At YMS, we have been spending a great deal of time talking about learning targets. Teachers use them in the form of "I can" statements on a daily basis. A teacher's ability to write good learning targets is far more complex than it may appear on the surface. It's more than just posting daily objectives on the board. Good learning targets should describe what students are expected to learn, why the learning expectation is important, and what the work will look like when the target has been met.
Writing good learning targets is a critical skill that teachers must practice in order to master. In the following article, Susan Brookhart and Connie Moss write about the importance of good learning targets. Brookhart and Moss assert that components of effective learning targets will:
Describe exactly what students will learn by the end of a day’s lesson.
Use language students can understand.
Be stated from the point of view of a student who has yet to master the knowledge or skill being taught.
Contain a performance of understanding that translates the description into action – what students will do, make, say, or write during the lesson.
Include student look-fors or criteria for success in terms that describe mastery of the learning target, not a score or grade.
Please take the time to read their article that was published in the Educational Leadership journal, October, 2014. I hope you enjoy the article.
This week's blog post tells the story of a great collaborative unit taught by our 8th grade Kodkod team. It's this kind of work that really exemplifies sound, student-centered, middle-level practice. It was an inspirational unit that will have a lasting impact on our eighth graders. The following description was written by members of the Kodkod team.
Red Bandana Run & Leadership Retreat
Kodkod Team
Great learning happens when students, teachers, and parents share their ideas and collaborate. As eighth graders begin the school year, they learn about the events of 9/11. Most of our students were just infants at that time. An understanding of the events that occurred and our nations’ response to them is essential to understanding America’s current role in the world.
Our study of this era includes an exploration of who we are as a people, who we are as individuals and who we are as Americans. What are the values we hold dear? How do we act on those values on a personal, domestic, and foreign policy level? Who were our leaders during 9/11 and how did they lead?
While we were studying this era, a few students mentioned the story of “The Man in the Red Bandana,” the inspiring ESPN documentary about Welles Crowther. Crowther was a Boston College graduate who was at work in the towers on 9/11 and spent the last hours of his life aiding and rescuing others. It is an amazing story, but we were not sure how best to bring this to our students until Open House. That evening, Todd and Jane Adams stayed late and chatted with our team’s teachers. During this conversation, the idea of conducting and participating in a run with our students was proposed and an offer to provide Red Bandanas to all our students was promised.
From there, we located an amazing curriculum at the Welles Crowther’s Foundation and decided to use portions of that curriculum to hold advisory discussions and study qualities of leadership.
On October 14th we held a Remembrance Run which began at 9:11 and had students moving nonstop for 102 minutes. They went through stations where the entire advisory worked together for a run/walk, carried 40 pounds of potatoes up and down a relay ramp and more. The highlight was a visit from the York Fire Department where each student had the opportunity to suit up, walk to a cone and return wearing the weight of a firefighter. Students worked cooperatively to help one another in and out of the equipment and even assisted the team teachers as they competed to get the equipment on.
At the end of the day, students participated in a leadership retreat session. In advisory groups, they reflected and wrote about how the actions of Welles Crowther inspired them, how they serve others, and what leadership qualities they would like to develop in themselves. Each student has a Red Bandana as a tangible reminder of the capacity each of us has to make decisions to follow our passions, to serve others, and to live our lives to the fullest.
Thank you to Dr. & Mrs. Adams for their generous support and to Sue Bruno and the York Fire Department for making this such a special experience for our students.
We've included the documentary about Welles Crowther below.
If you've been following the transition that is taking place at York Middle School, you would have heard reference to the impact this transition is having on the work of teachers. One piece that is often overlooked is the shift in mindset that many teachers must undergo in order to be successful in a proficiency-based learning model. Identifying standards, posting learning targets, and reporting out on a 4-point scale certainly aren't enough to improve student achievement.
The impact on teachers is significant and multi-faceted. For me, one of the most profound implications is the shift in emphasis from covering material to making sure students have actually learned it. In the world we all grew up in, it was common for a teacher to assign work from a chapter in a textbook, deliver instruction from the front of the room (often in the form of notes), assign classwork and homework, and give a test or quiz. Then it was time to move on: whether students learned the material or not. Feedback was minimal and often in the form of brief affirmations of performance, "Great Job!", "Excellent!", "Needs Improvement!". The quality of feedback was poor and sporadic. If students did poorly they were often encouraged to study harder next time. Sometimes extra-help was offered in the form of re-teaching the material in the same way it was taught in class.
The emphasis was on the coverage of material and the grades students earned. Not learning. This is powerful because it was just as true for students as it was for teachers. Students were much more concerned with getting good grades than they were with the actual learning that was taking place.
Now, the emphasis is placed squarely on student learning rather than the grade or the coverage of material. This concept is central to the philosophy of proficiency-based instruction. Students know exactly what they are expected to learn, how they are going to get there, and what success will look like. Assessments are both formative and diagnostic. Students are given opportunities to reflect on their progress, and they know where they are in relation to a learning target.
It's the work and the mindset of teachers that makes this possible. I've included a short video that highlights the eight mind frames that researcher John Hattie believes all teachers must hold. I couldn't agree more. I truly believe that these belief structures are essential to both teacher and student success. I hope you enjoy the video.
