Conveniently, while I was writing the explanations for the first part of this week's assignments, I happened to slightly cover what one would assess for the students. However, for the rare individual that may stumble upon this blog post in a vacuum, here is what I am doing:
We are creating assessments for objectives we have generated for standards based on our school districts. Since mine is a district that follows Common Core State Standards, and I wish to teach high-school English/Language Arts, my standard is this:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
The objectives I created for this won't be posted here, however, the assessment ideas I had for the piece are below.
Formative:
There would be many formative assessments for the month-long unit that would be covering this standard, but for my purposes, I was thinking something along the line of a student check-up. What would happen is each student would bring in a piece of complicated or confusing language for the other students at their table to decipher, complete with a translation from whichever context of language the initial writing was in to something more simple. The students would trade, testing each other on something neither one would have prior knowledge of, then have a small conference where they discuss similarities, differences, and moments of confusion as they tried to translate. At the end of the day, students would turn in their snippet of language (a few sentences to a paragraph), their translation, and the translation they wrote for their partner's language snippet for assessment and review by me as the teacher. That way, they could keep practicing with real-world instances of language, and, if I saw common problems, I could give a refresher in the next class, or simply give them notes on what each individual wasn't quite understanding on their returned handouts.
For this particular assessment, they would have to do these once a week, but be given a time limit in class to translate, they would be able to work on what they don't know actively, grasping the ideas and concepts being given to them, the result would both fit the standard AND be helping them translate something they didn't know before, helping them in the real world, and since I would collect and correct the translations, I would be able to measure everyone's progress as the unit went on.
Summative:
The "final exam" of the course would be the summative assessment, and for this one, I had the perfect idea in the description of my final objective. Essentially, students would be required, on the last day of the class, to do a much larger version of the formative assessments. They would need to bring in a large legal document, technical instruction, academic paper... something at least 1 page long and written for a context that your "average" person wouldn't understand. They would also have to bring in a translation of the entire document's language into a different context (ideally something more understandable, but they could go from legalese to academic or sales-pitch, if they so choose).
If they didn't want to do that, from being sick of doing smaller versions of that or just more intrigued in the second option, they could write a letter to someone (a friend, a teacher, a doctor, etc) and then translate the contents of that letter into a formal document, a job resume, or a story to be told around a campfire... or any other contexts that weren't its original form.
Both of these options would be turned in (or presented, if the student wished and it was in a form the student could easily present) and, after a celebration for completing a section, we would move on to the next idea.
Both of these options would cover precisely what the standard is talking about, showing the translation, understanding, and creation (though this last one is more present in the second option) of language in multiple contexts. This would be a large project proposed, say, the week before it was due, giving them a firm time limit, and would be graded on quality of the overall translation (both faithfulness and ability to be understood). After all of the other work they had been doing, this would feel like, at most, a larger homework assignment that should be grasped by the students quite easily, but, by its very nature, helps them with real-world problems by helping them learn the proper etiquette for a cover letter, legal letter, or just helping them be motivated to learn how to understand legalese or see through sales-talk. It may be presumptuous of me, but this might just be a SMART idea.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Standards Reflection
When it comes to unpacking standards and backwards mapping, while I wasn't a teacher yet, these were already concepts (if not names for them) that I was well aware of. I have been in far too many classes where there are vague standards nobody, including the teacher, seems to understand, and that doesn't benefit anyone. Sure, it makes the school look good for parents, but if nobody understands what needs to be taught or learned, what is the point?
Understanding is the goal in all things. We talk so people understand us, we write so understanding may pass on to future generations, we do experiments to broaden our understanding of the world... So it only makes sense that standards should be as understood as possible. This doesn't seem like a job for teachers but, like so many other things in the world, somehow it has fallen to teachers anyway, even in things as nigh-universal (in this country) as the Common Core State Standards (as I have to deal with in Hawaii).
The thing about standards are that they are benchmarks. They are designed to be fuzzy lines of achievement, but with real, tangible effects. I, personally, find it best to use standards as a marker of the direction students should go, hoping to cultivate a learning environment where those fuzzy lines get blown out of the water by clear pinnacles of understanding and proficiency. To do this, we have to break down the academic speak and fancy talk that looks good to politicians, lawmakers, and shareholders, and turn it into the language that everyone else speaks. What do students need to do? What do they need to know? This is, actually, precisely why I picked the standards I did for activity 1 and 2 this week. It is the one most geared towards helping everyone know how to unpack standards from their flowery academic talk to something more generally understood.
Once you know the goals, backwards mapping becomes key. You know where the student needs to end up, now all you have to do is walk them back to where they will start the year. This can be done in multiple ways, and not every single step needs to be set in stone (as many classes may grow or explore in directions you weren't expecting, but still head towards the final goal) but there should definitely be checkpoints along the way to make sure you're reaching where you need to be. Assessments and activities built in to make sure that students are, roughly, where they should be and on track to reach the finish line. But you only know the intermediate steps when you know the start and the finish: the standards of the grade before and the standards you're meant to meet this time.
The main thing this also helps you do is plan according to the grade level. The example in the video showed to the cohort was in baking a pie: while there are many ways to learn how to bake a pie, if you want to demonstrate your ability to bake one, writing an essay on the history of pies won't work. In the same way, with standards, if your final idea is to be able to speak fluently in one group and be able to write in specific contexts in a second, you shouldn't practice writing too heavily with group one or speaking too heavily with group two. While they might be useful things for each group to know, if they prove they can do the wrong thing, that gets you no closer to knowing if they have learned the standard, and them no closer to understanding the standards that have been just out of their reach.
This idea has always struck me as a relatively obvious one, but the amount of people for whom this idea is some strange, alien novelty kind of boggles my mind. It illustrates a strange stagnation we need to break free from in education, and one that will only be accomplished by creative teachers getting into the works and modifying them for the better from the inside.
In the end, these skills, while simple and obvious to myself, are vital ones that need to be drilled into all teachers, regardless of how long they may have been teaching. Teachers must understand what they are to teach before they can teach it, and students must understand what they're supposed to learn before they can learn it. You can't learn something you don't know you don't know, you can only learn information you know you don't know, solving the problem of not knowing it. Teachers must also be able to backwards map (which I always want to refer to as pamming... but this is me liking silly puns and jokes) to make sure students are engaged and learning what they need to be every step of the way towards their goal. This way, everyone is focused and unified in their efforts to teach, learn, and grow to be the people who make tomorrow the bright future it is.
Understanding is the goal in all things. We talk so people understand us, we write so understanding may pass on to future generations, we do experiments to broaden our understanding of the world... So it only makes sense that standards should be as understood as possible. This doesn't seem like a job for teachers but, like so many other things in the world, somehow it has fallen to teachers anyway, even in things as nigh-universal (in this country) as the Common Core State Standards (as I have to deal with in Hawaii).
The thing about standards are that they are benchmarks. They are designed to be fuzzy lines of achievement, but with real, tangible effects. I, personally, find it best to use standards as a marker of the direction students should go, hoping to cultivate a learning environment where those fuzzy lines get blown out of the water by clear pinnacles of understanding and proficiency. To do this, we have to break down the academic speak and fancy talk that looks good to politicians, lawmakers, and shareholders, and turn it into the language that everyone else speaks. What do students need to do? What do they need to know? This is, actually, precisely why I picked the standards I did for activity 1 and 2 this week. It is the one most geared towards helping everyone know how to unpack standards from their flowery academic talk to something more generally understood.
Once you know the goals, backwards mapping becomes key. You know where the student needs to end up, now all you have to do is walk them back to where they will start the year. This can be done in multiple ways, and not every single step needs to be set in stone (as many classes may grow or explore in directions you weren't expecting, but still head towards the final goal) but there should definitely be checkpoints along the way to make sure you're reaching where you need to be. Assessments and activities built in to make sure that students are, roughly, where they should be and on track to reach the finish line. But you only know the intermediate steps when you know the start and the finish: the standards of the grade before and the standards you're meant to meet this time.
The main thing this also helps you do is plan according to the grade level. The example in the video showed to the cohort was in baking a pie: while there are many ways to learn how to bake a pie, if you want to demonstrate your ability to bake one, writing an essay on the history of pies won't work. In the same way, with standards, if your final idea is to be able to speak fluently in one group and be able to write in specific contexts in a second, you shouldn't practice writing too heavily with group one or speaking too heavily with group two. While they might be useful things for each group to know, if they prove they can do the wrong thing, that gets you no closer to knowing if they have learned the standard, and them no closer to understanding the standards that have been just out of their reach.
This idea has always struck me as a relatively obvious one, but the amount of people for whom this idea is some strange, alien novelty kind of boggles my mind. It illustrates a strange stagnation we need to break free from in education, and one that will only be accomplished by creative teachers getting into the works and modifying them for the better from the inside.
In the end, these skills, while simple and obvious to myself, are vital ones that need to be drilled into all teachers, regardless of how long they may have been teaching. Teachers must understand what they are to teach before they can teach it, and students must understand what they're supposed to learn before they can learn it. You can't learn something you don't know you don't know, you can only learn information you know you don't know, solving the problem of not knowing it. Teachers must also be able to backwards map (which I always want to refer to as pamming... but this is me liking silly puns and jokes) to make sure students are engaged and learning what they need to be every step of the way towards their goal. This way, everyone is focused and unified in their efforts to teach, learn, and grow to be the people who make tomorrow the bright future it is.
Holding the Map Backwards: Not Always a Problem
I do not currently teach, but I expect to teach in a secondary school English Language Arts when all is said and done, in Hawaii, which uses the Common Core State Standards. As such, for my planning today, I will be using standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3 for 9th and 10th graders. This standard reads
"Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening."
I chose this standard as it is quite important not just in class or in school, but in the world at large. Many different companies or groups use language differently, and as a functioning member of society, one must be able to not only hold a conversation with your friends, but be able to communicate with the legal system and the government, understand warning labels on packaging and doctor's notes, and otherwise be able to understand complicated language and, often, explain it to people who don't have these skills. It is a vital and useful ability in this day and age, and one that we shouldn't skimp on teaching.
Also, for the student in school, this standard involves critical thinking in being able to understand and edit papers they both receive and are working on, giving them the scholastic tools to be able to write academically when they need to and creatively, informally, or professionally when it is more appropriate.
When my students are done with this unit, the proficiencies I can expect are:
- Be able to recognize the differences in language used in different contexts.
- Be able to edit other people's writing to fit into a specific context.
- Be able to write their own work as appropriate for a specific context.
- Be able to understand new information when it is provided to them, regardless of the context.
- Using a fresh text (not given to the student before), each student has to write a summary and rewording of what is being written.
- Using a fresh text read aloud in class (one they have not heard before) students must be able to summarize the statements and give suggestions on what kind of contexts those statements might be appropriate for.
- Using a prompt and given information, students must be able to write a letter or paper appropriate for different contexts.
- Using a fresh text, students must be able to guess the context it was written in, then edit the content to fit into a different context or make suggestions on how to change its context.
- A summary practice day: Students read several short passages from different contexts. Initially as a class, but later on their own, students identify the contexts the passages may be from and summarize their meaning.
- The summary should be short (A single sentence to a full paragraph, depending on passage length) and clearly show the information given.
- The summary should identify what context it is in.
- Letter writing practice: After discussing how students talk differently to their parents, their teachers, prospective employers, and people like police officers or guards, students are given a single situation and some details and must write a version of a letter or essay for their family, for a classroom presentation, for their boss, and for a courtroom to demonstrate their ability to write for different contexts.
- Students would be able to peer-review each other's works, editing and suggesting changes to better fit contexts.
- All students would have the same information to begin with, but may use their own critical thinking and creativity to create any letter they wish.
- Letters would be collected, and exemplary instances of writing for each context would be shared with the class in a later discussion on the topic.
- Conversation time: Students would be placed into groups, each of which having different information. They would have to share that information, but when a bell is rung, must change how they speak to fit a different context. At the end, one person (chosen at random) must present the information they gleaned from the experience.
- Students must share all information, or else the student sent up would not be able to share their information with everyone else.
- Students must be able to understand multiple contexts, and be flexible enough to share information with a student not-comprehending in a context they might understand.
- Groups would be assessed in whole, and by anonymous peer review after the fact to narrow it down to individuals.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Classroom Rules and Procedures
Applying rules and procedures to a classroom is key if you want your students to behave and, more importantly, learn. Having a rule in place lets them know what the boundaries are for them to explore, and having procedures keeps them grounded in ritual and order, making it easier for them to explore the area given to them and find every last bit of information they can.
But just having these things in place is meaningless without ways to enforce rules and reinforce behavior. That, however, quickly becomes complicated, as this chart can show you (I will link the picture below as well). However, with the integration of modern tools and technology, along with good, old fashioned withitness and empathy, every teacher should be armed with the tools to manage his or her classroom.
To begin with, I'd like to talk about rewarding good behavior. This part seems the easier area, as it has less chances for confrontation with the students, but it is actually the trickier half of the prospect. You see, rewards can cause perverse incentives. If you only give rewards for certain behaviors, students may lose some creativity for things that are following the rules, but aren't blatantly following the rules, causing even more disruption as students try to get your attention with how good they're being. Or, they may get jealous at a student who is more obviously being rewarded, causing "bad" students to act worse as they try to get the chance to shine themselves by bullying the "good" student when you aren't around.
As such, you, as a teacher, have to make sure that students are rewarded fairly and, if at all possible, equally. This is why, personally, I would rather have students grouped together, giving rewards to the table or group, rather than the individual, for good behavior. This will allow students to police each other, as all of them work towards a common goal. Now, the actual act of rewarding comes in a few ways. Tokens or points (such as those awarded by Class Dojo or Classcraft) create an obvious, tangible thing that students can strive for. If these points are able to be traded in, either for a big prize at the end of the year, or little prizes along the way, students will naturally strive to get the points and do the right thing. If the rewards seem a little too much for you personally, verbal encouragement and pointing out students doing the right thing has an equal amount of positive effect on the other students, as everyone likes being praised for being a good student.
Now, for myself, I have another category, called a major reward. These would be very rare, but very big rewards. Things like a student who was doing badly getting a perfect score, or a student standing up to bullying that I had possibly missed, even if it was out in the yard at recess, or one student helping another or a table understand an idea that they were having problems with while I helped a different group of students. These kinds of large actions would get bigger rewards, and truly heroic ones would be rewarded with a call to the parents praising their student and letting them know how good the child is. It could change the entire dynamic at home and keep the praise and the good feelings going through the whole week.
Conversely, negative behavior has to be punished. There should be layers of punishment, with students being able to correct themselves before I step in. If they're in groups, I expect the entire group to keep tabs on each other, so that they don't lose points or anything, but I would look at the offending student while continuing with the lesson, or talk to them quietly if everyone was supposed to be silent and they realized they were caught. If they didn't realize I saw them, then I would get closer to them, until, if they are so oblivious with whatever had their attention that they didn't notice me looming, I would stop the class to punish them verbally. It wouldn't be anything big or scolding if it was a quiet disruption only for a couple of students, but just enough to let the students realize what they were doing wrong. If it caused a larger problem and there was a point or token system in place, they'd lose some, based on the rules, so they knew why they were being punished and how to fix it.
If they repeatedly broke the rules, or broke the rules in a larger way, such as obvious disruptions or bullying, I would stop with quiet warnings and moving over and begin positioning myself near them more often, giving full scoldings for repeated behavior, or a sharp warning to make them stop their actions before someone got hurt. Points would be deducted if it was an obvious problem, and if they were damaging books or desks or something, I would force them to fix their damage, as well as any other damage in the class, overcorrecting to let them realize what the initial problem was.
If these larger actions continued, or if they had a truly bad disruption, like trying to start a fight with another student, inciting a class to mock someone, or a huge confrontation with myself, I would immediately react with accordance to school guidelines. I would break up a fight or call security to do the same, and in the other situations, I would find the leader and, calmly but firmly, calm them down, explain what I needed them to do, and discuss why their behavior was bad and the consequences of their actions. Only as a last resort, should the problem not be able to be dealt with in the class or the disruptions are so frequent and large that there's no other option, will I actually send a student to detention or the principal's office, and I would make sure the incident was followed up by a call to the parents (a strong tool, whether positive or negative) to explain why it happened and hopefully help instigate discipline following the student home so it is drilled into them by people they do listen to and respect, since they've proven, at that point, that they don't listen to or respect me.
Discipline is a messy, complicated, not at all fun, but crucially important part of a classroom. You must, as a teacher, reward good students and punish bad, not only because these are how the rules are set up, but because this is how society works. You aren't just teaching students new information, these children are learning how to be responsible, dependable adults functioning in a society that has very clear, very strict laws with very clear punishment should you break them. You must be a force of order (sometimes, the only force of order) in the student's life so that they understand how laws and order work and learn to operate within those forces. A quiet, respectful classroom is just a pleasant side-effect to the larger mission of even this dirty job.
(The chart linked above:)
But just having these things in place is meaningless without ways to enforce rules and reinforce behavior. That, however, quickly becomes complicated, as this chart can show you (I will link the picture below as well). However, with the integration of modern tools and technology, along with good, old fashioned withitness and empathy, every teacher should be armed with the tools to manage his or her classroom.
To begin with, I'd like to talk about rewarding good behavior. This part seems the easier area, as it has less chances for confrontation with the students, but it is actually the trickier half of the prospect. You see, rewards can cause perverse incentives. If you only give rewards for certain behaviors, students may lose some creativity for things that are following the rules, but aren't blatantly following the rules, causing even more disruption as students try to get your attention with how good they're being. Or, they may get jealous at a student who is more obviously being rewarded, causing "bad" students to act worse as they try to get the chance to shine themselves by bullying the "good" student when you aren't around.
As such, you, as a teacher, have to make sure that students are rewarded fairly and, if at all possible, equally. This is why, personally, I would rather have students grouped together, giving rewards to the table or group, rather than the individual, for good behavior. This will allow students to police each other, as all of them work towards a common goal. Now, the actual act of rewarding comes in a few ways. Tokens or points (such as those awarded by Class Dojo or Classcraft) create an obvious, tangible thing that students can strive for. If these points are able to be traded in, either for a big prize at the end of the year, or little prizes along the way, students will naturally strive to get the points and do the right thing. If the rewards seem a little too much for you personally, verbal encouragement and pointing out students doing the right thing has an equal amount of positive effect on the other students, as everyone likes being praised for being a good student.
Now, for myself, I have another category, called a major reward. These would be very rare, but very big rewards. Things like a student who was doing badly getting a perfect score, or a student standing up to bullying that I had possibly missed, even if it was out in the yard at recess, or one student helping another or a table understand an idea that they were having problems with while I helped a different group of students. These kinds of large actions would get bigger rewards, and truly heroic ones would be rewarded with a call to the parents praising their student and letting them know how good the child is. It could change the entire dynamic at home and keep the praise and the good feelings going through the whole week.
Conversely, negative behavior has to be punished. There should be layers of punishment, with students being able to correct themselves before I step in. If they're in groups, I expect the entire group to keep tabs on each other, so that they don't lose points or anything, but I would look at the offending student while continuing with the lesson, or talk to them quietly if everyone was supposed to be silent and they realized they were caught. If they didn't realize I saw them, then I would get closer to them, until, if they are so oblivious with whatever had their attention that they didn't notice me looming, I would stop the class to punish them verbally. It wouldn't be anything big or scolding if it was a quiet disruption only for a couple of students, but just enough to let the students realize what they were doing wrong. If it caused a larger problem and there was a point or token system in place, they'd lose some, based on the rules, so they knew why they were being punished and how to fix it.
If they repeatedly broke the rules, or broke the rules in a larger way, such as obvious disruptions or bullying, I would stop with quiet warnings and moving over and begin positioning myself near them more often, giving full scoldings for repeated behavior, or a sharp warning to make them stop their actions before someone got hurt. Points would be deducted if it was an obvious problem, and if they were damaging books or desks or something, I would force them to fix their damage, as well as any other damage in the class, overcorrecting to let them realize what the initial problem was.
If these larger actions continued, or if they had a truly bad disruption, like trying to start a fight with another student, inciting a class to mock someone, or a huge confrontation with myself, I would immediately react with accordance to school guidelines. I would break up a fight or call security to do the same, and in the other situations, I would find the leader and, calmly but firmly, calm them down, explain what I needed them to do, and discuss why their behavior was bad and the consequences of their actions. Only as a last resort, should the problem not be able to be dealt with in the class or the disruptions are so frequent and large that there's no other option, will I actually send a student to detention or the principal's office, and I would make sure the incident was followed up by a call to the parents (a strong tool, whether positive or negative) to explain why it happened and hopefully help instigate discipline following the student home so it is drilled into them by people they do listen to and respect, since they've proven, at that point, that they don't listen to or respect me.
Discipline is a messy, complicated, not at all fun, but crucially important part of a classroom. You must, as a teacher, reward good students and punish bad, not only because these are how the rules are set up, but because this is how society works. You aren't just teaching students new information, these children are learning how to be responsible, dependable adults functioning in a society that has very clear, very strict laws with very clear punishment should you break them. You must be a force of order (sometimes, the only force of order) in the student's life so that they understand how laws and order work and learn to operate within those forces. A quiet, respectful classroom is just a pleasant side-effect to the larger mission of even this dirty job.
(The chart linked above:)
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
High Performance Learning
Today I will be talking about three learning experiences, evaluating positives and negatives involved in their use. They will be Roller Coaster Physics (as found here), the Chinese approach to math (as explained here and shown off here), and Whole Brain Teaching (as shown here). We'll look at their strengths, their weakness, and whether or not they'd be good options for applying to my own theoretical classroom.
First, the Roller Coaster Physics. Watching the video, it is clear that Donna Migdol holds very high expectations for her students by both academic and behavioral standards. She treats the students like adults, essentially, not talking down to them or repeating information ad nauseam when they understand it the first time. And this is important for what she is expecting of her students. They are to build a roller coaster for their marble, getting it to the end safely without rushing off the track, and they have a 'budget' they can use to get all of the materials they need. Each student has their role, and you can tell from the way they talk to the camera that they are taking their roles quite seriously.
For this class, procedures and norms are everything. They have to work and communicate as a group, they have to be sure on their decisions when 'buying' materials (as there's no refunds, and they're quite expensive) and everyone has to be on top of their part of the design. As a result of holding the students to such a high level, you see them respond in kind, being quite professional and able to talk and plan with each other, all coming together to make and adjust their group roller coaster without stepping on anyone's toes.
This is a fantastic model for teaching STEM, particularly since it lets you get hands-on immediately, giving the students something real to connect their ideas to. I may have my issues with STEM focus (being a large proponent of the arts myself) but when they work, they do work wonders.
The second group I'll cover is the Chinese math class. As the video shows, there is a large focus on drilling and running the numbers with rhymes and songs as a group. This repetition does wonders to lock the idea in the student's mind, and has been a plan people and governments have used for ages to get people to quickly learn a new language. One could argue that math is the language of the universe, or of numbers, so I think that argument can be applied here too.
The class seems engaged with the teacher, and they all are working well at answering the questions, with clear norms and procedures to answer questions when called on, to repeat after the teacher, and to work as a group, but it's a bit harder to tell what the expectations are. Parents in China have very high expectations of their students, both behaviorally and educationally, but some from other countries might see those same expectations as restrictive to personality. Between the article I linked and many people I know who have talked of teaching in China, interaction between students and between the student and the teacher is very low, favoring drilling and testing over giving practical applications or help to individual students. This means that the students are very good at what they're doing, but lose out on some of the practical applications and social aspects of life. It is impossible to argue with the effectiveness of this teaching strategy, but a human side seems to be lost if one isn't careful.
The third learning strategy to cover is Whole Brain Teaching. The video for this one feels chaotic, and the website explaining it... well, didn't do a good job of explaining it to me, but I understand the theory. Students learn in multiple ways... some are visual, some are auditory, some are kinetic, and this method reaches out to all of them. The motions, sounds, and visuals all combine to teach the same thing, letting students acquire the knowledge in the way that best works for them.
There are clear procedures when it comes to following the teacher, repeating after them, and how groups work together depending on how the assignment continues, and those seem to be followed strictly and with little teacher intervention, suggesting the teacher thinks highly of the students' abilities when it comes to following instructions. However, one could argue that this entire method thinks a little less of the students than some other methods, as it hold their hand all the way through, with the teacher watching like a hawk for mistakes or non-comprehension and little freedom on the part of the student. On top of this, the actions are functional in this setting, but not all information is going to be given to you in this way in the real world, and adding motions on your own might cause a whole new set of issues when it comes to appearances for social sanity. Therefore, it's hard to determine whether the expectations for education are truly high, or just the expectations that students will follow the rules are high.
The final classroom we will be covering is my own. Now, I intend to teach English, Theater, and/or English as a Second Language to students in secondary school. I do not know my class level yet, but for the sake of this piece, let's pick Sophomores (10th Grade). The first teaching method would be the one I would want to follow as much as possible. Having students in groups builds their communication, large projects with the freedom to tackle it however you want, but expectations of a quality result, place high expectations on the students while also trusting them with the freedom to do it however they want, and as long as the base rules are well defined, I can imagine a quite composed classroom coming from this. Now, these ideas are a little harder to tie to real-world projects in English than they are in STEM subjects, and it would involve a lot more creativity, but if I set the bar, I know that the students will be able to reach it.
If I am teaching ESL, or if I need to cover remedial parts of grammar quickly, I will probably use the method in the second video at least a few times. It is one of the fastest way to drill basic concepts into students, and once they have the basics, it is much easier to give them the freedom to be more creative and tackle more complicated things. It is not quite as effective for languages outside of formulas, as language tends to be much more nuanced than numbers do, but it's still a very useful tool.
If I find I have a lot of trouble students, or ones that learn differently than my main teaching methods, I might employ Whole Brain Teaching. It can be useful both for foreign language students, as the motions give an anchor from which further understanding can bloom, and for students labeled as "trouble students" because they just don't learn the same way everyone else does. I would need to do a lot more study on the method to truly feel comfortable with it, but even from a cultural standpoint, with Hawaii's emphasis on hula and chants - storytelling through means other than words - applying more motions and vocalization to the class might not hurt.
No matter what strategy I end up going with, or even if I blend all of them, strictly defining and enforcing the rules is a must. In all ways, we should do our best to treat the students as human beings, giving them real responsibility so they can rise to the challenge. The contexts around that principle may change, but those rules should always be held in the highest of regards.
Resources:
Chen, C. (2011, June 13). 3rd grade Chinese--math class.avi. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g
roxishayne (2011, May 31). Whole Brain Teaching Richwood High - The Basics. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXTtR7lfWU&feature=youtu.be
First, the Roller Coaster Physics. Watching the video, it is clear that Donna Migdol holds very high expectations for her students by both academic and behavioral standards. She treats the students like adults, essentially, not talking down to them or repeating information ad nauseam when they understand it the first time. And this is important for what she is expecting of her students. They are to build a roller coaster for their marble, getting it to the end safely without rushing off the track, and they have a 'budget' they can use to get all of the materials they need. Each student has their role, and you can tell from the way they talk to the camera that they are taking their roles quite seriously.
For this class, procedures and norms are everything. They have to work and communicate as a group, they have to be sure on their decisions when 'buying' materials (as there's no refunds, and they're quite expensive) and everyone has to be on top of their part of the design. As a result of holding the students to such a high level, you see them respond in kind, being quite professional and able to talk and plan with each other, all coming together to make and adjust their group roller coaster without stepping on anyone's toes.
This is a fantastic model for teaching STEM, particularly since it lets you get hands-on immediately, giving the students something real to connect their ideas to. I may have my issues with STEM focus (being a large proponent of the arts myself) but when they work, they do work wonders.
The second group I'll cover is the Chinese math class. As the video shows, there is a large focus on drilling and running the numbers with rhymes and songs as a group. This repetition does wonders to lock the idea in the student's mind, and has been a plan people and governments have used for ages to get people to quickly learn a new language. One could argue that math is the language of the universe, or of numbers, so I think that argument can be applied here too.
The class seems engaged with the teacher, and they all are working well at answering the questions, with clear norms and procedures to answer questions when called on, to repeat after the teacher, and to work as a group, but it's a bit harder to tell what the expectations are. Parents in China have very high expectations of their students, both behaviorally and educationally, but some from other countries might see those same expectations as restrictive to personality. Between the article I linked and many people I know who have talked of teaching in China, interaction between students and between the student and the teacher is very low, favoring drilling and testing over giving practical applications or help to individual students. This means that the students are very good at what they're doing, but lose out on some of the practical applications and social aspects of life. It is impossible to argue with the effectiveness of this teaching strategy, but a human side seems to be lost if one isn't careful.
The third learning strategy to cover is Whole Brain Teaching. The video for this one feels chaotic, and the website explaining it... well, didn't do a good job of explaining it to me, but I understand the theory. Students learn in multiple ways... some are visual, some are auditory, some are kinetic, and this method reaches out to all of them. The motions, sounds, and visuals all combine to teach the same thing, letting students acquire the knowledge in the way that best works for them.
There are clear procedures when it comes to following the teacher, repeating after them, and how groups work together depending on how the assignment continues, and those seem to be followed strictly and with little teacher intervention, suggesting the teacher thinks highly of the students' abilities when it comes to following instructions. However, one could argue that this entire method thinks a little less of the students than some other methods, as it hold their hand all the way through, with the teacher watching like a hawk for mistakes or non-comprehension and little freedom on the part of the student. On top of this, the actions are functional in this setting, but not all information is going to be given to you in this way in the real world, and adding motions on your own might cause a whole new set of issues when it comes to appearances for social sanity. Therefore, it's hard to determine whether the expectations for education are truly high, or just the expectations that students will follow the rules are high.
The final classroom we will be covering is my own. Now, I intend to teach English, Theater, and/or English as a Second Language to students in secondary school. I do not know my class level yet, but for the sake of this piece, let's pick Sophomores (10th Grade). The first teaching method would be the one I would want to follow as much as possible. Having students in groups builds their communication, large projects with the freedom to tackle it however you want, but expectations of a quality result, place high expectations on the students while also trusting them with the freedom to do it however they want, and as long as the base rules are well defined, I can imagine a quite composed classroom coming from this. Now, these ideas are a little harder to tie to real-world projects in English than they are in STEM subjects, and it would involve a lot more creativity, but if I set the bar, I know that the students will be able to reach it.
If I am teaching ESL, or if I need to cover remedial parts of grammar quickly, I will probably use the method in the second video at least a few times. It is one of the fastest way to drill basic concepts into students, and once they have the basics, it is much easier to give them the freedom to be more creative and tackle more complicated things. It is not quite as effective for languages outside of formulas, as language tends to be much more nuanced than numbers do, but it's still a very useful tool.
If I find I have a lot of trouble students, or ones that learn differently than my main teaching methods, I might employ Whole Brain Teaching. It can be useful both for foreign language students, as the motions give an anchor from which further understanding can bloom, and for students labeled as "trouble students" because they just don't learn the same way everyone else does. I would need to do a lot more study on the method to truly feel comfortable with it, but even from a cultural standpoint, with Hawaii's emphasis on hula and chants - storytelling through means other than words - applying more motions and vocalization to the class might not hurt.
No matter what strategy I end up going with, or even if I blend all of them, strictly defining and enforcing the rules is a must. In all ways, we should do our best to treat the students as human beings, giving them real responsibility so they can rise to the challenge. The contexts around that principle may change, but those rules should always be held in the highest of regards.
Resources:
Chen, C. (2011, June 13). 3rd grade Chinese--math class.avi. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g
Kan Wei Associate Professor, Beijing Normal University. (2014, March 25). Explainer: what makes Chinese maths lessons so good? Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380
Teaching Channel. (2012, October 11). Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Caring for Your Students
When you are a teacher, you have to care. That is just the plain truth of the matter. This means you have to care for everyone: every race, gender identity, creed, sexuality, political opinion… It doesn’t matter if the students under your watch are immigrants from Syria escaping oppression or rich white children from a family that has lived in the area forever, all of them deserve the same opportunities for care, affection, and learning no matter their background.
Now, I live in Hawaii, have all my life, and a quick googling of the census data puts the population of white people living in Hawaii at either 26.7% or 22.9% depending on which number you want to go with. Either way, that seems like the kind of number that would make any place the minority, until you realize that the largest population is Asian, with 37.3%, a number small enough to make them the minority by most standards. For some, this makes the islands look like a confusing mash of cultures where nobody would know their identity… but that is not at all the case. What we have here is the end result of truly integrating immigration for over two centuries.
To add to my difficulty, I am not just white, I am a 4 family, 7th generation descendant of missionaries. The Judds, the Rices, the Cooks, and the Bonds all were missionaries, and my middle name was given to me because I was born nearly 150 years after the arrival of Elias Bond in the islands. There are reminders of my heritage all over the islands, from the Bond historic district in Kohala to Judd street on Oahu, all named after people who served the Kingdom of Hawaii and fought valiantly for its right to remain a free entity.
Do the locals, distrustful of haoles (derogatory: foreigners), look at me, a person who barely speaks Pidgin, let alone Hawaiian, and couldn’t tan if his life depended on it, and see that rich heritage working for them? No, they see a white person to yell at for their problems. What’s worse, despite the fact that I am as poor as the rest of them (as, last I checked, about 90% of students got a free or reduced lunch, and I was definitely in that number), they will often see me as a rich, entitled snob with no empathy for any of them. If I want to teach in this state (and I do, because I love this land and will do everything in my power to make it a better place and give back to the community I adore) I will be going up against a harsh cultural barrier, and I know that. But I don’t care.
It is my firm belief that what matters in a person, as I will now paraphrase from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is the content of their character, not the color of their skin. This means that I don’t judge people by how they look, only how they act. This is doubly important in Hawaii, where more than one case of a smelly bum being turned out of a museum has resulted in said bum walking down the street to another one and buying a multi-million dollar painting there instead. But on top of that, there is a spirit of aloha that so infuses any native to the islands (whatever their race may be, as even the Native Hawaiians are descended from Polynesian explorers, making this place truly a land of nothing but immigrants) that it cannot be untied from their very way of being.
Aloha is hello, aloha is goodbye, but it is more. Aloha is wishing perfect strangers well, it is greeting everyone with an open heart and understanding, and trusting people unless they prove you can’t. It is being a good neighbor, respecting each other, respecting ohana (family), respecting the ‘aina (land). This spirit is what I want to bring with me into the classroom: one of respect. Not just for the teacher, but for the students, for the school, for the books, and for each other.
In my class, which will be open to everyone, the desks will either be arranged in a circle that everyone, including myself, if equal in, or else around tables where everyone in the group can discuss with each other. I won’t focus my pictures around the class on any specific race or gender, but motivational, supportive phrases (and possibly some helpful knowledge. No class is complete without a map, even if it’s an English class). Since I will be in secondary school, this is when students should have already learned lessons of respect, though so few seem to. Still, I will make it clear what I expect: they aren’t kids anymore, and while they are still learning, they should do their best. I will treat them like responsible people so long as they prove that they can be, and will greet every single one of them with eye contact, a smile, and an open heart and mind so long as they are willing to do the same. Respect and trust will be the foundations of all of my actions in the classroom, and to start off, I will expect each of them to agree to rules we all come up with as a group, showing I am willing to listen to them and take their voices and concerns into account.
This will continue into the school year. I won’t waste student time if they clearly can do more, as I will challenge them, trusting them to push themselves to learn. If someone new enters the class, they will be greeted like an old family member, with that spirit of aloha making them one very soon. If bullying starts, I will listen to both sides, wanting to know why the bully bullies, if I can fix it, and how to stop the behavior without stunting anyone’s learning. But bullying is one of my triggers, as it is a complete lack of respect. I will not be a bully. I will not tolerate bullying. I am as appreciative of jokes as the next person, but cross that line from fun to hurtful and I will not stop in my efforts to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I may be quixotic, but I am an actor. I have studied for years to understand and feel the experiences of people completely unlike me in situations I hope I’ll never have to face. Empathy is linked into my soul, and I hope that that skill is something I can teach all of my students as I combat the ignorance that breeds bigotry, hatred, and fear. It’s a hopelessly romantic notion, but then… we all strive for that impossible dream.
Now, I live in Hawaii, have all my life, and a quick googling of the census data puts the population of white people living in Hawaii at either 26.7% or 22.9% depending on which number you want to go with. Either way, that seems like the kind of number that would make any place the minority, until you realize that the largest population is Asian, with 37.3%, a number small enough to make them the minority by most standards. For some, this makes the islands look like a confusing mash of cultures where nobody would know their identity… but that is not at all the case. What we have here is the end result of truly integrating immigration for over two centuries.
To add to my difficulty, I am not just white, I am a 4 family, 7th generation descendant of missionaries. The Judds, the Rices, the Cooks, and the Bonds all were missionaries, and my middle name was given to me because I was born nearly 150 years after the arrival of Elias Bond in the islands. There are reminders of my heritage all over the islands, from the Bond historic district in Kohala to Judd street on Oahu, all named after people who served the Kingdom of Hawaii and fought valiantly for its right to remain a free entity.
Do the locals, distrustful of haoles (derogatory: foreigners), look at me, a person who barely speaks Pidgin, let alone Hawaiian, and couldn’t tan if his life depended on it, and see that rich heritage working for them? No, they see a white person to yell at for their problems. What’s worse, despite the fact that I am as poor as the rest of them (as, last I checked, about 90% of students got a free or reduced lunch, and I was definitely in that number), they will often see me as a rich, entitled snob with no empathy for any of them. If I want to teach in this state (and I do, because I love this land and will do everything in my power to make it a better place and give back to the community I adore) I will be going up against a harsh cultural barrier, and I know that. But I don’t care.
It is my firm belief that what matters in a person, as I will now paraphrase from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is the content of their character, not the color of their skin. This means that I don’t judge people by how they look, only how they act. This is doubly important in Hawaii, where more than one case of a smelly bum being turned out of a museum has resulted in said bum walking down the street to another one and buying a multi-million dollar painting there instead. But on top of that, there is a spirit of aloha that so infuses any native to the islands (whatever their race may be, as even the Native Hawaiians are descended from Polynesian explorers, making this place truly a land of nothing but immigrants) that it cannot be untied from their very way of being.
Aloha is hello, aloha is goodbye, but it is more. Aloha is wishing perfect strangers well, it is greeting everyone with an open heart and understanding, and trusting people unless they prove you can’t. It is being a good neighbor, respecting each other, respecting ohana (family), respecting the ‘aina (land). This spirit is what I want to bring with me into the classroom: one of respect. Not just for the teacher, but for the students, for the school, for the books, and for each other.
In my class, which will be open to everyone, the desks will either be arranged in a circle that everyone, including myself, if equal in, or else around tables where everyone in the group can discuss with each other. I won’t focus my pictures around the class on any specific race or gender, but motivational, supportive phrases (and possibly some helpful knowledge. No class is complete without a map, even if it’s an English class). Since I will be in secondary school, this is when students should have already learned lessons of respect, though so few seem to. Still, I will make it clear what I expect: they aren’t kids anymore, and while they are still learning, they should do their best. I will treat them like responsible people so long as they prove that they can be, and will greet every single one of them with eye contact, a smile, and an open heart and mind so long as they are willing to do the same. Respect and trust will be the foundations of all of my actions in the classroom, and to start off, I will expect each of them to agree to rules we all come up with as a group, showing I am willing to listen to them and take their voices and concerns into account.
This will continue into the school year. I won’t waste student time if they clearly can do more, as I will challenge them, trusting them to push themselves to learn. If someone new enters the class, they will be greeted like an old family member, with that spirit of aloha making them one very soon. If bullying starts, I will listen to both sides, wanting to know why the bully bullies, if I can fix it, and how to stop the behavior without stunting anyone’s learning. But bullying is one of my triggers, as it is a complete lack of respect. I will not be a bully. I will not tolerate bullying. I am as appreciative of jokes as the next person, but cross that line from fun to hurtful and I will not stop in my efforts to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I may be quixotic, but I am an actor. I have studied for years to understand and feel the experiences of people completely unlike me in situations I hope I’ll never have to face. Empathy is linked into my soul, and I hope that that skill is something I can teach all of my students as I combat the ignorance that breeds bigotry, hatred, and fear. It’s a hopelessly romantic notion, but then… we all strive for that impossible dream.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Mobile Learning: Engagement, or Entrapment?
When asked why a teacher should be prepared to use mobile devices in the classroom, the answer is quite simple: It is the wave of the future, and it's already passing over us. Mobile devices are an amazing tool that is going largely untapped in our schools and, frankly, most other parts of our lives, and the benefits of using it towards teaching are astounding. Even in my own personal mobile learning task, which I recruited middle-aged and older actors to do after a show (when everyone's brains are fried) the simple use of technology and one little question garnered a wealth of untapped curiosity and learning in people who wouldn't have given the topic another thought if I hadn't needed someone to video for my lesson.
The impact that technology has on teaching, and the availability of knowledge in any form you could want it, is staggering considering the world just 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30. But we have to make sure this new tool is being used for good, and not just as a gimmick. There are plenty of advantages to it, sure, but the risks of distraction cannot be ignored. This is why the question of requiring mobile learning devices is still questionable at best.
For starters: not everyone will have one. At the moment, very few schools have the funding to give every kind of student the devices they'd like, or even the bare minimums. In my personal school district, they are aiming to have a computer lab for every grade, but many schools are running on about 100 computers shared between 1200 students... Not the best ratio. And, depending on where you are, there's no guarantee that every single student will have access to a computer, let alone a mobile device capable of the more advanced things technology can do nowadays, so even the best intentioned, most forward thinking teacher will need to have backups for the children, technologically, left behind at home without support.
But if we assume that the funding was there and all students had access to a mobile device purely for learning... it would have to be privatized to the school. There would need to be a private network, not for fear of other schools or students sharing ideas (sharing information is the main boon of the internet) but because public forums and systems are a danger. I honestly wish this weren't the case, but as soon as you have something open to the public, someone will come along and mess it up. It's the reason there's always graffiti and a broken toilet in any park restroom. If you're setting up a classroom network, you must make sure it is private to the students. They can share whatever they wish (though there would need to be someone making sure the content is appropriate and giving warnings and punishment to those who break the rules), and should be encouraged to, but if everyone's getting their own system, they need to be kept under watch for everyone's privacy and safety.
Finally, and the private network would do wonders here, there can't be outside distractions. Things like Twitter and Facebook are incredible tools to interact and coordinate with people outside of the classroom, or to bring parents into their students lives in a way they are much more likely to check on a regular basis, but within school walls they are a menace trying to pull people from their task and constantly making people judge themselves against the entirety of human existence. These are just sadness generation sites, and if people want to make themselves sad on their own time, fine, but no checking on it in class.
With the ground rules in place, let's move to how these devices can better the classroom: They engage every type of student. This, alone, might as well be a miracle. Creative learners, visual learners, auditory learners, avid readers... everyone can find ways to get the information presented to them exactly how they need it, if they go searching, and a teacher that is on the ball will have a list of possibilities on hand to give to students who are struggling, or just to vary up their own instruction.
On top of that, flipping the classroom, with videos at home teaching lessons, will free up the teacher to focus on the student's understanding, making sure they gain knowledge that lasts and not just memorized formulas and facts for tests. English teachers have already been doing that (books were the first technology able to be taken home and read on their own, with discussions happening in the class) but new innovations like the Khan Academy are opening up this door to more and more subjects.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. Videos and reading, home research... it's all taking the old ideas and letting them follow into the home life. People are making games and tools that allow you to diagram anything from sentences to molecules to entire cities with a few strokes of your finger. Scavenger hunts with GPS could send students on an adventure like Captain Ahab, or get ESL students to take pictures of things they don't know to discuss in the class... The possibilities are getting endless, and the limits are now the teacher's creativity and their (or someone else's) programming capabilities.
If you plan on designing mobile activities for your own class, follow some simple words of advice:
The impact that technology has on teaching, and the availability of knowledge in any form you could want it, is staggering considering the world just 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30. But we have to make sure this new tool is being used for good, and not just as a gimmick. There are plenty of advantages to it, sure, but the risks of distraction cannot be ignored. This is why the question of requiring mobile learning devices is still questionable at best.
For starters: not everyone will have one. At the moment, very few schools have the funding to give every kind of student the devices they'd like, or even the bare minimums. In my personal school district, they are aiming to have a computer lab for every grade, but many schools are running on about 100 computers shared between 1200 students... Not the best ratio. And, depending on where you are, there's no guarantee that every single student will have access to a computer, let alone a mobile device capable of the more advanced things technology can do nowadays, so even the best intentioned, most forward thinking teacher will need to have backups for the children, technologically, left behind at home without support.
But if we assume that the funding was there and all students had access to a mobile device purely for learning... it would have to be privatized to the school. There would need to be a private network, not for fear of other schools or students sharing ideas (sharing information is the main boon of the internet) but because public forums and systems are a danger. I honestly wish this weren't the case, but as soon as you have something open to the public, someone will come along and mess it up. It's the reason there's always graffiti and a broken toilet in any park restroom. If you're setting up a classroom network, you must make sure it is private to the students. They can share whatever they wish (though there would need to be someone making sure the content is appropriate and giving warnings and punishment to those who break the rules), and should be encouraged to, but if everyone's getting their own system, they need to be kept under watch for everyone's privacy and safety.
Finally, and the private network would do wonders here, there can't be outside distractions. Things like Twitter and Facebook are incredible tools to interact and coordinate with people outside of the classroom, or to bring parents into their students lives in a way they are much more likely to check on a regular basis, but within school walls they are a menace trying to pull people from their task and constantly making people judge themselves against the entirety of human existence. These are just sadness generation sites, and if people want to make themselves sad on their own time, fine, but no checking on it in class.
With the ground rules in place, let's move to how these devices can better the classroom: They engage every type of student. This, alone, might as well be a miracle. Creative learners, visual learners, auditory learners, avid readers... everyone can find ways to get the information presented to them exactly how they need it, if they go searching, and a teacher that is on the ball will have a list of possibilities on hand to give to students who are struggling, or just to vary up their own instruction.
On top of that, flipping the classroom, with videos at home teaching lessons, will free up the teacher to focus on the student's understanding, making sure they gain knowledge that lasts and not just memorized formulas and facts for tests. English teachers have already been doing that (books were the first technology able to be taken home and read on their own, with discussions happening in the class) but new innovations like the Khan Academy are opening up this door to more and more subjects.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. Videos and reading, home research... it's all taking the old ideas and letting them follow into the home life. People are making games and tools that allow you to diagram anything from sentences to molecules to entire cities with a few strokes of your finger. Scavenger hunts with GPS could send students on an adventure like Captain Ahab, or get ESL students to take pictures of things they don't know to discuss in the class... The possibilities are getting endless, and the limits are now the teacher's creativity and their (or someone else's) programming capabilities.
If you plan on designing mobile activities for your own class, follow some simple words of advice:
- Be Engaging: Not every lesson has to be a game, but if the students don't want to learn, they won't.
- Real-World Applications are a Must: The biggest thing to stall learning is "Ugh, *eyeroll* why do I need to know this?" The biggest solution to that problem is showing them exactly why it's important to know.
- Allow for Creativity: Whether it's a presentation, a report, or just how the student learns on their own, let them be creative. They might have an idea that really resonates with those around them that you never even thought of.
- Be Flexible: The world, and its technology, is always changing. Be able to change and adapt, no matter what the world throws at you.
- Be Willing to Say "No" to Gimmicks: Not every lesson needs to be on a mobile device. Sometimes, two students talking, or just some pencils and paper, is all you need to make the lesson work. Just because a million new ways have appeared doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
With careful planning, some effort on the school's part, and creativity and intuition on your own, the wonders of mobile learning can be integrated into any curriculum and unlock wells of hidden potential in your students. Embrace the new technology... but carefully, lest we be swept under the wave of the future, rather than ride it towards a brighter tomorrow.
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