What is Active Learning?
Active learning is an approach to instruction and lesson creation that involves actively engaging students with content through many different methods. This approach allows students to be responsible for their learning whereas in passive learning (lectures) it puts more responsibility and guidance on the teacher. Active learning approaches place a greater degree of responsibility on the learner which allows for intrinsic motivation to blossom in the classroom.
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| Photo Credit: Google Search What is Active Learning? |
Active Learning Activity: Greetings From Room 211!
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| Personal Photo from Padlet |
- Summary: We were broken into partners (see my partners blog post) and given a classroom activity that we then had to create a padlet for. Before I go any further, padlet is an interactive website that allows several users to create an online bulletin board. Their slogan is "The Easiest Way to Create Collaboration." Click here to learn more. The specific blog that we were assigned is Welcome to Room 211! This blog allows students to maintain contact and connection with their peer, Max who is traveling for acting purposes. Max posts about his experiences and his peers comment on his experiences. Our padlet includes different ideas on how to keep the learning process going and different ways to make Max's experience interactive. Here is the padlet that we created! What an AMAZING way to create an Active Learning Environment.
- How is this Active Learning?: This activity ties into active learning because it keeps students engaged through discussion and allows students to be responsible for their own experience and learning. The blog activity specifically allows Max and his classmates to engage with each other through blog postings and interactive comments. Students can read Max's blog posts and learn about work and cinematography. It also provides Max and his peers with a new-aged literacy tool.
Active Learning and Differentiation
When Active Learning is done correctly I think it allows every student to be engaged and capable of learning regardless of the material or content. With that being said, if Active Learning is incorporated into each lesson than isn't that a form of differentiation, or that backbone of differentiation? The teacher is looking outside of the box at engaging activities for students to help in the learning process..well, that sounds like differentiation to me. Please review this article from Edutopia to see another teacher's point of view on this topic. Differentiation and Active Learning Instruction
Additional Active Learning Ideas for the Classroom
- Play-Based Learning
- Improv
- Interactive Activities (digging up letters: science/phonemic awareness/play)
- Padlet: interactive bulliten board that can be used in any classroom
- Exit Tickets
- Groupings
- Personal Reflection
- Giving students a voice
- Blogs
- Interactive
- Student-Centered
- STEM or STEAM: providing students with a list of materials and asking them to create something.
- Allows students to use their imagination
- Responsible for their learning
- VERY Interactive
- Relatively inexpensive
- What strategies do you use in your classroom to promote Active Learning? PLEASE comment below!
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ReplyDeleteHi Mary Kate,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blob discussing about active learning. In your presentation of "Welcome to Room 211" you provide a number of ways that learning can occur and be interactive.. You stated that learning can be collaborative with peers. I feel the same way. My work position takes our team into a variety of diverse cultures throughout Chicago. We provide nutrition services to staff, children and parents. I believe that is better to be a facilitator than a teacher especially when the audience is unfamiliar with you.. Therefore, much of the training that we provide is in the form of games and interactive presentations.. This is similar to information in your presentation that recommended using games, worksheets, surveys and case studies. Our team attends a different school every day engaging the audience. We read a book about eating 5 fruits and vegetables each day. In the story for our preschool audience,, we count out loud, jump up and down 5 times and spin around 5 time.s. Each child is given a "high 5'" at the beginning and ending of the story. We also provide materials that get the children up moving, singing and dancing.. this is what I would call interactive learning. The children are also asked to name their favorite fruit or vegetable. This is critical-thinking for a 3 -5 year old child. The classroom teacher is informed on how they can receive much of these resources on the internet.