EDUC 518Maggie ArmendarizHarriet GreaneyMarilupe RodriguezWenjie Wang

A key aspect of “partnering” education is discovering students’ passions and interests. Today’s teachers need to help students discover, understand, and develop their passions.

While partnering, it is important to know students’ passions in detail.

Passion provides a source of energy that inspires learners to make an effort, determines how long they will be willing to endure an activity, how hard they will pursue it, and how much they learn.

Passion, in this sense, means a person’s central goals in life, the things the learner cares about most, or the things that move him or her emotionally. This does not mean that a student needs to become passionate about learning English in order to succeed. Rather, the student needs to find a way to connect English learning to his passionate interests.

Each student learns differently. As partners and educators, we find that students are talented in different ways. One student may be creative, another analytical; or one may be mechanical, and another may excel at writing. Teaching requires differentiated and individualized instruction.

We use passions as the drivers of student engagement and achievement.

Educators can learn from their students by helping them find their passions and by organizing class activities around the theme of self-expression. To discover students’ passions, educators can use various methods--personalized tasks, idea journals, speaking circles, or interactive questionnaires.

To build respect and tolerance for individuality.

To inspire more variety in our lessons. To allow us to create meaningful guiding

questions. To encourage us to get and give constant

feedback.

Adjusting to new roles takes time, so patience is important at the beginning of the process.

The key to partnering is having mutual respect between students and teachers.

Make students more active and equal participants in the learning process.

Coach Guide Instructional expert

◦ Designer◦ Questioner◦ Context setter◦ Rigor provider◦ Quality assurer

Researcher Technology expert Thinker World changer Self- teacher “Professional”

Encourage variations in team work and peer- to- peer learning.

Address slacker-free group work. Hold class discussions

◦ Circle the chairs. Use students as assistants.

The more we educators think of students as individuals with their own passions, the more we use those passions to instruct and motivate, and the more we will reach all students.Students will be more motivated to take advantage of opportunities and to display greater effort and concentration. Students will reveal positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, interest, and optimism during learning.

Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin a Sage Company.