On this day...
I took a little while to think about how I'd like students to be able to track their progress on learning standards in class. The web app I built works and will give them a long-term view of their growth over time, but in the moment, I wanted students to have an easy, quick-reference spot to see their progrss on the unit's standards.
For each unit, they get a simple cover page with an introduction, a guiding question, the learning goals, and some vocab. This goes into their learning log (more on that in another post) and marks the next chunk of content. I decided to make this one-page unit marker into two pages by adding the standard tracker.
This half-sheet handout will get put at the start of the unit and updated when feedback comes in. The 1-4 scale refers to their feedback scales:
- No submission.
- Does not meet expectations. I got something, but it's waaay off base and I cannot use that evidence to give any kind of meaningful feedback.
- Approaches expectations. Their attempt is close, but there is a major gap or a major misconception holding them back from truly demonstrating the skill.
- Meets expectations. They can do the thing, on this example, in this context. This is considered proficient on the attempt and should be what students are shooting for.
- Exceeds expectations. They have demonstrated a clear understanding and have connected outside relevant ideas into their response.
The numeric scale allows me to calculate an overall score for that particular skill: the highest score averaged with the most recent score.
Anyways, the whole point is that students either need to log into another website to check their progress or check in with me. Providing this template will teach them to catalog their results and pay attention to their feedback. They don't have to hunt me down to figure out their score because it's all logged here as it happens.
I'm not sure one page will be enough, especially as we get into more complex topics and I'm assessing more frequently, but we'll start with one each. If we need more, the great thing about the interactive learning log approach is that we can just slap another copy in and keep going with our day.
Are you a teacher? Do you have thoughts on this approach? Send me an email - always looking for more perspectives.
Game Theory
Games and learning go hand in hand. Children learn social interaction, communication, and even motor skills through playing. Remember, Piaget and early learning theorists broke learning down into formal and informal actions. Play is very much in the informal category, with school in the formal setting. Lately, the gamification movement has pushed to make formal instruction more like a game; emulating game mechanics in learning can have positive effects on overall understanding, engagement with, and recall of information.
I have to admit, I’ve been apprehensive of gamification due to poor implementation and a shallow approach focused on rote instruction disguised as games. Chris Hesselbein of IGNITEducation pointed me to an article by Joey Lee and Jessica Hammer (2011) in which they define “gamification” as “the use of game mechanics, dynamics, and frameworks to promote desired behaviors.” Thin slices – like badging – have made their way from business (FourSquare, etc) into the classroom (ClassBadges, Class Dojo). Specifically, Lee and Hammer note that gamers “recognize the value in extended practice,” develop persistence, and hone problem-solving techniques. However, they argue that “intuition” has brought basic game mechanics into schools, but a deeper look is necessary.
By harnessing the innate power of games, you can certainly begin to introduce the concepts of CT in a safe, supportive environment. In particular, Cognitive games ask players to “explore through active experimentation and discovery,” (Lee & Hammer 2011). In essence, experiment until you get it right. This approach – as in LightBot – is very effective for pushing students through the computational steps.
Gaming and Computational Thinking
I’m not going to dive deep into each of the ideas within Computational Thinking, but rather look at the game LightBot and how it relates to each component.
Symbols and Abstraction – All games involve abstraction. in LightBot, you give commands through simple glyphs. Your mind has to consider each command and visualize what the robot will do before making decisions. Barr & Stephensen (2011) note that “students are not tool users, but tool builders,” and LightBot gives students the tools necessary to build a working solution from nothing.
Decomposition – When I played the game through, I found that breaking each board down into straight runs helped me find a working solution. Corners were where I made mistakes, so working up to each corner helped me solve chunks in order to find a solution for the whole. Grover & Pea (2013) point out that a core idea of CT is “thinking like a computer scientist” to solve a problem. Thinking through dependencies before you can move in another direction is an invaluable skill in coding and something that computer scientists (or even hobbyists) learn very quickly to solve problems.
Efficiency – Segueing in from decomposition, efficient code is the goal. Physical limitations – like storage space or RAM – are present, but there is a sense of pride when you not only solve a problem, but when you solve it well. I read StackOverflow regularly for coding help, and it never ceases to amaze me at how tenacious some discussions get when users are debating the most elegant way to solve a problem. This also hints back to two main questions: “What can humans do better than computers? What can computers do better than humans?” (Wing 2006). By thinking through efficient and elegant solutions, my program will be that much better at doing its job.
Debugging – Depending on your personality, this is every programmer’s favorite or most loathed word. Debugging can be as complex as a restructure of code or as simple as finding a missing semicolon. Iteration and close reading are key in this process. It also requires that we think through what the program should be doing and test it against what it is doing to find clues. In fact, debugging alone combines all other aspects of CT as a capstone to any project. Grover & Pea (2013) note that there has been some research exploration into the idea of debugging as assessment because of the myriad cognitive tasks taking place parallel to one another.
Resources
Barr, V., & Stephenson, C. (2011). Bringing Computational Thinking to K-12: What is Involved and What is the Role of the Computer Science Education Community? ACM Inroads, 2(1), 48-54.
Grover, S., & Pea, R. (2013). Computational Thinking in K–12 A Review of the State of the Field. Educational Researcher, 42(1), 38-43.
Lee, J. J. & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2).
Wing, J. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35.
This time last year, I was writing about increasing my household population by 50%. In the blink of an eye, a year has already gone by, and we went from an empty crib to a girl sitting in her own lawn chair.
I know it’s a cliché, but I feel like I blinked.
Excuse me while I blink again.
I used to write a lot. It wrote about day-to-day. I wrote about wins and losses, living, learning, and people. I haven’t written that way in a long time. I want to change that.
I wrote, what seems like ages ago, about a shift in my career. I left the classroom. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, and now, six months later, I’m still glad I took the risk. Honestly, until last March, I hadn’t ever considered what it would be like to not be a teacher. I went into college having my major declared. I stuck with the program, even though I wanted to quit in my third year. And I can’t even begin to explain how glad I am to have stayed with it for (nearly) four years after graduating.
I do have to admit that I’m still struggling with being part of the 50%. I had my reasons, as I’m sure everyone else does. But, it’s still hard to answer the question, or respond to the looks when I tell people I left teaching. Interesting side note: this fall was the first time in 25 years or so (including my own schooling) in which I didn’t experience a first day of school. It is definitely strange.
But, even in absentia, I can still experience students.
I bought a house nearly a year ago. We had overlooked it mainly because it looked pretty ugly on the inside. Not gonna lie. The yard is awesome though. We’ve got a full acre of land, with half of it fenced in the back. (I feel completely comfortable saying that a dog is in our future sometime.)
We moved in planning on doing some remodeling at some point. Mostly, because of the kitchen.
And then, we got another incredible piece of news.
My life had been inexplicably changed with the sound of my daughter’s heart beating strong and resolute. We had some serious work to do. What ensued was a display of love, support, and encouragement from family and friends as my wife and I worked hard to make sure our home would be ready for little _____ (sorry!) when she arrives any time now. It started with the kitchen and quickly spilled out into our dining room. (There are far too many pictures to post here, so feel free to browse through the project on Flickr.)
I haven’t been around for a while. I’m not writing in an effort to explain my absence or even to get more likes, props, kudos, or back-slaps for the blessings I’ve been given this year. I’m writing because of the support I’ve felt, along with friends and family physically here, from you. The notes on Twitter, the blog comments, and the emails…they did not fall on deaf ears.
The year has been wonderful, and I’m excited about the new things on my horizon, even though they’re not in a physical classroom any more. I’m reminded every day that learning can, and should, happen without walls, and I’m thankful for the friends surrounding me, helping me continue to learn.
I’ve been thinking a lot about tools and space lately. What digital tools work well in my class? What analog tools are necessary for chemistry? What teaching tools work the best to communicate concepts to my kids? All of these questions led to: “What tools are essential for learning?”
Ira Socol and I have had some interesting discussions in the past regarding technology. I remember one of our first discussions was over what “technology” is. I focused on the digital alone. Ira came with the belief that everything we use, tables and chairs, pens, notebooks, are all a form of technology. Truth be told, I left that discussion feeling frustrated and a little irked that he focused so much on the “boring” stuff of schools. To me, the difference between a pen and pencil as tools made zero difference.
As I teach longer, I continually add tools to my arsenal. I’ll learn or develop new functions of spaces in the room. I’ll re-purpose my walls or my spare pencil box. We’ll use blogs rather than writing on paper. Or, other days, we’ll pull some paper out and write with pencils. The line between digital tools and analog tools is blurring every day. Which ones are essential? Which ones simply make the learning process more streamlined?
I have some thoughts:
- No single tool is essential – I can teach with or without a whiteboard. I can make adjustments on the fly if need be. No internet? No problem…let’s sit in groups and discuss why water is neutral. The day we begin to rely on a single tool in teaching is the day we close our minds to improvement.
- The space is more critical than the tools – I’m not saying all of our classrooms need to look like Will Chamberlain’s. (On a side note, you should really check his class out. It’s awesome.) But, our spaces need to encourage learning. Varied seating arrangements are a big plus. If your desks can move, then move them around. Don’t let them get stuck to the floor from immobility. Encourage kids, even high schoolers, to fill the walls with art and their own work. Give them room to fail with dignity and learn with support.
- Supportive environments are more critical than space – While the space is important, I definitely recognize that some spaces are not flexible at all. Instead, build an environment that celebrates breakthroughs in learning. Emotional and physical safety are extremely important, but I think we forget about cognitive safety. So many kids are afraid to take guesses because they’ve been trained to be right. all. the. time. It’s unrealistic and any teacher worth their salt knows that. Foster a cognitively safe environment so students can see the value in being wrong once in a while.
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have some favorite tools that really make teaching easier and more fun. Changing class up with digital and/or analog integration is a responsibility, not a gimmick. Don’t get too bogged down, though, by relying too much on your bag of supplies.
I’d love to hear about what you use in your teaching in the comments.
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photo credit: Double–M via photo pin cc
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