4C's

How can I make my lesson more dynamic today?

When I went home last night, in the back of my mind I knew that tomorrow’s class assignment was pretty much just a worksheet. After reading “Shake Up Learning” by Kasey Bell and hours of studying for the Level 1 Google Certified Educator Exam, my mind can no longer just settle. How could I make it all the way through the day knowing that I was just having them do a worksheet. So, during my first period prep, I tried to channel the advice that Kasey would give into my planning as quickly as possible. What is the learning goal, and how can I incorporate the 4C’s of education?

My learning goal was already aligned to my lesson (luckily) Students will analyze data and draw conclusions. So, now all I had left to do was try to incorporate critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, or communication. After a few minutes spent looking through the assignment, and asking myself what types of prompts I could have the students consider to steer them towards higher order thinking, I came up with an idea.

The activity already had introductory information, testing procedures, & data taken from 5 different patient’s lab results. So, I decided to put the students in groups of 3-4 and have them work collaboratively on a common Slide deck. I included a Slide for each patient that they were supposed to diagnose. I included 4 different critical thinking questions on each slide that drove their discussion to determine the diagnosis for each patient. Lastly, I made a slide with a manipulative boxes that asked them to rank the patients from healthiest to sickest based on their reasoning.

As I walked through the room during the lesson I enjoyed hearing the students leading their own discussions and seeking out the reasons for each patient’s diagnosis. It was great to hear them giving reasons to back up their diagnoses. I gave them a simple check for understanding “exit ticket” type worksheet when they finished. I was so encouraged when I found that in first period alone, 100% of the students scored 80% or higher on the exit ticket, and 75% of them scored 90% or higher. After collecting data at the end of the day I found that the 2 lowest scores of the day were 70%. Wow, only 2 students (out of 70+) were under 80% in their understanding of the data analyzed.

I am taking the win on this one. The students used critical thinking and collaboration effectively to discuss data and come to consensus on its meaning. It’s not that I’ve never had my students work collaboratively before, and not that they’ve never been asked to think critically before, but the fact that I am now comfortable enough to take one of my lessons, revamp it to include 2 of the C’s and incorporate tech seamlessly, all within about 20 minutes, gives me a reason to rejoice.

Post Script: Lesson Reflection at the end of the school day.

After reflecting on each class period and the actions of my students, and after correcting their collaborative slides, I noticed that some groups, even though they seemed to be collaborating, were actually not. As a group, they had decided that each member would diagnosis one of the patients without consulting the group. While I saw them quietly working, which every teacher loves, right, they were actually not collaborating at all. They were exhibiting “old school” compliance within this “new school” group environment. I did observe many groups collaborating correctly and did feel that the lesson was going along fine, but it wasn’t until I collected the Slide-decks and graded them that I realized that the quietest groups had found a way around working with each other. They saw the opportunity as a chance to finish as quickly as possible. It was then that I realized that I will need to make my expectations about how to collaborate more clear.

So, I one major addition to this lesson for next year will be front loading. I want to make sure that I spend time having the students think about what quality group collaboration looks like and sounds like. I want to make sure that they know what a group member that was truly collaborating would do during collaboration time. I am hoping that this will give my lesson the final nudge it needs.