Real-Time Redesign – Section 2: Dream Big
PDF version of Section 2: Dream Big of the Real-Time Redesign toolkit.
March 9, 2021
Tag: Actively Engaging
Using Jamboard to Build Action Steps
Jamboard is a great place to align on next steps, based on what ideas were uncovered during a brainstorming session. As seen in this example, after brainstorming and noting favored ideas, the participants are then able to bucket based on an impact-effort matrix and gather consensus on next steps to start putting those ideas into action.
February 24, 2021
Using Jamboard to Bucket Ideas
One way to use Jamboard to take collaborative conversations deeper after brainstorming ideas is to take those ideas and bucket them based on topic, commonalities, themes, or other relevant categories. The act of “bucketing” can be done virtually by moving the sticky notes around to bring common themes together. You can also take this one step further by circling and naming each group to underscore the information you’d like to highlight.
February 24, 2021
Using Jamboard to Brainstorm, Share, and Support Ideas
One way to use Jamboard effectively is to enable users to brainstorm, share, and support ideas as seen on this screenshot. In order to do this, you should first have participants populate various sticky notes (you can even color code by participant and include multiple “posters” if necessary). Once everyone has dropped in their ideas, participants can star, favorite, or otherwise show support for ideas by adding a star, +1, or comment. This two-part activity allows participants to first call out all of their ideas and then review their ideas with others to identify which are the most interesting, actionable, or best-fit for the challenge being faced – similar to what you would do in-person sticky-note brainstorming activity.
February 24, 2021
Cedar Rapids: Student Reflection and Goal-Setting Pilot
Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) wanted to solve a problem in their district: “How might we provide relevant, standards-aligned feedback to students so that every student reaches mastery?” After seeking stakeholder input and brainstorming a range of options, the design team decided to pilot a reflection and goal-setting process with students.
This pilot had several assumed benefits. It could help students understand the “why” behind learning and make authentic connections between courses and the world around them. It could also help teachers give more personalized feedback in alignment with the district’s goal of adopting standards-based grading; this process helped teachers and students reflect on their learning progress and chart a course toward mastery together.
To keep the pilot simple, the team followed these steps:
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The design team started with a single learning task in one middle school classroom.
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Students completed a goal-setting template after an assessment to reinforce the learning task and its purpose, reflect on what they did well, and set goals to reach the next level of mastery.
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The teacher tracked simple measures for engagement and performance for each student and the class as a whole.
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Finally, the design team worked with the teacher to document the process and lessons learned in hopes of expanding the pilot to other classrooms later.
February 23, 2021
Cedar Rapids: Building Space and Structures for Student Reflection
Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) sought to address a key problem in their district: “How might we provide relevant, standards-aligned feedback to students so that every student reaches mastery?”
The team decided on a solution that would give students space and structures to reflect on their own learning.
The team intended for this solution to empower students to set their own goals (in academics and beyond) and to prompt conversations between teachers and students about the purpose of the learning and the students’ progress toward goals.
This solution supports equity because it respects each students’ individual goals for and pace of learning, and it provides each student with the feedback and support needed to help them advance. It supports resiliency because it enables teachers to adapt their support of students based on valuable information gathered via the goal-setting and feedback process.
February 4, 2021
Cedar Rapids: Getting Inspired by Real-World Relevance in Learning
Cedar Rapids Community School District has a well-defined Profile of a Graduate, or clear depiction of what a graduate of the district should know, feel, think, or believe; the profile focuses on ensuring that all Cedar Rapids graduates are ready for their chosen future path. One concern the team heard from students, however, was about the difficulty in drawing connections between subjects taught in class and the bigger, real-world meaning of that learning.
As a result, Cedar Rapids sought to more deeply embed connections to the real world and students’ futures in the day-to-day learning experience. The team researched examples of other communities that have had success in providing relevant, real-world learning experiences for students. From this research, the team sought to include multiple dimensions of relevance in learning – personal, academic, real-world, and cultural – in their designs for the future. Such an approach helps teachers adapt the learning to different students’ needs, identities, and interests.
February 4, 2021
Mere Engagement: Reflections about the Connections Between Online Learning, Student Agency, and Student Engagement
School leaders mustn’t lose sight of the need for student agency and student engagement as they contend with the myriad challenges posed by COVID-19. In fact, they must reimagine what agency and engagement can look like in cases when students are learning virtually and also when they are unable to connect.
Mere Engagement: Reflections about the Connections Between Online Learning, Student Agency, and Student Engagement offers school leaders seven action steps to support students’ sense of mastery and ownership of their learning, along with promoting their sense of connection and belonging. They include:
- Make the implicit explicit by providing clear communications in multiple formats.
- Ensure anytime, anyplace learning with a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities.
- Enable competency-based learning where students demonstrate mastery of content.
- Keep families in the loop.
- Design lessons that link student interests with the environment.
- Check for learning along the way.
- Create equitable opportunities to learn.
The authors posit that in the face of the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 and all of the issues competing for school leaders’ attention, that concerns about student agency and engagement are being “backburnered” to everyone’s detriment. “Without considering issues associated with student agency and student engagement, all our work to prepare may be in vain,” they write. And furthermore:
During a transition to remote or distance learning, students need a renewed sense of agency. They must understand what they are to learn and how to demonstrate their learning. They must know how to ask for assistance and exhibit self-direction and efficacy when working on assignments. They own their work and put forth their best efforts. When these attributes of student agency are in play, authentic engagement is occurring.
January 5, 2021
Active Spelling
This screencast shows how one teacher engages her students in an active spelling activity. In this video, the educator explains and models the strategy in action, sharing how she guides students through physical movements (e.g., jumping jacks) to spell out words.
December 17, 2020
Requiring Cameras Only for 1:1 and Small-Group Time
This video describes the importance of allowing students to keep their cameras off at times during a lesson and then prompting students to turn their cameras back on during one-to-one meetings with the teacher and in small-group settings. These more personal settings call for visible social cues and can serve as important relationship-building time, during which it is helpful to be able to see one another.
December 11, 2020