Reluctant Learners

Tools for Reluctant Learners

Reluctant learners are interesting. They come in so many different forms. I've had my share of them over the years and one of my favorite ones enter my class with a carefree spirit, a charisma and charm, and an infectious laugh. But his reluctant to complete any assignment no matter what I assigned astounded me! I was stumped, how could his personality be so dynamic socially and so glum when it turned to learning. I knew from our conversations about his love of gift giving and material purchases for himself, that he really enjoyed shopping. He was funny, he'd tell you about his Christmas gift plans, explaining his reasons for each (extremely thoughtful by the way) purchase for his family. I was intrigued. I decided to flip my lesson on him. I asked him to brainstorm as many ideas as he could about a topic. We were studying earth's layers, so I asked him to find me toys, books, posters, or novelty items that would be a fun educational tool to explain the layers of the earth. I used "beat the clock" as time focuser (see picture left) and left him to it. He had a long list of toys, posters, etc when I returned. Now I asked him to select from the list only the item that showed the most details about each layer and which one he would like to have if he could have any of them. Using the "beat the clock" tool again, but lengthening the time he had to make his choice, and bullet several reasons why this was "the most detailed" and "best" choice. When I returned I was impressed with his learning. His bullet points were extensive and thorough. Each one of the layers was explained and in fact, he drew some pictures to offer as further explanation! Wow! This was so wonderful and simple to implement and he had definitely discovered a great deal about the topic through his research. I filled in a few details during our small group conference and then asked him to write an Amazon-style description of the item as if he was trying to market it to an educator like me. Well, he needed help with this, but he was extremely motivated the entire time he was learning and his retention of the topic was remarkably better than his peers. While this did take time on my part, it really boiled down to building a relationship with my student, identify his interest and finally focusing his abilities and talents towards his learning. Learning is personal and at times school takes on an extremely impersonal approach.

Another example is my niece. She is 7 years old. She is inquisitive, funny, insightful and an amazing entomologist. From the moment she could speak she was asking "why?" She's now a second grader and while she still asks "why," she is slowing down. This makes me wonder "why?"

Does education today foster a love of learning? Many students come to school unable to "do school," but if you ask them about their interest outside of school it is typically very interesting to find what and how they as learners, learn. Reluctant learners are many times lost in school because it is compartmentalize and rigidly structured around teacher directed content. I feel passionately about reluctant learners as they provide me with a challenge! So I wondered, "how am I going to get my niece to start asking 'why?' again?"

We decided to make her Christmas "wish list" using an educational toy company website. She had 5 minutes to put items in her cart. At the end of the 5 minutes, we narrowed it down the items around a theme and kept only those in her cart. She loves bugs, so we selected all the cool stuff she had chosen to help her collect, study and observe, and identify bugs. She was in heaven. At the end of the sorting process she had an excellent selection that would enable her to perform an extensive study of bugs over the next several weeks. Then I asked her to write her letter to Santa explaining not just why she deserved them because of her good behavior, but how this was going to help her become the best bug scientists in the world. Needless to say it was a convincing letter, because Santa (Aunt in question) delivered on the 25th and she loved her gifts!!

Obviously, getting stuff appeals to kids, but it was so much more meaningful to have them purposefully choose and reflect on their choices with intended goals as an outcome; sell a useful toy to an educator and convince Santa that this would indeed help her in her studies. Purposeful, reflective and goal setting assignments develop critical thinking, include problem solving and provide motivation for learning. Learning the common core standards is here to stay, but what if we delivered the material with purpose, asked for student input and reflection and set goals with parameters that matched real world expectations.

How do your lessons help foster this love of learning and infuse student's personal goals into your classroom? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!