Humdingers, illuminating inquiry, makerspace, interactive edcamps, experimental design, games and toys to represent science concepts, debates and prove me wrong. These are just a few authentic, active activities that I implement in my classroom to steer the focus of learning on students through play and personal choice, performance and participation. A student-centered classroom is a place of flexibility, interaction and choice but as much independence and personal learning that is present in this classroom design, there also needs to be consistency and teacher created options to help students find their voice. The performance tasks need to vary and the tool box needs to include plenty of instruments, gadgets and appliances like a makerspace, full of a la' carte alternatives. A student-centered classroom needs to offer not a set daily menu but rather an a la' carte menu where students can pick and choose the courses they are hungry for as they enter the classroom.
Just because a classroom is designed to have students take the lead most often does not mean that every day there is individual, personalized activities occurring every minute. In fact, each day should include a whole class humdinger or discrepant event, a hook. Then a class activity that can be completed in groups, teams or partnerships. Then ending with a personalized illuminating inquiry where they are reflecting, designing, tinkering or analyzing the concepts of the day. This is often completed as a prove me wrong or ticket-out-the-door. These final activities are individual because I believe until we quiet our thoughts and mouths and look inwards, synthesis and understanding does not occur. It is the operation of the classroom dynamic that is all about student engagement and motivation: where they sit, who they choose to collaborate with, what type of demonstration of knowledge they opt for as they use the makerspace. Too much of a blank slate leads students to get stationary and stagnate so I teach them various strategies they can use in their arsenal so when they transform into superheros of learning they are prepared to fight confusion and compliance, with their own interests, power to choose and creative innovations.
Humdingers to me are not merely answering a prompt, although this is an option on some days. I may put up a picture or a short video clip on the smart board and have students write about what it means to them personally. I often have a teacher demonstration from crushing a coke can with steam, showing ground water saturation in a cup of clay, rocks, and soil, or having students chew up a soda cracker, leave it on their tongue for a minute until it turns sweet, first hand evidence of the breaking down of carbohydrates into glucose. Quick and concise just to get their juices flowing. My favorite humdingers though come from students who either on the internet or through experience have discovered something cool and I let them demonstrate for the class. The last student demonstration was about creating a cyclone in a bottle. Easy & fun and every student was engaged. Humdingers can also be used at the end of class, my students will complete their activity for the day and often discover a new insight they want to share with the class. It is cool to end the class with students teaching students, it helps establish a sense of student-drive and interaction in the classroom. They love to learn from each other. Plus I get to collect helpful observations I use for informal assessments.
A makerspace is the appliance I use for illuminating inquiry, experimental design and prove me wrong. It is chalk full of recyclables, paper, art supplies etc. They use it a lot to tinker and build models. Play-doh is an ingredient in many a learning recipe from making giant cells to demonstrating catastrophic events and the path of food through digestion. Pliable, malleable and interactive for sure. I think getting them up and mobile, using various supplies and giving them the opportunity to play and construct is always a good thing. Even 7th graders love play-doh, crayons and using Lego to build and destroy models. Inquiry comes in my class in the form of simple vocabulary and allowing students to find the connections between them, letting them personally seek and discover the big picture. There is a lot of drawing, writing, singing and role-playing in my classroom because I allow students to truly think-outside-the-box. Show me what you know in a way I haven't seen yet and bonus points will come your way. They never cease to amaze me. My favorite makerspace activity is prove me wrong. I write a statement on the board that is clearly false. They may not know up front why it is wrong but they know it is. I simply say- prove me wrong, show me why this statement is false. They use the makerspace and anything they can find: research, conversation, and sometimes they ask me questions, to create something that explains why the statement is wrong. This usually is a 10-15 minute activity. I sometimes give different statements to each table group and them they share their ideas with the class. There is usually a lot of laughing going on because they have a lot of fun disproving anything, it is more fun for them to disprove something then it is to prove. They like the challenge.
Students love absolutely love to talk. They love to challenge one another, prove each other wrong and ultimately have the final word. So I let them set up debates and edcamps in the classroom. I give them the topic, broad at first, then they research and design their part of the debate or their section of the edcamp. Recently we had a grade level 7th grade edcamp where all the science classes rotated freely and investigated ecosystems through interaction with their peers. It was amazing. Setting up large scale edcamps is challenging so I like to have them in my classes too in order for them to take responsibility for their own learning. To be superheros of knowledge. They get to share their ideas however they want. They have to be concise and provide each other what is needed for the quiz or test. They support each other is such an insightful way. They are patient and helpful and they truly cooperate during debates and edcamps to not only be heard and use their voice but also to listen and ask thoughtful questions of their peers. We have had a lot of practice with these this year. This is our class synthesis activity, where on-line notes, think-pair-share, unit activities and labs all collide and students take the lead on making sure synergy happens and every student is successful. After they finish an edcamp or debate they set up remediation and enrichment circles where they divide the class so the main concepts can be explained again or taken one step further. A lot of modeling and reinforcement but this process works very well in my classroom now and is entirely student driven.
Finally, every superhero needs to have fun. Let loose. Be human, or mutant, X-men, Avengers or god in Thor's case. They need to be able to play. I love to bring games into the classroom. I use Taboo cards I design for vocabulary review. Jeopardy, Quizlet, Kahoot! for interactive reviews. I just created a Jenga game for students to demonstrate trophic cascades in the Peruvian Anchovy food chain. I have made a lot of board games over the years, even had my students create a few and I love to bring them out and just let them relax and play a game. Going outside to run around and play tag may seem off task but when it encompasses predator-prey relationships, energy flow in an ecosystem, and biodiversity well then tag becomes science. Card sorts are fun and informative but why not have students have a seek n' find where the cards are hidden in nooks and crannies of the classroom and they have to identify where the matching sets are, then explain their significance by acting out a mini-play or writing a song. You can pretty much turn any worksheet or cookie cutter lab activity into a labyrinth of hidden gems, engaging conversation and problem-solving activities. This of course can be exhausting and many fall back on the traditional, but believe me once you have created these alternative activities students will transform from the background characters in a superhero movie with flying debris causing them to scream and flee, into the superhero protecting them, removing the obstacles and creating a clear path to discovery. Superheros can be cultivated, their powers of observation, curiosity, spontaneity, strength of character can blossom in any classroom if teachers let them wear the cape.
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