Janelle+VDS+--+Cultivating+Learners


 * Be a Learner, Not a Knower:**
 * Cultivating our Students’ Ownership of Learning through the Use of Classroom Norms and Essential Questions**

As I reflect upon the design of a 21st Century Classroom, in terms of who our students are and what they need, I am frequently brought back to a quote from //The Global Achievement Gap//, by Tony Wagner: ** “Be a Learner, Not a Knower.” ** I firmly believe that students need a learning environment in which they are __empowered__ -- in which they know that they are in control of their learning. They need to understand that there is an expectation that they will be active “construction workers” in building their own understanding of the world, and they need to acquire the skills and strategies that will allow them to do so throughout their lives.

Our students enter school with inquisitive, creative minds. They are eager to learn about the world. As they get older, much of this enthusiasm appears to wane within the four walls of the school building – although not necessarily outside of it. Kids still ask good questions and seek out answers and support in those topic or hobby areas that are important and of interest to them. I recall a blog I read in which an educator was astounded at how persistent his young son was in learning the intricacies of how to play Minecraft. He used the internet as a resource to make connections with a network of other players and to locate the “how to” videos and articles that gave him the building blocks that he would use as he began to imagine and create his own world within the game. Eventually, he and his friends began creating and sharing their own “You Tube” videos, as well. I see this same learning pattern with my own son -- in learning how to play Minecraft, as well as learning new soccer moves, developing strategy for Pokemon battles, and countless other areas.

I believe that teaching students to embrace their inner, curious 4-year-old and to persistently pursue the acquisition of the knowledge and skills that they need is one of the most valuable investments of our educational time. As I look at the Vision of 21st Century Learning ("The Manifesto"), I am most drawn to the fact that our students are:
 * Always connected, with immediate access to vast amounts of ever-changing information and in the habit of looking up the information that is needed;
 * Facing a different future, in which they will be hired for skills rather than knowledge and they may very well be working in jobs which don’t yet exist.

I am also reminded that, in order to be successful in the 21st Century, our students will need to be:
 * Critical thinkers and problem-solvers; perhaps, even more essentially, problem-posers;
 * Information, media, and technology literate;
 * Innovative and creative. They need to be able to imagine new solutions and ways of putting all of the pieces together.

However, given the ever-changing nature of the world, I believe that the literacies and problem-solving skills that they will need in the future cannot necessarily be defined and taught today. And so, __**our students need to be learners**__, not knowers. If they know how to learn, how to drive their own learning, they will be well-equipped with the necessary tools to navigate the ever-changing world in which they live and will work.


 * //Within the Ecosystem//**

In connecting to the classroom, this sends me a clear message that our classrooms do not need to be focused on the acquisition of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Instead, __**the classroom environment needs to be one which empowers students**__ to be responsible for their own learning. This environment needs to be focused on teaching students how to ask good questions, how to develop a plan for exploring a variety of answers to those questions, how to access necessary information in pursuit of answers and solutions, how to evaluate solutions, and how to work collaboratively in the pursuit of understanding. It is the role of the teacher (learning designer) then, to utilize his or her own understanding of essential content within a discipline in order to create a learning environment in which students are posed essential questions that will develop these skills while building an understanding of the key elements of a particular field of study.

My goal for the upcoming school year, then, is to really focus on creating a learning environment that is more empowering to students. To do, this, I will focus on two specific elements:
 * First, and most specifically, to more purposefully design and utilize essential questions to frame units of study that will tap into students’ natural curiosity and help to develop the persistent problem-solvers – those who are curious, information-literature critical thinkers. Ideally, there will be a “core set” of essential questions that are revisited throughout the year, as students encounter new fields of study in building a broader understanding of the world in //Global Issues.//
 * Integrally connected to this area is the development of a classroom environment in which //all participants are actively-engaged in asking questions and collaboratively pursuing understanding.// Building “norms” in which the above skills are expectations are stated, modeled, and monitored will be an essential step in ensuring that students do, in fact, develop these skills.

As a learning designer, I believe that a shift away from acquisition of knowledge as the focus will necessitate broader curricular change in terms of learning targets and assessments. However, it is my hope that shifting the responsibility for asking questions from the teacher to the students will help to not only develop curious, information-literate critical thinkers, but will create greater ownership of learning on the part of students, as well as increased student engagement. Students will also learn more about the shared responsibility that they have for learning as part of a collaborative team.


 * __Artifacts:__**

All of these artifacts are “works in progress.” Feedback is most definitely welcome!


 * Artifact #1** is a set of “[|essential questions]” that I have begun drafting for Global Issues. Several of these have been modified from our current curriculum, and others have been adapted from McTighe and Wiggins' //Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding//. My plan is to have students use [|google docs] in order to keep a record of their understanding of each of these questions as we progress through the school year. Students will be able to add to their understandings as they become more nuanced with each passing unit. They will also be able to share their explorations with a partner, small group, and me as an instructor for feedback and further questioning.


 * Artifact #2** is two google docs surveys that I am planning to use to gauge students’ feelings about inquiry and the classroom community. I am planning to use one at the [|beginning of the year], as well as continue with [|follow-up surveys] to assess our progress as a class. My plan is to have students participate in a “data conversation” with this data as we continue to work on building our classroom community of questioners.


 * Resource #3** isn't mine -- instead, it is a list of "[|Genius Questions]" that were presented in Angela Maiers' book //Classroom Habitudes//. I would like to use this as a starting point with my classroom to generate a list of our own "genius questions" that can help kids tap into to some of the different ways of questioning that can help to open up their wondering about the world around them.