Focusing on Global Digital Citizenship every day for 15 minutes, you can instill in your students a strong basis for Internet-savvy skills for the 21st Century. You heard that right, we said 15 minutes. Take this lesson in parts; one part each day. You can spread this out over a couple weeks time or however you wish. The premise for our 15 minutes comes in the form of flipped videos and material. Students can examine them at home. You can also highlight and watch them in class for 15 minutes or less.
This is the first in a series of templates for lesson plans on the 21st Century Fluencies. First up is Solution Fluency.
So it all begins with your PBL plan. PBL is one of the best ways to get students engaged in their own learning. PBL is the name, Solution Fluency is the game.
When you are introducing Global Digital Citizenship to the students, have an example of a completed PBL lesson to use as a tutorial before they dig in on their own. We've got the perfect place for you to borrow from and to create your own plans—check out the Solution Fluency Activity Planner.
You’ll need 6 days to model the process, with one aspect of Solution Fluency being highlighted every day for less than 15 minutes. Again, you may want to spread this out as you see fit.
On the first day of meeting with students, have large flipchart papers posted around the room, each displaying one of the 6Ds—Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Debrief.
Explain that throughout the course of the PBL unit, they will be at one or more of the various stages. They get to choose their own pace and path. Today, all their names are on sticky notes and they are all on the Define chart. As the PBL progresses, they will review their progress by moving their name from chart to chart, depending on what stage they are currently working in.
The following videos are merely suggestions. You might find some that suit your unit better. If so, please share!
Defining the problem means providing a clear and concise definition of the problem or challenge one is addressing. The purpose is to identify where we are so we can figure out where we need to go.
Flipped homework:
In this stage, the research and digging begins. This involves obtaining the background information that gives the problem its context, and identifying what you need to know and what you need to be able to do to solve the problem.
Flipped homework:
What about interviews, and going out and meeting people? We can offer the design processes: “What’s on your Radar,” “Interviewing and Learning Walks,” and “Creative Matrix,” detailed in our blog Putting the Passion in Project-Based Learning.
Here are some videos on interviewing:
This is where you use the knowledge you’ve gathered to visualize a creative and appropriate solution. This is a whole-mind process where we imagine what the solution will appear like as it would in the future. Instead of asking “why” we ask “why not.” The question of “what’s the worst that could happen” becomes “what’s the best that could happen.”
Flipped homework:
Starting from the future, next you design the process backwards to the present to complete the visualized solution in measurable, achievable steps.
Flipped homework:
This stage is the process by which the dream becomes a reality. It’s where you actually implement the design to complete the solution to the problem in two separate steps: Produce (actually creating the solution in its working format), and Publish (applying the product in an effort to solve the problem).
Flipped homework:
At the end of the process comes an often-overlooked step—the Debrief. It’s a time to review and analyze the product and process, and identify areas for potential improvement. Students are not often given the chance to evaluate a learning journey, and this is an integral part of guiding them towards taking responsibility for their own learning.
Flipped homework:
As you go through this process, remember the idea is to get creative in the classroom. Avoid lecturing during the class and let the students get to work on the learning they love to do, and solving problems that are meaningful to them.
Solution Fluency is the overarching template that governs all of our projects in school.
Call it design thinking or problem solving. Any way you slice it, by choosing it as the basis and backbone of your next project-based learning unit, students will be able to navigate through the process on their own.