The Re-emergence of the Boy

One of the things I've noticed during this year of inquiry, intense conversation, flexible learning paths, integrative thinking and play is the re-emergence of the boy. They are making their presence felt in the classroom in ways that I haven't seen in years. It's interesting to watch as they challenge each other academically and push thinking forward.

I was taken aback at first because I had become so used to EQAO centered teaching which drives boys into themselves that I hadn't really noticed that they'd disappeared as learners.  They're out. Gregarious. Playful. Disruptive. Engaged.  And moving towards expressive and academic excellence. They like learning. They are eager to excel. Their writing continues to evolve and become ever more insightful.

Welcome back boys. 

Integrative Thinking Posts

This spring we have been exploring Integrative Thinking. I thought it might be useful to gather key posts in one place to provide an overview of our learning.

An Introduction to Integrative Thinking: 

The Evolution of My Practice and Why I'm So Excited About Integrative Thinking

Where Do Ideas Come From? Mental Models and an Introduction to the Ladder of Inference

Students Reflect on the Ladder of Inference and  Their Thinking

Salience

What is Salient Now?

Teaching Empathy Through Integrative Thinking

An Introduction to Causal Modeling 

Causal Models Instead of Plot Graphs

Causal Models and Identity

Teaching Others Causal Modeling

Finding Value in Bad Ideas Part 1

Finding Value in Bad Ideas Part 2

Reflections on Pearson by Andrew Campbell

On Saturday I was one of fifty educators invited by Pearson Canada to help them develop better understanding of social media in education. I was going to write a post about the day, but Andrew Campbell nailed everything that needed to be said ...

Reflections on Pearson's Social Media Summit

Accountable Talk, EQAO and ... Fun?

How many of us are guilty of teaching vocabulary using the strategy below? 

Write new vocabulary on the board.
Students look words up in the dictionary and copy definitions.
Students use new words in sentences. 

I know I have. Apologies to those I bored!


EQAO is coming soon for my grade 6 students and embedded in every test are key words that can make or break a student's ability to answer questions. Often these are words that they "kinda" know.

ex: What are the characteristics of the water pump that made it an important invention?

There are always students who stop at this point because they don't understand the meaning of key words. The trick for teachers is to teach vocabulary in a way that causes students to remember meanings.

Today we took an entire period to explore the word characteristics using Accountable Talk as our strategy.  Accountable Talk is part of the reason why classrooms in Ontario are no longer places of silence.

Students worked in groups to discuss the meaning of the word.

1. Discuss with your group what you think the words means. (2-3 min)
2. Now that you've had a chance to listen to others, write a defintion in your own words.
3. Check the dictionary. Does the definition confirm or disconfirm your understanding of the word?

4. With your group come up with examples that show the word's meaning.

All groups are talking throughout this process and I stop the class at various points to check understanding and for students to share good examples. After a few minutes we share - and have some good laughs about various examples.

5.  Next we played a listing game.
     a) With your group list the characteristics of a fish.
     b)  ... of a friend.
     c) .... of a villain
     d) of your favourite game

I wandered the class and pointed out the difference between an opinion and a characteristic.
fish - yucky  vs. fish - gills

6. Finally we came up with synonyms: qualities, features, traits

The whole process was relaxed and lively and by the end of class, all students understood the meaning of the word. When they came back to me later in the day for reading a reading comprehension activity, no student had to ask, "What does the word characteristics mean.

My Grade 7's Teach Grades 5 and 6 Students Causal Modeling

This week my grade 7 students worked with a 5/6 class to teach them and their teacher how to explore the complexity of a problem by creating a causal model.  The 5/6 teacher observed while we worked with students.

I began by reminding the grade 7's of the causal models we have already created and their purpose.
We then presented the problem to the class, "Why do people smoke," which is part of the 5/6 health curriculum.

Groups of 4 were created and students spread out into work spaces. What I find so interesting during this process is that students who often have difficulty focusing during structured lessons have a great deal to contribute during these moments.

During the last 15 minutes we regrouped to share insights. The 5/6 students spoke first.

One of the most useful techniques to encourage sharing that I have learned from working with I-Think is the very simple statement, "Tell me more."  Students often have difficulty explaining what they mean. Rather than interrupting, finishing sentences or making assumptions about meaning, simple saying "Tell me more"  provides the opportunity for students to clarify and fully explain ideas.

Grade 7 students shared next, adding additional insights and modeling speaking with clarity.

This was a wonderful opportunity for my students to solidify understanding and to take on a leadership role expanding  the "who's a teacher" in our school.

Why do Inquiry? This is why.

In my previous post I reflected on the transformation my practice has undergone beginning in 2009. Today, I had the privilege of seeing first hand the rewards of that effort during our trip to the Art Gallery of Hamilton to see the Eye of Napoleon exhibit.

My grade 7 students completed their War of 1812/Napoleon inquiry at the end of February. I did very little direct instruction throughout the inquiry. We had discussions, they shared with each other,  I clarified misunderstandings and provided feedback and support to students as they constructed their knowledge, but I didn't "teach". Students were given the task of exploring their interests within the topic and deciding for themselves what was significant. The inquiry is documented on this blog so I won't explain our process in depth in this post.

At the end of the inquiry students were not given the traditional "test" that so often marks the termination of a history unit. Instead they had to present their findings to the class and defend their work - both content and design choices.

Once presentations ended, we moved immediately to our Self-Directed Learning Inquiry and did not  have time to review Napoleon before our trip today.   I wondered, then, how much students would remember given the span of time between the end of the inquiry and our visit to the Art Gallery.  I certainly didn't have to worry. They astonished me today. There was not one student in my class who couldn't provide in depth commentary on what they saw.  From his relationships with Josephine, Marie Louise and other women, to his propaganda, to his battle strategies, to his rise and fall and exiles ... it went on. Students, in fact, were eager to not be directed by a tour guide because they wanted to explore and take their time viewing and reading. When it was time to go to the studio for sculpting, most students were not ready to leave the exhibit because there was more they wanted to see.

That is not typical of grade 7 students. I cannot recall any unit of history that I have taught in the past where all students would be able to provide in depth commentary two months after the unit was completed. The research says that knowledge retention is significantly greater when students engage in inquiry. I have now seen evidence of this first hand and it is very, very satisfying.

The Evolution of My Practice and Why I'm So Excited About Integrative Thinking

Just because students are involved in inquiry and project-based learning doesn't mean they are engaged in disciplined thinking.

It's not about the tech.

I have been thinking a great deal lately about the evolution of my teaching practice, the insights I have gained during this transformation which began in 2009 and the picture that is emerging in my mind about how learning and schools are going to be structured in the future.

In 2009 I recognized that the world of education was rapidly changing and that in order to remain relevant and useful to my students I would need to set aside my belief system about education and learn what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century.  I began this blog in 2010 to document this transformation.

My practice became very technology based as my students and I explored the possibilities of Web 2.0 Tools. From that I learned:

1. How to build a global learning community.
2. How to connect students directly to experts in any field
3. That students are independently building learning communities outside of school that are often more meaningful than those in their day schools.
4.  It is possible to involve students in projects that have relevance beyond the classroom and contribute to the construction of knowledge in the "real" world.
5. That contact with students is no longer within the 4 walls and designated hours of school. Boundaries have shifted.
6. That there are myriad ways for students to demonstrate learning.

All of that work was done flying by the seat of my pants, learning as I went. I was not technologically literate when I began. Twitter, Skype, Blogger, Wiki, and PLN's such as Classroom 2.0 were instrumental in helping me build knowledge and expertise. The projects we undertook are well-documented on this blog so I won't be describing them here. The work we did and the recognition it received were incredibly exciting, as was the unprecedented level of student engagement.  I wouldn't say, though, that I fully understood why we were receiving so much attention. It is only in hindsight that I see that we were inadvertently producing a new kind of student and learner, one that leaders in education are asking us to produce.

Not all the work we undertook during that time was good. There were moments of chaos where I knew students were having fun and were engaged, but were not necessarily using their time effectively to increase skills, knowledge and expertise. As my comfort level increased and understanding of the process improved however,  I began to focus more on pedagogy and how to embed it effectively into this new model of learning. I explored inquiry, project-based, problem-based and self-directed learning with a much greater emphasis on constraints and on carefully structuring the process and monitoring students throughout so that learning and skill-building occur. Again, these projects are documented in detail on this blog so I won't be describing them here. Formative assessment and responsive, personalized instruction during inquiry are competencies I'm continuing to develop.

What I have come to recognize through this work is that just because students are involved in inquiry, doesn't necessarily mean that they are thinking deeply and effectively. This has caused me to adjust my approach to teaching critical thinking. It is also why I am so relieved to have discovered the tools of Integrative and Design Thinking because I think these are missing pieces in the process. They have allowed me to distinguish between critical thinking as an isolated event and. critical thinking as a series of steps  that enable students to fully explore ideas and work through problems while at the same time recognize the limitations of their inferences and conclusions.

Why is this important? Let's look for a minute at the essentials skills of a "21st century learner".

Collaboration
Problem-Solving
Empathy
Communication
Digital Literacy
Creativity
Entrepreneurship
Leadership
Lifelong-Learning

The Alberta government lays this out beautifully in The Framework For Student Learning: Competencies for Engaged Thinkers and Ethical Citizens With an Entrepreneurial Spirit I highly recommend reading this document in detail. From it one can see that curriculum as we know it is about to change dramatically. The model that we hold in our heads of what constitutes "teaching and learning" will need to shift.

This shift is necessary given how rapidly the world is changing, particularly with regard to employment. We need to understand and teach to the world our students will have to survive in. Globalization is causing businesses to seek efficiencies - anything that can be outsourced will be. This means that the kinds of jobs we are accustomed to preparing students for no longer exist. Students will need to adapt and operate in ways that are unfamiliar to the people who are currently teaching them. I am concerned about the career and education advice students are receiving in high schools at the moment - well-intentioned advice given to them by people who have by and large been sheltered and protected from the incredible transformation this world has undergone over the past 5 years.  It is our responsibility to be informed and to adapt our practices in order to serve our students or we will be setting them up for failure.

If traditional jobs have disappeared, what kind of work will they be engaged in?  The kind that involves the skills mentioned above. The rewarding work will be highly skilled and collaborative in nature. Workers will need to contend with complex problems where innovative solutions are designed. Empathy - the ability to understand the needs of stakeholders - will be key. Creativity, communication and technological competency will be required.  Workers in many cases will have to design their own jobs by identifying problems, developing solutions and proposing those solutions as viable options to stakeholders. Glimpses of this new world of work can be seen in the following links.

The Helsinki Design Lab
Parson's The New School for Design
The Strategic Innovation Lab

Back to my classroom and why I'm so excited about Integrative and Design Thinking.

 The ability to think critically should underpin all that we do in education. In Ontario, I think we do an excellent job of developing critical thinking skills. Much of  my teaching practice, though,  has involved teaching critical thinking as an isolated event.  A story, for example, is selected and read with the class. Students then respond in ways that develop aspects of critical thinking.  This is not a bad thing. Just as a superior basketball player endlessly practices making shots, exercise in critical thinking is required in order to become better at it. What this approach doesn't do is take students through the full process of problem-solving while exercising their critical thinking skills. It doesn't take them to the next level. It also doesn't give them strategies for working through their thinking to determine whether or not the conclusions they have come to are valid.

Integrative and Design Thinking provide a tool kit to take students to the next level. The kind of thinking students engage in when using these tools is profoundly different from anything I've observed previously in my classroom. They can't help but explore ideas deeply because they use tools that require them to explore deeply. They are given a process for working through problems from start to finish that forces them to contend with complexity and causes them to find many innovative solutions. The process remains open and allows them to be endlessly creative.  The knowledge they must construct is not "googleable", although eventually they will have to seek valid knowledge to build their creative solutions. The level and liveliness of conversation as they engage is wonderful to watch. I have only begun to scratch the surface of how to use these thinking tools, but am very excited by what I am learning because I feel these tools complete the transformation of my practice that began in 2009. It's all coming together. Carefully designed inquiry is supported by technology, but technology is not the driver. A process for critical thinking is embedded in the inquiry in a way that causes students to become better and more innovative thinkers.  That excites me!

On May 15th I have been invited to I-Think at Rotman to share some of the work we've done so far and to see how other teachers are developing Integrative and Design Thinking in their programs. I am so looking forward to this.

Causal Models and Identity

As we continue to explore integrative and design thinking in grade 7, we've shifted our focus to Media Literacy and will develop understanding of these thinking tools through the lens of this mandatory component of the Ontario curriculum.

Last year we began our exploration of  The Constructed Teen with the question, "What is Media?"  This year we began with the idea of identity.  What is identity? What has shaped and influenced us to become the people we are today?  Students were then asked to build causal models of their identities. What an interesting task this turned out to be. Several students had no idea where to begin. They had never previously thought about these questions. One student sat with only a name on the paper for the entire period saying, "I have no idea why I am the person I am." Other students dove in right away and began constructing models of their identities.

On the second day, I now had partially completed samples to share with the class. This helped a few get started. An entire day to think about the questions also helped. Some students chose to restart their models. Other students required several sheets taped together as their models expanded.

What I noticed was how different this task was from the work we had done in the fall on autobiographies. The thinking was different. The depth of exploration of  personal stories was different. The ability to build connections between elements of their lives led to much deeper understanding of who they are as people compared to simply creating linear narratives. What emerged through their work was insight.

"I  never realized how much my dance teacher has influenced me."  Students wrote profoundly about parents, step-parents, family,  friends, coaches, places and events. I think many parents will be deeply moved by what their children have written. For others, family is notably absent from their models.

What this approach allows is flexibility for learners. Students are able to put on paper the models they have built in their heads in ways that make sense to them. It's so revealing - systematic thinkers become visible; global thinkers become visible; deep thinkers become visible; limited thinkers become visible, detailed thinkers become visible; visual thinkers become visible,  elegant thinkers become visible. This approach also encourages complexity. Students are free to move in any direction and can go deeply into ideas to build connections.

I will not be posting pictures of this work as it is intensely personal.




  

Neil Anderson Responds to Student Privacy Concerns

Neil Anderson from the Association for Media Literacy sent a very thoughtful response to my concerns about A Student's Rights to Privacy in the Age of Digital Learning

Hi Heidi

I was reflecting on the York conference and thought about your question re: commodification. Then I read your slides. I realized that commodification is integral to your concerns about student privacy.

It involves student privacy and a larger issue. Specifically, Facebook has commodified the like button, using the numbers to promote or sell. When people solicit likes, they are requesting a currency from us similar to asking for $ donations, and likes become real $ for Facebook.

The challenge since the WWW bubble burst has been to monetize what we do online. Facebook has done this brilliantly because it has engineered a system where the 1 billion users generate content, likes and market. Then FB sells data and messages inserted into timelines to corporations.

Where this intersects with your concerns is the point where Rogers, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, etc. solicit school liaisons and participation, then use that interaction to leverage further sales. That is the point at which some student work becomes commodified, and for the gain of the corporations rather than the students.

This is not a new phenom. Companies who invite students to colour pictures, then put them on the restaurant walls are doing the same thing, but the difference is the scale. Apple has actively courted education since its inception in similar ways.

What teachers and students have to discuss is how comfortable they feel as participants in these marketing campaigns. If they wanted, they could use Unix machines and public domain software. That would be making a political statement just as

A Student's Right to Privacy in the Age of Digital Learning, slideshow

It has been three years since my discovery of the power of Web 2.0 and the possibilities collaborative digital tools present for learning. Recently, however, I have begun to question some of the practices that have evolved.  There have been moments - happening more and more frequently - that are causing  me to take a step back and view what I am doing with a more critical eye. The first came when a student looked at me in horror this year and said, "I don't want to blog about my work."  Another came when I viewed an action research video uploaded to You Tube that was receiving enormous praise. At a certain point in the film, which was demonstrating how the school works to develop the social and emotional well-being of its students, a kindergarten aged child was clearly demonstrating through her body language that she had no desire to be filmed.