What's on Your Playlist?

Please don’t shy away from this post as only for science teachers. I would love to hear from others using playlists or thinking about using playlists for feedback and insight.

Storyline

As summer is winding down, I’m looking to wrap up my big task this summer which was to align my curriculum to new science standards. Starting big picture was creating a rich driving question or anchoring experience (called anchor phenomenon in the science world) which we could use to craft a driving question for our unit. This question requires multiple steps to reach a complete solution or explanation. Each of these steps of the ultimate solution is framed as a smaller question that needs to be answered. By answering these smaller questions, we collect the pieces to the driving question. The process of collecting these pieces and joining them together is not simply referred to as a unit of instruction. We call it a storyline because these pieces build on each other. They are connected. In units of instruction, lessons may be seen as topics that need to be learned for a final assessment. In a storyline, these pieces build link together to explain that anchoring phenomenon.

So for example, in our forces and motion unit, we find the answers to a series of questions. Each question gives us an new piece of the puzzle to understanding the driving question.
Too often, my unit plan was a series of lessons that covered all the topics that were in that unit. There was not a clear storyline we were building. In so many areas, we focus on the idea that "context matters" and it helps us make sense of ideas. I’ve been so guilty of piecing a series of lessons together without having a sense for the greater context of how they connect. There is power in these connections to help students make meaning of not just each lesson but the bigger picture of how these ideas make sense together.

Our lessons are not just learning a series of random words. We are connecting them to form sentences. Those sentences form paragraphs. Those paragraphs tell a story. That’s how we create meaning!

Playlist

After talking with my friend Kate Sommerville from the Institute for Personalized Learning, she planted the seed of using a playlist to make the connections between these lessons and also increase the opportunity for student choice. She pointed me to a whole host of resources including Jennifer Gonzalez over at Cult of Pedagogy. It’s times like these when I realize what an incredible the age we live in. Not only do we have these resources a few clicks away, we also can hear the educators’ voices in podcasts or can reach out to them via social media. PD specialists like Kate can bring them to teachers who might not have the time to do tons of searching on their own.

My goal was to build a playlist that would connect each lesson and allow students to have some choice in the process. Let me walk you through how I’ve envisioned the playlist. The playlist for each storyline consists of different lessons. Each lesson addressing a question that is a step in addressing the driving question.

Lesson Work: The central experience in which learners address the lesson question. Think of this as an investigation. It will differ in format based on what we are looking at. But this is where learners get the opportunity to employ skills and form their own ideas as to the answer to the question based on the experience. There will be a product turned in and assessed. I plan to build in choice in terms of format of the product students turn in. While initially the experiences used to address the question are designed by the teacher. It is our hope that students may be able to design their own investigation based on the lesson question.

Lesson Connection: This is where we come together as a class and look at what we discovered in the lesson. Content ideas and terms will be introduced, framed by the ideas and experience of the learners. The format of this may be a close to a traditional lecture while using tools that allow for active learning, I plan on using a favorite of mine Pear Deck. I realize that this piece will not make it a traditional playlist where students have autonomy over the pace as it adds that piece of large group instruction. This will be an issue I will need to address in the classroom to see how it is affect the dynamic of providing instruction at a time when students are ready to receive it. This may mean that we may need to run this connection at different times for different students. Someday, I can imagine this being done in small group format with those students that are prepared to move forward. I do think it is essential though that we take the time to collect the ideas from more than just one learner during this connection piece so I'm hesitant to try to do this portion in a flipped model. 

Practice Work: Once the content ideas have been delivered, it’s time for learners to get some more practice with them. This is where students will have the opportunity for choice in how they practice. Students need to choose 2 practice options. Options I’ve been putting together related to the topic (that students will be able to access via a Google Slides presentation) include:

• Reading
• Video
• Game or simulation
• Practice problems (paper or digital)
• Guided practice problems (teacher led)
• Competitive problems via Kahoot! or Quizziz (teacher led)

Reflection Pieces: Before moving onto the next lesson (next question), there are 2 reflection pieces to be completed. One in the student’s class portfolio (I use Google Sites). The reflection will focus on the performance in the lesson work and practice work in terms of skills and understanding of content ideas. Students then conference with the teacher and essentially present their answer to the lesson question (where will we find the class time for this? I'll get back to you in September 🤔.)

This is being written in the last few weeks of summer where the real variable of the classroom has yet to be accounted for: The Learners. I look forward to seeing how this new idea fails, succeeds, and iterates. Ultimately, the goal of having a driving question and starting with an anchor phenomenon is to use it as a tool for preassessment to elicit the questions & misconceptions the storyline will need to address. So in reality, the lesson questions should be originating with the learners. But, since I can’t build everything on the fly, I needed to start somewhere by building my own questions this time. In future iterations, I hope this storyline truly becomes student centered not only in terms of choice of modes. I want it to become driven by student voice, the questions they ask are what lead us through the storyline.

If you have any interest is seeing what I’m planning, I’ve created an overview document with links to more detailed outlines.I would really love to hear examples of how educators IN ALL CONTENT AREAS are finding ways to connect lessons in order to tell a story or use a playlist to increase learner agency.