea)
- What competencies are going to help us get to that understanding? (Curricular Competencies)
- What do kids need to know to get to that understanding? (Essential Questions)
- What “stuff” am I going to use to help them answer those questions to build that understanding with? (Content)
- How are they going to show me this understanding? (Summative Assessment)
Notice that the last step is figuring out how they’re going to show me. 21 years ago (gasp!) when I was just starting out my teaching journey, I would start with a topic (short stories in English, the Protestant Reformation in Social Studies) or a task (essay) in mind. No more! I start with what matters and figure out how I’m going to get them to what matters. And that’s how technology amplifies my pedagogy: it gives me choice.
We have so many ways to take this journey to understanding. We have so many ways to show that understanding. Sometimes we use iPads. Sometimes we use Chromebooks. Sometimes we read books. Sometimes we watch TED Talks or Crash Course in History. Sometimes I show a slide show and pass on information the old-fashioned way. Sometimes we write on paper. Sometimes we type. Sometimes we dictate. Sometimes we let the students decide (gasp!) if they write, type or dictate. Sometimes we sit in a circle and talk. Sometimes we write on little white boards with bright markers. Sometimes we throw our ideas up on chart paper. Sometimes I even write on the chalk board. Sometimes we use sticky notes. Lots of sticky notes!
There are lots of ways to learn.
The trick isn’t to have a tool and figure out what to do with it. The trick is to figure out what you want to do and pick the tool that best makes that happen.
I love technology, but not because it’s always about the technology. What it’s always about is the best way to get where we’re going. And technology gives us more ways of getting there.
