Teaching Strategies
Throughout this paper I have detailed many activities and guiding questions, along with teaching methods, which overall would be characterized as project-based inquiry.
The main teaching strategy I am adding to our class this fall is to formalize a self-paced learning model working with the Modern Classroom Project. The Modern Classroom Project offers a set of tools and strategies to support teachers to create and deliver blended instruction – meaning students can access content through a combination of teacher created videos, direct classroom engagement and work, and activities and assignments that can be worked on in a self-paced way. The performance task and requirements for submission to demonstrate sufficient skill in particular competencies are clearly laid out for each lesson. A detailed rubric aligned with the competencies is provided. Because much of the content and lesson activities are provided with pre-recorded instructions students can keep up, catch up, move along and dig deeper, depending on their circumstances.
As is the case with many students post-covid, many of our U School students’ school attendance is inconsistent. Young people have complicated lives - working at night, caring for siblings or elders in the morning, and/or struggling for so many reasons with motivation and executive functioning. Getting to, and staying in, class is often a struggle. This said, many students are there each day ready to go, and eager to learn – but often not the same group of students in a class on any given day as were there the day before. Direct instruction, group projects, labs, and content delivery are all more challenging when the composition of a class cohort is inconsistent. It is hard to complete a research activity if one has missed the introductory lesson. It is near impossible to write a lab report if one misses the lab. It is hard to take field notes unless you are in the field. It is really hard to move forward as a group when a portion of students have not engaged with the content that the next lesson is predicated on. The students who are there are too often waiting for the students who are not, and the students who are absent are missing so much.
One solution to this issue is to design opportunities for students to move through units at their own pace, with clear expectations about what they “must-do” “should do” and “aspire to do.” All students have access to the lesson slide deck, videos, readings, guided notes, maps (in this case). Recorded lessons allow students to pause, rewind, and rewatch any content or instructions. Lesson packets to work off-line are made available, as are on-line versions of guided notes. I can spend more class time working with individual and groups of students who are progressing at slightly different paces, on overlapping content and projects. Students track their progress through the unit in a public-facing group tracker, so classmates working on the same lessons today can collaborate. All class direct instruction and discussions, field trips, labs, gallery walks, are listed on weekly class schedule. Missing these in person opportunities have natural consequences, and hopefully the class activities are meaningful and interesting enough to incentivize attendance. Demonstrations on use of materials and supplies for hands on projects and labs are scheduled, with additional guidance and support available by request. Students will be provided the tools to have agency to work through their portfolio requirements, with support from peers, teachers, content expert guests. Students who are absent miss some in person supports, many of the most fun activities, and the dynamics of collaboration, but have the tools to at least keep up, rejoin and get back into the flow. I have always offered students multiple ways to demonstrate competency, and to complete work on assignments independently if they missed days of school, I am hoping this new structure fills an important gap in pacing to provide students who are ready to move along, as well as students who need more support, the structure they need to thrive.
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