1. Spark excitement and inspire your learners.
Most children have never been given the opportunity to learn about something that they're passionate about, while at school. Some children will instantly light up and know what they have always wanted to learn more about, others will struggle with the idea of being given this time. Spend the first couple of weeks sparking excitement about Adventure Learning. Watch YouTube clips, share passions and talents, create a class Pinterest account or a physical Twitter board in the classroom to get children sharing and discussing ideas, provide examples of previous children's Adventure Learning projects or create an 'I wonder...' window. For ideas around sparking excitement see my blog post - http://goo.gl/VK40Fs Please note that I'm aware that some of the links no longer work and am in the process of updating it, so check back soon.
2. Student voice
Involve your students in the process of setting up Adventure Learning as much as possible, as well as provide ongoing opportunities for student voice. I can't stress how important this is to get student buy in. This doesn't mean that it's a free for all. Yes, there are some things that I want the children to be able to do e.g. reflect regularly and use the Adventure Learning model to support their learning. However; the children always have input and their ideas are valued. The children in my class are in the process of developing a visual model for Adventure Learning. Already most of them can remember the six different stages. Why? Because they've had ownership of it and have actively participated in co-constructing it. I used to make every child complete a written reflection. Some of my boys told me it was too much writing and that it resulted in them being bored. I explained that reflecting was important, but that if they could come up with a different way I would listen to their idea. They came back with the idea of video reflections, which then became an alternative way to reflect on their learning each week.
3. Support the children with learning specific skills
Don't expect your students to guess what is in your head when you ask them to plan their learning or reflect. Make time to explicitly teach these skills. Model what it might look like, unpack it. Reflect as a class on what's working and what needs to be improved. Often during class discussions you will only get the usual half a dozen children contributing their ideas. Experiment with other ways of gathering student feedback e.g. by using a Google form.
4. Get your community on board
Share what you're doing with your community. It can be daunting at first, but you'll be surprised by the positive feedback that you receive. This can be done in a variety of ways e.g. class letters, blog posts and links, inviting parents/caregivers in for a sharing afternoon. Providing nibbles helps. Keep them informed. Also consider inviting them along to work alongside their children or to share their expertise. They're often only too happy to help.
5. Make it manageable
Everyone is different, but I've personally found it useful to limit the number of Adventure Learning groups to no more than six. When someone first suggested this to me I felt concerned that this would stop children from being able to learn about what they were truly passionate about - it didn't. Often the children who aren't sure what they'd like to learn about end up being inspired by what those around them have decided to do. They then naturally slot into those groups. Limiting the number of groups allows me to be able to give more quality time to each group, which in turn enables the depth of the learning to be further extended.
6. Provide opportunities for children to self-discover
One of the hardest things as a teacher is learning when it is best to keep quiet. Don't give children the answers; encourage curiosity, provide opportunities for self-discovery and ask questions that will challenge the children's thinking and further extend their learning.
7. Let the children see you as a learner
Learn alongside the children. One of the most valuable experiences I've had so far was participating in my own Adventure Learning project. I decided to build a chicken house and run. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, enabled me to reflect on how we did Adventure Learning as a class, but most importantly it let the children see me as a learner as well. I shared my experiences, what challenges I came across and how I overcame them. Sometimes it's important to put yourself in the shoes of your students. To read more about my own Adventure Learning project you can click here - http://goo.gl/nN6OEj
8. Conference times and tracking learning
Every week the children book themselves in for a conference time. Initially it is more teacher led, but as the children are scaffold it becomes a lot more student led. The purpose of a conference time is for the children to reflect on what's worked well, what they've achieved, share any challenges and identify next steps. As the teacher, it's important to do less talking and more listening. During the scaffolding stage you will need to ask more questions or provide prompts that will encourage them to further expand their answers e.g. tell me more about that, is there another way you could do this? What made it so successful? What could you do when you're stuck with your learning? What will you need to organise for next week? What are you planning to do next? etc.
Regularly tracking the children's learning is an important aspect of Adventure Learning. Conference times are the perfect time to track the group's learning so far. Find a way that works best for you early on. Whether it's using a physical notebook, Evernote or Google doc make sure it's something user friendly. It's also a lot more effective if the children have access to these notes and next steps. For more information on tracking learning visit http://goo.gl/haVhKa
9. Find a way to collate online resources.
Storing website links, YouTube clips, photos etc in the one place makes it easily accessible for the children. It also allows you to develop a bank of resources over the course of the year, which can be used for future Adventure Learning projects. I've created a class Pinterest account for my class. Each group has their own board that they can then pin ideas to. What I like about Pinterest is that it's visual and easy to navigate for my year 4 children. Delicious, a Google Presentation/ Doc or Evernote, using QR codes could be possible options too. I know there are lots of different tools out there that do the same thing. It's just about finding that one that best works for you and your class. Here's a link to the Pinterest account I recently set up for my class - http://www.pinterest.com/room8smarties/ You could bookmark the website, add a shortcut on your desktop or stick a QR code up in the classroom. Remember that children will need to be provided with log in details to be able to pin new pins to their board.
10. Provide opportunities for children to learn from each other.
In previous years I've let children run a 5-10 minute session at the beginning of each Adventure Learning lesson. This was an opportunity for a child to be the expert and share a skill, app or idea with the rest of the class. Another way I've done this was by having an app smack down. The children were split up into seven groups, each group was given an app to explore that they hadn't used before. They then had to evaluate how useful it was, how it could support how learning or enable us to create content, then they taught the other groups how to use it. This year my aim is to trial a kids educamp in my class. Would also love to collaborate with other schools to do an educamp for kids or possibly a Google Hangout.
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