Learning In Grayscale

Some students want teacher-directed instruction.  In fact, a whole grade level may crave it.

We just completed Day 11 of school yesterday.  It's been a good start to school, but disappointing as well. 

I took my usual 3-5 days to introduce myself, explain my grading, seek to plant seeds of expectation for the year.  I shared how I wanted to use technology in our classroom through the use of video, cell phones, wikis, and a possibility of collaborating with a school in another country (one that is a part of our standard curriculum).  And I answered the biggest questions from my students..."Why aren't you in the library this year?  Did you get fired?"

The kids were excited.  I was excited.  We were ready.

I then started with a pre-teaching assessment of their map skills (compass rose, directions, scale, coordinates, latitude & longitude, etc.).  I used the state's matrix of mastery.  It lists grades by which students are to be Introduced, Develop, Master, and Apply the skills.  The results of the assessment became my first source of disappointment.  The skills simply aren't there at a Introductory level.  So we have a lot of catching up to do. 

I'll not blame the students, or their previous teachers, or the parents, or even the state (this time).  It is what it is, and we have 169 days to do about 800 days of work...in theory.  So we get busy.

Then I introduced the first Unit - Social Studies Concepts.  Our standards, and teaching method, is concept-based.  I like it.  Our concepts in the 7th grade include the following eight items.

1. Conflict & Change
2. Culture
3. Economics (Production, Distribution, and Consumption)
4. Governance
5. Human / Environment Interaction
6. Location
7. Movement
8. Continuity, although over Time things Change

I enjoy Stations (although at the elementary level what I do would be considered Learning Centers).  Each Station has different material...8 of which covered the Enduring Understandings and Motivating Questions (Essential Questions for your UbDers).  Four other stations were map skill related.  Students spend 1 day at a station then rotate to the next.  At the end of the rotations through each station, we would debrief and summarize our findings, then complete a project that would demonstrate understanding.  That was the plan.

BUT...

My students are not only lacking in map skills, but are also lacking in the ability to focus on their work without directed instruction from a teacher.  I was saddened for us.

I went to talk with several 6th grade teachers who had this group last year.  They conveyed that they could not get this group of students to ever get to the point where small group work could be done.  I phoned three of my friends who teach in three different K-5 schools in our system, and they confirmed that this group just was not capable of working in Learning Centers.  They were "too social" and did not work on the work.

So I have punted on 1st down.  I went back to directed instruction.  Tried to be as positive about our situation as possible, and on Thursday (day 9 of school) I put the tables back in three rows, and started over.  Funny thing...the students liked it.  They felt like they were learning.

In all our hopes of providing Personal Learning Networks, Web 2.0 interactions, and differentiation through small groups, this may not be something this community (grade level) of learners will be able to experience until they are older and separated.  They simply are not mature enough to learn on their own.

On the positive side, for me, I have a new curriculum to learn (just approved by our State BOE after our 6th day of school).  When the students require a teacher-directed atmosphere to learn, it really is easier for the instructor.

So we may not be ready for the brilliant techni-color of the tech world, but I'll put my kids up against anyone else's by the end of the year.  Why, because I have already identified their group strength.  They are debaters, discussers, and thinking-out-loud kinds of kids.  That's like pitching to my wheel-house.

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Not Who I Thought It Was

"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan

I thought this was a Mark Twain quote.  I have used it as a personal motivator to not think I had things figured out, or more accurately to not become complacent.  It is my "excuse quote" when I change my mind.

If readers haven't figure this out about me, I enjoy playing the devil's advocate on issues; especially when others believe they have arrived at a conclusion.  To me learning never has a conclusion.  It's not so much about "life-long learning" as it is that most people I know, and know of, draw conclusions before all the data is in.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't give an opinion along the way, just be sure there wiggle room remaining when new information arrives.

Funny though...as I get older, I don't do this as much as I used to.  I think it is because I'm not in the classroom.  Kids loved the approach when I would debate against the class.  I would take the "unpopular" side of an issue and let them try to convince me they were right.  Okay, truth is...I loved it too. 

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Product vs. Process

Sylvia Martinez posted Blogs vs. wikis vs. podcasts: why schools like wikis & podcasts.

Sylvia does it again. Schools/teachers like wikis and podcasts because...

But as I thought more about it, I don’t think it’s that simple. I think it reflects a larger issue of assessment and comfort with the status quo. In most schools, curriculum focuses on student rather than process.

Wikis can be graded like term papers. Podcasts can be "rubricked" like a speech. Blogs, well blogs are not neat and easy. Teachers have been conditioned to standardize (bastardize?) education. Blogs represent growth, and growth is a process.

I offer this consideration. In class sits a child who has never had to work hard to complete her classwork at an accuracy level of 95%. She's smart. Nothing wrong with this.

In the same school a student with autism sits. He has never spoken, never truly communicated to any of the people in his life. One day, after the love and perseverance of a teacher, this boy picks up a marker and begins to scribble. On occasion a letter-like symbol emerges. The teacher continues to read to him a book with simple words. As days and months pass, the boy picks up a marker and draws on the board. Two letters emerge. H...i... Hi. His first word that, without a doubt, he communicated. He was 11 years old when it happened. The teacher took her student to rooms throughout the school. After the teacher said, "What would you like to say?," the student walked with purpose to the board and wrote H...i...

He did it in nearly 20 classrooms.

Spring rolls around. The girl takes her state-wide-color-the-bubble test. She scores in the 90+ percentile as she has ever other year. She did not need the time permitted to complete any of the sections. Her teachers did not have to spend any extra time helping her prepare for the test. The student says school is easy, and that she is usually bored. It's hard to disagree with her.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION! - Which student learned more in that year of education?

How can you prove your answer? There is no way to prove which student LEARNED more.

------
Wikis, though a great tool for collaboration are, as Sylvia says, "A different way to do the same thing."
Podcasts, though we have not really found the power of them yet, is being used to do old things in a new way.
Blogs, well, they demonstrate the long-term growth of ideas from seed to flower. They can become an old things in a new form if a teacher uses them as a note-taking tool.

But like the two students, the Essential Question - Which tool will lead the student to learn more from prolonged use? I have blogged many different ways since 2001. I have done podcasts in many different forms since 2005. I have used five different wikis with students and other teachers.

For me, my learning occurred in my blogs. I can't measure it, but I know it to be true. Even Twitter, my microblog of choice, has allowed me to learn more than wikis and podcasts.

I'm still thinking this through, because I know in my heart-of-hearts that podcasts have a greater power than how most educators are using them. I need a classroom to experiment...does anyone have a standard I can make fit into my experiment? :-)

Learning
Already know it
Versus something brand new.
Measure the growth not the outcome.
Improve

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