Blog #2: Authentic Planning and Prep for Engagement (CI 5980 Spr21)

 Part 1: Content Reflection 

Prompting Questions:

• What is intelligence? What do you think about your own intelligence? 

• How does someone demonstrate knowledge?

• What does it mean to you to create optimal conditions and contexts for student learning?

Intelligence is innate and dynamic. Mental effort and solving challenges increases one’s intelligence (Kuszewski, 2011). Jennings (2015, p175) describes how discouraged children can form fixed mindsets around feelings of inadequacy. She explains, these children “are in great need of the kind of encouragement that promotes a growth mindset. For example, we can say, “You worked very hard on that and finished one page,” rather than, “Look, you did it! You’re so smart!” To these children, such praise will ring hollow. They won’t believe it, and it won’t help you build trust. With regular encouragement, I have seen children like these change dramatically” (Jennings, 2015, p175).  Although I think of my own intelligence as constantly expanding and the results of my Mindset Assessment on the Mindset Works’ website suggest that I have a growth mindset on the whole, the survey also indicates that I could “explore the possibility of growth in areas that [I] have neglected” (Mindset Works, 2021).  Indeed, just like the children Jennings described, I am not always an adventurous learner. I too have a fixed mindset around tasks that I have labeled myself “incompetent.”

 

Knowledge can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Essay and multiple choice tests are traditional means, but can be modified.  “When I give tests, I often give students an extra blank sheet of paper where they can write about anything else they remember about the topic being tested that they think is important. I often find the quality of thinking and writing better there than in the responses to my test questions” (Education Week, 2018). Nontraditional methods that support 21st Century skill sets include infographics, animations, video or audio recordings, journal reflections, presentations, dramatizations and demonstrations, graphical representations including digital comics and other digital storytelling applications, and learning maps (Saxena, 2014). A mastery-driven, blended learning model used at Eastern High School in Washington, D.C., relies heavily on exit slips (Education Week, 2018).  Students listen to video instruction before choosing from a variety of assignments to build knowledge and skills. If their exit slips show mastery, they move on to the next level of instruction. Otherwise, they receive additional instruction from the teacher before attempting a different exit slip for the same material.

 

Creating optimal conditions and contexts for student learning means many things to me, including:

• Establishing care and control in the classroom. Enabling the kind of controlled chaos that lets learners flourish according to their own learning styles and interests without diminishing their potential or others’ (Knight, 2013, p294). “Too much control damages relationships; too little control wastes time, frustrates students, and inhibits learning” (Knight, 2013, p278).

• Providing freedom within form through “structures that stimulate dialogue and learning by using dialogue structures, procedures and routines, and criteria for [student] choices” (Knight, 2013, p278).

• Building a classroom culture that is characterized by a growth mindset , in part through an understanding by the class as a whole of the fragile balance within participatory democracy of freedom, rights and responsibility.

• Differentiating instruction so that every student is engaged at their proximal zone of development (Education Week, 2018).

• Nurturing my own self-awareness and classroom mindfulness in order to optimize the emotional climate of my classroom (Jennings, 2015, p140).

• Deliver “dynamic instruction” (Jennings, 2015, p157).  This entails five attributes, one of which is withitness, a teacher’s “attentive and proactive behavior.” (Jennings, 2015, p158).

  

Part 2: Classroom / Practicum Reflection

 

Prompting Questions:

• Share an artifact from your practicum/classroom setting that illustrates how a teacher creates authentic opportunities for students to display their intelligence/knowledge in a way that represents differentiating instruction along the lines of either content (student choice), process (how students are grouped and work together or independently), or product (choice in how learning is displayed)

• Describe why you selected this artifact to represent creative and authentic ways a teacher invites students to demonstrate their intelligence in ways that align with their unique needs and gifts.

I have not yet had, in my practicum classrooms, the opportunity to observe opportunities described in the prompting question. Alternatively, I will select an artifact from the video “A Student-Centered Model of Blended Learning” (Edutopia, 2019) for the purpose of this reflection.

A math teacher has adopted blended learning to adapt the learning process to the context. The school principal explains, “Eastern High School is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, DC. Being 100% free and reduced lunch, our students come to us with varied levels of academic performance. Part of the reason this format works so well is we have a lower than average in-seat attendance rate. In the traditional format, once the teacher delivers a lesson, they are moving onto the next lesson the next day. Students don’t get an opportunity to go back.” Students who are absent for legitimate and sometimes heartbreaking reasons are at severe risk of failing in the traditional format. 

The teacher elaborates, “When I came to Eastern, I was shocked with how broad the level of learning was. We have students who have experienced trauma. We have students who are behind on certain skill sets and are ahead on skill sets. Students have different substantive experiences when they go home. I quickly found out my traditional way of teaching was not effective. So at that time I realized I had to make a shift. I wanted to start by getting rid of the lecture at the beginning of class….what you see is controlled chaos.”

 

The blended learning process is depicted above in the still image from the video. This artifact represents the creative and authentic ways the teachers have invited the students to demonstrate their intelligence according to their unique needs and gifts.

 

Instead of a lecture, the teacher creates instructional videos from which students are taught to take guided notes. Students are able to view these videos at home if they have missed school and can replay them as many times as they need to until they grasp the concepts and skills being taught. Once they feel comfortable enough with the skills and concepts, the students choose from among several assignments for which they complete an exit slip to show mastery before moving on to the next module in the unit. This leaves the teacher completely free to work with the students during class. 

The blended learning arrangement means the students are able to choose between working in small groups at whiteboards and in journals problem-solving collaboratively or working independently. The work is entirely self-paced. Students are being taught to be independent learners, team players and responsible and confident academics with their individual self-identities intact. The particulars of their personal and home lives present less of a risk to academic performance in the blended learning format.  

 

Tracking the exit slips, the teacher knows exactly where each of the students stands in terms of being behind, on or ahead of pace. Using this data, the teacher targets those who have fallen behind with instruction and assigns those who have moved ahead to help classmates advance through the assignments. Utilizing instructional videos, the teacher creates short lessons, scaffolding the content with more frequent and shorter exit slips, ensuring success over short periods of time to keep motivation high. Without the stress of having to move on to the next unit as a class, students are able to learn in their own way and at their own pace. The entire operation is abuzz with productivity. The learning environment has the effect of creating a sense of community and a mindset that the entire class is united in bringing each other along.  

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Education Week. (2018, September 11). Differentiating Instruction: It’s Not as Hard as You Think. [Video] YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-D3gi2lL8&feature=emb_logo

 

Edutopia. (2019, May 9). A Student-Centered Model of Blended Learning.  [Video] YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrR-KIoggf4&feature=emb_logo

 

Jennings, Patricia A. (2015). Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York NY.

 

Knight, Jim. (2013). High-Impact Instruction: A Framework for Great Teaching. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Kuszewski, Andrea. (2011) You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential. Scientific American. Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/

 

Mindset Works. (2021) Take the Mindset Assessment to Learn More About Your Mindset. Retrieved February 21, 2021 from https://blog.mindsetworks.com/what-is-my-mindset

 

Saxena, Saomya. (2014, February 6). How Can Students Demonstrate their Knowledge in a Fun Way? EdTechReview.  https://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/953-how-can-students-demonstrate-their-knowledge-in-a-fun-way