Paperless Is Not a Pedagogy

Alice Keeler

I Learned Nothing, I Just Googled The Parts of the Cell

I Learned Nothing, I Just Googled The Parts of the Cell

Can we get real? There are a lot of well-intentioned assignments and projects that frankly have very little LEARNING that goes with them. Create a poster of the solar system. The kid spends a lot of time (and money on supplies) with the outcome that they can (hopefully) identify the 7 planets. This is a DOK 1 task… and maybe even DOK 0.

Copying Off the Internet is DOK 0

A parent shared this cell project with me.

“I asked what she learned and she said ‘nothing, I googled a picture and copied the parts into a model’ “

Where Are The Students Ideas?

One of the 4 C’s is for students to “Clearly Communicate Their Ideas.” This is not communicating the facts but going a step further and incorporating students thinking. Some questions to consider: What original ideas or personalization is the student including in the project? How are the students making a connection to the activity? How are students explaining or communicating what their thinking? How are students going beyond explaining what they did? How are students communicating that they care about the project?

Ask the Students

Get real and ask the students, was this a learning activity or something you perceived as busywork? Try a quick digital survey. Try this short Google Form to get you started.

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Some Tweets

creating something doesn’t make it a higher order thinking task and doesn’t always require a deeper understanding #edci568 @delesem1 https://t.co/tCeNsTcPQA

— Felicia Merritt (@felicia_fawn) March 26, 2017

@richbacolor @alicekeeler @NSTA thank you for Sharing this points. We always have that problem. When models only ends as a crafts projects.

— rupeleMx (@rupeleMX) March 26, 2017

@alicekeeler Key points to keep science models from becoming craft projects: phenomena, evidence, revision, explanatory, predictive. @NSTA pic.twitter.com/23od9ZY6hQ

— Richard Bacolor (@richbacolor) March 26, 2017

If you are intimidated by getting feedback from your students you don’t understand that the classroom is about THEM not YOU https://t.co/UCuUIk6V2d

— Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) March 26, 2017

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