Learning Experience Design Model: Bridge the Gap between Tradition and Innovation

Designing lessons focused on creative development requires a shift from traditional lesson and unit plans.  

Sometimes we want to change but just don’t know where to start; it is often easier to fall back on what we already know.  As I develop my own program centered around creativity and higher level thinking, I often wonder how to best to share what I have learned in a way that people can jump in and explore.   What would be the most essential tool to use when learning to design creative explorations and Genius Hour?  A colleague of mine asked me to help her design a Grade one unit about animals.  As I started to wonder about possibilities, my mind kept veering towards Dr. Robert Kelly’s Learning Experience Design Model. This planning tool aides the teacher in planning units and explorations of any length, while scaffolding for individual student creative development.  It works in tandem with the Seven Strands of Creative Development and helps each student progress towards the production of original work towards the end of the unit.  

Read on for an overview of the Learning Experience Design Model:

This is a planning template that allows the teacher to differentiate for each student right from the beginning of an exploration.  Teachers can easily relate to the familiar framework,  similar in structure to traditional lesson/unit plan design.

Set a pre-inventive structure.  In other words, determine the direction in which you want to guide your students but don’t set an exact outcome at the end.  Creative development is dependent upon the process and time spent cycling through research/investigation and experimentational development.  Final outcomes and representation of learning will become more defined as students build on their knowledge and experience.  What are the questions that you will ask the students to find out what they already know and what they might like to learn and discover?  What activities will you plan to help students with early idea generation?

Type 1 experiences are based on technical acquisition and discipline competency.  

Generate a list of skills and concepts that need to be taught from as many areas of the curriculum as possible or necessary.    Do you need to teach a particular technical skill  or concept that students might need during type 2 or 3 activities?  An art technique?  A writing strategy or genre?  Type 1 activities can be intermixed throughout the learning experience, whenever a mini lesson is required to teach a skill or concept.

Type 2 experiences are co-owned between student and teacher.

This is an opportunity for the student to apply new skills and knowledge.   Set the parameters for the students in a way that encourages choice.   Perhaps start with lessons and conversations about your unit of study.  Progress to other areas such as how to add details to a drawing, or how to create a clay sculpture.   Feedback should be frequent, either on student blogs, in conversation or written in journals focusing on the skills and concepts being developed.  Positive feedback and constructive comments should be embedded into the lesson plans to help the students progress.  Give students opportunities to reflect on their work and the chance to redo and revise to demonstrate their progress and above all, their success.  The experimentational phase of creative development allows students to play and create multiple prototypes.  Here is the perfect opportunity to teach students how to analyze their work and that there is learning in failure.  Students learn an essential life skill when they have to problem solve  and analyze their work.

Type 3 experiences are student-owned with a personal emotional connection.

Students set an inventive structure or blueprint based on the learning exploration that has taken place up to that point, incorporating their choice of representation and materials used.  In lower grades,  it helps to have a bulletin board for students to post their idea generation, questions, plans, and photos of their progress. Remember that all work is relevant to previous student work and that not all students are ready for Type 3 experiences.  This is where personalization and scaffolding comes in.  For those who demonstrate readiness to explore and represent the topic independently, let them go. If students are still learning concepts, or need help creating a plan, offer more teacher support.  The students who are achieving creative sustain will cycle through the idea generation, research and experimentation to finally converge.   A regular feedback loop enables students to reflect on their own and others’ work.    It is the learning process here that is important and the ability to collaborate throughout the exploration.

Assessment should be formative, dialogic feedback based on authentic learning experiences.  

The resources section of www.creativitycollective.ca has some tools for you.  Balance your assessment of creative development with skill acquisition.  

Constraints and Considerations:

Traditional unit or semester plans are usually teacher-driven with set time frames, providing little opportunity for students to apply their thinking skills within an authentic context.  For students to move on to Type 3 experiences, spend as much time as possible between Type 1 and Type 2 activities to allow for plenty of idea generation, research and experimentation.  Use the space in your classroom to provide lots of stimuli for the students. Stimuli can take the form of books, internet, pictures.  When students walk into a classroom that intentionally displays work in progress and  any extra visuals, their curiosity comes out to play.  This way they can explore many different options and avoid early closure of ideas. Early closure is like writers block:  it sometimes occurs from a lack of stimulus and engagement.  

Now download a copy of the Learning Experience Design Model and try it out!

Learning Experience Design Template for Creative Development.doc

Citation:

Kelly, R. W. (2012). Educating For Creativity: A Global Conversation. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Brush Education.

Genius Hour in Kindergarten

Genius Hour In French Immersion Kindergarten

By Stephanie Bartlett

It is easy to read about Genius Hour and assume it is geared for middle school.  Having taught my Kindergarten students through the lens of creative development for the majority of the year, I wanted to give Genius Hour a try.  At the beginning of last June, I decided to devote most of our time to experimenting with this concept.  By this time of the year, my students were familiar with the process of generating ideas, experimenting and creating prototypes, and analyzing their own and their peers’ work, so I felt that as a class, they were ready to apply their knowledge and develop their own projects.

To make the initiative relevant and applicable, Genius Hour needs to be assessed.  I wanted students to be involved in the feedback loop, so I posted their assessment sheets on the wall to track what stages they were working in and what they needed to work on.  Using the visuals and seven strands of creative development on the assessment tool, I guided discussions using consistent vocabulary.  The nature of the feedback was very positive.  I only documented direct comments and student-generated goals, never anything negative or personal.  Click here for a copy of my assessment sheet.  The assessment tool in the photo was my own prototype that I trialled before I published it.

Generate Ideas:

Students were used to brainstorming discussions and wonder walls to collectively question and generate multiple ideas.  We started our journey by wondering what we were passionate or curious about.  Suggestions included building structures, protecting animals, writing books, gardening and much more.  At any age level, there are students who need more support and scaffolding than others.  Some students were very strong in the generative phase of creative development and this helped those who couldn’t quite articulate their interests by giving them a springboard.

Create A Plan:

I had students sketch out a small drawing of their plan.  This was put on our class bulletin board to document their learning.  Each time a student developed new ideas or sketched  more information, it was added to the board.

Research/ Investigate:

Students then headed to the computer, ipad or books if they needed to discover more about their interest.  Many students helped each other and brought information from home.

Play!

The experimentational phase is where we played by putting thought to form.  Students were taught to try, try again.  By creating multiple prototypes, students learn to analyze their thinking.  This is part of the metacognitive piece that we are striving towards as educators.  One student was very interested in caterpillars.  She drew a monarch caterpillar and then used plasticine to create a model.    In a conference with her, I showed her a picture of a monarch caterpillar in a book.  She then changed the colour and the markings of her prototype.  In a class discussion, someone suggested that she create another pattern showing the pattern of the markings and not just the colour.  By the time she created three prototypes, this student was able to clearly describe the characteristics of the monarch caterpillar and went on in her investigations to create a model of the life cycle.

Analyze:

Class tours and discussions played an important role here.  I spent time observing and then took the class on a quick tour of the classroom to showcase the work of a few selected students each period.  I would point out what I noticed, using the vocabulary of the seven strands of creative development.  Students would then collaborate and analyze by offering positive reinforcements and suggestions.  The next day at the beginning of the period, I would highlight those points again to refocus the students and sometimes use the tracking of the bulletin board to suggest a goal for individual students that day.

Sustain:

Many students reached the point of creative sustain by experiencing Genius Hour in Kindergarten.  I observed that some showed strength in different areas of the seven strands, for example, one student was highly generative and always had ideas on the go.  I would then encourage her to prototype and expand her understanding.  As described in the Learning Experience Design Model, some students never reach these Type 3 activities and require more scaffolding on the part of the teacher.  This is differentiation and personalization at its best.

Where does play fit in?

It is important to note that I knowingly taught Genius Hour for more than 20 % of the week in June because I wanted to play and try it out so that I had a plan of attack for following school year.  Because of this fluid schedule, I tracked students’ plans on the bulletin board and the assessment sheets.  Every time that students added a new prototype or drew a new plan, I would add it to their section of the bulletin board.  Our daily schedule continued on the same, so students worked on their Genius Hour projects during our hour of play. In this way, learning was completely self-instigated.  Many used the vocabulary and concepts that we were learning for spring to develop their learning, others went in different directions.  Rather than visiting other centres upon arrival in the morning, many would head straight for their projects or to look at the projects of other students.  The atmosphere was a focused, calm buzz that  never failed to move me as the students joyfully got to work and play in the sunlit classroom, with no reminders from me.

What is the role of the teacher?

My role was to guide and observe my students as they moved through the different stages of creative development.  I would often sit and listen to conversations. This allowed me to plan my class discussions and mini lessons.  Literacy and Math lessons were  embedded into this process .  I would use student project ideas for shared writing and reading each day.  When I noticed an opportunity for a lesson on patterns, 3D shapes or numbers, I would use it as a real life math lesson.  For example, the building centre offered lots of discussion points about 3D shapes and the garden explorations were the basis of many word problems.  Students were so engaged in their projects that there were no discipline problems.  Those who had a difficult time during large group activities benefitted greatly from having the chance to express their knowledge in this format.

And now…

As I head into year two of teaching creativity, I am convinced that I will do Genius Hour again.  The third week of school is about to begin and I am busy doing community building activities and setting routines so that we can delve into the world of creativity.  Trying to implement something too abstract will not fly early in the year, as we all know.

My plan is to investigate whatever theme we are working on from Monday to Thursday, gradually building the process of creative development into our discussions.  (I will enlarge a copy of the assessment tool for our reference.)  Sometime this fall, Fridays will become the day that we will explore Genius Hour.  In the beginning, we will work on our year long project involving building a sense of self and what makes each student unique.  Stay tuned for a future blog post highlighting this project.  An email will go home to parents within the week asking them to share what fires them up, what their passions are.  I can then call upon parents as experts, and find other specialists to guide us as students begin to identify their own passions and interests.  As with anything that requires skill building, I will go slow, do group explorations, and divide the group to work and learn with different volunteers.  As the year progresses, many students will begin to develop creative sustain and generate their own ideas and projects.  There are many teachers experimenting with Genius Hour and evidence of their discussion can be found on twitter in the #geniushour professional learning network.

As with any long term creative development project, my work with Genius Hour will continue to evolve. How do you teach Genius Hour in  your Kindergarten classroom?

Introducing Genius Hour in Grade 7

By Erin Quinn

Genius Hour is an idea that’s catching like wildfire lately in the field of education. Genius Hour goes by many names - 20% time, Innovation Week, Fed Ex Days, Passion Projects - but all these monikers essentially mean the same thing: passion-based, self-directed learning. Students choose what they want to learn about, investigate, and create something to show for their learning.

My teaching partner Kate Steinfeld and I decided to embark on the journey of Genius Hour together this year. We introduced the concept to our grade 7 students on Friday. Plenty of other educators have gone before us, so we relied on them to show us the way, and borrowed parts of the way other educators have introduced Genius Hour.

We started with this brilliant video, which was thoughtfully shared by Drew Minock here.

Then we showed a modified version of this Prezi, made by Crystal Wilson.

We were inspired by EspoLearn’s brilliant questions from her kickoff slideshow.

We borrowed EspoLearn’s words when she said that Genius Hour projects are about:

• You being in charge of your own learning
• Finding your genius
• Asking questions and working to answer an Ungoogleable question
• Finding a problem and working to solve it
• A little about the product and a lot about the process
• Learning it’s okay to fail

After the Prezi, we posed these questions to our students:

• If you could learn anything in school, what would it be?
• If you could solve any problem in the world, what problem would you solve? What breaks your heart?
• If you could make anything in the world, what would you make?
• What would you do if you weren't afraid?
• What will you create to make the world more awesome?

Finally, we watched this short TED Talk of Jack Andraka, a 15 year old who invented a promising, cheap, and shockingly effective test for pancreatic cancer in his spare time.

We asked our students to ponder these questions over the course of the week, and come back next Friday with as many answers to the questions as they could. I could already see the students were intrigued by these questions. One girl said, “Ms. Quinn. If I’ve already filled up my page, what do I do?” I answered, “Go on to the next page!”

The best, most hopeful comment I overheard was,

“I can’t WAIT until next Friday!”

Genius Hour will allow the students to fully experience all seven strands of creative development in context. With their answers to the five questions, the students began to experience the phase of Self-Instigation. What's great about Genius Hour is it's one of the only experiences in a classroom where students will be able to truly self-instigage without curricular content interfering. Students get to pick a topic about whatever they want.

Next Friday, we are planning to have the students share their ideas with their classmates. We hope that by sharing, students will continue to add to their own list of ideas. Only after they’ve spent a good chunk of time on self-instigation can they move on to narrowing down their ideas to something good.

I will continue to write about our journey through Genius Hour as we go!

For more educators’ great ideas about Genius Hour, please check our Joy Kirr’s comprehensive Livebinder on the topic.