Surprising Snow Success

During our first SNOW day of the 16-17 school year, I returned to Hacking Assessment by Starr Sackstein. to continue reading. Our classroom learning environment was about to be overhauled. After reading Starr's explanation of how menu options should be offered to our Learners to enable them to choose from which Learning Opportunity might best suit them on a given day, I realized another way to make learning more personal in our Standards-Based Learning environment.

I realize that restaurants would not have many return customers if the restaurant offered what they wanted to serve to their customers on a given day. Customers should have the right to select from a menu of choices based on what appeals to their appetite. I compared restaurant goers to our Learners and asked myself whether our Learners would choose to frequent our learning environment if the learning was but dictated to them so they had little to no say in the learning being made available. Once I conceded that many would not return if given that option, I chose to consider providing a Menu of Choices to our Learners. Even though I'd read Make Learning Personal by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey back in 2015, I realized I needed to take another step toward offering a more personal approach to learning.

At that point, I created a quick outline defining the proposed generic Menu Options for our Learners. After getting feedback from Bryn Williams, Derek Oldfield, Megan Moran and others. I updated the outline to include our innovative approaches to more tasteful and #MAD Learning. I'd be remiss if I did not give Bryn Williams credit for #MAD Learning. Bryn knows I teach High School Math.

#MAD Learning:

• Multiplying the Learning
• Adding to the Learning
• Dividing up the Learning

At the outset of our learning on Friday 2/10, I shared with our #MHSAlgebra1 Learners our proposed Menu Choices and asked for their feedback. They expressed immediate interest and asked if we could start it today! I agreed and offered today's three specials. No sooner were our Learning Opportunities made available, our Learners made their selections and began indulging in their learning. I noticed more collaborative learning, a bit more chaos, and more energy in the room. 

Thanks to Starr, Bryn, Derek, Megan and others, our Learners will be experiencing more tasteful learning, more personalized learning, and I anticipate higher proficiency levels since the learning is now even more Learner-centered! Bon Appetite!