Autonomy:
As I am finishing up Unit 2 I am looking forward to my PBL unit on Zombies. I have hinted at this unit over the last couple of weeks and I think my students are more excited than I am. However, at this point, these students have 0 autonomy. For example, today during the density lab if I was at the table the students were diligently working and completing the assignment. Then, once I left the work pace slowed down drastically. The same holds true for classwork and is very evident to the lack of completion of the homework. The PBL will be difficult for the students to complete if their autonomy level stays the same. I will need to find and implement strategies that increase the autonomy level. Some of the students do not necessarily care about the low grades they receive for not completing work but maybe I can increase that with this interesting and relevant topic on Zombies.
I see this same thing in my school in my observations. I see great lessons, but students are checked out or only choose to work when the teacher is there. We affectionately refer to them as slugs. I wonder when I observe this - are they understanding? is it that they don't care? is it that they think if they wait long enough that someone will do it for them? Not sure the reason for the sluggish behavior or how to fix it. I recently observed a teacher trying to get to the bottom of why a student showed this behavior through questioning. She tried scaffolding the learning so he could have access to the information and be able to complete. She worked very hard with that one student for about 25 minutes. She was exhausted at the end of it, and I am not sure the student will be changed. But I did think it was a start. I do think you have a great hook to catch those slugs. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Scott,
ReplyDeleteAutonomy and self-agency are definite soft skills that we have to provide intentional and targeted support in our curriculum, both leading up to our project based learning units and during our pbl units. I saw that student interest and enthusiasm was very high when I came to observe your zombie unit last week. You are right, though you did have one group out of the five groups in the block I observed that struggled to maintain engagement and you were periodically redirecting throughout the independent work time and the "speed dating" activity where students had to share what they'd learned about the characteristics of life applied to the problem. This is an area that I want to encourage you to research what ideas for support and for accountability for student agency already exist and to challenge you to create some that will work for you and your students.
Sincerely,
Dawn Mitchell
What did you find out or discover as you completed this unit? I'm very interested to know the answer to this million dollar question as well. I'm sure you saw that when you helped me out today by listening to one group's mini-presentations. I thought I was going to have more teachers help out and was kind of frantic when you were the only one that showed. So, I had 2 groups sitting there not doing anything as you listened to one group and I listened to another. Even students who had not completed their presentation did not take advantage of the "extra time" they had due to not having a teacher to present to - they still did not complete the PPT so that they were ready when you or I came to listen??? Your blog and question are so important!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it saddens me, I am comforted to know that this issue is occurring in schools other than mine! This year, especially, I have seen such a lack of motivation and effort, and many of my students don't seem to care if they get low grades because they are not completing work or because they don't take the time to think through problems and give better answers. I wonder why this is happening across the board? PBL is engaging, and you would think the content alone would encourage them to put in extra effort, but there is a disconnect, and I'm not sure how to fix it.
ReplyDelete