Using Classroom Conversation to Push the Thinking and Deepen Understanding

CC licensed photo  shared by Flickr user Alexander Lyubavin

I am a huge believer in Assessment for and Assessment as Learning. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that it is Formative Assessment practices that are the game changer in education. I think it is paramount that in the 21st Century, we help students to develop into critical thinkers who are able to assess their own understandings and abilities. When they can do this accurately, they can set goals for themselves and take steps towards deepening their understandings and skills.

That is why it is so important to reflect on the way we are currently giving feedback to our students and encouraging them to give feedback to one another.

I don't believe in formulaic responses, not for responses to reading (please, no more "A.P.E." or "Point, Prove, Comment") and not for responding to someone else's work. I think "two stars and a wish" might have been a good place to start, but the more I read students' "stars and wishes" for their peers' work, the more I feel we are straying from the point of the exercise.

I fully admit, I used "two stars and a wish" with my own students.  But over time I started to feel deep down that this wasn't achieving the goal I had set out for. It first really hit me when I was having my students do a "Write Around" which I had learned about from Harvey Daniels. (Click on link for full instructions).  In a Write Around, students write a response or an opinion to something they have read or viewed, and then they pass their response to the person beside them. That person must then comment on what the first person has written, and then pass the notebook on again. The notebook then gets passed to a third person, who must comment on both the original response and their predecessor's comment. It is a great way to teach your students to dialogue, to push one another's thinking through questioning and extending.

Unfortunately, my students were writing things like "good job telling the main idea, and your printing is so neat, next time try to add more detail." How was this pushing anyone's thinking?  I have seen this time and time again in my travels as a Consultant. Teachers teach their students to "assess" their peers' work and provide them with feedback using "hearts and arrows" or "stars and wishes" without really teaching students WHY exactly they are doing this. Isn't it to push one another's thinking?

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching is assessing student work, putting a name to what makes one piece better than another and giving feedback that truly tells the student what to do next to improve. I think it is important to help our students develop a nose for quality, and I think it is important that we teach our students self-assessment and peer-assessment strategies. But we must not confuse "assessment" with "evaluation".  We need to teach our students how to use DESCRIPTIVE words rather than EVALUATIVE words when giving one another feedback. That means WE as teachers need to learn the difference first, and monitor what WE say when we are providing feedback. To truly develop a community of learners that push and extend one another's thinking we will gain more if we focus less on asking students to give "hearts and arrows" or "stars and wishes" to one another and more on teaching them how to converse with and challenge one another.

I love this Ministry monograph on Grand Conversation in the Junior Classroom. We need to teach our students how to converse with one another in a way that pushes their thinking and makes their learning visible to themselves and others. We need to teach them to address one another's misconceptions, to question discrepant events and ideas, and to seek clarity from one another.

I would far prefer to hear a student say "That doesn't make sense to me, why did you put the decimal there?" than "Good job solving that problem, your graph uses a proper scale, just remember to use labels." Students need to challenge and build on one another's ideas. They need to be making comments that push their peers for clarity, "I can't tell who's talking in this paragraph, is it the mother or the kid?" or "I don't see how you went from this step to this one, I got a completely different solution, I think you missed a step." Instead of "Great job using humour" how about "I cracked up when I read the part about the dog in the spaceship, it was hilarious!"

The first step in teaching your students how to think critically and converse critically with one another is to sit back and listen to them; less teacher talk, and more student-to-student talk. What do you notice? What types of things are they picking up on?  What types of questions are they asking one another? Are they even asking one another questions?  Pay attention to how they converse, and then bring it to their attention, making their conversation visible. Try video-taping them, and then analyzing the video together. Challenge them, "Why did you say that to her?", "What else would you like to ask him?", "Do you understand his work now?"  Monitor what you say to your students, model for them by challenging them and seeking clarity from them. Teach them to paraphrase, "So what you are saying is...".  If you need help, read the monograph.  And then together, with your students, establish the criteria for having a critical conversation.

Let me know how it goes!

Making the Shift to “Conditions Necessary for Success”

From an historical perspective, our public education system is in its infancy, and inclusive education is something new. During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the family was the basic unit where socialization and education took place.  Families were dependent upon the economic contributions of their children.  Any formal education in Canada during that time was the responsibility of religious orders and its focus was on catechism. In the early 19^th century, the idea of formalized schooling began to gain some popularity.  With the advent of new and massive immigration along with the move from a rural to an industrialized society during the mid-1800’s, the push for public education became more prevalent. Legislation for Special Education only began to take root in the latter half of the 20^th century. For more information, please see: "History of Education".

So while education often looks to be a static institution, it is actually an evolving entity that responds to the changing cultural forces in society.  As we move forward in the 21^st century, it is my firm hope that we will no longer require a distinction for “Special Education” but rather, the focus will be on accessible learning for all students; i.e. the focus will be on “equity” rather than “equality”.

Note: This image was adapted by OEHR from the original graphic:
http://indianfunnypicture.com/img/2013/01/Equality-Doesnt-Means-Justice-Facebook-Pics.jpg

Currently, to support and guarantee just treatment for our identified students we use Individualized Education Plans.  But educators of the 21^st century must acknowledge the uniqueness of all individuals and recognize that instruction and assessment should be tailored, or individualized, for ALL students.  Hattie’s research indicates that labeling students with an identification actually impacts their achievement negatively.  How much better education would be if we could do away with labels, and start focusing rather on the conditions necessary for success for each of our students!

Teaching and learning in the 21^st century is shifting to a focus on Assessment FOR Learning and Assessment AS Learning practices.  With this shift to formative assessment, education will be learning-driven as opposed to achievement-driven.  21^st century teaching and learning will be student-centered and begin with student assets and needs, thus making the IEP and formal identification superfluous. 21^st century teaching and learning will make accessible to students the technology and teaching practices necessary for learning to take place and for all students to meet, and yes, even exceed their current potential. 

Empowering Students Through Blended Learning

Last year, I used the Ministry's Learning Management System to teach my Grade 6 class through a Blended Learning format. It was the most exciting and inspirational year of my teaching career to date. 

Next week, my friend and colleague, Penny, will be joining me to present our experiences in using the D2L Learning Management System with our Elementary students at the On The Rise K-12 Conference. Preparing for this presentation has fired me up once again with the excitement that I experienced last year.  

I think Education is one of the most exciting professions that exists.  My motto is: If I'm not having fun, then my kids are not having fun.  And if my kids are not having fun, they are not learning to their potential.  If they are not thoroughly engaged and inspired, if they are not "lost" in the learning, they are not learning deeply enough.  

When I began to use the D2L with my students, incredible things started to happen.  My students began to take ownership for their own learning!  Having a Science background, I approach every new experience as an experiment.  I have often commented on the fact that I see the classroom as a laboratory.  Using the D2L then, was just one great big experiment, and as is always the case in Science, in order to learn, we need to make observations and collect data to definitively determine the impact of the changes we make to the environment.  

I had hypothesized that using a Blended Learning format would positively impact student achievement as measured by report card marks and EQAO scores.  For the vast majority of my students (but not all), this was the outcome I achieved.  But what I hadn't anticipated, was the impact the tools in the D2L would have on my students' Learning Skills.  With the exception of one student, the kids in my class became more self-directed and took greater ownership for their learning using the tools found in the D2L.  

When I began to notice this shift in their Learning Skills, especially their collaboration, communication and self-regulation, I had to pause and think why is this change happening? 

What hit home for me was the the impact of the Assessment For and As Learning practices, (or what I prefer to generally refer to as Formative Assessment practices), that we implemented in the classroom and how the tools in the D2L supported those practices. 

Last year, I really tried to change the format of discussion in my classroom from Teacher - Student - Teacher to Teacher - Student - Student - Student.  But we found old habits are hard to break.  It was easier to develop this flow of discussion using the Discussion tools in the D2L.  Not only that, but we could go back to the Discussion threads and USE THEM as formative assessment.  We could look at our conversations, and talk about how could we have said that differently to extend our peer's thinking or to gain a deeper understanding into their thinking, or how we could have expressed our thoughts more clearly.  As a teacher, I could look at the conversations my students were having and know so much more about what they understood and what they didn't understand so as to tailor my instruction more expertly to meet their needs.  I was able to find patterns in their misconceptions that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. 

I think the other thing that led to the change was the fact that I could provide my students with more immediate feedback.  They used the paging tools regularly to let me know when they were struggling with concepts.  Students told me that they were more comfortable asking me questions through the D2L than aloud in class because no one but me knew that they were struggling.  However, as the year progressed, and they saw the positive impact their questioning was having on their learning, they began to ask the questions in class as well, and more excitingly, they began to answer one another's questions while I sat back and took on the role of observer rather than expert.

They started to pay greater attention to what helped them learn and what didn't help them learn.  Their communication to me changed from "I don't get it" to explaining to me exactly what they were having difficulty with "I don't get how you know whether you have to multiply or divide the decimal when converting to different units" to eventually saying "I watched the video to see how you solved it, but I solved it a completely different way, and my way is easier and works too because I got the same answer as you did". 

My students began to take ownership for one another's learning as well and truly became a community of learners to the point that they were letting me know which videos I had posted were helpful to their learning, and which ones weren't. They would search for alternative videos and additional links and urge me to share them with the class because they felt their peers needed to see them.  

Using the tools in the D2L, my students were making their thinking visible.  They became more metacognitive and paid attention to their learning.  The Blended Learning format gave my students a voice, and they learned to use that voice.  They were empowered, and teaching doesn't get any more exciting than that!

Three-Way Conferences

It has been three weeks since I last posted a comment!  I guess you can say I've been busy.  The last three weeks of my life have been all about assessment and writing Progress Reports about my students.  It took me over 40 hours to write up those reports! 

While I was out of the classroom, working as a Literacy/Numeracy Coach, I had the opportunity to watch many of the webcasts produced by our Ministry.  These webcasts support Teachers' professional development.  Having the time to watch and learn from them was one of the best parts of my former position.  One particular webcast that I was really intrigued by was on changing the paradigm of the traditional Parent/Teacher Interview.  The webcast is all about Student-Led Conferences. 

If you are familiar with Anne Davies work on Assessment, you will know that involving your students in Assessment engages them in their learning.  It helps them to be self-directed learners and critical thinkers.  If you involve students in the Assessment process (Assessment AS Learning) you help them reflect on their own success, help them determine what works well for them, what road blocks are in their path, and how can they circumvent those blocks.

I'm not quite ready for "Student-Led Interviews"; honestly, I have not had enough time to prepare my students for that.  But my goal is to have a "Three-Way Interview".  I've started to conference with my students one by one to review their progress reports.  When I conference with them, we go over a template (adapted from Anne Davies "Together is Better") that asks them what they have done well this term, what work they feel shows their growth as a learner, and what they think they need to work on. Then we plan a goal together, and more importantly, plan strategies for achieving that goal. 

The tricky part is finding enough time in the next four days to conference with each of them.  The thing that I'm finding most difficult about being back in the classroom is having enough time to do all of the things I want to do with my students.  We have had so many Assemblies, Presentations, Masses, Liturgies and Celebrations (at least two per week), that it really eats into our time.  But hopefully I will have a chance to meet with each of them, and together we will plan what to discuss with their parents and what work to highlight.

To find samples of the tracking forms, conference forms and rubrics I use click here.

On a slightly different note - (a tangent to the above)....

This year, our school will be reviewed by our Board's School Effectiveness Team.  To plan for this review process, we have been meeting regularly with our principal to discuss our School Improvement Plan.  Our principal said he wanted all of our Learning Goals for each subject displayed in the classroom along with the success criteria students can use to determine what they need to do to achieve each goal.  I did have my Math goals and my Reading goals posted, but for the other subjects I merely put our learning goals up on the board and then erased them at the end of each lesson.  Sometimes I only told the students the goals orally.  I felt I didn't have enough wall space to display each and every goal.

I decided to check with my students to see if the goals truly need to be posted.  I asked them, "What is our learning goal in Social Studies? Why are we talking about this?" (We are learning about trade).  None of my students could answer, but their heads all swivelled to where I had posted our Math and Reading goals.   I asked them why they had looked over there, and they said because they knew that our Reading and Math goals were there, so they thought maybe our SS goal would be there too.  I asked "Do you really look at those?".  They said that not only did they look at them, but that they really helped them.  I asked if I should post ALL of our Learning Goals, and they gave a resounding affirmative.  I asked where on earth I would put them, and they told me "On the cupboard doors where we can see them all the time". 

My friend Janice had introduced me to this sticky-tack paper that turns anything into a white board.  I still had a few rolls of it at home (because we teachers collect things like that knowing that someday we might need it...).  I covered four of my cupboard doors with it, and then my students helped me write our learning goals in student-friendly language, and then they helped me write the criteria that will determine whether or not they have been successful at achieving those goals.  I actually re-wrote it a few times; it is not so easy to write learning goals and success criteria.  We are still experimenting with it.  

 

As you can see, they have not all been written in the same format.  The Reading Goals almost seem like Success Criteria in themselves.  I am also trying to integrate our content areas into Language as much as possible.  I am teaching most of our Social Studies unit on Canada's Links to the World through our Lanaguge.  Many of our mini-lessons in Reading have been about finding the main ideas and summarizing them into jot notes for our SS projects on a trading partner.  Then we synthesize the information to explain why Canada should continue trading with this country.  I still find it complicated trying to turn the Curriculum Expectations into discrete Learning Goals for each subject especially when I am teaching 3 or 4 things simultaneously.  I welcome your feedback and suggestions!!!!