When do we stop chewing their food?

The birds have found the feeder. We moved it and a suet holder closer to the house this winter since the trees that used to shelter them were cut down over the summer. I was afraid that their proximity to the house might frighten the birds, but it has not been a problem. In fact, it has made it easier to watch the birds as they feed.

During the spring and summer, I watched as the adult birds fed the babies. The adults would grab food from the feeder and place it in the mouths of the babies waiting on nearby branches. I do not anticipate seeing much of this behavior over the winter. I could be wrong, but I think the birds that visit our feeder and suet cakes have outgrown the need to be beak-fed.

When does this happen in education? In other words: when do we quit feeding learners information and expect them to fend for themselves? This came up this past week as I talked with university colleagues about student evaluations. We have all had comments that our students want more lecture because that is how they "learn" best. I make up that these comments are from students who have come to expect that the teacher's role is to gather and chew up educational information for students to consume. Is that too harsh?

For the sake of completing this post, let us assume that this learned helplessness is indeed the problem. What can we do about it? This is where I try to apply the Teaching-Learning Cycle and the Gradual Release of Responsibility. The Teaching-Learning Cycle provides a framework where I can identify the information and the processes learners need to make it on their own, monitor learners' progress toward these goals, and plan and implement appropriate supports. The Gradual Release of Responsibility represents an instructional approach which helps learners to "fend for themselves" through a series of lessons that begin with demonstrations, move to collaboration, and eventually result in independent practice.

I am fortunate that my colleague, who teaches the prerequisite course for the one I am teaching now, uses these frameworks in his practice. Even after only a few days I have seen a difference in my learners. Not everyone of these learners had John's section, but those who did are able to share with the rest what is expected of them in and out of class. I get the feeling that there will be a lot less gathering and chewing on my part this semester. And for that, I am grateful.

What is your dream?

Today, Grand Valley held a Silent March to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr, whose birthdate was January 15, 1929. Along the way, placards lay out a timeline of the civil rights leader's life and some of his quotes. I find Dr. King's messages inspiring, and I believe that they are timeless. So I was grateful when Valerie Strauss shared several excerpts from his speeches and writings related to education in her column, "MLK's prescient thinking on education reform."


I especially connected with his piece for the Morehouse College student newspaper. In this writing, Dr. King discusses the purposes of education. Part way through the piece, he writes:

Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

Reading this, I immediately thought of phronesis - the idea of knowing what's available to do and what's worth doing. Of course, what is worth doing to one person may seem foolhardy to another. And another person might consider the "doing" just plain wrong. In the article, Dr. King writes about former Georgia governor, Eugene Talmadge. Dr. King considers Governor Talmadge intelligent but wonders, "yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?"


How can education help us address such unintelligent presepectives? We must provide experiences that challenge unfounded beliefs. We must provide opportunities to reflect on those experiences. And then we must start over again because beliefs can be a difficult thing to change. But change they must, or it will be Dr. King's closing words in the article that will turn out to be most prescient:

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!

Who controls the volume?

For that special date 11-11-11, NPR's All Songs Considered did a podcast based on the this clip from This is Spinal Tap:

No surprise - my thoughts went to education. I wondered about the ways I try to turn my teaching volume up to eleven. There are certainly times in my classroom where I want to REALLY impress upon my learners the importance of what we are exploring. While this might result in literally turning up the volume, it is more likely to manifest itself in elaborate planning and over-the-top presentation. It might get the learners' attention, and maybe even their interest, but this line of thinking seems too self-centered to be sustainable.

The podcast was really about the songs that listeners want to turn up to eleven, though. This was evident in the following exchange:

Bob Bollen: "I think most people, when they think of 'cranking up', they think of pop music. They think of turning up the radio that they’re listening to when that song comes on." 

Jacob Ganz: "Yeah, that’s the instinct. You’re listening to the radio and something comes on and you either reach to change the channel or you reach to crank it."

BB: "It was the original 'like' button. Only there was no feedback. If the station could have gotten that information that you turned the dial up …"

In my way of thinking, the listener represents the learners in my classroom. While I certainly have wished that I could receive immediate feedback on how engaged learners were in the lesson, when it is put this way I am uneasy. It too closely resembles a consumer approach to education - find out what they want and then give them more of it. This seems representative of some of the student-centered approaches that I find unsustainable.

Instead, I would like to have learners be more reflective about what they like or don't like about a lesson. Here is where the analogy breaks down because listeners do not need to connect with every song, but I want learners to be prepared to engage with every lesson. This is a metacognitive act that will allow them to participate more fully in boring lessons that they might otherwise tune out.

I still want to develop lessons that showcase my enthusiasm for the topics being addressed. Enthusiasm can be contagious. As the course goes on, however, I need to be ready to gradually release responsibility to the learners. They must find ways to connect to the learning regardless of their level of interest. After all, learners ultimately control the volume of what they want to hear. I just want to help them to make critical and sustainable choices.

Whose problem is it?

"Education systems, teachers, school districts all over the world are going crazy about problem-based learning - nothing like a good problem to solve. But they are looking at the wrong bit of it. The thing we're neglecting is to find a generation of problem finders."

The above quote comes early in Ewan McIntosh's talk at TEDxLondon. This really connects with my goal to foster sustainable learning. Here is the entire talk (it is well worth the eight minutes):

I want learners to come up with their own problems - to be able to answer, "Now what?" for themselves. Most times when I try to implement a problem finding curriculum, however, two issues interfere: trust and control. You see, I know what they need to know because I know what I learned and how it has helped me. How can I be sure learners will follow the correct path, find the right problems, if I do not lead them either explicitly or implicitly?

Here is a good example. Over the winter holiday break, I went on a hike through a state managed forest. Along the trail were a variety of signs describing interesting facts about the trees and forest management. The sign below was of particular interest to me.

I thought it had a lot of potential for use in a course on teaching and learning middle school mathematics that I am scheduled to lead this semester. It would provide a great context for the geometry section as I asked my learners to make Biltmore and Merritt Rule Sticks using the information provided. The problem was perfect, but as Ewan points out, it was also mine.

Given my interest in sustainable learning, I would be better off owning the problem myself and using it as a demonstration. It would offer an opportunity for thinking aloud about identifying problems in contexts that interest me - the first step in the gradual release of responsibility. Then, with my support, the learners could begin to find their own problems in whatever math content we must address. By the end of the course, hopefully, the learners could find problems for themselves.

With awareness and effort, I have gotten better at letting my learners lead the way. Every success allows me to trust them a little bit more and give up trying to control the curriculum. Maybe 2012 will be the year I learn to really let go.

What have you been doing?

To wrap things up for 2011, I thought a recount of the year's posts would be in order. This will be my 90th post on this blog this year, which is pretty amazing considering I thought one a week would be a reasonable goal. But I ended up finding a lot to write about. So much, in fact, that I forgot some of what I wrote. This is the main reason I wanted to write this recount - to refresh my memory.

In January, I introduced my blog and the rationale behind it. It was also my intention that some of the posts might inspire me to write a book on the Teaching-Learning Cycle. So the next few posts began a series on the Cycle - assessment, evaluation, and planning.

The instruction post of the Teaching-Learning Cycle started off February. A self-evaluation that I wrote next was the first unplanned post. This was followed by my yoga story, which I share in nearly every class as a metaphor for effective teaching. Another unplanned post shared my students' views of what they thought it meant to do math. The post on frameworks was the last one of the month and probably my favorite one of the year.

I wrote 12 posts in March. The first was an email I sent to our student teachers about time management. Second, I wrote a commentary to accompany my TEDxGrandValley talk. In the third post, I explain why as a math teacher I attend the Michigan Reading Association Conference. In the next two posts I began a series that looked at testing from the Teaching-Learning Cycle (TLC) perspective (assessment and evaluation). The series was interrupted, however, by a pair of unplanned posts: a letter to the editor in support of teacher unions and a description of how I used a Twitter backchannel in a class. Next was the third TLC/testing post focusing on planning. Two more unplanned "interruptions" addressed a Tweet by Alfie Kohn and a simile survey related to learning math. The conclusion of the TLC/testing series (instruction) was next. The twelfth and final post outlined the workshop I used to have my students reflect on what it means to learn math.

April was my most prolific month with 15 posts. A pair early in the month used Monty Python skits to look at teaching and learning. There were four posts that had been in my files for awhile waiting to be shared with the world: Process Standard math centers; an early elementary math poem; and a pair of posts on Pass the Pigs (the first post was the most popular of the year). There were a couple of posts related to work my students on what it means to teach math. I also introduced why I started the Learning Museum (another blog that needs more of my attention). Three posts were related to the NCTM Conference I attended in Indianapolis. A mind map reflecting our teacher assistants' experiences over the semester took up another post. Near the end of the month, I wrote a post that responded to an article suggesting that students learn best from direct instruction. The last post was a copy of a final exam I gave my preservice middle school math teachers.

I kept up the pace in May with 13 posts. The first three were a series based on a student teacher's portfolio project. Next was an impromptu post based on an #anyqs tweet. Another Twitter inspired post considered alternatives to traditional math homework. After attending TEDxGrandRapids, I also wrote a synopsis of the event from an educational slant. I did another three-part series on EdCamp Detroit: introduction, my session, and my reflection. There was another response to the article on direct instruction (which also introduced the clock model for adding and subtracting fractions) and two more posts from my files on grading. And then there was the one where I explained why all the titles of my posts are questions. I'm not sure I'll continue that theme next year.

In June I wrote three more posts associated with the clock model for adding and subtracting fractions. There were also three more posts on activities from my files: data transformations; scatter plots; and Monte Carlo simulations. I wrote a post comparing teaching to training horses, and a pair relating teaching to bike tag-alongs (what I saw and what I thought about it). I ended the month writing about the gradual release of responsibility and my thoughts on the flipped classroom.

I began teaching a graduate class in July and a couple of my posts focused on that experience. The first was based on memories I had as I planned the course. And the second was based on my desire for my grad students to mutiny. I also wrote about teaching as story telling in honor of the last Harry Potter movie's debut, the importance of trusting oneself in teaching and golf, and a letter to the editor on education reform.

August began with one more post about my grad students - their blog addresses so others could offer feedback. I then wrote about how I use the workshop model. Then I blogged about how a TED Talk encouraged me to take the 30 day challenge. Finally, I talked about why I ask questions in class for which I don't have answers.

September was the start of classes, and I began the month writing about a workshop I use on the first day. Then I wrote about how design thinking might apply to education. A post on teacher pay came next. These were followed by two more math activities from my files: one on story problems and the other on empowering students (this became part of a series called, Now What).

In October I finished the Now What series on empowerment with three more posts. I also shared my session workshop on Metacognitive Memoirs from the MCATA Conference. My big post was a 'transcript' of my keynote at MCATA.

Two unplanned posts bookended November. The first post of the month was on phronesis. The post at the end of the month was about running. In between, I wrote about my session on Twitter at EdCamp GR and what makes math real. I also began a series on using action plans to improve teaching. The first introduced action plans and the second gave an example of one in use.

December included two more activities from the archives: fostering creativity and snowman glyphs. There was another impromptu post based on several Twitter interactions. The third in the action plan series focused on an example related to evaluation. I shared a video reflection from one of my learners. And last, but definitely not least, was my blog recount that you might still be reading.

Well, that's all folks. Thanks to anyone who made it this far. And thanks to everyone who supported me through this first year of blogging. I am excited to see what new learning 2012 has in store.

What did we learn?

At the end of each semester, I try to make sure that my learners have time to reflect. If their learning is to last, then they must have a chance to consolidate it. This past semester I used three workshops to support their efforts to look back and look forward.

The first workshop asked the learners to focus on the course objectives.

They identified those in which they considered themselves proficient and what contributed to their proficiency. So much occurs during a semester and too often learners do not recognize what was learned. This task represents a metacognitive activity that makes it more likely that the learners will be aware of all they have accomplished. It also provides me with important assessment data that will inform how I teach the course in the future.

In the next workshop, learners write letters to future students as a way to prepare and encourage them to be successful in my course. Here are two from this semester:

I will share the letters with future learners because people often accept advice more easily from their peers than their teachers. This is not the sole reason for the activity, however. It also provides the letter writers with the chance to reflect on their own growth as learners over the semester. I hope that both current and future learners will benefit from this wisdom borne out of experience.

The final workshop asks them to create a 3 minute (or less) TED Talk about what they have learned this semester. This year I found out the power of showing the Student vs Learner clips early on. Many of them commented on how these videos helped to frame the entire semester. I will now try using them the first day in all of my courses.

The presentations are ungraded and usually very informal. Amazingly, this sometimes leads to more preparation on the part of the learners. Regardless of the time they put into them, I find their sharing to be quite profound and at times moving. Here is an example from this semester:

I remember teachers saying to me, "You'll thank me for this later." This typically accompanied some particularly distasteful tasks. I bristle at this notion and hold the belief that I am not in this for people's thanks but because I believe in what I do. Still, I hope I am getting better at accepting people's gratitude as well as their criticisms. After all, both are a part of the learning process.

What's your problem? Part III

Previously in this series, I shared about action plans (here) and how one teacher used an action plan and observation to improve her use of questions in assessing learners (here). In this post, I provide another example - this time focusing on evaluation. (I have explained before that our framework treats assessment and evaluation as different phases of the Teaching-Learning Cycle.)

The teacher being coached was using entry slips to gather data on her learners but was unsure how to interpret the data. Her question to develop her understanding literally asked, "What do I do now?" It was with this in mind that I entered the class and saw the following on the board in the front of the room.

After about five minutes, the teacher collected the sixth-graders' efforts, looked over them, and, satisfied, moved on with the rest of her lesson. 

During a lull in the lesson, I asked if I could look over the slips. With her consent, I began to analyze the assessment data. I organized it using the table shown. As you can see, there were no incorrect answers, however, there was a problem. Approximately 22% of the learners were unable to complete the task in the time provided. Fortunately, the teacher had asked the learners to show their work so that some of their thinking would be made visible to us. This would provide further insight into the problem.

I began to apply the evaluation framework by asking myself, "What can they do? What are they trying to do? What comes next?" Looking over their work, it became clear that they were fluent in comparing fractions using common denominators. Below is an example of how nearly all of the learners went about finding the first answer.

This also seems to suggest where they were approximating. By trying to apply this method (finding a common denominator by multiplying the two denominators) to all the comparison problems, some learners had run out of time. It seemed clear to me that what came next was considering alternative approaches to comparing fractions that might be more efficient. I shared the following list with the teacher:

• Using benchmark fractions like one-half and one;
• Comparing like numerators;
• Finding least common denominators; and
• Converting to decimals.

We talked about ways to introduce these strategies and how to make subtle shifts to the worksheets that she was expected to assigned. By asking the learners to look over the worksheet and match each item with a preferred method, they would be engaging in more meaningful work than simply applying a particular approach over-and-over again. As always, I left it open for this shift to be a part of the teacher's next action plan.