Encourage tinkering with ideas, relationships, connections. Set up situations where students have to find information not readily available in school texts. Provide opportunity for students to design open-ended explorations of the concept. Provide multiple options so students can plan a unique "proof" of learning.
Choose personal learning activity.
Objective: To personalize unit material. To enhance student creativity. To enhance students' ability to find resource information and materials. To enhance students' understanding of community resources.
Activity: Planning individual personalization of material. The students are required to choose a personal learning activity that will enhance and reflect their knowledge of the material under study. This is where learning styles can easily be observed. The Imaginative Learners might choose: a play, debate, group project, art work of all kinds, letters from relative abroad, old photographs depicting the problems and freedoms of the period. The Analytic Learners might choose: an extended essay on some topic, researched and including lecture notes, another book to read and critique. The Common Sense Leaners might choose: table contour maps of wagon train routes, Indian tribes who were affected by "being in the way," railroad routes, or extra worksheets from textbook. The Dynamic Learners might choose: creative projects of all kinds, imaginary journals, songs, poetry. This step is a planning step. The students are asked to decide how they are going to personalize what they have learned. The plans are to detail steps, resources needed, finished product, and why they have chosen that particular plan.
