Highly Structured & Allowed Choices Attributes Reflection by Maureen Seidel

Brett Nordquist

2019-12-28 00:11:45 UTC

Replacement Activities stuck out to me the most. Students need to complete their thinking in a medium familiar to them. Then, after the student learns how to use the platform, they can transfer their learning to the new platform. This avoids the split-brain dynamic. Even though I know students need to do their thinking in a medium familiar to them, I often get ahead of myself and tend to minimize this step for students. I know when I have move too quickly when I start getting overwhelmed looks in the eyes of students and lots of questions all as once. This is a good reminder that I need to avoid minimizing this step and I need to prevent students from minimizing this step because they are so anxious to work in the platform.

Conrad Evanow

cevanow — 2020-01-15 22:28:01 UTC

What attribute stuck out to me the most was teacher directed not direct teaching. I have several lessons throughout the year in which I use this attribute and it works well for me.

mcolorockwood — 2020-02-28 00:05:33 UTC

Marie Rockwood - Melba Elementary. I started with a paper of notes, then decided I will choose my platform. I created a canva, which I never used before. I considered putting a video in, but then decided this was getting too busy. See the canva above.

mcolorockwood — 2020-02-28 00:05:57 UTC

Cindy Schmidt

2020-06-24 22:53:31 UTC

The attribute in Allowed Choices that I really liked was the Student Choice. Students need to feel ownership in their learning so they can become independent learners and this is a good start to that.
I do not remember answering this specific question on Highly structured when I took that course, but I remember doing Padlet. But I would say that I would have leaned toward Building Management and Procedures which would be very important to have in place before Allowing Choices and more independence. It would also help with the teacher doing more directing and not direct teaching so that students would have more choice and buy in in the education.

Tiffany VanArsdel

vanarsdelt — 2020-07-01 20:55:59 UTC

Wendy Brown

2020-11-13 20:46:19 UTC

The attribute that stuck out the most to me is Student Choice. As anyone can attest, when we can take ownership of a task we are more likely to put in the time and effort to make it as effective as possible. The same can be said of students in a classroom. Students like to feel like they are in charge of their learning and when we give them the opportunity to grow and take that ownership, they will step up to that challenge head on. I can't find which highly structured attribute I had picked, but I think it was building capacity. This is essential to student choice. If students do not feel comfortable with certain platforms, then they are less likely to choose that platform for a future assignment, which actually lessens their choices. The more practice we can give our students with the various platforms, the more resources we can give them, and more opportunities to be successful.

Brenda Peck

bpeck4 — 2021-01-13 22:11:45 UTC

I think the Allowed Choices Attributes build on each other and intertwine. One can not stand alone and be successful. That being said - The one that resonates with me is Multiple Exposures because I try to incorporate as many platforms as possible into the Integrated Technology curriculum. Our school is a Google school; while I know the google apps are not the most desirable platforms, they are necessary and used a lot by our secondary staff. I teach lessons using google docs, slides, spreadsheets, and drawing so students will be very familiar by 7th grade. Then I also add the fun platforms like adobe spark, canva, padlet, powtoon, etc. While they never become experts in elementary, they have been exposed and with curiosity and work they can be creative with several different platforms before they enter middle school.

The Highly Structured Attributes are the base that supports and makes the Allowed Choices successful. There must be structured Management and Procedures, Teacher Direction (then not directed), Building Capacity, and Multiple Exposures before students have the skills to choose and accept ownership for what they want to learn.

Marco Mendoza

mmendoza39 — 2021-03-05 21:56:09 UTC

The attribute that sticks out to me the most in the allowed choices section is the student choice attribute. A lot of the time students feel like they have no control over their education and when we give them the choice they can go beyond our expectations. It is interesting that we always push for independent learners while our school systems are not structured in that way. Giving students a choice on how they show their learning helps give them some ownership on their education and will help them buy into it more.

The attributes that are connected well in highly structured and allowed choices is teacher directed no teaching directly. I really like that as a teacher you are there to help guide and be necessarily the one telling students all the answers. As a teacher, you are there with the tool kit and then your students can begin to build. This attribute of teacher directed really does a good job of leading students to be more independent learners, so the early we start building these skills the better they will understand when they are adults.

Jenifer Sanford Multiple Exposure and Student Choice stood out to me the most. When we allow our students the choice of how they are going to show their learning, we create more buy-in. When we allow students to choose the platform they are most comfortable using, they can focus more on learning rather than being stuck doing the same thing as their peers. Multiple exposures in the H model will give students the opportunity to grow and will give them more choices in the A model.

2023-05-15 16:53:04 UTC

Jana Kingery

2024-06-27 20:39:13 UTC

Modeling stuck out to me because it seems my high school students understand better when they see it being done. I do think there is value in encouraging students to figure out things on their own just as much as modeling behavior or in this case use of platform can be an invaluable process for better comprehension. It is important to start with a topic or platform students are already familiar with before the new platform being introduced (replacement activity) so that students are not trying to figure out 2 new things at the same time.