Student Ownership of Feedback

This week, I want to zoom in on student feedback. The teacher rubric of the MA Educator Evaluation System mentions providing feedback to students at several different points. Standard I, Indicator C asks us to consider how often we provide feedback to students based on assessment results and to think about how this feedback is shared -- I like to think about whether my focus when providing feedback to students is on growth and improvement or on a summative-type grade (and don't we all get frustrated with our students' tendency to focus only on the latter?). Standard II, Indicator B stresses that opportunities should be provided for students to regularly reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses, to goal-set, and to monitor their own progress. Providing such opportunities would definitely help us keep our feedback focus on growth and improvement rather than on just a grade. So, how can we set this up in our classrooms?

It starts with making sure our students know what their learning goals should be for a given lesson or unit. In Robert Marzano's Becoming a Reflective Teacher, he suggests providing students with a proficiency scale (or even having students help construct such a scale) that aligns with the objective(s) of the lesson/unit such that students are aware (ideally with the help of exemplars as well) of what it looks like to have met this objective or to still be working towards meeting the objective.

Once we've enabled students to be fully conscious of what skill or knowledge they are aiming for, we can ask them to keep a running record of their own scores from assessments given throughout the lesson/unit. In addition to keeping track of their scores, we can also ask them to record what it is they currently understand well, what they're getting better at, and what they still need to work on (all based on the objective's proficiency scale). In doing so, we've sent the message that meeting the objective through growth and improvement has been the true learning goal of this lesson/unit (versus getting a particular grade). And we've placed some ownership with the student -- we've created a system in which the student is reflecting and goal-setting based on meeting the objective.

Want to flesh out some specific ways to implement this, like what a proficiency scale with exemplars might look like for a given unit's objective(s), or how to set up a record-keeping tool for students? Let me know -- I'm still pregnant, thus not on leave YET -- I'm happy to help!

A CAGE to Set You Free

Did you know there's a cage out there that you can keep your students in? AND it will give them more freedom?

Last night I attended the first of four sessions of a Primary Source workshop, Teaching for Global Understanding. The presenters introduced us to -- yet another! -- educational acronym (because who doesn't need another? I mean, I personally love them!). This one is CAGE, and here's how it breaks down:

Choice

Authentic

Globally connected

Exhibit to authentic audiences

CAGE is a lens through which to view your assessments. The idea is to think about assessments you already give, and apply the CAGE acronym to them. Does the assessment provide choice to students (can they choose their own topic, or product)? Is the assignment authentic -- is it something that people in the real world actually do? (For example, I don't know anyone in the real world who writes book reports. But people do other types of writing in "real life." And people do other types of things to share their ideas about a book in "real life.") Is the assessment globally connected -- does it provide students with an opportunity to explore or investigate global perspectives? Finally, can there be an authentic audience for the student's work -- is the audience more than just the student's teacher and classmates?

These factors -- choice, authenticity, connectivity -- can be real motivators for students. Don't pressure yourself too much, though. Not every assessment you give can (or potentially even should) meet all the requirements of CAGE. But it's excellent food for thought -- can all, or at least almost all, of your assessments meet at least half of CAGE? Can some of them meet all of CAGE? 

If you're interested in designing some assessments (or updating assessments you've given before) so that they motivate students, engaging them as global citizens and empowering their ownership over the assignment, please let me know! I'd love to provide you any support you need or want in freeing your students -- and yourself -- through the use of a CAGE.

Learning Contracts

     Some of the top questions raised when we think about differentiating in our classrooms are: “How do we meet with a small group of students while the rest of the class does…what…exactly?” “What do we do when some students inevitably finish a task before others?” There are lots of ways to answer these questions (shameless plug: you can hear about them all in my upcoming summer workshop on differentiated instruction!). This post is about one particular strategy I just discovered, thanks to Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson, authors of Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum (2013).

     Tomlinson and Eidson suggest the use of learning contracts (don’t you just love that phrasing?). I’ll go ahead and give you their exact definition:

“A learning contract is an agreement between a student and a teacher      regarding a task or project that a student will work on independently and with some freedom. Learning contracts often provide some degree of choice regarding specific tasks to be completed and the order in which they will be completed. This element of choice can help teachers address differences in students’ interests and learning profiles. Effective contracts focus on key understandings and skills that a student is to work with and provide information about the criteria for quality work. Learning contracts require teachers to match learning objectives with contract options so that students must practice and apply important skills” (p. 187)

What’s great about learning contracts is that, when introduced (as is recommended) at the start of a unit, they provide students with meaningful tasks to accomplish throughout the unit. These tasks are assignments students can work on when they finish other tasks early one day, or when you need to meet with a small group or one half of the class. The teacher and the student agree on the number of tasks the student will complete from the learning contract options (this works best when there’s lots to choose from, and lots of variety) and when the student will be done with each task. Students should fill out and sign a contract that includes items such as: the tasks they agree to work on, the dates due for each, and agreements to work on these selected tasks at various times during class without distracting peers. What I love about Tomlinson and Eidson’s definition is that it separates learning contract tasks from “busy work” by insisting that these tasks include “criteria for quality work” and that they “match [the] learning objectives” of the unit. And don’t even get me started on the element of student choice and student ownership implicit in learning contracts – how great is that? 

     Below, I’ve listed some ideas for learning contract tasks. Learning contracts are great for including assignments based on multiple intelligences and learning styles, so you’ll notice this reflected in this list. ***Please note: learning contracts should list specific criteria for each option presented. I have not included criteria in the list below as I simply want to share what types of tasks may be found on a learning contract. ***A second note: I’ve included examples from several content areas and from several grade levels, K-12. ***Ok, just one more note: Some teachers prefer to further differentiate learning contracts by typing up two different lists of tasks – one geared towards the advanced learners and one geared towards those who are novice learners of the particular subject.

     So, without further adieu, here are some ideas (many of which can be found in the 2003 Tomlinson & Eidson text):

·      Make an ABC list (or book) of plants. Use books in the classroom to find the names of plants that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

·      Draw and label the plants we cannot eat. Why can’t we eat these?

·      Measure the plants in the classroom, and make a graph showing their heights. Which is the tallest plant? Which is the shortest one? Do you think that will change? Why?

·      Write a song about plants, what you like about them, and why they are important.

·      Using information from resources provided in the classroom, as well as various travel brochures provided, create a travel brochure about our community. Your brochure should make people outside of our community want to come visit it…

·      RAFT writing tasks -- the possibilities for these are almost endless! (See my previous post about RAFTS: An Alternative to White Water RAFTing.) Seriously, I can't recommend these writing opportunities enough!

·      Invent a game to help teach children about lines, angles, polygons, circles, polyhedrons, congruence, and symmetry. Write a manual for parents and teachers that explains the rules and procedures for playing the game and discusses the benefits of playing the game…

·      Research geodesic dome buildings. Draw a picture or build a model of a dome building and write three or four paragraphs discussing dome buildings, answering the following questions…

·      Using pictures from magazines and newspapers, find and label objects that represent the different types of lines, angles, and shapes that we’ve studied…

·      Create a Private Investigator Poster about Macbeth. Draw his profile, police line-up style, and label him with “Checks Out” traits (his good points) and “Warning Signs” traits (his weaknesses).

·      Create a metaphor for Macbeth: Macbeth is a __________ in these three ways…Give three text citations to back up your argument.

·      Discuss what you see as the most compelling or significant scene in Act I. Cite specific textual examples that support your claim (using diction, figurative language, motifs, scansion).

·      Translate a Shakespearean scene or soliloquy into contemporary English.

·      Draw a concept map showing the major hurdles le petit prince had to overcome in the novel and the major hurdles you (or adolescents in general) have to overcome during this time of your life.

·      Listen to excerpts from Gustave Holst’s The Planets. Create and record brief soundscapes of what at least three of the planets that le petit prince visited might sound like. Write a CD liner-note explanation of your soundscapes to make the link between the music and the stereotype represented by the planet’s inhabitant(s).

·      Design a map that illustrates le petit prince’s journey (physical, emotional, or spiritual) throughout the book. Annotate the map so we can see the importance of the “places” you chose to include.

·      Find and illustrate a set of quotes by le petit prince. Annotate the quotations, explaining their significance to the themes of the novel.

·      Design a cartoon that illustrates your journey as a water droplet. Include an appropriate caption(s).

·      Create a fictional story about the journey of a water droplet.

·      Draw an accurate version of the water cycle that includes all steps. Be sure to show the processes that get a water droplet from one step to another.

·      Create a local version of the water cycle. Be sure to include the names of local rivers, bays, oceans, mountains, and so on.

    

     Cool, right? I’ll wrap up with just one last shameless plug: if you like the above ideas, and want more, more, more (and if you teach in the same district as me!), then please sign up for the summer workshop I’m offering: A Practical Approach to Differentiation in the Classroom. Tell your friends! 

The Duckworth Chronicles

     This week I attended a conference at which the main presenter was Eleanor Duckworth, Harvard presenter, Piaget expert, and leader in examining how people learn. So, you can see why I had to use her name in my blog title this week. I mean, how does one become so fortunate to not only have worked closely with Jean Piaget himself, but to also have the surname Duckworth? Some folks have all the luck.

     The focus of the conference was on creative and critical thinking, and Ms. Duckworth (man, that name just keeps getting better and better!) encouraged we conference attendees to build in time on learning that promoted such thinking. 

     Her ideas are based on Piaget's insistence on self-regulation. There needs to be time and encouragement to allow our minds to think, "Why do I believe this?" The key to effective learning and to fostering critical thinking is that the individual must do this for him or herself -- not accepting information just because someone told them this is what they should believe. Duckworth asserts that not being told anything (i.e., the "answer") is what gets people interested. 

     The lesson for we teachers is to police ourselves to "get out of the way" of our students' learning. We must, as Professor Duckworth (oh, she's just been elevated to Harry Potter character status!) claims, put our learners in the position of researcher, in any content area and at any age, so that they are engaged with the materials of the topic itself, not just with the teacher. 

     I'll share some examples of all of this in action. Duckworth showed us an intriguing video from her days as an educational researcher in the classroom. The video featured two upper-elementary boys working with manipulatives on a math problem. They were given a rectangular block and were told it represented a candy bar, but that the candy bar company wanted to change the shape of the product without taking away the amount of chocolate. The boys were each given 4 small block squares they could use to determine the size of this rectangular block in order to deduce how to reshape it. Well, the boys went back and forth and back and forth, and finally came up with two different solutions to determining the size (volume, surface area, etc.) of the rectangular block. They also came up with two different answers regarding the block's size. They were then asked to explain their processes to one another, which they did, prompting another opportunity to grapple with which had been the correct method, leading to the correct answer. At no point did a teacher step in to announce who was right and who was wrong. 

     Now, you may be shuddering at the thought of this, as were many of the teachers present at the conference. We teachers often want to "jump in" to ensure that the correct answer is reached. Duckworth remained pretty insistent that it's okay to leave students with some healthy confusion, stating that once we tell them the answer is when the thinking stops. While this is a valid and, in my opinion, pretty fascinating concept, many of us are looking for more of a balancing act in our classrooms, at least as a starting point. 

     For example, although the boys were not using the terms "volume" and "surface area," it was clear this is what they were discussing. Many of us would have begun this lesson by supplying the students with these terms. But, in thinking about critical thinking and exploration, letting the students play around with the terms they are using first in the interest of building their organic experience with the concepts may be a better decision. Later, when this experience is solidified for them, the teacher can point out that there are terms for what they were discussing, and then teach them the vocabulary. Duckworth asserts, and I find myself agreeing, that only then will those terms have some true meaning for these students because they can attach the terms to an experience they have had. 

     A second video shown to us involved a class of first grade students reading a poem together. Once they had read it, the teacher simply asked them, "What do you notice?" Answers abounded, as, one by one, the first graders pointed out lines that rhymed, the rhythm and sound of certain lines, the use of colons by the poet, and repetition of certain lines and phrases. They even got into poetic structure, noticing that the beginning of each line of the poem started with a capital letter, even though there may not have been a period prior to this. Not once did the teacher jump in to clarify their "noticings:" she did not teach the term "colon," allowing the students to refer to it as "those two dots;" she did not introduce the term "rhythm" or discuss the "rules" of poetry regarding punctuation and capital letters. 

     Again, I watched as many teachers squirmed in their seats, asking, "When is she going to give them the answer?" And I guess what it comes down to is this: How do we work towards more of a balance in our classrooms so that there are times when "the answer" is less important than the opportunity to engage in some critical thinking and exploration? And, as a sub-question, how do we build up the resiliency in our students to be able to struggle through a problem without giving up?

     I think some of the answers lie in being sure that we take into consideration our students' zones of proximal development, challenging them "just enough" with a problem to explore without making it so challenging that they give up. Also, we need to build in more and more opportunities like those above for our students to critically explore a topic on their own. Imagine the critical thinking our students could experience once we build this habit with the proper scaffolding!

     

     Still intrigued?? 

     Check out this video of Eleanor Duckworth's speech -- Confusion, Play, & Postponing

     Certainty:

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6YE02B_IiU

     Or the website she founded: 

     criticalexplorers.org

     Also, you MUST check out the following two videos featuring Sir Ken Robinson if you've
     never seen his work --
     Changing Paradigms:
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

     And . . . On Creativity:
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSIkQwS-kcs

How Self-Assessment Can Play a Role in a Differentiated Classroom

     This school year has really been the year of differentiated instruction for me. This is not to say I never thought about DI before this year. In fact, while in my former district, I was one of the champions of DI, trying out a lot of the strategies I was reading about, discussing these strategies with colleagues, etc. But this year, as an instructional coach in a new district, I find myself working with numerous educators who really want to succeed with DI, but don't always know where to start, and have a lot of understandable concerns about how it all works. Coaching colleagues on implementing DI in their classrooms has opened my eyes to a lot of new possibilities concerning differentiation. In this post, I'll share one of my more recent thoughts and discoveries...

     It all started when I realized that the vast majority of teachers I was discussing DI with were asking the same questions: How do I group students? How can it be flexible? Shouldn't I be worried about how my students are going to react to being given different work to do than their classmates?

     I went digging around in all my books on differentiated instruction, and I found a lot of great ideas and suggestions to help answer these questions. But there was one suggestion that really hit home for me, that really aligned with how I believe DI can function in building student self-awareness and self-assessment, in turning some ownership over to the students. It's from chapter 6 of Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson by Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart, and it goes a little something like this:

     It doesn't always have to be the teacher who determines what differentiated work students do during a lesson. We can turn assessment over to the students, who, after all, are the experts on what they know and on what they don't know as of yet. Moss and Brookhart recommend using a student self-assessment sheet to do this. Here's a sample of what this might look like in a math class (2012, p. 111):

My Self Assessment

Try these problems, and then check what type of problem it was for you.

1.       Find the mean, the median, and the mode for this set of numbers: 2, 10, 4, 2, 7.

Mean _____     Median _____     Mode _____

 How is this problem for you?
__ I can already do it easily
__ I can do it, and want more practice with this kind of problem
__ I can learn it, and want to practice this kind of problem with help.
__ I am not ready for this kind of problem yet.

2.Jack sold newspapers at a newsstand. On Monday he sold 41 papers, on Tuesday he sold 58 papers, on Wednesday he sold 52 papers, on Thursday he sold 48 papers, on Friday he sold 57 papers, and on Saturday he sold 58 papers. On average, how many papers did he sell? _____ Is this number the mean, the median, or the mode? _____

 How is this problem for you?
__ I can already do it easily
__ I can do it, and want more practice with this kind of problem
__ I can learn it, and want to practice this kind of problem with help.
__ I am not ready for this kind of problem yet.

 3. Ms. Smith sold handmade jewelry at a shop. For the month of January, her sales totaled $163 the first week, $274 the second week, $873 the third week, and $842 the fourth week.

a. Which statistic makes her sales look better, the mean or the median? _____ Explain how you figured this out.

b. How many more dollars' worth of sales would Ms. Smith have to have made in January for her mean sales to equal $600? _____ Explain how you figured this out.

How is this problem for you?
__ I can already do it easily
__ I can do it, and want more practice with this kind of problem
__ I can learn it, and want to practice this kind of problem with help.
__ I am not ready for this kind of problem yet.

     I love so many things about this! It's a great example of a fairly simple pre-assessment that puts the ownership on the student to self-assess. I particularly love how this example requires the student to not only state where he or she is "at" in answering "How is this problem for you?" but also requires the student to actually do each problem before self-assessing. Sometimes, things can go wrong when we ask our students to self-assess in a differentiated classroom. They may not fully know their own current level of understanding. In having to do the problem first, they will be much more likely to self-assess accurately. There is also the worry of some teachers that, in a differentiated classroom, some students will be too easy on themselves on a self-assessment in the hopes that they'll be given an "easier" assignment as a result. I believe the above example helps to reduce this occurrence in asking the students to actually do the problems instead of simply making blanket statements about their current readiness. Of course, there may be some students who still try to "underrate" themselves on purpose. But I have to ask: does it make sense to not use these types of valuable self-assessments because a handful of students may abuse them? Besides, we teachers are not taken completely out of the equation just because there is self-assessment going on. We can always step in if we think a student has been too easy (or too hard) on himself or herself. 

     Something else I love about the above example is that it's so easy for the teacher to know what the next step is! Based on these self-assessments, the teacher can now form differentiated groups of students based on their readiness, and will know what types of problems to give each group, as well as which group he should probably work with first, second, and so on. 

     I hope this gives you some food for thought about ways you can involve your students in the differentiated learning process. Why not make them our partners in discovering what they currently know and are able to do?

Are You Doing More Work Than Your Students?

Alternate Title: Those Who Do the Work Do the Learning.

My alternative title may sound a little bumper sticker-ish to you, but I believe it rings true. If you are doing more work during a given class than your students, guess who's also learning more? You are. Actually, since you already know the material you're teaching, the more important way to think about this is as follows: if you're doing more work, your students are doing less learning. 

I've seen this happen pretty often, and I've fallen victim to it myself. Sometimes it just seems so much easier to keep rattling off example after example of the concept you're teaching; it can seem quicker, and more efficient, to do so rather than give some of that example-generation over to the students. For instance, let's say you're an English teacher (always an easy go-to example for me since I used to be one!). You're up at the board, where you've just defined (or reviewed) figurative language. You then proceed to give your students eight different examples of figurative language from the reading they have recently completed. My question to you is this: why not provide your students with one example (in order to model), and then release them to find the subsequent examples on their own? It may be a little more time-consuming, but the students will be doing the work. And they'll be doing the learning. AND you'll have a chance to check for understanding!

The more and more you do this, with topics ever-increasing in complexity, you may start to notice something: your students may not be enjoying this. Some of them may have grown accustomed to sitting back, taking notes, and generally letting you do all the work. Some of them may even think you are slacking off! Story time: A few years ago, when I was teaching 11th grade English, it was time for my students to study good ol' Henry David Thoreau. In the interest of differentiating based on student interest, I did some small talks on several of his essays from Walden, then allowed my students to choose which essay they wanted to explore in-depth. Once the choices were made, groups were formed, and the assignment was given -- study your essay closely as a group and, following some provided guidelines and specifics, prepare to present this essay to the rest of the class. By the second day of work on this assignment, one of my groups of students starting delivering humorous smirks my way. As I made my way over to their location, they told me they had my number. One of them said, "We figured out why you're doing this this way, Ms. B. You're taking the easy way out because you don't want to read this book, so you're making all of us do it." 

I realized I had not built a culture in my classroom where students were consistently expected to take on ownership of tasks, of content, of areas of study. So, step one is to plan lessons so that you are not doing all the work (and, subsequently, all the learning). But step two must not be ignored, either. Students need to be brought into the loop. Explain to them, discuss with them, why you'll be handing over more tasks to them. Be sure they understand the teaching philosophy behind it. Make them your partners in this process called education.