Gradual Release of Responsibility:
A Parody
Taken from Laura Numeroff’s successful story, When You Give a Mouse a Cookie, here is a parody to demonstrate the gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student.
When you talk to a teacher in a grocery store,
She will want an idea.
When you give a teacher an idea,
She will ask for a day to learn.
When you give her a day to learn,
She will create a lesson.
When she creates a lesson,
Her students will struggle.
When her students struggle,
They will learn how to create.
When the students learn how to create,
They will ask for more projects.
When you give them more projects,
They will want to share.
When the students begin to share,
They will want to ask questions.
When the students ask questions,
They will want to research.
When the students begin to research,
They will want to create.
When the students create a second time,
They have learned independence, collaboration and problem-solving.
When the students have learned these three things,
The teacher will want to celebrate.
Andrea had a chance meeting at a grocery store with a teacher, where she shared how she wanted to give her students more authentic experiences. This conversation led to a day of professional development to learn Seesaw and Nearpod. Andrea took off with lessons on both apps using Core Vocabulary from the regular curriculum and integrating it with her curriculum. Instead of spending whole group time on things the students could do independently, she now had time to teach them deeper content. She put the 4th-grade water cycle vocabulary in her morning meeting and found she was able to give them more meaningful background knowledge faster. The students connected to the material and each other on a deeper level and gave all students a voice in the conversation. A voice that was able to be heard by teachers, students, and parents. It changed her whole room!
This is not to say this didn’t come with some frustration from both staff and students, but when they worked through that frustration and learned the expectations, learning took off!
With the use of Seesaw and Nearpod, Andrea has found the students to be more interactive, collaborative, creative and independent. It taught the students how to wait patiently, interact with the material and show what they knew at their own pace. It transformed the learning process, too. Andrea was able to assess their knowledge more quickly and easily with these tools and make adjustments to instruction on the spot. By interacting with the content individually, it gave new meaning to “work on your iPad”. Both parents and students learned that the iPads were not just for entertainment or as a reward, it was a requirement!
An unexpected result was that Andrea instantly noticed a deeper connection between her and the parents, the students and the material, and the students to each other. The students took more responsibility for their learning, posted their work online and were able to show their parents what they worked on all day. For many students whose verbal communication is limited, this opened a window for parents. This transparency increased the communication between the teacher, parents, and students. Andrea said that Seesaw and Nearpod have taken her teaching and the students’ learning up to the next level.
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