The Struggle is Real

For the last couple of weeks my 9th grade geography students have been working on a project where they had to select two of nine different landforms in Russia to research. I gave them six questions to help guide them on their journey and I even gave them some resources to help them get started. I also gave them several options for them to show me what they learned--slides, Thinklink, Google Drawing, Adobe Spark video, mixup of Vocaroo with slides---the final product was up to them.

They didn't have much trouble with the basic questions which asked them how old the landform was, how it was formed and how it had changed over time. But they struggled with the questions that asked about what impact the landform had on the people who lived there and the importance of the landform to the people in that particular region. I noticed that one of my students tried to search "Impact of Caspian Sea on the people who live there." (Clearly I need to do some lessons on search, but that is not my point.) I explained to this exasperated young lady that most of the questions I ask are not Googleable. Her response? "But I like Googleable questions because it is easy to find the answer! I don't like your questions because they force me to think and that makes my head hurt."

You know what else my students don't enjoy? Reflecting on their learning. Every couple of weeks I ask my students a series of questions that are designed to get them to think about their thinking. The intent is for them to pause long enough to reflect on what they did, why they did it, and how they can improve what they did on future assignments and projects.

By 9th grade many students have figured out how to "do" school. I want more for my students. I want them to struggle. I want them to demonstrate their mastery of different skills by creating items that actually show me what they can do rather than randomly circling letters on a multiple-guess test. I want them to learn to hold themselves accountable for their own learning. Ask any of my students----I think I am on the right road.