by Andrew K. Miller | Mar 10, 2011 | Blog, InService
This post originally appeared on InService, the ASCD community blog. ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is an educational leadership organization with 160,000 members in 148 countries, including professional educators from all levels and subject areas––superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members. View Original >
Online learning was created to fill a variety of needs for students. Some students are not successful in the traditional school. Some are bullied and feel unsafe. Some need to catch up. Some learn online in order to prevent dropping out of school. All of these scenarios cause us to rethink what time means to student learning.
Yet some people still hold fast to the Carnegie unit and time as the quality indicator for learning. Yes, adequate time must be given to student learning, but why is time the main factor and not the learning? (See iNACOL‘s briefing on competency-based pathways, which highlights many of these challenges.)
How does this affect the role of teacher? As an online educator, I use my time differently. I meet students where they are. I communicate through a variety of online tools. Some responses are instant; some occur over time. Students learn content synchronously and asynchronously, and our online meetings reflect that. Due dates, although indicated, are flexible to student needs. Submitted work is given immediate, meaningful feedback within 24 hours of submission.
Overall, when time is not the driving force, learning can be more individualized to the student. Time spent learning should be just as diverse as the students I serve.
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 28, 2011 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
One of the greatest potentials for PBL is that it calls for authentic assessment. In a well-designed PBL project, the culminating product is presented publicly for a real audience. PBL is also standards-based pedagogy. Oftentimes when I consult and coach teachers in PBL, they ask about the assessment of standards. With the pressures of high stakes testing and traditional assessments, teachers and administrators need to make sure they accurately design projects that target the standards they need students to know and be able to do. In addition, teachers need to make sure they are continually assessing throughout a PBL project to ensure their students are getting the content knowledge and skills that they need to complete the project. Below are some criteria to ensure that your PBL project demands that demands high expectations, aligned to standards and assessed properly.
When designing, use R.A.F.T. as a way to ensure an Authentic Culminating Product
R.A.F.T is great teaching strategy that many teachers use in activity-based lessons and assignments. In it, students are given a topic (T) and must make a few selections. They choose a role (R) that they will take on individually and as a group, such as marketer, author, blogger, campaign manager, etc. They choose an Audience (A) obviously related to the role. It could be students, parents, voters, a CEO, or even a doctor. Students also choose the format (F) that they will use, such as webpage, press release, letter, museum exhibit, or podcast. Again the possibilities are endless.
This strategy is a great technique to use when figure out the culminating product for PBL. You as the teacher can decide the aspects of R.A.F.T they will and also allow for student voice and choice. It helps to ensure that the product they create is real world, targeting real content and for authentic purpose and audience. This leads to student engagement.
Target Select Power Standards
However, PBL’s intent is not to cover, but to get in depth authentic assessments that truly show a student has mastered a few given standards. When students are going in depth on a targeted standard, a teacher can be confident that they have learned that target. If a teacher covers a standard, can a teacher be certain that all students truly have an understanding of the learning target? Many teachers might say “I don’t have time to go in depth.” I might reply “So what else is new?” There is never enough time to target every standard, so it is important to focus on power standards and target them in depth to ensure deep learning for all students in the classroom. When I train teachers in PBL, I use this analogy to explain an effective framework. There is shopping with intent to buy, and also exploratory or “window shopping.” I have found that teachers respond well to this analogy with regards to Standards and PBL:
“When you go window shopping, you often spend a few hours walking down the street or the halls of the mall window shopping. You look in the window at a coat you might want to buy. You even enter the store and try it on. You might even try out a cologne or perfume. Or, you might simply admire the iPad that you want to buy at the Apple store.
“Conversely, when you go shopping with intent, you most always know you want to buy something. Standards and PBL is a lot like this. You have the intent to purchase an item. The task is deliberate. You have a mission. You need to buy a gift for a friend, or you want to buy a pair of shoes. These are the ones you take the time to truly explore, think about, try on, and finally purchase with your hard-earned money. It is the same way with standards. There are some standards you “buy.” THESE are the standards you mean to assess. There are also standards you “window-shop.” These are the standards that you might encounter and explore in the project, but do not intend to full assess. As a teacher, you need to think about which standards will your students ‘buy,’ how you will teach them, and how your assessments will demonstrate the learning.”
We know that learning is not segmented. In science, you might be working on writing skills. In math, you may be working on speaking skills. That is what makes learning exciting and what allows students to make connections across disciplines. However, there must be clear intent of the instructor of what is truly to be assessed. Using this framework will allow you, the teacher to categorize and target the power standards you need to, and ensure true alignment with you assessments and standards. These might be power standards determined by your department, district or team or personal learning community (PLC). Again it depends on what forces are at work, but you are the teacher that is designing the PBL project. In order to have a targeted and aligned PBL, ask yourself: “What standards are my students going to buy, and what standards are they going to window-shop?”
Select 21st Century Skills to Teach and Assess
Just like selecting targeted power standards, you should also select 21st century skills to grade and assess. My top 3 are collaboration, presentation and critical thinking, but of course technology literacy is always a popular one. Just remember that you must teach what you intend to assess. Perhaps your students will experience critical thinking for this PBL project but be taught collaboration and also assessed. The Buck Institute has a variety of rubrics available, so you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel.”
What does 21st century assessment look like? Well, there are many ways to show that students have collaborated. Perhaps they create a wiki to show they have collaborated. Perhaps they have portfolio defense where they showcase how they critically through throughout the project. Perhaps student presentations are on YouTube. I encourage you think creatively about how you have students show they learned a 21st-century skill and share any thoughts in the comments area below.
Formatively Assess Only for Purpose of Revision and Improvement
In order to be transparent to parents and students, you need to be able to track and monitor ongoing formative assessments, that show work toward that standard. There must be a place to have this data so that effective conversations can be had for all partners in the learning of the student. In addition, you use the formative assessments to give meaningful feedback to students and specific ways to improve. It serves to improve your practice as an educator, demanding you refine and improve your instruction. In addition, it holds students accountable, because there is an exit slip, worksheet, draft, or quiz due often.
Here is the idea that may “upset the apple cart”: As I teacher, I know the complications of grade books. As a teacher you sometimes feel the need to put everything in the grade book in order to ensure that students are doing their work. However, there is philosophical dilemma here: If the grade is the performance, why does practice factor into it? I recommend only having the summative assessment count for the majority of the grade. Formative assessment is practice, and summative is the performance. You might protest “If I don’t count the worksheets and assignments I give out, then they won’t do it.” If I were there, I would answer, “You trying to ‘cattle-prod’ your students into doing work by giving leverage in the grade book instead of focusing on the real problem – Your students aren’t engaged.”
The focus should be on creating relevant, inquiry-based and engaging summative assessments. When the summative assessments have these characteristics, formative assessments and assignments will be relevant to students. The daily work is filtered through an authentic task that is engaging. Your students will do the work and it will improve the culminating product that will ultimately show they know the content and skills.
Next Steps
If you use these criterion and advice, you can be more confident that the PBL project you create is engaging and really calls for targeted learning. Your students will learn rigorous content and skills for an authentic task. As you master these techniques, make sure you are transparent in your assessment strategies with all partners in the learning community: administrators, students, parents and community stakeholders. As this a paradigm shift, you will encounter resistance, so make sure you communicate how PBL is assessed transparently.
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 16, 2011 | Blog, edReformer
This post originally appeared on edReformer, a community of advocates, entrepreneurs, educators, policy makers, philanthropists and investors seeking to promote excellence and equity in education through innovatation. edRefomer serves as a catalyst for innovation in education by encouraging and promoting public and private investment in new learning tools, schools, and platforms. View Original >
Online education can help solve the issues of equity and access for students across the United States. We have heard fantastic stories of student success in graduating from high school due to access to online courses.
Last year, Susan Sawyers wrote an article for USAToday showcasing how some students are using online courses to graduate on time. It’s a great window into the potential and echoes many stories we hear from students, families, and community members who are experiencing online education. A diverse population of students was able to take classes to retrieve credit for classes they may have failed in the past.
Distance learning environments are by no means immune to the problems arising from cultural differences. In fact, these environments may even be more prone to cultural conflicts than traditional classrooms as instructors in these settings not only interact with students who have removed themselves from their native culture, but they also interact with students who remain “physically and socially within the different culture, a culture that is foreign to, and mostly unknown, to the teacher.”
—Sedef Uzuner in Questions of Culture in Distance Learning: A Research Review
Geneva Gay recently printed a new edition of her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Research, Theory and Practice, and it explains the many of the dispositions and practices teachers need to have. The next step is to ensure this sort of practice occurs consistent in online course instruction. We need to remember that simply having access to great online courses does not mean they will be culturally responsive, nor does it mean the teachers themselves will be. We need to ensure we train our online educators with the tools and skills it takes to interact with students of diverse populations, especially as more students begin taking more courses online. Culture of course includes a variety of identifies and aspects, from race, ethnicity and gender; to religion, socio-economic status and place. I would also propose that teachers need to utilize the online culture that we know exists with these students. All students have cultural strengths and resiliencies; we need to ensure we are using all these strengths, including the culture of online learning.
Related articles
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 2, 2011 | Blog
In this Voices of the Dropout Nation, Andrew Miller of the Buck Institute for Education offers his own perspective on what online learning can be — and why it shouldn’t resemble traditional public education. Read, consider and offer your own thoughts.
In this Voices of the Dropout Nation, Andrew Miller of the Buck Institute for Education looks at another aspect of improving online instruction: Dealing with cultural relevance. While your editor has some skeptical thoughts on this matter, Miller offers a compelling argument for being concerned about its role in spurring the nation’s education crisis. Read, consider and offer your own thoughts.
by Andrew K. Miller | Jan 31, 2011 | Blog, Dropout Nation
This post originally appeared on Dropout Nation, a site focusing on America’s dropout crisis and education reform. This is an expansion of a commentary on education that began four years ago for the Indianapolis Star with Left Behind, a series of editorials editorialist RiShawn Biddle co-wrote detailing Indiana’s — and the nation’s — dropout crisis. View Original >
When Susan Sawyers wrote an article for USA Today showcasing how some students are using online course to graduate on time and avoid dropping out, it highlighted one of the important benefits of online education: Providing equity in and access to high quality education. A diverse population of students can take classes in order to retrieve credit for classes they may have failed in the past without dealing with the barriers that led them astray in the first place.
At the same time, there are potential pitfalls. As Sedef Uzuner wrote recently, online and distance learning environments as as prone to aggravating cultural differences as traditional classrooms because students are removed from native cultures and interacting with students from different ones. So teachers in the online space need to be as thoughtful about race, ethnicity, gender, religion and even socioeconomic status and land of birth as those in their counterparts in old-school classrooms.
So we need teachers in the online space to be culturally responsive in their instruction. What do I mean by that? Culturally Responsive Online Teachers identify and utilize cultural strengths and resiliencies through aligned online teaching best practices, while utilizing diverse discourse structures and curriculum. These resiliencies vary across culture and experience.
As an example, many of our students have the resiliency to be highly adaptive and agile. They can look at a subway system many and easily navigate from place to place in a variety of ways. Many of our students have the resiliency to communicate across cultures. The common language at school might be English, while Tagalog is spoken at home. Even online students have a culture that they live in. They access a different language. They navigate and evaluate data constantly. Why shouldn’t we utilize these resiliencies?
Geneva Gay recently printed a new edition of her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Research, Theory and Practice, and it explains the many of the dispositions and practices teachers need to have. The next step is to ensure this sort of practice occurs consistent in online course instruction. Learning Management systems and the online structures need to be just as diverse as the cultures they serve. The typical paradigm of “reading and doing” that many online courses have needs to change. We are in danger of replicating a system for the online world that has not served all students in the brick and mortar world. Structures need to be examined and built to allow for diverse discourses that align with online teaching best practices.
We need to ensure we train our online educators with the tools and skills it takes to interact with students of diverse populations, especially as more students begin taking more courses online. All students have cultural strengths and resiliencies; we need to ensure we are using all these strengths, including the culture of online learners.
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