Here’s How I Went From Planning Lessons to Planning Learning Experiences for My Students


by | 01.14.25

Adrian Neibauer is an elementary teacher in Colorado. Follow him on X @MrNeibauer.

I’m a big proponent of creating meaningful learning experiences for my students. What’s the difference between a standardized lesson plan and a learning experience? That’s one of the questions I tackled during my time as an instructional coach focused on innovation, creativity and STEM content. Now that I’ve been back in the classroom for some years, creating learning experiences is still the bedrock of my teaching practice.

For me, that means considering our time in class from my students’ perspective, considering what helps them actively engage with our content and what supports their growing self-awareness and sense of agency over their own learning. First, in my planning, I approach each day in class as an experience first and let that guide my approach to the required standards. The opportunities for students to authentically work with the content, engage with one another and exercise their voice and choice all stem from considering their experience first, rather than beginning with a more prescriptive approach and squeezing in those opportunities after the fact.

Next, I share my thought process with all my students, and include them in an ongoing discussion of how we can create joyful learning experiences together, and why their participation matters. Although I’m clear that I want their time in class to be joyful, I help them understand how that includes moments where they feel challenged and even frustrated. Bringing attention to those moments as part of an overall experience helps each kiddo build the all-important self-awareness that will continue to support their learning and self-efficacy in the years ahead.

I’ve found that many techniques that support these priorities –  brainstorming, idea generation and practicing problem solving and high level collaboration – are often reserved for adults. Just think about what names sound synonymous with innovation – like Google, Harvard’s Innovation Lab or the Stanford d.school. You see some of it at the college level. But besides that, a lot of kids don’t regularly get that kind of practice. I’ve made it one of my primary goals to adapt the principles at work in these spaces for my fifth graders. To do that, I draw on activities such as mind-mapping – that have a highly visual element – and on participatory community meetings to help bring that distinction to life. I think these activities can be useful to fuel lively and joyful engagement at all grade levels.

 

Mind-mapping 

Mind-mapping, or spider maps as some students call them, is one of our go-to activities. My fifth graders love big sheets of butcher paper and markers and getting to fill all the white space with their ideas. This is a super versatile activity and I use mind-mapping in almost every subject area. My students and I have even used it to create our classroom agreements. It’s a great way to bring energy to our classroom discussions or, depending on the topic, to provide opportunities for a reflective moment.

Here’s how I introduce mind-mapping activities to my students:

1) Visually explain divergent thinking

I go to one of our whiteboard and draw two lines, starting at the same point and branching way out in separate directions. (It reminds me a bit of a giant Pac-Man mouth.) I make the angle big enough to leave plenty of space to record potential ideas. That represents divergent thinking, and I highlight the direction of opening up into that space for more and more ideas to emerge and become part of the overall map.

Then on another board I draw two more lines, starting at separate points and ending at the same point. That represents convergent thinking, and I highlight the direction of narrowing in the space to arrive at just one idea. Then I ask students, what kind of thinking probably leads to the most new ideas, and without exception the response is divergent thinking. Taking a few moments to illustrate the differences can be especially valuable to support students’ confidence in getting their ideas out, without worrying about arriving at just one right answer.

2) Encourage students to fill the paper

Since we’ve just visualized the space opening up to hold as many ideas as possible, I emphasize to the kids that I actively want them to fill up their paper. They can put down lots and lots of ideas without stopping to judge or evaluate them. 

3) Invite students to form connections

As they continue to fill their papers, I encourage students to notice connections between ideas on the page and use those connecting points to springboard toward – yup – even more ideas. This is part of a critical practice of allowing the activity to be genuinely generative, and have students notice which ideas have energy. 

4) Make a mess 

When I introduce mind-mapping to a new class, or if I see that we need a reset, I take a ball of string or yarn and throw it all around the classroom so that eventually, it forms a net. You might try having students take turns throwing the ball of yarn around, or have them start with a few different colors of string at different points in space. As you cover the space in your classroom you’ll all create points of overlapping and connecting strings. This not only gets kids up and moving but prompts a discussion around unexpected connections, noticing what emerges and practicing filling the space with possibilities until you arrive somewhere new. 

If you’re curious about trying mind-mapping with your students, this IDEO guide breaks down each step of this activity, along with a quick example.

 

Classroom Community Meetings

Because I focus so much on learning experiences and my students are an integral part of their learning experiences, I believe students must be co-creators of our learning environment. They have a lot of input and influence on how we approach our class time. One way I make sure to encourage reflection, collect their feedback and connect their active participation to the way we spend our time is through weekly Friday discussions. I’ve used a number of different frameworks or ways of structuring that meeting time, but one of our go-to structures for quick and effective discussions is pluses and deltas.

1) Choose a core question for discussion

How can we improve our learning experiences next week? What are some things we can all work on to make our learning experiences better? These discussions are an opportunity not only for students to reflect but also for me to gain important insights. Although I can get immediate feedback from our activities through  students’ participation, that’s still external information. These discussions are when I get more information about how the learning experiences went from their perspectives. 

2) Define categories for feedback

We divide our whiteboards into two sections: half for pluses (things that went well that we can continue doing) and half for deltas (things we want to improve or try differently). For these discussions, when we talk about improvement, our objective is to be curious and to look for ways we can shape future learning experiences as a whole class. As much as possible, we keep the emphasis on curiosity, creativity and looking ahead.

3) Brainstorm an action plan 

Similar to our mind-mapping activities, students practice generating ideas and building confidence by sharing their ideas with the whole group. It’s a collaborative exercise that allows everyone to contribute from their own experience and consider the similarities and differences they see with the experiences of their peers. Together, looking at our pluses and deltas, we make a plan that’s inclusive of those experiences for how we want to approach the week ahead. 

 

One activity to bring it all together

Making sure students can be heard is so important – and so is showing them that their voice is being heard. Both of these activities lend themselves to making students’ voices visible in our classroom. And, I’m especially serious about bringing their suggestions and contributions to life. 

During a recent Friday discussion, one student raised that they did more reading aloud in fourth grade. They called it popcorn reading, where they would read part of a story and then pass it along to another classmate. We had a lot of interest in doing something like that and, after asking some clarifying questions, I came back the next week with a teleplay for us to read together. 

We read “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling, and then dug into some mind-mapping to generate questions around the characters’ choices. How could they have handled this situation – a suspected extraterrestrial invasion – any differently? What would they have wanted to ask as the situation unfolded? As the mind maps grew and we started connecting the questions, we branched out into several alternative (and more positive) outcomes for the characters. All together we used our Friday discussion as a springboard, brought in a highly visual activity to support divergent thinking and practiced creative problem solving. 

Whether it’s reading and analysis, social studies, science or any other content area, putting the learning experience first has helped me refine my pedagogical practice, support my colleagues in planning and most importantly support students’ self awareness and agency in learning. What might co-creating a learning experience look like with your students?


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