Sunday, February 24, 2013

RTI and SBG Reflections: 6 Lessons Learned

photo credit: MyTudut via photopin cc
LESSON 0: All kids can learn. (RTI)

Additionally, I believe different kids learn differently, and that has classroom implications. (RTI)

Struggling learners can achieve mastery of standards.  The students I have that aren't doing well don't see the point of what I have to offer.  Or they don't come prepared to class.  Or they have had repeated illnesses and that has affected their attendance.  What motivates kids is a belief that they can accomplish a task and apply it with the proper supports.(RTI)


I have control over what is important in my classroom.  And because of that I no longer feel the need to travel in a lock-step fashion for each student through each and every unit I teach.  Some kids need more practice than others.  Others need visual cues or mathematical models rather than a lot of text.  This realization has evolved my classroom to the point that standards-based education/competency-based education now makes sense to me.


That wasn't always the case.  I started (Round 1) with an assumption that SBG meant that I had to retest kids again and again, and if they passed the test, they had mastered the content.  Back in the day, that was called,  "O-B-E-ing the test" because the outcomes-based model lacked finesse.  LESSON 1:  Traditional tests do not equal mastery.  I shifted to a project-based model back in 1994, because a kid that missed the project had to redo the project over, and with each successive attempt, my expectations went up. Kids finally realized what I had to offer was steps towards a goal.  Struggling learners need a blueprint. (RTI)

Next, I moved to Understanding by Design and the 5E learning cycle, combining the work of Roger Bybee and Grant Wiggins (Round 2).  This forced me to put away the textbook and focus on the national standards.  Suddenly, there was a lot less busy work and a lot more checking for understanding.  Rick Stiggins and his Toolkit for Assessment introduced me to the difference between summative and formative assessment early on, but Understanding by Design clarified my purpose.   LESSON 2:  Assessment tells me if kids 'get it' and I need to define what the students need to  'get'. This is true for all students, not just those who struggle.

The next model was Mastery (Round 3).  During this round, a new wrinkle for SBG appeared at my district.   The semester grade was not complete until a child had passed all unit assessments.  If a child did not pass assessments, they were given an incomplete for up to a semester.  This was to help the struggling student, but getting together with said students was often difficult.  Here I learned  LESSON 3:  When a student is in my room, I can pull them out and work with them.   LESSON 4:  To do this, however, my classroom must fundamentally evolve.  Lecture became replaced with student-centered reading, hands-on activities and processing to meet the needs of all students.

As I became more and more versed in RTI, I realized that there would be kids who struggled in a unit, but just struggling in one unit did not automatically mean that they would struggle in the next.  Relevance played a great part in what I was doing, so going back to my universal design was critical, and a review of my assessments with an eye to application mattered.  Blended learning, with videos, sample problems, and multiple tools, led me to beef up my website for student-friendliness.   LESSON 5: Content knowledge matters for lesson design; it does not exist to make me a spouting fountain of knowledge.   My student needs to figure out concepts and connections, and it my job to help him or her critically think about that job.


The most current wrinkle in the RTI/curriculum standards universe where I work is the #PLC, which is designed to help teachers collaborate.  Time is a factor.  Personal belief and exposure to current research is a factor.  The role a PLC plays in helping students who struggle is a factor.  I find myself wondering if these district-centered groups are really Communities of Practice.  LESSON 6:  Collaboration works best when people are united by a purpose in which they believe.  Is our purpose for meeting resulting in students who are more engaged in learning?

I had a great discussion on Twitter about standards-based education this weekend with dedicated teachers who are frustrated by poorly executed standards-based education.  And I can't blame them.  The lessons above are a radical paradigm shift from a lecture-centered, rows-of-desks classroom to a constructivist approach that relies on metacognition.  The shift takes time, study, work, buy-in---all of these are necessary before we drop a mandate onto teachers.  How do we plan to equip our teachers with the tools necessary to learn these lessons?

If we don't, this becomes another near-miss in education that forces us back to that factory model with a grade stamp rather than allowing schools to transform.

Friday, February 22, 2013

RTI at a High School

photo credit: CarbonNYC  via photopin  cc
Start with lots of questions.
  • Do we believe all kids can learn?  
  • What is more important:  grades or knowledge?
  • What positive changes can we make to encourage and support the factors for learning that educators CAN control?
  • What kids are struggling right now?
  • What supports do we have in place, and what do we need to develop?


And so, West Delaware and other schools started down the pathway to implementing RTI in high schools almost 4 years ago.  This is not a checklist approach to helping all students learn, because the climate of all districts is based on local needs and interests.  It's a process.

As the DE gets ready to unveil the RTI initiative this week, it seems to me that we need advocates from the initial pilot of the the IRIS project (Iowa Rapidly Improving Schools).  to speak up and talk about the work that we has been done.   That's my goal for the next month--to give snapshots of how RTI is working in high schools across the state.

Here's what West Delaware first developed as a result of the conversations above.

Friday, February 15, 2013

What Does Transformation Look Like?

Transformation doesn't have to take a systemic approach, 

BUT 

you probably already knew that.



It means giving kids meaningful work.

Genius Hour (Denise Krebs)

It means teachers have to give students choice and ownership in their writing.

Snowmobile blog (Erin Olson)

It means that pre-service teachers interact with great

Practicing teachers (Leslie Pralle-Keehn)


We'll find new ideas and information from the blogs we follow and the people we Tweet with, even when we haven't met them IRL.

Differentiation (Kim Hoffman)


You'll do things differently, looking for STEM connections and data collection. Even if it is an edible race car.







Transformation is happening in Iowa, but the ideas I have seen this year on a legislative level won't sustain and embrace it across the state.  Iowa must:


  •  focus on Iowa as a system of schools, not a series of LEAs.
  • identify innovators on a regional and state level and use them as the model for student-centered teaching and mentoring that meets the Characteristics of Effective Instruction.
  • redesign professional development to meet personal learning needs for teachers.

  • admit our weaknesses and explore our greatness, so we can help students that struggle and students who excel
  • share ideas, share shortage area teachers, andn capitalize on online and blended curricula.
  • discuss what kids need to learn to be relevant for the work of this century, rather than what they need to test to meet an artificial benchmark.

Iowa's schools need Transformation.  How can you help?





Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Student Conclusions: The End of the Parking Lot Project

Sometime, student projects stretch out a long time, and take the input of multiple classes; this was one of them.

It started last spring, when we looked at the back parking lot at school, and made suggestions for improvements as a project in physics.   They created models, videos, sample situations, and scaled drawings.  I was proud of their efforts and forwarded their conclusions to my administration.

Last fall, I gave the new class of physics kids the conclusions their school classmates had developed.   I also added in information from our superintendent, in the form of a letter she had written to my students.  I challenged them to go further, and to make this safety concern relevant.

And they responded. It started by gathering data in the parking lot before and after school to see how many kids were nearby, and how many potential accidents or near-misses might happen as a result.   They also modeled what would happen in these situation by creating sample problems.   In short order, they had called the mayor, the city roads committee, the building & grounds supervisor, the bus scheduler.  They tossed around ideas ranging from speed bumps to rumble strips, and looked at issues of visibility and delivery trucks. Then they created final presentations.  Three young men, Seth, Tyler, and Cameron, synthesized the ideas and met with the administration and the city engineer to discuss further ideas.


Final Suggestions for the West Delaware Parking Lot on Prospect and Sherman Street

After many weeks of tweaking the idea of changing the back parking lot, we have developed our final conclusion.  We believe in the back parking lot we need to move the entry and exit to the west about 5 meters, or 15 feet.  This will create more visibility for drivers pulling out of the back parking lot.

We also believe the city needs to move the street parking lot on Prospect Street back to the east, so it is behind the bridge.  This is a visibility concern for drivers trying to pull onto Prospect from the stop sign on Sherman Street.  Designated crosswalks painted in yellow would also help, as students are not crossing in the white space provided.

The parking lot needs to become a horseshoe, and that is easily accomplished by changing the spots into diagonal parking.  Finally, we need to curb the parking lot, as much of it allows multiple exits.    That is what we believe is the best thing to do.  Thank you for your time.



ORIGINAL MAP (note the kids walking in the driveway right now--upwards of 20)


View Larger Map



Your students can do amazing things, if you believe in them and give them freedom. And they will take different paths and make different choices in their design. And they will take away experience, as well as
  • collaboration with others
  • a relevant, real problem to solve
  • experience with models related to physics, including scaling, vectors, momentum, and kinematics
  • technology integration
  • negotiation and participation in the political process
  • presentation and speaking opportunities
From my perspective, that's what makes it all worthwhile.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Teach differently. Engage your students.

Galileo saw this.


http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/jupiter_satellites.html



And deduced this in 1610


http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/a&s/light.htm


And I could have lectured about it.  I didn't. Students read, analyzed text.  Discussed the social science implications of a 'mini solar system'.


Then, the students used this applet to collect data


To generate this model for analysis and discussion.




2013.  Make a year of student-centered learning.

Transforming Learning through Data Analysis

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Purpose (AND LIMITS) of Models

Part 1: The Purpose of Models

I've been thinking about the power of models all week.  We have people modeling innovative practices, admonishments for administrators to be the modelers, teacher-leaders as models, and models for the newest reform of Iowa Schools.  Everyone needs to be able to make their ideas relevant and reasonable, and a model hits the best attributes of analogy, relevance, and critical ideas.

Models are a must, whether they are a 2-D photo, a drawing, touring Google Earth, or a mock guitar made of fishing line, PVC pipe and weights.  Models can be drawings, mock-ups, dioramas, or they can be digital.  They build on trends, or suggest possible futures.  How many kids get the chance to look at the guts of an actual atom? To see how CERN or other super colliders work?  How do you have a safe way to show kids beta or gamma decay?   Models to help kids explore, explain, suggest,  THINK.   They will analyze.  They will discuss.  The teacher moves along the exploration of ideas when there's a great model-and that's a much more rewarding and engaging job for professionals.

For the past week, my students explored the Tragedy of the Commons and population trends.

Population as a Type of Commons

I didn't need to lecture.   I teach intelligent kids.  They CAN think critically about the future. They formed their own opinions, and shared their solutions.   How powerful is that?

On Thursday, I talked with other chemistry teachers on Twitter about shifting away from lectures on #globalchem   Problem-solving requires more than feeding kids passive information.   It requires visualization and context. 

 


Today, my physics kids kept working with motion patterns.   We have used motion detectors to gather data, we look for mathematical representations, we graph, we walk.

Kinematic Motion Patterns

The model isn't the end.  It is the focus for learning.  The application of knowledge--how the gearing works on a transmission, or how splits are measured for a runner, or how different rates of acceleration affect total distance traveled--that's the real knowledge.  That's the prize I want my students to aim for in the end.


Part 2: Is it the Right Model?

But there is a problem with models, too.  And that problem seems to be getting in the way as I look at educational reform in Iowa this year.

What! you exclaim?  Look at all the collaboration that went into this.  The ISEA VIVA report spent hours which focuses on decentralized leadership.  It's redefining possible roles for teacher leaders.  Terry Branstad says we need teacher-leaders in each school.  We need new evaluations.  Isn't that going to reform education?

Maybe. It has many of the right conclusions:  use teacher skills, pay them for their expertise.  Unfortunately, it's based on the wrong model--a local factory that operates from 8-4 on one shift, with product outputs.  I want a network of partners focused on providing solutions that meet the needs of the students on a flexible time platform.  Isn't that the model we should look for to transform, rather than reform, schools?  Don't get me wrong--there will continue to be local schools, but they need to look, and act, differently.

Seth Godin nailed it in his latest article.   We are like the publishing industry as the internet came in and took away the value of paper. In the meantime, content has moved to free and open access.  Look at just five of the innovations that have worked in Iowa in the last five years:

  1. AIW(Authentic Intellectual Schools)/Japanese Lesson study, which allows teachers to plan, teach, and reflect on how to get better.  This process of metacognitive reflection is one of the most transformative tools available for teachers.  Check with the Dubuque, Collins-Maxwell, Griswold, South O'Brien....    FIVE cohorts have gone through this process, and yet this year's funding process has no funding to leverage expansion and collaborations among schools. 
  2. The IRIS project, which developed RTI/mentoring for struggling kids.  ICLE, the Daggett organization, used this data to define Effective Practices.  Ask Union School District or Bellevue about how this changed things.   Twenty schools took part in this project, and have knowledge to share about what struggling kids need.   Most likely, it's not more seat time.
  3. The IACOPI project, which stopped developing content curriculum by district and instead reached out to networks of educators across the state, transforming f2f interactions into blended combinations of collaboration with other students, other schools, and online.  More than 200 educators across the state stopped acting in isolation, and leveraged social media for personal growth,  digital interactions and models.  If you're on Twitter, you probably know twenty or more of them.
  4. We need a better definition of teacher leader that sees Iowa as a system of schools, rather than self-sufficient LEAs.  Look, for example at the New Teacher Center approach at Grant Wood AEA.  It has programs for new teachers, as well as mentors.  Mentors are taken out of the classroom for two years, teachers them to be great mentors and then allows them to work with 15 teachers across the area, building networks across LEAs. At that point, they go back into the classroom, and they are better teachers. The Center for Teaching Quality also has teacher-leaders, where teacherpreneurs are in the classroom for half-a-day, and are involved in improving their profession half-a-day. And Jim Knight's ideas on instructional coaching have been used by schools (and every AEA) across the state for integration specialist that can help teachers improve.  We have possibilities, but the current bill limits steps to local LEAs only and doesn't provide  collaborations from regional innovators--it provides dollars for loyalists who get along with everyone.  What a tragic move for small schools, which might only have one government teacher, or one industrial tech teacher or one world language instructor. The legislation currently on the table is too narrow.
  5. Competency-Based Education, which moves the bar away from the endless chase for letter grades and looks at the real prize:  knowledge.   This system has been used by elementary schools for longer than I can remember.   On an upper level, it's been hybridized with traditional grades, including the Archdiocese of Dubuque's focus on Mastery Learning in the early 1990s (Wahlert HS and Beckman HS).  Other schools followed with the CLI Model in the mid-2000s and onward (Glenwood, Independence and West Delaware), not moving kids out of a class until all the targets were reached.   It its current incarnation, Solon Community is redefining grades entirely.  At least they are moving towards long-tail education model that understands that teachers are not the font of all knowledge.
Transformation requires picking the right driver.

The bright spot in this year's legislative plan is the expansion of Iowa Learning Online, which provides extended access for kids and moves away from corporate solutions that send dollars out of Iowa to places like Connections Academy.  It's a homegrown solution focused on local coaches teamed with quality curriculum and technology integration. It leverages the excellence and work ethic of Iowa students and teachers.   It utilizes highly-qualified teachers for shortage areas.  It provides a type of differentiation for a kid that learns differently, or learns best independently.  It's project-based.



Do we really want to transform Iowa into greatness with innovations that work? Become a system of schools?  How would THAT model look?