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No lecturing? No spoon-feeding? No kidding!  Any questions?

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Project Zero Day 5

7/23/2017

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David Perkins spoke on the last day of the institute about how to take these ideas back to our schools.  He mentioned the 5-year effect: new ideas get implemented, get traction, then slowly lose that energy and eventually die off.  So, how do we make sure the energy does not fall away, and that key ideas and frameworks can have a long life?  One thing that many schools do use is what Perkins calls the "installation model" of implementing change.  Some training happens, maybe posters and brochures are made, teachers implement it, but then over time things begin to change back to the way they were.  How do we combat this and ensure longevity?  David talks about the "ecological model" of introducing change which has 4 main "legs": 
  1. Frameworks - pick a few strong frameworks; don't overload with frameworks because that will cause chaos
  2. Leadership - have two leaders: the political visionary and the practical visionary.  The political visionary approves budgets for the change, sells the change to parents and the staff, is a champion for the cause, and most likely is the principal and/or assistant principal; the practical visionary has a deeper role - they manage the program "on the ground", talk about it with the teaching staff, and is usually a teacher or group of teachers.
  3. Community - this is the community of educators and leaders in the building; start with a small group of people invested and let the group slowly grow; ensure that all staff members are welcome to join at every step along the way; you don't want to alienate staff that isn't ready or is resistant - make sure that they have options to hop on board at all times; you don't want it to turn into an 'in-group' and 'out-group' situation
  4. Institution - this does not have to be looked at until you have made it to about year 3 or year 4; once you have made it this far, the innovation has to get written into the DNA of the school;  what has to happen is an explicit effort to ensure that if principals or teachers leave that have been part of the innovation, the new teachers and leaders are brought up to speed

Please check out the full article on "Giving Change Legs"

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Project Zero Classroom Day 4

7/22/2017

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Wow!  What a week!  Things are beginning to wind down here in Cambridge and will culminate tomorrow when Tina Blythe and David Perkins, both of the Project Zero team, give a talk on "Giving Change Legs," which I believe will help us to utilize many of the awesome things we have learned here this week.  First I included a few pictures. Then I include some discussion on the course "All Learners Learning Every Day."
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Some of the Project Zero courses and plenary session were held on the law school campus.
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The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is a short walk from the Cambridge Common.
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Harvard Square
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HGSE motto
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Downtown Boston
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Little Italy
All Learners Learning Every Day (ALL-ED) by Rhonda Bondie
Key takeaways:
  • ALL-ED defines differentiated instruction in terms of teacher decision making.
  • "Differentiated instruction is a continuous teacher decision making process where teachers search for and respond to academic diversity that will either impede or strengthen effective learning within a community.
  • Structures for classroom routines (see figure 1 below):
    • Note the effect that explicit instruction has on student autonomy and student engagement
    • As the structures change, students become more engaged, which isn't surprising.  However, the wow moment for me was the white dashed line that represents teacher thinking time - as structures in the classroom drift away from explicit instruction, teachers have more time to think about how the lesson is proceeding so they can make informed decisions about what to do next.
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Figure 1
  • A visual describing the learning that happens in a classroom.  If a classroom is primarily set up for 'independent' or 'direct instruction (DI)' learning,  student engagement and autonomy is low, and the teacher does not have as much time to think about the path of the learning.  There certainly is a place for those types of learning, but they cannot be the driving force in a classroom.
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  • There are 3 forms of differentiation, based on the goal, materials, & assessment.  When most of us hear 'differentation', we automatically think of the third option of different goals, different assessments, and materials, when in fact there are two other types. 
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  • One interesting method to group kids that I learned in this session was called a triad method of grouping.  In the figure below, you can see a number surrounded by the letters A, B, & C.  The number is the group number.  The letters are where each group member puts their foot and it is their spot in the triad.  One way to use this is to put these sheets around the room (there were ten of them in this session), and then have the class get up and move to a triad sheet; the students would pick a sheet at some place around the room, and put their foot at their letter.  This is one quick way to group the students while giving them a choice in doing so.  Our instructor said that she left her triad sheets around the classroom all year long - it just became part of the routine.
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A triad sheet that can be used for easy grouping of students, while giving them a choice; student choice was a common theme of this session.
  • One of the best parts about this session was about student choice.  Rhonda believed that giving choice to students makes the students part of the learning instead of being just an observer.  She gave a nice example from a math class.  The students were learning about fitting a line to a set of points.  One option would have been for the teacher to use direction instruction to explain the concept.  Instead the teacher gave the students 15 minutes and during that time they had the choice to do one or more of the following: 1) look at the steps to fitting a line to a set of points (the steps were written on chart paper and posted in the classroom, 2) brainstorm with a partner on how to do this process using the graphing calculator 3) watch a video playing at the front of the room that shows somebody doing the steps for line fitting.  The students knew that at the end of the fifteen minutes that they would be held accountable for that learning, but they had a choice in how they attained that learning.  Please watch this video which shows the teacher giving the students this choice in their learning:
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Project Zero Classroom Day 3

7/21/2017

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Creating a Culture of Thinking right from the start
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Ron Ritchhart explains that sometimes policy makers think that changing curriculum will change the outcomes in a classroom; on the contrary, he says, curriculum will 'sink' or 'swim' in a classroom based on the culture in that classroom.
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The 8 cultural forces present in every classroom. Ron stated that the benefit is that you don't have to insert the forces into your classroom - they are already there; the down side is you can't dismiss them when you feel like it - they are always present.
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The 10 things every teacher needs to say every class period.
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Ritchhart reminded us that 'Your students are listening; language is important!' He explained that instead of saying 'Where is your pencil?' perhaps say 'Are you prepared for the learning that is going to happen in this class?'
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One of the key words to say every day. If we don't say 'wow', we either missed something, or the lesson was too constrained.
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Creating thinking opportunities from a mathematics perspective
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Mark Church asked us to dream of a 'thinking mathematics classroom' and come up with what that class would look like. The participants came up with a classroom with students that thought critically, weren't afraid to try and to make mistakes, worked together, and didn't rely on the teacher when they got stuck.
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Learning is a product of thinking; therefore to get students to learn we need to foster deep thinking. The difficulty is that thinking is hard to name and is invisible, but with the Visible Thinking movement, we can help to see what is inside a student's mind.
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Mark Church explains that the understanding map (see below) is critical to designing lessons for a variety of learners and for fostering critical thinking
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One of the coolest visuals of the day. Notice the math content in the upper left, and the thinking opportunities in the lower right. Mark explained that the upper left (the content) changes all year long, but the lower right (the opportunities to think critically) does not change - it exists all year long.
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To design for a variety of learning and to nurture critical thinking, we can use the understanding map to help us. The eight parts on the understanding map can be linked directly to various thinking routines which can help to foster the critical thinking we desire. In using these routines, we leverage some or all of the cultural forces that exist in our classrooms.
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Project Zero classroom Day 2

7/20/2017

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What is a color, symbol, and image that captures the Project Zero classroom thus far?  Here is my take!
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Color: Yellow - I chose yellow because I think yellow represents energy, brightness, and excitement. These qualities have been on display here for two days!
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Symbol: No spoon feeding - I believe that to use many of the great ideas presented here at project zero effectively, spoon feeding of students needs to be kept to a minimum.  In math class, spoon feeding can take many forms, such as: showing them the recipe to do a math problem as opposed to the students creating the recipe; giving them the answers to a set of questions as opposed to them using other tools to gather the answers, such as Wolfram Alpha, Desmos, or each other; handing them a review sheet of problems that will be on the test as opposed to them coming up with the ideas and concepts that they will be tested on, to name a few.

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Image: An awesome buffet - A great buffet, like the one shown at the right, presents a lot of appealing options.  We have the freedom of choice to pick the items that we like the most, and also to leave what we won't eat. We also can go back to the buffet later, and pick items that we want again, or new items.  
This institute reminds me of that because we have been presented with a plethora of appealing ideas, many of which we want to take, and some that we may not be ready for.  We have the freedom of choice to pick the ideas that we want to try to implement, and ones that we may want to come back to later.

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Slow Looking

Definition of Slow-looking: Taking time to notice more than meets the eye at first glance
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The themes of slow looking
  • ​​Seeing with fresh eyes - "When you slow down and pay more attention there is a whole new world around you"; "seeing with fresh eyes is a mainstay of creative practice and scientific discovery
  • Exploring perspective - "When you look at something at a different angle it can be a whole new experience"
  • Noticing detail ' "I have learned to find the smallest details of normal life interesting.  I have learned to slow down and notice the unnoticed"
  • Philosophical well-being - "If you slow down and just experience the world your journey will have more meaning"
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I was thinking about the applications to math class, and at first was a bit puzzled as to what that would look like.  After discussing it with my study group (STUDY GROUP O ROCKS!), the slow-looking does not have to involve an image, it could be a writing, a poem, an image, or work from a math problem.  Many times in class, students will use a solution guide for a math problem, and after a minute or to proclaim, 'I have no idea what they are doing here!'  It is in this instance that I think I will walk them through 'slow-looking' at the solution, and remind them of the quote to the left!

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​The Teaching for Understanding (TfU) framework

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We assume we teach for understanding because we equate knowledge and understanding; knowledge is vital and critical, but just having a lot of knowledge doesn't make for understanding.  What is it that a child will be able to do better if they understand?  

The goals of the Teaching for Understanding framework:

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What does it mean to understand?
Identify something that you understand really well.  For me, it was finding solutions of a quadratic equation. My evidence is that I can find the solutions in multiple ways; I know what the solutions look like; all methods of solving result in the same solutions.

What does understanding look like?
1. successful at something
2. know the pattern of doing things
3. you can teach it well
4. can analyze into component part and synthesize into whole
6. big picture in relation to details
7. anticipate 
8. you can make connections
9. have a greater metacognition
10. can problem solve 
11. can do it in a variety of ways

What helps understanding develop?
- doing multiple times
- errors, mistakes, mishaps
- mentor, guide, structure
- explain it to someone
- deconstructing
- curiosity
- exploring various ways to do something
- observe
- different perspectives
- reflection
- applying, implementing
- try it again and again

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What does teaching for understanding look like in the classroom?

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Some of the key questions from our study group today:
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Project Zero Classroom 2017 Day 1

7/19/2017

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To encapsulate day 1 of the Project Zero classroom, I am going to utilize the See-Think-Wonder thinking routine from "Making Thinking Visible" by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison.  Below I highlight the steps of the routine and apply it to the first day...

What do you SEE?  Today I saw over 360+ educators from 30 countries. I saw an enthusiasm that would motivate any teacher.  I saw people that I have read about: David Perkins, Howard Gardener, Mark Church, and Daniel Wilson.  I saw a study group of people that I did not know at 9:00 this morning, but by 4:00 was working with them to create a visual arts representation of a poem that we were studying.  I saw a campus with incredible architecture.  I saw other educators that motivated me to want to be the best that I could be.  I saw a thoughtful place that I want to be a part of for the next four days.  I saw a place that I can't wait to tell my colleagues about.

What did you HEAR (this technically is not part of the routine, but it was too important to pass up)? 
​I heard many incredible things:
  1. 'The Culture of your classroom is your best co-teacher; it can make your year long or short'
  2. 'Sometimes what we are teaching just doesn't matter to the students.  We need to give our topics significance by the way we ask the questions'
  3. 'The question "how many points is this" is not a natural question.  Elementary students don't ask this question - as students get older, they get the 'memo' that this question is important'
  4. 'In our classrooms we need to tame the wild, but we should also not be afraid to wild the tame'
  5. 'Is your classroom a lawn - well manicured, predictable, and neat, or is it a ravine - wild, messy, with organized chaos'?'

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What do you THINK is going on here? 
I think this is an institute that is a must for any educator at some point in their lives.  I think I made a great choice in taking the time out of my summer to come here.  I think this institute will help my students understand their content, think critically about it, and reflect thoughtfully about what they have learned.

What does this make you WONDER?  This makes me wonder why I didn't come to this institute sooner.  It makes me wonder how my students learned anything in my early years of teaching.  It makes me wonder why I thought I had teaching perfected when I was 25 but how at age 45 I realize I have so much more to learn.

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Daniel Wilson, Director of Project Zero, thanking us for being part of the learning this year.
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Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School, enlightening us on the history of the Project Zero organization.
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David Perkins, Professor of Teaching and Learning at Harvard, exploring classrooms as either 'lawns' or 'ravines'
Some other pics from the day...
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I'm a secondary math teacher, and I never take tests home (okay, almost never)

7/15/2017

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Many times I have heard fellow teachers say things like, "if I could just teach and not grade", "my whole weekend was spent grading papers", or "I wish I could hire somebody to do all my grading for me!"  It is true that stacks of papers are an inevitable part of teaching at any grade and any level, but as Ron Ritchhart states in his book Creating Cultures of Thinking: The Eight Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools, "Taking a stack of papers home to read through and mark is rarely an energizing task for any teacher" (p. 94).  Amen to that!     

Last year, I had four sections of one particular course. Every time I gave a test, I had about 120 tests to grade.  If you figure about 15 minutes per test, that is 1800 minutes, which is 30 hours of grading, and that was per chapter.  Furthermore, I teach six sections and this only accounted for four of the sections.  What about the other two?  I knew, and accepted, that grading would have to be done at home, but I simply didn't have time to do all the necessary grading and have the time to plan student-centered, collaborative, thought provoking lessons that I knew were so necessary for an effective math classroom.
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So what was it going to be, grading or planning?  Could it be both?  One answer may lie in a re-allocation of time during the school day.  Ritchhart mentions a teacher named Nathan that meets weekly with each of his grade 12 students to give feedback on their writing.  Nathan sets up a meeting schedule and each student sits with him and they have a discussion about their paper.  He gets to know his students better, is able to establish a rapport with them during these sessions, and is sure that the students receive the feedback (as compared to written feedback where Nathan wasn't sure if students read the feedback or not).  When I read this, I thought 'Why couldn't I do this for math tests?  Nathan did this for literature, why not Math?'      
     
​I put this into action for the third unit test of the year.  I built a schedule of 10-minute time slots using signupgenius.com, based on the days and times that I was available.  For some of the days, I set up three time slots for the morning, two during lunch time, and three after school.  Other days, I didn't have any in the morning, but scheduled three during lunch, two during my prep, and three after school.  The time slot allotment really depended on my schedule.  Then, I sent a link to the students for the signupgenius.com page.  After the students had a few days to sign up, I pulled the tests according to the schedule and had them ready to go.  I also made sure that my key was written and that I had two copies of it, one for me and one for the student.


Once the students started showing up for their assigned times, I would give them one of the copies of the key to look at and I would go through the test and score it while they looked at the key.  We would talk as I graded and I would give specific feedback on each problem and they would also ask questions about their test and about the material.  The session really gave us a chance to talk about what their strengths and weaknesses were on the material, mistakes they made on the test, best approaches to fixing them, how they did on the home thinking that was assigned during the unit, as well as anything else that helped them in their journey through the chapter.  

Here is one session that I happened to jot down:
      Me: 'Hi.  Are you ready?!?!?!'
      Student: 'I'm a bit nervous'
      Me: 'Well, I can understand, but everything's going to be ok!'

      <I start grading the first couple problems>
      Me: 'Oh, I like your method here for solving this.  I haven't seen this used much.'
      Student: 'Thanks.  It made more sense to me to do it that way.  My friends don't like it, but I do.'

      <I grade another problem and the student loses all but 1 pt.>
      Student: 'I didn't really have time to study that one.  I know you said to look at those types, but I    
       just didn't have time'
      Me: 'That's understandable.  It happens.  No worries!'

      <We finish the grading of the test>
      Me: 'What do you think?'
      Student: 'I think I did really well.  I'm a bit disappointed in myself on a couple of problems, but I      
      like what I did on the one you mentioned.'
      Me: 'Well, don't be too hard on yourself - you have eight classes to juggle and mine is just one of
      eight!  Here, let's look at your class grade when I enter your test score and home thinking score.'
      Student: 'That looks good.  Thanks for taking the time to do this.'
      Me: 'You are welcome.'
     
This is just one piece of dialogue, but you can see the power of sitting one on one with them - this is a conversation that I would never have had with them otherwise.  When all students left the grading session, they would know their score on the exam, their home thinking score for the chapter, and their current grade in the class.

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First, the pros of the new system:
  • Parents knew the exact date when the test would be graded and when their child's scores would be updated.  Under the old system, the parents, students, and myself rarely knew exactly when a test or set of tests would be graded. 
  • It required me to know my schedule inside and out before I set up the the signupgenius.com time slots.  I had to know what days I wanted to offer time slots, and when the time slots would be offered during the day.  It put this as a pro because it forced me to be incredibly organized.
  • It allowed the students and I to establish a rapport while talking about their math progress.
  • The students were able to hear encouragement from me about their score.  Sometimes I feel like students just needed to hear that they could do it and that things would be fine!
  • In the old system, I would finish grading a set of tests, and would spend a considerable amount of class time handing the tests back, showing the key for each problem, and then answering questions about the key.  All of that time spent in class is now 'reclaimed' time - I have actually gained class time.
  • In the old system, if students had individual questions on their tests, I would either have to take class time to sit with them, or they would have to come after school.  This was no longer necessary.
  • I would walk out of school without any tests in my bag, but at the same time had full knowledge of when the tests would be graded.  In the old system, if I left with my bag empty, it would stress me out because I knew there were sets of tests hanging over my head.
  • The spare time that I had could now be used to plan interactive, engaging lessons.

Second, the cons of the new system:
  • While planning ahead kept me really organized it was also difficult to know everything that was coming up, especially knowing the days when I could offer grading sessions in the morning and at lunch.
  • If something came up unexpectedly, it required re-scheduling of the grading sessions which sometimes was difficult.
  • The schedule during the school day was really hectic!  Every last second was used (even more than before)!  There were times where I didn't feel like grading on a particular day, but then I would re-energize myself when I would think of how I was getting the grading done during the school day and not at home.
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Path Forward
I used this method for the rest of the school year, except for the last test (because I had to turn the test around in only a few days so the scheduling method would not work).  I will use it again this year as much as I can.  The best part about it is the immediate feedback that it gives to the students, as well as the rapport that can be built between the student and the teacher.  Next year, I think I will have the students do a reflection on the grading session, and I will also have a list of the chapter objectives at the grading session so that the students and I can talk about which objectives were met during the exam and which objectives still needed some effort.
Many teachers on our staff began to use this system as well when time allowed and the feedback from them was mostly positive.  Hopefully this will help you too!

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    Jeff Watson is a Math teacher at the International Academy East in Troy, MI. His work as a software engineer made him realize the need for problem solvers and critical thinkers in the workplace today. Jeff believes that the secondary math classroom should be a place of critical thinking, collaborative learning, and exploration which will cultivate the problem solvers and thinkers needed today.

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