Failure Preferred?

This week I'm reposting a piece I wrote in early September.  It's a reflection of an observation I did of Assistant Principal, Marie Soucy teaching a lesson to fifth graders in our math/science enrichment class.

When students arrived to class they began a "do now" question that dealt with calculating average speed.  As Marie was reviewing the answer to the question, she asked the class, "who got the answer wrong?".   I was surprised by how many students eagerly raised their hands.

Marie went on to ask students to explain their thinking, the algorithm they used, and the process they followed to arrive at the wrong answer.  I often observe teachers going through a similar process when students answer questions correctly.  It's common for teachers to ask students to explain their reasoning for a correct answer.  This was a bit different.

The discussion that followed proved to be extremely valuable to all students in the classroom. Through dialogue, students who answered incorrectly were able to share their thought process, explore alternative ideas and arrive at a new understanding of the concept.  This is where true learning takes place.  In order to learn something effectively, students must make mistakes and learn something from those mistakes.  There is a huge body of research that supports this.

Students who answered the question correctly also benefited from this discussion.  Several students in the class could select the correct algorithm (speed = distance/time) and do the computation.  The discussion however, helped these students develop a deeper conceptual understanding of the concept of speed. The rate at which an object covers distance - a scalar quantity.

The real value in what I observed had very little to do with students developing a conceptual understanding of the concept of speed however.  The value was in students recognizing that it's okay to fail.  This is about fostering a classroom culture in which students feel empowered to share and learn from their mistakes.  This is the way true learning happens.  Students must have the opportunity to fail, to reflect on their mistakes, and to revise their thinking.  Failure should be seen as a necessity - a celebration of learning.

Please take the time to read the following article by Rick Wormeli.  Although teachers are the target audience, the article is a great read for parents or anyone else who is interested in teaching and learning in our community.  Womeli includes several suggestions that teachers can use to promote a culture in which failure is a valued and encouraged in all classrooms.  I hope you enjoy the article.

http://www.stenhouse.com/assets/pdfs/failure.pdf

I am lucky. My Students are Lucky.

The following was written by French teacher, Stephanie Carbonneau. Stephanie is one of the most dedicated and reflective teachers I've worked with. Each time I visit her classroom I'm impressed with the level of rigor and engagement that defines her students' experience. Stephanie exemplifies the term "professional educator". She reads and applies current literature to her practice and she places the needs of her students above all else.  

In this blog post Stephanie reflects on her experience with our transition to proficiency-based learning. The piece is sincere, heartfelt, and indicative of how this work, when done well, can have a profound impact on teachers and students.

I am lucky. My students are lucky.

I am lucky to work in a school with such passionate and creative teachers. I am lucky to work for an administration that empowers it's staff, gives us time to grow, and at the same time holds us accountable. I am lucky to work with students who truly strive to be the best versions of themselves, and I am lucky to work in a community whose parents care about education and support what I do.

I am also lucky to have the opportunity to work with my students for two consecutive years. Thus, I have time to get to know them, and to get them where they need to be.  I am lucky that language learning and instruction, since I began my teaching career 17 years ago, has always been taught with standards.  It is hard to put a number or letter on what a student has learned. For example, you can ask and answer simple questions in French well, do this with help, or with errors that may or may not hinder communication. And if you aren’t there yet, what are we; teachers, students, parents, going to do to make sure you can? Students now know more than ever what they need to do to be successful.   My favorite part of this initiative is students must now reflect on current progress. What did they do to meet or exceed? Why didn’t they meet? What are THEY going to do to prepare to re-assess? How can they demonstrate to me or the target audience they have met the standard?

I am lucky that with PBL I can clearly see who understands what, who doesn’t, who is ready to move on, who isn’t and who is ready for level 2 French at the high school. It was difficult in the past to justify to a parent that a student was ready or not ready for high school French based on a number. Numbers aren't always accurate. It has never been clearer where students stand in terms of what they do and do not know, what they are still working on, and what they excel at.  I can identify with confidence what individual students exceed at, have mastered, are still working on, and where they are insufficient. Students now show me what they know and have the ability to prove it.

My students are lucky that learning is not a “one and done” deal anymore. I assess my students more than once on a content standard to determine if they truly understand and have reached mastery. It may seem like a lot of assessment or “testing,” but really, we are assessing students in more authentic and meaningful ways then we could have with traditional “one and done” assessments.   My students are being asked to do real-world tasks and solve real-world problems using real-world language. Traditional language goals were related to grammatical structures, vocabulary lists, and textbook chapters. Now, goals are related to communication objectives and students showing what they can do with the language. They are doing so in very creative, real life ways.  Each day I grow more and more impressed with what they are able to do. Yes, my students learn the French specific content such as the alphabet, but more importantly, they show me what they can do with it. No one is ever going to stop them in a French speaking country and ask them to say or sing the alphabet, but people are going to expect them to be able to order a meal in a restaurant or ask for directions while traveling. Students are lucky that we are now learning and addressing language expectations that they can actually use.

I am lucky that my students are indeed stretching themselves and pushing themselves in the PBL model.  I am asking students to look at more examples of authentic language than I ever have.  The work I'm giving them is very challenging, yet they are doing it and being successful, even if it takes extra practice, extra help, or teacher/peer guidance.  I would like to argue that although it may be challenging, they are still having fun. Students are seeing more value in what they are learning and thus, are retaining more content.  I'm certain my colleagues at the high school are happy with the level of knowledge owned by the students that they are receiving since our transition work began. I can truly say it is a direct result of our change in instruction and assessment practices.

Perhaps a bit boastful, my students are lucky to be in my classroom of “today,” as I have never worked harder as a teacher. I am enjoying teaching once again because, I too, am feeling challenged. I feel challenged to improve my teaching and to find ways for my students to exceed the standards in a way that is beyond simply assigning “extra” work. I am no longer assessing who is good at playing school. I am assessing what my students know and finding ways to get them there.  My students have never worked harder.  If you were to ask them, they would agree my assessments are not easy nor are my “REDOs.”

Yes, my class, my instruction, my assessments, and my students are different. I have never been more proud and excited to be a teacher than I am right now.  PBL makes me want to be a better and more effective teacher. I am lucky to be teaching in an era of such educational transformation. My students are lucky to be part of the new paradigm.  The workforce is lucky to soon receive workers who understand standards based evaluation, how it applies to their work, and know how to set growth goals based on this type of feedback. Together we are lucky to be leading the way in what is to be the future of a nation of self reflecting, life long learners.

- Stephanie Carbonneau

Teacher Collaboration at York Middle School

Of all the changes at York Middle School during the last few years, one of the most significant is the culture of collaboration that has emerged among our staff.  Teachers are working together in ways they never have before.

Our team leaders are trained and skilled at facilitating team meetings and our new schedule provides teachers with daily common planning time so they can collaborate on an ongoing basis.  Many schools would call these meetings professional learning communities or PLCs.  Although we have not formally adopted the DuFour model of PLCs, there is no doubt that the model of professional learning currently in place at YMS is highly effective and impacts teaching and learning in a positive way.

The work we've done to transition to a standards-based instructional model could not have been accomplished without providing teachers with the time to collaborate and the training to make that time effective.  We radically redesigned our schedule so that all grade level teams meet on a daily basis to discuss curriculum, instruction, assessment, and of course, the individual needs of the students they teach.  These meeting are agenda driven and focused.

Creating time in a schedule for regular team meetings is certainly not enough.  I have visited many schools in which the team meeting time was poorly used and/or poorly facilitated.  In these schools, a negative staff or team culture can result in team meetings being monopolized by complaints, unfocused conversations and general confusion about how to use the time.

In recent months, YMS has had many visitors to our school that come to study our transition.  One piece they are always impressed with is our collaborative time.  They are not only impressed that we have a schedule that allows for it - they're impressed by how well the time is spent.  We are fortunate to have dedicated teachers that value the collaborative time and work hard to ensure the work is meaningful, goal oriented, and student-centered.  I enjoy sharing our work with educators from other school districts and from other states.  One of the pieces for which I am most proud is how effectively our common planning time is used on a school-wide basis.

The students and faculty at YMS have enjoyed many benefits of the common planning time that is built into our schedule.  Here is just a short list:

• Meaningful school-wide discussions of professional literature
• Increase in evidence-based instructional strategies used by teachers
• Improved analysis of student achievement data.  Interventions can be immediately implemented at the team-level  
• Increased consistency among and within teams
• Critical examination of teacher work - lesson plans, effective learning targets, scoring guides, rubrics, etc.
• Robust and authentic interdisciplinary experiences for students
• Dramatic reduction in behavior referrals
• Increased sense of belonging and team identity (for teachers and students)
• Greater sense of collegiality among faculty
• Improved school climate
• Emerging staff culture centered on reflective teaching and exemplary practice
• Increased sense of teacher leadership and investment in school improvement

The following article, published in the May 2010 issue of the Middle School Journal, details the importance of common planning time to highly effective middle schools.  I hope you enjoy it.

Common Planning Time