Unlocking Authentic Voices:

Tools to Empower Students Using

DESIGN BASED LEARNING

Suzanna Hidalgo

RUSD Lead Technology Strategist

Look 2 Learning sample size: 17,124 classroom visits

What does it look like?

Spinner Wheel

• Customize spinner wheel with words or images
• Multiple wheels possible
• Saved to Google account
• Customize colors and background images
• Add sounds

Eight Engaging Work Qualities

“We discovered that when the products students were producing were identical, we rarely observed engagement.” page 82

“In classrooms where we marked 3 or more qualities, we saw engagement 86% of the time.” page 91

Introducing…

Design Based Learning

Design Based Learning is…

• student-centered
• learning by doing
• using higher level thinking skills
• about BIG ideas
• creatively expressing ideas
• quickly building physical artifacts

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• What do I need to teach?
• Identify a problem.

State as a “Never-Before-Seen” design challenge.

• Set criteria for assessment
• Let students “Give it a try.”
• Teach guided lessons
• Students revise design

• What do I need to teach?

Principles of Economics

12.1 Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning.

• Examine the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.
• Explain opportunity cost and marginal benefit.
• Evaluate the role of private property as an incentive for conserving and improving scarce resources, including renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.

2. Identify a problem

Design a never-before-seen city for Amazon to build their second headquarters

Don’t Want

Need

• Existing infrastructure
• Source of human capital
• Permanent and temporary housing
• Attractions for both labor and tourists
• Natural spaces
• Unique investment opportunities

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• Overused land resources
• Uneven allocation of capital resources
• Unrealistic examples of finite resources
• Limited trade potential
• Expensive housing that only management can afford

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3. Set Criteria

Amazon HQ

4. Let students give it a try

5. Teach

6. Student revision

“In our 17,124 classroom walks, we saw middle-level thinking most frequently in kindergarten and special education classrooms. The lowest overall levels of thinking were recorded in high school advanced placement courses” page 31

Design a never-before-seen model for urban and rural land usage

Design a never-before-seen exchange diagram between three unique countries

Design a never-before-seen model of how to calculate Gross Domestic Product.

Design a never-before-seen model of how to calculate Gross Domestic Product.

Design a never-before-seen model of how to calculate Gross Domestic Product.

Design a never-before-seen book report.

Your Turn

Spaghettieis

German Spaghetti Ice

created in 1969

by Dario Fontanella

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Taco

Never Before Seen Taco Challenge

Do Want

Tacos That

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• Have an edible/ circular vessel
• Are unique
• Instagrammable
• Have ingredients consumers recognize
• Appeal to a wide range of consumers
• Can be easily reproduced

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Don’t Want

Tacos That

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• Already exists
• Are so weird that only a few people would try
• Are made with extremely rare ingredients
• Would be difficult to reproduce

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Sample

• Click on the + sign after scanning the QR Code
• Click on the Camera icon
• Take a picture of your never-before-seen taco
• Describe your taco & list your price
• Name the taco in the Subject line

Monica

Jenna

Jose

3rd Period

Jimena

Marina

Anthony

Jasmine

4th Period

Green Screen Image

“Would I want to be a learner in my own classroom?” page 39

“Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates” page 55

Upon completing 2 days of shadowing a 10th grade student, the following notes were shared:

“1. Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.

2. High school students are sitting passively and listening during approximately ninety percent of their classes.

3. You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long.” page 83

7 Tenants of CLR

• Culture is a vehicle to bridge the gap
• Teachers are masters of content and must demonstrate ethic of care and high expectations
• Learning is shared within the culture of the classroom and school environment
• Inclusive instruction and environment
• Content and curriculum is taught critically
• Multiple literacies and identities
• Balanced literacy is highly respected with an emphasis on writing

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Rialto Unified Strategic Plan

Action Step 1:

Use real-world and personally meaningful projects and/or problem-based, interdisciplinary explorations to demonstrate literacy across content areas.

• Teachers will plan and create explorations that span across program-specific core content areas to be used as authentic assessments of content mastery that integrate student choice/input.
• Students will be given the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of content in ways such as but not limited to: incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL), skits, multi-media presentations, podcasts, poetry, and artwork.

Public Product

Students make their project work public by sharing it with and explaining or presenting it to people beyond the classroom.

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Canva

FigJam

Google Sites

Google Slides

Padlet

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= today

Padlet

• Files
• Camera images
• Videos
• Audio files
• Screen recordings
• Drawings
• AI Generated Images
• GIFs YouTube
• Locations

Thinglink

$3 per student, per year (500 minimum)

Interactive Google Slides

• “Clickable” icons
• Additional resources
• Publishable

Potential Design Challenges

• Design and construct a habitat for a cooperative animal group (3rd Grade Science)
• Design and construct a sustainable resource distribution strategy (7th Grade Science)
• Design and construct an outdoor art installation to address climate change (Visual Arts)
• Design and construct a human habitat suitable for a hot/dry environment (5th Grade Social Studies)
• Design and construct a city preparing for a huge influx of new residents (10th Grade Social Studies

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Ideas for Design Based Learning Assessments