As the principal of a Title I eligible campus, I have the
privilege of working with a wide variety of kids.
They come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and represent multiple
cultures. We have great kids here at The
Ranch! For a myriad of reasons, our
students sometimes have conceptual gaps.
High mobility, language barriers and family dynamics are just a few of
the battles many of our kids face. Because of these gaps, it is easy to get
swept up into a variety of interventions designed to move them to where they need
to be academically. As an Instructional
Leadership Team, we recognized how important it is that we provide quality
instruction the first time. It makes me
think of this quote from Steve Jobs:
With this in mind, we began the work of describing some of
the elements we believed were fundamental to quality first time
instruction.
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Clear objectives – Sometimes the most obvious
and basic things get overlooked. A
clearly-stated, overtly-shared objective is one of those basic elements related to
effective teaching. Our collective
campus expectation is to have the objective written as an “I can…”
statement. Without this clear direction
for what is to be learned, even the most active lesson can become little more that
entertainment. Entertainment does not
always equal learning.
High level questioning – Questioning that leads
to learning is an art. Initially, this
area of our model was focused on moving toward more open-ended questions that
promote high cognition. In an effort to
make this work come to life, we did a study of the verbs in our standards
(TEKS). We pulled the most common verbs
and organized them according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. We then created posters that are in all our
classrooms that have this information.
We call these “High Side” posters.
These are a reminder to our teachers of this expectation during lessons
and in planning. Over time we have expanded our focus
on questioning to include wait time and randomizing who answers the
question.
Technology as a tool – What an amazing time to
be alive! Technology that was once
science fiction is readily available and has the potential to bring us together like never before. At times, we can get
more focused on how amazing the tool is rather than what we need to accomplish
that might involve the use of the tool.
I think about how I love to stroll through Home Depot and look at new hand tools. I have a recent memory
of purchasing a drill and then looking for something that needed a hole in
it! Historically, purchases have been
made for schools in a similar fashion. After the purchase, teachers are made aware of the latest hardware or software and then
look for what to do with it. Our belief
is that we should identify what we want to do instructionally and then look for
the best strategy to reach our goal.
This may very well involve a technology tool. We are delving into the SAMR model and trying
to move to more transformative uses of these tools.
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Technology as a tool – What an amazing time to
be alive! Technology that was once
science fiction is readily available and has the potential to bring us together like never before. At times, we can get
more focused on how amazing the tool is rather than what we need to accomplish
that might involve the use of the tool.
I think about how I love to stroll through Home Depot and look at new hand tools. I have a recent memory
of purchasing a drill and then looking for something that needed a hole in
it! Historically, purchases have been
made for schools in a similar fashion. After the purchase, teachers are made aware of the latest hardware or software and then
look for what to do with it. Our belief
is that we should identify what we want to do instructionally and then look for
the best strategy to reach our goal.
This may very well involve a technology tool. We are delving into the SAMR model and trying
to move to more transformative uses of these tools.
Differentiated – This is one of the great
challenges for teachers is working with a group of students who have a variety
of background experiences and competencies.
If you want students to be motivated from within, differentiation is key. Dan Pink’s work on motivation is a solid place to start to understanding the "why" for differentiation, Check out the video, “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.” He identifies 3 areas that drive an
individual’s intrinsic motivation. These
include autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose. Two of these three are reflected in a
differentiated classroom. Central to
autonomy is learner choice. Masterful
teachers find ways for students to have locus of control within a framework
that targets a standard. As humans, we
sometimes avoid things that we don’t feel competent at. I am not a good dancer… yet! Because I don’t feel very masterful at the art of dance, I avoid it. This same issue abounds in our
classrooms. Students choose not to
engage because they are not masterful at the level of activity we put in front
of them. The challenge is to start at a
level that they can find mastery and bring them to where the need to
be. It is great for us to promote high
standards, but we must provide a scaffold to those who have a large
instructional gap to leap. This is why differentiation
for readiness level is so necessary for many students. Central to our understanding was Carol Tomlinson's work.
Assessment guiding instruction – So often it
seems that assessments are more like an autopsy than a checkup. Of
course it all about how we use the information.
Retests and do-overs after focused post assessment instruction support
the use of data in a formative way. Rick
Stiggins does an excellent job of helping us understand the difference between
assessments OF and FOR learning..
Summative assessment has its place for reporting but formative
assessment is what drives student growth and learning.
With these areas identified in our Accomplished Teaching
Model, we began our year-long staff development focused on these areas. My next blog will discuss how we worked to
identify what a passionate educator looks like.
