Planning - In preparation for Friday, I had reviewed their prior learning, offered feedback about it and made notes about how to adapt our learning based on where our understanding was currently. After reviewing their prior learning, I better understood some next steps to bring our understanding to a deeper level and to make more meaningful connections. I designed four (4) different avenues of learning for our next class together, hoping to stimulate their thinking, prompt more questioning and extend our learning to greater depths to help solidify their understanding.
Executing - As our Students entered our learning environment, they could view our daily agenda on the board listing various opportunities for learning. As they were arriving, I returned their papers from our prior class with my written feedback. Once settled, we reviewed our agenda and I asked our Students to individually choose which of the four learning opportunities they thought would resolve the most questions, stimulate their thinking and challenge them to new thinking. I requested they work to complete a couple of them prior to the end of our 84-minute block. They knew it was their choice to learn through any of these options. There was a bit of chatter among their learning groups as to which opportunities they wanted to undertake. At that point they began their individual learning. I was so encouraged to hear our Students exchanging "You get the one on Logarithms and I'll help you with it", "Can someone help me with the Exponentials since I'm still struggling with them?" and "Mr. Rowe, would you please explain to me what I'm doing wrong in this third step since I know that's where I'm messing up?". Our Students have become advocates for their learning with their collaborative questioning, confidence through challenges and willingness to put themselves out there when they know they're missing a piece of the learning. As they were working together in groups of four or five, they were helping each other, asking each other questions and developing deeper relationships with their peers. We hold in highest regard the Culture of Learning that we have fostered during this school year. The interdependence, respect, trust and sas / attitudes was very obvious as the chaotic learning was unfolding. Every few minutes I was summonded to respond to some questions by our Students. I aim to encourage our Students to think deeply about possible responses to the questions and think through some of the better approaches. I rarely answer their questions for them. One of our Students uttered the statement twice during our class, "Mr. Rowe, my brain hurts again!". At a certain moment during our learning, I realized we had engineered the learning to be student-centered, student-driven and student-owned. I reminded our Students how grateful I was with their focus, their perseverance and cooperation. One of our Strudents simply stated, "Mr.Rowe, it's just what we've learned to do. That's all.". I was stunned!
Reflecting - This post serves as the start of my reflection based on Friday's learning. I realize we experienced Personalized Learning, freedom to ask anyone any question to clarify the understanding and a safe environment in which to laugh, move around, help one another and stay focused on a task. I don't remember learning this way during my high school days, though I wish I had.
Thank you for reading and for sharing this learning journey with me and our Students!
