Student-Led Isn't Just for Conferences

Giving students ownership of their learning and learning needs builds skills for future success as students lead their own IEPs.

A 7th grader led his IEP with a self-designed PowerPoint of his schedule, strengths, weaknesses, and accommodations.

In February I ask you to take a risk in your instruction, and as you reflect on your progress on that, consider how often kids take risks each day.  A student presenting their IEP to a group of adults, including their parents, teachers, counselor, and principal is definitely a risk!

The Colors of our Diverse World

We live in a state of constant change.  Changing technology.  Changing families. Changing beliefs. Changing demographics.  Changing culture.  Our world is changing - it's becoming increasingly more colorful - and it is our duty to embrace that change so that our diverse student populations feel honored for their lifestyles and beliefs.  Our Truman family is more homogeneous than most, so we must work that much harder to prepare students for living in a diverse and ever-changing society.  Start small with your own inclusive practices, such as those below...

1) When addressing parents, do you use inclusive language?  Instead of referencing moms and dads in your emails and communications, refer to them as parents/guardians.  This includes all family structures: single parents, same sex couples, grandparents, etc.

2)  When talking to students about their family, don't assume that they all live with mom/dad.  Recent data shows that only half of kids live in traditional families (and that includes stepparents!).  44 percent of children are raised by single parents, grandparents, and other family structures.  

3)  When talking about students with disabilities, don't define students with their "label."  Just yesterday, I heard a news reporter share that an "autistic boy" has been missing for 4 days.  I cringed, and thought, "No, he's a boy with Autism."  I don't want to be defined by my challenges, you don't want to be defined by yours, and our students deserve for us to see them as more.

4)  When creating a classroom project/assignment, do you ensure that every student will be able to access it?  Most of our students have Internet access at home, but not all, so consider how you explicitly give options for kids who don't.  Those options can't just be go to a friend's house.  There are students whose family preferences won't allow that.  We must give them a school-based solution.

5)  When designing a field trip or special event, can all kids participate?  Sometimes, it's as simple as ensuring that the provided meal doesn't have peanut products, but it could be so much more.  As we design conferences as a family friendly event and look to add food trucks, we must ensure that there are foods available for the diverse needs of our families, considering allergies and cultural and religious limitations.  It's not just about food -- it's thinking globally about your students.

6)  This year, Beth Hausner, our fabulous ELL teacher will be sending regular "tidbits" of information about our diverse populations.  Use this information to better understand your students.

But, we can do so much more than being inclusive...we can find opportunities for students to learn about those who are different.  And, different comes in many forms:  race, religion, beliefs, geography, gender, the list is infinite.

How do you connect students with the world beyond Truman, St. Louis, Missouri, USA?  Do you have authentic opportunities for students to connect with other kids in other parts of the world?  Do students have real chances to appreciate different experiences and perspectives?  Here are a few ideas...

1)  Skype with a class in another country.  There's a tool called Mystery Skype which allows students opportunities to learn through research, critical-thinking, geography, and listening and speaking skills.  education.skype.com/mysteryskype

2)  Writing is thinking!  Give kids time to write about people and places.  A great resource is shutterfly.com/classroom.  They can publish books!

3) As relevant, have dialogue about diversity.  You don't have to teach ELA or SS to have valuable opportunities to discuss humanity.  Flyertime is always an appropriate venue for these discussions, but I know it can be an intimidating topic...there are some great resources to help you in this process:  http://www.difficultdialoguesuaa.org/index.php/strategies_and_resources/by_technique; http://www.nameorg.org/resources.php; www.tolerance.org.

4)  Move beyond dialogue about diversity and into opportunities for equality.  "Equity Literacy for All" (Educational Leadership, March 2015) highlights that in math, students can calculate living wages, historical trends of poverty, etc.  By focusing on equalizing opportunities for kids, we move beyond understanding and into advocacy for our students.

5)  Learn and use the language of our students.  Ok, I admit that I often intermix my French, German, and Spanish, but I'd like to think that the effort I make matters to the students (as well as our esteemed modern language teachers) taking those classes.  Imagine if I took the same time to honor ELL students in the same way.  

Maybe most importantly, spend time reflecting and discussing your own personal beliefs, stereotypes, etc. with trusted colleagues and family/friends.  You've had experiences in your life that have colored your perceptions about diverse populations and the world.  To start connecting with kids more and helping them appreciate the differences in others, we must confront our own reality.

A plane is safe in its hanger, but that's not what a plane is for

It's coming up on February.  Know what that means?  It's time to "take a risk" month, a time to try new instructional practices.  Whether you are the type to ease out of the hanger, smoothly progressing down the runway or one to burst out ready for take-off, taking risks should be a part of your educational repetoire.  ASCD's "Education Update" shares that taking purposeful risks "elevates teacher innovation and student engagement."

Risk-taking is something we ask students to do each day, requiring them to try new things and explore new ideas.  As educators we must model this same "growth mindset," avoiding the pit of doing things because it's the way it's always been done and modeling that failure leads to reward and a sense of pride in our accomplishments.

I'm about to admit something here....I've failed a lot.  I won't list all my failures (some are huge, and some were "imperfect" outcomes), but here are a few from different points in my life:  1) I tried to jump off the slide when I was 3 and failed, breaking my ankle; 2)  I tried out for 3 cheerleading squads in high school before finally making one; 3) In college, I got cut from a lot of sororities during rush week; 3) I tried literature circles as a teacher and struggled to make them fit within my teaching style; 4) As an administrator, I've had too many fails to list...but each time, I learn to be a little better (I hope!).

Now, that I've shared the "True Confessions of Tara Sparks," I challenge you to consider your failures and appreciate them.  It's bouncing back from those failures that helps us realize that it's okay to take risks.  As we approach February, be ready to share some instructional risks you've taken, and please invite Mike and me in to witness them - risk-taking for the sake of student learning is the sign of a dedicated, innovative, and reflective teacher!

Here are some classroom learning examples to spark risk-taking ideas...

These students are taking a risk to figure out complex equations, with a high probability of error.

Using the new student response cards to engage students in content and dialogue is a risk.

Having 6th graders create babies (based on a set of traits when studying genes) is a risk.

Looking at technology in a new light is a risk - this student is reading on his iPod. (Okay, he might be risking his eyes!)

Using interdisciplinary skills shows a risk - kids in this modern language class solve math problems in their newly acquired language.

Giving students time to evaluate their own learning is a risk, one that creates a growth mindset.

I encourage you to look through this blog to find fresh ideas that inspire you to take a risk!  Keep in mind that your risk is unique to you - push yourself outside of your comfort zone, try something new, and as long as it has a purpose for learning, I applaud your growth mindset!

Peek-a-boo Part II

Today, I got the chance to stop into 6th grade and some main floor classes.  Take a look at some of the best practices I witnessed as I peeked...

Conferencing with students...This is a strategy that I think has HUGE growth potential for increasing student learning.  When students are working independently, conference with them.  Here are some examples across multiple contents of how this can be used....

1)  During silent reading, check in with individual students to reinforce their application of learning outcomes.  For example, if you are focusing on plot, ask students to share the setting, conflict, climax, etc. of the book they are reading...it's a good opportunity to require them to think.

2)  During writing time, have students show you their examples to prove their thesis.  This will work if they are writing using the RAP strategies, writing DBQ essays or finalizing conclusions from a inquiry-based lab.

3)  During stations, make yourself one of the stations.  You can group students by specific skills to provide remediation and/or enrichment.

The trick is to not stress yourself out...you don't need to get to every student everyday, but make sure you are eventually getting to all of them.

Co-Teaching...What's noteworthy are the roles of each of the teachers.  This is a true team-teaching model where the special education teacher is serving as the primary with the general ed. teacher providing tips and supplementary ideas.  Great collaboration, ladies!

Holding kids accountable...In this class, students are required to read outside of class, demonstrating their comprehension on a quick quiz.  Building their homework stamina over time helps to prepare students for the next year's expecations.  

More Reflection...Here, students have identified what they learned this week.

Authentic Learning...In the first two pictures, a student has designed a tutorial for others to use on Google Drive applications.  She has provided detailed directions and screenshots of how to change the color of folders...I need this skill.  The final picture is of student problem-solving projects...How do you make a catapult that will actually shot objects across the room?  Now, I think every teacher would enjoy that! :)

  

More Authentic Learning...Students are studying mean, median, and mode.  And, what more relevant way in this post-season climate than with Cardinal baseball salaries?  I was also impressed with the use of wireless and one-note on the tablet to help facilitate that learning.

Differentiating for talent...Art students are not limited in their expression.  Instead, they have loose deadlines so that they can work at their pace and the degree of difficulty they prefer.  All students are held to basic principles, but those who want to expand are encouraged to do so.  Others, who finish sooner, move on to the next essential learning task.  This is the same concept of Writer's Workshop, just a different genre.

Teaching Organization...Kids don't come to us prepared to be well-organized.  Okay...some do, but we have to explicitly teach most how to be responsible middle school students.  In this class, students were required to write their assignment in the agenda book (or, use their devices if they had another tool).  The trick is to reinforce the expectation.  I used to go around and thank kids who completed their agenda books - it's amazing how much kids crave that positive reinforcement.  Even those who didn't want to record assignments, did record them.

Preparing for Student-Led Conferences...Check out this modeling in action.

Peek -a -boo

Today, I was able to drop into classrooms on the upstairs floor to catch a glimpse of good instruction in action.  Here's what I saw as I peeked...

    

Getting kids thinking with their brains and bodies...  In the above pics, you can see the variety of skill and knowledge levels.  The first picture shows a completed plot diagram with a student who feels confident in her choices; the second picture shows the messy processes that often accompany learning and figuring it out as we go; the third picture shows a student making revisions to her work as she realizes errors.

More kinesthetic learning... Here is an example of the co-teaching method, parallel teaching, where students are divided into two groups.  Both groups are studying integers, but they are going about it in different ways.  Pictures one and two show students adding/subtracting integers by walking the number line.  Picture three shows students working with chips designated as plus and minus to learn how numbers cancel one another.

Using Google Forms for student work... Above you can see the teacher's computer with the results of student answers provided in two different ways.  Picture one gives a graph of student responses for a big-picture view.  Picture two gives the detailed responses from each student.

Translating English to Hebrew... In this picture, students write in English and observe the translation of those words into Hebrew.  This authentic activity gives students the chance to develop their own understandings of 

the Hebrew language, including the right to left orientation and the different characters.

Putting learning into their own words... In this picture, a student is consolidating the learning she's had in math by putting it into her own words.  What's noteworthy is that students were looking at examples of problems in order to determine the rule for themselves.  Good thinking!

Reflection in action... In picture one, essential questions posted in the room are used to guide instruction and get students to make connections in their learning.  In picture two, students have identified how their Flyertime lesson fits with our core values.