Choosing quality resources: When "cute" doesn't cut it.

When you're searching for ideas and activities for your next unit, it's important to think about how you want to spend your time. Do you want your students creating a craftivity because it's cute & fun, or working with content in meaningful ways? You might have time for both, but if you don't, evaluate your resources to figure out which one will suit your needs. Read to learn the four things you need to think about to choose the best products for your lesson!

Let me start off by saying, who doesn’t like cute stuff?

I do. I love cute stuff.

I love little apples and chunky frames on handouts.

I love craftivities that ask kids to cut and glue, color and bedazzle.

I love anchor charts that use color beautifully and include clever visuals to help kids remember.

Glitter… not so much. But buttons? I’m all about buttons.

But sometimes, “cute” just doesn’t cut it.

Sometimes, you need a resource with some meat. By this, I mean, when you choose resources to use in your classroom, it’s important to keep the purpose in mind. What’s the point of any resource? That kids will learn.

So let’s think about what this looks like in practice.

Let’s say you’re working on a unit for social studies. You want kids to learn about the important contributions made by people in the Civil Rights Movement.

If you look for resources for this online, you’ll probably find 100,000 different lesson ideas, printables, and crafts to help you teach this idea.

Just to name a few, you’d probably find:

a printable “anchor chart” with the pictures of the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

a craftivity to craft Martin Luther King Jr. out of a paper plate

a slew of graphic organizers for brainstorming and organizing information

lists of books about historical figures who were active during this time

a craftivity where students make a dream bubble and write about their dreams

a PowerPoint presentation introducing several important events from the Civil Rights Movement

a timeline cut and paste activity of important events

partner plays about civil rights activists

So you’ll have to be selective.

But how will you choose what resources to use in your unit?

1. Start with the thinking.

What kinds of thinking will kids have to think (in their brains) understand the causes, events and impact of the Civil Rights Movement? They’ll have to…
– identify the concept of civil rights

– understand the laws in place at the time of the Civil Rights Movement

– visualize the way life was before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement

– identify important historical figures and explain the actions of the people responsible for fighting for their rights

– empathize with people who made sacrifices to achieve something for their communities

– evaluate the outcome of civil rights leaders’ actions

– understand that there are still inequalities in our world

When you’re choosing resources, think about whether that resource will help kids achieve that thinking. The “anchor chart” might be adorable and serve a great purpose elsewhere, but will printing out what is actually just a poster actually help students do the thinking you need them to? It’s okay to challenge our kids. In fact, it’s necessary! Cute resources might look nice in the hallway, but they don’t often get kids to think deeply about the important kinds of learning we want them to do.

Tip: Think about what kinds of thinking kids need to do, and choose resources that will help them do it.

2. Think about your time frame.

If you’ve got a couple weeks to spend on this unit, a lot of “cute” has to go right out the window.

Depending on your daily schedule, you may be able to fit in one crafty lesson, or you may not even have enough time to finish your unit even without the cute stuff. Having students create a paper plate Martin Luther King, Jr. might make a great bulletin board, but it probably won’t be a great use of time during your week-long unit.

Tip: Think about how much time you’ve got, and choose resources that will maximize it.

3. Think about the level of support students need.

Some kids need more explicit instruction than others. Some groups of kids might be ready to read a partner play about Jackie Robinson and begin to empathize with his experience. Some groups of kids will need more scaffolding and discussion to help them get to the same point.

If you have students who need a lot of scaffolding, will cutting out a dream bubble and writing about their dreams be a good use of their time? Will they make the connection between the kinds of ideas you’re discussing and the paper plate? If students need a lot of support and explicit teaching, sometimes adding too much “cute” can actually muddle the experience of learning and confuse them. Sometimes a simple experience is more effective than a complicated one.

Tip: Think about the most effective way to teach students the content, and choose resources that will support it.

4. Think about age and grade appropriateness.

If you’re working with second graders, that timeline cut and paste activity might be a great way to scaffold their understanding of important events. Your fifth graders might not get much out of it, though, and it’s possibly not appropriate for their developmental level.

A PowerPoint presentation with videos and images from the civil rights movement will most likely overwhelm your kindergarteners (unless you scaffold it verrrry well), but it might be just right for fourth graders.

Just because you find it online, doesn’t mean that you have to use it. Your time, and your kids’ time, is limited, so be selective and choose the resource that will give you the biggest bang for your buck!

Does that mean that any of those resources I mentioned are bad? No! Nothing is inherently wrong with any of them! But with our limited time and unique community of learners, some resources will be more effective than others.

For every resource that’s out there, there’s probably an appropriate time and group of kids to use it with! But not every resource is created equally, and our job is to choose the resources that will help our kids really, truly learn. Sometimes, it might be the right time for cute! And sometimes, “cute” doesn’t cut it. It’s our job to know the difference!

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