SWC #3: Personalizing the Central Idea

This year, I am trying to be more intentional. 

Intention is about having a specific game plan when planning, teaching, and assessing.  This takes a lot of cognitive power to make connections between different ideas while allowing learners to demonstrate some agency along the way.  

When I consider the central idea, it's nice to unpack the statement with pictures and words, but what comes next?  There has to be some intentional connection with the central idea.  This can be difficult for many of us, because we don't know quite how to begin.  

I made it simple.  I asked my learners to take a moment and reflect as a group what the unpacked central idea meant to them.  I posed these questions:

• ​What words that we unpacked connect to you?
• What is the picture in your mind as you string some words together?
• What new central idea would you like to write? 

This began our process of making meaning of the unpacked central idea as a small group. 

The process of writing our own central ideas didn't take much time.  My class really appreciates having a word bank to choose from and they were easily able to create their own version. 

To be honest, I worried that this would take a long time due to the varied linguistic and learning profiles of my learners.  But, they surprised me.  In small groups, they were able to create central ideas that made sense.  

To further clarify the meaning, they created images to support the understanding of the central idea for other groups.  They were all posted together to set the intention for taking personal action based on the ideas. 

Each group presented something similar to this idea.  It was wonderful to see their voices come to life so quickly. 

When I read this central idea, my heart really was touched.  This is what some of my learners took away from the experience.  They were able to discuss various ways that their families made them feel safe (physically, mentally, psychologically, etc.)

What is your strategy for setting the intention with the central idea?  How do your learners make connections in order to take action?