So this week was enlightening by a video of a student shown on the news, telling a teacher, "We are tired of these packets you give us, why can't you stand up and teach us, and not just hand us another packet."   As I watched I thought - YES more students need to stand up and say this. NO to packets of work that a teacher doesn't even explain.  Well then one of my own students asked me about it and I said  yes I had seen the video and I agree, more people need to take ownership of their learning and demand a different way.  So the student says to me, "we (as in kids in my classes) decided we should not do packets in your room anymore also."   To which I was shocked.  This is something that really bothers me, yes for prep for testing I give packets that directly discuss the skill and I teach a mini lesson on the packet before or as we are reading it.  I don't just hand it to them.  But I really really really want to be that teacher that does not use packets.  So how to do that?  I am reading - Who Owns the Learning?  By Alan November and he has a way to hand the reins over to the student.  So when I saw this picture today I thought, yes, lets follow their lead and let them learn like they would like.  So for the next 4 weeks in my classroom - No more packets.  I find good samples in good mentor text, and I ask them to find answers to the questions posted in the room. I ask them to become the scribes and notetakers to post on the blog, and I turn the learning over to them.

What I need to do this is a list of questions?