My thoughts started racing after seeing these two videos shown to me by my admin. I recommend them. They really got me thinking about student learning:
Dr.Tae—Can Skateboarding Save Our Schools?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY
Rick Wormeli- Retakes and Do-Overs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM-3PFfIfvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgxvzEc0rvs
This always seems like a hot topic in education and a lot of teachers I know right now are talking about students redoing assignments or handing in assignments late and the constant argument of, “What about the ‘real’ world?” So, I am taking to my blog to reflect on my teaching practice.
I teach Grade 3 homeroom and one Grade 7 Drama course this year. In Grade 3, we have lots of redoing, learning, unlearning, and relearning. I have the pleasure of being with the same students for most of the day in Grade 3. This business of things being late doesn’t really exist....at the end of the day we press pause and everyone stops what they are doing and the next day we come back and press play again. We simply pick up where we left off—and not everyone is learning the same thing or is in the same place. Learning often looks different for everyone. We get there in different ways. And, when we don’t get something we just spend more time on it until we understand it. When we create things…students self-assess, peer assess, and have the teacher assess their work and decide if it is meeting the criteria we developed together as a class. Students often reflect on their work and ask themselves, “Can I do better?” and if they want to try to exceed their expectations the option is always there. When a student asks, “Can I try this again?” I am thrilled. I give a lot of verbal formative feedback and we talk about our learning, our targets, and where we want to be as learners. Students in Grade 3 never ask me if they “passed” the assignment or if it is worth 90%......these conversations, around grades, don’t seem as important as the feedback. Nobody ever gets zeros…..we don’t use zeros….we just say we are not quite there yet and we plan the path out to get there.
In my Grade 7 Drama class, a lot of the same types of things happen. It is different because I only see them for one period every other day…but everything is fundamentally the same. The course involves a lot of participation and involvement in daily class projects where we learn about Drama skills, like improv or miming. There is a lot verbal formative feedback and self, peer, and teacher assessment happening “on-the-go.” A class usually starts with me teaching the students about a skill we might be working on. We will practice with a partner, then with the class, and then use the skill to create a group performance piece where we highlight that skill. There are a lot of hands-on activities happening and not a lot of paper and pencil tasks. It is just the nature of the class and the students in the class. The thing that is different about this class and my Grade 3 class is that I need to give a number grade for the work they produce. Even when using class developed rubrics, it is still hard for me to actually give a number grade which is why it is always accompanied by feedback. Anyways, I needed to give a final exam in this class…..so I decided that we would go see a play and for their final exam they would need to review/reflect about the play. We decided on a deadline as a class (it seemed so formal). I didn’t present it like a normal exam. Students were allowed to discuss the play with others and we used several classes to develop our play reviews. It was so interesting to hear others sharing their ideas around the play. I was there to answer any questions they might have around the assignment. The deadline came and there were some people who just didn’t get it done. To my surprise, I had several students come up to me and say, “I’ll just take a zero.” To their surprise, I asked, “What does that mean, take a zero?” One student laughed and said, “It means we didn’t hand in our work on time.” I explained to the students that I don’t really believe in zeros and that deadlines are guidelines (sometimes life happens and we don’t get things done on time). I told them that I would be available to help them with their play reviews if they needed more of my help. I asked one student in private, “How come you didn’t do this? I’m just curious. I know you know something about the play.” He said, “I don’t know.” I said, “Is something hard about it?” He said, “It’s hard for me to write.” I asked him if it would help if he told me what he thought about each of the questions and I would scribe for him. He agreed to meet me on his lunch break and we went through the play review together. This student knew so much about the play…probably more than any other student in the class! After we finished he said, “How come you didn’t give me a zero?” I said, “Because that wouldn’t have shown your learning. A zero tells me nothing about what you know.” To me, it didn’t really matter that it was late….late or not….he knew the material. He understood the play. He just didn’t know how to communicate his learning.
At the end of the day, I find my students just want to learn and discuss their learning with others. I feel like when I am in my Grade 3 and 7 classes, it is the REAL WORLD--it is happening right there. Because, that is what happens in the REAL WORLD isn’t it? People learn and talk about their learning, reflect on their learning, and want feedback about it. People even try to get better at their learning, it is encouraged! I have never had admin come up to me and say, “That was 63.3% job you did with I Love to Read month” or “You failed at your report card comments, you can’t redo them.” I think for actual learning to take place, teachers need to allow redos (for everyone—not just the students that don’t do well) and provide students with a lot of feedback around their learning. We know we learn things when we practice and redo them many times. We learn a lot when we fail too. Why would we not give students the opportunity practice, redo, and fail and then recover and learn from it?
I think we have this really rigid idea about how the world operates sometimes. But, I find that the world is quite forgiving. I am a third year teacher who makes mistakes, practices my teaching over and over again, and I am constantly redoing lessons to make them better. They are usually never awesome the first time...haha. I sometimes don’t meet deadlines when teaching material to students (I never actually know how long it will take someone to learn something and sometimes it takes longer). A person I follow on twitter (@milesmac) said on his blog, “I avoid using the "real world" phrase with my students as though what happens in school is fake, not real, only rehersal for when life begins after school. I am more likely to say something like, "in the big wide world..." or "you'll see this elsewhere..."
I liked that. I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I read it. I hope in their world they are allowed to redo and fail at things. I hope it’s not just within the walls of our school. I hope they see these things elsewhere because it is really how we get better at anything and how we learn.
Dr.Tae—Can Skateboarding Save Our Schools?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY
Rick Wormeli- Retakes and Do-Overs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM-3PFfIfvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgxvzEc0rvs
This always seems like a hot topic in education and a lot of teachers I know right now are talking about students redoing assignments or handing in assignments late and the constant argument of, “What about the ‘real’ world?” So, I am taking to my blog to reflect on my teaching practice.
I teach Grade 3 homeroom and one Grade 7 Drama course this year. In Grade 3, we have lots of redoing, learning, unlearning, and relearning. I have the pleasure of being with the same students for most of the day in Grade 3. This business of things being late doesn’t really exist....at the end of the day we press pause and everyone stops what they are doing and the next day we come back and press play again. We simply pick up where we left off—and not everyone is learning the same thing or is in the same place. Learning often looks different for everyone. We get there in different ways. And, when we don’t get something we just spend more time on it until we understand it. When we create things…students self-assess, peer assess, and have the teacher assess their work and decide if it is meeting the criteria we developed together as a class. Students often reflect on their work and ask themselves, “Can I do better?” and if they want to try to exceed their expectations the option is always there. When a student asks, “Can I try this again?” I am thrilled. I give a lot of verbal formative feedback and we talk about our learning, our targets, and where we want to be as learners. Students in Grade 3 never ask me if they “passed” the assignment or if it is worth 90%......these conversations, around grades, don’t seem as important as the feedback. Nobody ever gets zeros…..we don’t use zeros….we just say we are not quite there yet and we plan the path out to get there.
In my Grade 7 Drama class, a lot of the same types of things happen. It is different because I only see them for one period every other day…but everything is fundamentally the same. The course involves a lot of participation and involvement in daily class projects where we learn about Drama skills, like improv or miming. There is a lot verbal formative feedback and self, peer, and teacher assessment happening “on-the-go.” A class usually starts with me teaching the students about a skill we might be working on. We will practice with a partner, then with the class, and then use the skill to create a group performance piece where we highlight that skill. There are a lot of hands-on activities happening and not a lot of paper and pencil tasks. It is just the nature of the class and the students in the class. The thing that is different about this class and my Grade 3 class is that I need to give a number grade for the work they produce. Even when using class developed rubrics, it is still hard for me to actually give a number grade which is why it is always accompanied by feedback. Anyways, I needed to give a final exam in this class…..so I decided that we would go see a play and for their final exam they would need to review/reflect about the play. We decided on a deadline as a class (it seemed so formal). I didn’t present it like a normal exam. Students were allowed to discuss the play with others and we used several classes to develop our play reviews. It was so interesting to hear others sharing their ideas around the play. I was there to answer any questions they might have around the assignment. The deadline came and there were some people who just didn’t get it done. To my surprise, I had several students come up to me and say, “I’ll just take a zero.” To their surprise, I asked, “What does that mean, take a zero?” One student laughed and said, “It means we didn’t hand in our work on time.” I explained to the students that I don’t really believe in zeros and that deadlines are guidelines (sometimes life happens and we don’t get things done on time). I told them that I would be available to help them with their play reviews if they needed more of my help. I asked one student in private, “How come you didn’t do this? I’m just curious. I know you know something about the play.” He said, “I don’t know.” I said, “Is something hard about it?” He said, “It’s hard for me to write.” I asked him if it would help if he told me what he thought about each of the questions and I would scribe for him. He agreed to meet me on his lunch break and we went through the play review together. This student knew so much about the play…probably more than any other student in the class! After we finished he said, “How come you didn’t give me a zero?” I said, “Because that wouldn’t have shown your learning. A zero tells me nothing about what you know.” To me, it didn’t really matter that it was late….late or not….he knew the material. He understood the play. He just didn’t know how to communicate his learning.
At the end of the day, I find my students just want to learn and discuss their learning with others. I feel like when I am in my Grade 3 and 7 classes, it is the REAL WORLD--it is happening right there. Because, that is what happens in the REAL WORLD isn’t it? People learn and talk about their learning, reflect on their learning, and want feedback about it. People even try to get better at their learning, it is encouraged! I have never had admin come up to me and say, “That was 63.3% job you did with I Love to Read month” or “You failed at your report card comments, you can’t redo them.” I think for actual learning to take place, teachers need to allow redos (for everyone—not just the students that don’t do well) and provide students with a lot of feedback around their learning. We know we learn things when we practice and redo them many times. We learn a lot when we fail too. Why would we not give students the opportunity practice, redo, and fail and then recover and learn from it?
I think we have this really rigid idea about how the world operates sometimes. But, I find that the world is quite forgiving. I am a third year teacher who makes mistakes, practices my teaching over and over again, and I am constantly redoing lessons to make them better. They are usually never awesome the first time...haha. I sometimes don’t meet deadlines when teaching material to students (I never actually know how long it will take someone to learn something and sometimes it takes longer). A person I follow on twitter (@milesmac) said on his blog, “I avoid using the "real world" phrase with my students as though what happens in school is fake, not real, only rehersal for when life begins after school. I am more likely to say something like, "in the big wide world..." or "you'll see this elsewhere..."
I liked that. I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I read it. I hope in their world they are allowed to redo and fail at things. I hope it’s not just within the walls of our school. I hope they see these things elsewhere because it is really how we get better at anything and how we learn.