I'll admit it: Block, a humanities teacher at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, had me at the title. Still, it's the middle of the essay Embracing Messy Learning [links to Edutopia website] that packs the real punch.
Block discusses the power of choice and how important it is to plan and execute class projects in a way that takes that power away from the teacher puts that it squarely in the hands of the students trying to learn.
While I think most of us would agree that giving students the ability to choose topics, research methods, presentation styles, etc. is a powerful motivator, we approached the choice issue only indirectly in our two spring PD sessions, I think.
Again, I think there's that fear component -- that students, much like teachers, can easily fall pray to option paralysis and spend major chunks of class time spinning their wheels -- that makes us hesitant to throw the "choice" term around too casually. As a math teacher, however, I've seen students respond well whenever I've presented students with a menu-style lesson plan. Why not go even further and recruit students into writing that daily "menu?"
For every teacher who worries about students responding negatively to lack of "structure" in the classroom, Block presents a countervailing viewpoint, one that sees this wheel-spinning stage as vital to the creative process. More importantly, Block shows how giving students time to flail makes the classroom a better modeling environment for adult-level decisionmaking.
A powerful article by an author who appears to be traveling down a parallel professional road.
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