Authentic Learning: Making Space for Quality Instruction

Authentic learning is the way we actually learn in real life.  In order to create authentic learning opportunities, we must find ways to make space in our day to do the things that really matter.

Let me pose a scenario.  Your child is learning to read.  You have 3 goals for your child.  You want your child to comprehend what is read, increase his/her vocabulary, and improve his/her spelling.

Now, thinking of your own child, which of the following ways do you go about helping your child meet these goals?

• A) Read to your child.  Have your child read to you.  Discuss what was read.  Find interesting books to read together.  Model reading.  
• B) Give your child a list of words to memorize and then spell them at the end of the week.  Give your child a list of words to define.  Fill out a worksheet where the child matches definitions on the left with words on the right.  Do a crossword puzzle.  

In order to create the most effective learning environment, we must do it in the way people actually learn.  We clearly understand that increasing the amount of time reading will have a larger impact on vocabulary, spelling and comprehension than the alternative.  As we consider how to create authentic learning opportunities in the classroom, we have to make decisions of what we will give up to make this happen.  We can't do everything, so we must make space for authentic assessment, powerful feedback, quality instruction, and a focus on learning rather than teaching.

Making Space for Quality Instruction

• Increase the amount and quality of feedback. Decrease the number of graded assignments.
• Increase authentic learning experiences. Decrease worksheets and quizzes.
• Increase student engagement through choice.  Decrease direct instruction (not eliminate).
• Increase problem based learning.  Decrease memorization.
• Increase connection to the learning target. Decrease busy work.
• Increase creating tangible products. Decrease tasks that don't lead to a final product.
• Increase focus on the student.  Decrease focus on the teacher.

Building Positive and Respectful Relationships

Relationships will make or break your ability to be an effective educator.  Relationships establish a classroom and school environment where students feel safe and can learn.  In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, once a students physiological needs are met and he/she feels safe, that child must then feel he/she belongs.

Some teachers naturally develop positive and respectful relationships with students. What is it about these teachers?  Michael Linsin says that all students "are drawn to teachers who exude a calm, friendly demeanor."  Rather than using "relationships" as a strategy, simply show you care with all of your actions.

Eric Jensen says "There's a huge difference between an orderly school where things run smoothly and an ordered school, which follows a top-down authoritarian model.  The former respects the students; the latter treats them like second class citizens." Treat all students as people deserving of respect.

Here are some ideas that are important to developing relationships.

Give respect first-Don't expect students to respect you because you are the teacher.  While we wish all students came to school with great social skills and an understanding of simple, basic manners or cultural norms, not all do.  We are teachers, let's teach them by role modeling.  Give respect even when they least deserve it.  If a student is in the office for a negative behavior, give respect even while giving a consequence.  You can't control if they give you respect.  Lecturing them on the virtues of respect will likely go on deaf ears.  Start the respect cycle by modeling respect.

Be consistent-Show no favoritism to students.  Students should be shown that you care about them no matter what.  While certain student actions might elicit a positive response from you and other student actions will elicit a negative response, these actions must be consistent regardless of who the student is.

Show that you care-Don't tell kids you care, show them.  Don't single kids out to show you care, simply listen when they come to you to talk. Treat all kids with respect and dignity.

Speak positively about students- Avoid making a negative comment, joke, or negative remark about a student.  Other students, even ones that are well behaved, will infer that you don't care about that student.  It will affect your entire classroom culture.

Treat students with dignity-One of the best football coaches I ever have been around treated all kids with dignity.  His athletes knew that he cared about them no matter if they were a 5th string Sophomore or an all-state caliber running back.  How did his athletes know? Because he reacted and interacted with both athletes in the same way, regardless of ability.

Authenticity-Be yourself.

Let students come to you.  Don't go to a student and ask about their personal lives when you were not invited by the student to do so.  Instead, give respect first, act in a consistent way, show that you care, speak positively about students, treat students with dignity, and be authentic.  When you do these things, students will be drawn to you.

Relationships will happen naturally.  Will they be positive and increase a sense of belonging, creating a great learning environment? It's up to
the adults to create and nurture this environment.

Homework and Grading Philosophy Hits Home

My 6th grade daughter is learning to do percentages.  She has worked hard on this concept each night for the last several nights.  She simply struggles with this concept.  As she practices, I see her improve.  Each night she has gotten a little better.

If she were to be graded on her homework, what would this prove?  It would act, in many ways, as a punishment for not "getting it" right away.  But isn't that the point of learning.  If you "get it" in the beginning, then you aren't learning.  Instead, you are just proving that this didn't need to be taught.

Fortunately, she is in a class where students are given feedback.  They are not given a grade that can't be improved upon.  She will be able to prove that she has learned the concept through an assessment.  If a student doesn't get it the first time, they are given chances to redo their test.

Some teachers have expressed that students won't do homework unless they grade it.  As a teacher, I remember worrying about the same thing.  So, I asked my daughter, "If you don't get graded on the homework, then why do you do it?"  She told me "So I learn it, and so I do good on my NeSA (Nebraska State Accountability)."   The second part of that answer makes me sick (which is a post for a different time), but the first part nailed it right on the head.  When students start to see the work they do as directly related to learning, then we start to make real progress.

She struggled on percentages last week, but I am now seeing real progress in her homework.  The confusion that is involved in learning can be quite stressful for a student.  Being able to make mistakes, learn from mistakes, and improve from mistakes allows for real learning.  Instead of a game of collecting enough points to earn an A (as in many traditional classrooms), students work on concepts until they master the concept.  What a concept!

Feedback: Making Time for What Matters

Don't confuse grades with feedback.  Traditional grades don't encourage improvement.  Grades are not intended to help you improve.  Grades are final, even when we say they are formative.  Once a student sees a grade, they move onto the next subject.  This is proven out in research.   Feedback is a part of the learning process.  Feedback tells you what you are doing well so that you continue to do those things.  It also gives suggestions of what you can do better.  

And Now, A Statement from the Confused Teacher

It's easier to simply check problems correct or incorrect on a test.  Then this works out into a percentage grade.  That grade can then be converted into a letter grade. As a teacher, why waste my time on writing comments and giving suggestions?  That takes much more time and is less efficient.  What a waste of time.  I'll teach them, then I will grade them.  Then, bam, I'll teach them again.  The perfect system-Efficient.

Efficient or Not Efficient, That is the Question

The above would be true, unless you look at the definition of efficient.  Then you've got yourself a problem.

Efficient: 1) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense 2) working in a well-organized and competent way.

Maximum Productivity

Feedback is shown to have a great impact on learning.  Nothing has a greater impact than good feedback.

Minimum Wasted Effort-

Use in-class formative assessments and provide immediate feedback regularly.  
Well Organized-Have systems in place to organize feedback.  Formative assessment such as quick checks for understanding using a randomized way to collect answers from students.  This could be as simple as using popsicle sticks to choose who will answer next.  You could also use a clicker system but technology, in this case, does not necessarily make it better.  Maybe you have a system at the end of class for student to put sticky notes on the door as they leave the room.  

Competent

A great teacher understands the research.  The research tells us feedback correlates in a very strong way to learning.

Making Time for What Matters

Grading without feedback does not enhance learning and therefore by definition is not efficient (or effective).  Since the goal is learning, spend your time where you get the biggest impact on learning----Quality Feedback.

Runner's Analogy: Clear Targets + Effective Feedback

Good Instruction=Clear Targets + Effective Feedback

The Runner's Analogy

Scenario 1-Traditional Grading Methods

You begin practicing to run a half marathon by running.  Only you don't know how long the race is going to be.  So you take off sprinting.  Then, the coach stops you and says you got an "A."  You know that means that you have done a good job, so you start sprinting again.  Then, you are stopped again.  Again, you are given an "A."  This continues but towards the end of the practice half marathon, you are getting slower and slower.  You are exhausted.  You can't run anymore.  You start walking.  Fortunately, the race is getting harder for everyone.  Everybody started too fast.  So, the times aren't very good but the coach can't fail everybody.  He gives you A's and B's.  You are sitting with a B+ average.  Then the coach tells you, if you can do a vertical jump of 20 inches, I will give you bonus points.  So you do it.  Now you are up to an A.  You didn't improve and actually got worse, but you met your goal. You've completed what you were supposed to do, you've checked off the marks along the way, and you grabbed some extra points at the end to ensure you got the grade you wanted.  When it is time to run an entire race, you really don't know what you are doing.  You learned that you probably shouldn't run so fast at the beginning but in terms of form, you know nothing new.  So when the race comes, you do your best, which lucky for you, is pretty much as good as the others in your class.

Scenario 2-Clear Targets + Effective Feedback (assessed by a specific criteria)

The coach tells you that you will be running 13.1 miles.  As you begin running, the coach tells you to "look straight ahead."  "Your head is down, look 10 feet in front of you."  As you start to tighten up, the coach tells you to "relax your shoulders and chest" and "Lead with your hips."  You make these adjustments and make improvements throughout the practice.  These are also things that you will now be able to relate to the next time you are running without a coach next to you.  During practice, you make improvements to get better for the actual race.  You continue to practice over several days and continue to get feedback.  The race becomes the assessment.  The practice helped you improve.  It doesn't count for you or against you.  You will be judged solely on your performance during the race.

Initiatives that focus on Feedback

Initiatives that focus on Feedback using Formative Assessments

(Johnson Crossing's 13-14 Initiatives)

Initiatives	Formative Assessment	Feedback
PLC	Create Common Formative Assessments	Use formative assessments as a feedback tool for students and make instructional decisions based on the data provided by common formative assessments.
KLT	Learn to implement formative assessments	Use feedback to adjust instruction.
Grading	Use formative assessments to improve student learning prior to assigning grades	Change from a “summative” approach to a feedback first approach.  Grades are assigned after students have gotten a chance to learn from the feedback.

PLC-Process to answer these questions:

• What do we want students to learn? (Essential learnings)
• How will we know they learned it? (Common formative assessments)
• What will we do when they haven’t learned it? (Interventions)
• What will we do when they have learned it? (Enrichment)

KLT-Learn strategies that inform instruction-formative assessments.

Grading-Make a grading system that is “for learning” and gives actionable feedback.

• Move grading from fixed mindset to growth mindset
• Connects learning as a part of the process rather than the endpoint (grade)
• Move grading to giving feedback and improvement
• How you do at the end is more important than how you did while learning
• Separates behavior from academic

Focus on Feedback

Feedback-is one of the most powerful tools a teacher has to improve learning. (see Hattie’s effect size)

Good Feedback

• Does the feedback inform students of what they are doing?
• How is the feedback presented?
• Is the feedback presented in a non-competitive way?
• Is the feedback presented with a growth mindset?
• Does the learner participate in collecting data or analyzing how they are doing in relation to the learning target?

• Does the feedback relate to the learning target?
• What is my goal?
• Where progress have I made towards my goal?
• What actions must be taken to move towards my goal?

• Does the feedback help the student become more aware of their own learning?

Growth Mindset

• Sees academic performance as able to improve
• With work, a student can improve his grade

Fixed Mindset

• Sees intelligence as you got it or you don’t
• Students see themselves as unable to improve because they are either smart or not smart

Implications on Feedback

Fixed mindset

• “Wow, you did great, you are so smart.”
• “Nice job, you are really good at Math.”
• “You missed 3 out of the 5 questions-you get an F”

Growth Mindset

• Yet-“You haven’t solved this equation yet.”
• Already-“What do you already  know?”
• Comments are process oriented-“That is an effective strategy.”

Feedback and Formative Assessments

• Assessments are formative if they are giving feedback that is actionable and will improve student learning.