Presenting Outcomes to Kids

Thinking along the same outlines as Jeff (or, as Jeff's wife anyway:), I've decided to present kids with a set of provincially mandated outcomes for English Language Arts for us to work through together. I've given out checklists like this before, giving kids a folder with a stapled sheet in it of things that we need to look at over the course of a science unit for example and it has sometimes worked well; but other times.....

I believe I have 56 provincially mandated ELA outcomes for each grade that I have in my classroom ( seven and eight) . Many of them could be practiced and mastered through much of the work that we do with technology:

- Compare own ideas with others (blogs, wikis)

- Contribute ideas, knowledge, and questions to focus group research (wikis)

- Combine print and visuals to design an effective text (blog, Flickr)

- Present findings to classmates (blogs, wiki, Flickr)

These are only a few examples. Of course there are outcomes that would be very difficult to reach through the use of technology:

- Determine literal and implied meaning of texts

- Examine techniques of plot development

- Demonstrate critical listening

Even some of these could be "hit" through the use of blogs and wikis depending on what you are requiring kids to post and what you are asking kids to read, view, or listen to.

But the chart itself is huge and possibly overwhelming to be presented to kids. I wonder about the wisdom of giving the entire 2 1/2 page chart to kids. It may be too much information. Yet if I break it down, and take out the outcomes which I most believe that kids will not be focusing on, I will be limiting them; and one thing I have learned with kids is that they often surprise us. A third option is to give kids a specific list of outcomes and tell them that these are the things that I want to concentrate on with blogging. I could give them the entire list, have them highlight certain outcomes and work through the chart concentrating on certain things.

I also still need to work on revising this list and putting it into language that may mean something to kids, much of it being written in "educationese." I want something that kids can look at, think about, and put up against their own work to determine of they are meeting the outcome.

A work in process definitely, but I hope worth the time.

technorati tags:education, technology, outcomes, planning