In my school district there is a focus on risk-taking for teachers. What does that mean? Essentially, not to be afraid to try something new and perhaps even totally different from your normal classroom practices. Seems simple enough, right? However, this can be scary, especially if in the back of our minds we are worried about confusing our learners more than helping them, or about the lesson taking a nosedive before it even gets off the ground, or perhaps, dare I even say it, experiencing failure!
During a recent sit-down with my colleagues, we were tackling a new standard—RI.7.3: Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events)—and discussing how we would assess our students’ understanding. Would we tackle this with a quick-write? Some type of graphic organizer? A small-group discussion? A visual?
And then a light bulb went off . . . Why do we dictate to our readers how we want them to show their understanding of a given concept? Why not give them the option to choose how they would like to show their learning? After a long discussion about what this could look like, some admittedly nervous “what-ifs,” and some gentle pushing from our literacy coach to give it a try, we were off and running.
Here was the structure of my lesson the next day:
-
Connection: Think back to a shared read as a class and how a specific event within that text (e.g., the protagonist being sent to the United States by his birth mother) influenced him as a character throughout the course of the book.
-
Minilesson: Focus on taking a look at how different parts of a text influence one another (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
-
Notebook Setup: Create a space in our reader’s notebooks to jot what we notice as readers as it relates to today’s focus.
-
Read Aloud
-
Table Discussions: Share findings and be sure students feel confident in their application of the standard to the text.
-
Independent Reflection
The independent reflection portion of the lesson is where the risk-taking came into play. I asked my students to show me their understanding of this learning in a way that made the most sense to them as readers. Some students looked excited by this, some looked confused, some had immediate questions about what that meant, and some of them were already nose to paper, crafting their response. I was intentionally vague with what this could or could not look like, because my purpose was to give them the initial freedom to be creative in expressing their learning.
It was evident that most needed a bit of prompting, so I glossed over some of the possibilities by saying, “This might be in writing, it might be done as some type of graphic organizer, or perhaps you want to express this learning in a more visual way.” That seemed to help prompt some students with a place to start, but it still required one small-group conference with some readers who were unsure.
Interestingly enough, this small group was not made up of my typical students who had trouble self-starting. The group was more diverse this time, and two of them were my highest performers. What I found was that these students didn’t feel “safe” when the requirements were so open-ended. Jamal said, “I just don’t get what you want to see. If I can show my learning in any way I want to, can’t I just write it out formally?” My response was “Of course you can!” My goal, as I reiterated, was to give them the opportunity to show me their understanding in a wider variety of ways, should they so choose. And that—and this was key—if they thought the best way for them to do that was in a more formalized writing style, then that was fine by me. I think that ultimately, students wanted to know that no matter what route they took, it was safe, and that as long as it was a good showcase of their learning, the format didn’t really matter. In the end, they were all able to produce something that was a unique demonstration of their own learning.
It was clear that some students felt most comfortable responding in a written format. Perhaps that was already something I had ingrained in their heads, because it is our “go-to” form of reflection (for better or worse). Some students took a risk and used a graphic organizer (cause and effect was a popular choice with this standard—which made sense).
Some students went a more visual route with some type of flowchart, using images or something that looked more like an infographic.
The majority of students were able to vary their response format and show understanding of the day’s standard. The small population of students who were overwhelmed were able to work through their understanding quite quickly during some conferences and models from their peers the following day.
When I reflect on this lesson, I realize that the most learning was done by me. In the time I spent drumming up issues that my readers might run into while trying this response format, I could have been diving in and letting my students experiment with formats. When I saw how easily most of them were able to adapt to (and, most of them, enjoy) the freedom and opportunity to be creative, I wished I had enacted this earlier in the school year.
No matter how small the risk, take it! It’s a good reminder that our students are often more flexible and more open to trying new things than we are.
