Day 2: 2017 April Blog A Day Challenge - Teaching Wins: Growth

Prompt: Teaching Win: Where have you grown the most this year?

I am in my last semester of completing my a second MSED in Leadership (School and District).  There are a multitude of moving parts this year both in and out of the classroom as I fulfill graduation requirements as well as course work on top of keeping up with the day to day teaching of three different English classes.  Needless to say, it is a lot and I am working far beyond my capacity.  I knew this year would not be my best work in the classroom, but I always go into an experience hoping to learn, stretch my thinking, and leaving with new insight into the hows and whys of any job I am doing.

Image via HERE

This semester I am working with a Algebra II ICT co-teaching partnership.  The pair are an exceptional example of strong ebb and flow when it comes to team teaching.  The content teacher, a young woman in her second year, joined out staff this year. In addition to asking her to take on learning the new CC Algebra II curriculum, we also challenged all out teachers with continuing to design and integrate mastery based assessment and learning into their practice.  

Working with teachers outside of my content is always something that I have felt less than comfortable doing. I also always wondered about (questioned/challenged?) the ability of a school leader to effectively coach/observe teachers who did not share their content.  In making the move to work with a team outside of my content area this semester, it has already begin to help me to grow and see how my 10 years of experience as well as the work I have done in #TTOG and moving to MBA has made me a strong thinking partner for the pair.  It is exciting to see their thinking and evolution and hearing the great questions they have about MBA in their own practice.       

So, for me, this year I think my greatest area of growth as an educator has been in gaining a new awareness of the power and possibilities of coaching and how truly successful coaching is about unlocking and helping to develop potential. 

Defense of Learning: Portfolios- Day One

Today was the first day of the oral Defense of Learning portfolio presentations.  I had to teach first period and I didn't get quite as many mentors/adults in to sit with groups, however in the end it was ok.  Day one was a success.  

Students came in dressed to impress, some in suits and ties others in dress pants and button downs.  It was clear that they meant business.  All I had given them going into today was the groups they would be presenting in.  They all had to be ready to go.  For the most part, they were.  Only a few students did not have hard copy of their portfolio-- the document that I collected at the end of the period.  All did however have their presentations ready and 14 students presented to panels of peers and adults today, justifying the grade and level of mastery they believe they have demonstrated for the semester.

In groups of 5, they sat around, some choosing to stand in front of their group and began.  Each student had 10 minutes to present their defense and then had an additional 5 minutes of questioning from the panel about their defense.  At the end of the 15 minutes, presenters stepped into the hallway to wait while the panel engaged in discussion of the effectiveness of their defense, looking at the presentation as well as the hard copy portfolio.

As a teacher, moments like this are always a risk.  Trying something new, being the first in my school to toss out numerical grades all together and ask students to rely on feedback alone to evolve and learn.  Risk aside, it is also exciting.  I know that they are growing but to learn it through reflection and analysis has proven to be far more effective than any feedback I could have written on a report card.  Today was an exceptional example of student ownership of learning.  

My principal, Seung was able to come in for part of the presentations today.  As a former English teacher himself, he has a clear understanding of the work and of the steps to move students at this level.  Shortly after his visit he sent out the following emil to the staff: 

Staff,

Today I had the privilege of observing students in the AP Language and Composition presenting their Defense of Learning about their performance of the Mastery Skills they are expected to work on in the class. 

I listened to Colin and Mamadou give their presentation to their peers and articulate their rationale of their level of performance and was privy to Vanaija, Bujar, and Nicholas discussing and evaluating Mamadou's presentation. Needless to say, I was so impressed with the student-led, student driven conversations and discussions that cognitively challenged and engaged every student in the class.... 

This is why we moved to Mastery-based learning and a wonderful example of what students can do when given the opportunity to take control of their learning. 

Congratulations to Meredith and her class on such an impressive display of intellectual discourse. 

It is true.  Last year and throughout the summer when I began to dig deep into Mastery learning, I came to believe that there are no half-measures when it comes to learning this way.  I know that this choice with my AP class, while challenging and far from perfect is on its way.  Tomorrow will be day two of presentations and then I will conference with students on Thursday and Friday to determine final semester grades.  When we come back after the Regents week I will debrief with students to determine what worked, what didn't and how we can make it better for second semester.

Diving Into The Deep End: Goodbye Grades, Hello Mastery Learning!

Last year my school began the shift towards Mastery Learning.  I was keen on the idea of mastering skills or content rather that simply working from assignment to assignment- seeing how a kid did and moving forward with out revision or truly looking at the why of the learning.  I had some frank conversations with my AP Lang students last spring about what they thought class would be like for them if they didn't have the pressure of grades.  Their thinking was insightful and eye opening, confirming much of my own thinking about student learning.  When they are not working for a grade, but on a skill, they will invest in a different way, working to improve the skill.  Students don't work to improve grades on individual assignments in traditional classrooms.  They look at the grade on the paper, cheer or cry, and move onto the next assignment with the hope of improving the overall grade for the course by bringing the average up.

Mastery in motion: Theatre Arts

I also teach theatre.  It is a required course for all students at our school.  One of the units, solo performance is where students have to select, learn/memorize, create character and blocking and ultimately perform their monologue for their peers.  It is a big deal.  Some kids come in and blow it out of the water.  Other kids melt down and cry.  I have two rules though.

1. Everyone has to try. If you are absent you go to the end of the list, but everyone has to get up and make an attempt.  This is what makes a student eligible to do a make-up and try again.

2. If you have tried, and you are not happy with your score, you are eligible to try again and you can earn up to FULL credit.  There is no penalty for trying again the incentive being improvement.  They get the rubric back after the first try, they have time to rehearse and revise, work on the skills that needed improvement.

I would say 75% of students try again.  It's usually a range of make-ups: kids who failed and kids who did well and want to eek out those last few points.  This is mastery of skills with room for revision and improvement to demonstrate a higher level of mastery. Every time I do this unit I see the same results and impact on student growth and learning.  I knew it worked.  It was about moving to put the theory into practice across the board.


The AP Pilot

Numerous conversations have taken place since the spring when I read Assessment 3.0  by Mark D. Barnes.  With the blessing and support of my administration team I, along with another teacher (who will be doing a similar pilot with struggling math students to determine a different POV of data points on Mastery learning).  

• I have created a series of rubrics on an assortment of Mastery Standards based on the language from College Board and the learning objectives students will need to work to master over the course of the YEAR.  
• In starting with all the skills I am better able to plan and support student development.
• Students will be required to come to office hours twice a month to conference with me about their development and revision of work, a non-negotiable. 
• At the end of each semester, because we are a public high school with traditional transcripts, we will have to come to a decision on a semester grade for fall and spring.  Students will be required to present a Defense of Learning to a small group of peers and adult mentors where they will have to present their learning and development of Mastery and propose a numerical grade that they believe represents their learning. Then a conference with me...

This year...

I am going to use this space to reflect on my process this year of throwing out grades and seeing where it takes me.