Reflections on Prescribed vs Student-Selected Assessment grades.

Number of students who improved their grade: 12

Number of students whose grades remained the same: 5

Number of students whose grades went down: 8

In the first column, the students were given a prescribed task based out of the short story unit we had done. The background was that they had read Katherine Mansfield's story How Pearl Button was Kidnapped and Witi Ihimaera's story The Affectionate Kidnappers. The former is a story about colonial New Zealand written from a Brittish perspective - and with it comes all the prejudices associated with colonisers verses Maori (the Maori are savage, dirty, to be tamed). The latter is a Maori perspective on the same story - that the Maori are warm, caring, and of the culture that it takes a village to raise a baby. The students' task was to write the story from the perspective of the little girl. Although most passed, there are quite a few who only just achieved. From the extension class I'd expect many more Merits and Excellences.

For the next task, I told the students that they could write on whatever they wanted - the only criteria was that they meet the writing criteria I gave them (pulled out of the NZC). They were enthusiastic and really engaged in this task so I expected great things. Even after grading them I thought "wow! They've really improved their writing!" It wasn't until I sat down just now and compared their grades that I saw the differences. 12 students improved their grade - great!! That's just over a third of the class (30 students in all). 5 remained the same... ok - I can live with that. 8 went down. That was interesting.

I'm not concerned because the portfolio approach means that I report on the better of the two grades, but I am really interested by this. I had anticipated that the students would all improve their mark - after all I was giving them what they wanted: the opportunity to choose their mode of assessment. Theoretically their writing technique wouldn't have gone backwards - suddenly the words they could spell and the punctuation they could use before they should still be able to use.

It has to be their ideas.

Looking through their writing, some students ideas just didn't gel. Some were ambiguous, some lacked depth or detail (although the one about suicide I didn't really want to be detailed...) some just rambled without a structure. What this exercise just serves to prove is that we have a range of students. Some kids thrive with the freedom to be creative. Some kids need the structure to hold their ideas in place so that they don't all fall off the wheel.

Next experiment - offer four tasks. Three prescribed of different genres and one 'free' task. Maybe then I'll get a better success rate for one assessment.

14th June 2014

Year 11 English Extension

Grades on Formal Writing as at end of drafting stage

I've just finished marking the third piece of writing my year 11s handed in for their portfolio. While they haven't been officially graded, I always like to know where my kids are at at each stage of the process, so I keep a record of their grades. So, the following image shows three different pieces of writing and the grades each draft are at at this point in time.

I found it really interesting to see the variances in the grades. I thought that the letter would do better than it has done (9/30 currently sitting at a NA). Out of pure curiosity, I then counted how many individuals were currently sitting on an E for at least one of their pieces. 10/30. Pretty happy with that. I did the same for Merits. 14/13. Really happy with that. That means at the end of the drafting stage I have 24/30 on a M or E grade, and they still have the opportunity to rework and present.

Granted, this is an extension class. My mainstream grades will be different.

So, how do we enable our kids to get good grades? We recognise that they're individuals, they all have different modes of expression, and different things that light fires in their bellies. They're all interested about different things, they're all inspired by different things. They're not Toni-clones; they're individuals. To enable them to give their best, it's up to me to bring them my best and adapt the tasks to suit my learners; melding their interests and passions to the curriculum.

Making a MakerSpace

Maker Space. Definitely one that I'm finding challenging. I'm not sure why - I've always considered myself a creative person. I love painting and creating and colour and tactile. I thought I'd pass it over to the students today to see what they could come up with. I needed inspiring and they're usually pretty good at coming up with things they want to do. 

I chose the Edutopia definition for my base as this seemed the most accessible to the resources I had on hand.

A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces. Therefore, it must be designed to accommodate a wide range of activities, tools and materials. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, making and exploration process, and they are what set makerspaces and STEAM labs apart from single-use spaces. A possible range of activities might include:


Cardboard construction
Prototyping
Woodworking
Electronics
Robotics
Digital fabrication
Building bicycles and kinetic machines
Textiles and sewing

I rifled through my cupboards and pulled out a selection of coloured paper, glue, scissors, and felt pens. I still wasn't sure how this was going to work, but seeing as "English is all about making" (thanks Claire), I figured there must be something to be created. Even if I didn't know, surely the kids with their collective brains could think of something.

I instructed them to use the resources available to them to show:

To create links between themselves and the text like this:

 And some of their ideas were:

As always my juniors were my guinea pigs for my experiment and I'll let the photos tell the story today.

Year 9

Text: Private Peaceful

Student using tablet and coloured paper to deconstruct the characters

Dyslexic child creating a book - I thought this was particularly awesome.

A student working on showing the relationships between characters

A student creating a brochure to advertise her characters.

Year 10

Text: Merchant of Venice

 

 A student's interpretation of my Venn Diagram task

A student showing the relationship between Portia and Nerrisa

A student's representation of Shylock

And some students would still rather write.

I'm sure that there's got to be a way to incorporate playdough into my lessons, right?

It's All About the Journey

Saturday. Waitakeres. 14 kids. DoE bronze training tramp. Would have been totally amazing - if I hadn't busted my knees!! Right knee went going down hill. Left knee went later in the afternoon after compensating for the right knee. It was supposed to be a weekend away with the kids doing something I enjoyed. Instead, it was a weekend away struggling to keep up with kids, crippled with an injury.

A little after 3, I arrived at the hut. The kids had already arrived and had been there about 15 minutes / half an hour by that stage. It wasn't as quickly as my competitive, perfectionistic nature wanted, but I got there. 

Sunday wasn't great for my knees and we had to make the decision to send me out to the road early. That's the good thing about the Waitakeres - you're never too far away from a road. When I left the students and the other teacher, the road was an hour away, according to the signposts. Granny here took a little longer than that. A little over two hours, in fact. Of course, the thing about sending me out early was that I wound up at the road two and a half hours before everyone else. Gave me copious amounts of thinking time with these guys as company.

There's a message in that, I think. When we let people go at their own pace, things happen that we might not necessarily expect. As I went at my own pace down the trail, walking like a granny,  I wasn't racing trying to keep up with others who could go more quickly than me. I had so much opportunity to look at the beautiful scenery and appreciate what was around me. I could appreciate the journey because I knew my only goal was to reach the road by 2pm - and even at my pace I would still have hours of contemplative silence when I arrived.

So what does my knee injury have to do with student voice? It's the journey. Learning is all about the journey. Does it look the same for everyone? Nope. Should it? No way! Are we a race of cyborgs who all learn exactly the same way at exactly the same time? Not last time I checked. We are a race of amazing, creative people who are born with an innate curiosity. Even as I wrote part of this in the hut on Saturday night, two year 11 boys were unknowingly proving my point - there is an old piano in this hut and they are exploring the sounds they can make. They don't sound like they have musical training, but the opportunity is there to engage and so they have.

Love that!!

How can we find a new passion, a new pastime, a new 'thing' to enjoy if all we do is what we've ever done? How can we find something new to be good if we don't take time to have moments of reflective solitude and explore the information we've learned? Allowing the students time to do what they need to do to process the information is a necessity.

We live in a world with a constant stream of information - and I'm as big a culprit for adding to the bombardment as anybody. Constant emails to and from people, tweets to read, blogs to write... and sometimes having time to just sit, contemplate, and reflect is what our kids need. Not all of them will do that all the time. My kids go a little loopy when I give them too much self-guided-learning time. They're not ready for that - they have some learning about learning to do first. But small, student-sized pieces is good for them. All I have to do is be empathetic and read my kids - know when they're telling they need that break. It might be with their big loud voices: "Miss!! Can we draw on the windows?" or it might be with their still, small voices, their glazed over eyes, their expressions that say they have had quite enough of being 'fed', and now they need to digest and/or explore.

While we were tramping I was encouraging the kids to stop whenever they wanted to take photos of things that caught their attention. We'd have plenty of time at the hut in the afternoon - at the destination. Most of their enjoyment would come from noticing new things along the way. Learning - as is life - is a journey. Not a destination. 

Messy, Creative, Student-Led

I love student voice. I love student-led learning. For me it's a sign that I'm growing as a teacher. I can relinquish my control cards and let the kids lead the way. My year 10s are getting the hang of this amazingly. I love the creativity that is flowing out of them.

Today - we read Act One of Merchant of Venice. We've watched the film, we've looked at modern translations and plot synopses for each of the acts. We've studied two speeches to familiarise ourselves with the language. Today, it was into the reading. I started, saying I'd read to them until they got the hang of the language. Well. That took 152 lines!! By then the kids were begging to take control. They wanted to read. They wanted to participate. Get out of the way Miss, you're obstructing  my learning!! They didn't say that out loud, but the tone of the language (verbal and visual) was screaming to me that they wanted to be involved in their education, not just the passive recipients of knowledge.

See, that would have freaked me out in the last two years. Do it your way? Are you serious? Uhmmm... no. I'm the teacher, I know what you need better than you do. This year, however, with all the support and encouragement I've had from my enabling friends, handing control over to the students has been amazing. I loved that they wanted to take control - and so the reigns have been handed over. They tell me what they want and need to learn, and I fit it to the curriculum.

So, again today the students were in control. The parts were fought over, compromises were made, and they read it. At the end, my task for them was to draw a story board in their books of the Act (yes, I do still use paper. I learned last week to meet the kids where they're at in terms of devices). I wanted them to create a visual interpretation of the text to make sure they understood what they had just read. I thought it was an awesome idea. Boys especially like visual stuff, apparently.

The groan my kids gave me! Wow. Boy was I wrong. They did not want to draw a story board - so I threw it out to them. "Hands up - tell me what you want to do to show your understanding of the Act". The responses: 

• Make a movie
• Give a 3-minute speech about the act
• Create a static image
• Write on the windows
• Write a summary in my book
• Look up a modern translation and plot summary because I still don't understand

They had amazing ideas - much better than mine. The kids were so engaged - they loved it! As I circulated checking their understanding they were all working at the level that they needed to. Personalised learning for the win!! Most importantly - they were engaged and they were demonstrating their understanding and processing the information in the way that they needed to. I was blown away.

My 10s were amazing - my 11s earlier in the day had some great insight too. 

My all-time favourite film to teach is Freedom Writers. I've taught it a few times in my two years of teaching and each time I can teach it differently, depending on the class I have. This time through, we're using the film to examine issues that face education. The kids are loving it! They love telling me how to do my job. I posed this question to them today:

(the scene: Teacher Erin Gruwell was looking for texts that would engage her specific learners and was meeting resistance from her HoF who was vetoing her choices).

I had two amazing responses which my students have allowed me to share:

Students should have their own voice in setting the curriculum so as to avoid prejudiced expectations.

LOVE IT!!

Students voice should be included in setting the curriculum because students won't learn what they don't want to, if there [sic] voiced is included they will learn more on what interests them.

My kids are honestly the most amazing learners when they are given a voice and given the space to learn how they need to learn.

Growth Mindset - What did it end up looking like?

So, at the end of week 1, it's period 5, and the kids are sitting in class reading their books. Why? Mainly because I feel I've used up all my creativity for the week, doing things that haven't been working. Reading their books is justifiable - the kids have to read the book for their external; it's just not a great use of time.

This week I've faced difficulties of internet reliability when I've tried to use Google Drive as a platform for collaborative exercises where the kids have been given freedom to explore the content that has interested them in the text, and difficulties of student engagement full stop. I've thrown my hands up in despair, sunk into my chair, and wondered "is it all worth it?"

I liked Alyx's comment the other day about failing forward.
I like the acronym of First Attempt In Learning.

My attempts failed because I wasn't meeting the students where they were at (in terms of interest and devices), and I wasn't meeting the school where it's at (in terms of internet reliability). So to fail forward, I stop and I evaluate - what do the kids have in their hand (literally as well as figuratively), and what am I going to do to use that to serve the parents and teenagers of my community?

I sent out a Google form asking parents if they were willing to send laptops to school. 70% of my parents responded, and of them, 78% were willing to send laptops to school. A good start for what I want to do with blended learning. Parents wanted a safe place to keep laptops, so I will get a new key cut for my lockable cabinet. Parents want to be assured that the laptops will enhance learning, so I will share my lessons with them to show them how the technology will be used. My senior management (DPs and Principal alike) have seen my form and the responses and are using it as part of their information in their strategic planning.

Following my week of experimentation, I have found lots of things that my kids and my infrastructure aren't ready for. I have embraced the challenges but been stopped by the obstacles. So now, I regroup. I go back to the drawing board (and back to the Twitter and Google+ spaces) and redraw inspiration - better equipped this time. I will face my specific challenges for my specific kids. I have no idea how I will do that yet - but I'm learning to be ok with that.