In reading about active learning, I have been thinking a lot about my experience taking Anatomy & Physiology as an undergrad student. The course consisted of two parts: a lecture and a lab.
The lecture took place in a lecture hall with students from all the sections of the course for the semester (roughly 150 people), and was led by a monotone instructor at the front of the hall talking through a jargon-filled PowerPoint presentation about the nitty-gritty components of the body its functions. The lab took place in a classroom with roughly twenty people, and during each lab session students explored the body and its functions through dissections, examining tissues under the microscope, and collaborative problem-solving, facilitated by the same instructor.
Reflecting on the course today, I can tell you very little about what I learned in the lecture. It has come and gone. In one ear and out the other by the following semester. It didn't stick. I vividly remember, though, the experience of dissecting a sheep heart and identifying the muscles within the heart. The difference: the lab allowed me the chance to take ownership of my learning by doing something.
Active Learning Is Just That: Active
The idea that students should participate in their learning may seem like a no-brainer; however, traditionally, "learning" in the classroom has looked a lot like passively listening (maybe) with the teacher doing the majority of the talking. Active learning flips this idea on its head. It is the idea that students need to be actively involved in their learning through engaging with content through reading, writing, speaking, listening, experimenting, exploring, reflecting, assessing...doing.
Students today have more information than they could ever need accessible to them. They do not need a teacher to stand at the front of the room spewing information to them that they could find on the internet in minutes. We, teachers, are no longer the keepers of information. Instead, students need teachers to help them navigate and learn how to use and apply the information they have at their fingertips. Nicole Zumpano, in her
presentation on Tim Elmore's book
Marching Off the Map, offers helpful points for facilitating active learning with today's students.
So, what does this look like in the classroom? Active learning looks like...
- Students doing the majority of the reading, writing, speaking, applying (student-centered).
- Students self-assessing.
- Students choosing.
- Students problem-solving.
- Teachers facilitating.
Jennifer Gonzalez in her
post for Cult of Pedagogy offers numerous strategies for facilitating active learning. Check it out!
Active Learning: Student Feedback Edition
An excellent example of students taking part in active learning takes place in Ms. Foreman's classroom, where students are challenged to a four-part learning activity that provides students opportunities to examine, create, discuss, and evaluate.
Nicole Zumpano, in her blog post
Student Feedback Part II summarizes students' chance to explore the act of giving and receiving feedback in Ms. Foreman's classroom. In the four-part activity, students create book reviews using
PicCollage and
Audioboom. Then, they provide one another feedback. Following a mini lesson on feedback, students go back and sort their own feedback to differentiate quality feedback from poor feedback.
In a "traditional" classroom, a lesson on student feedback (if done at all) may have consisted of students writing a book report, a teacher giving a whole-group lesson on how to give feedback with some examples and non-examples, and students giving each other sub-par feedback. Instead, this active learning activity puts students in charge of their own learning by allowing students creative freedom in creating authentic reviews of books. Students are provided opportunities to discuss and reflect on their work. Then, using evidence of their own feedback, students experiment with what makes feedback "strong."
In this example, students are actively engaged in their learning through every step of the process. The learning is
- Experiential
- Collaborative
- Rigorous
- Student-centered
Check out my
Padlet for additional ideas to expand on this learning activity.
Active Learning in ELA
The standards for teaching English Language Arts are broken down into the following categories: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language. To help students reach these standards, they must be engaged in active learning. Students cannot master speaking & listening, for instance, without ample opportunities for discussion. Students cannot compose narratives using narrative techniques without opportunities to be storytellers.
Some ideas for engaging students in active learning in ELA that I have come to love (and I think students do too) are...
- Fishbowl Discussions and Socratic Seminars
- I love Fishbowl discussions because students can provide one another feedback.
- Even better...have students self-assess! Students self-assess using this rubric in my class.
- Book/Movie Video Reviews
- After reading the book and watching the movie, students create YouTube reviews.
- Jigsaws
- This is great for informational articles! I like to assign each group a different section of an article. They become experts on their section, and then teach it to the class.
- Readers Theater
- Students write the script, practice it, and perform it.
- I have students self-assess their fluency using this checklist.
Not enough? This
article has a few more great ideas to help make the learning in your classroom more active.
The feedback project was one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing your go-to active learning strategies and giving us a peek at some of the materials you use!
ReplyDeleteHi Madison! I enjoyed reading your post it was very appealing. Great examples of how you use active learning in your classroom. I forgot to mention readers theater in my blog. This is such a great example. Although my third graders do not write their own scripts they practice reading their parts and they evaluate their fluency by using Flip.com! Great post!
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