Learning from Setbacks

I just got back from an inspiring  presentation by Carol Dweck, author of Mindset.  In her presentation (and book, which I am thoroughly enjoying reading) Carol talks about two approaches to learning - the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, a person believes that they have a certain amount of intelligence and that's it. In a growth mindset, a person believes that they can always learn, and if they put effort into something they will get results.  Failures do not stop people with a growth mindset.  These setbacks often spur these people on to work harder and make new discoveries.

This got me to thinking about my teaching and learning this year. This has been a huge year of growth for me personally and I have noticed that I am more reflective about my teaching.    One might say I am in a growth mindset now! 

I have been thinking about how we teach and assess children.   If we want our students to learn and grow, then we have to give them ample opportunities to try new things multiple times.  Recently, the Spanish teacher at our school started a project with the students in our class using Book Creator. After the first session with them, she came to tell us the conversations that were happening in her class as the students were creating their books in Spanish.  They weren't afraid to experiment with various things in their books and helped each other throughout the process. As she was talking about the way the children were forging ahead with the project, I couldn't help but think back to the beginning of the year and the first Book Creator books.  The students were afraid to try new things, and wanted  us to talk them through every step.  I remember thinking at this point if it was worth the effort of giving the students this experience.  It took a lot of resolve on my part to find another time for students to experience Book Creator again.  They did, several times, and each time more students felt more comfortable with their results. The ones who were willing to experiment and make discoveries seemed to generate a "can-do" attitude in the classroom.   

Listening to Carol Dweck tonight, I realize again how much impact teachers (and, of course, parents) have on the children in their lives.  If I had let my frustration and discomfort with the project affect the students' access to discoveries, they wouldn't have had the same learning experience in Spanish class.  It reinforced my belief that students need multiple opportunities and ways to show us what they know. Just because they have one setback doesn't mean that they can't learn! Thank you to Carol Dweck for your inspiring words!

Assessing to Strengthen Learning and to Support Teaching

While we have always had the ability to look at student work for evidence of learning, various Apps are giving us all the more reason to be learning to assess in an increasing number of formative ways. Not only can we use assessment to steer our instructional decisions, targeting instruction and/or differentiating subsequent math learning times based on evidence of student learning; we can set up routines so that the students can self-assess and support one another, simultaneously bolstering their metacognitive skills and math thinking, as well.

ScreenChomp, Explain Everything, Showbie, and Educreations are examples of some of the Apps my colleagues are using in math class to have students explain their math thinking. When a student records his or her explanation of how he or she solved a problem using one of these Apps (or on paper), that student reveals all sorts of evidence of their learning. The beauty of these Apps is that they include the student’s voice overlapping with what they have written and/ or drawn. From our experience, it seems the students are more likely to go over and revise their recordings and written work, which was more like “pulling teeth” when just paper, was involved. For many of them, each time they re-record, they clarify their thinking and hone their ability to articulate mathematical ideas.

Can we scaffold this process to ensure the students can become even more facile in communicating their math thinking? I think the answer to that is yes. We can give the students check lists and rubrics to guide their work.  Not only can we provide rubrics, so they know the components to focus on, we can set up partnerships wherein they can peer conference with one another and collaboratively strengthen their understanding and ability to communicate that understanding.

There are many sources for rubrics online and we can create our own.  The best thing about choosing and developing these assessment tools is that it forces us to think deeply about our teaching. The standards-based Exemplars rubric prompts us to look at the students’ work in five ways:  Problem-Solving and/or basic Understanding, Reasoning and Proof, Communication, Representation, and Connections.  To help students assess their understanding of a problem, as teachers we can ask them (or their peers can ask them): What do you know and what are you trying to find out? What strategies are you going to try and why? What tools do you need?  Could there be more than one solution? Could you solve this problem two different ways? To help students explain their reasoning and proof, we can ask them (or their peers can ask them): Does that make sense? Why is that true? Is that true for all cases? Could you prove it? Can you think of a counter example?  To help students communicate clearly, we often remind them to use their mathematical vocabulary and to describe their thinking with words, numbers (equations), and pictures, diagrams, models or graphs. We often have to prompt them to create a diagram, make a table, use a number line, put things in order, or act a problem out.  In order to encourage students to make connections, we need to give them time to be reflective. We can ask (and they can ask one another): Does this remind you of other problems we have solved?  How does it relate to ………..? Why does your answer seem reasonable? Do you see a pattern? Can you explain it?

In making check lists and rubrics to scaffold our students’ efforts to explain their mathematical thinking, we ourselves can think about how much time we spend developing mathematical thinking with effective questioning in our classrooms. When we are asking good questions, we are modeling thinking strategies. As we are making our thinking visible, we are highlighting the ways our students think and explain their thinking. We also can use models, diagrams, drawings, graphs, and equations to show how we are thinking and how we imagine our students are thinking. We need to listen carefully to honor our students’ thinking authentically.  Elementary school age students need daily exposure to representations of mathematical ideas before they can create these independently.

One of the best results of the iPad program in 4^th grade at our school has been its inherent student-centeredness. The students now have the ability to communicate their mathematical thinking both orally and by drawing and writing as well as the ability to easily revise and refine their work.   They feel empowered when they use these Apps to explain their mathematical thinking.

Let it remind us again as teachers to continually reflect on our teaching when we look and listen to that student’s work for evidence of learning.  Teaching ≠ learning: in other words, just because we “taught it” does not mean the students “learned” it.  Assessments can reflect many nuances in student understanding and inspire many forms and variations of differentiated,  intentional  instruction.  

Goal Setting...and Thanks

It's not New Year's (those ads start next week) but anytime is a good time to set goals.  Having something to aim for keeps one on the right path.  So what sort of goals could we, should we set for our 4th grade one to one iPAD program?  Since we first received approval, four words have seemed to capture the immediate possibility and potential of integrating this technology into our current curriculum:

Creativity, Collaboration, Independence, Assessment

Creativity
Creativity being the capacity to produce ideas, processes, or products that are novel and useful or valuable, I hope integrating the iPads can help both teachers and students express their creativity in new ways.   I hope we think of more diverse, meaningful, and innovative educational experiences. I hope these experiences present interesting problems our kids are eager to solve in their own ways.  I hope our students surprise us by putting their own spin on the goals and expectations we set while discovering new talents and passions.  

Collaboration
Since collaboration and teamwork are and will continue to be essential skills out in the real world, I hope integrating the iPads can inspire true collaboration beyond us sticking students with a partner or a group.  I hope they realize they need each other to learn and enjoy learning from their peers.  I hope they have deeper experiences of multiple brains processing the same information and mulling over the same problem.  I hope they push each other to try new things. I hope they become each other’s most important teachers.  

Independence
My goal as a teacher is to be fondly remembered, but not needed.  I love to develop explorations and set up challenges, but I don’t want students to follow me to get to the “right” solution. I hope integrating iPads will help me do less leading and more guiding.  Teach people to fish and all of that.   I hope the iPads help us all feel comfortable enough to let go a little, to worry less, to explore more.  I hope students think of solutions I didn’t or couldn’t.  I hope they can take ever greater responsibility for their education and feel like powerful partners in our learning community.

Assessment
We are having some great conversations about meaningful assessment these days.  I hope integrating iPads shows us more about students, how they learn, and what they can do.  I hope their strengths become even more visible, to themselves and to the adults in their lives.   I hope our classroom can document our processes more dynamically and share more thinking.  I hope we teachers embrace more diverse ways to demonstrate competence as we move from a culture of "assessment of learning" to a culture of "assessment for learning".  I hope there are more opportunities to individualize and differentiate.  I hope in the end assessment means less about students meeting my expectations and more about them exceeding their own.   

Of course, creativity, collaboration, independence, and thoughtful assessment were already valued and happening throughout our school and in our classrooms before the iPads showed up.   However, these are the type of goals that can always be improved upon and reached to a greater degree.  Of course, the iPads will not do any of these things on their own.  However, in the hands of inspired teachers and motivated students they can become a powerful tool.   

Since returning from several recent conferences on iPads and learning and the brain, our faculty has been on fire with new ideas and new attitudes towards both teaching craft and student experience.  This Thanksgiving I am grateful to work in a dynamic educational environment with amazing people who are committed to elevating their own practices. In the process, they are both challenging and supporting me in my goal to become a better teacher. I am thankful to be having these experiences and conversations and to try many (or a few) new things. Pedagogy will continue to lead.  Technology will appropriately follow.  And may we all be a little further along in June.  

Documentation!

We're thinking about replacing the word “assessment” with the word “documentation.”  As one of my fellow teachers (thank you Monica!) often says... there can be good assessment and there can be bad assessment.  Assessment (as in testing) is generally one-sided: teachers give assessments to students to test understanding of specific material in order to provide data for our school grading environments.  Let's call this type of classroom culture the Assessment Culture.

Assessment Culture classrooms let students get really good at two things:

1. Figuring out what the teachers want and producing that 

2.  Memorizing algorithms and facts to spit out on tests

It's time for a new classroom culture - we should try to create a classroom that has a culture of thinking, creating, and learning.  A great place to start is by allowing time for reflection on all parts of a student's (and teacher's) learning process.  Let's call this type of classroom culture the Documentation Culture.  Of course, there's still room to collect data for assessment purposes through documentation.

How do we create a classroom culture that includes documentation?  To start, teachers need to have handy a variety of tools, habits, and practices that will allow all members of a classroom community to document.  (And not just documentation of finished work, but documentation of their learning from start to desired learning outcome and all the problem solving, chaos, and mistakes that happen along the way)  Students and Teachers should practice the skills that accompany documentation: observing, recording, interpreting, sharing, building explanations, growing as learners.  Think of it as visible listening.

 iPads are a great tool for documentation and not just because there are so many great apps.  The great thing about iPads is that they provide an instant and easy way to routinely document - using the camera, audio, and video.

Here are some ways to create a classroom culture of documentation.

 

Evernote: start by setting up a folder for each student and keeping your iPad handy.  Use Evernote to photograph, record, or take notes on your students' learning. Take photos in the middle of a lesson or record a collaborative conversation.  Allow students to record their thinking or brainstorming as they approach a project.  Think about how powerful it would be to document the earliest stages of student planning for a project - to have records of how a student might approach a challenge.  Don’t collect pictures of just their finished products.  My kindergarten students share the responsibility of documenting their work for their folders.  They are starting to recognize good thinking and ask to have it documented (and can even do the legwork for me using the camera).

Camera Roll:  The Camera Roll is one of our favorites - the unsung hero! Students take pictures of their work or of their partner’s work.  In my classroom, the students either put their name card or themselves in the photo so that I can identify it later (and perhaps add it to their Evernote folder or ask them to explain their thinking). 

Audio features: We use Book Creator, Notes (iPad 3), video camera, and Evernote so that students can articulate their thinking without the constraints of writing mechanics or reticence over sharing with a peer or the teacher. 

Reflection Journals:  Using Book Creator or Paper 53 set up a weekly time to allow students the opportunity to reflect.  Artistic expression, digital art included, is a form of reasoning called visual thinking.  These journals are a place for that thinking and reflecting to take place. To make these reflection journals something that will really push students’ thinking and advance their understanding, students shouldn't just be asked to reflect and then handed iPads while the teachers wait for the thinking to flow freely.  Teachers need to think carefully about what they want the students to reflect upon.  We reflect on: Stories we either read aloud or share orally, themes or connections we make during storytime, the meaning of a poem the class had shared, a shared experience we have had as a class community. The wonderful thing about doing this on an iPad is that you can fit in the weekly reflection time without having to allow for time consuming set up.

 

Explain Everything:  The (not so) new champ for making thinking and learning visible is Explain Everything.  This app should be on every student iPad.  Ask students to explain a lesson or demonstrate their understanding of a topic or process.  Students can use pictures, drawings, and movement to create films which they can narrate.  They can create a film that retells a class field trip using photos and their own narrative.  A small group of students could use this app to "teach” a math challenge or to make a problem solving video.

There are many other apps and ways that documentation can be accomplished with ipads - this is just a starting point.  teachers need to think about how assessment can and should be a part of your classroom culture of thinking.  Teach your students to recognize what their own thinking looks like.  open them up to understanding/refining their own learning. 

Book Creator

These past few weeks have been all about Book Creator in the classroom...

Book Creator is a wonderful and student friendly app for creating books with audio.

Last week my students shared their thoughts about Romare Bearden's artwork Home to Ithaca using the See Think Wonder Thinking Routine (we love Project Zero Making Thinking Visible - Thinking Routines). After studying the artwork, we first discussed what we See (a boat, water, trees, a person). Then we tackled what we Think (this might be Odysseus, the shield shapes might be very old, the person might be a man). Finally we shared what this art made us wonder (are any of the buildings a fortress, is the boat coming or going, did this village really exist).

Normally, our students illustrate their own version of the art and through shared writing, we note what everyone has shared.

Last week, we added an extra step.... The students photographed their illustration and we created a See Think Wonder book where everyone had a page with an illustration, their photo, and then an audio recording of their contributions. (a few pages from the book are below)





This week we went further. For the writing task the students each picked a class "job." Yesterday they wrote simple, step by step instructions for the job. Then they picked up an iPad and took two pictures around the room that best demonstrated the job. Today the students each started their iBook instruction manual. With very little demonstration the kindergarteners quickly picked up the basics. The only typing they most did was on the cover page where they added the book title and their name as author. Then they selected photos for the two pages which would help explain their job from start to finish. Some students found they wanted to use a picture that we hadn't taken so they slipped into Draw Free and created what they wanted - then slipped back to their book and inserted the drawing. A couple of kids staged new photos to insert into their book as they found some step needed alternate explanation. (a student example for the Door Holder job is below - including a drawing that illustrates where in the line the Door Holder should stand)


This second student book was created for the Snack Helper job - using photos and three audio recordings that break the job down into three steps.



The highlight was recording the audio. The students quickly realized that the best audio was captured when they spoke loud and clear. (Great practice for articulating thinking, creating complete sentences, and speaking with emotion) Some students recorded their audio all at one time - under one "audio button" and some made many buttons so that they could record their job step by step.

What I'd like to change.... I would like the add a page feature to either ask for confirmation before adding the page or that it be located away from the edge of the page. The kids added many extra blank pages as their finger hit the button while they were trying to resize or move a photo. I also would like the option of selecting an alpha order keyboard in addition to the qwerty.