Kuper's+21st+Century+Learning+project

= = ** Criminal Justice Playground ** ** Mike Kuper **

I am focusing on **__empowering students__** to have ownership over their learning, and I am designing this project for my Criminal Justice class. Criminal Justice is a one-semester class taken by juniors and seniors. A variety of students take this class for a variety of reasons.


 * __What is my reason for focusing on this element?__ **

I decided to focus on empowering my students after doing a good deal of reflection on two notes I received at the end of last school year from two students who were in my Criminal Justice class. The first note -- a 1½ page letter, actually -- was from a senior who I had in the first semester. In December she had given me a gift and a note telling me how much she enjoyed my class. Her note in May, however, went much further than that. She told me she had been considering a career in law, but that being in my class helped her solidify that decision. She said she enjoyed coming to class and felt respected as I greeted students at the door. She said she eagerly awaited what I would say next in class. In short, it was the most powerful and positive message I had ever received in my teaching career.

The second note was from a junior in my second semester Criminal Justice class, who also plans on a career in law enforcement. He plans to become a police officer, and he had already been looking at colleges for law enforcement. In addition, he also was involved in the St. Charles Police Department’s Citizen Police Academy this spring, so he clearly has police work as a goal. His note came as a response to one of the open-ended questions in the class portfolio reflection. He wrote that the class had been “a waste of time.” Everything we did in class was something he either knew or could have Googled to find out. He was as disappointed with the class as my first-semester student was inspired.

My first thought was to rationalize -- I simply “consider the source.” While the first note came from an exemplary student who was an asset to the class, the second was from someone who was a challenge to reach throughout the semester for various reasons. At the same time I was all the more grateful for the first student’s note, since I tried to convince myself that she was the “right” one -- and it kept me from falling into a pit of despair over the tone and message of the second note.

After more reflection, however, I realized that neither student was typical of his or her peers, that many (most?) students are probably somewhere in the middle. I also decided that I needed to do something different so I could reach all of those students on all ends of the interest spectrum. I had been thinking for a while of revamping much of the Criminal Justice course, and this gave me the incentive to do it. Taking 21st Century Learning Design class this summer has been the final push to do this.


 * __What are my beliefs about this ecosystem element?__ **

Students must have ownership of their learning in order to feel truly connected and engaged. Without that empowerment, they still might be interested in what we’re doing, but they’re only getting a partial experience. More importantly, the more ownership a student has over his/her learning, the better what they learn “sticks.” I know the importance of students having ownership over what they learn and how they learn it, but I have been hesitant to give up that much control myself. The events I described from the past few months have given me the final push to go out and experiment.

Other benefits of doing this in Criminal Justice are that I can truly experiment. I have just one class per semester, so it will be more manageable. Students have different motives for taking the class, and giving them over what and how they learn will make it more likely for them to attain any goals they entered with -- and hopefully go far beyond that. My professional learning goal is to increase student engagement, and this project can be a perfect fit. Just as importantly (to paraphrase Jack Elliot, Tom Selleck’s character in the movie //Mr. Baseball),// Criminal Justice is an elective, and electives are supposed to be fun.


 * __What do I anticipate will result in my students' learning with our focus on this ecosystem element? Why?__ **

By focusing more on empowerment, students will have the opportunity to choose a significant part of what they will be learning. At the beginning of the semester, each student will be asked to decide a topic or issue within criminal justice that they want to dive deeply into and learn about throughout the semester. In the beginning, I will provide a basic structure for what their project will entail, but I think that a lot of this could occur organically as we progress throughout the semester. At the same time, I will need to provide guidance and support throughout the semester.

__** These are some of the aspects of this project I envision right now: **__
 * As a class we will brainstorm a list of topics/issues in Criminal Justice before students commit to a specific topic. Multiple students will be allowed to focus on the same topic. I see this as fostering collaboration among students.
 * Right now I am thinking of devoting one class day per week for them to do in-class work -- research, collaboration with other students with similar topics/issues, developing questions for themselves and for each other, my working with individual students or groups to guide them through their learning, etc.
 * This will be heavily inquiry-based. They will be responsible for coming up with the questions they want to ask, and as they begin to find answers, I am hoping that will continue to lead to further, deeper questions. We (as a class) will have to work on differentiating this, since different students will have different abilities and comfort levels with developing their own questions. I am thinking of having home groups in which the students are grouped based on their topics/issues -- so even though much of the project is independent, there is also a large amount of collaboration. That will allow students to provide support to each other as well as holding each other accountable.
 * Right now, I do not have a specific final product in mind. For the summative, I envision each student choosing the type of product he/she thinks will best show their learning. Possibilities range from a traditional paper or PowerPoint to a college/career plan for themselves or a diary of their experiences with reflection. We will brainstorm as a class different types of products so students have a wide range to choose from. At some point I will need to have students decide on their product -- well enough ahead of time so they have time to create it. (Though if they keep a diary or learning log, they could be creating much of the product as they go along.)
 * We will have formatives along the way, including exit slips, brief share-with-the-class sessions, and other kinds. We will also brainstorm as a class different kinds of formatives we will use.
 * This ongoing project will not be the only focus of the course. We still have five units with essential learnings, so I have to make sure there is a good balance. However, students’ research/experiences will connect to what we learn in the units. At different times during the semester, students will find the course curriculum is more connected than at other times, so we will need to prevent the image of having two parallel components to the class rather than two aspects that are connected.
 * A possible formative is a short reflection or discussion on how their topic/issue relates to what we are learning as a whole class; we can do this throughout the semester.
 * Since I am empowering students to have ownership over their own learning,
 * Once a student has chosen a topic/issue, I will ask them to do a pre-assessment reflection in which they discuss their prior understanding and conceptions of the topic. As we go through the semester, they will keep coming back to that and see how their learning has affected their opinions/perceptions. We will work this into the final product so they can trace the development of their perceptions over the course of the project.


 * __What possible challenges/obstacles do I think we may have to fact and overcome?__ **


 * As I mentioned earlier, I (we as a class) will need to do a lot of differentiation -- based not only on student ability, but also on their topic/issue.
 * I am concerned about students’ sustaining their interest throughout the semester. This week I read George Couros’ blog article “Less Time Teaching, More Time Learning.” I also learned about an independent learning program (on a much larger scale) at a Massachusetts high school. Those sources -- as well as what I knew coming into this class -- tell me that students can be more engaged when the have a lot of ownership over their learning. However, I expect that some students will be more motivated to sustain this over a long period of time than others. In short, I am concerned that a student can get bored with his/her topic. I would need to intervene (hopefully long before boredom set in) to help students keep seeing new avenues they can explore within their topic. A possible differentiation could be to allow students to explore a few different topics/issues throughout the semester.
 * We will need to make sure the amount of work will be fair for each student (though not necessarily equal).
 * With different summatives/products, we will need to make sure each truly measures what students have learned through the experience.
 * If students become “too interested” in doing the independent project, they (or some) might be reluctant to do the “regular” class work. (I guess that would be a nice problem to have -- it would show that the project is reaching the students.) I will need to make sure the “other stuff” is engaging to the students as well -- including connecting that to the students’ topics/issues.
 * This is the first time I’ll be doing something like this where the students have so much independence, so I am a bit nervous (but excited too) as I go into it. I will be working with one of the ISC’s throughout the semester to help me further design and implement this.


 * __What other ecosystem elements I think will be impacted? Why?__ **


 * __**Critical thinkers and problem solvers**__. They will be going deeply into a topic/issue that interests them and that is relevant to them, so this should inspire deeper thinking. For example, if they are exploring an area they are thinking of for a career, I will encourage them to think about how suited they are for this career, what challenges they would face, etc. If they are exploring individual rights in school, I will encourage them to ask themselves how valid the arguments are on either side. Beyond that, I will expect and encourage them to assess the issue and plan solutions (I know that sounds vague -- it needs to be more concrete when I present it to students).
 * **Innovative and creative, entrepreneurial.** They will need to think differently about the issue, challenging their presumptions throughout the process. Also, they will choose their final product, so they can be as creative as they want (as long as it shows their learning.)
 * **Adaptable and flexible.** They will need to keep coming up with new questions, as well as new ways to try to answer them. Also, if the project is not going well for them at first, I will help them to be
 * **Information media & technology literate.** They will learn or become more proficient with the technology tools we’ll be using, and this will help them become more tech literate in general.
 * **Connected.** I will encourage and help them to make connections among different parts of the issue/topic, between their topic and the curriculum we are learning in class, and between their own topic and other students’ topics. Since they are choosing a topic that interests them, they will be able to make connections to their own life
 * **Socially responsible.** I will encourage them to be active in the project (going on a ride-along with the police, shadowing a lawyer, etc.). Also, we they make connections between their topic and larger societal problems (for example, crime rates, violence, inequality in the legal system, etc.) For the final product, I will encourage (expect?) them to show how they can participate to work toward a solution to the problem.
 * **Rigorous.** Since this will be a topic important to them that they will be exploring for an extended time, we will promote a deep understanding. They will take a critical look at the issue. In short, they will become an expert on the topic or issue they choose.

CJ Student Information Survey
 * Artifacts **
 * Student information survey -- students will take this survey at the start of the semester. It's similar to the student information sheets I've used in the past, but it's electronic! I used __Google Forms__ to create it so I will make a spreadsheet with the student information so I can easily refer to it throughout the semester. Some of the questions ask about their future career plans/hopes (whether or not these involve a criminal justice field), and another asks about issues/topics they want to learn about more deeply during the class. I will use this information to help the students start to decide the direction they want to take in this project.




 * __Edmodo__ -- I will create an Edmodo site where students will write some of their reflections to be read by their peers, probably in their groups (by similar topic/issue). This will allow students to give each other feedback, ask questions, make suggestions, offer encouragement, etc. I will also encourage students to share resources (websites, videos, etc.) they find that could be useful to other students.
 * Note to me --- the list of resources -- should I compile that and post it on one of the tools instead of them putting them up and visible on their own???



=__**Other possibilities:**__=


 * __Knowmia__ videos for students to watch outside of class -- or during class while I do a walk-around or some one-on-one???
 * __Nearpod__ to do some reflection, introduction or …...???
 * Use __Wordle__ to show their responses/reactions to student survey(s)???
 * Class website (__Google Sites__) as the class portal