Dystopian Literature

In a recent conversation with a middle schooler about the role of the teacher in a project based learning school, the student said, "So, you are the back seat driver to my education."

The more I think about it, the more I feel like he hit the nail on the head.

As we have worked to make school remote, that conversation has been in the back of my mind. How are we, as teachers, coaching the students to continue being in the driver's seat. What opportunities are we giving them to discover themselves as learners. Where do we need to push and where do we need to let go a little?

Teachers should consider themselves life long learners, and this national switch to digital schooling exemplifies the strength of the teaching community: teachers who love technology have embraced the switch and gone out of their way to provide resources and assistance to novices. Novices have put their toe in the water and slowly waded in. The national teacher community is modeling project based learning for students on an enormous scale.

In an exploration of new tools and technological resources, I have made a commitment to expand my digital repertoire and learn some skills I have always wanted to learn because they seem like they would be so helpful to students.

Over the course of the past month, students have inductively identified major characteristics of dystopian stories. While reading "Harrison Bergeron," watching Wall-E, and reading Fahrenheit 451, the students observed common characteristics. Then, through discussion, they honed their ideas. Today, I asked them to post their findings. As the posts came in, I realized that their collective ideas deserved more than to just sit in our class notes document waiting to be used as a resource for when the students write their own dystopian stories.

To that end and in the spirit of being a lifelong learner, I learned how to make an infographic. I used a design rubric that an art teacher friend made with me years ago, and I set to work.

Now they can see how professional their trend assessments look when presented in this manner, they can use the information more easily when crafting their own stories, and they have a starting point to use when creating their own future infographics. I have no doubt that they will surpass me.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker