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!

On Blended Learning

Blended learning is a form of education that combines face-to-face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities.^[1] According to its proponents, the strategy creates a more integrated approach for both instructors and students. From Wikipedia. 

This year I have been experimenting with blended learning.  Blended learning is a combination of face-to-face learning with eLearning.  I call it an "experiment" because I believe EVERY teaching strategy we try is an experiment.  I see my classroom as a giant laboratory.  I try different teaching strategies and then I measure their impact on student learning.  Some are more successful than others; some are very successful with some students and not so successful with other students. 

In Ontario, the Ministry provides teachers with a Learning Management System called the D2L for our blended learning.  Eight months into the experiment and I have to say that I love it and so do my students.  It is fun and engaging.  But has it positively impacted student learning?  I believe that it has; looking at the work that they are producing now compared to what they were doing in September, I think every student has made significant gains, and some of them have made dramatic gains to their learning.  

Because my students have access to the D2L 24 hours a day, they can decide when they need to access information.  I like to post a variety of different types of media to support their learning.  For example, we are currently studying Flight in Science.  As part of this unit, we are learning about the properties of fluids.  To learn these properties we have been conducting experiments together in class.  If anyone doesn't understand the experiment, they can view it or a similar one in a video on the D2L.  They can also access interactive learning activities from the Ontario Educational Resource Bank (OERB) that I have uploaded for them.  Lastly, if they still don't understand, they can email myself, or one of their classmates for clarification. (The OERB is only accessible to Ontario teachers, I'm afraid. It has great learning activities for the Ontario curriculum, but you can link to any online learning activity.) 

Having the D2L available to access information when they need it has really helped the majority of my students become responsible for their own learning.  It has given them control; they know that if they are not understanding, they can do something about it. Dylan William and John Hattie both explain that if students see intelligence as incremental, they will believe that the choices they make can lead to increased intelligence, and that will motivate them to take steps to improve.  But if students believe intelligence is fixed, "I'm not a math person, I'll never understand this", they don't even bother trying.  In fact, they will choose to NOT do their work so that they will look lazy because looking lazy is far better than looking stupid.  I have found that most of my students have come to believe that they can achieve in any subject if they help themselves. 

Using the D2L has made it easier for me to give my students feedback on their work.  They post something, and I can give them personal written feedback immediately.  We've also gotten into the habit of posting the success criteria for their work on our class page so they always have access to it.  They have also begun to give one another feedback, and they use the success criteria to help them decide what to say to one another.  

We have been using the Discussion tool for many of our reading activities.  This has really helped my students to learn how to have conversations around critical literacy.  We use a reciprocal teaching format.  I suggested they post questions they have about what they are reading, seek clarification from one another when they don't understand something, summarize what they have been reading, and make predictions.  I also ask that they consider what the author's message is, and share what they think the author is trying to tell us.  I had to explicitly teach them how to comment on one another's discussion threads at first, but now their discussions are rich and meaningful.  I no longer have to be the one explaining everything - they do that for one another, and I can peek in to see who gets it and who doesn't.

I learned a lot about the power of blogging from the #etmooc I participated in.  In February, we started using the blog tool on the D2L.  I was tempted to have my students create blogs using edublogger, but I am still nervous about having their blogs in the public domain - it is something I am still considering and exploring. (Click on the links to learn more about blogging from Sue Waters). Using the D2L, their blogs can only be seen by students in our board, and they are not nearly as visually appealing as they would be if they were using edublogger because they can't add widgets.  But that hasn't inhibited them.

It turns out my students LOVE blogging - every single one of them.  (I know because they are always asking to have time to blog, and they are doing it on their own time at home). Sometimes I assign topics to blog about.  Then I give them feedback, and ask them to improve their post given the feedback.  Some edit their original post, some opt to write an entirely new post and keep both as "evidence" of their learning.  But the posts I like best are the ones that they decide to write.  Currently, they have decided to have a "video contest".  They are posting their favourite videos. Through my comments on their blogs, I have asked them to develop a critical stance and try to determine what the intended message of the video is. 

One thing I don't like to do is have all of my students on-line at the same time.  We NEVER use the computer lab to access the D2L.  We use the devices I have in the class (five iPads, 3 desk tops, and 4 laptops).  That is enough for half of my class. They either work in pairs, or, because I use a workshop model, some are using the electronic devices, while others are doing something hands on, and still others are working with me in small groups.  Having the D2L has really enabled them to work independently for long stretches of time so that I can easily conference with students one at a time or work with them in small groups. 

Do you use blended learning in your classroom?  If so, how is it going?  If you have any ideas or suggestions to share, I would really love to hear them.  

Next week, I will ask my students what they think about blended learning, what they like and don't like.  Check in soon to hear about blended learning from the student's perspective.