Benchmark 2
Deadline = July 23 Chapters 3 & 4
Key Questions:
There are four key questions to
answer for each assignment. Please post your response to each of the four
questions. Remember to post your responses and respond to at least
one other member by each deadline.
FOUR QUESTIONS:
- What was new for you in these chapters?
- What did you read that you know is true and can relate
to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
- Did something interest you that you would like to research
further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
- How will this change what you do daily or how can you
implement what you learned from these chapters?
What was new for you in these chapters? Something new for me in the following chapters, was the part about effective feedback and what it should look like. I think it is important for the teacher, administrator, and student to understand that learning is the main focus. If the school creates a learning centered environment where the climate suggests that both students and teachers are learning and excepts feedback, everyone will develop in their learning.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator? One of the things I could relate to was the scenario 3.2 in putting it all together. I used to feel like Ms. Smith, uncomfortable! I was so nervous having someone observe me. Now I have realized to embrace observations and take constructive feedback to help me be a better learner. I like how the chapter kept referring back to how the administrators focus less on what teachers were doing and more observing what students were doing. Do the kids know what they are learning? If so, then learning is taking place.
ReplyDeleteI also have definitely felt like Ms. Smith! You don't want the dog and pony show, but focusing on what the students are learning and really collaborating with the administrator to improve your practice is such a refreshing way to approach walkthroughs and appraisals. I think that most teachers really work hard to be better every day and this type of feedback/observation is so much more collegial and collaborative!
DeleteYes Julie! Administrators need to focus on what students are doing and what students are learning.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 4 consider these questions: 1. How might you use learning trajectories as a grade level or discipline to bring cohesion to what students are learning? 2. Students live their learning one lesson at a time. How do you currently ensure that students engage in daily lessons that lead to important standards, focus on meaningful content, and meet individual student needs with that content?
ReplyDelete1. Learning trajectories can easily be used to help teachers focus on what is truly important information for students to know and learn in any given unit. Sometimes when working in a team, everyone has different ideas about what is important so the lessons end up being so different. Coming together as a team to build a learning trajectory that is unified around the important content will help focus the entire team and ensure students are learning what they need to learn. Also, creating a learning trajectory will actually help teachers differentiate and create lessons that allow students to work through the information they need to learn while allowing teachers to work on creating lessons/activities that are focused on the learning that should occur. I really enjoyed the two examples on Pages 53-55 about the learning trajectories and how the teachers took the standards and created learning trajectories that were focused appropriately and fully on what really needed to be learned.
Delete2. I currently work hard to start with the end in mind for my lessons. I regularly ask teachers (when I collaborate) the question about “What do your students need to know when they finish this lesson?” Focusing on the end goal helps me to create meaningful lessons and activities that help students learn the content that needs to be learned. I also do my best to meet individual needs during my lessons, but that is definitely something that I need to work on. Building strong relationships with my students over time will also help me differentiate better in my lessons.
For the given questions, one items that SBMS has started last year is collaborating with grade level ELA teachers in order to review the curriculum to create grade level assessments. These assessments are a combination of writing short response tests, projects, and/or cold reading activities that the grade level teachers have created as goals 'learning trajectories' that we want our students to be achieving at. During this discussion, we also talk about and plan how we are going to get the students to understand/show mastery on the common assessments.
DeleteI still think I need to focus on the lessons to make sure the snapshot view is appropriate and adequately moving students in the right way.
1. Again, much of what we’re learning here is new, but I have also know the basic ideas from good practice teaching. However, one of the biggest “aha” moments for me was looking at a lesson through the three lenses – micro, snapshot, and long views. I think we so often look at a lesson with the micro view and in many cases, the snapshot view, but rarely have I had conversations with administrators focusing on the long view and with meaningful feedback that helps me consider the long view.
ReplyDelete2. The idea of centering everything in your lesson around “What am I supposed to learn today?” (for the students) rather than “What am I supposed to do today?” is truly key. I have definitely seen many examples of teachers planning lessons around the product rather than the learning. I want to ensure that my lessons are focused on the learning and learning growth rather than products and tools.
3. I don’t have anything I’d really like to research from this section, but I’d love to think through and plan out a learning trajectory for some of the library lessons that I’ll be teaching – especially research. With limited time for lessons, it would be great to collaborate with teachers to help deliver lessons that allow students to practice library skills while learning content for a class (double dip!!).
4. I really want to focus this year on making sure that I center every lesson around “What should students be learning today? and Should students be learning this today?” Being sure to focus on student learning goals will help me ensure that my lessons are on point and have the right learning target and focus. I would also like to work through a learning trajectory in collaboration with at least one teacher (for a longer term project).
I agree with #4. I too want to focus on What should my students today? And Should they be learning it? I want my students to understand the "why" and the focus for each lesson.
Delete3. I do not want to research this,but something that I took away from chapter 4 was looking at lesson planning through the three lessons. I feel like when I plan and collaborated lessons with team mates, we look through the first two lessons (micro and snapshot). We sometimes forget about the long view due to time. Processing the feedback from administrators and colleagues would allow us to produce quality worthwhile lessons.
ReplyDelete4. These last two chapters were a good reminder of what I should be thinking when planning worthwhile lessons for my students. By continuing looking at the goals, specific lessons, and specific needs for my students, I can produce more effective and worthwhile lessons. Not only using feedback from my colleagues and administrators, but also from my students will help me see lessons through their viewpoint.
ReplyDelete1 and 2.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if anything was new to me in these two chapters. I did find quite of few things that are occurring in our schools and definitely see the drawbacks that are resulting from students just ‘doing’.
One thing that I would like to see more of from admin is the thought of, “Mistakes are viewed as opportunities for learning and are valued as long as they are used in that capacity.” Many times the evaluation/summative is run exactly like the examples in the chapter (one comment about homework) with little feedback about student learning.
3. I really like the student being in charge of their learning. “A worthwhile lesson should require that students do, say, make, or write something that THEY clearly see develops their understanding and gives evidence of it.” This quote is one that I underlined and bookmarked. Even just thinking about the up coming year and novels really has me rethinking what I previously did in order to create new lessons that are so student driven. I also like the concept of students discovering the answers that they think show mastery making it possible to have more than one right answer. – A great way to encourage out of the box thinkers!
4.I will definitely continue and be more diligent in creating lessons that have learning trajectories focusing on important concepts and content needed to master and not on ‘trivial’ items. The poster example really hit home with the idea that ALL the activities need to extend. I think as teachers we sometimes want that poster activity to not only show off to other teachers what the students know but also use it as a fun activity to give the students. Knowing that the student is not benefitting from it though really makes one pause and rethink any well loved project.
1. What was new for you in these chapters?
ReplyDeleteOn p. 37 the lenses (micro, snapshot, and long view) to look at feedback were new to me, at least in this terminology. I think it’s interesting to look at the questions listed with these ideas and how these lenses can help us change our thinking about what we are looking at and what feedback we are getting.
2. What did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
“Effective feedback should be based on evidence.” (37) when you can specifically point to something that someone is doing and give them feedback on that thing, the feedback is so much more effective than when it’s on general observations.
3. Did something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
Learning trajectories and what make a worthwhile lesson and how to know what to look for when I’m planning my lessons.
As I’m planning with teachers, I’m interested to use the question on p. 49 (“Is today’s lesson part of a larger learning trajectory that leads to important curricular outcomes?”). I want to use this question to both help the teacher reach their desired outcomes, but also to meet me information literacy learning trajectory objectives.
4. How will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters?
This process seems a lot like Motivational Interviewing to me—where you’re giving feedback and asking guiding questions to elicit change. This was something I worked on a little bit last year and want to continue working on this year. I think it would be interesting to also incorporate the ideas in this book.
1. What was new for you in these chapters?
ReplyDeleteOn p. 37 the lenses (micro, snapshot, and long view) to look at feedback were new to me, at least in this terminology. I think it’s interesting to look at the questions listed with these ideas and how these lenses can help us change our thinking about what we are looking at and what feedback we are getting.
2. What did you read that you know is true and can relate to based upon what you have seen in your experience as an educator?
“Effective feedback should be based on evidence.” (37) when you can specifically point to something that someone is doing and give them feedback on that thing, the feedback is so much more effective than when it’s on general observations.
3. Did something interest you that you would like to research further to obtain more information and a greater understanding?
Learning trajectories and what make a worthwhile lesson and how to know what to look for when I’m planning my lessons.
As I’m planning with teachers, I’m interested to use the question on p. 49 (“Is today’s lesson part of a larger learning trajectory that leads to important curricular outcomes?”). I want to use this question to both help the teacher reach their desired outcomes, but also to meet me information literacy learning trajectory objectives.
4. How will this change what you do daily or how can you implement what you learned from these chapters?
This process seems a lot like Motivational Interviewing to me—where you’re giving feedback and asking guiding questions to elicit change. This was something I worked on a little bit last year and want to continue working on this year. I think it would be interesting to also incorporate the ideas in this book.
This term of Motivational Interviewing is new to me. I think I need to read more about this. I love asking students guided questions to elicit change and I can see where this leads to learning that makes more of an impact.
DeleteThe idea of looking at feedback through lenses with three views – micro, snapshot and long view – was a new idea for me. I wish I would have known this years ago. I also wish I would have worked for an administrator earlier in my career that was more of a collaborator engaged in giving me some collegial perspective. Too often many administrators come off as being the “boss” which for some people is needed. However, for many good teachers once they are given those few positive years of evaluation they have the ability to become stagnet because they have been identified as “proficient” or “exemplary.” Wouldn’t it be great if evaluations were less “got you” and more of “tell me more about why you did…” and then teacher and administrator would work and grow together.
ReplyDeleteChapter 4 rang true to what I know as an educator. Teachers should only teach worthwhile lessons. Far too often teachers think they are giving students a worthwhile lesson such as the lesson culminating hand washing lesson where the 2nd graders were creating a poster with the 4 steps of hand washing copied directly from another source instead of doing some actual creating!
The thing that interested me the most in this section was the idea of using learning targets instead of objectives. I think with the DDI lesson plans that the district uses/used the measurable component touches on this idea a little but I like how concrete “the learning target” sounds. I want to do more research on the topic of learning targets and try to incorporate that in my lessons in the library as well as having the learning target displayed for a class even though they come to check out a free reading book. Students should understand/read the learning target of a class coming to the library to check out a book and how it fits into the bigger picture of their educational lives.
The phrase that I plan on using this year daily was found on page 49. “Should students be learning this today?” I think that this is a powerful statement that in the library where one works with technology so much it can even take on a little different slant. I think it will help me to purposely teach students some longer usable researching skills making sure that the skills they learn in middle school can be transferred to high school and beyond.
Everyone your entries are great! You do not have to answer all questions. School will start soon so read, gain the information and answer 2 questions. Jo :-)
ReplyDeleteKaren Harrell. These two chapters brought to my attention the different lenses to look at lessons. Too often I think I just look at what will happen that day - again...looking at what students will do - not what they will learn. I need to focus more on what students are learning. What evidence do I have that they have learned something. Again, I have the benefit of co-teaching with classroom teachers and the discussion afterward helps in the development of worthwhile lessons. We look at what students need to know and move forward. We set a target, and then discuss afterwards - the ability to dissect a lesson after it is taught means it can be improved before the next delivery. As in the examples, sometimes it is a simple timing issue that can make a difference. I really liked the comments on page 65 about the evidence of a worthwhile lesson. I will reflect on these comments as I plan lessons. Because often I have less than 30 minutes to put a lesson together (teachers request at the last minute), I think I need to spend a little more time prior to the lesson with the teacher - learning what the teacher wants the students to learn - so that lessons provide more worthwhile learning for the students...no two lessons are exactly alike even on the same "topic". Building a collaborative team with the teachers to develop worthwhile lessons will be a goal for this year. May not be able to fulfill their last minute requests - but the end result for the students should be better. I need to see the evidence that learning in the library is relevant to the needs of the classroom teacher. Need to think of ways to show the evidence of learning.
ReplyDelete