Student engagement is key in the 21st century classroom. Technology can help engage students but nothing beats sound lesson design and flow that piques and quenches a student's thirst for understanding the world around them.
Students invariably want greater control of their learning experiences. It's a lot more than just
"What" they learn. Providing opportunities for students to
express their voice and choose the method in which they express it is just one of the ways students get engaged in any classroom.
One easy-to-implement strategy that addresses this need for engagement and allows students to take control of their learning is through the old "menu option" assignment. Although not a new idea, its a powerful one and with technology the opportunities for student creativity goes beyond the traditional paper-and-pen method.
An example of this is the document embedded below from
a group of teachers in the UK who literally took the "menu option" idea and used a popular restaurant amongst
British teenagers as the basis for their choices.
Utilizing the menu options giving students 'voice" and "choice" is an easy way to substitute assessment ideas using technology. The students will feel empowered to produce their best work if they feel they had some control over their choice. Especially when they publish their work for you and their peers to see....the focus of this post.
Show Me What You Know!
This idea comes from one of the creators of the
Hyperdoc movement,
Lisa Highfill. The idea is pretty straight forward - when appropriate in the curriculum, allow students to choose how they showcase their knowledge and understanding of what they have learned in order to demonstrate mastery.
If you would like to see other examples of this idea,
visit her site here and while you're there poke around some of the other areas where she provides rich ideas for the classroom.
I've created one below as a Google Slides template for you all to have copies of. You will have to edit it to change elements on the file including: how students turn in their work to you, some of the resources you want to give them a choice to explore, or anything you'd like to add to personalize the assignment. After you edit it, simply copy and paste it into an already existing Slide deck, publish it to the web, or embed it in your Schoology course or on your website.
Get your copy of the above file
HERE.
Give this a go and see what you get from students. Encourage them to explain themselves in a rich manner. Push them to produce their best and most creative work. Publish their work to the class, to other classes, to parents, to the world. Don't be scared you might not be an expert in any of these technologies. In fact, its best you aren't. Encourage your kids to be the experts. Learn with them. They may surprise you how much ownership they take on knowing you can help them only so far.
If you need help implementing this (or similar ideas like it) please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
