Recently, I wrote that perhaps our wisest approach to distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year is enrichment only. My earnest and amicable argument here is that if we try a continuation approach to distance learning, we'll end up with fewer engaged students now and larger gaps when we return than if were to pause on the curriculum and figure out how to fill in the gaps once we're back to in-person schools. After all, we're bound to have gaps when we return to in-person schooling — we might as well create consistency in those gaps. Plus, there are real experimental insights that we can gain in the meantime focusing on an engagement-first, enrichment-style curriculum.
I'll discuss the problems with that idea in a future post, but for the sake of this one, let me just give an example of what an enrichment-style assignment might look like. The others in this series of rapidly crafted sample learning experiences are:
- Introduction to Nature Study (science, ELA)
- Counting Grass Blades… Seriously! (Math)
- What If? Learning Strategy Brainstorm Exercise (any subject)
All right — on to today's sample lesson.
Hey there, students!
In twenty years, you will be __ years old, and at some point you'll probably meet a twenty-year old who was born in the spring of 2020 — right in the midst of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts. They will scratch their head trying to understand what these changes to daily life were like. It will be hard for them to imagine — sort of like it is hard for you and I to imagine what life was like for people on the US home front during an event like World War II.
During the next couple of days, try to find twenty details from daily life that illustrate how things have changed during this time of social distancing.
Two examples that I've written in my journal:
- Gatherings with extended family are prohibited by my state's governor. It is illegal, in other words, to visit my mother.
- When I drove to the grocery store with my daughter yesterday, I noticed that all of the fast food parking lots were empty, and all of their signs said, “Drive thru still open.” Usually, they would say things like, “Super deluxe bacon bombs – 50% off.”
Can you come up with twenty specific details that illustrate how daily life has changed? Can you come up with more than twenty?
How this assignment targets student motivation
As I've written elsewhere, student motivation comes down to five key beliefs: credibility, value, belonging, effort, and efficacy.
The above assignment, which based on my current constraints cannot be required or graded, is likely to be completed by many of my students because it intentionally targets the beliefs:
- Credibility: I'm demonstrating that I care about my students by envisioning them twenty years from now. (Remember: credibility comes from CCPR: Care, Competence, Passion, and Repair.)
- Value: I'm asking students to find details hidden in plain sight — playing to natural value boosters like curiosity and intrigue. I'm having them create something that may be fun to use 20 years in the future — playing with their sense of the future utility of the assignment. I'm posing the assignment as a challenge — can you do this? — and that ties into our classroom's “Do Hard Things” ethos.
- Belonging: This assignment reminds students of a powerful Belonging booster that we've got going for us right now — everyone is experiencing this for the first time, and so there's a new sense of shared identity we can tap into. Where normally our students (adolescents especially) sense large gaps between their identity and other groups in the school, now there's a powerful sameness — this assignment reminds students of that.
- Effort: By posing this assignment as a challenging question — can you? — I'm triggering students to think about effort. Could I get this assignment done if I tried? Could I overdeliver on this assignment with more than twenty things?
- Efficacy: Even though this is a writing task that will likely amount to several hundred words, it calls for the collection of a finite number of observations — and it's this number that students will likely focus on in completing the task, and this number will seem doable.
Now, I could tweak this assignment to be more academic (e.g., try to use a complex sentence for each item — here are some examples of those as you may recall from class a month ago), to tie into a speaking task (by Friday, use Flipgrid to record yourself sharing the five details that you're most proud of noticing), or to incorporate into some kind of monthly portfolio task.
These are the kinds of activities that may make the most sense right now. Unfortunately, I think most states are going to opt for a continuation of the curriculum — I'll share more about my thoughts on doing that well soon.
Joe Garza says
Thanks for the example!!! I think I’ll use this in my google classroom if you don’t mind.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Please do, Joe — that’s what it’s for!
Jessyca Cooney says
Thank you for this idea! Please keep sharing examples like this. I could use some for my English classes.
Lindsay Demaray says
echo above comment: this really helped frame and support my thinking. This is what I hope to create for students next week.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Thank you for the feedback Lindsay 🙂
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Sounds good, Jessyca 🙂
MaryAnn says
I’m sharing this idea with colleagues. Thank you for your post!
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Thanks for sharing MaryAnn!
Ashley L says
Thank you for this great idea! I plan on using this with the students in my district as we try to navigate what this new type of learning should look like.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
My pleasure, Ashley! I’m so glad it helps.
Amy H says
I love this idea- I’m going to use this in my World Language classroom. Thanks for sharing.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Amy Holmes that is awesome 🙂
Doreen B-P says
Thank you for this wonderful activity. My hope is that each of my students will make valuable connections to the world around them, as well as see the importance of primary sources in history.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Doreen, thank you — I hope that too! 🙂
Annie Camacho says
Love this idea, Dave! I am doing a similar activity, where I asked my juniors to make a Google slideshow and create “stories” (like in Instagram or Snapchat) using current pictures and putting quotes as captions from the novel we just read; they can use other sources (ie music lyrics, quotes they’ve seen online) as well. I am hoping these stories (pics and quotes) will be a sort of photo journal for this historic period of time er are all living through. I love that you are looking at this from the perspective as a means to inspire and enrich, because all of our past leverages are gone. There’s no requirement that kids attend online sessions or that they even complete work. So the only goal is to support them now in SEL and buoy their skills.
Thanks for being out there!
Annie
Lisa M Janeway says
Yes. THIS – all day. Unfortunately, our district leaders haven’t quite come to this awakening, and so we’re plodding along with “prioritized targets” under the premise of “buckets of grace.” All well-intending but unquestionably ineffective and wildly inequitable. Your first paragraph was THE MESSAGE.
Kim says
Thank you for this inspiring lesson! Do you have any suggestions as to how I can modify this for my 6th grade Social Studies students?
Ben P says
Dave, this exercise has led to some of the most meaningful, beautiful, introspective, and heartbreaking words from my students that I’ve ever seen. A timely, potent task.
I’m grateful for your work.
tom plechaty says
Dear Kim,
I teach 7th grade SS and I just cut the list down to 10. This seemed more doable. Thanks,
Kim says
Great! Thank you.
Tonya Wofford says
Thanks Dave! I am all about the students reflecting at this point. I am a firm believer that they should know themselves to better themselves.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Kimberly’s slideshow for her class’ version of this assignment is lovely, so I thought I’d share: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/167jGGLnd0ThqgtFXOoi7d3GOlV5uEQPSlK58bteyUqo/edit?usp=sharing
Maya Woodall says
Love this! We’re done for the year, but I think something like this will work as an early writing assignment.