Teach-by-Tally

Imagine a class where each student is required to make one comment each day, but no one guides or moderates the comments. How boring.

It would be twice as boring if each student is required to comment and then is required to comment about another student's comment without anyone guiding or moderating the comments. Would there be any meaning if at the end of class there is a tally for each student that commented once and a tally for each student that responded to a comment?

The class would be both boring and tedious. On the other hand, it might be a very popular class because it would be so easy to get a "good" grade.

For teachers learning to use distance learning platforms, using them in the way is common. It is easy to post a discussion question that requires each student to comment and to require each student to respond to a comment. It is easy to assess work with a tally indicating which students commented once and which responded. This automated, teach-by-tally method of teaching and assessing isn't successful. Students quickly determine that they can leave relatively meaningless comments and only need to respond to the first few comments in the discussion forum without even reading all of the other comments from students.

Without the teacher guiding the comments, suggesting alternative ideas, or requesting clarification, there is little purpose to discussion forums. Without teacher guidance, discussion forums are not about collaborating, communicating, problem-solving or any other higher order thinking skills. They are only about entering comments.

I confess that I have taught this way, and shared my results with a "look what I did" glee. The students quickly taught me that this wasn't a meaningful activity. They taught me that online activities need as much teacher guidance as in-class activities.

My concern is that this is method alive and well in distance education courses, some from recognized and accredited universities. It should not be allowed; it isn't good teaching and doesn't provide quality education to students.

Teaching to a Faceless Crowd

In a distance learning course, both the teacher and student are often anonymous, faceless, voiceless entities. Especially problematic in distance learning courses is the assessment of student work.

In a classroom, it is difficult for a teacher to teach without providing information about how work will be assessed because the students are sitting in the room. If one raises a hand or interrupts, a response is needed. That in-your-face response is missing in distance learning courses.

Too often, assignments are given in distance learning courses without information about how the work will be assessed. Sometimes there is no information about assessment at all, or there is a grade but without explanation about how the grade was achieved, or without any comment about how to improve work for increased success. The students may send questions or concerns via email or text messages, but the teacher has the option of ignoring those messages or the messages may be lost in a long list of emails and text messages, so no response is generated.

Assessment criteria and a feedback mechanism are essential components for a quality distance learning course. If you are teaching a distance learning course, or in an institution that has distance learning courses, think about how to improve the assessment of student work and how to improve responses to student questions and concerns.

No Teacher Left Behind Wordle

A word cloud summary of the previous post. Created using Wordle.

See Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom.

No Teacher Left Behind: Light the World

Sharing? Why don't we do it more often? If we each shared a small success story with a lesson plan strategy that worked, we could light up the world of education.

In Unleashing Teacher Creativity and Effective Instruction in the Digital World, part of the online FETC conference in October, educators discussed digital systems used to share class units and ideas to improve instruction. Good idea. Great idea.

The fact that sharing was a topic for a conference this year means it is still an unusual and novel idea to place materials online to share. That is sad isn't it?

Fewer children will be left behind if we ensure educators aren't left behind. We can help each other to improve classroom instruction if we share what works and what doesn't work and if we share ideas and personal reflections. With current budget cuts, it isn't likely that sharing systems or professional develop budgets will be increased any time soon, but that doesn't have to stop us. We don't need to wait for increased budgets or mandated sharing. We can each find online organizations and website to share our experiences.

A few suggestions:

• International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) implemented a wiki, ISTE Wikispaces, where educators collaborate by contributing their experiences implementing the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)
• Education World has lessons submitted by teachers
• Microsoft Partners in Learning Network encourages teachers to share lessons and view others
  

There are school, state and national databases with lesson plans also. Check within your school system to see what is available for you.

Light up the world of education. Share your experiences.

Differentiated Instruction and Learning Centers

I read a teacher's blog recently who was trying to develop a lesson using a learning center for the first time to differentiate instruction. He was trying to gather resources and determine activities for grade 9 language arts students with varied reading abilities. It is the beginning of the school year so he doesn't know students well and he doesn't know what they can accomplish or whether his learning center is organized correctly. For a conscientious teacher those are too many variables to be comfortable. He seemed uncertain of the potential success; his description and tone sounded frantic.

I have found The Differentiated Classroom Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson a useful resource for developing lessons differentiating instruction. The following quote is from pp. 12-13:

When they [the students] are partners in shaping all parts of the classroom experience, students develop ownership in their learning and become more skilled at understanding themselves and making choices that enhance their learning.

In a differentiated classroom, the teacher is the leader, but like all effective leaders, she attends closely to her followers and involves them thoroughly in the journey. Together, teacher and students plan, set goals, monitor progress, analyze successes and failures, and seek to multiply the success and learn from failures. Some decisions apply to the class as a whole. Others are specific to an individual.

A differentiated classroom is, of necessity student-centered. Students are the workers. The teacher coordinates time, space, materials, and activities. Her effectiveness increases as students become more skilled at helping one another and themselves achieve group and individual goals.

All of us who have been in a classroom know that creating a new unit or learning to use a new method takes time. My advice to the teacher is based on the quote above - involve the students in the process before the activity begins. It will save the teacher time in the long-run and will make the lesson more meaningful to students. It will also allow them to suggest modifications appropriate to their group and individual needs.

• Briefly explain the big idea or central concept for the assignment.
• Identify the specific unit goals - possibly tied to curriculum standards and benchmarks
  
• Explain which materials will be available.
• Discuss possible activities to achieve the goals.
  
• Discuss how student work will be assessed.
  
• Establish the groups.
  
• Let the groups decide which activities they may choose to do and which materials they will use. Allow them to propose an alternative task to reach the goals and an alternative assessment method.
  
• Allow them to establish guidelines for who will do which tasks to accomplish the goals.
  
• Give them time to prepare for their tasks.

After the activity is completed, allow time for reflection involving both the teacher and the students. How could the unit be improved for the next group? How could the learning center process be improved for this group for the next learning center.

How many new learning centers activities can you develop? One a unit? One a semester? Set realistic goals for yourself, then stick to your goals, but allow the students to be involved in the process. It will be easier for you and more meaningful for them.

Evaluate Web Sites

I talked to an elementary/middle school librarian in Tampa who was looking for a better tool to use to help students evaluate and critique information on websites. I suggested that she look at the Kathy Schrock's website. She was familiar with Kathy's work, but hadn't run across the 5 W's.

I have used this reference often with middle school students. It would be appropriate for upper elementary also.
The 5 W's of Web Site Evaluation (example)
The 5 W's of Web Site Evaluation (summary)

• Who wrote the information?
• What was the purpose of the information?
• When was it updated?
• Where did the information come from? (Was it original information or was it cited?)
• Why would the information be used?
  

Kathy Schrock's website evaluation:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html

Professional Development Planning

Strategy 3 in the CA strategic plan is, "articulate current curriculum and as necessary adopt and develop new curriculum to achieve our mission and strategic objectives."

On May 14, the curriculum planning team met to begin planning the Wednesday 2009-2010 curriculum development schedule. Although still in draft form, two of the schools goals for 2009-2010 are directly related to strategy 3. An additional goal includes developing and implementing 21st century literacy skills, so teacher-training for information and communication technology skills are included in the Wednesday schedule for next year in addition to time and training for curriculum development.

The goals and action plans will be presented to the faculty at the Wednesday, June 6.

Curriculum Planning Team in photo above.
Row 1

• Jon Schatzky, ES Assistant Principal and PYP Coordinator
• Melanie Vrba, Current IB DP Coordinator, next year's HS principal
• Kathy Daulton, visiting CA strategic-planning/goal-setting facilitator

Row 2

• Murray Smith, Math teacher, next year's Director of ICT
• Kirsten Welbes, Social Studies teacher and MYP Coordinator
• Tony Bellew, English teacher and next year's IB DP and Curriculum Coordinator