A Trunk Full of Learning in Civics 11

13 May 2016Jim Ganley

Personalized learning is a buzz phrase these days but in essence it simply means an educational model where teachers play to individual student strengths and passions. Recently, the students of Mr. Robinson’s Civics 11 class were allowed to construct their own learning path towards a greater understanding of a topic they were interested in. Students developed timelines and co-constructed rubrics with their teacher to help them structure their research and develop their final product in manageable stages. Some students produced videos or websites, others term papers, and some slideshows to demonstrate their learning and display it to others. Tyra C, Hope ‘17 & Olivia P, Allard ‘17 were highly creative in their approach to investigating and educating others about several historical human rights abuses in Canada. They made artifacts of various kinds, documents, pictures, & household items and placed them in an old trunk that emphasized the transience and impermanence that was felt as internees were transported to various camps around the country. By creating more tangible representation of their learning, the girls were able to really engage with the subject matter and, equally importantly, allow others to do likewise.

Where Students Choose To Be