Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Students and Their GAME PLans
How many times have I heard that students do not set goals and are not motivated? What if we show them what they will be capable of after they learn? Let them see what they can do with the use of technology. Give them examples of work presented by other students. Then let them set goals for what they want to be able to do on their own. Have students follow some of their personal interests. They will be more engaged and motivated than reading facts from any book. With these goals set students will use their creativity and innovation skills to make a product as good or better than what they saw. If students also establish their own projects and rubrics, they will also be driven to reach their goals. A student watches a digital story of about what if two different animals were crossed. They then say to themselves, "I can do that. I want to do that." It is a lot more motivating than, " I have to do that because the teacher told me to." The use of GAME plans keeps students focused on the goal and allows them to reflect on their progress and make changes when necessary. Students will take responsibility for their own learning and make gains that they did not think they were capable of accomplishing. The students will amazing themselves as well as each other.
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2 comments:
I agree, providing students the opportunity to say "I can do that; I want to do that" is much better than the "I have to do that" attitude. One of the things I attempt to do with all projects is to provide a few choices. As technology increases and becomes more available in my school, the choices also become more broad. For example, with the options provided via technological tools, students can now be provided with the choices of creating an informational wiki, web page, digital story, or even an artistic representation via digital imaging. The possiblities are endless. The only issue I have at the moment with creating projects that require technological tools is the issue of students lacking the skills needed to be successful. I'm sure this will become less of a problem in the future; however, now, I find myself teaching basic Word and Power Point to the majority of students and allowing those more savvy to dive into the more advanced projects. Students do take pride and responsibility in their work, and I look forward to providing more opportunities like those you have presented.
Sherrie,
You bring up an important aspect about technology use. Students must be able to use the technology in order to benefit from the tools. The sooner they are exposed to the technology the less other teachers have to teach.
Thanks again for your comments.
Luis
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