Creating Contexts for Making with the Forest of Reading

I've been thinking about how to meaningfully incorporate making into collaborative teaching time in the library learning commons.

I'd love to combine my love of literacy and reading with making. The Forest of Reading books could be used as provocations or introductions to different making activities. We could then document these experiences to provide us with more insight about our students and drive future instruction in the makerspace.

My goal is to provide a variety of differentiated high tech/low tech activities that students could explore with each book - with low threshold and high ceiling applications.

But I wonder will this be enough?

By definition, constructionism means students are literally constructing their own knowledge through the creation of personally meaningful physical artifacts. Martinez and Stager (2013) state the "power of making something comes from a question or an impulse that the learner has and is not imposed from the outside" (Chapter 2, paragraph 6). The ultimate goal of a makerspace is to provide students with the tools necessary for open-ended exploration, right?

As previously mentioned, I do aim to provide students with a choice in their making in response to the provocation...but.... what if no activity personally speaks to them? Or gives them a cause to question, or an impulse to explore? What if I am able to only offer one choice in the time we are together? Am I guiding them too much through the book and limiting what they can do?

If I use these activities with the whole class, yes they are making, but are they making in the true sense of a makerspace? A place that encourages open-ended, hands-on exploration based on student interest and passions? Or at this early point in our journey is it ok to introduce all students to an activity to help build capacity and skill sets so that there will come a point in time where we can say: "This is the problem/expectation? What tools will you use to show us what you know about the solution?"

Am I wrong to approach making in this context?

I certainly don't want to "force" our students to do anything they don't want to do - but some of the learning I will be introducing to students will be new and are experiences I want them all to try.

I would think that most students crave this type of learning and would be open to the experience.....well there's only one way to find out.

And if it doesn't work - then we will try something else.

Martinez, S. L. & Stager, G.S. (2013). Invent to Learn: Making, tinkering and engineering in the classroom. [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.ca