Module 6

How can I help my students become self-directed learners?

I can help my students become self-directed learners throughout the unit in various ways. For example, providing my students with Due Dates for different assignments will allow my students to know what to expect and allow them the opportunity to work at their own pace. Students who have the desire and ability to work more quickly will have the opportunity to work ahead of the class. I plan on posting the rubrics, checklists, and due dates on my teacher website so that students can work from home if they would like to. This will also allow parents to provide students with extra support at home. I am a little worried however, that some parents may be too involved and do the work for their children in order to improve their child's grades. In order to prevent this from happening, I might consider having the students and parents sign an honesty oath of some sort. Just an idea I'm tossing around. I would like to stress with the parents that I want the students learn better as they go through the process of creating their end product.

I would also like to include some sort of extension menu for students to choose from if they finish their project earlier than the rest of the class. Perhaps they could add more to their webpage, research an additional hero, try to contact a hero they've read about online, etc. The higher level questioning will be built into the unit for all students to respond to but perhaps an extension would be for students to start their own blogs asking and responding to student created higher level questions. They could then add the blog link to their webpages. (Sorry that this blog is turning into more of a brainstorming session than just a response!)

How can I support the diverse needs of learners?

The learners in my class have many needs. I have students who are ELL, Resource, one with a significant hearing and speech impairment, and a large group of higher students. For my ELL and resource students, I would like to simplify their assignment requirements and provide graphic organizers. As mentioned above, I would like to provide extension menus for my early finishers so they have something to work on after they complete the unit assignments.