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Identify one or two ways you can, as Dr. Black says, “build a structure [in your classroom] that also has a level of flexibility.”
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Our school is going to a hybrid schedule next year, meaning we will have three days with shorter course periods and two days with longer/block periods. My plan is to “build a structure” of learning on the short days where students will work on art history, art foundations and art criticism (the not-so-fun stuff). The longer periods will be devoted to time for the students to create.
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One way I love to keep my classroom learning flexible is by planning out what we’re going to learn for the year, but leaving some extra space for what I call “add ons”. If the students are particularly interested in something I have a bit of extra time built in for us to take a few days and learn about what they are interested in. In cases where the order of what we learn doesn’t matter as much I will let the students vote on which chapter they would like to learn next. We do both chapters, but I let them pick the order and this helps them feel like they have more of a say.
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I teach music. In my classroom, I try to challenge the quick learners but give students who struggle easier things to do.
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I like the idea of assessment having some flexibility. Instead of requiring the assessment to be a test, it could be a choice of paper, project or test. I want the assessment to be structured in there though. Maybe offer students a variety of levels of completeness. Where they have a base level grade, and further work is enrichment.
