We’ve said it for more than a year … Students can’t officially use AI chatbots because they’re not old enough per the terms of use … but student-facing chatbots are coming. Now they’re finally here. Holly and Matt have used them — and have worked with students in the classroom using AI chatbots. In this episode, we share the things we like about them — and things to be aware of.
I am both a mother and a teacher. When my own children started school, I imagined all of the ways that I would continue to spark their curiosity at home so they could flourish as life-long learners. The reality, however, is that almost every day when I ask my sons what they did at school, they both shrug simultaneously and say, “Nothing.”
Whenever I have more insight into what they are working on and I can ask them more specific questions about their learning, they light up and launch into all of their favorite discoveries on various projects. I started to wonder if the same experience that I was having as a mom was shared by families of my own high school students.
I work diligently to plan opportunities that empower student voices and enrich learning experiences through:
Experiential Simulations
Debates
Discussions
Authentic Project-based Learning.
Surely, my students wouldn’t say “nothing” to their parents when asked the same questions. But in reality – the answer probably was, of course, they were.
Supporting Learning At Home
On my car rides home with my sons, I realized that all of the detailed unit and lesson plan writing that I was doing to create these learning experiences might not be translating to families who wanted to support learning at home. In addition, while I might have a very clear roadmap for my student’s learning, I wondered if they recognized why I was asking them to do a particular task on any given day. A singular, siloed activity may seem unimportant to a student or when translated to a parent, but if objectives are clearly articulated to students throughout their learning, each artifact begins to reveal itself as a more significant piece to a larger puzzle.
I started using Hyperdocs as a way to transform my lessons into a student-facing format to make learning objectives more transparent and to frame each lesson within the context of an essential question.
As a history teacher, I often ask students to read and discuss primary source documents and I pair this with an opportunity to create or to engage in a simulation to transfer learning of both content and skills.
I decided that most frequently, I would divide each lesson into four different verbs: explore, discuss, engage, and reflect to mirror my workflow for a typical class session. While I change this structure as needed, by thinking about each lesson this way, I continually ask myself if I am giving my students the opportunity to be creative and if what I am asking them to do is essential, if it is authentic, and if it aligns with my overall learning objectives. If the answer to any of those questions is no, I consider how I can best shift each lesson based on what is best for my learners.
The move from regular lesson planning towards building this structure within a Hyperdoc is so small, yet it is a powerful way to frame stronger lessons and to increase transparency to help scaffold learning for our students and their families. In addition, by including hyperlinks I was able to:
supplement my lessons with screencasts,
video links, digital
documents, and extension activities.
HyperDocs and Google Classroom:
Students submit their work in a digital format in Google Classroom and I use features such as a comment bank that I have created to reduce my overall time grading and to give feedback in real-time. In this blended learning space, my students have more support and resources to access, families have a clearer picture of what is happening in my classroom, and while the Hyperdocs take some time to develop, I am a more balanced teacher and person.
HyperDocs and Google Sites:
By creating a Google Sites page for each section, I curate all of my Hyperdocs onto a page so that they can see how each lesson builds off of our essential question for a particular unit. This workflow also improves collaboration with my teaching team and with special education teachers and other faculty working to support students in my courses.
Developing a flexible workflow is more important than ever as we venture into distance learning.
Families and students are juggling more roles than we can imagine and it is important to continue to consider what we are asking students to accomplish, if our ask has value, and how we are helping to offer some balance to our students, families, and ourselves.
Hyperdocs provide an opportunity for students to work at their own pace and the structure encourages them to engage, ignite their creativity, and feel a sense of ownership for their work as they begin to understand how all of their artifacts of learning progress towards larger course objectives.
By adding hyperlinks and using Hyperdocs, rather than presenting material during virtual meetings teachers can use this time to connect and as a means to answer questions about logistics for projects and demonstrations of learning or to quickly clarify content so that classes can spend more time on social-emotional needs of students and the chance to connect as we practice social distancing. On some of these days, some students and families might not be able to get to any academic work for a myriad of reasons, or even just for the sake of doing nothing at all – which might be what they needed most on a given day. The transparency created by Hyperdocs ensures that when they are ready, students and families will have everything they need to get started.
Cristen Magaletti has a MA from NYU in Social Studies and Secondary Education. She has an extensive background in curriculum design and instruction and is a current teacher who has worked in both public and private schools for many years.