Guiding students to use the website themselves
It may at first seem slightly daunting to put students in front of technology and encourage them to navigate it independently. However, developing student abilities in self-regulation in their learning through a focus on a single, resource-finding task, is a vital skill. So here are a few tips that we recommend to approaching this learning curve in your classroom.
Begin by visiting the website yourself and make sure you are familiar with how it works, where objects are located, and how to navigate the aspects of the website you will be working through with your students.
The first time students use the website themselves, place them in small groups around a device rather than individually. This structure will assist in problem-solving and keep them focused on the task.
The first time they do this, guide them step-by-step. Point the students to the browser they should open. Write up the website URL. It would be beneficial if you circulated; monitoring the activities and checking in with students to make sure they remain on-task.
Once they are on the website, give them clear and direct instructions on what to do to clarify expectations. For example: "Click on the tab that says Unit 1 and read the first activity with your group."
Throughout, encourage your students by reassuring them that "it's okay not to know" and to ask many questions. Everyone is going to find a challenge at a different point along the way and will possibly need support in the most surprising places.
How to emphasize peer learning strategies
A fundamental principle of this curriculum is that students can help one another learn and gain even more knowledge by exchanging information amongst themselves. Encourage discussion among students. There are distinct challenges in this, as younger students may be easily distracted, but with a little bit of time and clear outcomes, students will adapt to this approach.
A significant factor in this will be your class size. In a smaller class, you can have a more open dynamic where students can collaborate where and how they need to. In larger classes, you may find that you need to designate small groups and limit the discussion to the small group.
There is no real "one size fits all' structure that we can provide for peer learning, but would instead like to invite you to allow a more conversational style of learning in your classroom where relevant discussions and digressions are permitted to encourage curiosity and a love of learning. More importantly, however, is teamwork and assisting others. With space and encouragement, this will happen naturally, but will likely look a little different in every classroom across the globe.
Guiding research online and remix projects
For the remix project in Activity 5, we encourage the students to research more information about the country being studied on their own. Sending students off to investigate topics online may be new territory for both the students and yourself.
Clarify expectations prior to engaging in the activity. You might ask; What website are we visiting? What country are we looking at? Are we meant to be googling images or playing online games during this time? Can you ask me to help if you get lost or don’t understand something?
Then present your students with some systems and guidelines for how to compile information. Perhaps encourage them to write down the facts they want to use and the URL of the source. This documentation can be performed with the good old pen and paper, or on new platforms like Google Docs or other media-based text software.
From this, you can develop either a project for the whole class to do (e.g. everyone makes a poster or video). Or put groups together to do assigned group projects (e.g. group A makes a Powerpoint, group B puts together an oral presentation). Or allow individual students to decide a project format that they would like to put together... or any variation of the above! If you have a completely different idea for your class, go ahead! This activity is intentionally left a little bit open-ended for creative interpretation and to give the teacher and students flexibility.
When the projects are complete, you might encourage your students to post their products online. This extension can be accomplished in the form of a Facebook page shared with parents, a free Wix or Wordpress website, a blog, or an email with images attached sent out as a newsletter to parents or the school. This extension would require some research and time from you, the teacher. This final invitation serves to encourage media-based literacy among your students if you would like to go the extra mile or integrate a module on critically engaging with media and posting methods online with your students.
