Very refreshing to have a conversation with two students about their PLPs. I had to laugh as they both started with not liking them...they get in the way of us getting to do other things! Well, that is not surprising I guess as schools roll out new ways of doing things. What I did take away from this part was that it could be better to integrate PLPs into other blocks at first instead of making a set time when students feel like they are losing other time (to do homework and chat!)
Another highlight was the way they wanted to have more creative say in what their PLP looked like. Makes sense if we are asking for personal thinking then they should have the chance to be personal! Provide an expected set of parts to include, like happened here, and let students have some say in making it their own. Seems like that might have helped with these students.
A complaint they both had was that during the roll out of the PLP, they were asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" That was the leading question to inspire what they wanted to study. They both said this was very overwhelming for them. They said just ask us what we were interested in and wanted to learn more about. Good advice.
For my purpose this week though I heard them say that teachers needed to make sure that they allowed more time for the reflection and collection of evidence. Also, make it more consistent as they found long gaps of time between goal setting and documenting their work. So much so that they forgot what they were working on! Neither of them seemed very concerned about the platform they were asked to use - good to know as I can think about the work of improving reflection and not the format.
Nice recap that supports so much of the conversation that you and I had as well.
ReplyDelete- Yes integrating their PLP work is a good move, especially if the set aside time would be seen as replacing something more "fun" (i.e., with less requirements)
- Allowing them to be connected and creative, rather than forced and far-off (career-focused) is also a good move
- And yes it's about the process and the framing rather than the platform. By framing I mean the marketing, which supports your conversations with students to hear how they are perceiving different aspects of the PLP. I'd also urge you to involve your own students in the design process.