Force Fed

Many students in American high schools are force fed.
Information is poured into them.
Especially in the inner-city, it is difficult to get the attention of many students as they wander into school from foster homes, shelters, jails, and the streets.
Although there is always a core group of students eager to learn & participate (with numbers varying wildly from school to school and neighborhood to neighborhood), the true challenge remains:

How do we get an overwhelming majority of high school students engaged and learning?

This is where my new school comes into play, above & beyond so many others.
We are testing the boundaries of that question.

One experiment (also read: possible solution):
"Independent Work."

Within our 70 minute periods, the teacher's mini-lesson at the beginning of each class is to last no more than 10-20 minutes. This is a tall order for teachers, like myself, trained more in the conventional, old-fashioned methods of both "chalk & talk" and even newer, supposedly different methods such as PowerPoint slideshows.
Even with much additional training & creative planning, " classroom museum gallery walks," "pair shares," & group readings only go so far. The end result remains largely the same: Students act at the specific directions of a teacher. Even with a certain amount of independence for walking around the room, posting comments on gallery walk chart papers, and sharing within pairs and groups, students still act mainly at the teacher's behest.

The new paradigm shift is this:
Each student is free to decide for him or herself what will be best to accomplish during the approximately 20-30 minutes of independent work time in every class, every school day.
A teacher may list several ideas, or options, on the board. Some may think of this as a "choiceboard," which I have employed in past years.

But the big difference is that this is not choosing a project idea.
This is truly a shift in the culture.

Yasmin must decide for herself: Do I stay with my Unison Reading group today, working with partners to complete Renaissance curriculum questions (which have been spelled out by the teacher on handouts posted on the front wall).
Or, would my time be better served by reviewing a PowerPoint--on a classroom laptop-- Mr. H. has e-mailed me?
Should I watch more of the movie clip on Renaissance architecture we didn't have time to finish during class?
Or, do I add more new words (as both a history student & English Language Learner) to the Vocabulary Log sheet I have out from Unison Reading?

The teacher observes students. Occasionally, in between individual conferences with students & formal observations of two Unison Reading groups per class, the teacher employs students to be promotive. Without spelling out exactly what students are or are not doing, the teacher motions toward a problem, compelling others to discern what potential problems may exist.
Oh, okay, students note. Willy is wasting his independent time.
A student or two talk with him about what it is he can be doing to make good use of his time.

If numerous problems exist, perhaps it's time tomorrow to put some content on hold for the mini-lesson and emphasize RASP--Routines And Social Processes. This could include projecting for students segments of a work rubric, specifying how students are to be held accountable during their independent work time.

In the end, our goal is for each and every student to not be an automaton. As William James once said, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."