Before reading further, think about this statement:
The focus of our efforts at Hamilton Southeastern High School must be primarily
on student learning rather than on teaching.
About five years ago, I had the opportunity to
visit Lindsay High School in the San Joaquin Valley, just south of Fresno,
California.
Lindsay is a school that is very different from
Southeastern, but I met some outstanding and innovative educators on that
visit. They were working closely with
Robert Marzano and Associates and were trying to turn around a school that by
all accounts was struggling. Perhaps the
most daring move they made was to put every student on an individualized
learning plan that included advancement and the granting of course credit based on
performance. Lindsay was all about what
the student learned.
In fact, they didn't call the kids
“students.” They were “learners,” and
the teachers were “learning facilitators.”
If you can get over the awkwardness of the titles, the intent is
excellent.
For good reason, we tend to focus on what and how
we are teaching. This is not a bad
thing. We should always strive to
improve our teaching. In fact, I believe
that the Teacher Effectiveness Rubric and the TEDS process emphasizes improved
teaching. The TER requires us to be
very, very intentional and reflective about what we teach and how we teach it.
The issue is, of course, that regardless of how we
teach it, if the students don’t learn it, we haven’t really accomplished much. This is exactly why the TER pushes so hard
for monitoring student progress. Monitoring
progress is found all over the rubric:
·
Competency 1.2: Set measurable achievement
goals
·
Competency 1.4: Create objective-driven lesson
plans and assessments
·
Competency 1.5: Track student data and analyze
progress
·
Competency 2.1: Develop student understanding
and mastery of lesson objectives
·
Competency 2.4: Check for understanding
·
Competency 2.5: Modify instruction as needed
I’ll give you hint: Don’t wait for the final exam
to check how students are doing on your Class Student Learning Objective. This semester, it will pay dividends for your
students—and for you—to give multiple formative assessments. Formative assessments are those that students
complete without risk. They may or may
not be formal assessments. (Note the
difference between “formative” and “formal.”)
Formative assessments tell you if your teaching is
resulting in student learning. It gives
you a chance to adjust instruction.
John Hattie, a widely published education
professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said, “The mistake I
was making was seeing feedback as something teachers provide to students….It
was only when I discovered that feedback was most powerful when it is from the
student to the teacher that I started to understand it better.” He is talking about formative assessments--feedback from the students to the teacher.
The trouble with formative feedback, however, is
that it requires you to adjust your teaching to meet the needs of the learner
and supports Robert Marzano’s interesting take on how often you should give
formative assessments. His response to
that question: “As often as you are
willing to change your instruction.”
It’s true that we may not be able to teach a dog
to whistle, but we certainly can improve student performance when we know exactly
what they need in order to take the next step.
Avoid whistling in the dark, HSE.
Check often where students are in their learning, and then make
adjustments to ensure they reach the learning targets.
Have a great week.
Phil
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