This MIGHT be a legitimate question from a student IF no direction has been given. At minimum my students receive:
1. An Essential Question
2. A Rubric
3. A Model
4. Engagement / Advanced Organizer / Anticipatory Set
5. The Objectives for the Unit of Study
5. The Objectives for the Unit of Study
When this happens I am tempted to ask the student, "Have I not given you reason to want something in the project yourself? Have you no motivation to discover and create?"
Even with my best efforts and best practices to draw from them their interests, abilities and future goals and even create more interest it is still me imposing the application of those things to their learning.
I've had one student explicitly state to me that HE chose to take my chemistry class because of his interest in metallurgy. He had some reason of his own to do the work. How can we get other students to be like this one?
Well, first we must relinquish the responsibility for learning-- or at least a bigger chunk of it-- to the learner. Then we must be patient and confident as we let them flail about, muse, or even get really bored or frustrated until they find a way to get at it.
For a student who has had little exposure to this style of thinking, I think the adjustment can be quite a confusing one. The unwritten rubric that most students structure their work by is "Just tell me what you want and how you want it".
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