The challenges around student centered learning - and overcoming them

Inquiry, curriculum integration, thematic units - these words were tossed around interchangeably when I first took up my new role at this school nearly nine weeks ago - however throughout this term we have begun to make changes around what our school curriculum looks like and how it is played out in action.  This was due in part, to the leaving of both the previous principal and deputy principal within a short time period.  As a result of this, lots of questioning is happening regarding the terminology that is used and what it actually represents.  Through discussions and readings around inquiry and curriculum integration we have decided that as a school what we are currently doing is a thematic approach to learning, rather than true curriculum integration - and that true inquiry where it is led by the students is something quite rare within our classrooms and something that has not traditionally happened.  This has aligned with the minimal focus that has been placed around student voice and student led learning that is future orientated due to other huge factors that have influenced the staff at the school.  The students that I am working with came to me with quite a fixed mindset about what they could and could not achieve and it has taken eight weeks for them to begin to be at a stage where they are able to talk about their individual goals and their progressions towards these.

As year 7 and year 8 students, I think it is highly important that these students are introduced to, and confident working within, an inquiry style of learning both within the "core"/national standards subjects and all other subjects that make up the New Zealand Curriculum.

In order for me to provide my students with this opportunity I have done research over a wide variety of areas - regarding what inquiry is, best practice for student centered learning in areas such as maths, reading and writing and the benefits and challenges of true student centered learning.  A lot of this has overlapped with reading that I did last year around the POGIL styled programme that I was teaching and so this has been most helpful to make comparisons with.

I know that as these students do not have a student centered learning background it is important for me to give them appropriate tools so that they are able to understand and talk about their learning in order to be able to have more guidance over the direction of it.  An interesting reading that I stumbled across today The Benefits and Challenges of Student-Designed Learning talks about true inquiry learning (within a high school context) and letting students have complete control about the direction that they take with their learning and how they present their learning.  It emphasises that from a student point of view, whilst it was exciting to have control over their learning at first it became difficult when they did not have any guidelines.  It also discusses the importance of students having goals when directing their own learning and how this was helpful to them.

This has helped me to have confidence that I am on the right track with these students and developing them to be students who can work within an inquiry style of learning.  At the moment there is both clear guidelines about what skills and knowledge they need to be developing, they are presented with a range of ways to do this which is helping to allow them freedom over the style of learning that works best for them and they are consistently setting and achieving mini goals whilst working towards their bigger goal which is allowing them to achieve success along the way.

Reflecting on Reflections

Every day, I encourage my students to express their learning in a variety of ways and discuss with them why and how it is beneficial to do so - however I have found myself not always doing this since developing this blog.  In a recent staff meeting we discussed the difference between wondering, pondering, journalling and reflecting - how these are all based around different things - and that reflecting should be based around certain criteria and around our children and their learning.  In class today I was working with a student on Wordle and realised just how well that tool can sum up the main ideas of something simply by how often they are repeated.  I decided to place each of my recent reflective blog posts in Wordle so that I could get a true representation of what it is I am focussing on - with Wordle the words that are repeated the often (and therefore the largest focus in the reflection) are the words that are largest.  I was happily surprised with what I saw and it was a timely reminder that I am on track with my reflections.

 

Feedback - Why do we take it how we do?

We have a plaque in my house that says 'Write your hurts in the sand, carve your blessings in stone'.  The only problem with this plaque is that this is a lot easier said than done, especially in regards to my career.  

Over the past couple of weeks I have had two parents come in to see me about issues in the playground, however I initially took both of these parental visits as attacks on my teaching.  After thinking these through I could see them for what they were - simply parents concerned about their child and their social interactions, and nothing to do with my classroom, let alone how I teach.

In contrast to this, I have also had some very positive feedback from my tutor teacher and my assistant principal.  Both of these people have provided feedback that is extremely encouraging about my practice - messages that I initially brushed off as positive feedback for feedbacks sake but have since come to take as a true commendation about the hard work that I put in each and every day.  

I find it interesting how, as humans, we are so critical of ourselves - especially where we would not be of others.  Words of praise are often brushed aside and words of criticism (not in a constructive way) are often taken to heart.  It is especially important for us as educators to consider this - as not only do we react this way but our students do also.

My challenge for myself for the next fortnight is to indeed carve my blessings in stone - and to believe in myself as I would believe in a friend.  This is a challenge that I am setting for my students also.  Tomorrow, during cross country block, we are doing art based on the idea of what makes each of us a superstar? I will post this art once students have completed it.  

Student self esteem is huge - and greatly impacts the way that students work.  I am hoping that by encouraging my students to see themselves in a positive light they will in turn be encouraged to believe that they can indeed achieve anything they set their mind to.  

In response to my question of why we take feedback the way we do - who knows? Not me... but I do know that my students will leave my class with a backbone of self belief that cannot be crushed by the words or actions of others - and I know that I help the students contribute to this each and every day - whether it is through small comments and gestures or whether it is through an activity such as the one above.   Each student in my class is a shooting star with huge potential, and I will do everything I can to make sure they believe it!

Feed back/Feed forward

As part of our on going professional development we have our team leaders come in each week to observe us, provide us with feedback about what they thought worked well and ideas about where we need to next focus our attention.  These get sent through to us after every third observation and there is an opportunity to discuss these notes with our team leader.

Below is the feedback and feedforward I have received about what my team leader has observed of my teaching practice and classroom environment so far this term. as you can see, a lot of the focus so far this term has been around the classroom environment.

The main focus that I will be working on from here is how to use the Apple TV to model work effectively with my students.  It is very different to using an IWB which is what I have had experience with so far and I am looking forward to the challenge.

In addition to having this as feedback and feed forward I have been doing some professional reading about how to ensure that my classroom is a place where I am engaged and ready to learn.  One of the readings that I came across had a very succinct and to the point checklist of the different factors that can instantly effect student engagement and therefore achievement, but also continue to do so in the long run. 

I have attached the checklist and how I will be using this is I will fill it out on myself and I have also asked my team members and team leader to pick it up when they are in my classroom during teaching time and fill in / check off what they are observing - and if they are not observing something happening to provide some advice and guidance to me about how I could get this working effectively for both my learning and the development and growth of my students.