It's not failure, it's learning....Part 2: Next Steps

In my May 28th post, "It's not failure, it's learning", I shared my dismay regarding the unacceptable cartoons my students created using the Toontastic app. I have spent a significant amount of time reflecting on the learning I experienced that day. I have also been talking to my colleagues and spent a decent amount of my time consulting with my Principal about it. After a great talk with him I have decided to give Toontastic another try. Armed with new knowledge, my students and I will tackle Toontastic the way we would tackle any other major learning in our class - a learning goal and success criteria! Here is the chart we agreed on:



Toontastic & Writing Learning Goal and Success Criteria


It seems so obvious to me now, but this is not how we had been learning/working with the technology. Nevertheless, they are showing me what they need and I am providing them with the structure that has led them to success. We now have the learning goal and success criteria. They know what the goal is, what they need to show me, what they need to say, how they need to say it, and how they need to connect it.
 
Now that this has been established, anchor charts will be created to guide them to successfully meeting their goal. Stay tuned to see how this plays out. I am so happy that our failure, I mean learning, occurred a short while ago because without it I don't think my students will have gained as much as they are going to gain. I will continue to update you regarding our experience with the Toontastic app to create an animated retell of our First Communion preparation.

Feel free to comment as you wish. I welcome the feedback.