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