Making Our Success Public - And Publicly Failing

Making our successes public isn't new, but allowing our students to publicly fail is a bit of a new stretch - and makes many uncomfortable.

So I was inspired by a talk I went to earlier this year by Principal Kafele. He spoke about a challenge he issued to his students, and making their successes public by putting their names on the wall. For many, it was a moment of transformation to have their successes so publicly acknowledged!

I wanted some of that. I wanted to inspire my students to achieve more than they thought possible. So I issued my own challenge. In my then current unit of study, we were working on Reading Comprehension Strategies. My challenge was this: if everyone reached a Level 4 by the end of the unit, we would all go play The Hunger Games (oh - so fun!). However, if we ALL didn't reach Level 4, then we couldn't go - I wasn't going to leave anyone behind. So, it began!

I launched the unit with a diagnostic assessment, and though I know I'm not supposed to, I gave each child a Level grade as well as rich, descriptive feedback, telling them exactly how they could reach a Level 4 response. I then printed off this list and posted it in the hallway. As I had them all do this on the MOODLE, I was able to print off just their profile icon and grade, though not totally private, it wasn't obvious who was who.

Then we got to work. Over the remaining 5 weeks of the unit, we practised these skills. I conferenced with individual students, pulled guided reading groups, share excellent examples, publicly displayed awesome mentor texts (written by the students), modelled what I was expecting, held strategic group work sessions, oh my!

I also gave out a mid-point assessment. I published this list as well. I then repeated my interventions, with a more specific group of students who still hadn't gotten it. 

Energy was high, expectations were high and the pressure was on! We finished the unit with a portfolio assignment, where they gathered excellent examples from their practice to prove that they had successfully demonstrated mastery of the skill. 

Did everyone get a level 4? No. However, everyone moved. I was able to save face and honour the work of everyone, and we did end up going. However, what I really worried about - and have come to accept as okay - is that not everyone reached the goal, and that we all knew who they were.

So: should kids be allowed to publicly fail? Is it enough to say YES because failure is a fact of life? I believe it teaches the kids resilience, it teaches them a valuable life lesson, and it allows them to own their learning. It certainly didn't shut down the learning in my class. It allowed for acceptance of each other's differences. As well, though, I firmly believe that everyone can be successful - perhaps not on the same day nor in the same way, but everyone can be successful. I heard this somewhere it is has stuck to me as being true - apparently this is a slight mutation from this quote: Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way. ~George Evans

Would I do this again? Certainly. I believe that every student can be successful, and I work my hardest to ensure that.

M.

Making our learning public
You can see the 3 sets of grades - Diagnostic, Mid-point and Summative.
You can also see around examples, names of students who reached Level 4.

Agent of change, agent of chaos!!

I love my new role. however, I am really coming to see a duality in my role.

To start with, I am in a school because the scores are terrible. This immediately puts people on the defensive towards me. They think I am there to judge. I'm not, and I try not too. I am there to create change, as what was wasn't working.

Change is hard. It is disruptive and uncomfortable. It is also slow. And I need to work on patience!!

So I have noticed that chaos also leads to change, much like a bull in a china shop! Change will definitely emerge from the rubble!!

Case in point: on Friday I was in charge of re-creating a book room. I moved a dysfunctional room to a new space, purging in the meantime. With a vision of looking forward, I kept asking: will this resource prepare our students for the world of tomorrow? I threw out resources I used 14 years ago. It was time to go!

There were some bargains I made in order to maintain relationships. However the chaos was in full force. Many were uncomfortable, but maybe that is a place to start!

I am an agent of change, I am an agent of chaos!!

Interconnected Skills - part 1

I've been working on this for quite some time.

In the Ontario Currculum, there states (in reading, for Grade 6):

In conversation with past colleagues and experts, my journey towards this has taken many different paths - some fruitful, but many not!

This year, in my Grade 6 class I had a few reservations and changes. My first concern was that the students would find it too difficult to look at the OTHER skills and apply it to reading. I decided, to start at least, to focus on reading first then look outwards. My focus then became: How does reading help make you a better listener? speaker? writer? viewer? representer?

My other concern was due, to a large part, the flexible and free structure of my writer's workshop. Using technology so intensively, immersing every subject in tech, lead to this idea - could they see a difference between writing and representing? Using media within our writing - what is it now?

I approached my reader's and writer's workshop this year with that in mind. I knew the lines between the seemingly artificial categories were becoming blurry - to me, and I felt, especially for my students. Growing up surrounded by media, what then is the difference? The process seems to be universal!

I started my year off with the specific language of PRODUCER and CONSUMER. In that I mean that the reader's workshop would become that of the Consumer's Workshop - where we work on strategies to effectively consume information. My writer's workshop became the Producer's Workshop - where we work on strategies to effectively produce information.

Ahhhhhhh...... A new role, a new perspective

I have started a new role: I am now a Literacy/Numeracy Coach. This means that I was pulled from my classroom - last week - and thrown into this new role. 

There are a couple of things I would like to explore with this post. I am doing this for my own sake - mostly because I don't want to forget this moment, and all the perspective it has brought to my teaching.

A Literacy/Numeracy coach, as I understand it (so far, being 5 days into the gig!) is to help build capacity within the assigned schools. My philosophy is to help improve the teaching within the schools by supporting teachers - so much so that things will be better when I leave. I need to qualify that last statement. I am very cognizant of the role being misinterpreted as a withdrawal resource - I come, take your kids, fix them, then send them back. However, in this role, nothing has improved about the teaching. Things are going to continue the way they have been.

There is a subtle message that comes with my presence. I am in these two schools because things need to get better. This imposed message makes it tricky for me to build relationships. I am not there to judge - however, many don't see it that way. There needs to be an openness from the teachers to admit that their programs need to be improved - and that I can help them. So I come along, charming, self-deprecating sense of humour and a quiet confidence that will hopefully win over the sceptics. Here's hoping!

I felt it was time to leave my classroom. I had been thinking about this role for quite a while, but there were many reasons that I said no - fear being the biggest one. I had become quite comfortable in my own little box - room 211 - and leaving that comfort meant a lot of anxiety for me. This role in particular was very loosely defined. It really was up the individual to create change within schools, with a poorly defined plan. My question repeated within these schools is this: what is your focus? Schools that have a clearly defined focus gives me a starting place to work from. Schools that don't have a focus make it a bit more difficult for me to start. Then my role moves from supporting the focus to providing one.. which is a bit tricky for someone not in tune with the school culture!

As a teacher, I was good - but I was also exhausted. I didn't realize it until I had left. What an incredible pace I kept! I had heard recently that 50% of teachers quit within the first 5 years. I believe it! I mention exhaustion for a very specific reason: so that I won't forget this, and honour this within the teachers that I will be working with. Teachers work hard - all of them. I am there to support them.

I have started popping into classrooms unannounced - mostly because I don't have any specific requests yet. I try to do this unassumingly, but also with the attitude of honour. I am very honoured to be able to enter these spaces and participate in what is going on. 

I am also enjoying the system and school perspectives. I had been very involved in my previous school's improvement team, so I had seen school plans in action. However, now seeing it from the system perspective - the "go in and fix this school" mentality is a completely new perspective for me. I was very good in my own box -and could laser-focus my attention on my kids and my program. Now that I have stepped outside of that, I can begin to see a larger picture. Change in a classroom, coming from a willing teacher, can happen quickly. Change on a school level is a whole lot slower! Change within an entire district is glacial at best! Already I am seeing and hearing things that I thought had been labelled "bad practice" years ago. Really - you are just trying Guided Reading for the first time? I have been living this for the past 10 years. But them, with that check in attitude, it is not for me to judge - it is for me to support others. 

I have reached out, and a few have reached back. For them I am very grateful. This is how it starts. Then in spreads! So for now, I am enjoying playing in other classrooms, turning off my brain at night, and catching up on my sleep!

M.

Branding Myself

I attended the Mobilize conference yesterday with my amazing principal. In all that I absorbed last night, one idea that has continued to confound me is this: branding.

I admit, there were parts of the conference that left me way feeling way out of my depth. This was one of them.

This idea of branding came from a session that was speaking more to students just about to graduate, and the idea of leveraging mobile technology in order to start a business, land a job, or create something profitable. This idea of branding was suggested.

This led me to wonder what my brand is. This connected nicely to the conversation I had with my principal in reflecting on what I had done in the school over the last 4 years, enacting positive change.

Therefore, here is my manifesto on my brand.

Technology - this plays a key role in my teaching - and the role it plays is to enhance my teaching.

Literacy - This is my passion, and has been for quite some time. I love to teach students to read and write, speak, listen, view and represent.

Numeracy - though not my strongest, it is my drive to constantly improve. 

Social Justice - it is how I teach my content, a lens to view the world.

My brand, my teaching.

M.

Me and my posse

I didn't mean to do this, but I sure am loving it!

I have 2 student teachers at the moment. Life is sweet - but not for the reasons that may seem obvious.

I am now able to muster enough man-power to accomplish all that I had wanted.

In literacy, I assigned each TC a certain skill to initially assess, plan, teach, check-in and monitor. We are seeing such great results now! I'll try my best to post the pictures of our tracking methods.

What I am noticing is that the kids have no spaces to hide, to do less than their best. It is pretty exhausting for some of them! 

Others, I've noticed, are being pushed and challenged. I've noticed in my teaching that there are some kids that I let "go", as they are independent and can coast along doing good work. This has become necessary as I push along the lower kids. The time I needed to move them along, I am taking away from the quiet, independent kids that are doing well, demanding no attention.

Now that I have leveraged my posse, I can now spread out the attention to encompass all of the needs in the room, whether they demand it or not.

As hard as it is to convince others, this is not a time off for me. I am not putting my feet up and cruising along. I am engaging the class in ways I cannot normally do. I am giving my attention to that which normally doesn't demand it.

And it is awesome!

M. 

We can write that?The blurry line between producing

photo courtesy of flickr: Technology part of our lifestyle

I have been struggling as of lately with the lines between speaking, writing and representing within my practice. In my writer's workshop, I have the students busy innovating and creating different pieces based on different purposes for literacy. 

What I'm finding, though, and a case could be made for the digital native and immigrant argument, is that so many of my kids are blowing open the idea of writing. They wish to create, and since technology is so embedded in my practice, they are creating what they want - and aren't fettered by the old notions that are limited by a paper and pencil narrative.

With the ipod touch in hand, yesterday I had a student ask if he could video a memo. I faltered, then thought: why not - since you have the technology. My only constraint was that he needed to work on the feedback I had given him after the initial writing assessment. If he needed to work on further developing his ideas within his plan, to prepare him for more sophisticated paragraphs, then why not construct a video... construct being the most important word here. 

When students are creating, they are no longer limited by the paper narrative. Revisions are happening in real time, with ease, without the cumbersome draft after draft, redundancy not-wth-standing, motif, masquerading as improving writing (when really it more frustrating). I'm finding that kids are no longer re-creating the paper and pencil products on the computer, but more intuitively using the tools to create - rather than being dictated by the tool. They are starting with the product. Yeah!





Photo courtesy of Flickr: Interconnected Chain with One Odd Link

This causes me problems when addressing the Interconnected expectation in the language document. I have to get my students to think about their skills in the different literacy areas, and the connections between them. However, I can no longer draw a simple line for my students. I cannot clearly distinguish for them the work that we do in the writer's workshop is writing, and not speaking or representing (a media message - media literacy, the production part). For them, they are quickly becoming one and the same. In a video that was produced, the students used speaking skills to deliver a message. They used their writing skills to develop the plan and write the script. They used their representation skills by filming the video, thinking about lighting, backgrounds, music, etc. 

In theory (having not attempted this yet), this should be a bit easier for them to see how the skills are transferrable to the other literacy areas. The trouble I forsee is that they won't be able to see the different literacy areas as truly different.

Truly, with the lines blurring, producing content is becoming very exciting!

M.