One of my favorite shows made the news this week: Black Adder is at the center of a hot debate about perceptions of WWI. Here is one of the starts, Sir Tony Robinson, responding to the criticism:
This got me thinking about one of my favorite moments in Hamlet:
In this scene, Hamlet concocts his plan to verify the words of the ghost: the play within the play. Hamlet realizes that people watching a play cannot sit unaffected while depictions of crimes similar to their own appear before them. To Hamlet, if his uncle Claudius killed his father, he cannot watch one brother kill another in the same way without reacting in some way.
Shakespeare had personal knowledge of this belief in the power of theater. Supporters of Essex arranged for a production of Richard II in 1601 during the rebellion with the hope that it would energize others. This article shows even Elizabeth I knew the intent of showing this particular play at this particular time.
Shakespeare's work was the popular culture of his day. What about ours?
I'm a big believer that some pieces of pop culture resonate with their time more than others because they contain resonances of philosophies and questions that are pertinent to the audience today. Many of my publications attempt to begin a discussion about some of those questions and ideas.
Many other scholars contribute to these publications and discussions as well:
- Henry Jenkins recently completed a three part blog interview about political meme as rhetorical tool and opportunity to connect with the students' desire to create, share, and comment on them
- William Irwin, one of the editors of the Blackwell series, wrote this article for Psychology Today about the series in general but also about the need to explore what is relevant.
- Because our culture is participatory, students are not the only ones wanting to pull in what they love and make it a part of their daily life. Here is a fascinating marketing campaign tapping in on just that:
- Organizations such as the 501st Legion tap into the fans love of a story and leverage it for charity and collaborative experiences.
So, what are our students talking about today? How can we use popular, viral videos such as this:
As a hook or journal to talk about point of view?
Or, how can we thread an interest, like the course above with zombies, throughout a longer period of time to sustain interest and show our students we value what they are interested in and care about?
Earlier this week, I read the MindShift article "Are we taking our students' work seriously enough?" and the first paragraph really struck me, especially the phrase, "participatory projects had a distinct air of tokenism." Basically, the paragraph continues, we provide students with moments to participate, but those opportunities do not transform the class or the work on the class in meaningful ways.
The article moves to Hart's Ladder of Participation, which can be seen at this site. Basically, the higher
Hart's Ladder of Participation Image from:
http://www.whydev.org/moving-beyond-tokenism-to-make-youth-participation-a-reality/
up the ladder, the more participatory the students. We have to move almost half-way up to ladder to reach any sense of true participation at all.
Admittedly, Hart's work typically does not apply to schools. The MindShift article does discuss how some schools thinking on higher rungs of the ladder produced pretty amazing results.
Within the educational setting, I think we have many opportunities to take the students seriously, and in online learning I think we have the same potential. Here are some of the things I'm thinking about in this vein, but I am nowhere near finished:
Class Norm Creation
I know that class time is precious, but taking the time to co-create the norms of the classroom environment shows students that you take them seriously. This can happen at any age:
Valuing Different Approaches to Knowledge Construction
I never want my students to feel that their participation does not matter to the working of the course or the work of the course. Using the UDL guidelines help with my lesson design, mainly because the guidelines remind me about the importance of honoring multiple pathways to representation, expression, and engagement. Specifically, I want to incorporate more:
Student Goal-Setting -
Within the context of the course, I want to work with students one-on-one to help them create their goals and then support them as they achieve them. I don't think they necessarily have to follow the SMART format, but I like what SMART stands for. Either way, I want them to be an integral part of the process.
Meaningful Choice -
I want to provide my students with opportunities to make choices that matter in the course. Asking them to choose between a Power Point and a Prezi does not matter as much as choosing how they learn and how they provide evidence of learning. I've learned that the more I open up the opportunities, the more invested the students become in the learning experience. I get a lot less of this:
Instead, I get more pieces like this from the Please Understand Me Project I did with tenth graders. Granted, several entries are not stellar, but many of them provided the students with choice, voice, and a meaningful topic.
Providing an authentic audience -
The affirmation design quality in Schlechty's thinking is about an authentic audience. Instead of creating an artificial audience or only making the audience the class or the teacher. The students need to hear affirmation from us, but they also need to hear it from the people who matter to them. We need to help that happen as often as possible. Schlechty talks about affirmation briefly here.
When I hear scarf, I immediately go to pop culture, the house scarves in Harry Potter, mainly because I saw so many students wearing them, and Tom Baker's Dr. Who. In the case of Harry Potter, the scarves were part of their house identity on campus. It aligned them with other housemates immediately.
David Rock created the SCARF model for collaboration in 2008, and it is a fundamental part of coaching. In some ways, this model can work as the Harry Potter model: using SCARF, you can understand the causes of a barrier to collaboration, reduce the problem, and then align so that the group is harmonious. You can read the article here that shows the brain-based thinking behind the science and an in-depth description of each piece of the scarf.
You can also watch him talk about it here:
For this post, I wanted to look at the elements of SCARF and talk about how we can identify them quickly and reduce the barriers in the way of learning. I also want to key into which of Schlechty's Design Qualities address the components and some of the tools possible that can help.
S - Status Description: According to Rock, status is about "relative importance, 'pecking order.' and seniority" Threat to status: A threat to status means a reduction in potential or importance to the person, and Rock writes that it can "generate a strong threat response." Once this has happened, the person may shut down. This can happen through a well-meaning suggestion or Ways to reduce threat: Let people give feedback on themselves (self reflection)
Provide some opportunities for formative assessment that is not tied to a grade and that the student can use autonomously (but that you can have access to)
Make available all summative assessment tools (rubrics, etc.) so that the student knows all the time how s/he is being assessed and what mastery needs to be shown
Communicate often - show students where they are, what they have learned, and that we have noticed their growth Design Qualities: Protection from Adverse Consequences, Affiliation, and Clear and Compelling Standards Tools: Google Drive can provide a way for students to collaborate, reflect, and revise easily. Spaces such as Padlet can create a single space for students to share ideas in a non-threatening, non-graded way. Tools like Padlet or Lino can be a safe place for students to play with ideas before committing to a larger focus or product. Announcements in the course that can show visually a public acknowledgement of an accomplishment will go a long way as well.
C - Certainty Description: According to Rock, certainty structuring work so that the brain can "know the pattern occurring moment-to-moment." This allows the brain to predict, and this lets the brain focus on other things. Threats to certainty: Unclear expectations, unexpected obstacles in the completion of a task, implementation of big changes without clear guidance
Ways to reduce threat: Break large ideas or products into smaller, attainable steps
Celebrate early successes
Recognize and reward growth
Help guide large ideas and visions into a plan with action steps Design Qualities: Clear and Compelling Standards, Organization, Choice, Authenticity Tools: Introducing students to organizational options at the beginning of the course will help them start organized and (hopefully) stay that way. Encourage them to choose the method that works best for them, and offer some examples of products such as Popplet, Evernote, Google docs, and many more will help students find the right tool for their thinking and working styles. Further, providing multiple pathways to engage with and present content helps provide certainty. For more on this, consult Universal Design for Learning and see the breakdown here. Growth can be rewarded using badges, either internally if the LMS offers it or externally through something like Mozilla. Badges can be given at certain expected achievements and given at unexpected moments when the student does something remarkable.
A - Autonomy Description: Rock calls autonomy "the perception of exerting control over one's environment" and the perception of choice. This is the opposite of being micromanaged. Threats to autonomy: lack of control, excessive management, being forced to collaborate, no choice in collaborators or roles in group work Ways to reduce threat: Provide flexibility when possible
Allow room for choice in an authentic way (not overly limited choice with no read meaning)
Spend time with class building so students feel more connected
Provide opportunities for student goal-setting, norm creation, and product planning within set boundaries that will enable success and learning Design Qualities: Choice, Authenticity, Protection from Adverse Consequences Tools: Providing authenticity means providing students to work on things that matter to them. Finding compelling questions and allowing students to choose how they want to answer them gives them the authenticity they want and increases autonomy because they have contributed to the design and process of their learning. Sites like Tricider help students weigh in on anything from controversial questions to class norms and processes. Building lists together in places like Pinterest or Learnist let students add their unique voice and have it recognized. With sites like Wiggio, students can work alone or in groups and set the times to collaborate when it is good for them.
R - Relatedness Description: According to Rock, relatedness is a sense of belonging and feeling a part of the group. The opposite of this is feeling lonely. Relatedness is also connected to feelings of trust. Threats to relatedness: always seeing the others as a competitor, lack of communication, lack of opportunities to connect to classmates, the teacher, or the learning Ways to reduce threat: Provide opportunities for class building, especially early in the course, that is not tied to a grade and clearly intended to begin a feeling of relatedness
Encourage social connections by sharing stories, photos, etc.
In large group settings, form smaller groups or teams to build more connections Design Qualities: Affiliation, Affirmation, Protection from Adverse Consequences Tools: Building connections in any class helps with the feeling of relatedness. Creating spaces on places like Padlet, Mural.ly, or within the LMS to share ideas, place images that are important to them, and share their work with the people inside the course and outside the course who matter can help students feel connected. Connecting students with the outside world when appropriate during the course of their learning will also help.
F - Fairness Description: Rock describes fairness as a sense of reciprocity or evenness. If an exchange does not seem fair, people are less likely to experience empathy or relatedness. Threats to fairness: feeling that rules are being applied differently for some, feeling that top-down directives are being applied unilaterally regardless of context, feeling that another does not act in accordance with stated values or beliefs Ways to reduce threat: According to Rock, these actions help - Increase levels of transparency
Increase communication
Establish clear expectations in all situations
Provide students with a clear voice in procedures and norms of class Design Qualities: Clear and Compelling Product Standards, Product Focus, Authenticity, Affiliation Tools: Creating more transparency in a class helps all students. This can be done with open access to materials, notes and other resources. This can also be done with clear explanation of the objectives to cover, an available rubric to show how the work will be assessed, a suggested pacing guide to show how much time to allot for the work at hand, and regular feedback about progress and expectations. Most of these products would reside within the system at hand, but communication can happen in a variety of ways in addition to within the course. Use of tools such as Twitter, Remind 101, and others can help keep the students prepared.
