Independent+Work

The ability for students to work independently is what made one room school houses work. Teachers worked with groups in what we now call "mini-lessons" and while the teacher was working, students were occupied with their work. There is a current model that uses this same format, the Reading-Writing Workshop, as described by Nancie Atwell.

Before discussing the "how" of independent work, it is important to discuss the "why." In teacher-centered classrooms, students do their work based on what the teacher says to do. The more compliant kids get the work done and the less compliant kids goof off and get low grades. In student-centered classrooms, however, the work of learning is negotiated between the teacher and student so that it stretches the student towards critical competencies but at the same time engages the student in something the student sees as valuable. Being able to work independently and in a mostly self-directed way is not only a good way to learn, but it is also a critical career skill in our world of complex, service-oriented jobs. In order to create life-long learners, students have to develop metacognitive strategies for learning and they have to practice these strategies. As Governor Strickland pointed out in his six principles for education in Ohio, tomorrow's graduates must be able to adapt and learn because technology and other factors are changing the world of work. Twenty-five years ago, no one had the job of being a web designer. Now those jobs are everywhere. Twenty-five years ago, telecommuting was unheard of. Now it is advantageous for employees because it saves money in transportation costs and it is advantageous for employers because they can downsize the office spaces they rent. Yet both the changes in job descriptions and the shift of the work place towards the home environment means that successful job holders need to be able to learn new things and they need to be able to work independently, without constant supervision.

Further, working independently requires students to develop time management skills. If they know they have three projects to work on, then they can think through the schedule of their day and figure out when they are going to do what. The teacher can help students overcome the difficulties of learning time management through a number of different scaffolds, including organizers, sticky notes with lists, making a daily plan, using a timer to focus the student on work, and helping the student break a large task into smaller ones. There are a number of different models for the "how" of the one room school house. They include: online learning modules, negotiated goals, teacher webs, IEPs, (etc.) Online Learning ModulesIf there is a specific set of information that must be learned, then the development of an online learning module might be the most efficient way of providing the student with necessary instruction. For example, pre-service teachers must learn the principles of educational psychology so that they can pass the Praxis II Principles of Learning and Teaching. This course also provides teachers with foundational knowledge about teaching and learning, but the national test has become a primary motivating factor for learning the material. An online learning module presents a set of information in multiple ways. For example, information might be in text form, in mp3 format, in videos, and in visual modes such as power points. The reason for these multiple ways of presentation of information is that different students take in information in different ways. This is an example of universal design for learning: by creating multiple means for accessing information, all students' physical abilities can be taken into account. At the same time, students who have no physical limitations benefit from multiple formats because they, too, have preferences. Along with the information that is provided, an online module can provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their application of their new knowledge. For example, they could write a post to a discussion board, create a blog, analyze a video, create an artifact that pertains to the information (in the case of educational psychology, a lesson plan), and so forth. Choices for responses should be wide-ranging, taking into account all possible semiotic modes. The response becomes the assessment for the student and the teacher to jointly decide what to do next in relation to the material in the module. Online learning modules allow students to work independently and with information at their own level. A student with dyslexia but who really enjoys history can listen to an mp3 of a text about the Civil War and watch videos. This student can then respond, perhaps, with making a movie of some aspect of the Civil War that he or she finds particularly interesting. A student who is ahead in an area such as math or history can work at his or her level of challenge rather than being held back to material that is too easy. It is important for all children to be challenged so they can develop a work ethic, and online modules allow this to happen. Creating Online Learning ModulesWhen one of us (Carolyn) developed an online Educational Psychology course, she spent countless hours developing power points that were visual in nature (with clip art) that would allow students to access concepts visually as much as possible. These power points paralleled the text book. As she switched textbooks, she added to the power points. Eventually she moved to using a wikibook, an online open source Educational Psychology text book. At that point, she obtained software that turned text into mp3 with a somewhat better computer voice than is available in Microsoft software, and she added mp3 versions of each chapter of the text to her online class. She also scoured Youtube for videos relating to concepts she was teaching and added those. For example, when teaching about behaviorism, she used clips of people training their animals (goldfish, cats, etc.) to do tricks to illustrate shaping. When the topic was people with disabilities, she found Youtube videos made by people with the disabilities, sharing their perspectives, communicating with others about their thoughts and what their lives are like. Students responded to questions about how they would apply the information in their own classroom in the form of posts to a classroom discussion board or creating artifacts such as a concept map. Online Learning Modules evolve over time, depending on the amount of time available to create them and on students' responses to them and they can come to include student-made artifacts in them as well. In fact, students could be asked to create an online learning module of something that they find interesting, which means they will be finding and synthesizing information in various ways, to benefit future students. Creating Online Learning Modules is time intensive at the beginning but as they are used, they usually require tweaking and only the rare major overhaul. Negotiated GoalsOne of us, Carolyn, spent the senior year of high school in what was called "Experience-Based Career Education" (EBCE). The format of the program was that she took two classes at the high school that would not have been available to her in another format (orchestra and physics) and after the second period physics class, she then did her EBCE activities. All activities were negotiated with the teacher, including goals for reading and writing as well as goals and activities for exploring careers. Carolyn's activities in this program included: taking a Red Cross class on CPR, following a music teacher, working at a day care center, taking a college class, doing research in a university science lab, interviewing the conductor of the local symphony to find out about his career, keeping a journal, writing a short story, and reading books (the teacher had her read a book she didn't like, but that was a small price to pay for the freedom of the program). Interestingly enough, there were two basic types of students in the EBCE program: very bright students who were somewhat alienated from school and students who struggled academically--the two tails of the bell curve! The program worked for both types of students because everything was negotiated with the teacher, based on what she determined one's capabilities were. Every student in the program had a different schedule and the teacher could conference individually with students as their schedules allowed. She was a traditional teacher who wanted to have oversight and accountability, and that is one of the things that made the program successful. Most states have educational goals and benchmarks, and these can be shared with students and their parents. Students can be invited to come up with ways to meet those benchmarks. For example, in EBCE, Carolyn was asked to design her own reading program, which was then edited in conference with the teacher. When teachers and students work together on creating the curriculum for each individual person, the teacher stops being the judge and starts being an advocate for students. The authority is transferred to the state, where it belongs, and the teacher and student work together for the student to achieve the learning mandated by the state. The reason this works is that there are many activities that can lead to achievement of state-mandeated goals and benchmarks.

References: Nancie Atwell Governor Strickland