To help encourage conversations and dialogue about deeper and meaningful learning, our topic/question of the week is: How can teachers help students connect on a deeper level with the concepts and learning that takes place in school? Deeper Learning (Week of 3/11/18) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
We have certainly entered March 'like a lion', and I am hoping that we start to get closer to the 'out like a lamb' sooner rather than later! It was wonderful to see and feel the sun shining on my run last Saturday morning, and although it was hard to 'lose' an hour of sleep Saturday night I am looking forward to the extended daylight in the afternoon/evening hours. We had a nice weekend with only a few 'commitments' as we are in between seasons, and we did our best to get outside and encourage spring to come (although our encouragement did not help with today's storm)!
I have shared before that one of my weekly routines each Friday is to take some time to look back at the past week with a reflective lens and to look forward at the upcoming week with a proactive lens. This reflective/proactive dual lens approach is one that we are continually employing as educators – reflecting, responding, planning, and thinking ahead while always trying to stay present. This past Friday’s ‘dual lens practice’ for me definitely had me feeling a bit ‘on overload’ as the calendar and events are full: reviewing and revising our safety protocols with students, staff, and community; incoming 7th grade PIN; the storm; evening with Kwame Alexander; meeting with students and staff in response and preparation for 3/14; and, of course, our day to day work with students.
With all of this work it is important to try and center the work and find meaning. There are different ways for each of us to do this and that is an evolving and ever-changing process for me. It will most likely come of no surprise that one of my steadfast practices is that of reading, connecting, and reflecting with and through other educators. Whether the avenue is posts, social media, or direct collaboration, I am able to find meaning and direct connections with our work as a school and my own personal growth and development as an educator. I so enjoy the professionalism of our learning community and willingness to ‘dive in’ and learn together.
I am sharing two posts this week that resonated with me and helped me to ground my thinking with all of our work. The first post by Jal Mehta pushes all of us to ‘go deeper with our learning for all students’ and is one that we discussed this week with content specialists, and the second post by Peter DeWitt highlights the importance and urgency of social-emotional learning. We often talk about wanting our students to ‘go deeper with the learning’ and these posts both connect to this desire. Blending Mehta and DeWitt’s views from these posts, it is critical that we ‘start from a deeper place, rather than go deeper’ for all students and that we continually strive to establish an emotionally safe and healthy environment for the deeper learning to be accessed and nurtured.
A Pernicious Myth: Basics Before Deeper Learning
by Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta) in Education Week
This post by Mehta is one that works to challenge a 'prevalent assumption in schools' and in society: If there is one prevalent assumption that stands in the way of deeper learning, it is that you have to do "the basics" before you can engage in deeper learning. Within the post Mehta references the work of David Perkins and the shift of viewing Bloom's taxonomy as a ladder to that of a web.
...while it is true that most fields have some sequential ordering of topics, it is also true that what David Perkins calls "playing the whole game at the junior level" has a lot of advantages. Perkins cites Little League as an example: we don't spend a year learning to throw, another to catch, another to bat; rather, we play the whole game of baseball from the beginning, just at the junior level. Playing the whole game gives young players a chance to see how the sport as a whole works, and, just as critically, it means that they get to see why one would want to play the sport. This engenders motivation, which is what provides the fuel to practice the parts. To return to music, even the youngest children play whole pieces of music in concerts, which is a critical part of what gives rhythm and meaning to the work.
In our contemporary research in high schools, the most compelling teachers we found had taken a different approach that mirrored Perkins' idea of the whole game in the academic disciplines. Rather than viewing Bloom's taxonomy as a ladder--recall first, analysis later--they viewed it more as a web, embedding basic skill building within larger arcs that asked students to make meaning and take on difficult questions from the beginning. They also tended to foreground students' assets over their deficits--for example, in English, they argued that students thinking and ability to discuss was often far ahead of their writing, and thus, while gradually building students' writing skills, they foregrounded topics for discussion that were commensurate with students' quite sophisticated knowledge and thinking.
What if, in language, student trips abroad were not something that happened at the end of high school, but were a springboard at the beginning of language study to show students the value or learning another language? What if, in science, we taught students the scientific method--and the associated relevant knowledge in statistics, inference-drawing, and building on existing literature--by having them write junior versions of scientific papers rather than reading from textbooks? We already do this in sports, arts, music, and virtually every other sphere of human learning. So why in school, do we think it has to be dry basics first, and the interesting stuff only later?
No Place for Social-Emotional Learning In Schools? Are You Sure?
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt) in Education Week
DeWitt (as I have said before, a 'must follow' for educators) shares some statistics and counters the stance that schools need to only focus on academics. I agree with DeWitt that SEL is not an option and must be seen and practiced by all - it is the foundation of a safe learning environment for all.
To the naysayers I ask, "If schools could just focus on academics, don't you think they would?" Given the fact that they have standards and curriculum that they are struggling to find the time during the day to cover, don't you think that they would prefer that all students come to school healthy and ready to learn?
We can continue to argue whether schools should be exploring SEL or we can understand the sad reality that students are suffering from trauma and mental health issues, and do something about it. We can argue about politics, or realize that our schools are not supposed to be war zones.
In order to have a stronger education system and help students meet their potential, we need to work together as a school community with families and outside organization. We need to stop blaming and starting acting. We need to stop burying our heads in the sand that all of this will go away "when we start focusing solely on academics." SEL is not a fad, nor is it less important than other things we have to teach. SEL and academic learning are equally as important and we need to find a better balance on how to do both.
This week I came across this quote from Karl Popper and love the goal for all of us of gaining a greater 'knowledge of our ignorance'. I am hoping we can start and stay at a deeper level as our 'default foundation' with and for all of our students, helping them to understand and grow.
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Take care.
Nat