Tucker shares that teachers often shy away from jumping into blended learning because "they are not sure where they will find the time to try anything new" (29). And she gets it. She shares:
"For years, I was trying to stay above the tidal wave of work that threatened to drown me."
And then, about 5 years ago, she made the decision to pass as much of the work on to her students as possible.
Her argument is that if we design the whole project, from process to product to rubric, we rob the students of the opportunity to think critically and creatively about the standards, plan for success, troubleshoot problems, and determine what makes it a success. When they do the work, they own it.
It is easy to think, "What about the kids who..." but every time I've given up control and had students do the work or given students the tools to lead, I've been pleasantly surprised by their engagement, even if more scaffolding was needed to support them through the struggle.
On a smaller scale, I thought about planning for a reading assignment for a class. It can seem easier to provided reading questions to guide them through a text, but then I am telling them what is important, as I did the hard work of reading. If I spent my energy teaching a reading strategy that helps students to identify what is important or drafting their own questions before reading, the student-led workflow frees me to coach their original thinking and not exhaust myself creating and grading a worksheet.
I can see how making students do this work will take more time, but I liked Tucker's answer to that concern: "If we are worried about asking too much of our students, then I would argue that we need to be more judicious about the tasks we require students to complete' (32).
I guess even before we ask "Who is doing the work?", we should ask "Do we really need to do this?"
-Jessica Gillespie
Well said and some good reminders.
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DeleteWhile visiting different learning environments, I’ve found it fascinating to keep the actions of the learners at the forefront. What are the learners doing? That observational data allows for productive collegial dialogue and reflection. I appreciate your final point in asking the question, “Do we need this,” because I think relevance in learning is of utmost importance now more than ever. In affording students the opportunity to co-illustrate their educational portrait, we must be able to answer, without hesitation, a student’s inquiry as to why specific outcomes “matter.” If one cannot answer that simple question, then why are we spending the time teaching it?
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