Learner-Centered Strategies

1. Learner-Centered Strategies Iris Robinson Adrienne Saunders Shareen Williams

2. Learner-Centered Strategies Bloomberg, P. “Developing Learner-Centered Teachers: A Practical Guide for Faculty” • Place emphasis on the person who is doing the learning (the students!) • Learner-Centered Teachers • Do not employ a single teaching method, but a variety of methods that shifts the role of instructors from givers of information to facilitators of student learning • Learner-Centered Teaching vs. Instructor-Centered Teaching

3. Benefits of Learner-Centered Strategies Bloomberg, P. “Developing Learner-Centered Teachers: A Practical Guide for Faculty” • Students: • are actively involved in their own learning, • learn skills for future learning • Time management, self-monitoring, goal setting • think about their learning, and • assume responsibility for their own learning • assess their strengths and weaknesses • Increased motivation for learning • Greater satisfaction with school

4. Learner-Centered Strategies • Appropriate for use with: • English/Language Arts • Social Studies • Science • World Languages

5. Example 1: Newspaper Project • Task • Design a newspaper that highlights several important aspects of the American Revolution • Stories should be based on facts from researching this topic • Process • Review the criteria for each section & write a story for a newspaper after researching the various topics • Stories will be entered into the newspaper template (print-out)

6. Goals of the Newspaper Project To teach students the importance of current & historical events Analyze and organize (in a creative way) events and information from the American Revolution Strengthen research, writing, and technology skills

7. 21st Century Skills:Newspaper Project Creativity Media Literacy Technology Literacy Information Literacy Initiative & Self-Direction Productivity Leadership & Responsibility

8. Example 2: Virtual Museum Enables students to infuse 21st Century Skills into traditional learning. Helps students gain presentation skills that can be used in real world scenarios. Provides new, meaningful, and contemporary opportunities to integrate technology. Requires students to engage in higher-level thinking, when conducting research and constructing the museum. Requires use of research-based skills and primary sources. Offer students opportunities to think flexibly and creatively.

10. Selma to Montgomery March The demonstrations, which began on January 18, 1965, produced rapidly escalating tensions in Selma, culminating in mass arrests by authorities under the direction of Sheriff James G. Clark, Jr. By February 5, more than 2,400 demonstrators had been jailed. The demonstrations, which began on January 18, 1965, produced rapidly escalating tensions in Selma, culminating in mass arrests by authorities under the direction of Sheriff James G. Clark, Jr. By February 5, more than 2,400 demonstrators had been jailed. As a result of litigation initiated by civil rights attorneys on January 22, however, U.S. District Judge Sheriff Clark and DemonstratorsDaniel H. Thomas of Mobile issued an injunction on February 4 listing in detail the non-discriminatory procedures that the Board of Registrars would be required to follow.

11. Life Magazine Reports on the March on 03/10/1965 • After these procedures were implemented by the board on February 15, demonstrations in Selma dwindled in size, and the SCLC turned its attention to registration in nearby Perry, Wilcox, and Lowndes counties. • Demonstrations began in Marion, the Perry County seat, on February 1 under the leadership of bricklayer Albert Turner, the president of the Perry County Civic League. • They culminated on the night of February 18 in a bloody riot initiated by state troopers and local police. Trooper J. Bonard Fowler shot black laborer Jimmy Lee Jackson in the stomach, and five other blacks and three white reporters were hospitalized with various injuries. Jackson died in a Selma hospital on February 26.

12. Virtual Museum Rubric

13. 21st Century Skills:Virtual Museum • Self Direction • Social Responsibility • Creativity • Communication • Media Literacy • Technology Literacy • Cross-curricular integration by having students link ideas

14. Goals of the Virtual Museum Assignment Fosters student creativity. Allows students to use their critical thinking skills. Educates students on relaying information using different technological techniques. Utilizes non-verbal and verbal skills when in front of their peers (Communication skills).

15. Example 3: Student Interviews • You will be representing the assigned character/historical figure on today’s talk show. Meet as a group and: 1. Come up with a short biography in which you will tell your story from your perspective. You may wish to include what your relationships are to the other guests on today’s show. 2. Write two or three questions that you would like to ask each of the other guests on today’s show. Keep in mind that these should be questions from your character’s perspective. All members of your group should speak up during our talk show to reflect your group’s point of view, so you may wish to decide who will ask which questions in advance. 3. Try to anticipate any questions that you think other guests might ask you, and think about how you might respond.

16. Example 3: Student Interviews • Staging the talk show • After ten to fifteen minutes, have the groups reconvene. • Introduction of each guest • From this point forward, the host group should be able to moderate the discussion, asking their own questions and encouraging each group to ask questions of the other groups. • As the discussion proceeds, the instructor can encourage quieter members to participate, throw in questions of his/her own, and (if necessary) help keep the discussion flowing smoothly and keep the students on-task. • This discussion period can last anywhere from twenty minutes to an entire class period, depending on when you do the preparation work and how much time you have to devote to the discussion.

17. Example 3: Student Interviews • Wrap-up • After the talk-show, ask students to write about the experience, either by reflecting on the controversial issues raised in an essay or other graded assignment, or simply by writing a short response on an index card or piece of paper before leaving the classroom. Possible short prompts might include: • Discuss one thing you didn’t know before today’s discussion that you think you understand better now. • Which talk show guest made the best arguments today and why were they so persuasive? • What was your favorite part of today’s discussion and why? • What other guests might have been included on today’s show, and how would their participation have changed the discussion?

18. Example 3: Student InterviewsQuestions Why does Fitzgerald list all of Gatsby's party guests? Why did Gatsby want Daisy to see his house? When Nick told Gatsby that "you can't repeat the past", Gatsby replied, "Why of course you can!" Do you agree with Nick or Gatsby? Describe Daisy and Gatsby's new relationship. Nick is both part of the action and acting as an objective commentator. Does this narration style work? Why, why not? Who attended Gatsby's funeral? How and why is this significant? How would you end the novel?

19. 21st Century Skills:Student Interviews Collaboration Creativity Communication Information Literacy Self direction Interact Effectively with others Cross Cultural Skills

20. Goals for the Student Interview Assignment Prepares students for real life situations outside of school. Allows students to use their independent and critical thinking skills. Encourages students to build positive relationships with one another. Motivates students to build their communication skills.

21. Example 4: Play Scripts • Divide students into groups and assign each group to a scene. Parts of the novel that lend themselves especially well to oral interpretation are the following: • the dinner party • Gatsby and Daisy's meeting before he went off to war • the rendezvous between Daisy and Gatsby at his mansion • the hotel scene • Before each group sets to work on its scene, go over the following principles of oral interpretation or readers' theater: Every scene that you've selected for students to enact has a major climax and some smaller ones. It's the group's first job to figure out which parts of the scene are the high points—and how to emphasize them in a reading.

22. Example 4: Play Scripts • When students in a group are ready, make sure they have the time they need to perform. Consider having members of the audience take notes about each oral interpretation, commenting on some or all of the following points: • division of script into narrator's parts and characters' parts • performer's eye contact • speaking voices: slow enough? loud enough? varied enough? • particularly strong parts and particularly weak parts of the presentation • Notes will help the audience to give constructive feedback to each group after their performance. • If time permits, give groups an opportunity to rework their scripts and perform a second time after taking the audience's comments into consideration.

23. 21st Century Skills: Play Scripts Collaboration Oral Communication Creativity Analyzing Information Self Direction Skills Interpersonal Skills

24. Goals of the Play Script Assignment Students will listen and read for details and improve comprehensibility. Allows students to tell stories through dialogue, physical interaction, and symbolism. Encourages students to explore story elements in literature. Improves listening comprehension of different types of spoken texts for main ideas, details, and speakers attitudes and emotions. Formulates, expresses and defends individual ideas and opinions in an improvisation.

25. Questions:Learner-Centered Strategies How does learner-centered instruction encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning? How does learner-centered instruction enable students to develop real world social skills while having fun? How does learner-centered instruction take teachers out of the critical role? How does learner-centered instruction optimize opportunities for students to learn? Why should teachers change to a learner-centered approach to instruction? In what ways can we increase student’s learning?

26. Works Cited • Learner-Centered Strategies • http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/Learner-Centered/ • American Revolution Newspaper • http://bg016.k12.sd.us/rev_war_newspaper.htm • Virtual Museum • Thornton III, J. Mills. "EOA Links." Encyclopedia of Alabama: Selma to Montgomery March. 14 Mar. 1997. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1114 • http://christykeeler.com/EducationalVirtualMuseums.html

27. Works Cited • Play Script • http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/resource/2924.html#ixzzinF1BH91 • Interview • www.learnnc.org/LP/pages/630 • http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/resource/2924.html#ixzzinF1BH91 • 21st Century Skills • http://route21.p21.org/index.php