Differentiated Learning for All

It surprises me from time to time how I am hit square in the face with the long standing idea that learning needs to be differentiated for adults just like students. Here was my latest reminder: I am serving on a state wide task force to study and bring forth recommendations to the legislature regarding Competency Based Education (CBE). As our group was struggling with tasks of subcommittees, we circled around a couple of phrases; "multiple entry points" and "continuum of learning". We were using these phrases to describe where districts throughout our state start from in regards to implementing a competency based system. Our charge to support all of the districts in our state had me leaving the room thinking, "We took too much time to get to the point that teaching this process (the move to CBE) needs to be differentiated."

Differentiating learning is hard work, but it starts with being clear about the end goal. For our teachers I describe this as identifying the learning targets of the unit or lesson and what it looks like when students can show you they learned them. For our work on the Competency Based Education Task Force, it's defining what we want the work to look like when we are done. Our committee was able to clarify a few points about our end goal. And we all know there is still work to be done just to clarify what we want for the state wide system. Grappling with the end is a fun, and yes sometimes frustrating, mountain of work. I'm thrilled no one district has to figure it out alone.

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's work on Understanding by Design - begin with the end in mind - still makes my list of great educational resources for teaching and learning. Now, I'm going to have to use it for task force meetings as well. :-)

Supporting the "Positive Outliers"

I was asked to consider how we support teachers in their learning and increase the capacity of the system. One of my twitter friends, @b_wagoner forwarded me this blog from Seth Godin and as I was thinking about teachers, I started thinking about students. Let me share my connections for just a moment.

Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a behavior system that focuses on supporting the positives in student behavior rather than focusing on the consequences for negative behavior. Sure there are systems of consequence in PBIS, but it doesn't drive your focus or goal. The positive factors drive your planning, your thinking, your support. Are adults any different? Can professional support mirror this same philosophy? Why shouldn't we focus our planning, attention and support on the positive outliers instead of focusing on the ones that drag us down?

I think I've just made a slight mental shift in my PD plans :-).

The Complexity in ELA Common Core Standards

I've been in curriculum roles for close to a decade. I was raised professionally in a state that embraced state standards in the late 90's. I read the Common Core Standards; I understood them. As well as I thought I knew the standards, Dr. Tim Shanahan spoke and transformed my understanding of the ELA standards. As you read my post, you may be surprised at what was new learning to me. Even so, it may be helpful to see what this social studies teacher took away from the day on "Really Terrific Instruction in English Language Arts" (RTI is a big topic here in Iowa :-).

#1 - Text Complexity is where it is at! Standard 10 in the Common Core is the standard that makes all of the rest of the standards work at high levels. It should be present, along with standard 1 on making meaning from text, throughout all instruction. It won't help a student be college and career ready if they only understand main idea of texts that are grade levels below them. Concentrating on easier texts, like below grade level text books or abridged versions of classics, miss much of the vocabulary and deeper levels of topical understanding. They can also miss the original author's word choice, text structure and true intent. There are reasons to use easier level texts as a scaffolded approach to understanding more complex text. That leads us to the next point.

#2 - Learning to read is like lifting weights; you need to challenge yourself with really hard reading, and balance it with more reps at lighter weights. Students need to read at a level that they can handle independently, but this shouldn't be the place they stay. Challenge students with text; support them as they struggle to make meaning of complex passages (see appendix B of the Common Core Standards for a list of sample texts). According to Dr. Shanahan, we've done a disservice to our students by "dumbing down" the reading selections to an adapted versions and cliff note versions of texts. It's a good idea to bring in apprentice texts to build background knowledge, but use it to make the harder text more accessible not to replace the harder text altogether.

! Read more on Shanahan's website about what this means for instructional levels.

Dr. Tim Shanahan's blog post on Rejecting Instructional Level Theory

#3 - Item Analysis of a standardized assessment should be around the text complexity of the passages students struggled with instead of the skill, as a first look. More than likely, students struggled understanding the text because of it's level of complexity. It's not an author's craft problem or vocabulary problem or text structure problem. It starts with the complexity of the text. If they missed questions around one idea on easier texts as well, then there may be a skill deficit, but start with the look at the complexity of the passages.

#4 - The standards were written from the top down. Looking at the reading expectations for college and in careers, the authors of the Common Core created standards for high school graduates and then back mapped it to what would then be necessary in kindergarten. This is important to understand when looking at the document as a whole. In addition, the progressions that are part of the structure of the standards can help teachers differentiate instruction to get students to grade level expectations and consider next steps for each child's learning.

"I keep looking and I keep finding studies that suggest that kids can learn from text written at very different levels" Dr. Tim Shanahan's blog post August 2011.

I know the conversation about text complexity is not new. I was in the right place at the right time to have the conversation make new meaning for me. I see the importance in making complex text physically available and cognitively accessible to students. If I have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Tim Shanahan again, I will definitely take advantage of it.

Additional Resources:

ASCD published an article in April 2012 about the reason for the focus on text complexity in the Common Core.

New York has a resource that shows 6 shifts in the Common Core Standards that may be helpful.

Creating the Best Place for Learning

I'm in a new, dual role for the 2012-2013 school year, elementary principal; I'll continue my work as Director of Teaching and Learning. It's exciting to continue to help my district move towards its vision of transforming education and I couldn't be more excited about my new role as principal.

When stepping up to the helm of a new leadership role, one has a great opportunity to have people reflect on what great things are already happening, areas we can improve, and supports people need to accomplish the lofty expectations of improving student learning for all. From the reflections, we can chart a path that meets the needs of each learner. I see students and teachers as learners in our building and I believe supporting teachers as learners results in improved student learning.

So to start off my summer of transition into my new role, I am asking our staff simple questions. What are we doing well? Where can prioritize our focus for improvement to make the biggest impact for students? How can your principal help support you?

Besides staff interviews, I plan on using a questionnaire I tweaked using Breaking Ranks work. This survey will be given in the fall and the baseline data will help our staff plan for the areas we see as biggest need. Our PLC's are already well in place, so using the data to determine action steps will be a process with which most staff are very familiar.

I look forward to the conversations with each and every elementary staff member over the summer and at the start of the school year. I look forward to the new challenge and am thrilled to be part of the Van Meter Schools in this new role.

So You Don't Have a Textbook...

You've made the commitment, either by choice or by force, to not use textbooks in your classroom. You saw that they are outdated, not engaging to learners, and have a limited purpose; all of that for an enormous drain on your budget. What now?

As I have been working on the state wide social studies team to develop eCurriculum, I have come across some great resources to help replace the dependence on textbooks. While my lens was originally the social studies classroom, you'll find great resources for many disciplines.

@bryanbauer is a quiet tweeter, but he has access to tons of resources at Iowa Public Television to share with schools. If you thought IPTV was just about old TV shows, you are wrong! Check out Iowa Pathways for history research that connects learners to how an event impacted Iowa. There are content area searches that you can perform too. If videos are something you are interested in having more of, check out the video clips at http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/

You can't go wrong using SweetSearch. For example, the social studies page is a great resource for teachers and students and could replace a textbook all by itself. Mark Moran (@findingDulcinea) is also a great one to follow on Twitter, especially if you are interested in teaching digital literacy.

There are many websites dedicated to learning a particular subject. In social studies I found:
http://teachinghistory.org/
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/
http://sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/45
Please share examples of other content area resources on this google doc. Thanks!

I'm a huge proponent of integrating social studies and English language arts. This list of notable tradebooks ties the two so well. Primary sources are always a great way to get students to think about author's purpose, the power of persuasive writing, determining historical context... the list goes on. Try some of these resources to gain access to a variety of primary source documents.
www.archives.org
www.constitution.org/primaryresources

Finally, a hot topic in our area is the use of games in the classroom. Check out some of these sites to get you started using gaming in your classroom.
Revolutionary War Time period - http://www.mission-us.org/
a ten-week crash course in changing the world - http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/how-to-play
games for social impact - http://www.gamesforchange.org
Civic Literacy Games - http://www.icivics.org/

Regardless of where you are at in the continuum of learning without a textbook, I hope you'll find these resources helpful in your journey.

Communities of Practice: The Theory Behind Personal Learning Networks

For the past two days, I have been a learner at the Communities of Practice training in Altoona, Iowa (#IACoPi). During the morning conversation from our facilitators Bev Trayner and Etienne Wenger, my twitter friends were having a lively conversation about how communities of practice relate to the things we are already doing in the state of Iowa with the Iowa Core. Collaborative learning teams are specifically listed in Outcome 6a of implementing the Iowa Core where "educators deepen their understanding of the Iowa Core Curriculum’s characteristics of effective instruction through collaborative teams." So how are collaborative teams and communities of practice alike or dissimilar?

From Etienne's website,"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." Doesn't that sound similar to professional learning communities (PLC's) or collaborative teams? Sure it does. They come from the same theory. It's the idea that together we are better. If we work collaboratively instead of in isolation, we learn more and become better.

While there are so many similarities, I walked away from the training with a few small, but important distinctions between the two. While PLC's can be communities of practice, they aren't guaranteed to be. First, PLC's group members are often assigned. Their meetings are usually structured within a school. They contain members that share common students or common content, but not necessarily the same beliefs or passions. PLC's don't usually extend beyond the school walls. They are designed to address specific student learning needs. I believe in PLC's as a critical part of a school's success, and an important part of professional development, so please don't take these differences to mean that PLC's are a bad thing.

Communities of Practice are formed by the participants. Community members have common beliefs and passion about the reason they are together. They are bound to one another around a common theme. It's self-governed, self-directed. There's no administrator holding the group accountable. The members hold one another accountable. And if I don't like it, if the community is not meeting my learning needs, I can leave.

Communities of Practice were best described by our facilitators as a first date. During the past two days we met people who were interested in changing and teaching and learning to be more student-centered, more relevant, and more flexible in delivery and choice. I am sure that some of the people who participated in the introductory event will not choose to be part of the community. They may choose to lurk on the edges as they listen and learn. They may form another community altogether.

What I've done the last two days explains what I have been part of the last 18 months as social media has connected me to people I lean on and learn from in my personal network. My twitter friends, often those I feel so close to I hug when we meet for the first time face to face, are members of my community of practice. It's the best learning experience I've ever been part of.

Reflecting on Why Change can Seem Like a Bad Word

As some of you can imagine, there are a lot of changes happening in our district. When you are integrating technology, working towards K-12 standards-based grading, are investigating K-5 guided math, and feel the urgency to meet the needs of all learners through a student-centered classroom, change is a lot of what we are about. I am in my second year in Van Meter School District and I feel like I can understand why "change" seems like a bad word.

Talk of change implies we were doing it wrong. We weren't good enough... we aren't good enough... we aren't good.

In this profession - maybe more so than any other profession - we are dominated by passionate and dedicated people who want to see kids succeed. Feeling "not good enough" is a huge slap in the face and runs contradictory to the very reasons educators are in this profession.

So, I feel the need to define "change" as I see it. Change is the ongoing, never-ending, always reflecting, never accepting less, reflective practice of continuous improvement. I have been told I am my worst critic... Yes, I am. I believe I can get better. I can learn more. I can tackle new problems each time I am faced with them better than I did before. I can reflect on what I have done and pick out things that worked well, and things that I should do differently next time. I can identify my weaknesses and improve upon them.

I can improve. I am dedicated to being better. I am growing. This is change.