Our teachers at Greystone are becoming very skilled at helping our students understand the targets we set for their learning. We have been learning how to co-create criteria with our students so that they will understand what we are looking for when we assess their learning. We know that our students will be able to better meet the standards for high performance when the target is made clear to them and when we work with them throughout the learning process, to provide ongoing feedback and opportunities to improve their work, so that they can hit the targets we set.
The same thing is true for our teachers. When we talk about what kind of teaching needs to be going on in our classrooms so that we can make engaged learning come to life – we need to set some targets for ourselves as well. We have taken on this process of co-creating criteria for engaged student learning during our Professional Development Days this year. We are getting further along in developing our shared understanding of what we should expect to see in our classrooms when we are providing an engaging learning environment for our students. Here’s a snapshot of what our teachers have come up with so far:
Risk Taking - Learners are persevering to grow outside their boundaries.
Providing Evidence – Learners are an active part of the assessment and feedback process.
Learning Authentically – Learners are emotionally and intellectually invested in their work.
Questioning – Learners’ natural curiosity is leading them to explore deeper learning.
Collaborating – Learners are open-minded to different perspectives.
Creating – Learners are thinking, acting and engaging with ideas.
We are now developing specific actions that would be taking place in our classrooms to demonstrate each of these key areas for engaged learning. Once we have developed our action plan, we will be able to use this document as a tool to assess ourselves and provide feedback to each other as we continue our professional growth.
This is taking a long time, but the process is definitely providing us with lots of excellent opportunities for dialogue about best practices for our classrooms. I am confident that once we are finished, the criteria we have established together will be a valuable tool in helping us hit our target of getting it right for today’s learners.
Hey Carolyn,
I think that these are all great but I am wondering if there is one element missing that you may do already. Is all of this great work that is happening in the classroom visible outside of it? I think that when we provide students an audience it will perhaps push them to do better work, while also helping others to learn from each other. Just a thought as I know so many could learn from the work that is happening at GCMS.
Thanks for sharing!
Great point, George. Yes, making the work public did come up as one of our specific actions in the area of learning authentically – providing students with an an authentic audience and providing them with a purpose, outside of the walls of our school, for their work. Thanks for the reminder and thanks for reading the post.
Carolyn
Carolyn, your school is clearly demonstrating the goals of PSD’s AISI project- critical thinking and assessment AS learning are alive and flourishing at Greystone. The process you are going through seems to be very worthwhile, indeed!
Thanks for your comment, Diane. Yes – we are continuing to develop our skills related to our AISI project. Glad you noticed!!!!
Carolyn
Great post- I might include Connecting- Learners are discovering and connecting with people that share their interests, goals or aspirations, both in cyber space and in the physical environments in which they live. Thx. Lori
Excellent suggestion – thanks Lori. I believe that we are including connecting under the specific actions for Learning Authentically. Appreciate your feedback – thanks!
Carolyn
Hi Carolyn,
Saw Jesse M’s tweet and followed his link to your blog. I had the pleasure of touring Greystone a few years ago. Sounds like you’re still doing some powerful collaborative work. Thought I’d join the conversation. In Elk Island Public Schools, our AISI V project is looking at Increasing Student Intellectual Engagement. With our research partner, we’ve identified key aspects of Intellectual Engagement we plan to study. The list we’ve come up with might give your staff additional food for thought:
When students are intellectually engaged:
they experience challenge and flow (time passes quickly)
their learning environment supports their learning (student-centered)
they feel capable of doing the work (self-efficacy)
they are motivated and invested
they find their learning relevant
Our overarching goal is to shift our learning environments so that students are more intellectually engaged. No small feat!
Good luck with your common mission!
I appreciate your feedback, Sherri. Thanks for making time to read the post and to share the work you are doing in your school division. I am curious about who your research partner is? Our school division is working with the Critical Thinking Consortium. My school is working with the Galileo Educational Network and we continue to make our focus critical thinking through the inquiry process. We have used the Tell Them From Me Surveys and the work of the Canadian Education Association’s “What Did You Do in School Today” to assist us with our learning. Are you familiar with their research? I will definitely share your list with our staff. Thank you!