Using Questions to help Students be Instructional Resources for each other

 Engaged Citizens, Formative Assessment, Responsive Instruction  No Responses »
Feb 222013
 

One of the 5 key strategies of formative assessment is getting students to work as effective instructional resources for each other. Doing this well is more than just giving them opportunities to work together.  It is about setting up structures that mean they actually move the learning of other students forward.  One of the most powerful of these is teaching students to ask and answer good questions collectively. A great way of doing this is something called Guided Reciprocol Questions by Alison King (view an article by her describing the process). Here is the process:

  1. New Learning. The students learn about something new that they need to understand well enough to be able to use. The teacher needs to know that they understand it well and have no misconceptions.
  2.  Frames. The teacher gives some common question frames. Question starters like these might include (view some other frames in a blog where a teacher describes using them):
    • How would/why would…?
    • What is the best…and why?
    • What is another way to look at…?
    • What is the difference between… and …?
    • Why is… happening?
    • What do we already know about…?
    • What do you think causes…?
  3. Individuals. The students generate questions individually that they do not know the answer to. They use the frames to help generate those questions. As a teacher you should set an approximate number of questions that each student might generate.  One to three can be a good number of questions when you are starting.
  4. Grouping. The teacher puts the students into a small group (of about 3) that has members with diverse strengths and understandings of past topics in the class.  Then, students discuss the questions their individual questions in their groups and attempt to answer them. The goal is to be able to answer as many questions as possible before sharing with the large group.
  5. Share out. The teacher picks a member of each group using some random method (groups don’t know which member will be called so everyone tries to be prepared to answer). The groups either offer up a question they could not answer, or if they were able to answer all their questions, their hardest question and how they answered it.

questionWhy use this process?

  • Research shows students are unlikely to ask questions unless they mostly understand something or are very strong learners. A process where asking questions is the goal is safe way to get all students asking questions like strong learners do.  Being in a small group also makes it safer to answer those questions.
  • Some tasks require higher level thinking including problem solving or critical thinking. Using the frames helps students go directly to higher level thinking and engaging in harder cognitive processing.
  • The process of discussing the questions in a group gives a structure that makes off-task behaviour less likely. In addition, it causes students to ask questions for clarification, like “What does x mean?” or “How did you do that?”
  • Building knowledge on top of misunderstanding means a student learns much more poorly. Good teachers ensure everyone understands as well as possible before practicing or moving on.  Using this method, each student surfaces questions or misunderstandings, then works with others to figure them out.
  • Because students are answering all the easy questions, the teacher time and whole class time is only used for the most complex questions where the teacher’s expertise is most valuable. The questions that come back also tell the teacher what was understood or not understood, which means the questions are formative assessment that tells the teacher what will need to be re-taught.

Every classroom that has students doing some of the higher level thinking is a classroom where students are learning more.  Good structures that help students structure that thinking with others gives extra benefits. When students learn to ask and answer high level questions together, they are becoming the type of life-long learners and empowered citizens that  we want them to be.

Helping Students Own the Learning

 Competence, Engaged Citizens, Formative Assessment, Motivation, Potency, Resiliency, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Jan 252013
 

There are some pervasive myths in teaching that research does not confirm.  One that teachers repeat very often is that self-assessment is a bad plan because student won’t assess themselves fairly and it doesn’t help the learning.  The opposite is actually true.  Students will self assess fairly unless there is a big incentive to do otherwise, and student who can self-assess well learn much more than students who cannot. As Saskatchewan Curricula have renewed, having student assess their own learning is embedded in outcomes through out all documents because it causes students to be more resilient, achieve more and be more engaged.

What is self-assessment?

Self-assessment is not the same as self-grading (although students can do that pretty accurately, too). It means that as a student,  I can think about my learning.  I know what I did well at, where I struggled and what I need to do next to improve. Strong self-assessors own their own learning.

How can I teach my students to own their own learning?

Teachers can teach students to own their own learning by encouraging students to be able to answer the following 5 questions:

  1. What am I learning?
  2. How am I doing?
  3. How do I know?
  4. What do I need to do next to improve?
  5. What help and supports should I get for myself?

In order to help students be able to reliably answer those questions, educators need to teach students 3 big traits: using metacognition regularly, having a growth mindset, and looking for opportunity to be intrinsically motivated.  Here is a quick summary of each of those traits and a description of what a teacher can do to growth that trait in students.

Concept

What it looks like

How to teach it
Metacognition The student knows about his or her own thinking processes and can reflect of them in relation to a goal.
  • Take every opportunity to transfer control from the teacher to the students
  • Teach students how to make effective goals and create assignments that will help them practice
  • Share learning goals and criteria for success in clear, student-friendly language
  • Help students discover how the small skills they are learning build to a big, new skills
  • Encourage the student to reflect on thinking verbally, in journals or through discussion
  • Model making your own thinking explicitly through instructional techniques like talk aloud
  • Have student draw outlines, concept maps and mindmaps to make mental connections explicit, then discuss the differences between what they created and why
  • Give powerful, descriptive feedback including examples and a recipe for future actions
Intrinsic Motivation The student wants to learn something of his or her own accord.  Mistakes are a learning opportunity and powerful descriptive feedback is welcome.
  • Take every opportunity to transfer control from the teacher to the students
  • Create assignments and activities that tap into areas of interest
  • Make it harder for students to compare their achievement to others by delaying grades and replacing them with powerful feedback
  • Allow students to choose how they show you what they know
  • Create challenging assignments just within what a student can learn to do (creates flow)
  • Give equal marks to getting it right, and to explaining why you failed and how to fix it
  • Get and give powerful, descriptive feedback about how to improve, including examples
Growth Mindset The student sees his or her success as directly related to effort.  The student tries new things for the opportunity to grow.
  • Take every opportunity to transfer control from the teacher to the students
  • Praise effort, not talent or ability
  • Make it harder for students to compare their achievement to others by delaying grades and replacing them with powerful feedback
  • Reward a student who reaches to the edge of his or her skills (and sometimes over) more than a student who just follows your lead
  • Give equal marks to getting it right, and to explaining why you failed and how to fix it
  • Model observing your own mistakes and thanking others for helping you learn more
  • As the teacher, say when you don’t know, but express confidence that  you can learn
  • Get and give powerful, descriptive feedback about how to improve, including examples

Want more information?

The “How To” of Formative Assessment

 Competence, Engaged Citizens, Formative Assessment, Life Long Learning, Potency, Relevance, Resiliency, Uncategorized  4 Responses »
Jan 252013
 

All good learning starts with what students know right now. That’s why formative assessment has the largest documented effect of anything a teacher can do in a classroom.  But knowing you should do it and knowing how to do it are not the same thing.  This series of posts addresses the basics of how to use the 5 types of formative assessment in your classroom.

  1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success
  2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning
  3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward
  4. Activating learners as instructional resources for one another
  5. Activating learners as owners of their own learning

Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded formative assessment.

Helping Students to Find and Live Their Passion!

 Career Education, Engaged Citizens  1 Response »
Dec 172012
 

Did you know that 70-80% of people do not like their jobs?  That 33% of employees actually hate their jobs?  That 33% of people are looking for a new job the minute they start one?  Wow!  These recent statistics shared by Ken Keis at the annual Career Education Society Conference last month really emphasize why it is so important that we, as Career Educators, help all students to explore and discover and pursue their passions, so that they don’t become one of these tragic statistics!   How do we do that?  By giving them lots of ways to explore and discover who they are, what their interests, values and skills are, and most importantly, by entering into conversations with them, find out what they love to do, and what makes them come alive!  Once we have an idea of what they love to do, how can they then turn that passion into employment?  What level of education and what career research tools do they need to turn that passion into a successful, meaningful career path?  Through these targeted conversations, we can more effectively help our students journey down a career path that will lead to success, fulfilment and joy- and discover that they can live their passion and earn a living!  What can be more rewarding than to see our students go forward into the world with confidence and excitement and passion - in fact – we get to live our passion as career educators by helping them to find and live theirs!   What a great way to make our entire workforce and thus society as a whole – more successful, productive, engaged and happy!  We have the power to change those statistics!

Great Tools for Teaching about Digital Skills

 Engaged Citizens, Technology, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Problems with cyberbullying, students creating great projects that should be shared, and the practice of googling everything are part of a new reality that all teachers face as they try to prepare students for both the world we live in and the one they will graduate into.  Because things are changing so quickly, it can be hard to keep up with what you should do.  Here are some common questions teachers have and some quick solutions:

  1. How do I know what skills students should have? SPS has a list of those skills, called the digital backpack.  For each skill, there is a list of tools you can use, what to teach your students and how to get help.  Ask your Teacher-Librarian for more about these resources or contact Judy, Carlene, Jay, Jennifer or Jacqueline at Central Office.
  2. How can I find lessons and materials designed to teach about topics like cyberbullying or digital skills? One of the best resources out there is MediaSmarts. Resources are available in French and English, and they are aligned with the big ideas of curriculum and specific grades.  Check out the list of materials @ http://mediasmarts.ca/curricularoutcomechart/outcome-chart-saskatchewan-cross-curricular-comptencies-k-12. The list of topics has material related to all Saskatchewan outcomes that focus on media, using the web effectively and even cultural responsiveness.
  3. How can I find simple video to explain about media literacy or new technology? A great place to get materials is Common Craft, a company that posts short, easy to understand videos on new technologies and digital literacy.
  4. Where can I go for information on specific technical tools?  Techy Teacher is an SPS site with great information about a wide variety of tools, digital literacy and even copyright.  Click on any item on the right to learn more about it. Another great SPS site is hosted by the Online Learning Center teaches about web 2.0 tools and how to use them at different levels in the classroom.

 

What I Learned in the Elevator Today or… The Writing on the Wall

 Arts, Belonging, Engaged Citizens, Sense of Self and Place  No Responses »
Nov 192012
 

You can learn a lot just by looking around.  The elevator at central office for Saskatoon Public Schools is a great example.  The walls are always full of informative posters.  My eyes always land on the ones relating to music, drama, dance or art and there are always plenty.  The other day I learned about the latest event that the Saskatoon Symphony is having and that they also have a book sale!  Another poster advertised a music and art event at The Refinery.

As a visual learner, I have always been keenly aware of what I can learn from my environment, specifically, the writing on the wall.  The Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching lists the environment as the third teacher.  I’m always more engaged in learning if the environment is inviting and visually stimulating.

I’ve always been attracted to the notion of learning from the world around us.

I’ve tried to incorporate this mindset into the organization of space in my own classroom putting a high importance on displaying student work, and my own from time to time.  This was reinforced at a Treaty Education session that I attended led by Cort Doignez.  He told the large audience that what you display on the walls in a school or classroom, communicates a message to students and their parents about what is valued in that setting.  I think he was really getting at what is often missing from our schools and that is a visual display of all people and all cultures so that learners feel that crucial sense of belonging.  I had to go back to my classroom and critically examine the message that I was sending from the walls.

What is on my wall and why?

 

I’m fortunate to be part of a rich community of professional learners at my school where we have been studying formative assessment in great detail.  Our leadership team gave each teacher a large blue and gold (our school colours) poster to hang in our classrooms.  The poster asks teachers and students to develop engagement by attending to eight important questions developed by educational theorist Anne Davies.  This poster is an important ‘teacher’ in my classroom and I refer to it often to help keep me and my students on track with the valuable lessons within formative assessment practices.

So what is the writing on the wall in your space and what is it teaching your students about what you value?

Science and Play

 Authentic Task, Engaged Citizens, Science  No Responses »
Nov 132012
 

Thanks to one of our VPs, I watched a great new TED talk this morning about the relationship between Science and play. Through the story of some elementary students studying bees, the video reminds us that teaching science is about taking intellectual risks and having our students investigate their good questions. Students can think like scientists, and we can help them through building a culture of wonder.

As a teacher, my favorite part is, of course, that the students had their narrative lab published in one of the most prestigious science journals and it is free for use in any classroom in the world. Now that is an authentic task and audience! I also really loved hearing the students speak about the impact of the process. What really stuck with me, though, was what Lotto (the speaker in the TED talk)  said with regards to good science and good play:

Now play is not simply a process. Experts in play will tell you that actually, it’s a way of being. Play is one of the only human endeavors where uncertainty is actually celebrated. Uncertainty is what makes play fun.Right? It’s adaptable to change. Right? It opens possibility,and it’s cooperative. It’s actually how we do our social bonding,and it’s intrinsically motivated. What that means is that we play to play. Play is its own reward.

Now if you look at these five ways of being,these are the exact same ways of being you need in order to be a good scientist.Science is not defined by the method section of a paper. It’s actually a way of being, and this is true for anything that is creative. So if you add rules to play, you have a game.That’s actually what an experiment is.

I like the idea of all experiments as a game you build. It really helps me understand why all students can love science, and it helps me frame what a good science class should be about if we want our students to meet our big goals in the Broad Areas of Learning.

Real Choice Grows Student Competence

 Authentic Task, Competence, Critical Thinking, Engaged Citizens, Gifted, Motivation  No Responses »
Sep 122012
 

I was speaking to two teachers yesterday about real choice. I distinguished it from fake choice this way. When my children were 2 and 3, and in a phase where they really wanted to do and choose everything “self”, I often provided the illusion of choice to gain compliance.

Me: Well, it is almost bedtime. Would you like to put on your pajamas first or brush your teeth first?

See? Looks like choice, but it isn’t. You might get to choose your order of operations, but you are still in bed by 8 and your choices made no difference to the outcome. I think school functions on many of those algorithmic (finite sequence with instructions) choices.

Me: Today we are going to show we can suit what we write to our intended audience. Would you like to write a descriptive poem or a narrative poem?

Never mind that almost none of you see poetry as a way you choose to express yourselves and the intended audience will be me. I’ve given you choice – and it is about as genuine as the “Have a nice day” you get in a fast food drive through.

If you haven’t read Daniel Pink’s new book DRiVE: The surprising truth about what motivates us, you should. You can get the synopsis by watching his TED talk, but you miss some really important stuff.

In the book, Pink talks about our world has shifted from algorithmic tasks to heuristic ones. 70% of the new jobs created are heuristic and need people who can think creatively, plan their own task and solve problems. In short, the type of people who have experience choosing in complex situations without a template. Pink argues that schools need to shift to providing choice where ever possible, and that those choices need to be about things that are important. If we want students to be engaged, we need to avoid rewards and punishment and focus on creating opportunities for being deeply engrossed in the learning (flow).

  1. We need to make the content essential questions, so it is worth studying and full of choice.
  2. Then we need to co-construct what is worth doing and how we can tell if it is done.
  3. Lastly, we need to allow students to show us what they know in a wide variety of ways (not just deliver it differently).

 

Let’s try the classroom conversation again.

 

Me: When you write a text message or an essay, or you compose a digital story, you use different conventions. Let’s view some pieces of text and talk about the differences (class discussion ensues).

Me: Make a list of three things that you think people need to hear. For each one, write what the message is, which people really need to hear it, and what type of writing, audio/video or speaking they will listen to the most. When you are done your list, pick the one that draws you the most (students start thinking about what they believe and how to communicate it).

Me: Now when someone really communicates well for an intended audience, how do you know? ( The class brainstorms criteria. I help them group the criteria, prompt for criteria that might be missing and help them think about value the criteria in relation to each other).

Me: Now look at your plan. Will you be able to show us what you know? Get a buddy to help you revise it, so you can meet our criteria for communicating well for the intended audience (good critical thinking and an opportunity for powerful descriptive feedback before the product is even created).

In my newer version, virtually ever stage of the task is heuristic. My students are designers, arts and writers, and problem solvers. They are thinking critically and making choices about a subject that matters to them. In short, they are engaged because they are choosing and their choices really matter. They are doing an authentic task. They are motivated by the worthiness of what they choose not the mark they hope to get, and get much closer to mastery as a result (Pink has lots to say on this subject as well).

I don’t have time to do this with every lesson, but I do it every time the thing my students are learning is important. And like with my own children, I have taught my students about how to make effective choices and provided a safety net for the inevitable bad choices (if it isn’t safe to fail, it isn’t safe to take the risk of learning).

That’s what real choices are, complex problems with significance – things that encourage engagement in deep learning rather than driving through on the way to a credit and a forgettable, nutrition-less meal.

Questions are at the Heart

 Authentic Task, Critical Thinking, Engaged Citizens, Life Long Learning  2 Responses »
Nov 232011
 

Questions are one of the most powerful tools that all learners have, because they are at the heart of all good learning. As teachers, we want to see our students care about their learning, learn effectively and be able to use what they have learned for as long as they need to.  If that is our goal, good questions really matter.

Questions matter because that is how we learn. If you have ever parented a two-year-old, you know that wondering “why” is the framework for figuring out lots of things.  If I wonder why the ants go in the hole, I have the opportunity to learn lot of information and to grow connections in my mind. Soon I start to understand cool facts about how much ant can lift and how their environment is constructed underground. More questions like how they find their way home keep growing my learning. Equally important is the idea that the ants act in the best interest of the group.  As I am just learning to think about others even a little, I get a great opportunity for social development from my question about why ants go into hole.  The big take away for teachers?

All good learning starts with questions students generate from what they already know.

Questions matter because they determine the level thinking that happens.  In the example with the ants, a why question is the most powerful because it has lots of other ideas hidden under it.  I can’t answer a why question without know the what.  We need to help our students learn to ask powerful, high level questions that speak to the heart of the curriculum.  These essential questions ensure the good learning of content and thinking skills.  The essential idea here:

We need to teach students to ask high level questions about curricular content and skills to get to the essence of what all students should learn.

Questions matter because they tell us why “it” is worth learning. Many teachers struggle with students who feel apathy, anxiety or boredom when asked to learn the key content we are teaching, but how we structure the learning can help students to understand why it maters. Some powerful “what if” teacher questions can start students thinking about the implications of a topic, and help them really care about what they are learning. When students are intrinsically motivated, they learn because they want to  and they remember more.Questions matter because they engage students and allow them to drive the learning:

Starting with questions to help students understand why this learning matters means that students learn more deeply and remember longer.

Questions matter because writers, artists, scientists, mathematicians, historians etc. all drive their work through questions about how to solve real-world problems. The biggest reason to teach students to question well is because life-long learning requires the ability to question deeply and find answers. An ever increasing number of careers require students who can think well and connect things. Now that Google can answer our low level questions and machines do more manual labour, we need people to do what they were set up to do as small children.  That 2 year old brings to us the desire to learn through questions – we need to help her hone it to a powerful tool that can support her as a citizen and in her career. As much as possible, students need to ask the questions that scientists ask when they study plants, or that writers ask when think about how to convey their idea effectively to their audience. Asking how to solve a real world problem is the best way to help students develop real world skills:

We need to help students think deeply through authentic, real world problems.

A really good question is a very powerful tool at the heart of all learning, and powerful teachers use good questions in many ways.  Of all of these, helping our students to make their own powerful questions is the most significant, because that skill helps them care about learning for a lifetime.

Creating Mathland

 Engaged Citizens, Math, Sense of Self and Place  No Responses »
Sep 062011
 

I recently came across this video on David Wee’s Blog.

This video really stuck with me and inspired me to think about how we can create Mathland in our classrooms and schools. We live in a mathematically rich world but I often find that unless students use a mathematical lens in which to look at it the math remains unseen. I think it would be like living in France but only interacting with people who speak English. You never would get the whole experience.

So how can we help students to see Mathland?

 Building on the comparison of learning math and learning French I started asking myself how teachers teach French so that students can become functional, fluent adults… without shipping everyone to a French-speaking province or country. In our division the way we do this is through immersion education. French Immersion requires that teachers “consistently reflect in his or her classroom and practice a fundamental understanding of French Immersion Education regardless of the grade level or subject matter being taught.”(Saskatchewan Ministry of Education).  French is taught in all subject areas, connections are fostered, classroom spaces reflect an immersion of language, students interact with the language in and out of the classroom, cooperative language rich opportunities are provided, students quite simply are immersed in French. This environment may not be the same as going to Quebec or France but it is the next best thing.

The question now becomes can we create a Math Immersion environment? Can students begin to see the math in all subject areas, and foster connections? Can our classroom spaces reflect an immersion in math? Can students interact with math in and out of the classroom? Can we provide opportunities for rich cooperative mathematical experiences? Can we immersed our students in Math? This environment could provide our students with the lens they need to see that they ARE living in Mathland!

“If we all learned mathematics in math land, we would all learn mathematics perfectly well.” ~ Seymour Papert.

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