Last week I tried to focus the learning in more by giving students goal sheets where they could determine their own goal based on the two pathways and then use the goal sheet to help keep their thoughts organized as they work through the goal. While the learners worked on this, I went around conferencing with students on their own level trying to help guide them toward an appropriate goal and toward using appropriate resources to help with this goal. As I worked through this, I found that having a goal and having a place to organize those thoughts was important and helped keep students on task, but having to create their own goal was more challenging and took up too much work time.
This week, I changed it around. I offered two learning targets for working on the composers and 3 targets for working on the orchestra that students could choose from. They were asked to only choose one to goal to work on in one area, and use the goal sheet to help them work through that goal for the day. I also went through the resources that might help with each goal in Schoology. This all took place during a 5 minute mini-lesson. Students were then able to go on their way and begin working. I made sure to conference with students throughout, asking them about their goals, asking them how their resource was helping them work toward that goal, and discussing with them about the things they discovered as they worked toward their goal for the day. Students then were asked to put their goal sheet into their music folder, which gets left in the classroom, as a means to reflect upon their learning when we next meet, and choose a new goal that might come naturally from their previous work.
A lot has changed since we began our journey and a lot will continue to change. Students know and understand that this is an experiment and a new way of learning and that change is a part of that. Hopefully this will help keep the students focused and will give them a better opportunity to learn more.
Goal Examples Below:
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