What is Active Learning?
Active learning takes place when students are doing rather than passively receiving information. According to The Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University, active learning takes many different forms including reading, writing, discussing, thinking, evaluating, designing, and solving problems just to name a few. The role of the teacher in active learning is to provide timely and frequent feedback in order for students to correct mistakes and understand the material better.
How Does Active Learning Help Students?
- Active learning is more engaging and motivating for students.
- The application of information will stick longer in students' memories.
- Using different learning modalities (thinking, discussing, writing, etc.) allows students to process information in the way that best suits their learning style.
- A classroom community is built when students are actively working together on shared objectives and projects, and when students work with the teacher individually or in groups.
Community Reading Program
When I was hired to teach gifted 6th grade language arts at Emerson Middle School, the retired gifted teacher reached out to me about her community reading program. She had established a program during her teaching career for her students to discuss books with adult members of the school and local communities. I thought the program would be a wonderful way to engage students in active learning. Students would be reading a book of choice, writing their own discussion questions, discussing the book with a community member, and reflecting on their own learning.
In order to form the book clubs, I selected 4-6 books that were appealing to students and were the appropriate reading levels. I created a Google Form with a description of each book and a PDF of each book's cover. Students then read the book descriptions on the Google Form and ranked their top book choices to read. I learned that by giving students choice in what they read, it makes them much more engaged and invested in the book.
Community Members
In the community reading program, I paired each student with a member of the community including my building principal, the superintendent, the school resource officer, retired teachers, and even the mayor! Based on the Google Form results, students were given the books of their choice to read, and the paired adults were required to read the same book as their assigned student.
Students were required to write questions about the shared book and ask their adult these questions about the book via email. The adults answered the questions by responding back to the students, therefore, creating a mini book discussion online. Then the community members were invited to the school library for a final book discussion with their paired student as shown in the photo below.
Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
In order to prepare for the final discussion, students were required to write questions using Depth of Knowledge question stems. Students proposed their questions to the adults during the in-person book club discussion. The students were well prepared and did an amazing job of engaging the adults in the book discussions. Based on my observations, the students were actively engaged in their learning throughout this program.
The community reading program required quite a bit of extra work on my part, but it was definitely worth it. After the program was over, many of the adults emailed me and requested to be apart of the program again in 2021. Similarly, I asked students to reflect on the experience and stand up to speak about it at the conclusion of the event. Many students stated that they felt it was one of the most impactful experiences of their school year. It was definitely a positive experience for everyone!
Group Norms and Roles
On a side note, when I use regular book clubs in my classroom just with students and not adults, each group writes their own group norms. It is important for students to understand the group expectations ahead of time, so that everyone participates to their best ability. Additionally, in order to keep kids actively engaged in the discussion, one person is assigned as the timekeeper, another person is the facilitator, and someone is the note taker.
Moving Forward
When I think of active learning, I think about the research I have read that states that the human body is made to move, and I think about the kinesthetic learners out there. One activity that we did last week in library class with our K-2 students was a version of musical chairs. Students walked and danced around tables and chairs that had been moved into a circle shape as the music played. At each chair, there was a book from the library placed on the table. When the music stopped, each child sat down and read the book for two minutes. The goal of the activity was to expose kids to books they may have never even considered reading before and to start building their reading identities. I loved this activity because it was truly an active lesson where the little kids were able to move their bodies!
Additional Resources
Cult of Pedagogy: Active Learning
Spark Creativity: 10 Active Activities
References
Active learning: Center for teaching innovation. Active Learning | Center for Teaching Innovation. (n.d.). https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/active-collaborative-learning/active-learning.
Gonzalez, J. (2022, March 17). To learn, students need to do something. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/do-something/.
Potash, B. (2023, January 19). Active teaching: 10 out-of-their-seats activities. Spark Creativity. https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2022/09/active-teaching-10-out-of-their-seats-activities.html.
Readers, W. (2023, May 4). Six-word sci-fi: Stories written by you. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/six-word-sci-fi/.
Zumpano, N. (n.d.). What is active learning?. prezi.com. https://prezi.com/vltahpm3b1hn/what-is-active-learning/token=21acedd662237401cb58486f35352d6fba7d05e6b30cf495979ca34cbf121958&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy.
You have some fantastic current examples of active learning, Anne. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I loved the musical chairs idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome idea, Anne! As a youth services librarian, my dream is to create book clubs specifically for our younger patrons and this is a really great format you've provided. I also really like the integration of having adults be a part of it because you could involve local officials, community leaders, representatives from different cultural backgrounds, etc. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteMusical Books! I am 100% using that idea! What a great way to engage littles who are not confident in their reading. During my Summer Enrichment Program last summer, I taught something similar to your Student/Adult book club discussions. It is so rewarding to see how engaged students are in their learning when an important adult in the community is engaging and learning with them.
ReplyDeleteFrom Mic Guti: Hi, Anne. Thanks for sharing your ideas. I appreciate the very clear definition and explanation of active learning. I think your point about active learning building student motivation better than passive approaches is really important. I think a lot of students and instructors are struggling in the aftermath of covid issues and getting students excited about learning is a crucial part of education in general and in healing from pandemic wounds and damage.
ReplyDeleteI love the student book club idea and it makes me think about the potential for having a book group for my social science undergraduates in which they could select and work with their own books. Maybe they wouldn't want to because they already feel they are reading excessively, but there is a subset of them who are voracious readers and mention what they are reading in their miniscule free time. It would be great to connect and encourage their explorations in a book group - they often express a sense of isolation from other students and this could be so valuable.