This started out as a tweet, but got
too long and I had too many thoughts on it.
I have three children, the oldest of whom is about to graduate high school, so I've had the chance to observe their school progress for many years. Their experiences have informed many of my classroom practices, from homework assignments to lab experiences. I've seen what things fire their imaginations and what things don't. They are the perfect lab rats for what is inquiry-based learning and what is not.
For instance, on a recent project, the assignment was, "Remix a scene from Romeo and Juliet in a different setting. Make a video of your new scene." This would seem to be straightforward assignment without room for much creativity. However, to do the assignment successfully, they had to have a thorough understanding of the scene in Shakespeare's language, translate it into modern diction, and then into the vernacular of whatever time period they chose. That required them to really dig into the scene and analyze not only the surface of the story, but the emotional content. Then they had to actually talk through what the scene was about and how the events would be analogous to events in a different time period. They had to research slang, customs, dress, and behavior from their chosen era. From what my daughter said, every group picked some time period other than the modern one.
I have three children, the oldest of whom is about to graduate high school, so I've had the chance to observe their school progress for many years. Their experiences have informed many of my classroom practices, from homework assignments to lab experiences. I've seen what things fire their imaginations and what things don't. They are the perfect lab rats for what is inquiry-based learning and what is not.
For instance, on a recent project, the assignment was, "Remix a scene from Romeo and Juliet in a different setting. Make a video of your new scene." This would seem to be straightforward assignment without room for much creativity. However, to do the assignment successfully, they had to have a thorough understanding of the scene in Shakespeare's language, translate it into modern diction, and then into the vernacular of whatever time period they chose. That required them to really dig into the scene and analyze not only the surface of the story, but the emotional content. Then they had to actually talk through what the scene was about and how the events would be analogous to events in a different time period. They had to research slang, customs, dress, and behavior from their chosen era. From what my daughter said, every group picked some time period other than the modern one.
(All of which makes me long for sci-fi Shakespeare or some sort of
Quest for Fire type thing with grunts and body language).
She and the rest of her group spent hours on this project and poured their hearts into it. The project required all four of the C’s – collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication. In addition for a deep and enduring understanding of their chosen scene, the number of things that they learned included how to cut scenes together using iMovie, that conveying emotion isn't all about the words on the page, and that while slang may not translate from era to era, Shakespeare's themes are universal.
On the other hand, a current project she is doing would seem to be very similar on the surface. "Pick one of the following movies and analyze this aspect of it for accuracy. You can present in any media you like." However, the assignment also said, "Here's a checklist of things to include." My daughter's take on it? "This is busy work. The only thing it's testing is my ability to Google pictures." If you give a child a checklist, by golly, that's what they're going to do - check things off it. And that's all they're going to do. Granted, in this assignment, she’s had to look a few things up, mainly words she wasn’t sure about, so she has been learning a little about the subject of the project.
She and the rest of her group spent hours on this project and poured their hearts into it. The project required all four of the C’s – collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication. In addition for a deep and enduring understanding of their chosen scene, the number of things that they learned included how to cut scenes together using iMovie, that conveying emotion isn't all about the words on the page, and that while slang may not translate from era to era, Shakespeare's themes are universal.
On the other hand, a current project she is doing would seem to be very similar on the surface. "Pick one of the following movies and analyze this aspect of it for accuracy. You can present in any media you like." However, the assignment also said, "Here's a checklist of things to include." My daughter's take on it? "This is busy work. The only thing it's testing is my ability to Google pictures." If you give a child a checklist, by golly, that's what they're going to do - check things off it. And that's all they're going to do. Granted, in this assignment, she’s had to look a few things up, mainly words she wasn’t sure about, so she has been learning a little about the subject of the project.
The very worst assignment of all was
one that could have been wildly creative, but instead it had step-by-step
instructions as to what they should do and a checklist. Not only that, each item on the checklist had
a certain number of points attached to it.
My child went through each item and said, “Do I have that? Yep.
Moving on.” She thought it was
great because she already knew what her grade would be. However, when she lost one point out of a
hundred, she had no idea how it happened because she had completed the
checklist as required. Most importantly, she
learned nothing about the subject of the lesson.
One obvious difference between the three projects is the group collaboration in the first that was missing in the other two. While I definitely think that inquiry learning can happen individually, it works so much better when students can bounce ideas off each other, negotiate what they are going to do with the project, and learn how to divide tasks successfully.
In any case, if I use my own children
as a benchmark, hopefully I can avoid doing such things to my students. Writing this essay has made me re-think how I
just checklists in PBL units. Usually, I
give them a series of ‘I can’ statements that are objectives relating to the
TEKS for the unit. Next time, I think I’ll
let them decide what their objectives should be and help them write a plan for
their learning.
Someday, I may tell my children that
they were part of the on-going science experiment that is my evolving teaching
practice. For now, I’ll appreciate the
perspective they give me on things that go on in the classroom.
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