I no longer have a 'teaching space.' I don't even have a particular chair. My co-teacher and I move about taking 'workshops' of small or larger groups here, there and everywhere, sometimes even outside if needed. I made us a couple of resource baskets out of laundry peg caddies at the beginning of the year, filled with whiteboard pens, felts, sticky notes and all the writing tools we might need to model and record anywhere anytime. We keep them in a corner to pick them as needed, and I try to no lose them during the course of the day.
Much like a teaching space, I no longer have a teaching script, either. No more teacher-led pre-planned unit of learning. We design learning on an ongoing basis based on how the curriculum can be best articulated at that time for a group. Granted, we've created systems that allow us to get ongoing formative feedback to help with delivering said curriculum content, which is one of the key ways of how we've been able to personalise learning (this link best describes what I mean by personalised learning) and take it beyond content into learning how to learn at the same time.
These are a couple of examples of our flexible curriculum delivery systems:
Last year I had great success with my writing programme (in terms of motivation and academic progress), where I created a system for students to choose their own writing goals and self-regulate their progress and practice. The goals were translated into kids-speak from our curriculum guidelines. I based my teaching points and writing modeling on their goals while adding some higher level foci to provide a cognitive challenge (Kahneman, 2011). So my planning became a matter of articulating their goals. Everyone moved at their own pace and learning to write became 'how to make our writing better every day.'
This year the system has evolved into something more visual and user-friendly to cater for a larger group of learners, as Amy and I combined her Learning Process Bubbles with the system that I had last year.
The Writing Goal Bubbles are dynamically incremental, although not in a linear way. They've been designed so the learner can to learn and apply a specific writing skill, and self-assess on that one goal for a period of time by tracking their practice. This lowers the cognitive load and creates an achievable specific focus for peer or for my feedback. For example, there's one goal for Re-reading my Writing to Check it Makes Sense, as this is the first step to Editing (changing, deleting, adding), but is also linked to the Adding Full Stops and Capital Letters goal, or Underlining new Words and so on. Kids choose their writing skills goal depending on what they think they need to improve on, annotate their writing piece with their goal in red dots when they've practised independently (see writing sample below), and can claim the goal as completed after three clear independent pieces of evidence. Each incremental goal covers previous skills anyway, so there's always scope for revisiting if needed.
Every learning goal is a Learning Question (more on that in this blog post) that the writer answers in a way that makes sense to them. For example, there is more than one way to understand where a full stop goes, and unless it makes sense to a learner, they have trouble remembering how to edit larger volumes of text as well and trying to use more complex punctuation and sentence structures, later on, becomes fraught. I model to their goals (through Think-alouds and direct teaching) while adding a few higher writing skills regularly as a cognitive challenge (Kahneman, 2011). The iterative exposure to different skills through my modeling helps to lower the cognitive load for when it becomes their focus goal later on- known as cognitive pre-loading. For those ready to move faster it's also as easy as creating a new goal bubble. A couple of times a week I will also conference a small group when a specific focus is needed.
Making writing skills development a piece by piece achievable task has helped the reluctant writers stop freaking out. Writing is a very complex task for some, and to ask some young learners to keep awareness on different aspects of the mechanics of writing while articulating ideas or a story made a few shut down in panic (Kahneman, 2011). With this system, all writers get exposed to all skills but only need to focus on what they are ready to practice and can track their own progress by building on their self-efficacy.
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| Goal- Underline new words > Possible next goal Edit (change, add or delete). |
The next system that helps us design learning is using Number Talks, from Prof Jo Boaler's (Boaler, 2016) and Cathy Humphreys (Humphreys & Parker, 2015), for our daily number sense warm-ups.
Number Talks. I love teaching with Number Talks. I want every child and educator in the world to have a chance to learn through Number Talks. Number Talks are a way to develop a critical understanding of why and how mathematics makes sense, to use logic and reasoning while communicating and illustrating mathematical ideas.
I'm not talking about knowing what 3x 5 equals. I'm talking about understanding why3x 5 is a great way to show 15 in even sets, what that could also look like, or how it could also be 10 +5, or 5x3, or 20-5.
It's a way for mathematicians to enjoy sharing mathematical thinking and enjoy the challenge of finding a new way to see and understand a mathematical idea. When did you last see that in a maths Hot Spot? I see it every day and love it.
Every session the kids are bursting to share their thinking and explain why they agree with this way or prefer that other way or how they've discovered something new. Every Number Talk gives me new ideas for the next Number Talk. I can SEE their thinking grow and change as the weeks go by as their use of strategies becomes more complex. The discussions lead to discoveries about place value and related knowledge without being, well, boring or forced. We make connections between 3+5 =8 and 30+50=80, then discover 300+500=800 and so on. The understanding is so clear that their eyes pop out. Six-year-olds adding in thousands? Yes.
The kids learn from the discourse and scaffold each other, growing in confidence and eloquence, while I learn where they're at and where to add the cognitive challenge next (Kirshner, Sweller & Clark, 2006). The growth and progress have been very positive and beyond our expectations (and the assessments, yes, that, too).
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| Mid Term 1, 2017- How many dots? 15 (not in the picture) |
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| Term 2, 2017 (15 dots then take away 6 From Splat) |
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| Term 2, 2017 (Fifteen dots then take away 6) |
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| Mid Term 2- Subtracting in 10's |
Amy and I do two levels of Number Talks daily, and kids choose which one they go to (with some encouragement from us at times). Here's a Goggle Slide where I'm collecting all my Number Talk ideas and thinking.
In both of these examples, with each learning episode, the act of teaching for understanding beyond simply acquiring 'knowledge' creates a dynamic environment for learning design. It's no longer enough for me to know something and then teach it they way I learned it or taught it in the past. I need to design the learning and find ways to take the learners on that journey as active participants within learning systems that deliver the iterative cycle of formative feedback for both of us. The feedback loop of learning design helps learners to form the understanding, while I use that information to continue to design learning. I do still use methods like direct teaching to help grow an understanding, but unless the reciprocity of feedback from the learner is authentic and evident, I feel like something is missing or I'm guessing what they need next, which is so unlike top-down instruction where the learner's voice is dictated by what the teacher wants to produce.
Teaching for understanding is so unlike the scripted 'teaching' I was trained to do (and was required to do), that I don't even know if teach, instruct, is the most appropriate term to describe what I do anymore. I think I can blame design thinking and agile design thinking in part for this state of affairs, as well as a long list of talented innovative educators.
So what is a designer of fluid and dynamic learning systems called these days?
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References:
Boaler, J. (2015). Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students' potential through creative math, inspiring messages and innovative teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
Humphreys, C., & Parker, R. (2015). Making Number Talks Matter: Developing Mathematical Practices and Deepening Understanding, Grades 4-10. Stenhouse Publishers.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.
Kirshner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during Instruction doesn’t work. How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education. Retrieved from http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/kirschner_Sweller_Clark.pdf
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