ProcessOverProduct

 MakerEd / MakerSpace / MakerCenteredLearning is not about the end product as much as it is about the process and the discussions you can have during the process. Let us chat about some “English classroom” ideas. Students could use a vinyl cutter / Cricut / Cameo, iron-on vinyl and a heat press or iron to put their own poetry on a t-shirt. They could use a laser cutter to engrave it on a cutting board or plaque. They could use ____ to make _____… The product is just the entry step. The conversations that you can have while they are doing this are the more important journey.

Font choice? 

Dimensions & measuring? 

Design & layout?  

Word choice so it fits better?

Color scheme? 

Is it the best vehicle for publishing? 

What is a better one? 

How did poets & authors publish in the past? 

What could partner with the poem to help get the meaning or feeling across?

Is there a similar poem from other authors?

By posing these questions/discussions, seemingly unrelated to content, learners feel that they can ask any type of question. I think that often students don’t know what questions to ask or what questions that they can ask in content areas. “I dont know enough to ask a question without looking foolish.” Questions are what drive learning. It is then up to the “expert” to weave the content ideas in with the answers or show the connections. Those “experts” can be young or old. That is a great happenstance of MakerEd, distributed teaching and learning - everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. Sometimes questions have no relation to the topics at hand. And that is okay.

This works with any maker centered project in any subject area. It also helps to break down the silos of those areas. And think of all the “life skills” that are being practiced.

Some other English ideas :

- Design, make, build something to represent the theme of a novel/story

- Create an object from a novel and explain its significance to the story. Like the Capulets crest. Be the Prop Department for a movie

- hack a poem with makey-makey (make it come to life with sounds and lights and motion)

- design an obstacle course/maze with plot points as key locations. Code robot (the character) to go through it

- design a theme park based on story

- make a mobile based on things in the story

- green screen video a short piece of the story

- create a miniature version of a “set” for part of the story, by drawing, painting, cardboard construction…

- create a “tik tok feed” for a main character

Again, with all of these, it is the conversations that you can have around them, the explanations that the learners give, the questions that they ask and answer, that are most important. 

{ idea help from Emily Burk @tech_edu_burk ; Elizabeth Lloyd @lloydcrew ; Nicole F @mzfawstah ; Sandy Roberts @KaleidoscopeSci ; Dr. Kelly Jurkowski @kellyjurkowski ; and others}