Authenticity in the Classroom – Action Plan

I have had various drafts of posts sitting in a Google Folder since our last F2F. Of course, it is 7:36 pm the night before our third F2F and I am finally finishing one up!

Without further ado:

I am teaching a section of Canadian Geography this year, and I have been really excited about it since I was told I would be. The teacher who I share the course with has been nothing but awesome in sharing his resources with me. But, as I am sure you know, trying to create lessons around resources created by someone else with little knowledge of their intention with the material can be tough. I didn’t feel like I was engaging with my students or the material the way I’d like to be, and I think my lack of engagement was noticed by the students, and as a result, I felt like they were not engaging with the material the way I’d hoped they would.  I think Geography is awesome, relevant and interesting. I wanted to share this with them, and hopefully, get them to see it too. In addition, I was also frustrated with the layout of my classroom and how it didn’t foster collaboration make it easy for me to move around the classroom.

When I started to craft my How Might We statement, those thoughts were what guided me.

Here is what I brainstormed:

How might we…

• Get students to engage in their learning
• Provide meaningful feedback
• Get students excited about geography and want to be there
• Get me away from content giving at the front of the classroom
• Overcome the physical limitations of the classroom
• Increase  collaboration between students
• Identify where students are, so I can meet them where they are at

 

So, two months later and where did I end up?

Great question.

I walked away from the second F2F feeling good, like I had learned a lot, and made excellent connections with other educators, but I did feel a little overwhelmed. I hadn’t completely hammered out my Action Plan, and so much of the past two months have been about reiterating and exploring. I thought about it quite consistently, and have a few drafts of blog posts written up mulling over ideas.  I began to explore teaching in a way that addressed some of my frustrations. For example, after returning from C21, I book a room in the library in order to introduce our new unit and to brainstorm ideas with students. The simple change in space changed the class dynamic, had students out of their seats and collaborating.  It was an exciting first step in creating a more engaging learning experience. 

It wasn’t until I sat down with fellow Cohorter (?), Brent Hurley, last week to discuss our action plans, that mine became more clear. I wanted students to be engaged, to drive their own learning and I wanted to be able to provide meaningful feedback to help leverage their learning. What it really boiled down to for me, was that I wanted to create a classroom rich with authentic tasks in hopes of reaching those goals. So, while I still feel like it needs some refining, my How Might We statement became:

How might we create an authentic classroom that enriches the learning experience?  

 

Now for setting some goals to get this plan into action.

My first goal was to seek feedback from students. I had just completed a unit where students were tasked with doing a series of labs, reading articles and connecting their learning to an inquiry question they had created at the beginning of the unit based on sustainability, the economy, and natural resources in Canada.

To get a sense of what my students liked, and if this, in fact, was something they found enriched their learning experience, I surveyed students after we had completed the unit (here is the link to my survey results).

 

Here is what the students enjoyed:

 

And here is where they struggled:

I already feel like I have a lot to work with moving forward from their feedback (and for next year!), but I feel a little stumped as to how to move forward with my Action Plan. 

I would love to know some of the steps you have taken in order to create authenticity in your classroom. What success have you had? What challenges did you have to overcome?

Looking forward to connecting with everyone tomorrow!