Spider webbing your way to light bulb moments

Spider webbing your way to light bulb moments On a scale of 1-10, how creative are you?

Imagine if you improved your score. How might your teaching be different? Would your lessons be more fun? Could you enhance student learning and engagement? The good news is that you can’t use up your creativity. The more creativity you use, the more you have.

Spider webbing is an excellent tool we can use to harness our creativity and draw from our students- both children and adults, from first timers to experts.

This season, more than ever, spider webbing helped me to create engaging and educational lesson experiences, overcoming barriers such as limited snow and terrain, Covid-19 social distancing requirements, and countless other challenges. It also helped keep my job fun, allowing for every day to be different, even when performing the same skills on the same slopes.

How to spider web:

Get to know your students. Be a great facilitator by asking the right questions and actively listening. Some questions you can ask include:

What do you like to do when you are not skiing or riding? Can you teach me about it?

What is the most fun thing you have done this year? What are you looking forward to?

What have you enjoyed learning about at school recently?

Do you have a favourite activity, show, movie, animal, sport, music genre, or anything else?

You can use the information gathered here to form part of your web. Begin to connect words via association, and evolve your web through the lesson with input from your group.

This is just the beginning. A true master of spider webbing will create a flowing theme that supports a skill-based progression, helping students progress towards their goals.

For example, a student learning snowplough turns that likes space could imagine their skis as rockets, helping them to hold a snowplough position throughout the turn. They can add flexion and extension movements by feeling the weightlessness of zero gravity in the turn transition, and turn both of their legs to explore space and navigate on their journey. All of this might lead to an outcome of skiing with friends that could be fellow space travellers, or exploring a new run on the outskirts of the galaxy.

Why does spider webbing work?

Successful spider webbing requires two-way communication between the instructor and student, and often among group members. By creating a theme personally relevant to your students they will remain engaged and be eager to learn.

Spider webbing can also help you find cues and analogies that stick, creating breakthroughs and light bulb moments for your students. In particular, spider webbing often relies more on external cues, which have proven to deliver better outcomes than internal cues in many situations.

Don’t get caught in your own web

Spider webbing won’t always work. Pick your audience, tailor your approach, and be ready to pivot if your students lose interest or get overwhelmed. Skiing and riding can be stimulating enough, particularly when learning new skills or exploring new terrain. Start simple and add to your web gradually.

Also remember that spider webbing is a tool to support our teaching progressions and supplement strong class handling, not to replace them. Always keep the desired outcome in mind and link each step to aspects of your web.

Start creating your web

Get started. Many brains are better than one, so seek ideas from your students, peers and supervisors. As Gerald Belcher said, the best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them.

Have some popular ideas and themes as a starting point. Consider using animals, space, sports, music, movies, superheroes, cars, food, games, or anything that excites your students.

Next time you are teaching, why not give spider webbing a go. The worst case scenario is that it doesn’t work.

The best case scenario is that you give your student an exceptional lesson filled with breakthroughs and light bulb moments, and a memorable snowsports experience they will cherish for the rest of their life.