The Renzulli Learning Wizard Project Maker™
The answer to the question, “What next?”
Once the Renzulli Profiler™ has been created for each student and the students have begun to explore the enrichment activities selected for them, teachers and students may ask, “What do I do next?” Teachers and students have different roles. To understand these roles, it is helpful to understand what we mean by enrichment learning.
Enrichment learning includes investigative activities and the development of creative products in which students assume roles as first-hand investigators, writers, artists, or other types of practicing professionals. Although students pursue this kind of involvement at a more junior level than adult professionals, the overriding purpose is to create situations in which young people are thinking, feeling, and doing what practicing professionals do in the delivery of products and services.
To facilitate enrichment learning, the teacher’s role changes from the traditional model where the teacher plans and prescribes all learning, to a more supportive, reactive position. The teacher acts as the “guide-on-the-side,” approaching the teaching/learning interaction from the perspective of a coach or mentor, providing instruction based on a specific, direct need a student has expressed in order to be able to accomplish a task.
The basic characteristics of this type of learning environment include:
· The student and teacher select a topic which may be an off-shoot of the regular curriculum or an independent topic based on the student’s interest
· The student produces a product and/or service that is intended to have an impact on a particular audience
· The student uses authentic methods, technological resources and advanced level content to produce their product or service.
The role of the teacher is to guide the student as he or she pursues an area of interest. The student’s role is to choose a topic, area of interest or problem during consultation with the teacher, and then to independently search for resources. This can be done using Renzulli Learning and other local, national or international resources available. The Wizard Project Maker™ helps students create their plan for learning with teacher input. The Wizard Project Maker™ walks students through the research process and provides an on-line organizational system where students can work and store the information they have gathered. Everything is in one place and is easily accessible.
Here is an example:
A group of students was interested establishing a debate club at their school. Under their teacher’s guidance, they examined several how-to books at this section of the Renzulli Learning web site. They located a how-to book entitled A Student’s Guide to Social Action. A detailed set of guidelines for writing a proposal gave these students the skills necessary to do a professional job in the proposal they were preparing. In order to determine student interest in having a debate club, they decided to survey students. The group used a web site found by Renzulli Learning that allowed them to develop a questionnaire, input the data and tabulate the results of their survey. This information was included in a PowerPoint presentation that they created and showed to the Principal and Student Council, along with their written proposal for the club. The high student interest and the persuasive presentation by this group of students resulted in the creation of a debate club at their school.