Tipping the Balance

Dylan Wiliam often includes in his speeches and in his writings the old joke about schools being places where children go to watch teachers work.  There is a bit of a bite in that joke, because teachers do work incredibly hard.  Our goal, of course, is to be able to say the same for our students.  It is a balancing act, but we need to tip the balance towards the students as much as we can.

One way to ensure the kids are “doing the doing” is through the use of performance tasks.  By definition, when students perform, they are doing the work. 

Consider the following list of performance tasks you created last Friday afternoon using the SAMR model.  In order to create these, most of you took traditional multiple choice or short answer assessments and turned them into student-centered tasks by Substituting, Augmenting, Modifying, or Redefining the current assignment. 

Think of the difference in the level of work and engagement taking place when students complete these tasks, as opposed to bubbling in a Scantron.  This is just a partial list of what you created:

• Environmental Science: Have students take a tour of our building to identify potential causes of “Sick Building Syndrome.”  Prepare a presentation on solutions, cost, and benefits. 
• A scenario-based writing in Government: A recently naturalized citizen comes to you and asks about the differences between the two major American political parties….
• Project Lead the Way: Students will design the two sub-systems that make up a complete traffic light controller.  It must meet the following design specifications….
• English 10: Students will conduct an ongoing “anthropological study” of a character during the reading of The Great Gatsby, ending with geographical home search based on the proper market for their characters.
• Piano: Given specific chords, students will create a melody and identify intervals.
• Speech: Students will complete a self-assessment on their progress from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester on a specific set of skills.
• World Language: Students will write emails to students in a French-speaking country using epals.com.
• Chemistry:  Students will use a virtual learning tool (an applet from Colorado University) to make virtual solutions, take measurements, and calculate quantities. 
• History: Students will “carve up” Africa during a simulation based on the historical events during the Berlin Conference.
• Trigonometry: Students will complete a multi-step process of figuring Annual Temperature Change for a city of their choice.  The task involves research, creating a spreadsheet and model equations, and using a Sun Calculator from www.timeanddate.com.
• World Language: Instead of a writing prompt on the final exam, students will complete a semester-long project that includes blogging in Spanish.  Students will be required to comment on classmate’s posts.
• Biology: Instead of completing multiple choice questions about a diagram of a pedigree, students must design a pedigree for their own family for at least two generations.
• Foods: Using actual lab equipment and food models, students will identify, label, and correct hazardous situations.
• World Language: Instead of repeating canned conversations, students will be given wordless picture books and they must tell the story in German.
• Chemistry: Rather than short answer exam, all students will receive a molecular formula from the teacher.  They will identify structures and use atom kits to create a model of the chemical substance.  When completed, students will discuss its shape with the teacher, referencing the model.
• Ceramics: Students will create works of art that show physical evidence of the artist’s process which involves risk-taking.
• Design: Students will improve aesthetics and/or functionality of a product by using computer software to redesign a product or create prototypes.

Final Thoughts

I once heard Harry Wong speak.  He has been around for a while (and so have I) so this was more than a few years ago.  His words are still memorable—and true.  He told the story of a revelation he had early in his teaching career.  He found himself going home at the end of the school day exhausted.  Then it dawned on him why that might be: He was doing all the work.  In person, Harry is very animated, entertaining, and energetic.  I’ve paraphrased below what I remember him saying, but it isn’t the same as hearing him in person.  You have to imagine a loud voice full of laughter.  Add arms swinging and lots of movement back and forth across the stage, and you might get a bit of the impact of Harry’s presentation:

“The reason teachers are so tired at the end of the school day is that they have been working.  If I worked as hard as many teachers do, I’d be tired too.  But have you noticed what happens at 3:00 when the students leave?  “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”  Kids are running everywhere.  They are full of energy.  Why are they so full of energy?  Why aren’t they tired?  It’s because they have been sitting in school all day doing very little while the teacher is doing all the work.  Remember, the person who does the work is the one doing the learning!”

There is no getting around the fact that teaching takes effort and energy, but the list above can help tip the balance back toward the students.  Keep up the good work, HSE.

Phil