Rock Star Lesson Design for Common Core and 1:1

Megan Westcoat

CA

Corippo, J., & Cue Inc. (2015, April 13). Rock Star Lesson Design for Common Core and 1:1. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWzEwHb4vw

Traditionally this blog talks about text articles we have found helpful in our learning journeys.  However, it is also a class about stretching our definitions of learning and teaching, and that both of those things can take place anywhere, at anytime, and presumably over any type of medium.  So while it is not an article, this is instead a YouTube video of a presentation made at CUE RockStar’s 2015 National Conference.  Jon is the Director of Academic Innovation for CUE.  According to its website,   “CUE inspires innovative learners by fostering community, personalizing learning, infusing technology, developing leadership, and advocating educational opportunities for all. “ 

  It is funny to say I was inspired to learn more about Mr Corippo after meeting him because I didn’t even formally meet him.  He happened to be having a discussion with some teachers in a library where I was just shelving books.  But I found myself slow-moving amongst the stacks because I wanted to over-hear more and more about what they were talking about.  And Mr Corippo, especially in real life, is a person who makes me, at least, want to be a better educator. 

  This presentation that I tracked down after that library encounter is about Lesson Planning and as it says in the YouTube description: “Rock Star Lesson Design means a healthy dose of PBL, SAMR, App Smashing, EdTech, OER, and more. Ideally all at once! “   While not calling them by the names, per se, he touches on a variety of models in the Birds Unit books by Dr. Loertscher.

   The video is an hour long so it’s not a quick fix, but he delves into all kind of things, including the idea that our lessons are about the concept not the content which means we can make their lesson accessible.  He wants them to think, “This is fun, I can do this, what are we doing tomorrow?”   He advocates for immediate assessment instead of taking home piles of work.  The more we do something, we go from knowing to understanding and that in the grand scheme of things,  forces us to consider our classes and assessments.  As he says, “It doesn’t matter what their math scores are if they never take math again.” 

  His lesson ideas are not one-hundred percent constructivist, but his message is clearly applicable to what we are learning here, including that our lessons must be transformative.  We are honing skills that can be used at another place or time and even out of context that demonstrate a deep understanding of the material.

One my lasting take aways is the implied connotation that a student already knowing how to do something is inherently bad. After all, it as educators our job is to teach them new things.  But Corippo flips it on the views and asks,  “Is there a better thing to say than ‘I know how to do this?’”  Before watching him I would have said “no” but just that 30 seconds made me consider the empowerment a student feels when knowing how to address a problem, that students should be building upon things they already know and that by knowing something already means they can do it fast and add something possibly more complex to it at a later date.