Lesson Planning in the 21st Century

Teaching Context

I work for a blended online school creating curriculum and assessing learning artifacts.  It’s a lot like teaching using FB, blogs and forums – which for me is a bit of a dream come true!  21st century skills are important to us; we like/use Tony Wagner’s 7 survival skills, but Hobbs’ 5 literacies which I learned about this week in CEP 810 (Access, Analyze, Create, Reflect and Act) are also reflected. (Hobbs, 2011)

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Lesson’s Context

The lesson is embedded within a larger PBL project introducing Researchers to WAY Program.  The final product will be a Personal Learner Profile answering the question – How will PBL work best for me?  They have four choices  – one for each of the VARK learning styles – a picture collage, a playlist, a brochure or a learning tour.  They will create something that represents and explains their learning style, setting (each kid’s home/lab set-up is different), learning goals and personal organization plans.

For this step they will focus on learning about their learning style – the goal is that this will help them embrace their strengths and develop a more robust self-concept.  One of the things that many of the 21st century skills require (whoever’s list you’re using) is that a person must learn to trust themselves and their abilities.  That is why doing some  learning about themselves at their start with the program is so crucial.  Thomas and Brown note that in order to succeed in ever changing learning systems students must “learn to generate content that represents their learning.” (2011)  In many ways this is the big aim of the bigger project, and it requires some instruction regarding learning styles here at the start.

In terms of Hobbs’ literacies, they will:

• Access:  Given resources, but must determine which will be most helpful for them in their context.  Learning to use resources appropriately by learning citation. (Access is linked with Analyzing in Wagner’s list, and both of those apply here.)
• Analyze: Read resources through the lens of “what will help me most?”  Apply their learning to their personal situation.
• Create: The final product options will give them a choice in how they communicate their learning – images, video, etc. – and encouraged to share with the learning community at large.
• Reflect: Thinking about who they are and how they can leverage these strengths pushes them to reflect on themselves in a clearer way.  This learning will also help inform future reflections.
• Act: This will come later when they leverage what they’ve learned to create personal goals.  (Linked to what Wagner calls “Initiative.”)

I’m hoping to teach them to navigate our program, understand who they are and how that impacts their learning process.

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The Lesson

Documents to Explore:

“Step 1:What Is Your Learning style?”

• Learning Collage
• Learning Soundtrack
• Learning Brochure
• Learning Tour

Students will encounter:

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References:

Hobbs, R. (2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand, Oaks, CA: Corwin/Sage.

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant changes. Lexington, Ky: CreateSpace?.

Wagner, T. (2015). “Seven Survival Skills: As Defined by Business Leaders.”  Retrieved from http://www.tonywagner.com/7-survival-skills.

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