Student generated work (e.g. blank paper & foldables)
LKSD Best Practice #15
When work is generated by the students themselves, we engage them in higher levels of thinking which leads to heightened understanding and retention.
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Is it messy sometimes? Absolutely. But that's what makes it so fun and promotes student ownership over their learning.
Student generated work (e.g. blank paper & foldables) and curriculum-supplied worksheets
In this science lesson, students created their own labeled drawing of a plant with explanations. This interaction with the content promotes critical thinking and engagement on a deeper level which advances deeper understanding.
Credit: Teacher Lisa Olick, Tuntutuliak
Students in traditional lectures were 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in courses with active learning
Approaches that promote active learning focus more on developing students' skills than on transmitting information and require that students do something- read, discuss, write- that requires higher order thinking.
Brame, C. (2016). Active learning. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved June 2023 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/active-learning/.
It all starts with a blank piece of paper
Teacher Showcase, Deniece Carson
K-2 Nightmute
Recently we were excited to see a pair of ravens building a large nest outside of our classroom window! As we watched their progress, we became interested in seeing what types of birds made their homes in our area. So, during the next 2 weeks, we incorporated birds into our learning plans. We started by looking up time lapse videos of different birds building their nests and discussed how amazing it is that the nests are so different and how cool it is that the birds make them with no hands or tools!
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We looked up time lapse videos of children helping to build tree houses and participated in partner reading using the National Geographic leveled readers as part of the Reach for Reading curriculum. The partners then orally recounted the details of the book they read to the rest of the class.
Our descriptive writing assignment included a review of adjectives, punctuation, and capitalization and was directed by the sentence starter, My treehouse...
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Students also added illustrations to their stories.
