Behold, ye viewer: a highland coo
Behold, ye viewer: cuteness incarnate
And, my sketchbook: a wee bit of Scots Gaelic
Alright, Learning Plan vs. Lesson Plan: I believe that a learning plan is more individual and bespoke, whereas when I think of lesson plan, I imagine something tailored to a larger grouping of individuals. We as educators are responsible for bringing lesson plans with us, as we prepare to teach twenty-odd youth the myriad joys and tribulations of, say, math. However, in my class, I had a student who needed much more of a challenge in math than my lesson could offer; for this student, we had more of a learning plan: he was required to participate when we did worksheets/class sharing to demonstrate curricular proficiency. Other than that, he was allowed to curate his own learning, touching base with me and let me know where he was heading, and why. I think that the benefit of a learning plan is the greater potential more meaningful engagement with the topic of interest.
When I was a student, I hated music class. I was in band in Jr. High, playing trumpet, and did the bare minimum required to survive the experience. I cannot recall a single note, or song, or anything that we did really, other than that “G” is sounded without keys, and the third octave was hard for me to access. Now, later, I am a musician, and I play guitar every day. However, I never learn other people’s songs, or do covers, or any of that. Music on a lesson plan basically instantly pushes me away, as I am not interested. When I am allowed to creatively explore guitar in my own way, I eventually reach a place where I want to learn scales and theory because it allows me more creative freedom that not knowing. As well, jamming with other people is made much easier when you have a familiarity with scales and theory – and, when I reached this knowing on my own, I wanted to learn them because it was relevant for me and the benefit was tangible.
I also relate to the experience of students in Carpentry wanting to learn math and geometry because it was necessary for their own projects. And, having to learn it because it was relevant for them, meant that they would engage with it more intentionally, and remember it later so that they could re-apply those concepts in future projects.
Potential drawbacks exist! For one, I think that this will often be successful with older learners. I have a hard time imagining the project I would have been doing in grade three or four that would get me learning about math or science in a very meaningful way… But, maybe with good guidance/mentorship, I could have been steered toward desirable curricular-aligning outcomes.
STORY: I love teaching with stories! My brain is one of those brains that loves a story to latch onto. I think that a big benefit of teaching by story is that it allows different brains to engage with different aspects of the story. As well, what has meaning and import will depend on who tells the story, how it is received, the context it was given/received in, etc – and this can change with successive retellings. Probably good here to differentiate between an oral story and a written one: a big advantage of a story being told orally is the potential on-the-fly adaptability that the teller possesses. Things can be altered and changed, even minutely, to address needs that have arisen in specific contexts.
As well, my brain is much more likely to remember detail when it exists in a specific context than in a vacuum. In Dungeons and Dragons each week, we start with a recap of the session previous. Hearing all of the different information that we each remember, and how and why we stored that information, is always very entertaining. We remember much more if our character was engaged (and therefore WE were engaged) than if we were not participating. As well, we describe things a bit differently, as it takes place in the theatre of the mind, and yet we all agree on the sequencing and ordering of events. I remember more of DnD each week than I do most of my lessons/classes, and I think it is because it is anchored in a storyline that I am invested and participate in.
