Using Design Thinking in Classroom

Design thinking is an interesting model for classroom learning and an interesting way to try and get students to move from just being engaged in their learning to facilitating and taking control of their own learning.  As we learned about in our session design process requires a great deal of time for the students to explore the hows of their learning and work on designing and redesigning their work.  I have really worked to try and come up with some useful ideas for how to use design thinking in my classroom experience moving forward.  Many of the ideas I came across in my research are something that either does not seem feasible to me or is something that seems like it is not really an idea designed to help students learn/use the curriculum but more to just create a product.  I really struggled with how to use design thinking in the Foreign Language classroom but then I realized that I could much more easily add it to my ELL classes to spark the students use of English skills.  If my students were asked to create a game out of a few simple objects then I could use that as a framework for our learning and build-in assessments and steps that forced the students to use English Language skills in order to present aspects of their learning and creation such as: written rules for the game, a video explanation of how to play the game, research notes and annotations that show how they research and understand, etc. I also think that I can work on having the students use their own interests as a base and have them work to find solutions to the problems that they see in the world or the things they want to improve and make better and have them use the Launch cycle process with assessment steps as a framework to use the language and help grow in their English skills

As I continue to try and research ideas for design theory and the launch cycle I'm sure I will become more inspired to use specific ideas to get the students best possible engagement. As of right now I am still a little short-changed on specific ideas but I hope to continue to gain a better understanding moving forward

I know that I have much to learn and that there are many different ways out there that the students can be reached out to in order to make their learning more enjoyable and provide a better grasp of the content and a more meaningful learning experience.  I think that Design theory is one way that we can really reach out to students to help motivate them and empower them to take control and responsibility for their own learning.