Module 5-Choices and Creation

I admit I read this one and felt the brain juices begin to flow. I am excited about creating CHOICES for students, especially in projects. What interests one student does not interest another. I tried to keep this in mind when I wrote my capstone project for Digital Media last year. See an example at http://dimm1.wikispaces.com Of course, with this project I was trying to assess ALL of the different softwares I had taught last year, so it was easy to find something for everyone. But looking back at it, I see that I really didn't give them a lot of creative license in how they completed the project. In fact, I was pretty darn specific, down to the order that everything needed to be in. So I am now working at retooling that one for this year. Sigh. I am a control freak and a rules follower. Choices will not be easy.

I think the main issue with giving choices on how students demonstrate the skills we are assessing (that is the point-right?) just boils down to plain old TIME. Okay, time is a valuable commodity that seems to be scarce in my life right now. It is so much easier to give ONE choice because that means there is ONE right way to do it! Maybe. But not right. And certainly not right for every student. Also, there is a certain amount of pressure towards "standarization" of, well EVERYTHING rather than differentiation. I admit I am blessed that I do not teach a core subject and am therefore allowed a few more liberties than my English and Math teaching peers.

I have just struggled through two days of Power Point presentations with a group of 11th and 12th graders. I say "struggled" becaue they all know the mechanics behind a Power Point presentation at this point, but few of them actually give GOOD presentations. Why? Do we give them TOO MUCH guidance--or not enough? I agree that a teacher must allow students the ability to express themselves by giving them choices so that all types of learners will benefit--but that seems to often backfire as the students I teach are not USED to having to think on their own. It is so frustrating to have students scared or unwilling to exhbit any sort of creativity because they have LEARNED that that is not what is expected in our overly standardized environment.

So the grand experiment will be...a project giving CHOICES of how it is completed to my Global Business class at the end of this chapter on..Worldwide Political Systems :) Still under constructiion-I will report back with an update and let you know how it goes!