It is sometimes difficult for a teacher and her class to get the ball rolling on exactly what an Action Learning opportunity should entail.  Of course, the AL opportunity will often grow out of the content being explored in class.  But, if that doesn't seem to be happening, the list below provides low-stakes strategies for beginning the process of developing an Action Learning opportunity. 

• What are your passion projects? Ask, “What am I passionate about?” Or better yet, ask the students.

• Adapt an Action Learning unit to what you are doing already.

• Ask students what they need. Create an Action Learning experience that helps them get it.

• Do an “I Believe” exercise. Grow it into a “We Believe” extravaganza. 

• Create a simple prompt: What is going on around the campus or community that you think needs more attention paid to it, or that seems to be a problem? 

• Come up with a three-word phrase that captures, or prompts a project. Share it and have others free associate with it. Begin to feel the contours of the project and now build the AL moves to get it started.

• Create a spoken word event that is the culmination of research on a chosen topic.

• Begin with a moment, something small….

• Begin with a metaphor, for example, “school as ecosystem”—and build the Action Learning  experience from there.

What ideas, tricks, tips, formats, etc., do YOU have for generating projects?
email us at info@teachearthaction.org