During instruction, I prefer to have my students lead the class whenever possible. Inquiry-based learning is most effective for engaging students and providing them agency in their own learning. I encourage the process of “making a mess” before coming to conclusions because it creates a sense of safety for students’ thoughts and then challenges them to put the pieces back together. In the first video below, students demonstrate their ability to lead the class, taking the instruction completely out of my hands. The second video displays the mess-making of thoughts and collaborating to come to a strong conclusion.
This lesson was taught over the Zoom platform. I began the lesson on close-reading with a short film called “The Present.” In practicing analysis with my students, I noticed that they would continuously focus only on the plot-level of the text. I used this film to show how seamlessly possible it is to move from the basic plot to a larger conclusion beyond it. I was blown away, however, by how they were able to do this on their own without prompting.“Take a risk” has become somewhat of a tagline, especially over a virtual platform where students become immediately afraid of being seen and being heard. Students were able to provide their thoughts, listen to each other, self-correct, and collaborate in order to achieve a goal. What cannot be seen in the recording is the students’ use of virtual reactions, mainly the applause, thumbs-up, and celebration reactions when their peers provided a response that they agreed with or thought was strong. In instances of vulnerability, students encouraged each other to continue taking risks and grown together.
