Hello!
I decided to wrap my ideas today into a video. Why?
1) It's easier than reading (though, there is SOME reading to be done).
2) It will show you what I've been talking about all year.
3) I got a lot of great footage today and I wanted to package it together. I've decided to share.
It's important to note the following:
a) The students were working on a NEW concept, and were only asked the question and given access to resources. I did not prompt them to do things - the only prompting is my questioning, to pull out some of the information from their brains.
b) This is a typical day in my classroom. The set up is dependent on the task, and where they are in their independence with a concept.
c) This is one way that I document who does what and how they do it. This is handy for assessment purposes. Today's assessment was all diagnostic.
Watch, share, enjoy! Please let me know if you have questions, and I will try to answer them in a blog (or a Vlog! What a fun new format for me!)
Thanks for stopping by!
Link to the video on Youtube
Monday, May 27, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Planning vs. Prepping ... and Everything In-Between!
I was at a hub today, where we were looking at how to blend e-learning with face-to-face learning. Over the past few meetings, I've made reference to my math program, and today someone asked me:
"So it sounds like you're right into the problem based learning. Do you spend a lot more time planning for that?"
My short answer was, "No, I spend less."
Here is my long answer, and why.
BEFORE:
When I was teaching from the text book, I spent my planning time reviewing the lessons, copying black line masters, digging up manipulatives, and then finding the correlating lesson in the different grade level texts, according to the IEP's in the room. I would then spend my class in the following way:
First 20 Minutes: Introduce the lesson and have them follow along in the text. Do some modelling and show them EXACTLY what to do and how to answer.
Thirty Minute Work Period: Answer the questions. Not finished? Homework!
I would spend MY time wandering the room, peering over shoulders, and chasing down hands as the room was silent. If it wasn't, I was shushing.
The next day, I would look at some of the work, or the work that I had them hand in. They would hand in the one "big problem" in the text book, either on a cue card or by putting a star next to the answer in the text.
I would move on to the next lesson and forget about it. At the end of the unit, or the lessons I chose to do (because some of them I skipped), I would give them a review test for homework, take it up as a class, answer some questions, and then give them the test the next day. I'd spend hours marking it, record the results in my neat and tidy mark book, and that was that. Movin' on.
Fortunately, that only lasted for about 6 months before I realized it didn't work. (6 months into my 2nd year of teaching, as my first year I was bounced around and I don't even remember it!)
NOW:
I tend to plan on Friday for the upcoming week. I have a 40 minute prep and can typically cover off most of my math planning at that time. This is what I do:
1) Identify what expectations we covered this past week. I will either build on those, extend from those, or if we are wrapping things up, move on to some new expectations.
2) Once I have identified one or two "main" expectations (for example, this week we are looking at conversions in measurement), I look for ways that I can layer in expectations from other strands. This week, I chose to look at mean again, and targeted one of my open problems around the mean. In order to find the mean, they would have to convert the measurements to one cohesive unit. The unit was up to them, though I hoped they would select the most appropriate unit for the length.
3) Then, I build my questions. I aim to have 2 open questions and 2 parallel tasks. I rarely actually use them all, or at least use them all as they are, or within a week. Often, this becomes a 2 week plan instead of one.
4) I have to ensure that there is some stepping-stone opportunities as I build the questions. I don't want to just reiterate the same skill over and over - that is sometimes useful, but often a waste of time. If students are showing solid understanding, then they need to move and increase complexity. My questions start more simply and layer in more indepth questioning, skills, and so on. It may not be HUGELY different, but over the week, my goal is to have them moving from collaborating to independently solving, because at some point, they must be able to do it on their own. They know that the accountability is part of the culture, because we have built it that way and regularly discuss it.
Many of my questions, prompts and basic ideas come right from the math curriculum. When an expectation doesn't actually have one, I will check Marion Small's Big Ideas book to see what she has and often tweak it to be more appropriate for my group. I also check the Guides for Effective Instruction, right from the ministry, and steal questions from there. Sometimes, I even check the (gasp!) text book, because with some work, many of the questions CAN work.
So how do I differentiate? It is built right in. An open question allows for a variety of strategies, and may also allow for self-selected numbers to work with - comfortable, "just right" numbers. A parallel task allows me to scaffold the questions, either by changing numbers, opening a question for some and closing a question for others, and by allowing students to select the one they would like to answer. When it comes to the elementary curriculum in math, many of the differences simply come into how large the numbers become, and when there is a solid understanding of numbers, then any number is workable.
If a student has a modified math IEP, I can ensure that their parallel task is appropriate to them by cueing them, but allow them opportunities to work with other learners at other levels. Often, they learn from each other, and the outcome is surprising when the children are permitted to just work through, without teacher talk and interference. I've said it before and I'll say it again ... often, we just need to shut up.
Most of my real "planning" or preparing comes WITHIN the classroom. I am constantly making decisions based on what I hear and see. I may choose to extend the problem into tomorrow, or consolidate today rather than tomorrow, or tomorrow rather than today. I follow the flow of the students. If they need to be brought back in for a tutorial, I will do that. I don't need a fancy lesson to do it, I just need their voices and our collective skill base. I'm no expert in math - hey, I got a 56 in Gr. 11 math. I never LIKED math, until I found problem based math.
After class, I've already looked at their work, because I no longer have a desk and spend my time wandering. I am recording their working process, asking questions about what and why they are doing things, and taking pictures of their work. I will sometimes look at their work to make decisions, but most often I don't need to, because I already heard their thought processes, and that is more important than what they write down. Of course, what they write down has value, and I'm not suggesting it doesn't. But, I know how they are recording their work and what they're writing, because I watched it happen. I probed as it happened. And, I'm ready for tomorrow.
So yes, my planning takes me less than an hour most weeks. It involves creating questions and mentally working through different way I might solve it. It requires that I have a list of questions ready to go. But it does include making lessons for the Smart Board, or designing fancy videos. It doesn't require that I photocopy a bunch of stuff and dig up dusty manipulatives - whatever they might need is readily available at all times.
Do I spend a lot more time planning for problem based learning? Not even close. And yet somehow, I am closer to my students, deeper into the curriculum, and can comment on specific strategies and processes that they have used because my energy is in the learning, not the planning.
As a final thought, here are the questions I've used this week, and how I organized them. I've noted my Look-For's:
This is not an end-all-be-all explanation of my planning. It flows and grows and changes flexibly, with intentional thought, as the year progresses. But, I certainly spend more time thinking about what they do, instead of planning and preparing lessons before hand. The learning is deeper, their relationship with math (and their peers) is stronger and more positive, and my assessments are deeper, based on process work, discussions, consolidations, and through looking at their "Friday" (not always a Friday, but by this I mean their independent) work.
So that is how I plan. For now.
"So it sounds like you're right into the problem based learning. Do you spend a lot more time planning for that?"
My short answer was, "No, I spend less."
Here is my long answer, and why.
BEFORE:
When I was teaching from the text book, I spent my planning time reviewing the lessons, copying black line masters, digging up manipulatives, and then finding the correlating lesson in the different grade level texts, according to the IEP's in the room. I would then spend my class in the following way:
First 20 Minutes: Introduce the lesson and have them follow along in the text. Do some modelling and show them EXACTLY what to do and how to answer.
Thirty Minute Work Period: Answer the questions. Not finished? Homework!
I would spend MY time wandering the room, peering over shoulders, and chasing down hands as the room was silent. If it wasn't, I was shushing.
The next day, I would look at some of the work, or the work that I had them hand in. They would hand in the one "big problem" in the text book, either on a cue card or by putting a star next to the answer in the text.
I would move on to the next lesson and forget about it. At the end of the unit, or the lessons I chose to do (because some of them I skipped), I would give them a review test for homework, take it up as a class, answer some questions, and then give them the test the next day. I'd spend hours marking it, record the results in my neat and tidy mark book, and that was that. Movin' on.
Fortunately, that only lasted for about 6 months before I realized it didn't work. (6 months into my 2nd year of teaching, as my first year I was bounced around and I don't even remember it!)
NOW:
I tend to plan on Friday for the upcoming week. I have a 40 minute prep and can typically cover off most of my math planning at that time. This is what I do:
1) Identify what expectations we covered this past week. I will either build on those, extend from those, or if we are wrapping things up, move on to some new expectations.
2) Once I have identified one or two "main" expectations (for example, this week we are looking at conversions in measurement), I look for ways that I can layer in expectations from other strands. This week, I chose to look at mean again, and targeted one of my open problems around the mean. In order to find the mean, they would have to convert the measurements to one cohesive unit. The unit was up to them, though I hoped they would select the most appropriate unit for the length.
3) Then, I build my questions. I aim to have 2 open questions and 2 parallel tasks. I rarely actually use them all, or at least use them all as they are, or within a week. Often, this becomes a 2 week plan instead of one.
4) I have to ensure that there is some stepping-stone opportunities as I build the questions. I don't want to just reiterate the same skill over and over - that is sometimes useful, but often a waste of time. If students are showing solid understanding, then they need to move and increase complexity. My questions start more simply and layer in more indepth questioning, skills, and so on. It may not be HUGELY different, but over the week, my goal is to have them moving from collaborating to independently solving, because at some point, they must be able to do it on their own. They know that the accountability is part of the culture, because we have built it that way and regularly discuss it.
Many of my questions, prompts and basic ideas come right from the math curriculum. When an expectation doesn't actually have one, I will check Marion Small's Big Ideas book to see what she has and often tweak it to be more appropriate for my group. I also check the Guides for Effective Instruction, right from the ministry, and steal questions from there. Sometimes, I even check the (gasp!) text book, because with some work, many of the questions CAN work.
So how do I differentiate? It is built right in. An open question allows for a variety of strategies, and may also allow for self-selected numbers to work with - comfortable, "just right" numbers. A parallel task allows me to scaffold the questions, either by changing numbers, opening a question for some and closing a question for others, and by allowing students to select the one they would like to answer. When it comes to the elementary curriculum in math, many of the differences simply come into how large the numbers become, and when there is a solid understanding of numbers, then any number is workable.
If a student has a modified math IEP, I can ensure that their parallel task is appropriate to them by cueing them, but allow them opportunities to work with other learners at other levels. Often, they learn from each other, and the outcome is surprising when the children are permitted to just work through, without teacher talk and interference. I've said it before and I'll say it again ... often, we just need to shut up.
Most of my real "planning" or preparing comes WITHIN the classroom. I am constantly making decisions based on what I hear and see. I may choose to extend the problem into tomorrow, or consolidate today rather than tomorrow, or tomorrow rather than today. I follow the flow of the students. If they need to be brought back in for a tutorial, I will do that. I don't need a fancy lesson to do it, I just need their voices and our collective skill base. I'm no expert in math - hey, I got a 56 in Gr. 11 math. I never LIKED math, until I found problem based math.
After class, I've already looked at their work, because I no longer have a desk and spend my time wandering. I am recording their working process, asking questions about what and why they are doing things, and taking pictures of their work. I will sometimes look at their work to make decisions, but most often I don't need to, because I already heard their thought processes, and that is more important than what they write down. Of course, what they write down has value, and I'm not suggesting it doesn't. But, I know how they are recording their work and what they're writing, because I watched it happen. I probed as it happened. And, I'm ready for tomorrow.
So yes, my planning takes me less than an hour most weeks. It involves creating questions and mentally working through different way I might solve it. It requires that I have a list of questions ready to go. But it does include making lessons for the Smart Board, or designing fancy videos. It doesn't require that I photocopy a bunch of stuff and dig up dusty manipulatives - whatever they might need is readily available at all times.
Do I spend a lot more time planning for problem based learning? Not even close. And yet somehow, I am closer to my students, deeper into the curriculum, and can comment on specific strategies and processes that they have used because my energy is in the learning, not the planning.
As a final thought, here are the questions I've used this week, and how I organized them. I've noted my Look-For's:
|
MONDAY (open partner choice):
Harley has been very busy – she’s been taking secret weekend
trips! In the past month, she has
travelled:
-
12 km
-
1200 m
-
120 m
-
1.2 cm
-
120 km
-
12,000,000 cm
-
__________ cm
-
__________ m
-
__________ km
What is the mean of her trips? |
THURSDAY (partial independence):
Use manipulatives to prove whether or not the following
statements are true:
3.2 m is 320 cm
4.1 cm is 410 km
321 cm is ____ cm
OR
Use
manipulatives or an equation to prove whether or not the following statements
are true:
320 cm is 32 m
410 km is 41 cm
____ m is ____ cm
(LOOK FOR: Are they using Tuesday's equations? How are they understanding conversions?)
|
|
TUESDAY (teacher selected partner choice):
Investigate, test and confirm an equation for converting
cm to m.
Do the same for m to km, km to m, m to cm, and cm to km!
(LOOK FOR: Are they understanding conversions? Can they use variables and constants? Are they testing and confirming their equations?)
|
FRIDAY (independent):
Describe the multiplicative relationship between
the number of centimetres and the number
of metres that represent a length. Use this
relationship to convert __.__ cm to metres.
OR
Describe the division relationship between the
number of metres and the number
of centimetres that represent a length. Use this
relationship to convert __.__ m to centimetres.
|
|
WEDNESDAY:
I’m away – work on practice package.
|
This is not an end-all-be-all explanation of my planning. It flows and grows and changes flexibly, with intentional thought, as the year progresses. But, I certainly spend more time thinking about what they do, instead of planning and preparing lessons before hand. The learning is deeper, their relationship with math (and their peers) is stronger and more positive, and my assessments are deeper, based on process work, discussions, consolidations, and through looking at their "Friday" (not always a Friday, but by this I mean their independent) work.
So that is how I plan. For now.
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