Reflections on LbD (to this point…)

Pt 1, 3.16

While I have been yet to teach either of the units I created for part of the capstone, I will be teaching them again shortly (both will begin around the end of April/beginning of May) and I have been a part of conversations revolving around the partial revision of the Brave New World unit, and I certainly included some of the feedback from the initial conversation/feedback revolving around the presentation of my unit to this group (specifically the Australians, of course!).

The biggest way that the planning, mapping, and writing of the learning unit has influenced my practice has been in calling my attention to some issues that I think I had already realized a bit in the back of my mind, but became much more apparent when my day-to-day plans were presented in front of me on paper.  My units were heavy in two sections–applying appropriately and experiencing the new.  Part of this was the fact that I broke up each reading assignment (for these novels there are approximately ten nights of reading) into a new experiencing the new entry; this certainly stretches out the amount of entries and perhaps even makes it seem like there is “a bit more going on” than what the unit actually demands.  In any event, the design of my units helped to demonstrate to me that I need to do a bit more to access the knowledge that my learners bring to the classroom with them, and this is something I have tried to work into all of my units since my first experience with mapping out the Brave New World unit back at the end of 2008.  I have also realized that finding creative ways to laterally apply and explore the main concepts of my unit plans is a bit of a weakness; working with my co-workers and exploring some of the other units on the cglearner site has assisted me with this process, although I definitely have some catching up to do compared to some of the rest of my cohort members!

Continued, 5.4…….(oops).

I am currently in the midst of teaching Brave New World for the first time since creating the LBD unit during the first year of this cohort.  I am yet to update my learning element on cglearner, but I am excited to find time to do so, because we have several activities that have shifted around or blossomed out of conversations that have been occurring for the last year!  I have referenced our Authentic Intellectual Work professional development in a previous post (http://www.iowa.gov/educate/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1767&Itemid=2544); our College Prep team’s work in this area that involves an intense focus on evaluating and improving tasks and instruction, along with some evaluation of student products, combined with the rich discussions we have been having in this cohort, and a movement to pilot the use of Moodle within our district, have led to a few new assignments and approaches that I think will be very beneficial indeed.

For example, using our new Moodle technology, we recently added an extension of our yes/no discussion and journal activity that asks the students to come up with different perspectives and definitions and examples of the following concepts: beauty, truth, freedom, love, happiness and knowledge.  They crafted wiki pages within moodle and were able to produce some pretty decent and interesting content, which we will go back into and reference as the dystopian novel reaches its conclusion and the protagonist rejects the new world of artificial stability and happiness in preference of a world where the above options are present, even if it means experiencing some of the pain or unhappiness that may come with those concepts.  There were some frustrations with using the technology on the part of some of the students, but once allowed to “play” with the activity for a little bit, most expressed enthusiasm and interest in the project.  Again, I know I am a bit behind on these types of experiments, but it was interesting to see some of these students (who are two weeks from graduating, by the way) to grasp hold of a new method of collaboration and base theme-building.

(Side note:  One of Ed’s comments from one or two weeks ago struck me, and as I revise this activity for the next time around, I would like to rethink the directions and the methods of what I have asked the students to do.  I don’t want to “pretend” to be engaging the students in something less didactic if it really is just an artificial “transfer of power” or a heavy handed approach dressed up with technology.  Really well said, Ed!)

Another new activity asks the students to work in small groups to produce and explore an observable, reportable question revolving around the presence and influence of technology in our lives (an early review of Huxley’s novel addresses the idea that Huxley’s oppressive world is one in which nothing seems quite as oppressive, because the oppression is based upon full immersion in things that we love, although they may take away our individuality and autonomy).  The students then observe, survey, interview, and research in order to approach an answer to their crafted question.  The reports on their findings will be one of the last elements of the course; we will then also tie in to the wiki work I reference two paragraphs above this.  I’m exceptionally curious to see how this goes, although I am holding out on expectations that this will be amazing the first time around, both because I am still getting the feel for what I need to see in order to call this activity a success, and also because I have some rather “checked out” students at the moment.

Although I haven’t fully reflected on where I would place both of these activities on the LBD spectrum (I feel like they hit various areas), I do know for sure that there is a nice combination of experiencing (and reporting on) the known, while also combining some creative application and conceptualizing.  I had recognized that there was a dire need for more experiencing the known in the course, and I hope that the time spent on these activities at the beginning of the unit will pay off by the end of next week when we reach the thematic conclusion of the novel.  I’ll post more on this as it becomes relevant, as well as after I update my learning element.

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