5. Activing learners as the owners of their own learningThe central premise around this chapter is the idea that teachers do not create learning, but students do. Because they’re the ones that learn. A lot of this can be helped with metacognition and motivation. Here’s some key learnings:
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4. Activing learners as instructional resources for one anotherThis chapter looked a lot at cooperative learning, and ways we can make sure that students are working AS groups, not just IN groups. The strategies were not new (I am happy to elaborate should you be curious – there was about 15!), but it was mostly a reminder to be careful in execution. Here’s my key learnings:
3. Providing feedback that moves learning forwardThis chapter looks at how feedback can be issued in such a way that students are actually thinking about it. Simply put, this means holding off on showing scores until the last possible moment, because once students see scores, a whole lot of bad stuff happens. For one thing, your written feedback is ignored (high score – why should I read it if I did good?; low score – it’s just gonna tell me all I did wrong). For another, learning stops. Another: students become more concerned about their self worth and self esteem than about growth. Here we go with my key learnings:
2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learningWhat this involves is thinking about how we can shape formative assessment in such a way that we can discover misconceptions. Again, not new, but our approach certainly needs to be adjusted. Here are my key learnings for this chapter:
1.Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success What this involves is giving students a clear sense of where to go and how to get there, without criteria being so prescriptive that they tell students what to do. They should have a “nose for quality work,” while also understanding how to get there. Here are my key learnings from this chapter:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” – Marianne Williamson I just recently got hired in Westwinds School Division No. 74 (yayyyy!), and when they hired me, they gave me a pretty great welcome package: I suppose that for some, on their summer, that is probably not the most exciting thing. But for me, it absolutely is. I mentioned in a couple of posts about how my first year as an international teacher at Green Hills caused me to have some doubts about my ability to be an effective teacher (and if I wasn’t an effective teacher, could I really morally and ethically stand by a decision to stay on as a teacher?). When I got back to Canada, after the jet lag wore off, and after I’d finished visiting with all the people I had loved and missed during my time away, I got down to work and research for my own peace of mind. I started with assessment. I read a huge chunk of what Anne Davies has to offer. Let me tell you, that lady has some of the simplest and most effective suggestions in the most efficiently packed books I’ve seen to date. I re-read all the assessment books and notes I’d collected during uni (my hoarding paid off! Yay! I’ll have to write to mom about the benefits of hoarding). And today, I just finished what is now, hands down, my FAVOURITE book on assessment. Here you go: In a nutshell, I love this book because it has a lot of research for when I ask “why?” and “how?”; it’s attentive to a variety of cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds; it doesn’t forget the reality of teaching in a modern-day classroom, and all the demands and responsibilities and frustrations that entails; and finally, because it develops a case for teaching growth mindset (in the minds of students and practicing teachers) and developing grit. I really love this book, and I’m gonna tell you all about it, in case you don’t go out and buy it yourself (YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD!). Buckle down and get some popcorn. So here’s the premise: Schools need to teach a general education, and especially how to learn and continuing learning, because otherwise, students will not be equipped for the society they graduate into after 12+ years of education. This isn’t new. In fact, as Wiliam notes, it was this tendency to not try and predict the future, but to equip students for a range of possibilities, that made students successful when this idea was promoted through 1910-1940. There’s that saying about educational cycles floating around… The research-y bitsAnyway, Wiliam went on to say that this sort of thing kind of stopped happening, so students were ill-prepared for the world they graduated into. He disbarred the argument that a change in curriculum would fix the problem – essentially, it takes too long, is met with too much scepticism and too few opportunities for professional development, and teachers are not given a lot of flexibility to become proficient in the new curriculum while juggling state/provincial standards and a million other things. Sound familiar? Yes? Yes. In any case, he pointed out that even if you moved beyond new implementation, “a bad curriculum well taught is invariably a better experience for students than a good curriculum badly taught.” Basically, he argues, it’s on teacher quality and capability. But, whoa?! How do we fix teacher quality? He outlines a few scenarios:
Before I go into the strategies, I want to share this reminder that Wiliam writes of, because I think it can cause a bit of insecurity in a lot of teachers: Many teachers have had the experience of creating an effective group discussion task in which the students engage completely in a really tricky challenge that they must resolve. The only problem is there is nothing for the teacher to do. He feels a little bored and a tad guilty that he is not doing anything, so he disrupts a group’s work. This is one version of what I call the teaching-learning trap: I’m not doing anything; therefore, the students can’t be learning anything. The other version of the trap was discussed earlier: I am working hard, so the students must be learning something. The strategiesBecause I learned so much, and because this blog post is already a little bit crazy, I've put each of the five strategies into it's own blog post. Read them, and then at the end of this blog post, I have a few final words. Here's the links:
Conclusions and last wordsJust to be clear, none of this is my own, but I really wanted to share some important stuff Dylan Wiliam has written about assessment. THIS WORK IS DYLAN WILIAM’S!!! He leaves teachers with one final reminder: When teachers try to change more than two or three things about their teaching at the same time, the typical result is that their teaching deteriorates and they go back to doing what they were doing before. My advice is that each teacher chooses one or two of the techniques in this book and tries them out in the classroom. If they appear to be effective, then the goal should be to practice them until they become second nature. If they are not effective, then they can be modified or the teacher can try another technique. Among the plethora of things educators must think about as they prepare their classrooms for a new group of learners, the creation of a safe, supportive and productive learning environment should be of top priority. But what exactly is a “learning environment”? How do we make such a thing safe, supportive and productive? Why should this be top priority?
For me, the term “learning environment” describes not only the physical space a class takes place in, but also the emotional and psychological climate a teacher fosters and maintains throughout the school year. When these two aspects of learning environment work together to produce a space conducive to learning, growth, inclusion and support I believe the potential for student success is maximized. Firstly, on the topic of learning environment as physical space: the importance of this as an aspect of inclusivity in a classroom is incredibly important. A teacher must strive to create a physical space that looks inviting (in terms of décor, desk arrangement, and the like), fosters interaction with the material (i.e.; in an elementary classroom, you might find an interactive word wall or reading centre), allows for ease of movement and transition (for students in wheel chairs, students who are blind or visually impaired, or for other students who experience difficulties with moving), and recognizes the diverse population that constitutes his or her classroom (i.e.; décor which includes aspects of individual cultures, motifs, and interests of each student). As if these factors were not enough to carefully configure, a teacher must also think of the students who might become easily distracted or overwhelmed by all that the classroom can offer: is there a clean, well-lit, minimally decorated area where students can work with a clear mind? Additionally, should the teacher wish to change the layout to his or her classroom during the school year, he or she must consider the impact this might have on some students; specifically for students who are blind or visually impaired, a change in layout means unpredictability, meaning that student is at risk of getting hurt when, say, a bookshelf has been moved into a path they once knew to be clear. A teacher who can diligently attend to the carefully crafted composition of his or her physical environment demonstrates that she can address the very basic needs of a learner: to be in a clean, decluttered environment where the focus is truly on learning. Students understand they can move safely, access learning in different forms, and share their interests with their peers; most importantly, this is something they can discover as they discover the classroom itself. Secondly, on the aspect of learning environment as emotional and psychological climate: this might be perhaps the most important of the two aspects of learning environment, because as many studies have shown, the negative emotions a student might feel (such as feeling unsafe or unincluded) shut down the areas of the brain for higher order thinking, preventing the student from learning. Attending to the emotional and psychological climate requires a teacher to lay down rules and expectations for a classroom community of learners who are accepting of difference in ability, strengths and weakness, and interests, among other things. It also requires a teacher to be prepared to address the contextual variables each student comes to school with every day (this from KSA #1). Additionally, approaching teaching, and having students approach learning, with the belief that everyone can learn allows for each individual in the classroom to take the risk of learning in a safe environment (this from KSA #5). This requires a teacher to meet each individual’s needs (KSA #7), while maintaining their dignity (KSA#8) and differentiating instruction and approaches to learning based on those needs (KSA #9). As you can see, this is a lot of responsibility and a lot to balance, especially with increasing class sizes. However, I believe this aspect of learning environment is the key to students’ success, because it directly attaches to the concerns that I think most students have. These are things such as: “What if I’m no good at it?”; “What if I get it wrong?”; “What if other students in the class see I need a special tool to do my work?”; and other such inquiries. Removing a student’s need to worry about how they learn allows the student to focus on the learning itself. Okay, so I probably should start this lesson off by saying that this post literally has nothing to do with the Lord of the Rings. Yet. Maybe I'll find a way to connect it as I go along. What this post is really about is a killer PS1 lesson I did today, that is contributing towards my Professional Growth Plan steps. For those of you who don't want to read through the whole lesson plan (I still recommend that you do), let me break it down for you: Today we began exploring grouping as a multiplication strategy. I gave a brief 5 minute shared example on the board (students followed along on their white boards), had them do some group work (using marshmallows as manipulatives for grouping) and then some individual work (using iPods to scan QR codes hidden around the classroom which had grouping questions on them). During the individual work as students were wandering around the class completing their questions, I held brief private conferences with students at my desk to see where they were at in terms of fact recall, grouping skills and how they felt about their skills in general. I told my Kurtis (my supervisor) before I started this lesson that I anticipated it would go "either terribly right or terribly wrong". Terribly right is a strange phrase, but that is exactly what I felt this lesson was, not only for me as an educator, but also for my students. For this reason, I have considered it for part of my advancement towards my PGP goal. Check out the full lesson below: Download it here:
I am extremely proud of this lesson. I took a lot of risks, and it paid off. More importantly, looking back at my Meaningful Learning Checklist, it hit a lot of points (bolded):
For each of my lessons, I simply wanted a checklist to reflect each of the KSA's. For me, it is important that I try and have at least 2 elements towards meaningful learning incorporated into my lesson plan.
Look at all that bold. At this stage, I think I've outdone myself. I would be so happy to share this with other teachers (along with my other lesson plans). If you try this out and you notice the QR codes are weird, or you see something that could make this lesson even better, please let me know! Special shoutout to Jo, who patiently helped me plan this lesson out to be so awesome and fluid! Today I had what felt like a brief 40 minutes of teaching experience. It wasn't exactly a full-blown lesson, but it was a nice way to ease into things for both me and the students. I started off on a more serious note by going over my rules and expectations in the class. This put an interesting tone on the class, but not necessarily a bad one. After going over these, I noticed that students seemed a little more tuned to the idea that I was an authority figure in the class. (Of course, this then had students coming over to me to ask if they could go to the bathroom when Mrs. P refused them; I reminded them of who was in control of the class). After that, I did a quick spelling game to review with the students, and then we did the spelling test. "Lesson" complete! I'll be reviewing my rules and expectations in class the next few times I teach. Lesson Plan below! I am coming off a wonderful high of especially spectacular group work and collaboration today. This morning was primarily spent participating in the microteaches of fellow classmates. Shout out to Dan Lafferty, Lauren Grover, Andrew Crabbe and Ian Cooke for doing such a wonderful job! Let's talk about this group work, though. The microteaches were all centered around a different KSA that we as teachers have to work towards and adhere to in our teaching career. In every instance, our teachers did not simply rattle off some information about these KSA's to us for 15 minutes -- they had us work together to learn it ourselves.
- considering formative and summative assessment results in my classroom; if students are continually struggling with material, repeated difficulties and stumbling blocks apparent in formative/summative assessment will indicate where my teaching needs to be improved - accessing my PLN or other teachers in the school to evaluate/audit my teaching
Then, I topped my day off by spending 3.5 hours with the lovely Kim, Johannah and Cheyenne working on a group lesson that is sure to be informative and thought-provoking -- the No-Zero Debate! If you haven't heard anything about this, Google it. I'll even make a pause in this wall of text for you to take a moment and Google it. This is a picture of what your screen should look like right now. I'll give you a moment to come back to me. After that refreshing Google break, let me tell you why all of this rocked my socks.
I have spent the last few weeks among a group of inspired, passionate, motivated people who are all looking to better the world with their existence. It has been absolutely rewarding, entirely insightful and extremely refreshing to be around this kind of enthusiasm all the time. We are students, teachers, colleagues and friends. We are on level with each other. From this group of people come some super juicy ideas, viewpoints and perspectives I had never considered and resources and strategies that I would love to make my own. I have so much to learn from these people. The group projects we have now and the group projects we'll share in our future are going to have me always reconsidering my stance - am I truly being fair and just? Can I incorporate that method to make this lesson better?. It will force me to consider whether what I bring to the table is ultimately the best professional I can present. This group of people will constantly be making me think about how I can be a better teacher. Similarly, I look forward to (and have already enjoyed) the ability to help my fellow students be the best they can be. How lucky I am to be a part of this |
Meagan Fullerton-LeeMeagan is an aspiring teacher, voracious reader, tentative motorcyclist, and passionate gardener. In all things she sees education. Here she shares her passions. Archives
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