15th Century Teaching Model Still Highly Relevant

Recently I visited a school to learn about their BYOD program.  I came away with lots of great insights and ideas.  One of them was a teaching method I had never heard of.  The Ignatian Pedagogical Model is based on the Jesuit St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises.  There are 5 basic components: Context, Experience, Reflection, Action, and Evaluation.  Though interpretations seem to vary on how it should properly be implemented, I think the validity of the basic components speak for themselves.

Context
Students must be provided with a reason for learning beyond traditional reasons of, 'state standards require this', 'because it will be on the test', or 'because I said'.  Those might be "context" to a teacher, but they are not context to a student of the 21st Century.  If you don't know or can't explain to your class why they are learning a particular topic, maybe you should look for some real world application or possibly rethink whether this particular topic should be a priority.  Like Daniel Pink says in his most recent book To Sell is Human.  Teachers have to "sell" their curriculum.  If the kids aren't buying what you're offering, you really have no one to blame but yourself.  You can sit back and blame parents or the culture, but that won't change anything and it certainly won't be a valid excuse as to why your students aren't doing well in your class.

Experience
After students have real meaning as to why they are learning something, they need to experience it.  Spoiler Alert: worksheets, web quests, and the like are not a way to experience curriculum.  Students have to be immersed into the field of knowledge with real world activities that produce an authentic product.  The construction of the product they produce should take them through an inquiry-based learning path.  Students should then present their product to an authentic audience.

Reflection
Context and experience should be done sequentially, but reflection should be done throughout the process.  Reflection is such a powerful tool.  Students greatly benefit from metacognition; evaluating their thinking process, finding ways to improve, and just being mindful of their learning habits.  A learning journal shared to the teacher and student would work well. A student blog would be a public platform for students to demonstrate their thinking and learning.  Regardless, a single reflection platform is not enough.  The teacher should have conversations throughout that force students to stretch their thinking and expand their sphere of learning.

Action
The goal of Jesuit education is to move the student into action, not simply the personal satisfaction of learning (source).  To me, in a school setting, this is a flexible component that can be worked into the "Experience" portion.  Once the student has the knowledge, what will they do with it?  Is the product they are making the final use for this knowledge?  Can it be incorporated into future learning? Can students take political action such as writing to their congressman or writing a letter to a newspaper or company? The "Action" component is a great way to exercise the new learning that has taken place and justify the context you provided initially.

Evaluation
As with all things education, assessment is important to get right.  While I don't think there is a "right" way to do this component, there certainly are some wrong ways, such as ending this teaching model with a multiple choice test.  We usually advocate for students to present everything they learn to an authentic audience, a group of students, or one-on-one to the teacher.  Our motto is: you can't hide from a conversation.  The ultimate summative grade should be discussed between you and your student.  No time for that?  An alternative would be to build a rubric as a class before you start your project in the experience phase.  In addition, you can put formative evaluation benchmarks along the way to see how students are doing.  It may be a completion grade for a journal entry or a qualitative grade on the weekly set of journals.  Either way, its nice to work in a few smaller grades into a larger project.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Model doesn't need to be a large project.  You could probably create a one-day lesson using this model.  Its simply a structure.  An apparatus that supports curricular content and instruction.  I like it because it is so simple; the five parts are very easy to understand.   The five parts address educational best practice and allow for great depth, yet they can be flexible and easily addressed.  In addition, I think students would learn to adapt to this method.  They might be critical about the context or curious about the action that follows.  These are both good signs that they are buying what you're selling.  At that point you got 'em, everything else is easy.

How to Make the Perfect [Assessment] Cocktail

Assessment can be a sticky issue.  We know best practice is not a multiple choice test, yet that is the preferred method state standardized tests use--due simply to the ease of grading, way to lead by example ;)  So, do we use best practices or inferior methods that prepare students for a bogus test designed primarily for PR and political fodder?  Tough choice right? While it may be an easy philosophical decision.  The pressure from administration can often complicate things.  My general belief is that if a student can pass my assessment, they will do fine in a multiple guess test.


We often sit around and talk about assessment, specifically 'what is the best way to know what students know'.   I think we've concluded that it depends on the situation.  What is best in a science lab is not what is best in twelfth grade AP English.  While the specific assessment models don't always hold true across all the disciplines and developmental levels, the concept usually do.  Such as the concept of self-assessment.  I think this is a powerful assessment concept that should be worked into nearly every activity you wish to use as an a recorded assessment (grade).  However, it isn't always the most reliable option.  Self-assessment is best when balanced by a teacher assessment.  Obviously the teacher provides a needed perspective in the overall assessment of a given activity, and probably should be given the highest weight.  That being said, another valuable perspective are the students' peers.  If the student presents their work to the class, the class should have a say in the assessment.  The same is true of working in groups or presenting to an authentic audience.  A group assessment is a great ingredient to authentic assessment.

If you are truly interested in really learning what your students know its good to account for multiple perspectives.  If you are looking for a fast way to grade... well... find another profession because you're making all the rest of us look bad.  And while we're on the subject its OK not to grade everything you do in your class.  I once met a teacher who took 55 grades in a 9 week period---thats 1.2 grades per day!  To sum up, assessment is best thought of like a cocktail.  One part self assessment, one part group assessment, and one part teacher assessment... and, it should always be used responsibly.

Billboards and Commercials in Math

Our kids just recently did a project where we were learning the order of operations.  We connected it to commercials or billboards.  Here's how it worked.  First the kids created two order of operation problems.  They had to have 5 out of the 7 steps involved.  The problems also had to have a negative number and a fraction.  After they made their second problem correct they were to go back and make the problem wrong by doing the steps in the wrong order.  I know this sounds crazy, but it actually really helps them to understand the steps.  Plus it ties into a part of the project that comes into play at the end.

Our entry event was to watch some funny commercials and some funny billboards to get them interested.  Their goal was to create a funny or clever commercial that had words that went in the same order as the order of operations.  For example:

Parentheses = Pancakes
Brackets = Bacon
Exponents = Eggs
Multiply = Milk
Divide = Doughnuts
Add = Asparagus
Subtract = Snake

I tell them a crazy story about a neighbor that has to eat their breakfast in a certain order as an example. It was fun to see how clever they were with their commercials and billboards.  They presented them to the class.  Half the kids probably made commercials using Imovie and Garageband.  The other kids used mural.ly, smore, or easel.ly to create billboards.

Finally on the last day they rotated to every other groups computers and used the other groups problems. They had two objectives.  First they had to figure out which of the two problems was right or wrong by looking at the steps of the problem.  Finally after they found the wrong problem, they had to solve it with the steps and get the correct answer.

Most kids can recite Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, but they really are not good at applying the steps to a problem.  The thing I love about having the kids make up problems is that they are always harder than the problems form our 7th grade book.  The kids had a lot of fun trying to make the other kids laugh with their commercial or billboard.  They also love keeping track of who gets their problems wrong.  They take a lot of pride in stumping their classmates.

Assess like a parent, not a teacher.

For those of you that are parents, have you ever given your child a multiple choice test over life lessons?  Have you ever given them a true/false quiz on how to treat other people?   Ever give them a constructed response question on how to do the laundry?  Of course not, but how could you possibly know if they are learning without a stream of data to analyze.

You talk to them.

Remember the movie Dr. Doolittle, yeah the original from 1967.  He is so excited when he realizes he can talk to the animals.  He can't wait for all the conversations and things he can learn from them and about them.  Why don't we do this more in our classes?  Have the kids explain everything.  They can present to the class or present to each other.  Have them present to you through a conversation one-on-one.  When you walk away from a student you should know exactly where they stand.  Not to mention all these conversations are building a better relationship with each kid.  This will immediately strengthen your class.

The first thing you have to do is flip the teacher, not flip your class.  As teachers, it was common to take home papers and grade them, doing the assessment outside of class.  That has to be flipped.   Justin and I do the majority of our assessing in class.  And outside of class, we are searching for new project ideas and setups for future activities.  Almost every assessment we do has a conversation piece where we talk back and forth with the student about what they learned and the outcomes of the project.

I was working in the garden with my 6 year old, Sydney, and she popped open a pea and started eating the peas out of the pod.  I asked her what she was doing and she said the dark green peas need to be popped out and the lighter ones are better left in the pod.  I asked her how she figured this out and she said the dark peas weren't sweet enough and she wondered why.  I learned more from her and about her knowledge of peas in that two minute conversation than I ever could have from the way we currently assess our students in school.

In our fast changing classrooms where there are huge pushes for 1:1 with technology, project based learning, web tools, 21st century skills, and all of the other new ideas- the one that will make the biggest change in your classroom culture and your kids is to assess through conversations.  Flip the teacher and assess your students the way parents raise their kids and take Dr. Doolittle's advice and "talk to the animals."

Super Duper Math Challenge: Dorky Name.....Amazing Results

In my 7th grade math class last week we learned order of operations.  I introduced it with a funny story about my neighbor and the order he has to eat his breakfast.  Then we played a couple of interactive games where you click on the steps and don't have to do the math.  These are great for kids who don't have strong calculation skills, this way they can have success while they learn the steps.

I needed a follow up activity to actually get them solving problems.  As much as I love doing projects and connecting math to the real world, I feel there are a few topics that just don't fit into those areas.  I haven't figured out a better way to practice other than just to do boring practice problems.

One problem I hear from math teachers, in trying to get away from the book, is how and where do you get your resources?  In this case instead of me making up problems and us just practicing them, I used the kids as my resource.

What did we do to make it fun?  The Super Duper Math Challenge was to create an order of operation problem and make it hard so that the other groups couldn't solve it.  I let the kids pick their own groups.  I like 3 in a group and I had them make one order of operation problem.  Each group made their own problem and had to solve it.  Then the kids rotated around the room and had to solve each others problem.

I had no idea what to expect.  I couldn't believe
the difficulty level of problems they made.  They were so hard, as the day went on I had to put some restrictions on the problems so they weren't too hard.  The kids had a blast.  They loved trying to "stump" the other groups.  After each round they wanted to know if the group that was working on their problem got it right or not.  They really enjoyed the competition.

It got to the point where at the end of class I was getting some real complaints.  They were complaining about not getting to every problem.  I also heard a few complaints about the time going too fast.  I guess maybe our clocks were off that day.  They couldn't get enough and all I did was get them riled up and got out of the way.

An NCAA Bonanza

Lake Michigan, electricity, distance from the Sun to Jupiter, acres of the U.S.  What do they have in common?  They are different projects we are connecting to the NCAA tournament.

Last week we started our NCAA projects.  We started out by looking at some infographics on March Madness.  The kids went to a page (March Madness) on my website to find all the information.  We spent our first day talking basketball and information about the tournament.   We made a list of questions that the kids were interested in solving.  This was a fun day.  I am always amazed how much the kids don't know about the tournament.

Here are some of the better projects we are solving:

Two involve creating a formula to find either the best team in the tournament or which region is the toughest.  The kids had to figure out what was important to judging the teams.  Then they weighted each portion.  They created their formulas and found the stats.  Then they plugged in the numbers and are ranking their findings.

We learned that there are more than 9 quintillion possible combinations in a 64 team tourney.  This got their brains really rolling.  These are fun ones to talk about. The kids then had to find what math to solve to get to their question.  Here is a list of our questions.

If every possible bracket combination were filled out:
How many would it take to go around the sun?
Could they fill up Lake Michigan?
Would it go between the Sun and Jupiter?
How many acres will it cover and what state or country is close to that?
Is there even enough paper in the world?

Three other interesting questions were:

How much electricity is used to watch all the tournament games?
How far the heights of every player in the tourney will reach and show something similar in size?
How far the shoe sizes of every player in the tourney will reach and show something similar  in size?

The kids are having a blast.  Now that we have been doing project/inquiry based projects the kids are really getting good at them.  They find information on their own.  They apply the correct math procedures that they figure out on their own.  One thing I have learned is to have the kids justify every number, either by showing a calculation or a screenshot of where that information came from.

The one major assessment piece I have learned is that if the kids are not held accountable during a project they get lost along the way.  So every day we use this sheet (March Madness the 2nd page) to have the kids specifically list what they accomplished for each day.  They have to justify the grade they deserve.  Then we will grade out on the final project and average out for a final grade. 

It's three days before spring break and we are not just trying to survive.  The kids are even coming up with new questions and trying to solve them without even being prodded. Curiosity is taking over and it is fun to watch.

Building Better Homework

Homework is one of the pillars of traditional education.  It's a nearly universal concept in K-12.  However, stress fractures have started to form recently due to the tide of support for homework reform voiced by students, parents, and education reformers.  I've never felt good about the concept of homework, especially as a student who worked and played sports through most of high school.  Now as the parent of a 1st grader who regularly gets math and reading homework I can see how much "extra practice" cuts into the valuable daylight hours kids have after they get home from school.   I've written before about my abolitionist spirt in regard to homework.  I feel home practice can have value, but I really think a guiding principle comes from Joe Bower, "homework should be inspired, not assigned".

Recently one of my colleagues, Amy Degitz, at Wabash Middle School came up with an ingenious idea for homework.  She was studying Ancient Rome and designed a project-based learning lesson where students were required to build a model of something from Ancient Rome, but they had to build it at home.  Their homework assignment was to build.  They had to apply what they were learning in school to a home build project that most of them were very exciting to do (see trebuchet on the right).  I plan on having Amy write a guest blog to give more details, but Amy had another stroke of brilliance.  She made all the students write a proposal for their build and sign a contract that their parents had to sign, agreeing to the final product, work time, and due date for their project.  Students made everything from an aqueduct to Roman armor.

Everyone was on the same page with the project due to the contract.  The students were excited and motivated and they REALLY knew their stuff!  Talk about a win-win.  I was lucky enough to be a judge and grill several of the kids with questions.  I was shocked at how much they knew about their particular build topic and its connection to Rome.  Like any good teacher, I stole this idea immediately.  In fact, I called an audible right in the middle of my current world religions project and inserted a home build component with a contract for students and parents.  They were very excited!  We started three days ago and I've already received about a dozen emails over the weekend about advice on their projects.  Students will have about 2 weeks to finish their home build and I will make this a regular part of my class.  To me, this is what homework should be--not worksheets or other mindless memorization exercises.  Homework should be an engaging, authentic, creative application of what students are learning in school.  A home build is a great concept to build better homework.

Are Universities to Blame for Stagnant Teaching Practices?

University scholarship usually lives at the cutting edge of a given field of study.  The latest technology and the newest practices are often developed and promoted at the university level.  After having 3 student teachers in recent years, I would have to argue that several universities in my area are about 10-20 years behind in technology, pedagogy, and assessment.  I want to be clear, I have had excellent, motivated student teachers.  They are not the problem.  In my opinion the problem is the training and expectations of their university.  To support this accusation, I have observed several patterns over the last 2-4 years of accepting student teachers and student practitioners (those doing their shorter practicum).

1. An over reliance on the textbook.  When I tell visiting college students I don't use the textbook, they are often concerned about how to find content for the class and how to organize the class. Universities should prepare student teachers for life without a textbook.  Assume it won't be available.  Its an overpriced, obsolete, static resource designed for a time without Internet access.  Student teachers should be learning how to assemble and digitally curate their own content.  That should be a major component of their content education.  
2. Direct instruction as evidence of good teaching.  When the university comes to evaluate the student teacher, they are explicit about observing direct instruction.  Why is this the observable technique that demonstrates teaching competency?  Should a university really be advocating this so strongly?  Lesson design, disposition, and enthusiasm and far better indicators of effective teaching that out-of-the-gate skill at direct instruction.  
3. Pre-test and post-test is the main way to demonstrate learning.  I have personal experience with this at the Masters level at one of these universities. The only way I could demonstrate student learning was with a pre/post quiz.  Pre/post tests are such a futile joke and an insult to learning.  Its an attempt to find quantitative data from learning.  Learning, much like art can't be quantified, and most attempts to do so create validity problems and unreliable data.  Talk to your students!  Ask them questions!  Record the conversation if you must.  
4. What is a PLN?  Despite my student teachers' fantastic motivation to learn, their university hasn't provided the professional scaffolding of a diverse PLN (professional learning network) beyond myself and the university supervisor.  This should be another cornerstone of their methods courses.  Methods change and grow, but if students don't have people to stimulate and challenge them after their student teaching semester they may stagnate.  
5. Progressive pedagogy is under emphasized.  I have yet to have a student teacher who has any operational knowledge about project-based learning or other progressive student-centered education models.  They are taught (or at least this is what they remember) to use limited direct instruction, but beyond that they don't seem to have lesson structures beyond standing in front of the class.  A few students have found it hard to limit the direct instruction, therefore perpetuating  the same static, unchanging model from the last 100 years.  Why are the universities not the agents of change in education? 
6. Progressive assessment is not even mentioned.  Every student teacher and student practitioner always asks, 'how do students turn things in' in our 1 to 1 school.  They seem to have no idea about any other alternative.  They should be taught and expected to use authentic audiences and performance assessments.  They should be asking how to publish student work.  What are our presentation standards. What software we use for digital student portfolios.  They should have at least heard about oral defense practices (1 on 1 conversations).  Instead, its more of the same traditional assessment measures. 

Most people seem to agree that education is long overdue for a change, but what keeps this traditional monster from starving?  Some say teacher unions, some say standardized test, but I would like to shift at least a little blame to the universities that could easily influence the new generations of teachers they turn out each year to replace the retiring classes.  An infusion of true reformers every year would change education from the ground up.  I realize there are many leading universities such as Stanford, Harvard, and Vanderbilt, but lets be honest, 90% of the teachers who will be replacing the babyboomers are coming from smaller schools, community colleges, and less prominent teacher education programs.  I think its time to hold university teacher's colleges' feet to the fire.  In this last decade of misplaced educational accountability (not reform) universities seemed to have escaped unscathed.  We can't expect true education reform to come from politicians or testing companies (who usually drive "reform"), so we must focus on institutions who are capable and legitimate.

Authentic Assessment and Professional Development

I made the complete switch to authentic assessment two years ago.  Since then, I haven't given a traditional quiz or test for a grade.  My students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating authentic projects and presenting them to an authentic audience--other teachers, community members, professionals--when time and personel allow.  Designing the projects and assessments has taken a great deal of time and effort, but my students have definitely reaped rewards of engagement and enthusiasm, as well as opportunities to build their collaboration and communication skills.  This is a tall task for many teachers.  Its hard to know where to begin on a journey to authenticity.  An article I read may supply an answer.

Recently Edutopia published a great article by Bob Lenz of Envision Schools.  Titled How Authentic Assessment Heightens Accountability in our Schools, the article explains how Envision Schools have their students create a public showcase of their work in a museum-style exhibit throughout the school.  Lenz extols authentic assessment, as opposed to traditional assessment, because it publicizes student work and by extension, teacher support.  Teachers feel the pressure of facilitating student growth that will be on public display at least twice each year.  When everything is in plain view, students and teachers both work harder to demonstrate their competencies.  Does this practice help students memorize facts and facilitate higher scores on standardized tests.  Probably not, and I'm Ok with that.  Just as I would not pander to a dictator, I won't indulge an inferior assessment model at the expense of authentic learning.

Another fantastic idea in this article is the idea of "instructional rounds".  Teachers, administrators, schoolboard members, community members, and other stakeholders...

"gather at each school in the Envision network twice a year to help each school investigate a "problem of practice." The school opens all of its classroom doors for observation from the group assembled in the morning. In the afternoon, the group works with the school to move from observations to action -- concrete next steps. Envision Academy asked the question, "How are teachers moving students towards more independent learning?"

This strikes me as a great professional development model.  When we train doctors, we don't stick them in a classroom for six years and then rush them right into surgery.  Doctors are constantly observing and evaluating their peers to learn new practices and hone their skills.  Teachers could learn a great deal from taking guided rounds through the school.  For teachers who want to learn authentic practices, observation is invaluable.  I've sat through several project-bases learning training sessions, but nothing prepares you more than experience.  I would have loved to be a fly on a wall of a few classrooms that were using project-based learning before I actually took the plunge.  The teachers being observed will also work that much harder to ensure their project goes smoothly because they are being authentically assessed by their colleagues.  This could completely change the climate of a school if exercised on a regular basis.

Assessing teachers with a one-time class visit will create a dog-and-pony show.  Using test scores and other quantitative data will encourage teachers to teach to the test.   Regular instructional rounds will create a more authentic assessment of a teacher's classroom.  The added benefit of using this a as supportive teacher observation/professional development process makes this a win, win, win.  A process is often defined by the method of assessment, so too is education.  In the famous words of Will Richardson, "if we don't assess what we value, we will only value what we assess."

Status of Education in 2012

Technology has pushed education into a transition period on many fronts.  Our tech-based economy, ubiquitous information, the need for 21st Century skills, PLN's and the sharing of best practices, publishing to authentic audiences, and global competitiveness are just a few areas where technology has forced the education industry to question itself.  All of this questioning has led to, potentially, the most revolutionary period in public education's 100+ year history.  As in all revolutions, there are several interested groups pushing and pulling the revolution in the direction they think is best.

Generally, we have progressive education gurus such as Will Richardson, Alan November, and Sir Ken Robinson pushing school teachers and administrators toward a major paradigm shift.  On the other end legislators, politicians, and the high stakes testing industry hold school administrators and teachers accountable to standardized test scores.  The dichotomy of pushing and pulling has left teachers and administrators moving in two directions.  Teacher salaries and administrators jobs now depend on test scores, but we all nod our head in approval of people like Alfie Kohn.  We see the future, but we are still anchored to the past.

Some people feel there are not two different directions.  They would argue that progressive education will/should lead to higher test scores.  This can be argued and legitimized by data, but its new music in old ears.  I think it is safe to say the average teacher or administrator feels like they are being given opposing orders.  Mom says 'stay' and dad says 'go'.  The Google Story Builder video in this blog probably describes the general feeling across many school districts.  The polarized status of education in 2012 needs resolution.  A simple, well-framed resolution.  Opposing sides will need to come together, lest we live in pedagogical limbo, which will result in a low-profile maintenance of the status quo and continue public education's glacial slip into obsolescence.

Encouraging Students to Have Pride in their Work Part 2

Being a teacher is like being a poker player.  There are highs and lows and sometimes you win big and sometimes you go all-in and bust.  Recently in my 7th grade social studies class I think I won big.  One of my standards is about international organizations, so I made a TIME Magazine template in the Mac program Pages, and student chose international organizations from a list by the acronym only.

Students researched their organization and tried to answer the basic questions: what does the acronym stand for, and what does their organization do.  The research phase only took about 1 day.  We spent another 1/2 day looking at TIME Magazine covers and looking for similarities and themes.  I gave my kids a few requirements:

1.  Design a TIME Magazine cover with 3 areas of text.  The text must describe the international organization.

2.  Use 1 main image on the cover to draw attention to your magazine help explain your international organization

3.  Use smaller images to give more details about your international organization.

4.  Use the logo of your international organization.

As students began to create their magazine I started to use the phrase, "would you pick up your magazine?".  Basically, was the cover gripping?  Did it make you want to read what was inside?  This became more important to most of my kids than anything else.

I think we took 2 days to create the cover, and at one point I had students do a gallery walk to take a look at everyone's work.  When students saw some of the covers like the ones I have on this blog they sprung into action and completely started over.  I told several students, "you don't need to start over--you've met the requirements, you are going to get full credit".   They didn't seem to care--they didn't even hesitate as they deleted their old work.  This was art, and the grade didn't matter.  They were on a mission.  To be fair, it wasn't all of the students, but somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of my students started over.

I graded this the same way we always grade--one on one conversations, what I have also heard called "oral defense" and presentations.  The day before we presented, I sat down with students who finished early and asked them content questions about their international organization. We then reviewed the requirements and negotiated a grade that seemed fair to both of us.

Now for the best part.  After I graded many of the students asked if they could make changes before they presented the following day.  I told every student it wouldn't change their grade, and yet every student made changes to their work before they presented the following day. About 1/4 of the students graded out early and made changes to their work without ANY encouragement from me.

 I was so proud of the the pride they had in their work that I honored each student who made grade-less changes during presentation day.  Each time, the class gave an unprompted round of applause to the student.

This was a big win, for all of us, but why?  What made these kids have so much pride in their work?  Why this assignment?  Maybe this assignment was not too hard and the tools to make it top notch were well within their control.

This is the goal--I want my students to have pride in their work.  They are engaged, interested, excited, and most importantly they are learning.  I couldn't believe how well students knew their international organization, and it seems to be sticking because we are doing a project about world conflicts right now and students have to come up with a solution to the conflict.  Many of them are relying on their knowledge of international organizations.

I try to emphasize learning--I don't mean this as a cliche'.  I say the words and reinforce the goal everyday in my class--LEARNING.  With every activity or project I encourage students to make something amazing--"blow everyone away", I tell them, "impress me"!  When students adopt this mentality, even for a few class periods, the learning naturally happens in an authentic and real way.  Imagine if an entire school took this approach!

I don't want to use fear of a bad grade to get students to learn or threaten that, "this will be on the tests" to force information into their short-term memory.  Learning is like love, you can't force it, and if you do, it doesn't last.  

Group Project, Individual Grades

Collaboration is a 21st Century skill, and despite the social nature of today's youth, it doesn't come easy.   Leaders need to learn how to delegate work and direct people in an effective way.  Shy students need to learn to speak up.  Socialites need to learn to stay focused on the task at hand.  Group projects are a great opportunity to learn collaboration skills, but they can also be disastrous, especially when it comes to grading.  Its inevitable--someone doesn't pull their weight in the group, the group gets a low grade, and suddenly its 'not fair'.  While the old adage is true, life is not fair--group grading should be.

Last year I experimented with a grading style that helps to avoid this.  Rather than grading the entire group at the end of a project, I grade the students individually based on their contribution.  I formatively assess throughout the project, and by the end of the project I usually have a pretty good idea of who has done their work.

In addition, I like to design my projects so that each group member is responsible for an independent part of the whole final product.  In the end, the group must find a way to put all of their work together into one presentation.  Its important to make each independent part so that the other group members don't rely on the completion of another student's work.  For example in my recent project Exploring the World Project, students had to research the most amazing physical features in the Eastern Hemisphere.  They each had to make several presentation slides, create a map, and create a written explanation of how each physical feature formed.  The group had to combine their work into one presentation, map, and written paper.  Of course Google makes this very easy.  When the group presented, each group member presented their independent parts.  When they were finished, we graded out individually.  Life was finally fair.

Creative vs. Mechanical Intelligence

Last week my students were learning how to read charts and graphs.  We were identifying the parts of a  graph and learning how to approach complicated charts before we created our own infographics next week.  I prepared a few graphs for the students.  I cropped the title and X and Y axis labels off of one line graph.  I asked the students to suggest what the title SHOULD be based on the available information on the graph.  Obviously, there wasn't a specifically right or wrong answer, and most students chose something related to the key words still on the graph.

To my surprise, there were a few students who struggled with this.  There were several more that left it blank because they couldn't "find" the answer.  One student in particular really blew my mind and opened my eyes to different types of intelligences.  This student was a straight "A" student last year.  The conversation went something like this:

student-"I don't get the question"
me-"Based on what you can see, what SHOULD the title be?"
student-"I don't know because you cut it off"
me-"I know, I want you to use what you do know and create a new title that is appropriate."
student-(frustrated)"How can I get the right title if I can't see it?"
me-"I don't want you to guess the original title, I want you to be creative and write a totally new title that explains what is going on in the graph"
student-(looking away from her computer, sitting in silence, visibly frustrated now)
me-"Don't worry, there are lots of right answers"
student-(no response, bell rings and she leaves)

The next day, I sat down with her to "grade out" as we call it.  She had left the question blank.  I told her that I expect every question to be answered.  I tried to explain that there won't always be a clear answer this year, that she will need to be creative.  She seemed to accept it, but I could tell it bothered her.  This is a fantastic student, clearly very smart, but befuddled when a clear answer is not presented in the text.  I think this situation is a symptom of traditional education.  For too long we have told students there is only 1 answer.  This has created students that are mechanically intelligent, but lack creativity when given more open ended questions.  The world demands creative thinkers, and this student is not being served by an education that tells her there in only 1 answer to every question.

Writing in Google Doc's

This year I have really embraced the fact that literacy is the foundation of everything we do in school.  I  am trying to inject more non-fiction reading and formal writing into my social studies class.  As students write, they need formative feedback.  Assigning a paper and waiting a week before we cover it in red ink is assigning students to failure.  Ideally, I would like to sit down with every student, everyday while they write.  With classes as large as 28 this year, I would need to budget 1.7 minutes for each student as I guide them toward better grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, summarizing, etc. 

Luckily, our school has Google Apps for Education.  Every student has a Google account, so when they write, they do it in Google Docs.  They share their paper with me and I have 24 hour access to their work.  I sit down face-to-face with as many students as I can during class, but I look at every paper, everyday.  For the students I don't sit down with, I insert comments into their paper.  Comments are great ways to have a discussion without marking up their paper.  Students can respond and you can easily have a conversation about their work.  I keep track of who I talk to in person and who I comment on to keep balanced and keep track of formative progress.  By the time the paper is due, I rarely need to do any "grading" and there is no need to turn anything in.   Another major benefit is the "dog" can't eat it, they can't forget it at home, and since it's saved in the cloud any online device can access it.  Revision history is another tool that allows you or students to recover their work in case of a problem.  You can also do research without leaving your doc. 

Managing all of the paper is an issue for many teachers.  If you have several hundred students it can be difficult to manage that many docs.  Its important to use collections/folders and be proactive in managing your files.  I would also recommend teaching student about email notifications.  Every time someone shares a document with you, they can send an email to notify you.  If you are expecting their work, you don't want to clear several hundred email from you inbox. 

The way I manage my student work is by having 2 Google accounts.  I have my school account and my personal account.  When I'm online, I usually operate out of my personal account and forward all my school mail to my personal account.  I have students share their work to my school account, so 90% of the documents in my school's Google Docs account and my personal account isn't cluttered up by other people's work.  I really don't know why every school doesn't take advantage of Google Apps for Education.  Docs and formative assessment is just the tip of the iceberg.  

One-to-One Allows More One-on-One

Before my school went one-to-one I remember many teachers voicing a concern that we would lose the personal contact dynamic between teacher and student.  As many of us championed the benefits of email, distance learning, differentiation, digital resources, etc. others succumbed to fears of teacher obsolescence and digital barriers to human contact.

Unfortunately, computer-based classrooms can take a bad direction that gives legitimacy to some of the teachers' initial fears.  If the teacher assigns work to students and he or she simply sits at their desk, those fears may be realized.  This "method" works completely against the opportunities allowed by one-to-one computing.

I've realized after having a year of one-to-one under my belt that there are two major benefits of one-to-one.  Obviously, the wealth of resources and creative possibilities are probably the main benefit.  The second main benefit is less obvious, but potentially more powerful.  I spend WAY more one-on-one time with my students when everyone has a computer.  It is a resourceful, interactive, creative, and fun tool that keeps students engaged, giving you more time to freely move around the room.   I consciously spent less time using direct instruction, which is one factor that allowed more one-on-one, but I also learned to layer my activities and projects.  I would provide an additional challenge, educational game, or fun application related to the activity.  Another way to layer is to have a few weekly activities that students do on their own time, a learning journal, or a digital portfolio.  Layering can be very difficult without a computer, but with one it is effortless.

The added one-on-one time allowed me to formatively assess my students in a authentic and meaningful way. I was also able to efficiently address major gaps in understanding.  I tried to touch base with each student at least every other day.  To help me keep track I carried a clipboard with my roster for each class.  The roster also listed the content questions and/or skills I was looking for in that particular activity.

I think my teaching method would work without computers, but it would be very hard to keep 25-30 kids engaged if they only had paper and pencils.  I wouldn't have the focused, genuine one-on-one time I now enjoy.  The only discipline issues I had last year were kids who didn't finish their work (probably too engaged in other things!).  I truly believe one-to-one is the first domino in a series of changes that will shift education to a new paradigm.

Objectivity, Science, and Other Silly Notions in Education

Warning: Rant Alert
I once read that scientific studies of the brain were, in large part, excluded from teacher instruction curriculum in the early days of teacher training because teaching was thought of as an art.  Science and scientific study was once thought to have very little impact on a profession that as heavily based in the arts.  During the last century of public instruction, the profession of teaching has moved toward science.    While there has been positive outcomes such as including neurology into teacher instruction, politicians and administrators need to remember that teaching is an art.

I have noticed this shift toward science in two ways.  I recently read about a married couple of teachers who teach math in a unique way.  The article said these teachers spend much of their summer teaching other teachers their methods, but the article questioned how much of their success could be transfered without their personality to support it.  Would their methods work if someone else was teaching?  Its a valid question.  Some politicians and administrators think teachers can scientifically take a process that worked for one person and simply replicate it.  While that may be true in science, it doesn't always work in the arts.  If Da Vinci instructed other artist on his art-creation process I don't think we would be enjoying a Mona Lisa in every museum.   I think we can learn from other teachers, but I doubt the success of any method or process in the classroom that 'can work for all teachers'.  It's an art.  There are no silver bullets in education, and sometimes learning is in the eye of the beholder.

Another place where science has become more evident is in the push for objectivity.  People want to take subjective assessment completely out of education.  Clearly there does need to be a fair amount of objectivity, but the world we live in is awash in subjectivity.  We don't award jobs based on the most qualified application, the interview plays an enormous part and lets not forget personal connections.  We don't buy houses based on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms--curb appeal and the "feel" of the house usually wins out.  There are many parts of our lives where we don't necessarily trust the objective numbers; we want to look at it ourselves and make a subjective judgement.  My question is who better to be subjective in education than a board certified, professionally trained educator with years of experience?  I want to remain objective, and I strive for it when I can, but I am not afraid to be subjective in the classroom.  Students need to be prepared and know how to maneuver through subjective judgement.

I'm not against objective assessment, I just think we shouldn't be afraid of subjectivity.  I heard so much recently about removing subjectivity from education, as if that is possible.  Granted subjectivity is bound to create some conflicts, but conflict resolution is a good skill to have as well.  An "objective" rubric can be nice when students or parents over-value their work, but sometimes you just have to make a judgement call--a student may claim its an elephant, but my experience tells me its a hand.  I'v been doing this for a decade, so this ain't my first rodeo.

Grading Scale

Recently a large school district in my area made a major change in their grading system.  Its not the kind of major shift I would like to see, but its a step in the right direction.  I read an article about their change, and in the article they had a picture of the school's old grading scale (below).  I began to look at the "rigorous" grading scale.  A 69.4 is a failing percentage.  What?  How can we call it failure if a kids completes nearly 70% of the material?

A 69.4% is labeled as failure!  This really got me thinking about how and what we grade.  There seems to be this unwritten rule that teachers should grade everything students do.  Why?  Why does every action students take in class need to be documented with a quantifiable score?  I talked to a teacher recently that had 50+ grades in a 9 week period.  There are only 45 school days in 9 weeks!

This whole system, the traditional system of grades, seems to be so punitive.  We seem to use the threat of a low grade to force students to do our work.  Isn't that all grades really tell you... completion percentage?  Wouldn't you like to know more as parents and teachers?  Even if a student does the work, tries hard, but doesn't get it, we still penalize them with a bad grade.  Why?  Don't we learn more from failure than success?  Punishing failure causes a fear of failure, which erodes critical thinking, creativity, and divergent thinking.

I'm curious about other evaluation systems schools are using.  I've heard about standards-based grading, but I don't know much about it.  I'm less concerned about standard mastery than skill mastery.  I've heard of narrative feedback, which I really like.  What is the best system that evaluates in fair way, is manageable by busy teachers, usable to parents, and applicable to higher institutions?  I would love to hear some feedback.

Robotic Grading=Robotic Writing

When I first heard that computers could grade essays as well as humans I had several reactions.  First Reaction: Sweet; this will at least give us more time to focus on progressive instruction methods rather than traditional grading.  We can assign essays without the incredible burden of countless hours of grading.  Wait, how can we give meaningful feedback?  Second Reaction: Will this be a technology that continues to push the teacher out of the classroom? The third reaction came after hearing the tagline of the study over and over and over from every blog and news outlet I follow.  "Overall, automated essay scoring was capable of producing scores similar to human scores", "overall, automated essay scoring was capable of producing scores similar to human scores".  Over and over.  Third Reaction: There is something wrong with what and how we expect students to write.

If a computer program, which is a cold-logic math problem wrapped in plastic, can evaluate writing, our writing has become too mechanic and inflexible.  Writing is an art, not a science.  Can a program really capture the complexity and authenticity of creative writing?  How can it score irony, wit, and satire?  Does it recognize subtle humor?  Can it score oil paintings? Seriously.

Maybe our rigid writing expectations are one reason many students hate to write, but love to text.  I can say personally I hate to write formal papers, but I like to write this blog.  Maybe I am way off on this.  Its funny how some people can view something like robot grading as a great advancement in education, while others see this as blasphemous and just plain wrong.

Flipping the Teacher

As educators slowly transition into a more progressive form of pedagogy and assessment our role changes  in many ways.  We become less of an instructor and more of a guide.  We become less a "teacher", and more of a student. The dynamic of how we work is also changing.  In a conversation with my consigliere, Joey Till, he pointed out exactly what we are doing--we are flipping the teacher.

In the 20th Century it was very typical for teachers to put together their lessons while they were in school--preparing materials, making copies, etc.  Of course, teachers worked at home too---usually grading papers of some kind.  What we are doing now flips our work dynamic.  I sit on my wonderfully comfortable couch and put my lessons together.  On nice days, I like to sit outside and smell the flowers and listen to the birds while I think of interesting projects and ways to breath some life into my otherwise boring content standards.

While I'm in school I spend a great deal of time "grading".  Of course, I don't mean I grading papers.  I sit down with groups or individuals and use conversations as formative assessment.  When its time to decide on a grade, we have another conversation.  I ask content questions.  We look at the requirements, I tell them my formative observations, and they decide an appropriate grade, which is almost always right where I think they should be.  Another way I am increasingly "grading" in school is using student presentations.  I blogged about the instructional value of student presentations, but obviously this is also a good time for assessment.

Some of the teachers I have worked with express concern about the additional planning time that  project-based curriculum may require.  Some of the worry could be relieved if they learn that "grading" doesn't mean sifting through stacks of papers at home every night. 

The Future of Test Obsession

When I first read this story, I was sure it was a hoax.  I search the Internet and all I have found so far are legit news reports, even statements issued from the Xiaogan City High School in China.  There have been reports circulating through China recently, but in the past week the pictures below have gone viral.  Chinese students are studying for college entrance exams.  Normal.  Only these kids are using an IV drip of amino acids to "enhance their physical fitness and replenish their energy," according to one school official.  Teachers are even assisting them.

From: Worldcrunch

I had to research the effects of amino acid injection on humans and I found they can cause organ failure, fever, chills, blood abnormalities, depression, and heart palpitations.

Is this the future for the test-obsessed American education system?  Some may read this and think... 'no way, we would never go that far'.  Think of our athletes, then rethink.  Think of the over-prescribed ADHD medicines, then rethink. Besides, this didn't happen overnight.  This was probably a slow progression.

This is wrong.  So wrong. The is definitely not learning.  This is akin to the industrialized food system that pumps growth hormones and antibiotics into animals to produce faster food ignoring the lives of the animal and health of the consumer.  Is this how we want to treat our children?  Industrial objects at the junction of education and economics?  Sad.  These are kids.    Cows don't even deserve this.  Nothing can possible justify this practice, which is the direct product of high-stakes testing.