By Carmela Jones, MNS
“Teach the children…so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.”
-Abraham Lincoln
Can Modeling Instruction, MI, develop Tony Wagner's 21st Century Skills in students? In order to answer that question, this is a good place to pause and paint a picture of how an MI class looks different than a traditional class or any other inquiry classroom for that matter.
Let's rewind a bit and go back to my story after MI training. Not only did I do the pi lab for my students, but I asked my Superintendent if I could share what I learned with my faculty peers at all levels. The faculty was just as confused as I was during that first MI class and as confused as my students were in the first week measuring circles. It was a hard sell to the faculty. Math and science teachers were a little more receptive, but everyone else just couldn’t see how that would help their discipline or their kids who were younger in elementary or preschool. I thought if they understood the basic tenets, then they could "modelize" their lessons. I didn’t take it personal; I determined within myself to make it work at least in my own classroom no matter the challenges.
I still felt overall that employing what I learned that first summer elevated my teaching to new heights. The whole point of Modeling Instruction was to recreate the process of doing not just reading about research. My students began thinking like real scientists. Students of all learning styles and backgrounds were challenged. In a nutshell, modeling consisted of three activities, which included a paradigm lab, a lab, and a post-lab. I wanted to give students even more ownership. I intentionally worked on a few specific things to accomplish that. Most of that was around decreasing my role as a “teacher” even more and giving them the freedom to make mistakes, learn, and try again.
We had discussions before conducting specific portions of the learning cycle so that they would take more ownership. For example, I asked them: “What would make you more confident to share your thoughts unedited with your peers?” I appreciated how honest they were. They wanted to be sure that no one would judge them or make fun of them. They came up with a list of guidelines to run whiteboard times.
1. The classroom is a safe zone: no teasing, no judgment, no laughing at anyone.
2. Whiteboards are for EVERYONE to learn. It’s better than doing worksheets alone.
3. Everyone must listen before reacting.
4. Everyone has a right to their own viewpoint.
They practiced metacognition, thinking about thinking, without realizing it. They were responsible and took ownership of the culture in their classroom. I also really worked on Socratic dialogue with the students. Instead of giving out answers or even leading them, I focused on asking: “What do YOU think?” It frustrated many of them, but I was determined to master this aspect of Modeling Instruction. Soon they stopped asking me questions and started asking them of each other.
More about MI and how students developed Tony Wagner's Survival Skills for the 21st century through the MI pedagogy.
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If you are a Modeling teacher, share your story by sending it to the email listed. If you know a great Modeling teacher, encourage them to send their story to the email listed. cjones.stemprofessionals@gmail.com.
If you are Modeling teacher and want to interact with other Modeling teachers with a question, an issue, a classroom experience, an announcement, or anything other MI teachers might be interested in, post it on the M2M (Modeler to Modeler) blog on the AMTA site. https://modelinginstruction.org/submit-a-blog-entry-to-m2m/
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