I'll help students create a geometry learning path in the new year. This process will provide children with a model for learning any content they choose as well as providing them with a way to learn specific geometry standards.
First, we'll discuss learning success with these questions: When were you successful with learning? What did that look like? What helped you? After that students will "unpack" the standards. I'll have students turn the geometry standards into a list of action statements written in their own words.
Next, I'll have students choose and order five or six activities on the learning menu. The menu will include introduction, practice, and assessment activities. Introduction choices will include videos, books, and intro games. Practice activities will include a number of hands-on manipulative, paper/pencil, and online activities/games, and assessment choices will include both online and offline tests and projects. The menu will also give children a chance to work alone, with partners, or with a small group.
I'll create the menu so that it looks like a path in order to foster the idea that children can create their own learning paths from goal setting to mastery in any topic. I'll make the learning menu materials easily accessible as well. Then as students learn, I'll coach both the content and the process. We'll stop now and then for focus lessons and shared coaching discussions. At the very end of the event, I'll give children a chance to reflect on the process. That reflection will inform future work of this type.
If you've helped your students craft learning paths, please share your links, ideas, and models. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide as I try out this differentiated, personalized approach to learning.
