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Reinventing Rubrics

Reinventing Rubrics

Don't use complex rubricsPeople that know me, know that I have a tendency to rant. There are various topics, that when mentioned, send me down the path of a rant of no return. The subject of rubrics is one of those topics. According to the Glossary of Education Reform, “Rubrics are generally designed to be simple, explicit, and easily understood.”

So what do I have against rubrics? Nothing, if they match that definition. The problem is, they rarely do. 

Many rubrics are a chaotic cacophony of 6 rowed, 5 columned technical-jargon monsters prepared by teachers to impress their administration. They are masterful in specificity and written on a master’s reading level. Very often, rubrics are designed as formal assessment tools by teachers, for teachers. But what if the goal instead was to create a simple guide for students to know what to focus on to prepare an excellent product and achieve mastery? If that were truly the goal – to create something simple, for students to follow, to help them create high-quality work, then I imagine rubrics would be prepared and delivered much differently than they are in many classrooms.

To achieve student-centered rubrics, they would not be pre-created by the teacher, but co-designed with students. It is similar to the idea of co-creating classroom rules with your students. Of course, there are some non-negotiables, and the savviest of teachers know how to sneak in the most critical elements as part of the collaborative conversation and seek agreement from the class. If a teacher has multiple classes but the same assignment, the great thing is that the students get to jump in on different parts of the design process. Let’s take a 6th-grade literature class that creates a rubric for a writing assignment. A collaborative creation process  could proceed as follows:

  • 1st group identifies and empathizes with the problem- we need a guide for our writing assignment. This group brainstorms potential elements that should be evaluated.
  • 2nd group sees the progress made by the previous class and refines the elements and begins developing the details of those elements.
  • 3rd group continues where the previous group left off, simplifies terminology, and agrees that the rubric is simple, clear, and detailed enough to follow as a guide. 

The teacher is present while the rubric is developed, asking the right questions, and ensuring certain elements are not neglected. The teacher is a co-designer and co-signer of what the students create. All other classes are introduced to this rubric as a peer-created guide. If modifications are necessary, they agree on them and make the necessary changes. Students are happy and understand expectations, the teacher is happy, and administrators and parents are happy.

Watch the video at the right to see how to create your own single-point rubric! 

Here’s a final suggestion: instead of grading all of your assignments in one fell-swoop, split your class into small teams and have peers provide feedback on first drafts, give time for additional corrections, then collect student work to evaluate. If you are able to be generous with your time, I would also suggest allowing the students one final round of revisions before grading. In other words, treat their assignments similar to how their work will be more likely designed, constructed, revised, and improved in the professional setting.

Building Student Agency in Hybrid and Remote Classrooms

student working on his laptop“I want my students to be more independent” and “I want my students to develop more intrinsic motivation.” These are comments I’m hearing from teachers across the country regardless of the model of instruction they are working in.  Most teachers I work with initially believe that the first step to developing student agency is to offer classroom structures like more student choice or “early finisher work”. And yet even with those structures in place, we still have students, including high-performing students, who come to us and say “Ms. Schuster, tell me what to do next?” For teachers who have been trying to develop student agency, a comment like this is always a blow to the gut. But why does it keep it happening? I believe the key to solving this challenge is to focus on classroom culture, not just structures.

When I talk to teachers about this dilemma, one that has become a more urgent need during remote and hybrid instruction, I ask them about what culture they have developed around student self-efficacy and collaboration. Are they explicitly having conversations with their students about why self-efficacy as a student is important? Are they explaining to students how they can practice those skills? And, are they highlighting best practices when students are taking more ownership in their classrooms?  This is where I see a lightbulb go off and they say “Hmm, I don’t know if I’ve done that.”

Peter Drucker, a business author and consultant, once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – meaning that if your culture is not in place, whatever strategy you are trying to implement in your organization, group or classroom, will not be successful. If our hope is to further develop student agency, to truly have self-directed, collaborative learners (our strategy), we can’t just think about systems and routines, we need to develop the culture in our classrooms first. 

At LINC, we define classroom culture as “the way of thinking, behaving, and working that exists in a classroom” or more simply put, student mindset

elements of classroom culture

As educators, we are leading “mini-companies” where we first have to develop our “company” culture before we can get down to our business strategy. Here’s how I coach teachers to do this:

  • Talk About The Changing Role of the Student:  Explicitly have conversations and lessons with your students about the importance of student agency, and how you’ll collaboratively build their capacity. LINC’s Student Mindset Playlist offers resources, including videos and articles for any age, to use with your students as you engage in those lessons and conversations. From there, have students identify the behaviors or skills (for example, being a problem solver, being able to collaborate effectively, etc.) that they need to practice in your classroom to be more self-directed learners. Finally, highlight and have students practice these shared behaviors throughout the school year. For example, if a student says “this is too hard for me,” you might reply, “remember our shared behavior of being problem solvers? This is your chance to flex your problem solving muscle!” You can then brainstorm with the student about how they can work through the problem. You can coach them to consider how they could get additional support from others in their classroom or through research on the internet or in the library. Finally, celebrate and highlight to your students when you see students exhibiting these behaviors on their own. For example, if you see a student supporting another student, you might say “Spotlight! I want to point out how Jen stepped up to support Juan when Juan asked his group mates for assistance. Juan, tell us how Jen supported you through understanding that concept.” 
    • Hybrid/Remote Implementation Tip: You should explicitly teach these “changing role of the student” lessons with your students during your synchronous teaching time. Students can engage in their collaborative work to identify behavior or skills that they want to develop as students via Padlet, FlipGrid, Jamboard, Google Slides, etc.  In addition, you can celebrate your students when they exhibit these shared behaviors both during synchronous time and on a Padlet or FlipGrid so that students can share in the celebration! 
an animated slide on classroom culture
  • Playlists: The playlist model, where students have a set of learning activities to progress through, is a great way for students to flex their agency muscles. These playlists usually contain some “must do” and “choice” activities,  as a mix of online, offline, independent, and collaborative options. With the playlist model, students can progress at their own pace and see the learning pathway ahead for the next week or even for the entire unit. This helps them understand where their learning is going and why (I always wonder “why do we keep the lesson or unit plan a secret from our students?” Shouldn’t they also be allowed to see the learning path?). Further, you can build in individual and small group check ins with students throughout the playlist. The best part about a playlist is that it frees the teacher up to meet with students individually or in small groups in order to differentiate further. See a playlist model in action here to see how students are able to move through a unit with more independence:  The Learning Accelerator: Playlists in Action
    • Hybrid/Remote Implementation Tip: Create a playlist in a Google Doc, a Google Slides Deck, or Bitmoji classroom (see our playlist templates for all ages here: bit.ly/LINCplaylists) and deploy the playlist via your Learning Management System like Google Classroom, Seesaw, or Schoology so that students can always access their work and easily post their progress on all of the playlist activities. In addition, add your direct instruction into your playlist by creating screencasts of your Slides presentation, do a read-aloud with a book from GetEpic.com or demonstrate a science simulation on Phet Simulations.
  • Individual Goal Setting: A teacher in Illinois who is teaching in a hybrid model using playlists told me that a way she works to develop student agency is through goal setting. Every Monday she has 10-minute meetings with small groups of students where each student sets their goal for the work they need to complete for the week. Not only does this ensure that students are self-monitoring their work, but it also helps to ensure that students are taking on shared responsibility for the unit, and are developing their capacity to communicate about their progress (an important skill to develop for the workforce). This also fosters relationship building/connection between her and her students. 
    • Hybrid/Remote Implementation Tip: Complete goal setting during your synchronous instruction either in-person or via video conference. As students get more adept at setting their weekly goals, you can ask them to post their weekly goals in a discussion on Google Classroom or Schoology, on Padlet or FlipGrid so that everyone in the class can see each other’s weekly goals! 

There is no “silver bullet” for developing student agency. It takes time and planning and is something you need to choose to implement in your classroom with both culture setting and structures. In reflecting on your specific set of learners, what strategies will you put into place to begin to foster more self-efficacy? How will you weave student agency into the fabric of what it means to be a student in your class? What is your plan to stick with it, even when a student inevitably says, “Just tell me what to do next?” 

In your work to develop this new type of classroom culture, when it will sometimes feel easier to just “tell students what to do,” remember that our ultimate goal is not only to develop more student agency in our own classroom for this one school year, but to build a child’s capacity for self-efficacy and self-advocacy for their lifetime. 

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I hope the reflection questions and concrete examples listed above support you in developing student agency in your classroom. I’d love to hear your thoughts and reflections on how we can build students who are more independent and empowered students. Connect with me via Twitter: @KateTechCoach or email: kateschuster@linclearning.com.

“Connection Above Content” in Back to School

Since March, we have been in a whirlwind of system-wide disruptions. Schools and workspaces shut down suddenly, causing our daily lives to transition in many ways to live “stream” and our imaginations to kick into overdrive to reinvent the way we do our jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic spread not just its deadly virus but also contagious fear throughout our communities and the world at large. Later in the spring, the video of George Floyd’s brutal murder by police went viral causing a unprecedented awakening around racial injustice and subsequent sense of urgency to fight systemic racism. 

We are living through an era of increased human vulnerability which must be met with increased human connection and support. This presents quite a conundrum…how should we go about increasing human connection and support when we also need to maintain social distance, to work and learn remotely, to cover our faces and thus our smiles? 

We thought a lot about this conundrum as we prepared for our annual LINC team summit. Our summit is usually a time we spend together in a uniquely close and collaborative environment, a time we use for team-building and culture-strengthening, a time for laughing, cooking, bowling, or adventuring together. With several new “LINCredibles” joining our team this July, we knew we would have to figure out how to do this in a remote manner, so we set out to try. We also realized that if we could tinker to figure out how to connect amidst disconnection, we could help teachers and school leaders do the same as many take on a remote or hybrid launch to the new school year. We learned some important lessons that can be valuable to teachers in this challenging moment. 

To begin, we surveyed our team to see if a fully remote or hybrid summit was preferable. While many liked the idea of hybrid, it was clear that allowing for fully remote access and a predominantly remote agenda was important. But the logistics were only a small part. More importantly we knew we needed to put connection before content. One thing we did to have some virtual fun was to print our mascot “Lia the LINCspring Llama” cutouts to put around our houses or go with us on adventures for a daily llama party. We also incorporated team-building activities such as virtual scavenger hunts and happy hours. 

However, to move connection out of the supplemental realm to the core curriculum, we took a very different approach than previous years in organizing the week. In the past, we had operational objectives which organized each day, things like new team member onboarding and product feature exploration. This year, we put connection first by making it the central theme and objective of each day. We decided to use our company T.R.A.C.E. values to go deeper into each area. 

LINC Values Tree

This is how it transformed our agenda and put connection forward:

 Previous ObjectivesConnection-Forward Objectives
Day 1New Team Members & OrientationTrust: We focused on building connections and hearing from all team members. We also shared transparently some reflections from our teammates about LINC’s direction, culture, and leadership. We generated ideas on how to cultivate trust and ended the day with a team happy hour.
Day 2Operations ReflectionsCollaboration: We collaborated on topics in both small group and whole group discussion. We focused much of the day on defining well-being and balance within LINC and setting shared goals for wellness. We also collaboratively reflected within our teams and set new goals together. And, we did a team virtual scavenger hunt on Zoom!
Day 3LINCspring Product DesignAgency: Team members worked asynchronously on passion projects. We provided a brainstorming playlist to help team members identify areas of focus. Some worked independently on things like writing books while others collaborated on projects like professional goal-setting or antiracism. 
Day 4New Workshops & ServicesEquity: We engaged in discussions defining what we mean by creating equitable pathways within and beyond LINC. We got real about whether we are talking about equity in the broader sense or taking on racial equity (we decided on the latter to start). We dove into learning from experts on racial equity and made commitments to do personal work and to make LINC a leader in racial equity work.
Day 5Sales & MarketingRisk-Taking: We discussed how we can do to better support risk-taking within LINC. We also provided time for team members to make progress on their passion projects with risk-taking in mind. 

Putting “connection before content” was the first order of business. Next was ensuring that the experience felt balanced, equitable, and accessible. We used a combination of the following structures to accomplish this:

  • Surveys for Team Input 
  • Shared Documents for Agenda Planning
  • Full Team Synchronous Meetings
  • Small Group Break-Out Meetings
  • Flexible “Playlist” Time
  • Breaks for lunch, water, self-care, walking outside, refueling
  • Flexible Groupings for Collaboration
  • Choice and Voice
  • Language Translator for Full Accessibility
  • Rotating Team Leaders for Breakouts

We invite you to put connection as your primary goal as you head back to school.  We need to recognize that now more than ever, teachers need to feel connected with each other, and students need to feel connected with each other and their teachers. We also need to recognize the increased need for taking care of our team and our students. Whether planning a remote PD week or a back-to-school week for students, we invite you to revise your learning objectives to put connection at the heart of learning. By doing so, we are sending a strong and much needed message to our teachers and students…We know this is hard. And we’ve got you.

Building Stamina & Independence through Gradual Release

What does it look like to support student independence in a blended classroom space? How well are students able to self-monitor and manage independent work online within your classroom? These are questions we posed to high school teachers during a recent work session in the Baltimore area. Here are some of the answers:

“Students don’t stay focused,” “Students go on other sites,” “Students don’t use the time well and often don’t complete work when they’re online.”

 As we discussed the issues they were facing, it became apparent that teachers were moving students from teacher-directed work with little independence to student-directed work with full independence without a clear process for building student stamina and independent work habits. It got me thinking about what it could look like to create a more gradual transition into independent learning. And how we can re-envision traditional blended models with gradual release in mind.

 To try this, we looked at Whole Group Rotation (WGR),  a common blended model used by teachers within the school. In a WGR, the teacher provides some front-loaded instruction to the whole class and then transitions all students to devices, where work has been assigned to students through their LMS or other online programs. Students are expected to access the online work, follow the directions provided to them in this space, and complete the assignment(s) within the time frame given to them.

For some students, this is an easy transition. For others, this structure requires students to self-monitor and manage learning in ways that are unfamiliar. So we decided to leave the “one size fits all” model and create a WGR that allows for flexibility and scaffolded support. Here’s what we created:

Reinventing Rubrics 1

In this model, teachers can release students to the WGR online when they are ready. Group 1 can get started immediately, while the teacher provides more direct instruction to Groups 2 & 3. When students in Group 2 feel ready to shift to self-monitored instruction, they can move to the WGR online as well, but for a shorter duration of time. Group 3 transitions last, allowing more limited time to self-monitor online, while still giving them an opportunity to strengthen their independent work habits and stamina. Transitioning all groups before the end of the period also allows the teacher to return to Group 1 to provide additional support, coaching, and instruction as needed.

Over time, all students will build stamina and strategies for self-monitoring independent work online, and the duration of teacher-directed learning can diminish, providing more time for 1:1 and small group instruction. In the meantime, teachers can adapt blended models to fit the needs of students, making for a more flexible and personalized learning experience that meets students where they are. If you have other strategies for making this transition, please get in touch on Twitter @21CEducator.

 

Generativity: What Is It? And Why Can’t Students Succeed Without It?

Recorded Cloud Coaching Session

virtual coaching iconIn this Cloud Coaching session, educators and leaders will learn about generativity and why this approach is an essential skill for students and teachers in today’s world. The Model of Generative Change, based on 15+ years of research from Dr. Arnetha Ball at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education provides a method for professional learning that enables educators to continuously reflect and iterate their instructional practices while connecting more deeply with students. According to Dr. Ball, generative teachers become creative, pedagogical problem-solvers who have the ability to adapt their practice to ensure that the needs of every student are met.
Presenters: Jason Green and Tiffany Wycoff
Audience: Educators and Leaders

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Generativity in Action – 3 Steps to Building a Culture of Student Generativity

As a principal, I hosted many students who were asked by their teachers to “take a break” from their classrooms due to misbehavior. When this happened, I started with student reflection, having them write what happened from their perspective. This exercise raised metacognitive awareness of the situation from different perspectives, and by providing an opportunity for students to tell me their accounts allowed them to feel heard, often lowering their frustration or anger, enabling a more constructive reflection conversation. Subsequently,  I would have students do the same exercise but from the first-person perspective of the teacher. Among the most fascinating and productive of these experiences went something like this:

Tom (from his student perspective): I was talking with Luca about our business. We have a retail business buying and reselling hoodies and we’re trying to plan inventory. We’ve been arguing about it and Mr. Smith (math teacher) got mad at us because we were talking in class. I tried to tell him it was about math but he got mad at me and told me I was being disrespectful and to leave the class to come here. 

Tom (from Mr. Smith’s perspective): I was teaching a lesson and Tom was talking with Luca. I told them to stop talking and he was rude, saying “What? It’s about math!” So I told him to go see you.  

As we explored this situation more deeply, the process led to an opening in a strained relationship between Tom and Mr. Smith. They jointly created an opportunity for more personalized and relevant learning for Tom. In a short time, the whole class was engaged in building unique business plans to apply mathematical concepts through project based learning and they won the Stock Market Game by the end of the year. 

Culture of Student Generativity

Mr. Smith had not done anything “wrong” as a teacher in upholding a behavioral expectation he set. However, the one-size-fits-all learning approach was causing a breakdown in his class. A student clearly invested in mathematical thinking and in need of skills was checking out of math. This is an all too common occurrence in classrooms today. Students are immensely curious, but they are taking their curiosity elsewhere. To keep engagement and relevance high, we must strive to increase generativity in the classroom and position it as a core learning outcome. 

In Part 1 of our Generativity series, LINC Co-Founder Jason Green shared the foundational components of Dr. Arnetha Ball’s Model of Generative Change and how its “reflect, tinker, grow” cycle fosters innovative learning transformation. In Part 2 of the series, I shared three strategies for transforming a traditional faculty mindset to one of generativity and present several  “in-action” examples to support the work. To build upon this generativity foundation and close out the series, I am sharing three strategies for transforming traditional classrooms into generativity hubs. 

Step #1: Focus on the PAACC

In Blended Learning in Action, we share how digital tools can create opportunities for learning innovation. However, tools alone do not make learning innovative. Just as the SAMR framework points out, when we use technology only to substitute for non-digital tools, we simply do the same things in new ways. Even when we redefine learning through technology, and learning looks very different than it traditionally has, we may still not reach transformation that will build generativity in our students. Rather than focusing on a specific tool, technology level, or blended learning model, we encourage teachers to focus on the PAACC framework. By using the PAACC as a compass, teachers can better ensure that they are increasing personalization, agency, authenticity, connectivity, and creativity.

Reinventing Rubrics 2

In Action: I am a teacher who has increased engagement through the use of technology. However, I want to take my practice to a new level so that I can personalize learning in my class and help my students build skills for their future. I share the PAACC framework with my students and lead a discussion about the value of shifting to increase PAACC practices in our class. I then share a unit of study I did last year with my current class and invite them to discuss how we can increase each component of the PAACC within the unit. I create a Padlet board and have students add ideas that work to increase each area of the PAACC in the unit. 

 

Step #2: Model Generativity & Solicit Feedback

When teachers begin trying new tools or models in class, they often initially don’t work. Too often, teachers revert to old practices rather than persist out of fear of being criticized by their peers and their students for unpolished practices. This happens when we stick to the old paradigm of teachers as sage on the stage. If we don’t take the time to engage students as part of our professional learning journey, they will continue to operate from that paradigm with the expectation that we have all the answers.  If we make students part of the planning process by co-designing lessons and providing feedback, it not only lowers the risk to open the door for tinkering together, but also models generativity in action, sending the message that learning in the classroom is everybody’s job. 

In Action: I am a member of the transformation team who wants to share my emerging Station Rotation practice with digital tools I’m trying out in my class. My principal has used a “Pineapple Chart” to have our team share what we are trying in our classes, so I’ve added my Station Rotation to the chart with the days my colleagues observe. I put an “Innovator in Action” sign up on my door during these times as a reminder that we are innovating, not showcasing. I engage my students in the experience of tinkering and let them know I would like their feedback, even during the lesson. After a week of the new practice, I survey students and share their feedback at the next PLC meeting where my group is exploring blended learning models.

 

Step #3: Assessment as Learning

The traditional sequence of learning starts with knowledge transfer and concludes with an assessment. In this sequence, assessment is not really part of the learning but rather a separate process to measure its effectiveness. In a generative classroom, assessment becomes part of the learning process throughout the sequence. Instead of measuring learning, assessment drives learning. This type of formative assessment can take many forms such as surveys, live quizzes, polls, comments and suggestions in documents, discussion contributions, self-reflection using rubrics, and conferences. Student reflection should be a core assessment practice in a generative classroom. To build generativity, students have to continuously engage in the cycle of reflection about the problem they are trying to solve, what they already know, what they still need to know, and what resources they can access to bridge this gap. 

In Action: I am a student preparing for a student-teacher writing conference in my history class. I have drafted the first two paragraphs of a news article for my writing assignment. Using the single-point rubric our class collaborated on, I identify how my article meets each indicator. I put an example to discuss in each area of the rubric. Since my teacher and I have identified textual support as an area of growth for me in my writing, I go through my article and highlight the research evidence I have included. During the conference with my teacher, he makes comments on the shared document to provide feedback. We discuss my rubric assessment and I use both the comments and the conference feedback to continue working on my article. 

 

It can be daunting to shift towards a student-centered learning environment where students are stakeholders who have agency and voice in their learning. It requires teachers to let go of “having control” of the learning in their classes and to trust students more than we typically do in a traditional model. However, as students are empowered as agents, they gain a more authentic connection to their learning and subsequently become more engaged. Most importantly though, they build their capacity as problem-solvers who can tackle new challenges as they emerge, a critical skill to navigate rapid change in their uncertain futures. 

Steps To Building a Classroom Community: Collaborating on Class Contracts

As we roll into this new school year, it is really useful to build a strong and positive classroom community and culture. One way I’ve seen this done well is by creating a collaborative class contract with students. By allowing students to provide input on the contract, you create a community feeling and increase student buy-in because it’s authentic, relevant, and meaningful to them.

A good starting point is to ask students what makes a classroom successful.  What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? Specifically, you can ask what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors that can improve the function of a classroom or completely disrupt it? 

I offer the following questions you can pose to your students to help in the creation process: 

  • What agreements should we have about the way we interact both offline and online?
  • What agreements should we have about the way we use school devices?
  • What agreements should we have about the way we use personal devices?

For more ideas, you can visit Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship curriculum.

From there, you can jointly create categories of successful classroom features. Here are several suggestions for how to implement this classroom contract collaboration: 

  • Create a Google Form with each category of agreement. Categories might include some of the following: use of personal technology, contributing to the class environment both online and offline, and coming to class prepared with class materials, including devices. 
  • Send the form to students to solicit ideas on which agreements they feel are important to add, then share the results and draft the final Class Contract collaboratively.
  • Share a template like the one below in Google docs that includes pre-populated categories for students to share their ideas. 
  • Have students use sticky notes to write down suggestions for each category. Then place the notes on a graph – along a horizontal line for new ideas and along the vertical axis for repeated/similar ideas.

Reinventing Rubrics 3Digital Onboarding Plan Template

  • Have each student post their suggested categories and ideas for each category on Padlet. Then have students vote on the top ideas. (Be sure to allow voting when setting up your Padlet wall).
  • Use a tool like Flip Grid to have students record videos in which they commit to the responsible use of technology.

There are several instructional models you can use as part of creating a class contract: 

  • Whole Group Activity
  • Station Rotation (small groups move between stations to contribute)
  • Flipped (students watch a video or listen to audio before the activity)
  • Whole Group Rotation (provide a lesson about digital citizenship and rotate to an activity from above)
  • Use a playlist that provides choices  

As I’ve visited classrooms this school year, I’ve seen many collaborative contracts posted. I love to see the student signatures. Teachers who have started creating collaborative class contracts with students say it is such a powerful way to create not only buy-in from their students but also a culture of collaboration within the classroom. It’s never too late in the school year to create a collaborative class contract with your students. If you have other ideas, feel free to share them with me!

Developing an Innovative Student Mindset and Classroom Culture

Recorded Cloud Coaching Session

virtual coaching iconIn this interactive mindset coaching session, participants will explore ways of  increasing student’s growth mindset through innovative instructional practices. Developing an Innovative Student Mindset and Classroom CultureEducators will learn how to engage students in shared visioning to build agency, define learning objectives collaboratively, and help students understand their role as agents of their own learning. Additionally, participants will discuss key practices for effective classroom management in blended environments, including the use of a digital class contract. Educators will leave the coaching session with a fresh design, using templates, for a classroom  activity they can implement focused on shared visioning or collaborative class contracts.  
Presenters: Tiffany Wycoff
Audience: Educators and Leaders

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Three Strategies to Try Rather than Taking Away the Tech

Reinventing Rubrics 4Throughout my work in schools as a LINC Coach, there is a concern consistently expressed by teachers; one that results in the biggest deterrent for those who are beginning to transform their teaching practice by leveraging technology: What do I do when students misuse or break the rules for technology?

Just about any teacher who is using technology has encountered this in one form or another. For those of us at the early stages of implementing blended learning, this can be the roadblock that stops us in our tracks. We spend hours (at home) finding and figuring out the perfect digital tool that will enhance students’ learning. We introduce it with so much gusto, it sounds like we’re about to announce the winner of the lottery. We are well-prepared: all devices are charged, apps loaded, logins created, and we even have an offline back-up plan. We get the kids up and running, and are all set to work with a small group on targeted instruction, and you hear it…the giggling. You see it…the repeated covert glances at you. And you immediately know, they’ve broken the trust and digital contract that you and the students thoughtfully created to be the foundation of this type of learning. Most likely they’ve gone to an inappropriate website, broken a cell phone rule, vandalized a classmates work on a shared document, or any other creative, disruptive shenanigans they’ve concocted. (Student innovation in this department is legendary.)

 What comes next varies, but it often goes like this:

  • Stop the entire class.
  • Lecture everyone about the rules that were broken.
  • Close and collect all devices.
  • Switch to that offline (probably traditional) activity you had planned but didn’t really want to use.
  • Divvy out appropriate punishment to those who committed the transgression.

It is no surprise that many teachers feel uncertain about how to address these types of issues. According to a recent ISTE article, New OECD Report Shows Major Gap in Preparing Teachers to Use Technology Effectively, “In the U.S., only 45% of teachers stated that they were ‘well prepared’ or ‘very well prepared’ for the use of information and communication technology for teaching, the lowest rating of all dimensions ranked.” 

I’ve developed some alternative approaches for addressing these difficult technology-related issues in our classrooms to help teachers feel more prepared:

First – View this as a teachable moment for the student(s) involved and the entire class. These are often the same kids who would find some other way to disrupt the learning in a traditional lesson. I once heard an educator explain it this way:

In the past, when a student would throw a pencil, a teacher would take the child aside and sternly explain that he/she could have poked someone’s eye out. Then, with the rise of a cautionary eyebrow, the teacher hands back the pencil back with a directive to get back to work. Conversely, our common reaction when students make poor choices with technology is to immediately confiscate the device and have the student “do something else.” Chances are that “something else” does not afford this student access to the same rich, personalized, engaging work you had planned. 

I suggest you consider alternatives to removing technology as it may not be the most effective response. These transgressions are moments that lend themselves to restorative practices and require patience, flexibility, and thoughtful actions on our part. At the heart of a restorative practice approach, the person who makes the mistake has the opportunity to be held accountable for their actions and repair the harm. By using restorative practices, you create a safe space for students to develop critical life skills and learn from their mistakes. This is often more productive than a response that is punitive in nature and stops the student from having access to learning.

Second – It’s never too late to revisit the contract and shared visioning work you did before you introduced technology into your lessons. If you didn’t start your digital instruction with these student onboarding lessons, then now is the perfect time to hit the stop button and do this essential mindset work with students. The key is to first help them understand “the why” of blended learning and second to co-create rules and expectations that help them view technology as a tool and not a toy. LINCspring, our online professional development platform for educators, provides ideas, resources and lesson plan templates that will help you structure this important work. This might also be a good time to show students the technology features that allow you, the teacher, to monitor behaviors such as revision history in Google Docs or how an LMS identifies user names on posts.

Third – In these moments of frustration, I suggest you remember our commitment to preparing students for the world they are entering. Why did we begin blended learning in the first place? Is it something that we can stop doing and still meet our students’ needs? From my observations and personal experiences as a teacher, I have seen blended learning work in ALL learning environments for ALL students. I’ve seen students who were grade levels behind catch up and students who were completely disengaged, engage. Changing the way we teach is challenging work, and the stakes feel higher with technology. It is easy to revert back to methods we are more comfortable with due to fear and loss of control. For inspiration through the rough spots, look to places like Twitter or follow podcasts such as “Cult of Pedagogy.”  Better yet, find someone in your school who can collaborate with you in this work. You can begin by creating PLCs to support one another. Just today, I was observing a blended learning classroom and another teacher walked in and proclaimed, “I want to do this too!”

If you have other strategies for addressing student mistakes with technology, please send me a note at kimweber@linc.education.

Why Students Should Co-Create the Classroom from Day One

Reinventing Rubrics 5Instead of walking into a carefully designed class that’s adorned with decorations and already set class rules, students are experiencing something new on the first day of school.

They are now setting up their own classrooms alongside teachers. It’s one important way innovative teachers are instilling agency in their students from the start.

In the book I co-authored—Blended Learning in Action—we outlined agency as one of the hallmarks of effective practice and defined it as “the act of giving learners opportunities to participate in key decisions in their learning experience.” We can set this expectation on day one by letting students actually act and exert their voice on their own environment.

I’ve seen this in both my own classroom experience and my work with other schools through LINC, the consultancy I co-founded. Setting up the room together noticeably builds a positive class culture that touches on the five hallmarks of effective blended learning practice: Personalization, Agency, Audience, Creativity, and Connectivity (PAACC).

Reinventing Rubrics 6

One teacher in Texas who regularly contributes ideas to the #BLinAction network is putting the PAACC into action as she asks new students to co-create their classroom.

Flexible seating, relaxing screensavers, music choice, power strips, and longer station rotations were all on the list of student requests in Ms. Puckett’s class at Bridgeland High School.

Less than an hour from downtown Houston, this public school is opening its doors this fall for only its second year. Megan Puckett explains that this was one reason why she was given the leeway to do things differently. “It gave me an opportunity to not follow what everyone else was doing,” she shares. “My class is very much a conversation. At the end of every lesson we do reflection and I ask, ‘What did you like? What did you not like?”

That’s why the students felt they could ask her for nontraditional seating when they saw another class had it. Puckett showed them images of soft, foam rearrangeable Nugget cushions and they said Yes. Well, actually, they said, “That would be so cool.” Now they self-select seats each day, knowing they have a teacher-selected partner to sit with. This small move can go a long way toward instilling agency. In some cases, it can even be taken a step further by asking students to BYOC (Bring Your Own Chair) based on guidelines.

With this lens, the possibilities for co-creating the classroom with students become limitless. A few ideas for cultivating this sense of collaborative, PAACC-oriented class culture include:

Atmosphere & Decorations

  • Voice: Instead of a room filled with positive messages, students find headings that set the tone for the environment but leave space for their contributions. Ex: We believe… (students fill in the wall of beliefs about the way friends should learn and interact together)
  • Inspiration: On tables, they find magazines where they cut out pictures that inspire them to learn. They add these to inspiration corners or stations for choice-based discovery. Teachers use these to build an inspiration wall or sort them to create learning centers aligned with those inspirations. (Ex: adventurous pictures for Explore areas of the room; cozy pictures for Reading nooks).

Seating/Learning Spaces

  • Centers: Teachers lead a discussion on which centers will be part of the basic setup and ask for suggestions on other centers. Students receive a blank paper on which to suggest seating clusters and room arrangement.
  • Choice: One corner of the room could be assigned to students to design on a rotation. They choose the learning activity there, bring in the decorations and teach the class about the purpose of the station for the weeks it is there.

Routines/Expectations:

  • Models: Teachers can explain the blended models which will be used in student language. Starting with just one (ex: Station Rotation) may help build understanding in a scaffolded manner. Teachers can engage students in the setting of rules/expectations for each station, from how it should look/feel/sound to how to get help if not at the teacher station.
  • Peer Support: Teachers can engage students in thinking about what types of class jobs would help make sure learning is consistently the focus in class. These can range from a Tech Desk help to Chief Cheerleader. Students can apply for jobs listing their qualifications and contribute to thinking on length of term and how the jobs should rotate.
  • Digital Contract: Guiding students through the creation of a digital contract is an essential component of Blended Learning success. Rather than have an honorable use policy already in place, teachers can facilitate the collaborative creation of one.
  • Transitions/Choice: In blended learning, there are a lot of transitions to plan for: coming into the class, rotating on/off devices, moving between stations. Sometimes these are dictated by routines and timers, which other times the movements is more flexible by choice. Teachers can engage students in creating the expectations for transitions and a way to show accountability for choice where agency is high. For example, you may design a system where all stations are listed on a wall and students put a clothes pin with their name where they are moving.

Transitions between stations is another thing students wanted to influence in Mrs. Puckett’s class. They were getting 12-17 minutes, which wasn’t enough time according to them.

“The students would see changes in the station transitions the next day. By giving kids a voice, they felt like all voices matter,” says Puckett, who had a close connection with her class after making the transition from Salyards Middle School to Bridgeland High School with them last year. Her focus on meaningful learning is what propelled her to be named both 2011 Substitute Teacher of the Year (District Middle School Level) and 2013 Spotlight Teacher (Salyards Middle School). She reminds teachers heading into a new school year of the piece of advice that has stuck with her most: “If you can’t remember the last time you failed in your classroom, you’re not taking enough risks.”

The best way to start co-creating the classroom is to simply try one of these strategies.

By setting the standard for agency at the start of the year, we create a culture of personal accountability for self and class community. Waiting for the students to arrive also frees up some valuable time before the doors open. It’s an opportunity to shift from planning room design to planning ways to make learning more rigorous, magical and engaging.

Tiffany Wycoff is Co-Author of Blended Learning in Action, and is Co-Founder of LINC (Learning Innovation Catalyst). Connect with Tiffany on Twitter @teachontheedge. This article originally appeared on Getting Smart.