Written by I want your feedback on my students’ work.
Here are two samples of how two of my students attempted to connect their chosen artifacts to The Book Thief. This, I should explain, is a learning task that helps students begin to see how two (seemingly) different topics can be connected together. The next step is for students to debate a resolution that uses evidence from both The Book Thief and Canadian History (their current unit in Social Studies).
- How well do these students build connections?
- What skills should I consider teaching in preparation for debates?
- What feedback would you give each student?
- How would you tweak the learning task to better support students creating and articulating connections?
Student Work Sample #1
Student Work Sample #2
This work involves some deep thinking that I truly admire, although it appears not constantly throughout the reflections, but in glimmers of partially unspoken connection. I have read The Book Thief, and I can definitely see the connections. However, I think that what would really define how everything is related would be a little paragraph at the end to bring it all together. In other words, clarity could be more involved, so the connections may be put in the most crystal clear light that will motivate deep thinking everywhere.
Your students are on the way to creating a new future that will be beautiful. And I can picture them making it vast and brimming with all that I hope for from today’s education.
Ooh, I like how there is some involvement in the SAMR Model here! But I’ll get to the feedback. I am particularly drawn to the third paragraph of the second sample of work. At first I thought that the connections weren’t deep enough, but then they grew, and they reached down, into the deep parts that were shadowed. Your students are shining their own sunlight everywhere…
I am wondering where you are going with the learning experiences that build connection. Connecting is a skill that everyone needs, but I am curious about what will happen after the debates…