LEARNING WHILE TEACHING

I recently attended the Association for the Advancement of International Education 42nd Annual Conference in NYC. Most of the attendees were administrators at International Schools around the world.

I participated in a session conducted by Stacey Rainey, who works with Microsoft Corporation and has responsibility for the Microsoft School of the Future in Philadelphia. She presented the processes and discoveries coming from this joint project between Microsoft and the Philadelphia City Schools. Students at the school focus on projects that have Pennsylvania Standards embedded. Tour the school and learn much more at www.Microsoft.com/education/sof.

One very interesting offering on this site is the Education Competency Wheel. Under six qualities that are identified as needed by school leaders to help schools succeed in the 21st century are 37 educational competencies. For each competency you will find a proficiency rubric, essential questions, interview questions to identify the presence of the competency in candidates for positions, ways to practice and learn the competency on the job and recommended readings about the competency.

One competency that particularly caught my attention was “Learning on the Fly”.

“Learns quickly when facing new problems; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement: experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks.”

I immediately thought that peer coaching would be a natural tool for the development and practice of “learning on the fly”. The following two suggestions in the learning on the job section reinforced my thinking.

Use experts: Seek out expert(s) in your area, and find out how they think and problem-solve. Ask what key questions they apply when solving problems.
Use others: Employ others with diverse backgrounds to help analyze the situation. Come up with questions and discuss them.

Get feedback from those in authority. Communicate that you are open to constructive criticism and are willing to work on issues they view as important.
Be open and non-defensive when others offer feedback. Ask for examples and details, and take notes.
Learn from mistakes. Focus on "why" more than "what." Don't avoid similar situations for fear of repeating mistakes, but learn and try again. Don't repeat what went wrong more diligently, but try something new. Look for patterns that may be causing the problem.

I have often suggested that school leaders need to be lead learners. Collegial staff relationships like vertical teams and professional learning communities can provide the support for teachers and administrators learning “on the fly”.

TEACHING AND LEARNING...BRAIN-BASED

In earlier posts, I have spoken about the need to focus on the student behaviors that are most likely to produce the student achievement that teachers, administrators and schools desire.

I have recommended that school leadership teams do a backwards planning process (see Oct 21 blog), first identifying the student achievement that they desire, then determining the student behaviors that are most likely to produce the desired achievement and finally deciding the instructional practices most likely to produce the necessary student behavior.

I have also recommended that during coaching observations, most of the focus should be on “what the students are doing”. The teacher’s thinking and focus should also be on whether the instructional approach being used is getting the desired student response/behavior.

While reading the February 2008 Phi Delta Kappan, which was themed “Brain-Based Education: A Fresh Look, I found a list that connected to these earlier recommendations. Dr Judy Willis; a practicing neurologist for 15 years, middle school teacher, and author of Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning noted:
“The brain-research evidence for certain instructional strategies continues to increase, but there is no sturdy bridge between neuroscience and what educators do in the classroom. But educators’ knowledge and experience will enable them to use the knowledge gained from brain research in their classrooms.” She connects the following practices with encouraging brain- based findings:
-Choice
-Interest-driven investigation
-Collaboration
-Intrinsic motivation
-Creative problem solving
-Novelty
-Surprise
-Connecting with past experiences and personal interest
-Low in threat
-High in challenge
-Students engaged and invested in goals they helped create
-Construction of knowledge
“These instructional strategies date back to theories developed decades before neuroimaging. But they are consistent with the increasing pool of neurimaging, behavioral, and developmental psychology.”1

Dr Willis’ list provides a great starting point for planning teaching to get the desired student behavior that will produce student achievement and an interesting set of “look-fors” to focus coaching conversations on teaching that triggers student engagement.

Click here for Dr. Judy Willis' web site-(http://www.RADteach.com/)

1 Article: Building a Bridge from Neuroscience to the Classroom, Judy Willis M.D.,Phi Delta Kappan (Feb 2008) pg 424-427

LEARNING STYLES AND MOTIVATION

I found a connection this week between two of my presentations on learning styles and a book review for The Motivation Breakthrough.

First, I had the opportunity to spend three days with 4th and 5th grade students, along with their teachers and parents, examining the results of the students’ Kaleidoscope Learning Style profiles. Dr. Christiana Van Woert, principal of the Bragg Elementary School in Chester, NJ, and Dr Larry Feinstod, superintendent, of Cranford NJ Schools, arranged for students to complete the profile and then be empowered to use the results in planning how to study for the greatest return on effort. Both programs invited parents to learn about their child’s findings as well as uncovering information about their own learning styles.

Dr Van Woert- "My goal was to help our students, teachers, and parents to become more self-aware and thereby responsible for how they learn. In knowing more about their preferences, they can naturally seek out instructional activities that support them and which will lead to increased student achievement."

Dr Feinsod-"Teaching and learning cannot take place in an educational vacuum. Teachers cannot teach and children cannot learn unless both understand their respective learning styles. Indeed, differentiation is meaningless unless the teacher truly comprehends the way each child learns."

At the same time, I found a USA Today interview with Richard Lavoie, a special educator and the author of The Motivation Breakthrough : Six Secrets for Turning on the Turned-Out Child. Lavoie offers six motivational strategies: praise, power, projects, people, prizes, and prestige.

Here are the connections I made regarding learning styles and motivation:

Praise- specific, sincere and focused on effort and improvement(Lavoie)
Knowing learning styles of students can cue the delivery of praise: (auditor, visual, tactual, kinesthetic)

Power- offering choices can motivate(Lavoie)
Learning styles can assist teachers in offering abstract/sequential, concrete/sequential, abstract/global and concrete/global options for variety in centers, activities, and assignments.

Projects- can connect disciplines, stimulate and motivate inquisitiveness. (Lavoie)
Simulations and Live Event Learning (real life activities like planting a garden or teaching younger students) provide the most opportunities for many learning style preferences being present in the learning activity.

People- especially important for adults to build positive relationships with people-orientated kids (Lavoie)
Tactual learners need the “comfortable feel” with teachers for the best learning. Empowered tactual learners know about themselves and approach their teachers to speed the fulfilling of these relationship needs.

Prizes- intermittent rewards, not announced ahead of time to celebrate best efforts can motivate.(Lavoie)
In Homework and Kids, author William Haggart lists celebrations that match learning style preferences. Matching the celebration to the students style can magnify the benefits.

Prestige- All children need to feel important. Consistent encouragement and opportunities to showcase talents are important.

As students that I worked with reviewed their temperament styles: intuitive feeler, intuitive thinker, sensing judger and sensing perceiver, I identified why their friends would value the strengths of the preference they had and also explored careers where those strengths are valued.

TIME AND INCENTIVES FOR PEER COACHING

As a staff developer, consultant, school reformer, and change agent, I have frequently seen educators "give up" trying to be leaders and innovators because they needed time and, after looking for it, could not find any. One teacher lamented that she began a peer coaching strategy with three colleagues. The program died within two months because they were unable to find common time to observe and confer. Another teacher reported how a building-level staff development committee informed the principal of the need for early dismissal in order to conduct a two-hour information/planning session. The principal denied the request because he felt that the community would not accept an early dismissal. The program deteriorated.

How, teachers ask, can they engage in collaboration when no sustained blocks of time are available and work must be accomplished in short bursts of intense effort, and often alone? The question then becomes: Where can school leaders find the time in the school day and year for these activities?

I personally don’t believe they can. I think they need instead to make time. You can find strategies for making time in the following article: Time: It’s made, not found (by Stephen Barkley,Journal of Staff Development, Fall 1999 Vol. 20, No. 4). Additional authors writing on this topic can be found at www.nsdc.org.

Often, if teachers have the opportunity to experience the benefits of coaching and collaboration, they will be more inclined to carve out time on their own to continue. I recently worked with two school districts to develop the following outline for a 15 hour CEU or one graduate hour course.

Title: Peer Coaching and Collaboration: An Action Study

Text: Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching by Stephen Barkley

Structure: Four to eight teachers will form a study group. Each participant will complete at least one rotation of each of the following activities. A log and journal will be kept to document date, times, and reflections upon the learning from each of the activities. (Repeat any of the activities 2-6 to meet the 15 study hours)

1. Read the text
2. Attend a study group discussion to highlight and question critical issues from the text.
3. Observe a colleague’s lesson live or on tape and provide coaching feedback.
4 .Be observed (live or tape) by a colleague and receive coaching feedback.
5. Lead a conversation with colleagues to collect input on a lesson or unit plan prior to teaching it.
6. Lead a conversation with colleagues around your students’ work or assessment and gather suggestions for next steps.

Assignments: Submit your log and journal on completed activities. Include in your journal a final reflection on the value of your collaboration experiences. Examine the relationship between teacher collaboration and student achievement.


How do you create time and incentives?

COLLABORATION BETWEEN 8TH AND 9TH GRADES

During a recent workshop that I did for the Arkansas Department of Education, I was working with Professional Learning Teams from each school in a district. As we explored collaboration among teachers, we expanded the conversation to collaboration between schools. In the July 18th blog, I identified the concept of team vs franchise as I saw it exist in schools. Perhaps one of the most critical franchise relationships exists today between middle schools and high schools.

Consider:
According to the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), fewer than one third of the students in eighth grade can read and write with proficiency. In math, only 30 percent of students in eighth grade perform at the proficient level, and nearly a third score below the basic level.

In 2005, 15 High Schools That Works (HSTW) states had a ninth grade failure rate exceeding 10%, nine states had failure rates exceeding 15% and two states had a failure rate exceeding 20%. The median 9th grade failure rate in HSTW states was 10%. This failure decreases the probability that these students will complete high school. For full article- Giving Students a Chance to Achieve: Getting Off to a Fast and Successful Start in Grade Nine

HSTW discovered early in their work that middle schools were critical partners in increasing graduation rates and higher student performance. For full article- Making Middle Grades Work

Frequently I find that 8th and 9th grade teachers have never observed in each others schools and classrooms. Wouldn’t it be valuable for 8th grade teachers to be observing their students from the previous year in October 9th grade classrooms? That observation would provide great data on how their instruction last year prepared students for high school. Wouldn’t it be great if 9th grade teachers observed 8th graders at the beginning of the year? When they received those students next year they’d know “how far they came” in the previous year instead of just “what skills they are missing”. Wouldn’t it be great if 8th grade instruction in the second half of the year was designed by 8th and 9th grade teachers working as a team?

Mark Thompson, director of the National Educator Program and sponsor of SLC Success Conference, a yearly national conference on small learning communities suggests that…

…the most difficult transition years are 6th grade, 9th grade and freshman in college; and all for the same two reasons. 1) There is a marked change in environment and expectations for the student and 2) there is almost no collaboration between the faculty of the new institution and the previous one. To that end, it is easy for 8th and 9th grade teachers to collaborate and here are some easy strategies:

-As Steve Barkley suggested, set up times to observe each other’s classroom. One day out of the school year for each school would make a sizeable difference.

-Set up a retreat for the 9th grade teachers and the 8th grade teachers from the feeder schools. Have it facilitated and walk out with a better understanding of what is required of all in attendance, and a structure for an email-based collaboration. I recently had the privilege of facilitating a retreat like this in Owensboro, Kentucky for the freshman faculty of Owensboro Community College and the 12th grade faculty of the feeder high schools and it was a “eureka” moment for all involved.

-Have an ongoing email-based collaboration (as mentioned above) where 9th grade teachers are in the habit of dropping an email to an 8th grade teacher about a particular student or vice versa.

What strategies are you implementing to build a team focused on freshman success. Are there elementary to middle school transition strategies that could be adopted?