NOW Classrooms, Grades 6-8. Meg Ormiston
where you can record raps?”
“Let’s use modeling clay with stop-motion animations!”
Palpable excitement fills a sixth-grade classroom at Westview Hills Middle School in Willowbrook, Illinois as students determine what type of platform they will use to showcase their understanding of a social science unit on ancient India. Their teacher has tasked them with choosing one of three questions and then choosing the medium through which they would like to answer it. Working in groups, some students make movies using a green screen; others make stop-motion animations using modeling clay and building blocks (see figure I.1, page 2); and others record raps using an iPad and a microphone. It’s magical.
We want to fill classroom work with magical teacher-student partnerships. In these magical classrooms, students own their data, and they set individual and group goals based on the projects they are working on. Looking around these classrooms, you see what we call messy learning or organized chaos. Think of the vibe of a busy coffeehouse, everyone chatting or working independently, depending on each person’s goals. Digital devices are everywhere, but so are collaboration and all types of communication as everyone gathers for different goals.
Figure I.1: A student creates a stop-motion video using clay.
Like in a coffeehouse, when you walk into a magical classroom, you feel the energy as all students are laser focused on their personal learning targets and as they collaborate with each other. The teacher has set high expectations for each student, and he or she continuously monitors data using a variety of technology interfaces. Parents and other professionals are part of the communication loop with access to goal-focused data, using a variety of technologies. We call these magical classrooms NOW classrooms. We selected that term because our students deserve to thrive in rich, learner-centered classrooms now, not in a few months or years. We believe schools are ready to create this type of NOW classroom, typified by technology-supported teaching and learning, and the evidence we’ve seen bears this belief out. Our goal with this book and this series is to help you create it.
Teaching and Learning First
Just a few miles away from Westview Hills Middle School, it amazes coauthor Janice Conboy to see the work her students at Indian Trail Elementary School produce when she loosens her reigns and lets them make more choices:
Wow it really worked! Every group is making their own choices and creating a plan about how they will demonstrate their learning using different types of technology. This is great! These sixth graders are independently owning their learning to become creative communicators using digital tools.
Look at all the different apps and programs the groups are using to demonstrate what they learned in this social studies unit. I know part of their motivation to create quality products is because they know what they create will be featured on the flat screens in the foyer of the school, and of course I will post the projects on Twitter using the district hashtag #dg58learns. I can’t wait to share with my team that student voice and choice really work, and now I will have digital artifacts to show what each group created. (J. Conboy, personal communication, November 16, 2016)
The seven International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2016) 2016 Standards for Students reflect this theme of student voice and choice. The standards call for students to be:
1. Empowered learners
2. Digital citizens
3. Knowledge constructors
4. Innovative designers
5. Computational thinkers
6. Creative communicators
7. Global collaborators
In addition to these ISTE student standards, when we think about engagement and our learning targets, we must think about the important skills of what the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2015) calls the four Cs: (1) communication, (2) collaboration, (3) critical thinking, and (4) creativity. Technology will change, but the four Cs will remain a critical part of student success, both for students’ schooling ahead and for their future workplace success, regardless of the devices, apps, or technology they encounter.
Each chapter in this book is rooted in the ISTE 2016 Standards for Students and the four Cs. For example, the idea of creating creative communicators is a crucial aspect of giving students voice and choice in their learning. As our team delivers professional development, we see that many educators find this idea of student voice and choice challenging. Often, it scares grades 6–8 teachers to let students have freedom to select apps and websites to create projects because they (the teachers) may not know every feature of each app. As a writing team, we often talk about the need to give up a little control to implement great creative projects where students can teach adults new apps and approaches. In fact, we celebrate this! It gave us a sense of freedom as we wrote this book together.
Let’s compare this concept of less control and more freedom to a common classroom approach where the teacher selects one tool, app, or program and then has all his or her students create the same rubric-based project. This approach creates a recipe for groups or individuals to follow—a recipe that stifles creativity. Contrast that recipe model with a model that allows for student voice and choice, resulting in wonderfully creative and varied student products. Students in these grades 6–8 classrooms, individually and in small groups, select the appropriate technology tools based on their project’s goals and the digital tools available. Students direct their learning, and the teacher serves as a mentor to support their creative work. These magical classrooms buzz with activity and productivity that result in students and teachers alike sharing their work beyond classroom walls using a variety of methods, including social media.
We understand that change is hard and it takes energy, but we believe this important change to enhance student voice and choice better prepares students for the world beyond school—their technology-rich future universe. Because digital tools, devices, apps, and programs are ever changing, students must adapt if they are to grow. It’s our job as teachers to create lifelong learners who understand how to research technology tools and make them part of the creative process.
To that end, each book in this five-book NOW Classrooms series focuses first on teaching and learning, using digital tools as an accelerator to support these efforts.
Focusing on Goals, Not Technology
This theme of using technology as a learning accelerator is critical because teachers and instructional coaches need to first consider the lesson’s learning goals and only then what app or device might help facilitate reaching that goal. We don’t want to see what we call drill-and-kill technology abuse in classrooms. In this scenario, students have devices out and jump from app to app, but no one monitors their progress. Students look busy, they use the technology, but little high-level problem solving or critical thinking takes place and students aren’t focused on learning goals. In other words, just having a device turned on doesn’t make a student engaged. When technology fits with lesson goals, it enhances learning. We believe teaching and learning transformation should lead, not devices.
The NOW Classrooms series focuses on changing the technology-first model to one that has carefully constructed lessons you can use in your classroom to help students simultaneously reach both academic and technology learning goals while also giving students voice and choice in how they demonstrate their learning.
Using This Series
We wrote the NOW Classrooms series for teachers and instructional coaches who are ready to focus on teaching and learning first and digital devices second. As we designed the lessons, we included technology devices, including tablets, Chromebooks, and laptops. We also designed the lessons with many opportunities to collaborate around devices if you do not have enough devices for each student to use one (often called a 1:1 classroom). The series includes the following