Welcome back, everyone! I hope the remaining weeks of summer have been treating you well. Things around the house here have been busy. I have hosted a couple last minute visits from family, traveled to the beach to visit my sister, celebrated an 11-year anniversary with my beautiful wife, and finally wrapped up two home improvement projects. Now that is all of that out of the way, let's get back to it. Shall we?
This is the first of my last two posts addressing how to use the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) as a roadmap towards a deeper understanding of Personalized Learning. I wanted to take a moment to share with you how I structured and organized the roll-out of which Performance Standards in TKES I would address and the order I would address them. Leading up until now, all the Performance Standards that we have analyzed have been important elements of an overall concept of Personalized Learning. The last two Performance Standards that we will address this summer are cumulative in their nature. You will notice that I have flipped the standards Academically Challenging (PS8) and Positive Learning Environments (PS7). I did this because I feel that Academically Challenging Environment standard evaluates what work is being done by teachers and students in the classroom while Positive Learning Environment evaluates how that work is being done. Since the Academically Challenging Environment standard is cumulative of many different pieces, I will add many hyperlinks to previous posts from this blog series that describe the work in greater detail.
Performance Standard 8: Academically Challenging Environment
The teacher creates a student-centered, academic environment in which teaching and learning occur at high levels and students are self-directed learners.
I think back to all the times that I was evaluated early in the year on this standard, and I am continually baffled by how I ever achieved a Level III. This standard demands the most of a classroom teacher and the environment they have created regarding the criteria listed. For this standard, the bar is really set high. Right out of the gate, we see phrases like "student-centered" and "self-directed learners." These are both difficult concepts for teachers to wrap their heads around because we often hear that this is what administrators want to see but rarely do we admit to ourselves that we don't know how we are supposed to get our students and environment to this level.
Student-Centered = Assessment-Driven
If I were to try to name the most essential element that helps to empower a student-centered classroom, then I would say that element is assessment. Wait...WHAT!?! Yeah, I said it. The thing that makes all of these constructivist, Waldorfian, transcendent environments where children are designing self-driving cars and stocking local food banks with hydroponic wall-gardens happen effectively is assessment.
Think back to our previous post analyzing Assessment Uses. In Assessment Uses, we analyzed how assessment data can inform "instructional content and delivery methods" and overall "instructional decisions" made by the teacher. When our students thinking becomes the thing that informs our next steps in instruction (rather than a pacing guide, previous years lesson plans, or an instructional program) then a teacher has established a Level III, student-centered environment. Using student work to inform teaching instead of teacher assumptions is the key to maintaining an Academically Challenging Environment.
Think back to our previous post analyzing Assessment Uses. In Assessment Uses, we analyzed how assessment data can inform "instructional content and delivery methods" and overall "instructional decisions" made by the teacher. When our students thinking becomes the thing that informs our next steps in instruction (rather than a pacing guide, previous years lesson plans, or an instructional program) then a teacher has established a Level III, student-centered environment. Using student work to inform teaching instead of teacher assumptions is the key to maintaining an Academically Challenging Environment.
Transparency = Self-Directed Learning
In Level III of an Academically Challenging Environment, we also see the mention of students being engaged in "self-directed learning." To make this happen effectively, teachers must make learning progressions visible for students. Learning progressions are often seen as rubrics coupled with exemplars that we use to assess student work. When a child can look at these materials and judge where their work lies, then they can see what comes next in the progression for them to strive for. This is an example of a child using assessment materials for Assessment AS Learning (Assessment Strategies).
Once the teacher has modeled and the student has mastered identifying where they are in a progression, then students and teachers can begin to take the next steps to personalize student learning. The criteria described in Level IV of an Academically Challenging Environment sees students who are "encouraged to set challenging learning goals." Being able to answer the question "Where am I?" is the first step in this process. This happens once the student-centered environment mentioned above has been established. The next steps involve the students asking themselves two more additional questions: "Where am I going?" and "What are my next steps to get there?" The teacher now becomes a facilitator in helping a student answer these two questions.
Going back to empowering the student, the teacher must introduce multiple strategies that might help students take their next steps in moving forward within the learning progression. As mentioned in Differentiating Instruction, teachers must provide the necessary scaffolds for this to happen effectively. This can be accomplished by using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model so that teachers can plan for scaffolds to be systematically removed. Once properly executed, then the child will own a library of strategies to a degree where they each begin to resemble habits.
Once the teacher has modeled and the student has mastered identifying where they are in a progression, then students and teachers can begin to take the next steps to personalize student learning. The criteria described in Level IV of an Academically Challenging Environment sees students who are "encouraged to set challenging learning goals." Being able to answer the question "Where am I?" is the first step in this process. This happens once the student-centered environment mentioned above has been established. The next steps involve the students asking themselves two more additional questions: "Where am I going?" and "What are my next steps to get there?" The teacher now becomes a facilitator in helping a student answer these two questions.
Going back to empowering the student, the teacher must introduce multiple strategies that might help students take their next steps in moving forward within the learning progression. As mentioned in Differentiating Instruction, teachers must provide the necessary scaffolds for this to happen effectively. This can be accomplished by using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model so that teachers can plan for scaffolds to be systematically removed. Once properly executed, then the child will own a library of strategies to a degree where they each begin to resemble habits.
Learning to Tackle in the Classroom
The last piece of criteria that is listed in Level IV of this Performance Standard addresses whether we are providing our students opportunities to "tackle challenging materials." For the longest time, I was focused primarily on the word "materials" in this part of TKES. As a result, I found that I always looked for the materials or resources that contained the most steps, complex numbers, or vocabulary available. The problem with this was that I found the work that I placed in front of my students became what I taught them. I taught them the material. I taught them how to solve those problems, or how to write that paper, or read that text. The issue soon became that they weren't learning how to learn, they learned how to complete what I placed in front of them.
Then, I took a step back and realized that the important word in this phrase wasn't "materials," but instead it was "tackle." When you Google the word tackle, you see that it means to "make determined efforts to deal with (a problem or difficult task)." In a Personalized Learning Environment, a teacher's task is to empower the learner. We can do this by focusing more on how to tackle the material rather than the level of the material itself. Go back to our post on Instructional Strategies. There, we analyze how we can plan for higher-order thinking activities that accompany real-world resources. This involves teaching our students different strategies for how to explain, analyze, describe, determine, interpret, or distinguish different content standards. We must make the act of tackling just as, if not more important, than the material that they tackle. This will empower our students to "take ownership of their own learning behaviors."
I am excited to leave you with that final phrase because this "ownership" that we expect our students to take will be our focus as we analyze the final Performance Standard, Positive Learning Environment, in our next post.
Then, I took a step back and realized that the important word in this phrase wasn't "materials," but instead it was "tackle." When you Google the word tackle, you see that it means to "make determined efforts to deal with (a problem or difficult task)." In a Personalized Learning Environment, a teacher's task is to empower the learner. We can do this by focusing more on how to tackle the material rather than the level of the material itself. Go back to our post on Instructional Strategies. There, we analyze how we can plan for higher-order thinking activities that accompany real-world resources. This involves teaching our students different strategies for how to explain, analyze, describe, determine, interpret, or distinguish different content standards. We must make the act of tackling just as, if not more important, than the material that they tackle. This will empower our students to "take ownership of their own learning behaviors."
I am excited to leave you with that final phrase because this "ownership" that we expect our students to take will be our focus as we analyze the final Performance Standard, Positive Learning Environment, in our next post.
An Interpretation
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I received this Tweet the other day, and it brought up a lot of thoughts that I have surrounding the topic of Personalized Learning. The reason why I do not include examples of physical documents, assessments, and specific actionable steps on how to execute the process is that I do not want to exclude any demographic of educators. One thing I have learned through many presentations surrounding this topic is the minute I show an image of a learning progression that I would use with a first or second-grade class, I immediately lose everyone who teaches children older than ten. The same goes for examples I might use of students with 1:1 technology taking formative assessments on AP Physics concepts. Imagine the people that excludes.
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My dream through all of this is that we can come up with our own examples of this work to share with one another. If we use the same language moving forward, I'm hopeful of our ability to increase the size of our "room" regarding how we personalize student learning. This blog series could become that initial spark that gets the conversation moving. I would love to see what you make happen in your classrooms! The thought of every teacher empowering students and in return, being celebrated for it by their administrators...that is a system of education that I would be proud to be part of. Thank you again for all that you do for our children. I am humbled to be part of this work alongside each and every one of you.