This post is part of a larger series. I started this series with the course syllabus and I encourage you to take a look it before moving forward to get a greater context of what is going on here. You can read it by click here.  Also, last weeks post, Lived Experience Matters can be read here.

Learns vs Students: Week Two

Student contributors: Matio

This week started with the students started thinking, discussing, and writing about the differences and similarities between learners and students.  While most initially thought the two words were similar, they started to see that word choice matters, and the difference — while subtle — is important. The point of this course is to have the students lead their own learning through a process of inquiry in order to find problems in their community that matter to them and then ultimately try to solve them.

After the whole class process, the students watched a video by Prince Ea.

After watching the video, the students were placed into breakout rooms and added to their thoughts from the discussion about learners/students.  Once they did that, the students attempted to source the document.

The next day, we presented three different newspapers, Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Kenosha News.  We told the students to only look at the article at the top of the website. We had the students write what they noticed and what they wondered as they looked at the first article. What was great about this process is that the stories were changing all the time. The students noticed that different locations had different point of views on the same topic or had different headlines.  Students saw that by changing a word like protest to riot changes the point of view and perspective of the story they are telling.  Additionally, the students realized that their own lived experiences mattered in how they read the stories.

How have you grown as a learner this year? 

I’ve started to pay attention, my writing has gotten much better, my handwriting also gotten a little bit better.

What are we doing well in class?

Calling out people and putting us into breakout rooms so we can talk to one another so we can get to know each other.

My thoughts and next steps

Again, the conversations were amazing this week. I’m amazed at what the students are able to do and how much they are sharing. They are seeing themselves in the process and owning it. Next week, we are diving into their own identity and getting them to come up with how they see themselves. From there, they will start getting into their own project that they want to attempt to solve. We will continue to layer in different perspectives that should continue to add to their identity and how they approach a source.