As a teacher, do you feel the need for there to be a black and white clear-cut answer to everything in your classroom?
Or do you like when a solution or an answer has a little bit of gray area, where you can use data or you can use some evidence to support practically any claim?
If you think about a true or false test or a multiple choice test, there is definitely a right answer or a wrong answer.
But what we have found as education has evolved is sometimes almost any answer can be correct if you can back it up with evidence.
The problem is, is that we don’t properly train our kids to learn and grow and adapt to this new way of learning.
And the reality is this, in life, the number one skill that we can equip all kids with is the opportunity to think outside of the box and communicate ideas in a highly effective way that is believable, that is data driven, because that life skill will help them in any area and will help them to be college, career, and life ready.
So the big question is, how do we utilize this theory in our classrooms regardless of what subject area we teach and what grade level we reach?
If you want some simple hacks to be more strategic on how you can be a game changer for kids and help them to learn and grow in the new world that we’re living in, then this post is for you.
*This blog post was downloaded from the audio transcript of the This Teacher Life podcast. To listen to the audio version go here
This is going to be insanely vulnerable because I’m going to tell you about something that I did for nearly my first 10 years of teaching and that I just don’t do anymore because I don’t think that it creates the most authentic learning experiences.
Now, the good news is if you still do some of the things that I’m going to talk about here, that I’ve got something awesome to replace it with.
So, this is just going to be a nice learning bubble where we can individually reflect, individually think, how can I change?
How can I improve?
How can I have the greatest game changing strategies for students?
And so, if I go back to my very first year of teaching, teaching seventh grade science, we were doing a rocket lab and every single one of my students had the opportunity to build their own rocket.
And I felt like I was crushing it because this was hands-on.
This was perfect science and engineering.
They got to apply the laws of motion that we had studied with Isaac Newton and then creates an opportunity for a rocket to launch in our classroom.
And so, I really felt like this was a great thing.
I made a lab handout and every single student had a copy with step-by-step directions on exactly how to build that rocket.
So, were students thinking outside the box and making these unique?
Yes, because they could decide on the color of paper.
They could decide how tall or short they wanted the rocket to be.
They could decide how pointy they wanted the nose cone to be.
But all in all, I was giving them a list.
I was giving them step-by-step directions.
I said, you need to go get one film canister.
You need to go get one Alka-Seltzer tablet.
You need to go get water.
You need to go get a pair of scissors.
And I basically gave them a recipe card for success, but then they had to go and create it.
Well, now looking back, essentially what I was doing is that was an arts and crafts project.
That was an art project.
I had done the science for them.
I told them what they needed and I gave them step by step directions.
I gave them a list for success.
I even showed them, here’s a sample rocket from what students in the past have made.
So then what they did was they just mimicked other students’ work.
What they did is they said, yes, Ms.
Genta, thank you so much for these directions.
I will follow them.
And if I follow them, I will be successful.
Can I tell you, this school year, I did a rocket lab.
15 years later, I am still doing a rocket lab, and all of my students had to apply Newton’s laws of motion in order to create a rocket that hopefully was going to launch into the air and hit the ceiling.
But this year and in the past few years, my philosophy on this has changed.
If I truly want kids to apply, if I truly want kids to think, if I truly want kids to have some grit and some growth mindset and for them to analyze and for them to process and for them to collect data, then I need to ditch the directions.
I need to ditch the step-by-step process, and I need to give them the flexibility and the freedom to say, okay, how can I do this?
So now I give them the big question.
I said, hey, students, what’s up?
Here’s what we’re going to do today.
Here’s the big science question.
How can you build a rocket that will launch in the upward direction?
Question mark.
Now I give them the question, and they have to tackle the solution.
So do I still give them film canisters?
Yes, but a film canister is optional.
Do I still give them Alka-Seltzer?
Yes, I do, but that is optional.
Do I still give them paper?
Yes, but that is optional.
Now, instead of saying here are the exact things that you need to do, I have what I like to call Miss G’s Science Store.
And in Miss G’s Science Store, I’ve got somewhere between 10 to 20 different things that kids can purchase for each lab.
I am not telling them what’s gonna work.
I am not telling them what’s not going to work.
I’m not gonna tell them how much of each item that they need, but they literally get the chance to go shopping for success.
They get the chance to go shopping for the science materials that they predict are going to create the product of how can I build a rocket that launches in the upward direction?
So do I have some things on the table that will absolutely work?
Yes.
I had things like vinegar and baking soda and Alka-Seltzer tablets and tonic water.
I also had things like balloons and scissors and tape and paper and pop rocks and wheels.
I had all kinds of things.
Are some things intentionally there maybe to distract students?
Yes.
But here’s the thing.
At the end of these labs, the product might not be as good, but the process is exceptional.
During this lab that I gave absolutely no directions for, did we have a ton of rockets actually move in the upward direction?
No, we did not.
But did we have a process of thinking and engaging and rethinking and re-brainstorming and applying and collecting data and saying, Oh man, that didn’t work.
Can I trade in this item?
Ms.
Genta, can you issue me a refund from your store?
That is rich learning right there.
And that I will trade in for a perfect product every single day of the week.
So let me give you some examples of some things that happens.
I do give my students limited number of items.
If there are 20 items for sale in Ms.
Genta’s science store for that specific lab, can they buy all 20 items?
No, I allow them usually around five items, and they’re allowed to come and browse the store and check things out and pick things up and smell things or touch things or kind of brainstorm in that way.
Okay, so that’s one thing.
Another thing is, is I don’t necessarily limit things.
I did have a scale out.
I had graduated cylinders, so this was obviously in a science context, but kids measured out baking soda.
For example, one kid said that they wanted 250 grams of baking soda.
250 grams of baking soda.
I didn’t say, you don’t need that much baking soda.
What the heck are you trying to make?
I said 250 grams.
And where are you planning on putting that?
They’re like, well, we’re going to buy a balloon, and we’re going to put the baking soda in the balloon.
And I’m like, okay, all right, sounds good.
How are you going to get it into a balloon?
And they’re like, well, we are going to buy a piece of paper.
So we are going to create like a funnel with the piece of paper so we can easily get the baking soda into the balloon.
And I was like, dang, I love that innovation.
Now, the next day when we were actually building the rockets, did they get the giggles?
And so did I when they measured out 250 grams of baking soda.
Yes, they’re like, Miss Genta, it’s overflowing out of the beaker.
And I’m like, yes, it is.
It is.
But that was an absolutely fantastic learning experience.
We didn’t have it go to waste.
We ended up putting the stuff that spilled out back in the box.
But had I said, that’s too much, you need 10 grams, they would have never seen and experienced that teachable moment.
When they got up to the launch pad on launch day, and we did a countdown three, two, one, did some of the rockets just sit on the floor of my classroom and not move?
Yeah, it was like one of those like awkward moments.
It was like cricket, cricket.
But then we all clapped, because I got to look at that kid and I got to say, okay, what would you change?
What would you do differently?
And they immediately had an answer.
They had data to support the fact that here’s what I did wrong.
If I go back to that original lab that I did 15 years ago and the kids launched the rocket and they’re like, wow, the Elka Seltzer really did a good job.
Yeah, it did.
You created an reaction within the film canister.
But they didn’t have to think about that because I served that to them on a paper platter in the form of a lab handout.
When nothing happened on the launch pad this year and I looked at the kid and I said, okay, what would you do differently?
And they’re like, I, Miss Genta, I don’t know what I was thinking.
We didn’t purchase anything to create a chemical reaction.
Miss Genta, I don’t know what I was thinking.
No pressure was able to build.
Miss Genta, I don’t know what I was thinking.
I just bought a lot of what I thought was going to be science-y stuff, but none of it worked together.
I wish I had purchased tonic water instead of purchasing normal water because there’s fizz in that.
Friends, I know that I’m giving you this example in the context of a science classroom, but I also think that this same philosophy can be applied to any subject area.
Because if you are asking kids to write a five-paragraph paper, I know oftentimes what happens is we say here is a perfect five-paragraph paper, and then what do they do?
They steal the exact same transitions.
They steal the exact same hook for the intro.
They take something very similar to the conclusion, and they just rewrite it for their topic.
Is it good for kids to have something to model?
Absolutely.
But I think if we are trying to create better thinkers, if we are trying to create better students, if we are trying to create a situation where kids are stretching themselves, then I don’t want kids who can duplicate.
I want kids who can create.
And if all they’re doing is replicating what some other kid did, we have to ask ourselves, is that the depth of learning that we hoped for?
So in English class, maybe it’s I’m not going to give you a sample paper.
Maybe in social studies class, you’re doing some sort of like diorama project.
Maybe you’re not going to show them pictures of what kids have done in the past because they’re literally going to take that and just remix it a little bit.
Maybe if you are going to give a test, you are going to eliminate things like word banks.
Maybe you’re going to eliminate things like multiple choice questions or true and false questions.
And maybe you’re going to ask more higher order thinking questions.
For example, I could say to a student in a science class, hey, tell me the properties of magnets.
And they could say something like magnets have poles, iron is a magnetized metal, right?
And so they’re just kind of like regurgitating really good information.
But what if instead I said, tell me about properties of magnetics?
What if I asked the question in real life, where have you seen an everyday use of a magnet and explain how that works to your advantage?
Well, then they’re going to have to think, okay, so when was the last time I used a magnet?
Well, okay, so I’ve got this cool thing in my mom’s car and when she needs directions, we take her cell phone and we attach it to this like circle mount in the car.
And so that must mean that there’s also a magnet inside of the cell phone.
And the way that magnetism works is there’s just like spinning electron within the cell phone.
And cell phones aren’t living things, so they’re not made of cells, but they are made of atoms.
And atoms contain protons, electrons, and neutrons.
But the special thing in magnetized metal is that electron.
Maybe they go in that route, right?
But there would be so many different answers.
There are so many different ways that kids could say, here is an everyday example of a magnet and here’s how it works.
Now, are there going to be some students who struggle with this?
Yes.
In fact, it was the big question.
It was the dynamic discussion question that I had at the very beginning of this episode.
I said, do you like black and white clear cut answers or do you like a little gray area where there’s an opportunity for explanation?
What I have found and probably what you have found is students who we might, and I hate these categories, but this is just, it’s true in education.
Sometimes we say our high achievers quotes, our high achievers really like to know exactly what they’re supposed to do and they will go and do it, and that’s true.
Because sometimes what we have done is we’ve created a culture where kids play school.
And I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way, right?
If you tell somebody who’s like, I want to do well, I want to get an A, and you give them directions, they’re going to follow those directions step by step by step.
And they’re like, I did it.
I did exactly what you told me to do.
And so they want a black and white clear cut answer.
But the reality is in so many parts of our lives, that does exist.
But in so many parts of our lives, it also doesn’t.
So can we equip kids with the opportunity to think both in black and white and also some gray area?
I think good education practice is going to have a blend of both.
And so maybe the reflective question for you right now is, do you have a blend of both?
Do I think it’s important that kids know facts?
Like there is one answer to what’s 7 times 5?
35.
That’s the only answer.
That is very black and white.
And math, there is one correct answer.
7 times 5 is 35.
Period.
However, the way that kids can get to that number, there are lots of different ways.
And I don’t care which way they get there, as long as they can show their work, provide evidence, give me proof, explain what is happening in your brain.
So maybe that is something that we need to start writing on our boards.
Maybe we need to get a coffee mug.
Maybe we need to put this on a t-shirt.
Here, explain what’s happening in your brain.
Explain your brain.
Because if kids can’t explain it, do they really know it?
Probably not.
So explain your brain.
The next time you’re writing a test, the next time you’re creating a lab, the next time you are doing some sort of project or assessment, are you giving kids the opportunity to explain their brain and prove that they have learned something?
Some of this goes into a philosophy of if it can be googled, should it be graded?
And maybe that is a question for another episode.
But not giving directions, not giving play-by-plays, not giving specific lists has been one of my favorite things that I have done this year.
I do it in a science context and I call it my science shop.
Later on this week, in fact, In fact, I’m doing an experiment where the big question is, how can you create light in a light bulb?
And every single kid is going to get one miniature light bulb.
And they’re going to go to my store and purchase four other things.
Now, here’s kind of, if you do happen to teach science, here’s a really fun remix.
Sometimes kids are like, Ms.
Genta, can we research this?
And I’m not going to stifle a kid who said, can we go research this?
But the reality is, if I go back to that, if it can be Googled, can it be graded or should it be graded?
If they go and Google something, they might find the exact recipe on how to create light in the light bulb.
So what I do is I sell Googles at my store.
You can literally purchase a Google search at my store, but that costs two items.
So is it gonna be worth it?
You only get five items.
One is the light bulb, and you’re gonna buy a Google.
A Google is like double things.
So that means you’re only gonna be able to purchase two items from the store.
Is it worth it?
You should see kids’ faces.
They’re like, oh God, I don’t know, cause I’m pretty sure I need a battery.
Oh man, I don’t know Ms.
Genta.
And so then again, they’re thinking, they’re analyzing, they’re weighing out their options.
That is learning.
Friends, this is a game changing approach to education.
At the end of the day, I want my students to be college career and life ready.
And whether you teach science, math, social studies, English, art, PE, when we give our kids choice and voice in their learning, I didn’t mean to ring my bell right there, but I mean, come on, choice and voice in their learning.
When we give kids choice and voice, not only are they going to buy into it more because it feels more personalized, it feels more unique, they feel more in control of the learning goal, but we’re also going to have better processes.
Better products, not always.
But at the end, the goal is that they are the product, that their brain is the product of exceptional learning that has happened in your classroom for 180 days this school year.
So, what questions do you have?
Send me a message on social media.
If you’ve got something that you want to know about this philosophy, shoot me a message.
I would love to connect with you on a real life level and kind of hash this out with you.
With so much love,
PS- Get support, ideas, and love for your whole school or district right here
Are you a science teacher? Check out the labs and ideas I was talking about in this episode here