Learning to Learn - Holiday Homework

1st July 2014
Homework: What do I do When I Get Stuck?

(Challenge set by Mrs Kilian in her presentation)

Task 1: Question

Over the holidays, take time to ponder, question, reflect, inquire, and respond to the prompts Mrs Kilian gave us in her presentation. Here they are for you again:

What do I do when I get stuck?

• What do I do?
• What do my friends do?
• What does my teacher do?
• What do my parents do?

I will give you my strategies further down.

Task 2: Action

After you have come up with a range of strategies (I suggest minimum of three for each - some might be the same in each category and that's fine. See how many different strategies you can find), carry out the following task:

• Pick 2 ideas that appeal to you.
• Try them.
• Then practice your reflective muscle by telling others how it went and why.

Task 3: Reflection

You can reflect on what happens in a variety of ways, such as:

(#1 is compulsory)

1. Add a comment to the bottom of this blog sharing with others what happened. You never know - your success might be just the thing someone else needs to overcome their current obstacle.
1. Please note: I'm inviting you to write on my professional blog where I reflect on my teaching. This blog is shared with teachers across the world, as well as within our school. I'm trusting you to keep your comments respectful, insightful, and professional.
2. Carry out conversations on the class Facebook group
3. Write about the outcomes in your journal
4. Start a google hangout
5. Write a blog, and then share the link on twitter, facebook, google plus (make sure your parents check your content, and make sure they are happy for you to do this first).
6. Record your experience in a film clip
7. Anything else you can think of - you are amazing at choosing your modes of presentation. Try and choose a mode you haven't used before, or haven't used in a while.

We will compare outcomes and discuss them during the first week back in Term 3.

Those Strategies I Promised You:

What does my teacher do when she gets stuck?

• Leave it
• Tweet out on Twitter asking for help
• Research what other people are saying on the topic
• Go and visit a friend 
• Go and read a book
• Go for a walk / swim
• Play with my children
• Ignore the problem
• Sleep on it
• Tell myself that I won't let the problem win; that I will find the solution and the next step forward
• Remember that the journey of a lifetime can only be taken one step at a time (even if you can see where you want to be and it's still 5, 6, 10, 20 steps away).

Have fun and be awesome!

Learning to Learn - A Co-Constructing Experiment Part 2

A really interesting week this week, as my Year 9 Class and my Year 11 class worked on their projects. A range of attitudes and aptitudes are being seen as they engage with both the formal instruction and the research components of the lessons. This week they have:

Year 9s

• Practised identifying the purpose of writing, its audience, ideas, language features, and structures
• Had plenty of time to look for the information the need to create their presentation
• Talked about why it's necessary in life to be able to identify the purpose information is written for
• Understood why it's important to find the underlying ideas
• Engaged in the inquiry with high energy

Year 11s have:

• Continued to want to know where the credits are
• Changed up the question for one group who was stuck on semantics
• Found relevance to credits because the same skills will be needed in the end-of-year unfamiliar text exam
• Engaged in the project with increasingly greater energy
• Begun to unleash their curiosity

How the Week Played Out

Year 9

Each day we started the lesson looking at a source of information created by different people. The pieces we have used are:

• 26 Tips to Help Students Become Better Learners
• Building Learning-Focused Relationships
• Michael Absolum: What is Learning to Learn?
• Seven Characteristics of Good Learner
• Learning to Learn - a Live Presentation by one of our Deputy Principals.

For each, the students have had to answer the following questions:

1. What is the title of the source?
2. Who is the intended audience?
3. What purpose is the source created for?
4. What ideas are being communicated in the information?
5. What language features have been used to indicate the audience, purpose, and ideas?
6. How has the source been structured?

Once they had learned the skills of drawing out information, students then spent the second part of the lesson looking for their own information. There was lots of uncertainty as the students navigated the material. The uncertainty came from not being confident in structuring their research. But that's ok. We went back to the assessment task - the one that they created for themselves in their books. We talked through what it was they were trying to achieve. Were they interested in communicating with parents, teachers, or students? Were they wanting to motivate, inspire, or teach? What was the next thing they needed so that they could create their presentation?

It didn't really take very long for the Year 9s to sink their teeth into the project and get going. The more they engaged with the task, the more confident they became. We all have to remember that this is the first co-constructed task we've done this year. As we get more adept at it, we will all become more confident. 

I suspect that if there's anything that I'm going face negative criticism for, it will be for how much time I have allowed my students to do research in class. There is the belief that research should be done at home, not at school. I still haven't worked out all of the ins and outs as to why that is. To me, teaching the skills to research properly is absolutely critical to the students in my classroom. They have to be savvy digital citizens who can navigate their way through the dross and gold of the internet. They need discriminating understanding and critical thinking. I give them the skills in the first third of the lesson, and the rest of the time they practise these skills and ask for help as they do so. They still need me to teach them how to identify purpose, audience, and ideas as they're doing their own research. And they need to be able to go home and have a break from school.

When it comes to learning, I'm not prepared to send the students out into the world unprepared or unguarded. Knowledge growth is exponential. Students must know how to discriminate between the different sources of information on the internet. They already know that not everyone on the internet is their friend. They know that there are scammers and people with less-than-honourable intentions out there who are able to use the internet as their forum for misconduct. Our students must have the skills to identify what is believable and helpful, and what is false, malicious, and harmful. As an English teacher in the 21st century, I must equip them with these skills. If nothing else, the curriculum demands it.

Year 11s

As I look at my Year 11s in comparison to my Year 9s, I sometimes wonder what's happened to them in the last two years to squash all the energy and enthusiasm out of them. Even though they're doing what I ask them to do, there is an air of resignation - that they're only doing it because I'm making them to. I get feeling of skeptical hesitation coming from them - heard most loudly when the all-to-familiar question is asked: "How many credits is this worth?" I don't like buying into that attitude, but I did find myself saying to them the other day that they could either learn the skills of unfamiliar text analysis this way through doing this project, or they could do it by doing dry regurgitation exercises. I think initially they wanted the regurgitation exercises, to be honest!

The lessons have had the same layout as the Year 9 lessons - look at a source and identify who it's made for and why, then spend the rest of the lesson doing their own thing. Even though they were lack lustre to start with, I've seen their energy levels increase over the course of the week. A week ago, everything was new and overwhelming. Now, they're re-writing the focus question into words that are easier for them to understand, and they're finding information. Their enthusiasm is building - especially in those who are preparing presentations where they get to tell teachers what to do. They know that I'm going to share their creations with a team of teachers, they know their work will go on the internet, and they are beginning to take the project much more seriously.

Students using Facebook as a backchannel to share their learning

One student asked "So, is this actually going to change anything about the way we're taught?" and I loved that. I assured him that I would make what alterations I could to our English programme based on what came out of the projects, and that hopefully in time the team working on this would find a way to get the strategies disseminated throughout the school.

Problems I Have Encountered:

• Students losing sight of their direction
• Students unsure of the path they are going to take
• Stifled creativity
• Limited buy-in from seniors

Strategies I Can Try:

• Create a blank assessment task template that the students fill in, so they have a guide / map to refer to when they get lost / stuck.
• Students create a flexible plan to show the the path they intend to take. The plan needs to be flexible so it can grow and change as the students' knowledge grows and changes.

I'm hoping problems 3 and 4 will diminish as the exposure to student-centered pedagogy increases. First we need to teach them what a "good learner looks like, what learner attributes are, and how to measure their own success and progress" (credit: Thea).

I'm working towards a day where I have the confidence and skill level to co-construct an entire year. I'd love to be able to give the students the curriculum and the skills that we need to assess, and let them decide which modes of assessment they will use at any given time. As long as they're meeting minimum requirements for work output, why not?

 Blank wall prepared for         Students' methods for             Students' criteria for
    co-construction                  finding information                modes of assessment

Learning to Learn - Reflection on Thea's Presentation

As part of our Learning to Learn co-construction project, the Year 9 students wanted to invite a guest speaker in.The idea had been generated during our co-construction period where we talked about the types of texts we could use to find information about learning to learn. They had looked at the curriculum, they had seen that 'listening' was part of what they were expected to do, and they decided the way they wanted to meet that criteria was to have someone come and speak to us about learning. We carefully chose the person who we'd invite, based on expertise and what we wanted to learn, and then the organisation began between DP and student - with the student consulting me every step of the way.

Thea came and gave an amazing presentation. It was really good for the students to be able to engage with information targeted specifically at them. All week we've been looking at different texts and identifying who the audience is, what the purpose it was written for was, what the ideas are that are being communicated. We've found huge amounts of content that is aimed at mass-market educators and learners. All valuable stuff that gives the students insight into why learning is important, and what learning is. Today, they received information that was created with them in mind - personalised, targeted.

One of the challenges Thea left us is to reflect on the presentation. We are to ask ourselves whether we were engaged. If we were, why? If we weren't - why not? Removing the titles and the age differences in the room for a moment, I will answer that question. In this lesson, I too was a learner. And by far the oldest student in the room!

The simple answer to the first part of the question is: Yes, I was very engaged in what I was learning.

Why?

• Thea is a friend so I know how busy she is and I value her time.
• Thea is an educator whom I have enormous respect for.
• Thea was speaking on a topic that I’m hugely interested in.

What I find interesting to note is that two of the reasons why I was engaged have to do with interpersonal relationships. Only one has to do with the content itself. Funnily enough – I know that to be true of my students. My kids tell me they like my lessons because they like me. When it comes to content, if I don’t structure it according to what my students are interested in, or don't make a topic broad enough for them to choose their point of focus, I lose them.

I digress. Just as well this is a reflection, not an essay!

1. Thea is a friend so I know how busy she is and I value her time.

To me, when people do something for me; when they take time out of their own busyness to plan a presentation, and then share that presentation with my class, that deserves honour. Maybe it’s just because when people do things for me, I want to show them that I truly value them. Maybe it's because in my experience, speakers are "honoured everywhere except in their own hometown" and I want to make sure that I pay attention to any guest who comes to my room to show them I honour them. Maybe it's because I've been taught how to recognise calling and to esteem those who carry it. In sum - I was engaged with the lesson because it was important to me to honour the person who was presenting the message.

2. Thea is an educator whom I have enormous respect for.

My second reason ties in with my first, really. I've been taught how to recognise people who are going in the same direction as I am or as I want to go. While I've only known Thea for a short time, I have seen what she's made of and the direction she's going in. I've seen how hard she works to get where she wants to go, and I've seen how she teaches in a way that people - students and teachers alike - will follow her anywhere. She knows what her purpose is and she does it. And I have huge respect for that. She has an authoritative presence; a quiet confidence. Quite simply, as an educator, she carries mana.

3. Thea was speaking on a topic that I'm hugely interested in.

And content. Learning to Learn has been something that I've been interested in and curious about since I first started learning about children and teaching when I was a teenager. All the way back then, my wonderful friend, employer, and leader took me under her wing and started to teach me all kinds of different things about the way children learn. Over the 17 years that I have known her, she has taught me how giftedness, personality types, learning styles, skills, abilities, backgrounds, beliefs, intelligences... how they all impact on learning. My exposure to these ideas has waned - or perhaps morphed - over the last decade or so. I still see Linda, and she still teaches me about learning, but my busyness of being a mum four times over, I haven't the same level of involvement. However, having young children, and one with special needs, has opened a whole new world of teaching people how to learn. Hearing Thea speak on these concepts from her perspective brings fresh life to the learning-to-learn that has been lying dormant. In the presentation she introduced me to Guy Claxton's work on Building Learning Power. I now have a whole new list of blogs to read and videos to watch - so that'll keep me busy going over the holidays.

As a learner in that presentation, I was engaged. The challenge for me is to ensure that next time I attend a presentation that I'm still engaged because there is no question that it will be different.

Learning to Learn - A Co-Constructing Experiment Part 1

Student Voice and Independent Learning are two aspects of education that I'm very interested in. I've been experimenting with incorporating them in a variety of ways this year.

Term One

• Students told me who they were on a Google form, using questions based on a TKI Know Your Learner resource. 
• My Level 2 English class used a Google form to tell me what kinds of topics interested them as we tried to find a film we all would enjoy studying.
• My Year 10s did a collaborative project where they created websites about History of English Language.
• Two classes of Year 11 students researched Anti-Semetism and World War 2 as part of both their formal writing standard and their written text standard.
• All year levels wrote me a short letter in their journals telling me how they were coping with their studies thus far; reflecting on their capabilities in English.

As much fun as all these things were, and as useful as the feedback was from my kids, I felt like it was missing something. On the surface I thought I was achieving what I wanted to achieve - but as things progressed, a void was forming. There was a gap - but the trouble was, I didn't know what was missing.

Illumination struck.

In all that I was doing, it was superficial. The kids were given a voice - but in most instances, it lacked a purpose. They were given independent learning projects, but they lacked the skills to execute them well. The year 10s' project wasn't even strongly linked to the curriculum. There were aspects of curriculum in there - oh to be sure, it wasn't completely flying blind - but when I came to mark it I found I'd created a big dilemma for myself.

And then the Eureka!

Students need to "Learn to Learn" so they can have a voice people will listen to.
Students need to "Learn to Learn" so they can investigate issues independently.
Students need to "Learn to Learn" so they can personalise their learning experience.

Two gifted educators, Thea and Claire, have been working on similar things this term - completely independent of each other. They don't work at the same school, but through the virtue of the internet, I have watched their work unfold. Thea has been focusing on what it means to be a good learner, and Claire has been advocating student agency and dynamic pedagogy. A few days ago I read Bringing Authenticity to the Classroom by Andrew Miller where he says "When students are engaged in real-world problems, scenarios and challenges, they find relevance in the work and become engaged in learning important skills and content". Perfect! I had the idea for what my year 9s and my year 11s were going to do for the last two weeks of term. Co-construct a "What does 'Learning to Learn' Mean?" project.

Term 2: Co-Constructing the Learning to Learn Project.
If I don't know what 'learning to learn' means, then I need to find out. I have two weeks left of term, with two classes who have fully completed this term's course work. Two heads are better than one, and 50 heads are better than two.

The Plan
Step One - Identify the Curriculum Objectives for Each Year Level.
I have printed out the Achievement Objectives from the curriculum document - this time I am going to make sure the students are producing work that is of benefit to them! English has an amazingly flexible curriculum, so all I have to do is ensure that they are Reading, Viewing, and Listening to texts that are appropriate for their level. The students then need to demonstrate their understanding of what they've read through Speaking, Writing, and Presenting.

Step Two - Find Out What the Students Already Know
I really wanted to know what their understanding was of "Learning to Learn" at this point in time. Before I said anything about what we're doing, I asked them to write an essay (I gave them 15 minutes because I anticipated they wouldn't have a strong pool of knowledge to draw from). The question on the whiteboard asked: "What is 'Learning to Learn'?"

Interesting side note - some became stuck at this point. They couldn't start writing because they wanted me to explain this concept. Their argument: "How can I write an essay if I don't know what you're talking about?" A thought struck me, as I watched these two or three students floundering: when did learning become about what is right or wrong instead of being about the expression of natural curiosity?

Step Two - Present Curriculum to Students
On Thursday, the students arranged their desks and chairs into a circle, and I sat on the floor in the middle with the curriculum and felt pens around me. I read out each Achievement Objective, one at a time, and the students suggested what they needed to do to meet that objective. For example, for Purposes and Audiences, the students suggested finding texts with information that was directed at teachers, parents, and teenagers.

I considered getting the students to do this in small groups, however I decided that due to the words on the document - and this being my first time doing a co-construction - that we would do this together as a class. That way I could explain what the words meant, and adapt to what the students were suggesting as we went along.



Step Three - Modes of Assessment
After we'd gone through the curriculum, I asked the students to design their assessment tasks. In pairs, they were to come up with the way that they were going to present their information. After seeing how excited the students were about their presentations, I'm not sure if this was the right order to do things. They are now focused on the presentation, rather than on the information. Time will tell, I guess.

And that's where we are at the moment.
The students have gone home to research "What is Learning to Learn?" and next week in class I'll be teaching them skills to unpack what they're reading, viewing, and hearing so that they can meet the curriculum requirements. The students are keen to have a guest speaker come in and talk with them about 'learning to learn', and so one student has emailed Thea to invite her to speak with us.

This could be amazing or it could be one massive learning event (read: fail)! Which way it goes waits to be seen. I'm excited - and I'm nervous. We're on the road and we're going somewhere. Destination yet unknown!

Doctopus and Goobric - Why I've Fallen in Love

I'm quite a newbie when it comes to GAFE (Google Apps for Education), having only really started exploring it in the summer break of 2013-2014. However, one term was long enough for me to play and practise so that when I went to the GAFE Summit in the 2014 Term 1 holidays, I understood what I was being taught. Over the past 5 weeks I have been playing with an addon called Doctopus and a Chrome Extension ("Small programs that add new features to your browser and personalize your browsing experience") called Goobric.

Pre-Doctopus and Goobric, my My Drive was neat and tidy - but only because I spent time keeping it neat and tidy. Most of my students are choosing to submit their work on Google Drive, and so they would just share it with me. Their work would all go to my 'Shared with You' folder, and then I'd have to rummage through that, and through my emails trying to find the work that "I've shared with you, Miss!"

My neat, tidy, and colourful Drive folders.

When I started using Google Drive, I didn't know about all the things that you could do to make it more effecient. After experimenting on it with our very patient IT people, I jumped in with my new classes, and learned a few things the hard way (but I always will - I'm a learn-by-doing-and-seeing kind of person). So initially kids would share their work with me with all kinds of 'creative' names - logical to them, but made it difficult to keep track of in My Drive. I should have taken a photo of those before I changed them!

Before Doctopus, to make my record keeping simpler, I changed the names of all the documents that came in. I made copies of some pieces because the students had locked me out and I was unable to comment or grade their work. Once I'd given their work a grade, I added it to their title. At a glance I could see my class' results. Time consuming - but worth it, I thought. Anything's hard until it's easy, right?

My Year 10 Folder where - even though I'd told the students how to label the documents - I still had to go through and re-name most of them anyway.

Before Goobric, my marking was a multi-click process. I pasted the rubric to the bottom of their work, and then in the table properties menu, I went through and changed the colour of each box that indicated where their work met the criteria. Still - it was part of my process. I knew what I wanted to achieve, I just hadn't found the quick and efficient way of doing that. Not yet.

A Year 10 marking rubric, copied and pasted to the bottom of a piece of work.

Then GAFE Summit. Then the Doctopus and Goobric workshop. That's where I first met this addon and chrome extension duo that looked like it would provide me the solutions for my workload management issues. My folders are still, neat, tidy and colourful, and now they have an automated system to keep them that way.

My folders that Doctopus helps me maintain in a neat and tidy arrangement.

 Now I create the assessment task, set it as the template and my job is over for a while. Doctopus sends out copies of the template (which instructs the students to write their answer on the same document), I have a copy in the folder where I want it, the students write their assignment, and when the deadline comes, I lock them all out of the document. Genius! Solves a myriad of problems:

1. Everybody has their own assessment task to work on.
2. Because I own the documents I can watch them all as they work - no surprises at the end with kids who haven't completed anything (I say no surprises - doesn't mean there aren't still some kids who turn in a sub-par effort. At least this way I'm more aware and can get onto them more quickly).
3. Because I own the documents, I can lock them at the end and mark them. No rubbishy "I forgot mine at home" type excuses. 
4. Because I can lock them, I can stop the kids adding more after the deadline has passed - more on that in a minute.

My folder as a result of Doctopus - everything is named, alphabetised, and as it should be. And - I own it all, allowing me the ability to contribute to the students' anytime-anywhere learning.

Before Doctopus, I could only make comments like these on kids' work at the very end of the process: when the work came in for marking. Now, because I can see what the students are doing all the time, I can offer feedback more regularly throughout the drafting process.

Two comments that I've left on a student's piece of work. Note - I haven't highlighted the specific examples of poor syntax, punctuation, or capilisation. I have merely read the document and put these down the side (usually attached to a fullstop because they have to be attached to something). Now the student has to go through and find his/her mistakes.

And Goobric. My quick way of giving feedback on formative portfolio pieces. This is my first attempt with Goobric, and I have found plenty of things that I need to improve to make the feedback more relevant to my kids. Again, I'm learning by seeing and doing! However, the first iteration has done the job I wanted it to. I was able to give feedback to two full classes in one evening this week - unheard of for me. And yes - I'll put part of that down to novelty. Anything's fun to do while it's new.

So after I've clicked on "Embargo Docs for Grading" on the Doctopus menu, and I click on the Goobric icon in my address bar, I get a rubric pop-up that looks like this:

and for each row, I simply press the number of the comment that best fits that student's writing. This time I chose to make up a comment bank based on the curriculum document. I don't want to give them arbitrary feedback that says things like "nice writing", "good spelling". I want the feedback - while still remaining general at this part of the process - to relate to the curriculum document. When the students hand in their work, they want to know what they need to improve to meet the standard. I figured that by setting my rubric up this way, they would be able to do that. Comments include "Identified sophisticated ideas" and "writing needs further planning" - two big things that my Level 2s struggle with, two things that are part of the achievement objectives at Level 7 of the English curriculum, and two things that I say over and over again. Now I don't have to say - I just have to push a number!

At the end, I click on the "Submit and paste to Doc" button and Goobric attaches the feedback to the student's document for me, and sends them an email with the marking too!

But wait - there's more! Not only does Goobric attach the marking to my student's doc, but it also records the feedback in a spreadsheet (one that I've named with the specific assessment title) for me. Another job I no longer need to do - fantastic!

And the best bit - or at least another great bit - I can also go back and unlock the drafts. Remember earlier, how I said I could lock the students out to give them feedback? I can also unlock the docs for the students to go back and redraft, applying the comments and the feedback to their writing. A very important feature for English teachers, as we use the portfolio approach where students spend oodles of time creating drafts to go into their portfolios.

If all this sounds a little bit too awesome to just sit on my blog and you want to set it up on your own drive - Jay Atwood has a YouTube tutorial will take you though setting it up for yourself. Do it - the set up takes a little bit of time, but after that - you won't be sorry!