STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE TIMELINES FOR THEMATIC BASED ASSIGNMENTS DESIGNED TO ENHANCE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

This article discusses an innovative approach to handling the continual challenge educators face in determining just how much time to give their students to complete assignments while at the same time assuring that objectives for these assignments are met.

The article explores a new methodology for utilizing strategies to develop an educational chain to help students acquire knowledge and develop important academic skills, and at the same time provide teachers with the flexibility to offer an alternative approach for assigning work.

Through voluntary thematic and curriculum based assignments students are afforded the opportunity to enhance their grades, develop academic skills, and better understand the relevancy of course related materials while at the same time pique their interest in both school and the world outside the classroom.

Over the course of a school year teachers plan literally hundreds of lessons for their students. A continual challenge for educators is determining just how much time to allot to each of these assignments. This can be a real dilemma. On the one hand, when students are not given adequate time to complete an assignment they rush through the work. The finished product proves to be inferior and the major objectives of the assignment are unmet. If on the other hand students are given too much time to complete their work the result is boredom and often discipline problems. Veteran educator who has suffered through prolonged periods in the library when students have been given too much time to complete an assignment know how easily students can get into trouble.

Closely related to this is the belief that all assignments should be part of an educational chain to help students acquire knowledge and develop important academic skills. Assignments should not therefore be isolated tasks, but instead should be interrelated sets of learning activities designed to meet long-range curricula goals. Too often this is not the case. In addition, there is the reality that most assignments are usually designed to meet the goals of only one specific discipline. Lost in this reality is the opportunity to make learning more meaningful by relating it to a wider array of knowledge from other subject areas. An interdisciplinary approach to such assignments would greatly enhance the possibility of achieving the major objectives of these lessons and improve the possibility for students to retain the knowledge acquired.

The question then becomes twofold. First, how do teachers develop a strategy for allocating appropriate timelines to complete these assignments? Like the famous three bears story, the time given to students cannot be too short, or too long, but somehow "just right." Secondly, how can teachers design assignments that develop an important interrelated foundational knowledge basis? Both of these challenges present a daunting task for educators everywhere.

The answer may just lie in utilizing an innovative strategy designed to pique students' interest, develop academic skills, and provide an alternative approach for assigning work. This strategy centers on defining in advance important themes that teachers deem relevant to the materials they will be teaching over the course of the year. Once these themes are identified, short and long-term assignments can be developed. Students will be allowed to link outside research or make across the curriculum comparisons that tie into these central themes. These assignments can be either teacher or student generated. They can be individual or group based. They can be used as an excellent means to give students the opportunity to do independent work that will enhance their grades. These assignments would be optional, but yet exciting and rewarding enough to entice almost all students to participate on some level.

This is how it works. Through the course of the semester and the year as a whole, students and teachers will develop assignments that are closely related to curriculum work within the classroom. These assignments can be literature based, or artistic in nature, or even science or history specific. Students will then see a correlation between what they are being taught in the classroom and what is occurring in the world outside of school. As students discover each correlation they are given suitable means to express them. This can take the form of written or oral reports, poster or audio-visual presentations, or any mutually agreed upon method.

As students begin to see a connection between works of literature or historical themes to daily life as portrayed in magazines, or on local news broadcasts, or in popular books, they can better come to understand that much of what they are learning within their school has relevance to their every day real life. There will be less refrains of "why are we learning this, or when will I ever use this?" The major benefit of this methodology is that it allows students to make learning connections at their own pace with no risk since all the assignments work to improve their grades. As always some students will do several such assignments while others only a few. The key though is that almost all students will begin to develop a better understanding of what they are learning and how to relate that learning to real life experiences. This learning also works to combine students' interests, existing curriculum, and the development of research skills in an enjoyable and highly effective manner.

Once fully developed this strategy can be expanded to allow teachers from different disciplines to work together to develop common themes that students can utilize for more than one class. Think of the possibilities if teachers allow students to complete one assignment that will improve their grade, in not one, but in two or more subject areas. The opportunity is almost too good for students to pass up. In the process they develop higher level thinking skills as well.

Mostly importantly, teachers will be able to allow students to by and large work at their own pace. Since the work is voluntary, time deadlines can be very flexible. It is a win/win situation for both teachers and students alike.

Copyright Project Innovation Winter 2003
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