We thought about titling this session, "Stop Giving Them The Answer: Let Them Figure It Out Themselves!", but thought that sounded a little too edgy. Join us for a strategy-building session on how to foster student-owned learning in the classroom (and live!). Don’t expect one size fits all answers – but questions, strategies, possibilities, examples, and maybe a few awkward silences… Join us as we explore ways to: Engage and empower students as critical thinkers, questioners, connectors and creators of content Build student repertoire of problem-solving strategies Promote and develop student capacity for finding the right information, right relationships and right resources, all at the right time Challenge learners to mine mistakes, wrong turns and “failures” for the richer learning opportunities embedded within

1. Roy McCloud
rm04bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us
Jordy Whitmer
jordyw@mac.com
Sara Wilkie
saraswilkie@mac.com
#blc13
#1st5days
Less
(Teaching)
Is
More
(Learning)
Friday, July 26, 13

2. Roy McCloud
rm04bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us
Jordy Whitmer
jordyw@mac.com
Sara Wilkie
saraswilkie@mac.com
Less
(Teaching)
Is
More
(Learning)
Introductions
http://balancedtech.wikispaces.com
Friday, July 26, 13

3. Agenda Less (Teaching) Is More (Learning)
#blc13 #1st5days
• Welcome & Introductions
• Lego Smart Challenge
• Reflections
• Problem Solving Strategies
• FAILure
• Teacher Role(s)
• Questioning
• Self Assessment
• Documentation & Reflection
• Digital Learning Farm
• Information Processing
• Less Is More Continuum
• Closing Thoughts
• Session Evaluation
Friday, July 26, 13

4. Are you LEGO Smart?
OPENING CHALLENGE
Make
‣ a group of 3
(*bonus points for groups of complete strangers!)
Build - 2 min
‣ use only red and yellow LEGOs
‣ create a duck
Share - 3 min
‣ find a way to share your creation with a wider
audience outside of this conference
(*bonus points for any feedback from your audience!)
Friday, July 26, 13

5. Are you LEGO Smart?
Re-Group:
New team of 3
Bonus points apply!
Friday, July 26, 13

6. Are you LEGO Smart?
CHALLENGE 2
Solve - Each of the six students in Mrs. Reyes' class selected three
bricks from the bag. Can you figure out which specific bricks each
student chose?
1. All six students selected bricks shaped like rectangular prisms.
2. No student chose a decorated brick.
3. If Colin combined the colors of two of his bricks he'd get the color of his third brick.
4. The number of hubs on one of Colin's bricks is twice the number of hubs on one of
his other bricks.
5. Ashley and Brent selected bricks that are all the same color.
6. The sum of the number of hubs on two of Ashley's bricks equals half the number of
hubs on her third brick.
7. All the students except for Colin chose bricks that are all the same thickness.
8. Ethan's bricks can be arranged to form a four by six hub rectangle.
9. Darcy and Ethan chose at least one brick with hubs arranged in a square pattern.
10.The colors of Francisco's bricks are related to the United States Civil War."
Friday, July 26, 13

7. Connect & Compare
Connect with someone
from another group
Compare methods used
How did the other
group solve this?
Were your strategies
the same?
Were your solutions?
Friday, July 26, 13

8. Are you LEGO Smart?
REFLECT
Think
‣ What challenges did you/your group face?
‣ One per sticky note
Team with Table
‣ Classify challenges into smaller groups
Share (whole group)
‣ categories
Friday, July 26, 13

9. Reflect (pt 2)
Think (individually)
‣ Brainstorm: What challenges do your kids run up
against in your class or school that are not related to
content or curriculum?
‣ Write down as many as you can, each on a
separate sticky note
Friday, July 26, 13

10. Reflect (pt 2b)
Share (table team)
‣ Brainstorm list with your table group
Classify
‣ Combine your lists and sort into smaller groups
‣ Don’t try to solve any of these now
Share (whole group)
‣ Categories
‣ Any insights you’ve had while doing this activity
Friday, July 26, 13

11. Problem-Solving Strategies
Partner Up
‣ Find someone with whom you haven’t worked
Read - Problem Solving Strategies
Describe
‣ One other technique you use?
‣How can you help kids solve more of their own problems?
OR
‣ A challenge you/your kids face
‣How could you help kids solve this sort of problem?
Share (whole group)
‣post your challenge & strategies to Wiki discussion area
Friday, July 26, 13

12. FAILure
Challenge 2
In pairs, create an
acronym for F.A.I.L.
Tweet your acronym
using
#blc13
#fail2learn
What happens when they don’t solve the problem?
www.pickthebrain.com
Friday, July 26, 13

13. F.A.I.L.
First Attempt Is
Learning
First Attempt, Iterate
and Learn www.pickthebrain.com
Friday, July 26, 13

14. FAILure
Mindset
Grit
Iteration
Friday, July 26, 13

15. FAILure
How much is too much, how
much not enough?
How else do we get to
problem-solving, grit, and
perseverance?
How do we scaffold it?
When do we let kids stop/quit/
move on?
Friday, July 26, 13

16. Teacher Role(s)
What is the teachers role
during this kind of
learning experience?
Table Brainstorm
Pick 5-6 roles to share
lifeteachinglife.blogspot.com
Friday, July 26, 13

17. Questioning
Friday, July 26, 13

18. Isidor I. Rabi
“My mother made me a scientist without ever
intending it. Every other Jewish mother in
Brooklyn would ask her child after school: “So?
Did you learn anything today?” But not my
mother. She always asked me a different
question. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a
good question today?” That difference--asking
good questions-- made me become a
scientist!”
Friday, July 26, 13

19. Jamie McKenzie
“Questions may be the most powerful
technology we have ever created.
Questions and questioning allow us to
make sense of a confusing world. They
are the tools that lead to insight and
understanding.”
Friday, July 26, 13

20. Neil Postman &
Charles Weingartner
“Once you have learned how to ask
relevant and appropriate questions, you
have learned how to learn and no one
can keep you from learning whatever you
want or need to know.”
Friday, July 26, 13

21. Claude Lévi-Strauss
“The scientific mind does not so much
provide the right answers as ask the right
questions.”
Friday, July 26, 13

22. The Reality of the Classroom
Friday, July 26, 13

23. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
Friday, July 26, 13

24. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
– The Teacher
Friday, July 26, 13

25. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
– The Teacher
• What sort of questions do teachers ask?
Friday, July 26, 13

26. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
– The Teacher
• What sort of questions do teachers ask?
– Ones that don’t require wait time
Friday, July 26, 13

27. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
– The Teacher
• What sort of questions do teachers ask?
– Ones that don’t require wait time
• When given the chance, what kinds of questions do
students ask?
Friday, July 26, 13

28. The Reality of the Classroom
• Who asks most questions?
– The Teacher
• What sort of questions do teachers ask?
– Ones that don’t require wait time
• When given the chance, what kinds of questions do
students ask?
– 99% of the questions kids ask in school are not
information-seeking questions
Friday, July 26, 13

29. Essential Questions
Friday, July 26, 13

30. Challenge Based Learning
Friday, July 26, 13

31. Boston: A Revolutionary City
Why did it start here?
‣ What questions could you ask to help you dig
into this?
‣ How could you categorize those questions?
Friday, July 26, 13

32. Question Types
Friday, July 26, 13

33. Questioning Toolkit
Friday, July 26, 13

34. Student Self-Assessment
Friday, July 26, 13

35. Student-Created Rubrics
Friday, July 26, 13

36. Documentation & Reflection
Friday, July 26, 13

37. Student Roles
Student Roles
Student Agency
voice
choice
purpose
ownership
Friday, July 26, 13

38. Information Processing
What do we need to
know?
What questions do
we need to answer?
Which are most
essential to our
inquiry?
Which are
secondary?
Friday, July 26, 13

39. Information Processing
Where to look and how to find it...
books
web
people
places, artifacts & other sources
Where & how to collect & curate...
class Diigo, Wiki, etc.
Friday, July 26, 13

40. Information Processing
How to read and
process the
information found
C.R.A.P. Detectors
R.E.A.L Strategies
Making sense of it
all
Friday, July 26, 13

41. Information Processing
How will we...
Use/Apply
Share
class/student blogs
Twitter
Youtube and/or Podcast channel
Other?
Friday, July 26, 13

42. Gradual Release of Control to Students
Direct Instruction
Guided Discovery
Student Exploration
Self-Directed Learning
Autodidacts
Less Is More Continuum
Friday, July 26, 13

43. What Difference Does It Make?
Following a guided path
Setting up guard rails...Wide enough to empower but
narrow enough to guide
Following a set of blazes
Following foot steps
Sometimes the guardrails are unnecessary or
limiting. Sometimes they are freeing.
How do we know?
Friday, July 26, 13

44. Less (Teaching)
Is
More (Learning)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BLC13Precon
Less Is More
• Sara Wilkie
saraswilkie@mac.com
• Jordy Whitmer
jordyw@mac.com
http://balancedtech.wikispaces.com
PreConference
Session Evaluation
Friday, July 26, 13