The following post is written by Allison Townsend, the 2019 Georgia Teacher of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @Ga2019TOTY or on the Georgia Teacher of the Year Facebook page.
Welcome to the new school year, everyone! When Daniel asked me to guest-write the final post of his blog series on Personalizing Learning using the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES), I was honored. I have been following this blog series closely throughout the summer. With each blog post, I was reminded of our Personalized Learning journey we have taken together over the last five years. For the last three, he has been a Personalized Learning Coach, while I have taught in the classroom. In many ways, our roles have reversed this year. Daniel made the choice to return to the classroom and I now have a year sabbatical as Georgia’s Teacher of the Year to present and speak at different schools and events around the state. Most of my message as Teacher of the Year comes from the risks taken, mistakes made, and work Daniel and I have done together over the past few years.
So let’s dive in! This is the final post in the blog series addressing how to use the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) as a roadmap towards a deeper understanding of Personalized Learning. As Daniel explained in the previous post, he started with TKES standards that had important elements of Personalized Learning. He saved Academically Challenging (PS8) and Positive Learning Environments (PS7) for last because they are cumulative in nature. While Academically Challenging Environment evaluates what work is being done by teachers and students in the classroom, Personalized Learning Environment evaluates how that work is being done.
So let’s dive in! This is the final post in the blog series addressing how to use the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) as a roadmap towards a deeper understanding of Personalized Learning. As Daniel explained in the previous post, he started with TKES standards that had important elements of Personalized Learning. He saved Academically Challenging (PS8) and Positive Learning Environments (PS7) for last because they are cumulative in nature. While Academically Challenging Environment evaluates what work is being done by teachers and students in the classroom, Personalized Learning Environment evaluates how that work is being done.
PERFORMANCE STANDARD 7: POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
The teacher provides a well-managed, safe, and orderly environment that is conducive to learning and encourages respect for all.
After studying this standard closely, I noticed drastic differences between a Level III and a Level IV. Level III focuses on the teacher maintaining a safe, respectful, and well-managed classroom. Students are compliant to the systems that the teacher has put into place. Meanwhile, Level IV uses the following words to describe students: “collaborative”, “self-directed”, and “ownership”. If Level III represents student compliance, Level IV contrasts that by representing student empowerment.
ASK: “WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?”
How do you know if the Positive Learning Environment of a classroom is a Level III or a Level IV? Simply looking at what a student is doing will not answer this question. We have to know why they are doing it. Walk up to any student in the classroom and ask, “What is your purpose? Why are you doing ______?” In a Level III teacher-directed classroom, most students will answer something along the lines of, “Because my teacher told me to.” or “Because it is written on the board.” or even, “So I don’t get in trouble.” In a Level IV student-directed classroom, most students will describe a deeper purpose like, “Because it will make me a better reader.” or “Because I want to become better at _______, so I can _______.”
As the teacher, how do we make sure students can describe their purpose? We have to explicitly teach it to them. We build anchor charts that show the why behind what we do. We set clear goals with students based on their personal needs. We explain the purpose for an activity before students begin to work on it. Purpose must become as much of a part of the classroom conversation as the content being taught. Purpose is the foundation of all learning.
As the teacher, how do we make sure students can describe their purpose? We have to explicitly teach it to them. We build anchor charts that show the why behind what we do. We set clear goals with students based on their personal needs. We explain the purpose for an activity before students begin to work on it. Purpose must become as much of a part of the classroom conversation as the content being taught. Purpose is the foundation of all learning.
POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT = PERSONALIZED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
What is Personalized Learning? Ask this question to three different people today and you will get three different answers. You might even get an honest, “I don’t know.” We all have a vague idea of what falls under the umbrella of Personalized Learning, but very few people can actually define it. I’ll be the first to admit that a few years ago, I could present about ways I Personalize Learning at a conference, but I still couldn’t clearly define it. Is it something to do with technology? Is it just a fancy term for differentiated instruction? Is it individualized instruction (a.k.a. We should develop an IEP for every student???) Turns out, it’s none of these.
I will always remember the day I walked into Daniel’s office after he had an epiphany about Personalized Learning. He was laughing, pointing to something, and saying, “It’s here! The definition of Personalized Learning has been right here all along.” I looked over his shoulder to see him pointing to Positive Learning Environment on the TKES rubric. He asked me to reread the Level IV category, but swap out the word “Positive” for “Personalized”:
I will always remember the day I walked into Daniel’s office after he had an epiphany about Personalized Learning. He was laughing, pointing to something, and saying, “It’s here! The definition of Personalized Learning has been right here all along.” I looked over his shoulder to see him pointing to Positive Learning Environment on the TKES rubric. He asked me to reread the Level IV category, but swap out the word “Positive” for “Personalized”:
CO-PLANNING LEARNING WITH STUDENTS
Three years ago, I decided that the best way for me to help transfer ownership to students was by creating what I thought were exciting and innovative Project Based Learning (PBL) Units for my students. Through this method, I noticed my students were highly engaged, yet something was still missing. My students were retaining about the same amount of information as when I taught them using traditional methods. They also weren’t applying any of the skills from previous projects to the following one. I had to take a step back and really think about why this happened. And then it hit me. Who had done all of the “innovative” thinking? Who planned the whole thing? Me. The teacher. The only thing my kids had done was follow the steps I laid out for them. They had no ownership of the process.
The following year, Daniel and I discussed how to overcome the shortcomings I faced with the way I was using PBL in my classroom. He challenged me to empower my kids by actually co-planning learning with them. To be honest, I was terrified about how I would transfer ownership to my students while still making sure they mastered the standards. Daniel and I worked together to develop a co-planning learning process that could be used with or without PBL. It included many of the great elements of teaching that educators have been using for years, but hands them off to the students.
The following year, Daniel and I discussed how to overcome the shortcomings I faced with the way I was using PBL in my classroom. He challenged me to empower my kids by actually co-planning learning with them. To be honest, I was terrified about how I would transfer ownership to my students while still making sure they mastered the standards. Daniel and I worked together to develop a co-planning learning process that could be used with or without PBL. It included many of the great elements of teaching that educators have been using for years, but hands them off to the students.
The co-planning process starts with students documenting their prior knowledge and brainstorming questions based on the standards to be learned. Next, they find and share their own resources and research the answers to the questions they develop. Finally, they decide how to share their learning, present it, and use the feedback to revise the material. The process is simple and logical, which is what makes it so effective. Instead of just teaching content, I now teach my students this learning process that we continually cycle through with each unit. |
On the wall of my classroom, I always have a poster that has our Co-Planning Learning Checklist on it for my students to see and check off each step as we move through a unit. During our first unit at the beginning of the year, I explicitly model each step to my students. As we cycle through this learning process each unit, I hand off more and more of the responsibilities to my students. By the end of the year, my students have internalized our co-planning learning process and can use it to learn anything new. This helps them become self-directed and purposeful at all stages of the learning process.
STANDARDS: ARE THEY THE CEILING OR THE FLOOR?
My biggest concern about giving students true ownership of the learning process was making sure they still “met” the required standards for third graders in Georgia. In other words, before I started co-planning learning with my students, the standards were the ceiling in my classroom. We were constantly trying to reach them. When my students met a standard, I would check it off and move on to the next one. Not anymore.
Now, the standards are the floor for student learning in my classroom. I actually begin each unit by showing my students the required standards. Mastering standards is no longer our goal; instead, they are more like launching points. We start with prior knowledge, misconceptions, and questions about the standard, then we go beyond them.
So ask yourself, are state standards the ceiling or the floor in your classroom?
Now, the standards are the floor for student learning in my classroom. I actually begin each unit by showing my students the required standards. Mastering standards is no longer our goal; instead, they are more like launching points. We start with prior knowledge, misconceptions, and questions about the standard, then we go beyond them.
So ask yourself, are state standards the ceiling or the floor in your classroom?
AN INTERPRETATION
I used to believe that a positive learning environment just meant student engagement. I didn’t realize that engagement comes in many different forms. Yes, students are engaged when teachers perform a song and dance for them and they are having fun. But does that make students self directed, collaborative risk-takers? Now, I have seen firsthand how having a purpose and taking ownership of learning leads to student engagement at the deepest level. An exemplary positive learning environment is a personalized learning environment. At the end of the day, it all leads to one thing: student empowerment.
Thank you all for taking this journey with us to discover how we can use use TKES as a guide towards a deeper understanding of Personalized Learning. A very special thank you to Daniel Hodge for creating this blog series and for inspiring me to become better for my students every day for the past several years. Let’s keep the conversation going. After all, this is only the beginning.
Thank you all for taking this journey with us to discover how we can use use TKES as a guide towards a deeper understanding of Personalized Learning. A very special thank you to Daniel Hodge for creating this blog series and for inspiring me to become better for my students every day for the past several years. Let’s keep the conversation going. After all, this is only the beginning.