April 16, 2024
As we wrap up our focus on the Portrait of a Graduate trait Critical Thinkers, we are excited to share another student feature from Granville High School. The new SDL (student-directed-learning) English class at GHS has been using critical thinking skills to approach education differently this year. Students have been reading classic and modern literature, writing creative and analytical essays, and researching, but they have had a choice regarding the content, process, monitoring, and final demonstration of their learning. Each day, the juniors and seniors enrolled take control of how they interact with the curriculum.
The capstone of the class is the 20Time project. Students created a project that merged their interests with purpose and have spent 20 percent of their class time this year planning, developing, monitoring, adapting, and implementing something that embraces the English Language Arts standards and positively impacts others.
“SDL has pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged the way I think in the classroom. Through our 20Time project we were given an open- ended assignment that each and everyone of us could interpret differently. For my project I decided to create pop-up coffee shops throughout the year for my classmates. My goal was to share my love of coffee as well as bring the students in at Granville High school closer together, to make more memories together. I was able to create and form this however I wanted, and it challenged me to fix problems on my own and reach out to others for help and insight on what they might want at these pop-up coffee shops. This project has helped me to grow as a human without just completing a sheet of homework.” -Lucy Walters, Senior
“SDL is a course that encourages critical thinking, but also curiosity. These days, a lot of classes seem to focus on standards and test scores, because of this our generation has lost some of the love for learning that we had when we were younger. My 20-time project is, I think, a really good example of how SDL allows students to develop their desire to learn. I have been relearning myself, and introducing to the rest of the class, American Sign Language. The amount of engagement and enthusiasm I’ve received has proved that students do want to learn, even if it will have no impact on their grade. SDL is the class that has taught me how to learn for the sake of learning, not to memorize for the sake of succeeding.” -Lani Casto, Junior
Thank you, Blue Aces, for being such a first-rate example of Critical Thinkers by pushing and challenging yourselves to learn something new! You truly embraced Granville’s mission of Learning for Life!
(Please note: photos are courtesy of Lyndy VanHorn and GHS Blue Ace Media.)