"But how do I cover my standards?"
"That is only in science."
"I don't have time".
I get it; however, I would also push back that we don't have time to continue doing what we are doing. I have two simple questions for you that will help you make time. First, how many worksheets have your kids completed this year? Second, how engaged are your kids in the learning process? Think about this, just go down to the copier and look at the extras that never get picked up. When is the last time a student told you, "Thanks, Mr. Kotter, that worksheet was awesome." Most worksheets are review and a low level depth of knowledge. We pile on the worksheets and then we quiz our students. They forget the words and move on to the next set of words for the next quiz. If I am wrong or you think I am wrong, take every word you have given the first half of school for vocabulary and have them write out the definitions they recall and let me know what they still remember. We are still only at a low level depth of knowledge though that requires no application of skills. When you examine the levels of engagement, are your kids really committed to the learning process or simply have they learned how to play being a good student really well?
Retrieved from https://mrmck.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/schlechtys-levels-of-classroom-engagement-infographic/
How many of our classrooms are built on strategic compliance where there is high attention but low commitment? How many of our individual students that we lose to disengagement swing from strategic compliance to retreatism or rebellion? I am just as guilty. If you would have asked me 15 years ago about my classroom, I would have told you my kids are behaved and work hard; however, they were really just doing to get the work done and to get it over with. I had flashes of engagement; however, I don't think I sustained engagement. In the past five to seven years, I began to shift my mindset or paradigm as a principal around what good teaching looked like. Good teaching does not take place in a quiet room with desks in rows. It takes place where students are involved in authentic purposeful learning. Where they are chasing their passion that is blended into the curriculum. Take the following examples of "learning" and consider the level of engagement and true authentic learning that cover a science standard:
Science (k-8), Earth Science, Earth's Surface:
Students will understand the surface of the Earth changes due to erosion and deposition.
Activity 1: Complete the diagram on the work sheet and label the causes of erosion and the different land forms.
Activity 2: Spend half the class researching the following question: How does a lack the recycling paper impact erosion and flooding and be prepared to report out your findings. Write a 2 paragraph summary of your findings on what the lack of recycling paper has to do with soil erosion.
Activity 3: There are arguments on both sides of fracking and how it has changed the surface of the earth and how it has led to increased road slippage due to the destabilization of the earths surface. Select one side of the argument on fracking and find three reliable sources to support your defense of your opinion on how it has impacted or not impacted road slippage and increased soil erosion. While researching, list key terms that you feel are important for others to know regarding fracking, erosion, and road slippage.
The first activity is nothing more than a diagram on a worksheet. No "hook" to engage the students. The second activity is a little higher depth of knowledge and an increase in critical thinking; however, maybe a student is still not committed to the topic and does it out of compliance. The 3rd activity now at least gives some student choice and an opportunity to increase commitment. It has the potential to appeal to a student and give them an opportunity to develop their own opinions and support them through research. At the same time, it weaves standards into the learning. Activity 3 is one of those topics that is edgy and somewhat controversial...it has heated defenders on both sides. Think of giving this to a person whose father is a welder on a fracking pipeline. They now have a purpose and quite possibly a passion to go do a little extra to defend their stance.
My point is, we are afraid of moving away from a model of "Stand and Deliver" where we stand in front of the classroom and project knowledge and information at our students because of a set of standards that are often overwhelming and we worry about "the test". Instead, develop those large overlying questions that can allow you students to explore and dive deep. Allow them to engage in debate and learn from one another.
In David Geurin's Future Driven (2017), he discusses 2 systems of learning: delivery system and discovery system. In a delivery system, students are expected to accept information, teacher does the thinking, and learning is measured by right and wrong answers. In a discovery system, students have to make sense of the information, connects to their interests, and learning is measured by the quality of their thinking. One is done out of compliance while one is done out of curiosity.
Here is my challenge to you that I want you to try for 20 days:
1. Give a formative assessment pre-assessment prior to teaching to have a baseline.
2. Forget about worksheets for these 20 days and develop series of questions that students can investigate. Review your standards you want to cover and embed them into your questions.
3. At the same time, allow your students to work collaboratively and problem solve together.
4. Rather than designing learning around wrong and right answers, design learning around questions that make them think critically, make them reason, and explore solutions. A suggested resource that is completely free is startsole.org. SOLE stands for Self Organized Learning Environment and Jeff McClellan would be more than willing to connect with you and help you begin to SOLE. SOLE would allow you to make that shift from teacher thinking to student thinking.
5. As the teacher, this is a good opportunity to collaborate with others. Can I go to a language arts teacher and collaborate together. Can we develop some writing and presentation skills throughout the the learning process? Maybe developing a persuasive writing or technical writing piece to explain what they have learned. On a side note, informational writing across the curriculum has been shown to dramatically increase student achievement. The key is to develop a set of guiding questions that lead towards deeper learning and scaffold some checkpoints along the way that allow you as a teacher to formally and informally assess student learning.
6. Grade for mastery of the standards. Grade on their presentation skills. Provide meaningful and specific feedback that accompanies any type of grade. Research shows that if all a student is going to get is a letter grade or maybe an 8/10 on the top of their paper that learning stops; however, if I give feedback and multiple opportunities for students to grow and act on the feedback, real learning will take place. In the end, develop a large over-arching question and allow students to demonstrate mastery of the content in a different form besides just a paper-pencil assessment. Yes, there still is a place for formal assessments but they really don't get into a high level application of information and allow students to be creative and think critically.
Our world has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. Our current students have to be prepared for many careers that currently don't even exist, yet we continue to prepare our students in many ways, the same way we prepared kids in 1989 or 1979. We cannot do that by teaching our kids to know the answers that we deem right or wrong. We have to teach them to find their own answers and teach them a process to get there. We have to rethink what we are doing and a "stand and deliver" model of teaching will not get us there. We are losing too many kids to disengagement and a loss of hope and we have to stop. Think of the engagement levels above...what about the kids who are rebelling and have got to a point where they are refusing to do the work and now got to the point where they disrupt those who are compliant. I have begun to ask the question: While we want our kids to be compliant and polite, is some of the rebellion our own fault? STEM is more than a subject or an event. It is a mind set and a shift in paradigm. It is about engaging our students in authentic real-world problem solving that leads to a high level of engagement and commitment by allowing our students to find their passion.
What if we could change that? What if we could reengage our students in their learning? I think we can but the status quo will not get us there. Let's shake it up and disrupt the status quo together. If you take my challenge to change up things over the next twenty days, please connect with me and share your story using the #statusquodisruptor. One person, one school, or one district cannot do this work alone...but it is a start. Be courageous and willing to take a chance. Be a #statusquodisruptor.
My point is, we are afraid of moving away from a model of "Stand and Deliver" where we stand in front of the classroom and project knowledge and information at our students because of a set of standards that are often overwhelming and we worry about "the test". Instead, develop those large overlying questions that can allow you students to explore and dive deep. Allow them to engage in debate and learn from one another.
In David Geurin's Future Driven (2017), he discusses 2 systems of learning: delivery system and discovery system. In a delivery system, students are expected to accept information, teacher does the thinking, and learning is measured by right and wrong answers. In a discovery system, students have to make sense of the information, connects to their interests, and learning is measured by the quality of their thinking. One is done out of compliance while one is done out of curiosity.
Here is my challenge to you that I want you to try for 20 days:
1. Give a formative assessment pre-assessment prior to teaching to have a baseline.
2. Forget about worksheets for these 20 days and develop series of questions that students can investigate. Review your standards you want to cover and embed them into your questions.
3. At the same time, allow your students to work collaboratively and problem solve together.
4. Rather than designing learning around wrong and right answers, design learning around questions that make them think critically, make them reason, and explore solutions. A suggested resource that is completely free is startsole.org. SOLE stands for Self Organized Learning Environment and Jeff McClellan would be more than willing to connect with you and help you begin to SOLE. SOLE would allow you to make that shift from teacher thinking to student thinking.
5. As the teacher, this is a good opportunity to collaborate with others. Can I go to a language arts teacher and collaborate together. Can we develop some writing and presentation skills throughout the the learning process? Maybe developing a persuasive writing or technical writing piece to explain what they have learned. On a side note, informational writing across the curriculum has been shown to dramatically increase student achievement. The key is to develop a set of guiding questions that lead towards deeper learning and scaffold some checkpoints along the way that allow you as a teacher to formally and informally assess student learning.
6. Grade for mastery of the standards. Grade on their presentation skills. Provide meaningful and specific feedback that accompanies any type of grade. Research shows that if all a student is going to get is a letter grade or maybe an 8/10 on the top of their paper that learning stops; however, if I give feedback and multiple opportunities for students to grow and act on the feedback, real learning will take place. In the end, develop a large over-arching question and allow students to demonstrate mastery of the content in a different form besides just a paper-pencil assessment. Yes, there still is a place for formal assessments but they really don't get into a high level application of information and allow students to be creative and think critically.
Our world has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. Our current students have to be prepared for many careers that currently don't even exist, yet we continue to prepare our students in many ways, the same way we prepared kids in 1989 or 1979. We cannot do that by teaching our kids to know the answers that we deem right or wrong. We have to teach them to find their own answers and teach them a process to get there. We have to rethink what we are doing and a "stand and deliver" model of teaching will not get us there. We are losing too many kids to disengagement and a loss of hope and we have to stop. Think of the engagement levels above...what about the kids who are rebelling and have got to a point where they are refusing to do the work and now got to the point where they disrupt those who are compliant. I have begun to ask the question: While we want our kids to be compliant and polite, is some of the rebellion our own fault? STEM is more than a subject or an event. It is a mind set and a shift in paradigm. It is about engaging our students in authentic real-world problem solving that leads to a high level of engagement and commitment by allowing our students to find their passion.
What if we could change that? What if we could reengage our students in their learning? I think we can but the status quo will not get us there. Let's shake it up and disrupt the status quo together. If you take my challenge to change up things over the next twenty days, please connect with me and share your story using the #statusquodisruptor. One person, one school, or one district cannot do this work alone...but it is a start. Be courageous and willing to take a chance. Be a #statusquodisruptor.
