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Traditional
This teacher was presenting a lesson on the Strength and Stability of a Structure. This classroom had the following characteristics:
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- Teacher asks questions and the class responds in unison.
- Teacher gives a direction and the class chants - a common practice in many of the schools we visited.
- The curriculum is not project-based.
- The curriculum is not connected to students' experiences, interests, real life, to to other subject areas.
- Curriculum is fragmented.
- Curriculum is irrelevant and meaningless to the students.
- Lesson is on the lowest levels of Bloom's taxonomy.
- There is no evidence of explicit teaching of thinking skills.
- There is no evidence of any 21st century skills or literacies.
- Lessons are not designed to support and develop students' various learning styles, or multiple intelligences.
- Print is the primary vehicle for learning.
- No evidence of student performances, projects or the use of multiple forms of technology and mutimedia as vehicles for both learning and assessment.
Taking this lesson into the 21st century
Beginning with simple ways to modify this lesson we will provide a list of possibilities ranging from simple and easy changes to those that are more challenging.
1. Make it hands on. The students in the back of the room had difficulty seeing the models. All students should have had the models in their hands. The same activity could have involved students in a hands-on manner by giving each student a piece of paper to fold and allowing them to discover the best design for stability.
2. Make it Discovery, not Lecture. The teacher had 3 pieces of paper that were folded differently. She held them up, talked about them, and asked a few questions. The class answered in unison, and also chanted in unison upon the teacher's prompt.
3. Connections - this lesson could have been part of an integrated project on the theme of Architecture or perhaps Sustainability. Either way, natural connections range from art to history, geography, literature, natural disasters (how buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.), culture, media literacy, economics, religion, community (have the students go out into their community to photograph, video and/or sketch various structures and styles of architecture), physics, geology, chemistry, . . .
4. Design Competitions - students could take part in a state, national or international competition on architecture or sustainable living.
5. 21st Century Skills - we usually refer to the 7 Survival Skills listed by Tony Wagner of Harvard University. All of these skills could be taught in a project-based unit:
1. Make it hands on. The students in the back of the room had difficulty seeing the models. All students should have had the models in their hands. The same activity could have involved students in a hands-on manner by giving each student a piece of paper to fold and allowing them to discover the best design for stability.
2. Make it Discovery, not Lecture. The teacher had 3 pieces of paper that were folded differently. She held them up, talked about them, and asked a few questions. The class answered in unison, and also chanted in unison upon the teacher's prompt.
3. Connections - this lesson could have been part of an integrated project on the theme of Architecture or perhaps Sustainability. Either way, natural connections range from art to history, geography, literature, natural disasters (how buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.), culture, media literacy, economics, religion, community (have the students go out into their community to photograph, video and/or sketch various structures and styles of architecture), physics, geology, chemistry, . . .
4. Design Competitions - students could take part in a state, national or international competition on architecture or sustainable living.
5. 21st Century Skills - we usually refer to the 7 Survival Skills listed by Tony Wagner of Harvard University. All of these skills could be taught in a project-based unit: