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Reluctant Learners Screencast

Futurist Scenario: Reaching Reluctant Learners

Identification of the Problem: 

Over the past few years, I have become interested in the phenomenon of the reluctant learner.  These are students who, based on achievement measures (CST scores, work samples, quizzes), have the intellectual skills to complete work and achieve high grades but who do fail classes.  These students have the ability to pass, however, they either don’t do work in class or complete homework or fail quizzes and tests due to lack of preparation.  Some of these students complete homework but are marked down because they submit assignments late.  These often bright students do well in elementary school but for a variety of reasons, they develop the above behaviors in middle school.

The Scenario:

The path I would like to take with my middle school teams is to develop and implement strategies to re-engage these students into their learning communities.

SWOT Analysis:

·         Strengths—The teams with which I work are truly enjoy working with middle school students.  The three teachers in the Montessori Middle School completed training which was specific to this developmental age.  The teachers in the DaVinci Academy are dedicated and have worked tirelessly to create a rigorous, yet fun learning environment.

·         Weaknesses—Time and expertise.  While the teachers and I have had some training in adolescent development, we are by no means experts.  Specific staff development would need to be created and the time would have to be planned to discuss this phenomenon and develop an action plan.

·         Opportunities—If we can engage more students, we can really impact the future

·         Threats—Our school is in its fifth year of program improvement (PI).  Last year, we far exceeded our goals and have the opportunity to reach those goals again this year.  If we reach our API (Academic Performance Index) goals, we would be out of program improvement.  The high pressure that this situation has created has drained our time and financial resources as we implement interventions and strategies to increase our API.

Action Plan

1.      Identify resources and allies within our organization.  Several directors (principals) within our school have been administrators at traditional public schools.  We can draw on their knowledge of intervention strategies.

2.      Identify resources and allies through networking.  This could be an excellent opportunity to use my fledgling PLN in order to gather best practices from outside resources.

3.      Share resources via Scoopit, using Diigo marked articles.  Link to EdModo for online learning experience.  Engage teachers in a discussion via Edmodo as preparation for staff development day.

4.      Design interventions for our specific populations.

5.      Design implementation plan and progress monitoring.  Currently, we monitor academic progress and apply academic interventions.  This new plan will include interventions to increase productivity and engagement with some progress monitoring measure for each.

Futurist Scenario Thoughts and Planning

So, it's Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and other than figuring out what to wear on my mini-vacation in Vegas I am pondering, starting and scrapping ideas for the culminating project for this class.

Prezi?  Scoop-it? Tweet?

Not sure how this will all shake out but at least, I can blog.  Here are my initial thoughts.  The scenario I want to investigate is reaching the reluctant learner.  I've already read a few articles and skimmed a few handbooks but how do I make this presentation "pop"...not sure stay tuned :)

What the Internet Knows about You...

The internet as connection to the world and for society.  Filter Bubbles created by algorithms decide what the internet thinks you want to see not what you need to see. Algorithms curate the world for us.  Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Amazon among others use filter bubbles to create personalized spaces for us.  So, the world we think we see as a wide range of possibilities becomes a smaller and smaller piece of the digital pie.

When search engines base their answers on our most recent searches, one person's search for Egypt looks like a travelogue while another's looks like the front page of the LA Times.  In this scenario, the well-traveled become better traveled, the smart get smarter and Snookie gets to find out where in Cairo she can most easily GTL?  I find the idea of filter bubbles interesting and yet scary.

What brings this home is the fact that my ever-widening view of the world could really be hyper-focusing on me and my interests.  The idea that the internet could connect me to the world is actually only as true as I make it.  With this new information, I know and understand that the front page of any search on any engine should be the beginning of the search not the end.  This TED talk is a call to arms to look beyond, go deeper and travel further down the internet rabbit hole.
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What is a culture of generosity and how can it be used to improve education? What does it mean to say, "Free cultures get what they celebrate?" How can you as a leader affect what your celebrate?

Clay Shirkey's talk inspires to do more than nothing even it is the creation of yet another LOL cat.  The push to dream, strive and create are the foundations of Self-determination theory which is nested within intrinsic motivation.  We do most what we love most whether it be informing other about what is going on in the world, warning others of danger or create a silly cat image with a memorable tag line.

We have seen this phenomenon over and over and over again.  Wikipedia, Linux and Ushahidi are examples of people doing what they love or see as important for no value other than the thrill of creating something new.  This makes me wonder what we as educators celebrate and how we can free the students within our cultures.

I was reminded of something Mike Wesch said in his TED talk.  Wesch asked his students how much of the assigned reading they completed.  Further he asked them how much they felt was relevant to their lives.  The astounding answer was 27%.  He went on to say that this signifies a failure in teaching.  

Can we create generous academic cultures where students create meaning, feel that their work is relevant to their lives and teach each other for the sole motivation that what they do betters themselves and their peers?  Don't know who is out there that can do that, but I'd sign up to work there in a heartbeat!