Last week we discussed what happens when we guide learning with inquiry vs. content.
What happens when we allow that inquiry to move beyond the siloes of our classrooms?
Four adults huddle around a large writable table with a stack of Post-Its in their hand.
One scribbles down an idea while another excitedly announces, “Growable gardens for the school.”
They slam their Post-It note down on the table.
The one who was scribbling their idea draws a line through one word, adds another to the end and then shouts, “Yes, and students can explore other renewable systems like waste, food, and energy.”
Another adult in blue khaki shorts and a short sleeved Hawaiian T-shirt exclaims, “Viable systems for the new boarding school.”
All four sets of eyeballs widen. The energy is palpable. They have discovered an idea worth exploring.
This is not a brainstorming session at IDEO, Google, or Apple headquarters. It’s a brainstorm around potential learning experiences conducted in the flexible meeting space of an innovative International School.
Welcome to the Year 7/8 Verso International School Interdisciplinary Team planning session.
The adults huddled around the table have willingly given up their “teacher” title in exchange for one more relevant to what they are trying to achieve: Learning Designers. As learning designers, they take the responsibility to connect their content to learning experiences that move beyond the traditional confines of their subjects.
As a result they have organized learning not in short, disconnected 45-minute chunks of time for math, science, art, humanities, languages, and PE, but instead, around larger blocks of time for these experiences to take flight, called Learning Labs.
Over the course of this particular Learning Lab, students will be tasked with developing the plan and proposal for the new boarding school they will inhabit. Do you recall the previous chapters on leading learning via inquiry rather than content? This interdisciplinary experience will also be guided by a big question:
“How can understanding closed loop systems help us develop viable communities of the future?”
In eight weeks’ time, students will present their plans for a viable, closed-loop boarding school to the architects and engineers tasked to build it.
Learning designers are handling their curriculum in the same way my dear mentor Rob Riordan of High Tech High asked me to treat my humanities curriculum 15 years ago; “Not as a body of knowledge, but as a lens to see the world.”
I wonder what might happen if we viewed our curriculum through the same lens? What subject do you teach? How might it fit within this experience?
Get Help With Shift #3: Siloed – – – – > Trans-Disciplinary Learning
The excerpt above is from Shift #2/Chapter 2 of my new book, ‘Where is the Teacher: 12 Shifts for Student-Centered Environments’ scheduled for release in Early August.
- Pre-Order here and gain more stories of inspiration, and strategies for immediate use: https://tinyurl.com/12shiftspreorder
- Attend the Launch Party and connect with more student-centered practitioners! tinyurl.com/12shiftslaunchparty
Now, time to return to that Netflix series.
Enjoy your Summer Holiday!
Your [co] learning experience designer,
