we ought to illicit student input when constructing rubrics
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ollie-afe-2018: Building a Better Mousetrap - 3 views
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Student input when creating rubrics would assist them in fully understanding the expectations set forth. It would be interesting to see examples of rubrics constructed with student input. -
Having students illicit input in making of the rubric gives the students ownership and feel like they have a say in what should be assessed. -
This would be tough for me to do in an ALgebra class as a majority of what i am teaching is brand new to them. -
I love this idea! I think there would be the initial learning curve of how to design a rubric, but a teacher could explain some of the main features/expectations of the projects and then let the students have some say in what excellent would look like etc. -
Building autonomy in our students and promoting learner agency! What a novel idea. -
Great idea but realistically when would any teacher have time to gather input? Could it be through exit tickets? I could see Google Forms be used as a way to collect input. It still would mean dedicated time to review input. -
I have had mixed feelings with this. For those that have done it do students really help design to further learning? I have had conversations with educators that say in some cases students create simple rubrics to make the expectations easy to attain. Just wondering what experiences were. -
As far as the time committment, I don't think it would have to be student created all day every day. I think allowing them to contribute when possible AND pulling out previous rubrics which students contributed on in the past shows the students that the teacher listens to student voice on a regular basis. Not necessarily 24/7. :)
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dehumanize the act of writing
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At the beginning of the process, you could ask a student to select to select which aspect she values the most in her writing and weight that aspect when you assess her paper.
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The idea of asking a student to choose which aspect "she values most" to determine the piece that will be weighted more heavily is an interesting one. I think it lends itself to creating personalized goals with students. Similar to when we ask teachers if there is a specific area they would like to focus on to receive a rating and feedback during an AIW scoring, it could create opportunities for growth and discussion between the teacher and the student.
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rubrics can help the student with self-assessment; what is most important here is not the final product the students produce, but the habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment.
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Though the end product is important, I agree that it is important for the student to think about what or how they are going to go about constructing the end product.
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True. If students could accurately self-assess, their end-products ultimately become stronger. -
This is when the true spirit of education come through when there is self reflection and self assessment occurs. -
The best way to get students to use self-reflection and self assessment is for teachers to also model this same practice.
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I often forget about the benefit of students being able to self assess. It would not be as useful in probably a math class since it's usually a yes or a no. However in a writing assignment it could help the students see how much work they need to do to get to the next level. -
I agree that it is important to encourage self-assessment. I also like to show students things I have written so they can grade me on the rubric. They enjoy critiquing their teacher. :)
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produced less interesting essays when they followed the rules [as outlined in a rubric]
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I can see where students would be too concerned with following the rubric in writing, instead of just writing for the fun of it or pleasure of adding things to their writing that they might not when using a rubric.
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I love when they write for fun but they still need to know the basics of grammar and sentence structure etc. and even writing and then going back and doing a self evaluation would be helpful to see if they got all the required items. -
My biggest fear in creating a rubric is just this. How do I write it to encourage going the extra mile and encourage not squash creativity?
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The second step is deciding who your audience is going to be. If the rubric is primarily used for instruction and will be shared with your students, then it should be non-judgemental, free of educational jargon, and reflect the critical vocabulary that you use in your classroom
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Purpose and audience are two important considerations when developing a rubric. The point of including "critical vocabulary that you use in your classroom" and ensuring that it is "non-judgemental" are pieces that can be overlooked by educators.
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I really like that this emphasizes that the rubric be free from educational jargon.
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Student friendly language is key if we want the student self reflection to happen.
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I think it's helpful to consider / reflect on the notion of the students as our audience in terms of assessment and feedback. Remaining non-judgemental is important to remember in the assessment mode.
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an analytical rubric, however, will yield more detailed information about student performance and, therefore, will provide the student with more specific feedback.
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I like the idea of having two or more separate scales (analytical rubric). Some parts of an assignment or test might have the student do more and so it should have a different scale. Specific feedback for students is always important so they can understand how they did and what they might need to improve on.
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Can different scorers consistently apply the rubric?
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I hadn't considered this being an issue until our small group assignment this week. I've only used rubrics in isolation. Interesting thought for teachers in department (i.e. Social Studies) using same rubric.
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Inter-rater reliability is essential. The goal is promoting creativity and creating clear expectations. However, by including too many details, we run the risk of formulaic writing. It is important to ensure students understand the expectations, but also stretch themselves and do not do the minimum required to reach proficiency. On the other hand, when enough detail is not included, then we can run the risk of a rubric that becomes too subjective and then two scorers can review the same piece of writing and score it differently based on their own expectations.
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stultifying and others see as empowering.
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First of all, I had not seen the word stultifying before! In order for a rubric or other type of assessments to be empowering, students must understand how to use them and have examples that help guide the conversation. Students need to know the expectations and what is considered and exceeds and just beginning. We must put more ownership on the kids' ends to self-assess well before the final due date. We want kids to improve it. I have come to love checklists to help guide this. -
I just commented about how students need to see the rubric before hand so they know what is expected of them. I love the idea of using checklists more to help guide the learning.
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Agreed. What good is a rubric if we don't let the students see it ahead of time? Are we setting students up for failure?
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Sadly, it is so easy to get wrapped up in all that we have to do in the short amount of time and not show the students the rubric, even when we know that it is more meaningful to show the rubric ahead of time. -
I feel both ways about rubrics. Rubrics certainly help the students and teachers know what is expected out of an assignment, but they can sometimes restrict a student's creativity. I feel like we saw that when we applied our rubric to some of the assignments this week.
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I think this is a major problem for a lot of PLCs I work with. Some don't even want students to see exemplars for fear of limiting creativity.
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post-secondary educators in all disciplines
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I have had quite a bit of training on assessment and rubrics and still feel it is almost impossible to write a good one. Are our post-secondary educators, many of whom don't necessarily have a teaching background, feel comfortable developing rubrics? Who is in charge of this huge task that can be career ending or career beginning for some?
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I couldn't agree more with your thoughts here! And depending on who is assessing your rubric the feedback, grows and glows you receive will also be different. OR what one person is taught as never to include in a rubric another person is taught to always do that. -
Heather, I am with you. Right now I am torn because I am supposed to be assessing my Algebra classes by standards with rubrics created for me at the district level, but everything I read indicates that these should be teacher created. i'm not sure who is more (or less) qualified to be doing this type of work, the individual teachers or the district level decision makers?
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current goals of solving real problems and using statistical reasoning.
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This perplexes me...As Mike pointed out the need to focus more on the process, do we focus too much on the final product? Can't we have separate rubrics that assess along the way to help with this? It would improve learning but and help teachers truly give a grade with multiple indicators that assess work ethic, collaboration, final product, and the process. I am glad to hear that our focus isn't always on the right answer but creating students who can reason and problem solve.
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That idea resonates with me. Rubrics to help students with the process makes sense. Maybe the learning progressions would be helpful for teachers to create rubrics for "along the way."
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The issue of weighting may be another area in which you can enlist the help of students
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This perplexes me...As Mike pointed out the need to focus more on the process, do we focus too much on the final product? Can't we have separate rubrics that assess along the way to help with this? It would improve learning but and help teachers truly give a grade with multiple indicators that assess work ethic, collaboration, final product, and the process. I am glad to hear that our focus isn't always on the right answer but creating students who can reason and problem solve.
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“Meaningfully” here means both consistently and accurately—accurately measuring the specific entity the instructor intends to measure consistently student after student.
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As a psychology major, this was a big deal in making sure you had sound products you were using. I'm wondering how much we are testing ours today. I know some PLC's that practice scoring examples with rubrics, then discuss, to ensure they are on the same page.
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I see how beneficial rubrics can be in "meaningful" assessment. It provides clear expectations for both teachers and students, keeps the student focused, and hopefully created to meet standards or other meaningful benchmark.
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I think sometimes the rubric is a tool for the teacher to score and not as much a tool for feedback and encouraging learning (from earlier in the article). When teachers common score, are they using that discussion to shape their instruction and feedback to students? I don't mean to imply they aren't, I don't currently work with a PLC willing to common score. They simply use the same rubric.
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(whether they are rubrics or more nebulous modes of evaluation) from students is not only unfair and makes self-assessment more difficult, it maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
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We are running into this right now with our LMS... the new assessment piece doesn't allow us to upload the rubric. So, kids will have to do tasks without seeing the rubric. This is not okay with teachers, so hoping the tech people will build the rubric options in....
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Agreed that withholding assessment tools does a disservice to the education for the students and is can give some teachers a power trip. I am glad to hear the tech at your school are working on this piece and that the LMS has a feature to upload rubric into the system.
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one rubric can be used to assess all of the different papers assigned in a freshman composition course.
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We use a common rubric when assessing special education students with writing goals (although some students have modified or specific rubrics addressing the specifics of their goal).
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I love the idea of common rubrics so that the goals are spelled out. especiallywhen one teacher likes it this way and another likes it this way can be so confusing.
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I agree, it is nice to have the common rubric that makes all expectations the same.
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Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being measured?
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In paper-writing, sometimes we get really caught up in measuring outcomes like mechanics (capitalization, punctuation), and not content. Often we get so caught up in assessing those things, we lose sight of the higher order thinking that we are really trying to measure.
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non-judgmental:
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rubrics are certainly less judgemental when they are used formatively along the way during the process... it's not an end-all "gotcha"
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system designed to measure the key qualities
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The system of a rubric can be very abstract and not concrete if being teacher made. This has pros and cons, one pro if the teacher lets the students see it ahead of time, is that the students know what is expected of their performance.
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Agree! This can be challenging for a new teacher or one that is new to teaching that unit/class. The rubric also allows for standards to be measured in multiple assessments.
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actually learned rather than what they have been taught
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This reiterates to me the difference we are learning between assessing and grading. It is our job as teachers to make sure all students our learning and we aren't just going through the motions of going from chapter to chapter in a textbook.
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Teaching is a personal profession and when a student doesn't perform well on an exam it can be a shot to the teachers ego. If we can get teachers to think of rubrics as a way to see if the students have learned it yet instead of just a summative yes or not they got it, it might become less personal and we can start focusing on how to get the students to actually learn in.
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help instructors in all disciplines
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A beauty about Rubrics is they can be utilized in all content areas for all educators.
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and they can be tailored for the specific assignment or project. I love that rubrics are not content specific and can be designed for individualized, specific things.
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traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
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This makes me emotional and the emotion I feel is anger. That there are teachers that are still out there that try to one up the student and have a power trip. As an educator and mother of three students myself I see this and have to play the politically nice card and try to listen instead of get mad during conversations with teachers. This class is giving me knowledge on the importance of assessments and different types.
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Well-designed rubrics
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As stated in one of the videos teachers are not taught in pre-teaching programs how to ask good questions, nor do I think we were taught how to prepare well written rubrics. If rubric are well designed they should not be "formulaic" in their outcomes.
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But she did it without saying anything coherent
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Agreed. The rubric apparently wasn't written so that it focused on an outcome the required something coherent.
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Leave it to kids to take your words literally in order to drive you figuratively insane. This just goes to show that a rubric shouldn't be driving students to one right answer but rather guiding them towards quality and learning.
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Absolutely. Kids will pick out one or two words and take them out of context. Is that what the intent of the rubric was? most likely no, but we need to teach the students that the rubric is a guide for expanding their learning with a few checks throughout the process.
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mitagate both teacher bias and the perception of teacher bias
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Anything to mitigate teacher bias is an improvement for many teacher assessments and evaluations of student learning.
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So true, removing teacher bias is difficult, and when we can do it, it is a good thing.
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I love the term real-life learning. Most professions don't have a good and bad type of employee. There are different levels of employees, and there's usually room for improvement.
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In this respect, rubrics protect both the student and teacher. This document removes any possible bias perceived by students and/or parents.
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The problem, which I don't know that it is really a problem, is that grading writing is biased. What I find creative or thoughtful might not be what another teacher thinks. The rubric can assess the prescriptive things like thesis, intro., conclusion, etc.
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achiev[ing a] new vision of statistics education.
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This is also true for the review systems for many companies. As I talk more and more with my friends outside of education, they talk of the rubrics that are used for their evaluation processes. I think that it is important as we teach students that they are able to relate their learning to rubrics as someday they will have to transfer that knowledge and understanding to their someday job/career.
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a clear understanding of how rubrics operate
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I really feel like many times when teachers are lost building rubrics they really need to zero in on the criteria needed to meet each indicator level. That said, they also need to model and communicate these items with their students.
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I agree with both of your points here. The indicator level makes the rubric clear and effective or not so much. Also, it is key for students to know what is expected of them. We, as adults, want to know what is expected of us, but we often think that students don't...which doesn't make sense.
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wrote poorly when writing, as we might say, to the rubric
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Have we considered to present the assignment to the students with the criteria THEN midway through the creative process bringing in the rubric so that students can assess their own work but still not lose their individuality?
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Do the students find the rubric helpful?
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I always find it helpful that in designing my rubrics (especially now when our school is building learning targets, assessment plans and more rubrics) that I test them out in my classrooms. They not only provide me feedback to student learning but I also have students provide me feedback as to how they are written, what I can change or add to make them work better for them. It also gives them even further buy-in to what you are doing in the class, as well and shows that you respect that there may be changes in learning but you are there for the student.
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shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment
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I think rubrics should always shared with students when they start the assignment. so for me it is not an "IF:
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I agree Noel! Mine are posted along side my standards and learning targets in my room, and constantly referred to.
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I agree completely. I think the kids should know ahead of time what the expectation is.
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reports that extensive use of rubrics can help minimize students’ educational disparities and bring fairness into assessment on numerous levels:
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As long as the rubrics are well constructed and use I believe they do help lead to more equality and consistency in assessment. Teachers that give the same assessments, also need to review the rubrics together for consistency across schools and district.
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students to simply make sure their essays have those features
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Many students will just complete the assessment to meet the requirements in the rubric, but students are then meeting the expectations you wrote in the rubric. If you want them to do more change the rubric. What would happen if you did not share the rubric some might do more than expected and many would not because they have no idea what is expected.
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Look at some actual examples of student work to see if you have omitted any important dimensions.
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Looking at actual examples of student work ahead of time is a good idea. When we created the rubric for the Assess This assignment, we only had one example of student work. Then when we were given more pieces to assess, we quickly learned that the rubric would not work for all of the types of pieces that needed assessed.
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Sometimes after using a new assessment an rubric, I reflect and notice the mistakes I made when creating the rubric and revise it. When you have students examples it makes it easier to evaluate your own rubric.
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given their association with standardized assessment
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Last I checked, the iowa Assessments were not scored by a rubric. This is something I continuously struggle with. if students, teachers, buildings, and districts are measured by standardized test scores, why do we push for standards based assessments and rubrics? This will be the first year I have never taught specific focus lessons geared to higher achievement on the iowa Assessments. My district wanted me to pilot standards based assessment so I am going all out! Can't wait to compare and contrast previous years' scores to this year. Stay tuned!
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formulaic writing
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Sounds more like a checklist approach. Who hasn't been guilty in their life of following a rubric like a checklist? Almost human nature.
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“checksheets.”
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There's my checklist comment! Should have kept reading :-) When I think of this in math though, I must admit it's a struggle to NOT say these skills are level 1, these are level 2, and so on.
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I do see the checklists especially in math as a benefit when collaborative teacher teams are discussing what exactly the foundational skills of a priority standard look like and what dots to connect if a student is far away from achieving proficiency. I don't think that kind of learning progression would translate for a student who would see it as a checklist.
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I think the checklist and deep learning piece are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The checklist may require certain content (based on the unit of study or course topic) but the rest of the rubric can be skill focused and framed in a growth model.
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there has been “notable increases in the use of open-response questions, creative/critical thinking questions, problem-solving activities, […] writing assignments, and inquiry/investigation.”
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This ties in directly with a comment I made earlier, "How does this help increase student achievement scores of high stakes standardized assessments like the Iowa Assessments.
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Focus, Support, Organization, Conventions.
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Good for us Group 1! We pretty much came up with these same criteria for our rubric :-)
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Weighting
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I have to admit as a math teacher this peaks my interest the most. Would love to work with teachers who establish their own grading criteria for rubrics but want help 'converting' that into a conventional grade for reporting purposes i.e. report cards.
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Modify accordingly
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I agree with you Shawn. Professional educators are constantly modifying and adapting their instruction to the meet the needs of their students and the curriculum. Change means growth and learning are taking place for both the student and the teacher.
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that rubrics provide students with clear and specific qualities to strive for in those assignments that “are open-ended, aligned more closely to real-life learning situations and the nature of learning”
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I agree that it helps the students know what they need to strive for instead of just open ended questions and then you get back your grade and you did not do well because it wasn't what the teacher wanted. I struggled with this in my undergrad classes.
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I agree with this too that it provides students with the clear and specific qualities of the academic piece of material they are working on to be assessed. I have never thought about it being related closely to real-life learning situations though which is an imperative connection that should be made.
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‘some rubrics are dumb.’” He recounts,
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Usually a numerical value is assigned to each point on a scale
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This has been my experience with rubric to be very specific in the world of special ed. especially when using them for IEP goal writing.
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vital to the process and/or product of a given assignment,
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When I see the word vital in this statement, it reminds me that we should only be assessing the qualities that are truly important. We need to be so careful when we are creating and assessing student work to not over assess or under assess our students.
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I think this is true. Sometimes as teachers we feel the need to give a grade to everything. And while we are constantly assessing, we need to focus on the the things that are vital for the student to know.
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I agree with both of your statements. The word "vital" does remind the teacher to assess only what is truly important. It is very easy for teachers to loose focus on the important skills being taught and turn their attention to mundane details that are easier to define like writing mechanics or content presentation.
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rubrics to both assess and encourage student learning.
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This statement stands out to me because we should use rubrics for many purposes. Many times teachers just want to use the rubric to grade. We need to think about the feedback that we give students on a rubric as a way to encourage them to continue to push themselves in their learning and set goals for themselves.
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I really like the word encourage here. I do not really show the kids the rubric I am grading them on (although I should). I don't know if my students are mentally there to "want" to move to the next progression. Currently I am doing a lot of forcing to learn. I think that encourage puts the wanting to learn on the students shoulders.
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I like this concept - assess and encourage, not just evaluate and move on to the next assignment. In my opinion, this is where the learning on assessment and feedback is so important for teachers and students.
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When instructors plan on grading student thinking and not just student knowledge, they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student.
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Students should not have to play a guessing game with instructors. We as teachers need to be transparent with our students about what they need to know and should be able to demonstrate.
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rubrics should be used in conjunction with other strategies
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So important to remember that rubrics are not the only way to provide feedback to students.
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True! I would hope by the time that the students complete a project to get graded on by a rubric, that they have received feedback from formative assessments along the way.
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some educators see
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I think it's important to understand both sides of why teachers may or may not be in favor of rubic. In a math class it seemed unresonable and unnecessary to use a rubric until we started talking about standard based grading. It still a hard concept I am wrapping my head around but I am getting there. I have had WAY more instruction than other math teachers in building and district so I know it will be a huge struggle for them to see the value.
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become wooden
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This reminds me of readings we did that talked about rubics killing the creativity of the writings. It is definately a con, but for some students might help them get started in the writing process.
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With your colleagues
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This is important. If you are going to go into rubric style grading you want input from like content people. I teach 8th grade math, and would want input from 7th and 9th teachers when developing rubrics.
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different levels of that “deep learning”
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The examples of why rubrics haven't been appreciated mainly boil down to poor design. I like this statement because it shows the flexibility of rubrics. The creator can decide how in-depth the learning can go or encourage the student to expand beyond with skinny columns.
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different
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A rubric that tells students, as a typical example, that they will get an A for writing a 1000 word essay that “cites x number of sources and supports its thesis with at least three arguments” will lead students to perceive writing as a kind of “paint-by-number” endeavor (Mathews).
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When I see a rubric performance descriptions include a certain number of something, I can't help but think about this.
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In this case, a teacher could use a checklist instead of a rubric. Trying to reach a specific number seems like it would cut down on the quality of some student work and only produce quantity.
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I understand this type of rubric but have also wondered what # of words/ correct words/spelling etc. constitutes an A/B/C...grade. What an A means to mean might not be the same to another person.
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I once gave extra credit to a student who realized that without providing a shred of meaningful content she could meet all the requirements of a state writing rubric he posted in his classroom. As required she used the word “persuade” and two synonyms, composed a clear topic sentence and closing sentence, and made no spelling or grammatical errors.
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Even a well-intentioned rubric can leave something to be desired. This sounds more like a checklist but begs the argument around having a criteria for coherence.
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Similarly, Heidi Andrade, in her study, “The Effects of Rubrics on Learning to Write,” has found that, while rubrics increased her students’ knowledge of the grading criteria and helped most of her students (especially the young male students) do well on the state writing test, many of the young female students, who had been more expressive in previous writing assignments
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I find this interesting. The formal, structured writing is favored and the in this particular task, the expressive abilities of a writer are not assessed and reported on and/or flexibility to consider creative structures is not in place. We should look at a student's overall writing abilities in a variety of settings.
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problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy replacing the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centered approach in tertiary education
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This to me is important. I try to use rubrics to assess the more inquiry/student centered work I do. There is still a place for teacher centered as there are skills that must be conveyed to all students for foundational learning. Finding that balance between teacher and student based is what can be challenging.
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I agree that there needs to be a balance and that balance can be challenging. I believe this is important as it helps to reach all learning styles.
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weight dimensions differently
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I need to figure out a way to do this within our standards based grading system.
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increases the likelihood of a quality product
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It can be challenging and time consuming to create a quality product. In my opinion, teachers that can work in teams to develop rubrics have a bonus. Several minds working together may help to produce a better rubric. A quality rubric is important so students do not have to guess what teachers want as they work on a project.
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Also, I think the teachers having that discussion is powerful - it can help develop their ideas or challenge misconceptions. I know some teachers fear students looking at an exemplar or rubric and all students creating basically the same thing. I think that is an error of instruction/feedback/design and not a student error. I think teachers having that discussion can prevent that type of problem.
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description of the work rather than judgments about the work.
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Descriptive vs evaluative is another way to think about this. It is difficult to keep evaluate words from our feedback and from rubric descriptions but descriptive feedback is more beneficial than evaluative feedback for students learning.
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we need a rubric to judge our performance—
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However, for the student to successfully use a rubric this way, the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instruction.
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This is a powerful statement because it doesn't do any good to share rubrics with students if they don't understand the expectations or the way the teacher is using the rubric. Older students should have a better understanding of rubrics because they should have more experience with them. I think that younger students would benefit from initial exposures to rubrics especially since more and more teachers and employers are using them.
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“Perhaps the greatest potential value of classroom assessment is realized when we open the assessment process up and welcome students into that process as full partners”
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I think that this would be interesting to see what students consider valuable in the assessment. What is it that they want to gain from their input?
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Totally agree. This goes back to the days when you study for a test, take the test and then do poorly because nothing you studied for was included on the test. If students have input or are able to know the expectations the results will hopefully reflect actual student learning.
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teacher
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explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance
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The result is many students struggle blindly, especially non-traditional, unsuccessful, or under-prepared students, who tend to miss many of the implied expectations of a college instructor, expectations that better prepared, traditional students readily internaliz
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I think that having students of all ages know the expectations or knowledge of what is required for grades is crucial. As an adult it is important that we are clear with what we are assessing. Time is valuable at any age but certainly as an adult learner I don't want to spend hours working on a project only to find out that what I present or do was not relevant.
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Can students and parents understand the rubric?
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It is important that students and parents understand the rubric because usually the project grade is the product or reflection of the rubric. If the students or parents don't understand the components of the rubric, then they will question the validity of the grade that was given.
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to assess our rubric
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I agree. When we make these rubrics, we do need to discover its effectiveness.
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“red” or “reddish,
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Sometimes this looks like teachers' favorite parts - marking up the sheet in every possible way. I personally don't even have red pens! I think it sends the wrong message.
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to a hit or miss endeavor
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This is why students see school as a game and only want to talk about how to get more points.
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static
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I think the classic example of this is something like "3-5 spelling errors" as a criterion. Some rubrics are bad because they focus on delimiting every possible error instead of being growth or learning focused.
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Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 0 views
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A successful visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function.
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This is probably the most important things to remember when designing online lessons regarding adding visuals.
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Color theory examines how various choices psychologically impact users.
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This is something that I really want to know more about as I think color is very important aspect of the design. I would like to use color to enlist certain emotions based on lesson focus.
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For example, you might want your user to go from logo/brand to a primary positioning statement, next to a punchy image (to give the site personality), then to the main body text, with navigation and a sidebar taking a secondary position in the sequence.
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I really like this example. as it seems like a great place to start. I will attempt to incorporate this into my design, for example Big Idea, to objective next to a punchy image and then the directions, ect..
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Generally I find the default value is usually too little spacing
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First of all, white space doesn't need to be white.
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You should rank elements on your website based on your business objective. If you don’t have a specific goal, you can’t know what to prioritize.
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Makes sense regarding lesson design. The content you put on the page should be important and connected to your objective.
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therefore it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.
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This is interesting to me as we do this frequently with Google Docs and because our students have chrome books and cant see the content as well in the smaller window within the course itself.
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ol101-f2019: Iowa Online Course Standards - 5 views
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The course instruction includes activities that engage students in active learning
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I'm still trying to find the right ways to engage students in active learning and to incorporate active learning among groups of students. I want my students to be actively learning together and not in isolation.
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The course structure has flexibility to accommodate multiple timelines
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Isn't this where different types of online education would come into play? Different course structures could allow for multiple timelines, but having no dedicated timeline for forum postings where participants are expected to interaction with one another just leads to frustration for all involved. Sometimes too much flexibility undermines rigor.
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sufficient rigor, depth, and breadth
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I think this is a part that lots of people doubt--that online learning can have as much rigor. But in our school, we've seen teachers incorporating more rigor with online work than maybe they had before because thinking about online learning sort of shakes up the way teachers do things and they have to think about how google will play into the learning.
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access resources at a distance are sufficient and easy to understand.
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This is also a key to success. There's a lot of tutorial work that has to be built into online learning--whether it's blended in the classroom or fully online. We can't just assume that kids know how to do or use things. I've used Diigo several times before and I still had to use those tutorial videos today to troubleshoot why mine wasn't working like I thought it should.
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Specific and descriptive criteria, including rubrics, are provided for the evaluation of students’ work and participation
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Rubrics, models, and clear success criteria take on a whole new meaning in online courses where teachers don't see the students working and students can't see what other students are doing. Clarity becomes really important.
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I agree. I believe that providing these to students at the beginning of the course demonstrates a transparency so that the student knows exactly what is expected and how to achieve the learning and grade they aim to achieve.
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The course is easy and logical to navigate, including self-describing links
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This is important to ensure that students are not frustrated- frustration with navigating the tool can take away from the intended content. Been there, done that.
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An instructor's communication plan is provided, including the instructor's availability, instructor response-time policy, and the methods for students to communicate with the instructor (iN 1.8)
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Setting "office hours" would be a good idea. Otherwise I would feel like I always have to be on. Also, it helps prevent students from feeling ignored if they know up front when you will respond.
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ach unit includes an overview that describes the objectives of the lesson, as well as introduce the upcoming content, activities, assignments, and assessments of the unit. (iN 2.2, ROI 5.d)
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At first I didn't think one was as important. After having students enter my moodle course in a blended environment, I realized it was needed to help guide them on their learning paths and have now added them.
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Instruction provides students with multiple learning paths to master the content, addressing individual student needs, learning styles and preferences
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Whether it is face to face or on line, differentiation for student's learning styles needs to happen. Students respond to different modalities. -
Agreed! I would also add that the differentiation needs to happen based on individual student needs, whether that be added support or extension.
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• Technologies are chosen that are accessible to students
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This is a given to me. All students should have the same access or the playing field has not been leveled.
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21st century skills, including information literacy and communication skills, are incorporated and taught as an integral part of the curriculum.
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I like how teaching 21st century skills are an expectation to be taught as part of the curriculum. The excuse of "we don't have time to teach this" will be out the window when it is an expectation.
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. Learner Engagement
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I like that this emphasizes three components of interaction. Online course could be thought of as a "student interaction with the content" type of learning environment but adding peer collaboration and teacher collaboration brings the human and social aspect into the course.
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NICS - Flex Day Tools - 1 views
"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 2 views
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The tasks have been personalized for kids, not created by them.
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At this point in the article, I have many thoughts floating around. One major thought comes to mind. Can we ever fully personalize our classrooms? I get the points given here, but as a functioning society don't we have to conform a little bit? As parents, I think we do this to our children more than most of us would like to admit and certainly our schools follow suit. Also this first line here, isn't this what state standards do? Provide some sort of standardized leaning? Or is it simply saying that kids should be able to design how they will progress through a certain standard? A student chooses his or her own path to the end. However, if is a standard of no interest to me and you make me do it anyway is that truly personal learning? I'm starting to feel like flip flopping politician.
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folly of believing that everything can and should be reduced to numbers.[7
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This seems to go against our current reality in my school. We're told that everything has to be data driven or evidence based. On the surface that makes sense, but my issue has always been that we are dealing with people not things. We work in a system filled with a multitude of variables and I would agree that there is a folly in believing that everything can be reduced to numbers. The more I read this article, the more I am thinking that we might be looking at turning the traditional school upside down on it's head.
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Our kids (and we ourselves) are suddenly walking around with access to the sum of human knowledge in our pockets and connections to literally millions of potential teachers. It’s a dramatic shift that requires new literacies to navigate all that access and, importantly, new dispositions to take advantage of it for learning.
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Yes, our kids today are walking around with infinite knowledge at their finger tips. Yes, they don't know how to use it and when they are provided the opportunity, they don't seem to use it. I'm not saying that they can't or won't. I'm saying that from my experiences, they are trained not to do so. So many students do not realize their own potential for learning. They want to wait for the teacher to tell them what to do, what the correct answer is, or how to go about a particular task. Maybe we trained them too well. I 500% agree that we need to teach this skill. I also know that I have struggled to do this myself. If asked, I would have say, no I don't how to teach these new literacy skills. It's talked about, but I haven't seen any real professional development on the subject. If you know of any, please share.
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I couldn't agree more with your ideas about students not knowing how to use the knowledge. Sometimes they ask me the simplest question and are offended that I don't have the answer for them. To which I ask, how could you find the answer? I feel as though they only take advantage of having that knowledge at their fingertips when it's a direct benefit to them and seems simpler than relying on someone else for the information. I encourage so many of my students to think through investigations for themselves and to try and come up with possible answers first. So many of them want to sit and wait for me to tell them everything and haven't realized how much more power there is in learning it if they put in the cognitive effort first. Coming from the same district, I also don't know how we teach them how to persevere through that when they just want to take the easy route, but there have to be some strategies out there that help to break down that "instant gratification mindset."
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Personalization is often used in the ed-tech community to describe a student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace. The only choice a student gets is what box to check on the screen and how quickly to move through the exercises.
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Yikes and ouch. Time for some personal reflection. I would say that I have done exactly this. I'm also fairly sure that personalized learning is what I would have called it. Letting students move at their own pace and not be anchored down by others in the classroom. I agree with most of this article. In fact it sounds like an utopia classroom. Students working on problems in their own way, connecting their own dots, learning new skills so they self progress along their chosen path.... At the end of reading though, I'm right back to my roadblock. How do I even begin to manage this or set it up in the first place? Thinking from the science view, we use a lot of materials and supplies, having to have these items available gives me enough anxiety alone.
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but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
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I often wrestle with these different questions/thoughts from a high school perspective. Personalization seems like a great way to reach each individual students' interests and needs, but the logistics of measuring progress always surface. How do we ensure students are still meeting all of the state standards and critera so that they can earn a credit that is satisfactory for graduation? How do we make sure that things are coded appropriately so that those courses are recognized by post-secondary institutions? How do we allow personalization but don't limit it because of the need to be compliant for some things?
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I really think to implement a system which uses a personalized approach, the whole system by which we operate would need to be changed. High school graduation requirements would need to be adjusted as well as college entrance requirements.
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A personalized environment gives students the freedom to follow a meaningful line of inquiry, while building the skills to connect, synthesize and analyze information into original productions.
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This sounds like a great opportunity for a lot of my students, but I'm not sure it will also fit every student's needs. The more flexible schedule and choice inherent within it worries me about some of my students who really struggle with staying on task and making progress. I wonder how much structure would need to be embedded for these students and would it alter it to the point that it wouldn't be considered personalized?
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In theory, giving students a choice in what and how they learn would eliminate the need to keep them focused and on track. However, we have students in our classrooms today we know would struggle with this! As with any method of teaching, there would be students that would love it and thrive while others would struggle and need more intervention. Not every individual could learn this way.
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She cautions educators who may be excited about the progressive educational implications for “personalized learning” to make sure everyone they work with is on the same page about what that phrase means.
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There are certainly some changes that need to happen on a macro level if we want to reach our students in the optimal way. State assessments would need to change, the way that colleges rate students may need to be different and even the way college is taught could have implications. What happens if we are teaching these high schoolers in innovative ways that are truly personalized, but then a students ends up in a freshmen lecture hall with 300 students and is put back into that cookie-cutter scenario? Will they be prepared with the skills to handle that?
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I agree with you. We find ourselves teaching for the standardized tests. We need to find out what the expectations are in college to ensure kids are learning skills that allow them to succeed in all classroom settings.
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However, in order to navigate the system of accountability in the U.S. educational system, many school district leaders require public school educators to teach a specific curriculum that will be evaluated on standardized tests
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This is a big hurdle to overcome if we are to adopt a personalized learning environment. How can we make sure that students know the curriculum they will be evaluated on before going on to college or other programs after high school. Can they still demonstrate success on these tests?
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My school as adopted EL Reading LA curriculum. It is very scripted and all kids read 4 books through the year. Choice in reading has really taken the backseat. No room for personalized learning here.
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Technology was strikingly absent from these conversations.
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This surprises me as it has been a focus for many districts to become 1:1 with technology. I would think that to become more personalized technology would need to be implemented.
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After decades of this approach, it is clear that all children don’t learn the same way and personalization seems to honor those differences.
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Educators know this and have for a long time. We know our students have changed. I'm so glad to be in this class but I do not feel my administrators will support this because it is not going to fit into their mold- I can statements, success criteria, evaluation. Personalized learing is different!
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because of the larger preoccupation with data data data data data
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I love Alfie Kohn but this is a scathing assessment of the data-based movement. I get that not all things can and should be reduced to numbers and I tend to agree with his assessment of the dangers of these things being our focus. However, there has to be some way to see if we're making progress other than just individual feelings.
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One final caveat: in the best student-centered, project-based education, kids spend much of their time learning with and from one another. Thus, while making sense of ideas is surely personal, it is not exclusively individual because it involves collaboration and takes place in a community.
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I think this is a very important point as I think about personalized learning and what it might look like. My understanding of personalized doesn't exclude collaboration, but there are models that have the potential to be isolating.
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We don’t need personalization as much as we need to promote and give opportunities for our kids to do personal learning. And while they come from the same root, those two words are vastly different. “Personalized” learning is something that we do to kids; “personal” learning is something they do for themselves.
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To me, this is the most important point in all three of these articles. But this is such a complex issue in schools today. The pressure of all that students must learn and be prepared for has led us to a place where there is far less personal learning in schools. And at the same time, it would probably be more efficient (time-wise) to let project-based, personal learning meet the standards BUT we've also gotten to a place where funding cuts mean it's almost impossible to move away from the industrial model because the more personal project-based model requires more and different human resources. In other words, at the same time that there is more to learn and more concern about students having the engagement and perseverance to get there, we have less money to rebuild a system that currently gets us by with high student to teacher ratio.
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If we can’t engage our kids in ideas and explorations that require no technology, then we have surely lost our way. Big questions, passion, personal interest are what should drive our use of technology, not the other way around.
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Yes. This. So much of this. To me, this is what I love about the Blend/Flip cohort and AIW. Both of these concepts start with the kids and the content and how to engage them in the real ideas at the heart of the matter and then look at the best way of getting students to that goal with or without technology.
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describe a student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace. The only choice a student gets is what box to check on the screen and how quickly to move through the exercises.
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This reminds me of the online courses I have observed students complete over the past few years.
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When that happens, the structures around the classroom leave little room for the kind of authentic, whole-child personalization many teachers dream of offering.
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I know it is hard for me to give up structure with my Special Education students. This may be easier in personalized learning with students that have learned the skills to self-regulate and stay on task.
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truly personalized learning experience requires student choice, is individualized, meaningful and resource rich.
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I think we have students that will be successful with this learning. Some students may not be prepared. How do we determine which students can be successful?
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It’s as if engaging them in learning without technology has become this impossible task.
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I do not believe in just the Google classroom. I believe in engaging students with the community, books, and conversation.
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animates “competency-based progression,” “mastery learning,” and programs that tweak the “delivery of instruction.”
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Could this also be at the center of the difference between credit recovery online/personalized learning and more robust project-based/personalized learning? If a program's goal is to get students the bare minimum of credits for a basic diploma (ala GED), then this style might make sense. If we're thinking of a broader, system-wide approach, then this attitude it definitely at the heart of a lot of fears about the automatization of education.
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Simpler strategies, such as having kids choose, read, and discuss real books from the library may be more effective
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This is what lives at the core of my department's belief in individual reading. Every Friday, students in English 9, English 10, English 11/12, and American Literature read a book of their choice. There are no assignments attached. This "simpler strategy" is based on Kelly Gallahger's work in Readicide.
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By assigning the lecture at home, we’re still in charge of delivering the curriculum, just at a different time.
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THIS!!!! THIS 1000% times over! It takes twice if not three times as long to prepare a flipped lesson than a live lecture. This is a point most people don't want to talk about. We're still putting in the time and effort -- it just changes to outside of class time -- which puts the onus on us. Instead of completing the majority of my work during the school day, I'm completing the majority of it outside of school in the evenings and weekends.
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The assumption here is that curriculum can be broken into little pieces, that skills are acquired sequentially and can be assessed with discrete, contrived tests and reductive rubrics.
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Is this not what Standards Based/Referenced Grading believes? I am not at a SRG school, so I haven't gone through the process. My experience comes with a testing/data collection software our school is piloting called Performance Matters. All questions are tied to standards and wrapped up nicely-packaged in pretty color-coded data to allow teachers to quickly assess and regroup students based on ability or skill-demonstration. This sounds great - an easy to push students who already know the material and help students who don't - but it is testing actual growth or just test taking ability?
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Adaptive Learning System Articles - 0 views
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Most students learn pretty quickly that a Google search will yield some results that aren’t helpful and adjust accordingly.
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Sorry, I could resist this sentence. It's okay with me if it doesn't count towards my post, but I have to admit to laughing when I read this one. I'm not sure that most students get this today, I mean I hope they do, but the conversations I've had the past few years when students search things are scary.
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Adaptive learning technologies are potentially transformative in that they may be able to change the economics of tutoring. Imagine if every student in your class could have a private tutor, available to them at any time for as long as they need.
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I think this is the most eye opening factor within adaptive learning. It helps provide equity that is often missing when it comes to education. We know, that for the most part, our low social economic students preform lower than their counterparts. Which makes sense if you need tutoring and can't afford it. Adaptive learning technology has the potential to help schools bridge those gaps. It can help provide an equal opportunity for all. The point of, adaptive technologies acting like tutors, hadn't occurred to me before. As someone who needed tutoring in math as a young student, but came from a home where that wasn't feasible, I can appreciate the usefulness of adaptive technology.
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Adaptive learning has long been a part of education. The basic concept is simple: Coursework should be adapted to meet the individual needs of each student. Every teacher has experience modifying curriculum in some way to help students access information. Nowadays technology can help make the adaptations easier and more streamlined.
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Thinking about this first part and segments from the previous article, I would say that this idea would be a life saver. Sure, I realize that some students need more support than others, and sure I realize ways to give them the support they need, but how do I go about accomplishing such a daunting task? I often feel like that, at times, I'm running around with my head cut off. I can support student A who is struggling with seeing the connection from last weeks lessons to our current ones, but student B is so advanced that he's bored and tired of waiting so he's acting up instead, student C hasn't been to school in 8 days and has no idea where were at, and the list just goes on from there. I try to manage what I can by breaking students into groups, focusing on the larger picture, but I still realize that at many times, I'm falling short. If it can help assist me in meeting the needs of individual students, then I'm all for it. Later in the article it also talks about how it helps limit students from giving up. I think we can all agree, that's a huge bonus. My only unanswered questions are when to use it, how often, and at what point in the learning process? I've never used adaptive learning before, so I have lots to learn.
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n fact, it many strengthen instruction as faculty take on a more supporting, coaching role, with less time devoted to delivery of content, which students may or may not already have mastered, and more time focused on one-to-one student engagement and self-paced guidance through a curriculum.
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When I read the first sentence, I was a little offended. I'm glad I kept reading, I like this part a lot. I think that these moments, when students are working independently, are the moments where we truly get to know our students. I often feel like I don't have enough time to talk with my students about their learning. In fact, I often make lists of who I've talked to recently and who I haven't so I can get to them next time. The idea that adaptive learning can help me become an effective facilitator of learning is intriguing.
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"One of the benefits of adaptive learning is that it frees up faculty members to spend more time with students, to work with them in small groups and individually, essentially flipping the classroom," Johnson said. "We see this [approach] as part of a much bigger pedagogical picture. The technology is a tool that gets us to our goal of rehumanizing our large classes."
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I've already commented on the idea and benefits of time in prior articles. Although I like the idea of having more time to work and actually talk with students, I wondered something a bit different when I read about teacher's time in this article. Along with freeing up teacher time to do the things that, I would think all of us got into education for in the first place, would adaptive technologies also help with teacher burnout? What about the fact that in our state, enrollment in teacher education programs are down at all three regent schools? I can't recall the exact reasons why teachers burn out and quit, but I'm fairly sure that time with actually working students is one of them. I hear from many new teachers say that they didn't realize how hard it was going to be to the meet the needs of every student. I wonder if data would show whether or not these systems would help with getting and retaining teachers.
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They might help a student get unstuck on a particular step that he hasn’t quite understood.
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I have used IXL math with students. I like how it shows students the correct way to complete the program.
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tools t
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I think the word "tools" is important to point out. It is not instruction, but an additional resource.
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the notion of adaptive learning technologies can be abused as a kind of magic incantation by the reductionists.
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Not only abused without enough extra teaching, but used as a whole education system. There are already teachers that turn students over to programs as a way to teach without any other type of interaction. I am not ready for this as a parent or teacher.
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work that is not replicable by a machine.
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The adaptive learning can help support learning and free up teachers to get around to more students that need individualized instruction.
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ol101-s2020: Iowa Online Teaching Standards - 0 views
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Designs the structure of the course and the presentation of the content to best enhance student learning, including using unit/lesson overviews and reviews, using patterns in lesson sequencing, and using appropriate visual web design techniques (SREB C.14, Varvel V.F)
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I find this to be most important in regards to meeting the needs and/or learning styles of multiple/different learners.
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Promotes learning through online collaboration group work that is goal-oriented and focused (SREB C.5, Varvel V.I)
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This sets apart a quality online learning situation, rather than a work at your own pace, or checklist class, in which authentic learning probably isn't happening.
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Provides substantive, timely, and constructive feedback to students (SREB D.8, Varvel VI.F, ITS 5.e)
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I believe that (specifically the timely) part is critical for online teaching/learning success! Since there is such a lag-time with communication in the online setting vs. the face-to-face setting, timely feedback can ease that isolation a bit.
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Totally agree, a week goes by before you know it, and if a student isn't in front of you, the feedback can get 'lost'.
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Establishes standards for student behavior that are designed to ensure academic integrity and appropriate use of the internet and written communication (SREB E.2)
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Establishing netiquette standards from the outset will help participants be more successful. This is true of all ages, but in my opinion, these should be more stringent for the younger (high school/middle school) audience.
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• Continuously uses data to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of instructional strategies (SREB J.7, ITS 1.c)
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Continuous evaluation when you can't always see their faces to see that 'I don't get it look' is a critical part to teaching and reteaching.
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• Assists students with technology used in the course (Varvel III.C)
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This is one of the key reasons I'm taking this course. I want to understand what technology is used so I can make sure I have a support structure in place for both teachers and students.
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intellectual property rights and fair use
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I get asked this question all the time. Google image search has made it WAY to easy to grab anyone's content regardless of who really owns it.
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Understands and uses data from assessments to guide instruction
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Using an LMS such as Moodle can be helpful in not only scoring assessments, but helping to organize the data and determining which items students need further instruction with. -
Using an LMS such as Moodle can be helpful not only for scoring assessments but for organizing the data so the teacher can make sense of it and help students accordingly.
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Knows the content of the subject to be taught and understands how to teach the content to students
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I think that while professional development on pedagogy is important, sometimes our training on knowledge of the content gets overshadowed. This is too bad because the more I have learned about my content, I have been able to come up with more creative ways to teach it!
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Communicates with students effectively and consistently
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I often wonder about the right amount of communication with students in an online setting. Obviously you want some, but can there be too much?
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I sometimes wonder about the appropriate amount of communication in an online course. Obviously we want some, but we also want students to work on independent problem solving as well. For example, how often do I need to respond to discussion posts? There is no way I can respond to all of them in a meaningful way.
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Aligns assessment with course objectives
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It is so vital to make sure we assess students fairly and that the assessments are truly what we want students to be able to do, otherwise students can get frustrated and not see the point in what we are having them do.
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It is so vital to make sure that our assessments clearly align with what we actually want students to do. Otherwise, many students the tasks are meaningless busy work and will not be motivated to do them. Clear articulation is key!
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Utilizes a course evaluation and student feedback data to improve the course (Varvel VI.F)
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This is the best way to increase student engagement. When students know the instructor uses their feedback to make adjustments to the course, it is powerful.
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Tailors instruction to meet the different needs of students, including different learning styles, different interests and backgrounds, and students with special needs or whom are language learners (SREB C.7, Varvel V.H, ITS 4.c)
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Because it takes more effort to get to know students online (not face to face) this may take a lot of effort at first. An experienced online instructor may be able to make some generalizations but a new instructor would need to consider how to determine the needs of the group in a particular cohort when designing a course.
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Creates a learning community that encourages collaboration and interaction, including student-teacher, student-student, and student-content (SREB D.2, Varvel VII.B, ITS 6.a)
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It would be easy to create a course in which a student interacts only with articles and websites. It takes more thought and creativity to make sure interaction is built in to the class.
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Has experienced online learning from the perspective of a student (SREB F.1, Varvel II.E)
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It would be very difficult to teach an online course if an instructor has never taken one. This would be helpful in knowing how to be proactive with students instead of being reactive to their issues.
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Ditch That Textbook - 0 views
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Writing papers and research reports the Google way
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I love Ditch That Textbook and Matt Miller's emails. It is so much more than just curating digital resources for your courses. It is a great place to explore for pedagogy and edtech ideas
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"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 1 views
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student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace. The only choice a student gets is what box to check on the screen and how quickly to move through the exercises
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I do not think of this as personal learning. I would qualify this as individual learning. HOWEVER, I do think there's value in this. I have students who would rather work at their own pace via checklists. That said, this isn't personalized...all of the students do the same thing, just at different speeds.
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I agree with you, Ben. I appreciated this clarification between personalized and individual learning. I know that my 5th grade son would really appreciate this style of learning as he gets very frustrated when he has to wait for other classmates to finish tasks before going on to the next thing. I think there is room in education for individualization and personalization. in fact, maybe individualized learning is a good stepping stone toward personalized learning. -
Ben and Erin - I agree with both of your thoughts. To me it seems that personalization has to include more than just student choice in pace of learning. Students have to have some choice in how they learn and what they learn and what they can do to demonstrate mastery. I almost wonder if those elements of personalization that I mentioned above would be difficult for some students who are box checkers like my son who is really good at checking his canvas to-do list, finishing his work, etc. He stays on top of checking the boxes, but sometimes I wonder how deeply he is learning the content that is assigned to him. I don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense.
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personalized learning experience requires student choice, is individualized, meaningful and resource rich
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I think this becomes much easier with appropriate technology (1:1 devices), but I keep coming back to how much time must be devoted to finding resources for kids. I would think that personalized learning takes a significantly larger volume of "stuff" to accomplish vs. traditional learning....and I can't think of many ways to do this without enough technology.
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As the students progress through this process, why wouldn't they be able to find their own resources?
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If we can’t engage our kids in ideas and explorations that require no technology, then we have surely lost our way
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From a PhysEd teacher's standpoint, I agree completely. Since we've moved to a 1:1 school (well before the pandemic), we made the philosophy of our PhysEd program to be a chance for the kids to unplug for 45 min. daily. Obviously, that's easy to do in our world. However, we have access to great Heart Rate-based technology. So, it's now about finding the correct balance of play, skill, and time in the THRZ. I would go so far as to say, 1:1 might be doing as much damage wit kids as it is good for them.
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You want to really engage kids? Give them opportunities to learn personally
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Virtual instruction during this pandemic has been eye-opening for me with this. With our kids who are 100% virtual learning, we are trying to give them more options for PE-at-Home. Engagement has been an issue, but for the kids that have embraced it, they've done an excellent job. I believe in functional movement in PE, so I try really hard to give the kids the freedom to do things relevant and functional for them.
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I am glad to hear that you have had success with virtual engagement. I have had so many conversations this year about how to engage kids in virtual settings, how to get beyond teaching to the black squares in Zoom or Meet. I admit, as a PD provider, the black boxes rattle me. It has been an interesting experience trying to find the best ways to engage online professional learning participants.
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personalization only comes when students have authentic choice over how to tackle a problem
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I'm not sure if anyone else (specifically math teachers) have heard of Open Middle problems before, but personalized learning kind of reminds me of those. Students all start at the same place and end at the same place (which would be learning/understanding the content and meeting standards) but how students get to the end goal is up to them.
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Erin - this is how I try to teach my math classes. If I know of multiple ways to solve a problem, I will show my students all of them and then tell them they have to pick whichever method(s) fit their brains. My brain works differently than others - I am a pattern person, not a formula person. So when I am teaching the formula stuff, I always try to show my kids how my brain sees things - just in case there are other pattern people out there. -
Students learn all different ways and I agree with showing students all ways a problem can be done and have them choose what way works best for them and their learning style!
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When that happens, the structures around the classroom leave little room for the kind of authentic, whole-child personalization many teachers dream of offering
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This is the conundrum that I have been facing as I've begun learning more about personalized learning through this course. How can we create a balance between the types of schools we've imagined with personalized learning and the demands placed on schools by the government?
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The idea of personalized learning is seductive
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Seven words into the article and I'm already saying, "YES!" As I was talking to my kids about their ideal school and imagining a day in the life of a personalized learner, I kept thinking, "Why can't we create these types of schools? I would LOVE for my kids to go to a school like this!" The idea of creating environments in which students can create their day to match their learning needs and they can pursue topics that they are most interested in is very "seductive." I want that for my students, my own kids, and even for myself. How amazing would it be to teach in a school like we've imagined?
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This is how 'school' used to be. Kids went for the basics, and then as soon as they had mastered those, they found someone to apprentice to in order to learn the craft/trade that they wanted to do. Or, if they went on to a college, they simply found instructors that were talking about things they were interested in and sat in on those conversations. With the industrialization of America, we had to shift to more standardized learning because manufacturers needed those skills in their factories. So, we actually need to shift back to the old ways (in my opinion).
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like many new "initiatives"- it's important to look past the shiny newness and see what is worth keeping
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The Web has changed or is changing just about everything when it comes to how we think about the ways in which we communicate, collaborate and create
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I feel like we've been hearing this for awhile now - we are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet. The skills and dispositions they will need to be successful in the workforce are more about problem solving, creative thinking, and communication versus an abundance of knowledge of facts and formulas. So how are we (can we) changing how schools function to match how the "real world" has changed in the last decade?
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it’s crucially more important to have the dispositions and the skills to create our own educational opportunities, not be trained to wait for opportunities that someone else has selected for delivery.
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I had the opportunity a few years ago to talk to upper elementary students about the concept of learning. It was amazing to me that many of these said that learning looks like sitting quietly and listening to the teacher or getting all the questions correct on a test. These definitions made me sad. How is it that in just a few years of schooling we have given students such a passive view of learning? Learning is done to them not something that they are in charge of. Personal learning is a shift in the right directions. We have to TEACH students how to be learners. We have to put them in the "driver's seat" and allow them to make the decisions that will help them learn.
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Erin, your comment really resonates with me. I think sometimes we inadvertently communicate this message about what learning is to our students. We focus a lot on compliance but struggle at teaching students how to learn, how to monitor their own understanding, how to determine where their are gaps in their understanding and where to go next. I think this focus on compliance creates a lot of hoop jumpers or box checkers that know how to play the "game" of school.
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Big questions, passion, personal interest are what should drive our use of technology, not the other way around.
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Yes, yes, yes! This is what I've been striving to get across to my technology director this year as we are working toward a 1:1 digital learning environment in our elementary schools. I want PD to be focused on best practices of instruction not simply the latest and greatest tech features. The way to engage students hasn't changed because we have more access to technology - if we want to truly engage students in the content we have to get them passionate about it and interested in learning more for the sake of learning not just scoring points on an assignment.
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moving ownership of learning away from the teacher and more toward the student.
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Is anyone in an AIW district? We use AIW to some extent within our district and one of the key pieces of learning I took away from my AIW training was asking "Who is carrying the cognitive load?" We need to ensure that the teacher is not the one doing all of the heavy lifting in the learning. We need to design learning experiences in which the students are the ones actively doing the learning. We don't want "sit and get" lessons in which students simply listen to the information. We want students to be asking questions and seeking their own answers.
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“Personalized” learning is something that we do to kids; “personal” learning is something they do for themselves
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This statement really stuck out to me - the difference between personalized and personal learning. I think I struggle with "personal" learning because I have the traditional mindset that students need to be able to do and understand a certain amount of math, social studies, science and English to be a well rounded individual and have a hard time comprehending that students learning something for themselves is always going to equal having educational value.
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many school district leaders require public school educators to teach a specific curriculum
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This is the part of the whole personal learning experience that has me baffled. This may be the traditionalist in me, but what happens to the viable and guaranteed curriculum that we have spent so many PD hours developing.
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I agree with this thought. I keep thinking aren't there some foundational skills that all student must know? Maybe this is the shift to a more standards based grading that would allow more flexibility?
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In a world where we can explore almost every interest or passion in depth on our own or with others
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What becomes the role of the teaching with a personal learning environment, especially at the high school level where many of us have chosen the profession because we have our own passion for that area of expertise? I didn't necessarily get into this profession to help students learn anything, I kind of specifically came into this job because I have a passion for mathematics and want to specifically teach that passion.
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What becomes the role of the teaching with a personal learning environment, especially at the high school level where many of us have chosen the profession because we have our own passion for that area of expertise? I didn't necessarily get into this profession to help students learn anything, I kind of specifically came into this job because I have a passion for mathematics and want to specifically teach that passion.
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more effective delivery method than any one teacher with 25 or 30 student
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So reading this statement, in my mind instantly pops in 25 or 30 individualized lesson plans for personal learning. It may be a more effective delivery method, but is it necessarily efficient. There has to be some sort of structural changes to the current system of education to allow for personalization of learning.
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but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance
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Until the state changes the way they evaluate the success of schools and colleges change the way they look at admissions, especially 4 year liberal and public colleges, how do we let students do personal learning, but assure we are going to reach those requirements from the state and make sure students reach the requirements to attend the post-secondary education they want to receive. Based off of legislative decisions made so far this year, I feel like we have even less control and need to show more compliance in the near future than ever before. :(
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I feel you, Travis. I have often thought about this in terms of teacher licensure renewal, too, and how we would love to offer a more personalized approach to PD that are modularized that teachers can pick and choose from to put together a recertification credit. But the focus right now is on seat hours and that is incredibly frustrating when trying to come up with some more innovative PD models for recertification.
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mass customized learning,” meanwhile, may sound Orwellian but it’s not really an oxymoron because what’s customized is mass-produced – which is to say, standardized. Authentic personal learning isn’t.[6]
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I love this passage so much - the mass customized learning and reference to Orwellian doublespeak are fantastic. I do think that personal learning does become somewhat bastardized when you focus so heavily on the platform, or the program, or the technology that is going to make thee learning happen. That is not personalized learning, that is algorithmized learning or learning that measures me against some predetermined set of criteria but doesn't take into account what I am interested in, what dispositions I have, etc. It is kind of a double edged sword though becuase in order to efficiently make learning personal (given our current human resources constraints in our current models of education - 1 teacher, 31 - 150 kids, prepping for multiple classes/subjects) you need to have some kind of technology to help support.
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free to expand as a standardized individual.
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Personal learning (as Kohn prefers it to be called) seems very good in theory. However, when it comes down to the nitty gritty - planning how it would actually function within a school / classroom, it gets messy. That is the point when many teachers I work with go back to standardization. it's easier when everyone does the same thing. How can we get over this hurdle?
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I so agree. Personalized sounds idea but how does that work with 20 - 30 students and 1 teacher? I see where an online program works for this but believe when you put them on a program that a teacher didn't make the connection gets lost.
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Personal learning entails working with each child to create projects of intellectual discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests.
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This seems to be the definition that our class is referring to when we say personalized learning.
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Personalized learning entails adjusting the difficulty level of prefabricated skills-based exercises based on students’ test scores.
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This seems to be what another lesson referred to as "individualized" learning - the student has control over how fast they work through the skills, but it is the same skills for all students.
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Personalized’ learning is something that we do to kids; ‘personal’ learning is something they do for themselves.”[4]
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From our debate in the class forums, this quote reminds me of differentiation/individualization versus personalization. In my mind, personalized learning is personalized for each student and giving them control over the what, how, and when of the learning process while still keeping them accountable to the standards and expectations of their grade level.
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transmission of bits of information
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This reminded me of a blog post I read recently about thinking versus remembering. (https://www.byrdseed.com/thinking-or-remembering/) It also connects to the AIW (Authentic Intellectual Work) principles of construction of knowledge and conceptual understanding.
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Personal learning tends to nourish kids’ curiosity and deepen their enthusiasm.
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And if we are creating thinkers who are enthusiastic about learning and curious about the world around them, won't they learn more? Won't they be more employable and successful in the future? And in turn, won't they also probably do better on the state assessments? If students really have to think and understand content at a deeper level, they are more likely to remember what they've learned.
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It’s as if engaging them in learning without technology has become this impossible task.
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This does tend to be the thought process however I feel that students are actually more engaged when we take away the technology. Without the technology they are more inclined to discuss, collaborate, and think about their work without just assuming what their "google search" search found is the only answer or for that matter the only correct answer.
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flipping doesn’t do much for helping kids become better learners in the sense of being able to drive their own education.
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Truth! The trick is to get students to drive their own education - I don't have an answer -just a reality.
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requires us to think deeply about our goals and practices as educators,
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This is foundational in any sort of teaching. Good pedagogy carries through no matter if it's technology driven, student driven, or teacher driven.
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This kind of learning allows students to work at their own pace and level, meets the individual needs of students, and perhaps most importantly, is not a one-size fits all model.
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Huh. This to me says we should be doing away with the idea of CORE.... I realize why it was implemented, however... I know that many students' brains are not ready for Algebra in 6th, 7th, 8th, even 9th grade - so they really struggle and get frustrated and give up in math.
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“That has nothing to do with the person sitting in front of you
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Ugh. This phrase has no place in education. And yet - we have this attitude all of the time. By 'we' I mean those who legislate our requirements and create the standardized tests used to measure.
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deep learning
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Deep learning. I feel like some times when we thinking of online learning we think of videos/lectures, assignments, and etc. the same as a traditional classroom. This is when we need to do some personalization and flipping of our prior knowledge. How do we allow students to still learn the things that the standards say, but in a way that they can show their depth of knowledge by not just answering questions but by us really understanding their understanding of a certain topic. More of the deep learning takes place when they have to create or explain in their own words with reasonsing.
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data-driven
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Data driven was a key word that always grabs my attention. This is where data can be placed into the course to understand where a certain student's pathway lies. This would also be a great example of our students. We have students that are 18 years of age, with minimal prior education but we still place them as a senior grade level. This allows us to really personalize learning for that student for them to be successful.
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‘We often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization – but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
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This is the tension I am struggling with- it's great to want kids to learn in a personal way, but there are standards we are accountable for
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they digitally attached it to a generic animated child’s body that “plays” with Barney in the video.
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“’Personalized’ learning is something that we do to kids; ‘personal’ learning is something they do for themselves.”
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Tracking kids’ “progress” with digital profiles and predictive algorithms paints a 21st-century gloss on a very-early-20th-century theory of learning.
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this brings to mind the questions of PLCs 1. What do we want all students to know and be able to do? 2. How will we know if they learn it? 3. How will we respond when some students do not learn? 4. How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient? I'm still struggling with the idea of personalized learning and how structurally fits into our school model.
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B.F. Skinner proposed setting each child before a teaching machine,
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it seems that the COVID induced remotely learning across the country has served as a sign that this idea is not good for anyone
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The idea of personalized learning is seductive
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like many new "initiatives"- it's important to look past the shiny newness and see what is worth keeping
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“Personalized” learning is something that we do to kids; “personal” learning is something they do for themselves.
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these definitions are key to any conversation about personalized learning or even when talking about a student-centered classroom
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Article(s): Self- and Peer-Assessment Online - 0 views
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However, if they are to offer helpful feedback, students must have a clear understanding of what they are to look for in their peers' work. The instructor must explain expectations clearly to them before they begin.
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It might also be a good idea for students to have either a hard copy of a rubric or a rubric embedded in their LMS , so they can reference expectations/objectives.
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For peer evaluation to work effectively, the learning environment in the classroom must be supportive. Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback. Instructors who use group work and peer assessment frequently can help students develop trust by forming them into small groups early in the semester and having them work in the same groups throughout the term. This allows them to become more comfortable with each other and leads to better peer feedback.
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I think that this paragraph could be summed up by emphasizing safety in learning. It may be helpful to do some trust building activities before diving into peer assessments.
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he process has a degree of risk with respect to reliability of grades as peer pressure to apply elevated grades or friendships may influence the assessment, though this can be reduced if students can submit their assessments independent of the group.
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If submissions were kept anonymous or possibly reviewed by different classes/periods of the same section it my be more effective in reduction of inflated grades.
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They also recommend that teachers share expectations for assignments and define quality. Showing students examples of effective and ineffective pieces of work can help to make those definitions real and relevant.
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I think these two points are good ones with respect to self-assessment. Instructors need to lay our clear and concise learning targets/objectives for students. Also, providing examples of high quality work and low quality work gives learners an appreciation for where they are are going and where they are at in the process. Tangible examples of previous student work allows for modeling and a visual cue as to expectations layed out previously.
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‘Forcing’ the individual student to assess their own behaviour, as opposed to others is more constructive – it supports the aim of developing collaboration skills, along with the knowledge component.
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Interesting self-assessment strategy. This approach definitely helps to not "rock the boat" in terms of assessment linked to group work. This approach allows for ownership and reflection of one's contributions to the collaborative efforts of the group. I wonder if there is any data that breaks down honest/truthful self-assessments when this self evaluation and team grade approach is used?
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give students a practice session with it.
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one of the things I always wrestle with because it takes time --but practice with new tools is always worth it
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At first, students tend to create lofty long-range goals ("to speak Russian)" that do not lend themselves to self assessment. To help students develop realistic, short-term, attainable goals, instructors can use a framework like SMART goals outline shown in the popup window.
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Students do not learn to monitor or assess their learning on their own; they need to be taught strategies for self monitoring and self assessment.
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always good to never assume students have learned something in previous years
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A process portfolio serves the purpose of classroom-level assessment on the part of both the instructor and the student. It most often reflects formative assessment, although it may be assigned a grade at the end of the semester or academic year. It may also include summative types of assignments that were awarded grades.
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it would be interesting to try this type of portfolio which could be pretty easily done via Google Docs
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When learners are at a similar skill level.
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this might be difficult to do given the range of abilities that can be present in one class
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Effective group collaboration begins with a well defined assignment that has clear goals and expectations.
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I think a rubric for student interaction within the group context could be valuable as well. We may assume that students know what "good" collaborative group behavior looks like.
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Rather, students are looking at their work and judging the degree to which it reflects the goals of the assignment and the assessment criteria the teacher will be using to evaluate the work.
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Clarity in the assignment criteria would be very important as well as modeling how to use the rubric.
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Group work can be more successful when students are involved in developing the assessment process. This may include establishing their own assessment criteria through consultation with teaching staff. Alternatively you can provide students with sample self and/or peer assessment criteria.
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Co-constructing success criteria can help develop student ownership of the process as well as improving the end product or outcome.
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As a group, students determine what should be assessed and how criteria for successful completion of the communication task should be defined.
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The instructor models the technique (use of a checklist or rubric, for example); students then try the technique themselves; finally, students discuss whether and how well the technique worked and what to do differently next time.
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This reflection piece helps students figure out how they learn best. Often we teach a strategy, and assume that it will work equally well for all students. A journal might work well for me, but a checklist might be better for someone else.
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Students
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I think that anything under the age of about 5th or 6th grade would maybe be too young unless the teacher has really shown what the students should be looking for, but a really good question.
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a student may agree to work toward the grade of "B" by completing a specific number of assignments
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Thinking about this from a parent perspective, I'm not sure I'm okay with my 9 year old deciding what type of grade they are willing to work for
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Students can share their self-assessments with a peer or in a small group,
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I'm wondering if this is an intimidating procedure for students who struggle? For example a student with a reading disability often struggles in writing etc. Sharing with peers could be a source of anxiety.
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A well written rubric not only helps the facilitator score the assignment but it and can greatly increase the quality and effort put into assignments by giving students a clear expectations with knowledge that must be demonstrated.
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Clear expectations are so important. In addition to providing a rubric, examples of strong and weak work are also helpful to demonstrate expectations to students.
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their overall strengths and weaknesses.
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This is an awareness that is helpful to students. It brings about a sense of self-awareness that helps them in the learning process.
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joint process for instructor and student
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This is an interesting point on collaboration. The portfolios I've completed for courses it was more more of an individual project. I really like this - it creates a dialogue to process the learning.
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There may also be a perception amongst students that the academic is ‘shirking’ their responsibilities by having students undertaking peer assessments. In this situation students may be reminded of the Graduate Student Attributes.
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I see this as a common argument for the high schooler. The article points out some great reasons why this is almost more productive for the student to understand and improve on their own assessment.
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developed set of communication skills
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All students can communicate - some elementary students are pretty blunt in their communication. Is there a level where this becomes more effective? Or is it more important to model the skills so students pick up on the process?
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They were required to submit their self-assessments with the completed work, but their assessments were not graded.
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Really like this concept. It could really add to the instructor's ahas of the assignment. It could also open up a dialogue between the instructor and student if there is a discrepancy between grading on certain criteria.
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lift the role and status of the student from passive learner to active leaner and assessor
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A colleague told me he has his students use the rubric to first grade their assignment, and then they turn in their project. I want to start doing this so students can justify/defend or change their work before they turn it in. I have always provided a rubric but a lot of times kids don't look at it until after.
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Students will have a tendency to award everyone the same mark.
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I have found this issue of my students giving everyone 100% or being overly harsh on the students. I need to take time to teach my kids how to correctly assess.
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reflect
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If i had to take a keyword away from my latest PD and this class is REFLECT REFLECT REFLECT. The students need to take responsibility of their learning and reflect how they did, what they learned, and how they can use it.
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mature
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I believe learned needs to be open to feedback and know that no one is out to hurt or target them but help them grow in their learning
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These students reported that their ability to self-assess depended on knowing what the teacher expected
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This is why clear expectations and rubrics are so important so students know exactly what is expected and needed.
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by evaluating the work of their peers
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I have used this method a number of times with some success. Other times it just turns into giving their friends a good grade and not actually giving any feedback. Have to be careful with this method but can be a positive Assessment if done correctly.
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Students can become better language learners when they engage in deliberate thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it.
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I believe that students can be a ton better learners when they are engaged in whatever the subject happens to me. When they feel a purpose it makes more sense to them.
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Goal setting is essential because students can evaluate their progress more clearly when they have targets against which to measure their performance.
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I absolutely love this concept of setting goals. I don't care what it is in, the weight room, sports, grades, ect. When you have something that you can see the progression in and that breeds competition that will creating success and harder work.
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Contracts can serve as a good way of helping students to begin to consider establishing goals for themselves as language learners.
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This type of things gives the students a clear view of what is expected of them
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ol101-f2020: Iowa Online Course Standards - 1 views
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The course instruction includes activities that engage students in active learning.
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When I talk to my teachers about integrating technology into the elementary classroom, I'm often suggesting ways that the technology can help increase student engagement. I'd like to learn about more ways to increase engagement using technology.
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Instruction provides students with multiple learning paths to master the content, addressing individual student needs, learning styles and preferences
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I think this is a potential way that technology can do something that face-to-face struggles to do on a day-to-day, lesson-by-lesson basis - meet all students' individual needs, learning styles and preferences. That can be extremely challenging in a face-to-face environment - it takes a lot of time and knowledge by the teacher. I would love to see examples of this in action during an online course. Will we explore this concept in the OLLIE series?
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All resources and materials used in the course are appropriately cited and obey copyright and fair use
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This is something that I want to remember to do when I'm creating model courses or courses for teachers. We tend to preach to our students to cite our sources and obey copyright laws, but it can be really tempting to just do a Google Images search for that perfect picture or clip art without caring about copyright. I want to make sure to do my best to model correct citing and fair use policies.
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student-student interaction
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I think this is the component most missed in the online learning I've seen for COVID. Teachers interact with students and students with content but the student to student interaction is missing. it takes more creativity and the use of other tools to implement this well.
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a wide variety of assessment procedures to assess students’ mastery of content
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I need to improve in this category. After taking the OLLIE assessment course I see where I need to vary my assessments to include self and peer assessments.
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alternatives to auditory or visual content, as well as accommodating the use of assistive technologies
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This will be especially important for me next quarter as I will have a student with cochlear implants. In an all online course these would definitely be a challenge and something I need more help on depending on the device the student is using or abilities.
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A variety of high-quality learning resources and materials are available to increase student success
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Teaching online will require me to look for the variety in resources. I have my go to sites and strategies. Teaching a course strictly online would force me to increase my resources on the web. Taking the OLLIE courses has helped to increase these resources and tools.
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ol101-2020: Iowa Online Teaching Standards - 9 views
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I chose this criteria because having your course evaluated gives you valuable information to guide your next attempt. Reading through the student feedback of the course helps to know what you are doing right and what needs to be changed or tweaked to help students be successful. -
Student feedback is essential. What do you use to get their feedback? I use either Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.
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Designs the structure of the course and the presentation of the content to best enhance student learning, including using unit/lesson overviews and reviews, using patterns in lesson sequencing, and using appropriate visual web design techniques
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I chose this criteria because it encompasses the purpose for facilitating student learning, the goal. I like how it reminds me of all the components needed to ensure student success.
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Understands the differences between teaching online and teaching face-to-face
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moodle_iowa After being thrust into online learning in the spring, I learned this is vitally important. I am still learning how to be an online teacher, the preparation it takes, and how essential communication is with the student and his or her family. -
I agree, this summer has really opened my eyes to how important it is for a teacher to learn how to teach online. One of the most important parts is having consistent structure and clear expectations at the start. -
This is something that I am learning more about and believe is extremely important. What might work well in the classroom may not work as well online. Finding the best practices for the environment is essential to making sure the students are successful.
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I chose this criteria because it seems like a no brainer, but I realized after I started teaching a blended class how many little things are actually big differences between online and F2F courses.
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Identifies and communicates learning outcomes and expectations through a course overview/orientation (Varvel IV.A, ITS 3.b)
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This is important. I can see myself creating a screencastomatic video as an intro to each of my classes in order to meet this criteria.
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Moodle_iowa This is a good one. I have always known the "course syllabus" in my head, but especially next year, it would be super helpful to give a course syllabus to families. In the case that we do have to move online for a period of time, families could see where we are going like a roadmap to help their children achieve success. -
moodle_iowa I agree, Jill! It gives families a roadmap, and if we have to suddenly switch modes, it is already in place. It will take some time, but the preloading should help in the long run.
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This is something that I need to do a better job with in all my classes. This summer I have been working on updating and improving my class syllabus to be a much better overview of the class and showing what is expected of them throughout the course.
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I need to be better about posting and discussing learning outcomes before every lesson I teach. -
Identifying the objectives can be easy for a teacher to do but the communication piece is more difficult. Students need to see what does that objective mean and what should it look like.
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Tailors instruction to meet the different needs of students, including different learning styles, different interests and backgrounds, and students with special needs or whom are language learners
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This is where teaching online can sometimes be beneficial as long as you provide various ways to learn--videos, text, using text speak, etc.
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moodle_iowa Yes! I think it calls for collaboration with specialist teachers to be sure we are providing the accommodations needed.
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Visual graphics and videos for visual and auditory learners. Checking in with and offering office hours and extra support for students who may need this. Accommodations for students with disabilities or other needs.
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Promotes learning through online collaboration group work that is goal-oriented and focused
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I think this is very important in the classroom and online. When students collaborate they can share knowledge and learn from one another.
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Allowing students to do their own PowerPoint presentations of lesson material. Always letting students ask questions which are answered during Zoom meetings.
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I feel this is the part that can be missing in online learning. How do you get collaboration and provide a safe environment. As the instructor, do you need to be involved in every interaction between students? Yes when you are dealing with younger students. I am still looking for tools that allow collaboration with adult supervision.
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5. Creates and implements a variety of assessments that meet course learning goals and provide data to improve student progress and course instruction (ITS 5)
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In order to make an attempt to combat "cheating" in an online course, developing authentic assessments is crucial.
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Just as in a F2F classroom, a variety of assessments should drive instruction. Assessment is important for both teacher and students.
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7. Engages in professional growth (ITS 7)
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I feel that all four of these sub-standards are critical to the professional growth of any teacher who is teaching an online course. Teachers need to stay current with technology, network with peers, and apply learned knowledge and skills to improve best practices.
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Has experienced online learning from the perspective of a student
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This is a big one because then you can relate to how the students are feeling. Learning a new LMS can be frustrating and take time, so being able to experience that yourself and then apply that to what the students are feeling can help. I also think taking online courses helps you face many struggles students might have (such as being afraid to ask questions or participate). Again, you are experiencing the struggles students might have, which I feel back benefit the teacher by knowing what these struggles might be beforehand,.
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Assists students with technology used in the course
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If we expect our students to use the technology, we need to be able to help them use it! I had one student this past spring who was confused on what I was trying to explain on our LMS. I ended up video taping myself and showing him what to do, and he LOVED it. It was good that I was familiar with the LMS and could then show him myself what to do. If a teacher can't assist the students with the technology they expect them to use, then they shouldn't be using it.
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During the first week of online learning, I had an instructional Zoom meeting with my students and walked them through the "Instruction to Seesaw Tools" Activity that was going to be assigned. I "shared" my computer screen so that they could see me pointing out, describing, and using each feature on my "Sample Student" account. This was well worth my time because it explained to them how to use the tools and turn in their work on SeeSaw. I also told my students that they could ask me questions in the comments space for each assignment .When they had any questions, I would reply back to them that way and then they could finish up their work. -
Many times we assume that students know how to use a computer lesson and how to read the expectations. Helping them to be able to use the programs will increase their success.
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Understands student motivation and uses techniques to engage students
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• Maintains an online social presence that is available, approachable, positive, interactive, and sincere
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This is essential!!!! I wanted my students to still know and feel like I was their teacher and I think it is important for any teacher to do this. Students still need to know we care and want to help them become better learners. I believe keeping in touch with my students daily/weekly was vital in their success this spring.
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In our Zoom classrooms I always try to greet each student as they enter, to check in how they are doing and whether or not I can hear them and they can hear me.
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Students need interact with their peers as well as their teachers. Teachers should provide opportunities for students to interact, as is appropriate. Weekly class meetings give the students a chance to see each other and to catch up.. This was very important--especially to our littlest learners during the spring 2020 shut down.
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Understands student motivation and uses techniques to engage students
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This stuck out to me because this is something I tried hard to do with my students this spring. I knew that I had to find ways to motivate my students to do the work, and I would reach out to them individually to keep them motivated. I want to make sure I am keeping my students engaged when learning online and I am hoping I will be able to find more ways to do this if we have to continue to teach online this next school year. I think it is essential for motivation and engagement so our students still want to learn.
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You are SO RIGHT! In the classroom I can come up with incentives and I have a full toolkit for that....but last spring, I was struggling with online. Looking at the Maslov pyramid maybe the kiddos were stalled at the second step 'safety needs-security'. There was a lot of scary stuff on the news and through some reflections the kids that I didn't think would be bothered were really worried about the world. :( (Also, I can imagine being a middle schooler and being separated from my friends---ewwwwww!!!)
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I agree Sam. Keeping students motivated and engaged online may be hard. I don't think the being on technology will be hard for us to do, as they love to game and talk to their friends. However, keeping their attention and focus on educational curricular might be a whole other ballgame.
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I think it also helps to motivate students when they know the "why" in learning. Why is it important for us to know and why are we doing it. I think this is a little harder to get across in online learning. I know I did not do that as we were running a little blind this spring with the Covid situation. I need to improve in my directions to help students be more motivated about the work.
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• Knows the content of the subject to be taught and understands how to teach the content to students
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It is essential that a teacher understands the content and is confident in their ability to teach it. If a teacher is not competent in the subject and hasn't taught it before, it would be difficult to teach an online course. I think one of the best ways to learn as a teacher is to see student's reactions face to face & learn along with them. This would be harder to do in an online setting. -
It is extremely important for the teacher to understand the content, so they can teach it effectively to their students.
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Utilizes a course evaluation and student feedback data to improve the course
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Teachers should always be willing to improve on their craft. Reflection should be from all stake holder's - parents, students and the teacher themselves. Especially as we do this for the first time - feedback can only make things better.
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Gathering data and feedback from students and others to improve your course and teaching skills I feel is best practice. Teachers should always want to improve their teaching and want to make their course better. Not every student learns the same way, so what worked the first year may not work the next.
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If teachers don't use a course evaluation or ask for student feedback how do they know what went well or needs improving in the course. All teachers should want every student to succeed. It is important to welcome feedback and be willing to make changes that will improve a course.
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Selects and uses technologies appropriate to the content that enhance learning
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Content can sometimes look fun, but might be challenging for students to do. Their internet might be slow or their computer is not working right or it requires a program that they don't have loaded. These issues make the student focus more on the computer than on the learning at hand.
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I agree with this standard. I love how it says appropriate to the content to ENHANCE LEARNING. Many times I observe technology use from other teachers as fluff and used just to be used. There is not a purpose or application to the students' learning. It is just in there to pass the time. Technology is a tool, and this tool should engage, foster learning, and encourage application of skills. Not to play a game, watch a video or movie, or just fill time.
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I think this is a huge standard. I find myself sometimes using technology just to use it. It needs to enhance the learning instead of just there.
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This standard stick out to me because the technology I choose for my students should be appropriate for their age and the skills/strategies they are learning. I want the technology to be effective and not just being used to use it.
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Incorporates social aspects into the teaching and learning process, creating a community of learners
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Students are very social learners. Many of us have collaborative activities that they do in a face to face setting. It is important that we keep these social activities in an online course as well. Learning is definitely more fun with others!
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I have never really thought about this as being a standard in an online class. After taking a couple of classes myself, I can see the benefits of creating a community of learners and bringing in the social aspects for my online learners.
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Selects and understands how to evaluate learning materials and resources that align with the context and enhance learning
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"moodle_iowa" Learning to evaluate material is important because the internet has multiple sites with different information. My class researches saints every year and I have specific websites I ask them to research with because not all the sites are accurate. I have had to complete my own research in order to lead them to more accurate sites.
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Has knowledge of and informs student of their rights to privacy and the conditions under which their work may be shared with others
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"moodle_iowa" Teaching students about being safe online and making certain they understand their own rights as well as the rights of others is extremely necessary. In our society, we have the rules of the road to follow and explicit classes for students learning how to drive. This standard jumped out to me because I feel there are not a lot of parents ensuring their child is safe online.
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Provides opportunities that enable student self-assessment and pre-assessment within courses
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"moodle_iowa" At our school we are teaching the students about Growth Mindset and using self-assessment is key. Students understanding what they are failing at and learning how to fix it is a part of moving forward in their education. Using pre-assessments allows students to move above and beyond their strengths and to work on their not as strong areas with more practice.
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I like the idea of allowing students to self-assess as well. This gives them to really reflect and be more active in their learning.
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Sets and models clear expectations for appropriate behavior and proper interaction (
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"moodle_iowa" Being able to explain your expectations is important because it sets the tone for the entire class to be more successful. Whenever we were talking online I reviewed expectations to have better conversations that were helpful and inspired others.
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Is knowledgeable and has the ability to use computer programs required in online education to improve learning and teaching, including course management software (CMS) and synchronous/asynchronous communication tools (chat, email, web 2.0, videoconferencing, webinar, whiteboard, etc.) (SREB B.3, Varvel III.B)
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Teachers must be able to set up a course online successfully using the necessary tools. It seems that some think you can just a F2F class and put it online. There is a lot of prep work that goes into doing this successfully and knowing what resources/tools are out there is vital for success. -
Definitely. I am feeling more and more unprepared as I learn what is needed to make online course work and all the resources available. -
If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting.
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It is so important to be knowledgeable and have the ability to use computer programs required in online learning! This is exactly why I am taking this course! I need to be more knowledgeable. -
If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting. on 2020-06-19
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Aligns assessment with course objectives (SREB I.3, Varvel VI.C, ITS 5.a
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Hopefully this takes on the same importance as it does in a F2F classroom. Our assessments should align with the content we are teaching and finding ways to best assess this is critical.
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Communicates with students effectively and consistently (SREB D.1, ITS 1.g)
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This is so important in the online world. We want our students to know that we are "with them" and paying attention to them, just as we would be in a F2F class. This can actually be more time consuming as we may need to address each student individually to motivate, prompt, encourage, guide, etc and it will take longer than it would in a F2F setting. Feedback is so important in all settings!
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Provides and communicates evidence of learning and course data to students and colleagues (SREB J.6, ITS 1.a)
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It is very important for students to see evidence of learning. This evidence of learning can be a real motivator for some students.
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Demonstrates effective instructional strategies and techniques, appropriate for online education, that align with course objectives and assessment (SREB C.1, SREB G.6, Varvel V.C, ITS 3.d, ITS 4.b)
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Learning happens when effective instructional strategies and techniques are used. Effective instructional strategies and techniques for online learning are a whole new skill set for most of us.
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I need to be better about posting and discussing learning outcomes for every lesson I teach.
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Provides substantive, timely, and constructive feedback to students (SREB D.8, Varvel VI.F, ITS 5.e)
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Providing timely and constructive feedback can help student become stronger learners.
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Timely feedback is very important. I remember as a child I would ask when the test was being passed back, just so I know how I did on the test. I still have students asking me when I will grade something or have a comment back to them by. I always tell my students I am available 24/7 via email for their programming needs, but sometimes they just want a quick check on their work. It is that constructive feedback that I feel needs to be precise and to the point, so they understand what you are asking of them and what they need to do to get the grade they are searching for.
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Providing feedback is so important for the student. It is even more important that the feedback is given in a timely manner. This is one way to build a rapport with the student, and make sure they are understanding the content being taught.
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Demonstrates techniques for dealing with issues arising from inappropriate student technological use (SREB E.7)
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This is very important and could be very difficult when learning is strictly online. I know filters can be put on devices but am not sure how that works.
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Continuously uses data to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of instructional strategies (SREB J.7, ITS 1.c)
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This is something that assessments, quick checks and tickets out the door will allow us to check what the students know and what I need to do to make sure they will understand later.
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This is an effective strategy for any teaching style. Sometimes when students are not understanding the content, the teacher needs to look back at how the content was taught and make a change. Also, if an instructional strategy is not effective there should be reteaching as well.
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This is essential to online and classroom instruction. It is always important to use data to drive instruction. By looking at data one can see if the students are understanding what is being taught.
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Creates and implements a variety of assessments that meet course learning goals and provide data to improve student progress and course instruction
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Engages in professional growth
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This is what I've been saying all along. Teachers need to continue to learn in order to continue to provide the best practices for students
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Knows and aligns instruction to the achievement goals of the local agency and the state, such as with the Iowa Core
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This is important because without the alignment we will end up with arrows pointing in random directions instead of one common goal.
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It will be even more important this year to consider the district's standards. Our time will be very valuable since we have gaps to fill in from last year.
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This is very true. We will probably need to look at previous grade's standards as well as our own since our students missed a third of the academic school year.
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This is especially relevant due to the online learning that needed to be done this past spring. The teachers at our school will need to meet and discuss what standards were not met for each of our classes and make adjustments.
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Creates a learning community that encourages collaboration and interaction, including student-teacher, student-student, and student-content
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Learning is social. Collaboration and interaction help examine own understanding including misconceptions and deepen the knowledge and skill.
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Has knowledge of learning theory
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Theory is the basis of all the practical decisions that we make. Without a thorough understanding of the theory behind online learning, it would be easy to go astray. (True for everything else!)
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safe environment
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Demonstrates competence in content knowledge (including technological knowledge) appropriate to the instructional position (ITS 2)
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As a computer science teacher and technology coordinator, I feel that it is important to know the content that you are teaching before you try to teach it to the students. Which also may mean you need to be certified to teach that content area, or have some background with the curriculum (as in Iowa you do not have to have a Computer Science degree to teach computer science, yet) However the most important asset of this standard is the assistance we should provide to students.
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As a computer science teacher and technology coordinator, I feel that it is important to know the content that you are teaching before you try to teach it to the students. Which also may mean you need to be certified to teach that content area, or have some background with the curriculum (as in Iowa you do not have to have a Computer Science degree to teach computer science, yet) However the most important asset of this standard is the assistance we should provide to students.
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Has experienced online learning from the perspective of a student
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I feel that all four of these sub-standards are critical to the professional growth of any teacher who is teaching an online course. Teachers need to stay current with technology, network with peers, and apply learned knowledge and skills to improve best practices.
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I agree, one the best learning experiences for me was taking these classes and being a student again and seeing instructional strategies for a student's perspective. Going into next year, I have already implemented changes to my classes because of my experience as a learner and a student.
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This is what we are doing on this course. I also get this experience somewhat when I am in an online Professional development meeting at my school.
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It is very important the a teacher has went through an online class (or 4) so they have a good idea of how it works, what a student goes through, where hang-ups occur, and just to know, it is easy to get stuck.
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Communicates assessment criteria and standards to students, including rubrics for student performances and participation
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moodle_iowa This is definitely an area that we use in face-to-face teaching, so I would expect that it would be included and important to online teaching. It is good for students, and teachers, to know the expectations that are needed for an assignment, assessment or project. It is a guideline to follow until you reach the desired product or learning objective.
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Communication within online courses is more difficult. It can be difficult to share in detail the expectations and answer many questions as you can in a face-to-face classroom. Clearly stating assessment criteria and providing some kind of framework. like a rubric, is important to a successful learning experience.
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Applies research, knowledge, and skills from professional growth to improve practice
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It is equally important whether we are teaching F2F or online. A teacher is a lead learner. We set the example, we learn, we reflect, we improve our practice. The key here is to incorporate the new learning. We simply cannot afford to attend PD sessions and never put new learning into practice. That would be malpractice!
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Demonstrates competence in planning, designing, and incorporating instructional strategies
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I believe teachers are lifelong learners. This standard is something that teachers will continue to do when their online/blended courses develop.
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Understands and uses data from assessments to guide instruction
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I stated this above that data from formative assessments need to drive instruction. Then you adjust to enhance student learning.
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Demonstrates growth in technology knowledge and skills in order to stay current with emerging technologies
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This should be a given with online teaching and is exactly why I am taking this class, to grow my tech skills and knowledge. This field changes so quickly , one must always be growing and adding skills to stay effective.
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Understands and uses instructional pedagogy that is appropriate for the online environment and meets the multiple learning needs of students
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This is interesting because in our brick and mortar classrooms we can often have other teachers that work with some of our students due to special education needs, physical needs, or language needs, but in an online classroom you are the only teacher. Makes me wonder if online teachers ever have these types of people as resources.
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Networks with others involved in online education for the purpose of professional growth
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I know that networking with others involved in online education is vital for me because I am so new to online learning.
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Establishes standards for student behavior that are designed to ensure academic integrity and appropriate use of the internet and written communication
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Creates or selects multiple assessment instruments that are appropriate for online learning (SREB H.1, Varvel VI.C)
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This is important because some students perform better through different ways. For example, I would have some assignments that required oral or typed answers, some required drawings, and some required the students to take a picture of an item that represented the lesson we were learning. Depending on the assignment, the students could pick the way they wanted to use for their answers.
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Continuously uses data to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of instructional strategies (SREB J.7, ITS 1.c)
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It is important for a teacher to use data to drive their instruction. This way the teacher can pin point where the student needs help.
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Understands and uses course content that complies with intellectual property rights and fair use, and assists students in complying as well
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This hits me where I live. It is so important to not just "talk the talk" about photocopying music but to actually share with the students my understanding of copyright laws concerning music photocopying. Thankfully I have purchased a program that I can use in the classroom and can copy as needed.
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Meets the professional teaching standards established by a state-licensing agency, or has the academic credentials in the field in which he or she is teaching
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It is important for educators to meet the standards set forth by the state to protect the students, ensure their education and prepare the students for their future. As education and society evolve, educators will be required to demonstrate their mastery of technology as well as their specific field of study.
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Continuously uses data to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of instructional strategies (SREB J.7, ITS 1.c)
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I'm a data girl. Love seeing the data on new instructional practices and love using data to inform future instruction.
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• Knows the content of the subject to be taught and understands how to teach the content to students
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The state has adopted requirements for teachers to protect our students, to provide the best trained professionals for our schools and to insure appropriately licensed teachers are leading classrooms. When I was first in Iowa, it was quite a battle to obtain my endorsements. Reciprocity between Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska didn't exist and my administrator went to the wall for my licensure.
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Selects and uses technologies appropriate to the content that enhance learning
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This has been a challenge for me. I feel like I'm always looking for the best technologies to enhance my content but they change so fast that it is difficult to be committed to one. I continue to read blogs and other math posts to learn more about math technologies.
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Demonstrates techniques for dealing with issues arising from inappropriate student technological use (SREB E.7)
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We have had to address students that have been using technology inappropriately and each case is dealt with on an individual basis. It is very important to have policies and procedures in place to ensure students learn from their misuse and don't do it again.
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Demonstrates ethical conduct as defined by state law and local policies or procedures
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When I read this one it make me think of the online learning this spring and the video conferencing that was taking place. We were reminded to dress appropriately, not to conduct conference in private rooms in our house, and not to have a one on one video conferences with a student. It was important to demonstrate ethical conduct.
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, managing conflict (Varvel VII.D, ITS 6.e)
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Throughout the courses I thought this was something that only face to face courses need to provide, but that is not true. It's crazy how much being personable and providing that safe environment on and offline.
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Selects and uses technologies appropriate to the content that enhance learning
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This is a concern because it takes quite a bit of time to research and implement different types of technology. Is this just an expectation? Should school districts provide more training/instruction on the various types of technologies? -
This is a concern because it takes quite a bit of time to research and implement different types of technology. Is this just an expectation? Should school districts provide more training/instruction on the various types of technologies?
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Networks with others involved in online education for the purpose of professional growth (
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Creates or selects multiple assessment instruments that are appropriate for online learning
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Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?
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Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?
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Demonstrates techniques for dealing with issues arising from inappropriate student technological use (
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The online instructor is expected to demonstrate techniques to deal with inappropriate use of technology by students. Is it the teacher's responsibility to find the techniques or software and discourage inappropriate use? Or, does the technology department in a school district find the techniques and the teachers use them?
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The online instructor is expected to demonstrate techniques to deal with inappropriate use of technology by students. Is it the teacher's responsibility to find the techniques or software and discourage inappropriate use? Or, does the technology department in a school district find the techniques and the teachers use them?
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Establishes standards for student behavior that are designed to ensure academic integrity and appropriate use of the internet and written communication
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Standards set up ahead of time are very important. This gives students upfront knowledge of what is expected.
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knowledgeable and has the ability to use computer programs
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to use computer programs required in online education