Fostering Leadership and Collaboration through Technology

Two educational technology passions of mine converge this week.  On Wednesday I will be making a presentation on Challenge Based Learning to the Michigan Association of School Administrators.  My presentation description notes that I will describe the paradigm shift of "teacher-learner to "co-learners".

On Thursday, I will be back at Mercy for an all-day workshop with the iWizards. The various projects of the iWizards very much follow the principles of CBL. The students form groups to determine how to meet various challenges.

The main purpose of Thursday's workshop will be preparation of media and resources for the new-student iPad orientation that the iWizards will lead in August.  The teams are entirely composed of ninth and tenth graders.  The girls have determined the topics and have great lee-way in developing their products.  Each team is led by a student project manager selected by the team.

Beyond this, the iWizards have some other major projects on the horizon. Different iWizards have taken the lead on these projects:

1) A Google Hangout with the Tech Sherpas of Central Maine, for the purpose of exchanging information.

2) The construction of an iWizard Web Site available to the school community and general public.

3) The development of an iWizard App allowing for easy access to tutorials and iPad tips.

4) The creation of an IT internship program that will allow students to assist the IT Department and possibly get paid of work over the summer.

In this way the iWizard program is giving its members rich experiences in leadership and collaboration.  I love being a "co-learner" in these endeavors.

Challenge Projects and Their Unintended Consequences

I have planned and coached several Challenge Based Learning experiences over the last few years.  Since students have so much control over these projects, the direction the teams take vary considerably.  Always for me, the unexpected outcomes provide considerable excitement and anxiety.  Fortunately, I have found that the unexpected successes trump the failures, which is why I continue to forge ahead using the CBL principles.

This semester, I assigned a modified CBL with the following challenge:


Create a video on a policy about which you care, which has measurable impact.

As I told the students, since they were taking a political science course, the most essential (and most difficult) piece of the assignment involved assessment.  And fortunately, all the challenge teams did indeed develop legitimate means of testing for the impact of their messaging.  As I had hoped,  to what they learned through planning, researching and consulting about their survey plans, they gleaned almost as much from the post mortems we conducted after the studies were implemented.

When I issued the challenge, I emphasized that I did not expect the students-- without training-- to produce slick videos.  Nevertheless, each of the teams did significant research on visual messaging.  In fact all three groups consulted with at least one accomplished videographer who reviewed their work during the production.

Consequently, though I was attempting to teach political science, in their reflections, my students learned important information about  video production-- an unanticipated, but valuable outcome.  With their permission I've shared one, below:

Googling, CBL, and the Value of Mistakes

The Value of Mistakes

If we don’t allow students to fail in the classroom we are setting them up for failure in the real world.  If we see knowledge as just enough to “pass a course” then we miss the point of learning.  Sure, students might get the ‘right answers’ on an exam but know little about solving problems. 

(By way of Joyce Rosario)

http://tinyurl.com/b7ld9gw

Why “Googling It” Is Not Enough

Young people who’ve grown up in the digital age often have the impression that everything anyone needs to know is located somewhere on the web—so devise assignments that show them it isn’t so. Ask them to find a book in the library that hasn’t yet been scanned by Google Books; require them to consult with a research librarian, who will give them a sense of how many and varied non-digital resources are available; have them conduct an oral history project, collecting stories from living people that can’t be found on a website.

http://tinyurl.com/b2wotjo

CBL and the Common Core

While the Common Core documents adamantly state that the standards do not dictate how teachers teach, they have naturally resulted in important discussions about how the teaching and learning process needs to change to address the "shifts" inherent in the standards. This becomes particularly apparent when reviewing the College and Career Readiness anchor standards embedded within the Common Core. Developing students who are self-directed; demonstrate discipline-specific expertise; comprehend and critique; appropriately respond to their context; and back up their opinions with evidence demands a much more experiential and interactive learning environment than is currently found in many schools.

http://tinyurl.com/bcxwju5

"Library of Congress" CC photo by mateoutah

Library Of Congress Unveils Massive Common Core Resource Center

Like a superhero, the U.S. Library of Congress has just swooped in and unveiled an enormous new (and free!) resource that’s all about the Common Core. It’s located at http://www.loc.gov/teachers and worth checking out.

http://tinyurl.com/8lq8eo8

Igniting Change from the Middle

1. Act before talking. Model the way. Do what you hope others will do.

2. Don’t ask do. Push the edges of your authority and responsibility. Don’t wait for permission.

3. Don’t tell. Stop telling those over you what they should do. They resist when they feel pushed. Do it yourself.

http://tinyurl.com/anmg43v

Five Critical Mistakes Schools Make With iPads (And How To Correct Them)

The most common mistake teachers make with iPads is focusing on subject-specific apps. In doing so, many completely overlook the full range of possibilities with the iPad. I think of a Latin teacher who declared the iPad useless because he couldn’t find a good Latin app.

It simply didn’t occur to him use the VoiceThread app to record his students speaking Latin, or perhaps create a collaborative discussion of Cicero. 

http://tinyurl.com/bvwbfmj

Presentation Topics

Assessing individuals for group project is one of my proposed topics

I have written some proposals for upcoming conferences and webinars. These are the two topics I would like to develop for presentations:
Individual Assessment within Group Challenge and Multimedia Projects

This presentation will explore a variety of methods for evaluating individual students as they work in groups on challenges, problem-solving or other authentic groups activities.  The presentation will consider that a good teacher may be eager to examine prescribed objectives, soft skills, or even unanticipated outcomes.

Evaluation methods such as shared documentation, rubrics, slide presentations, prompts, and podcasts will be discussed by a teacher who has conducted several engaging challenge projects (large and small) with high school students.

The methods presented have specific application to group project learning and broader application to the evaluation of multimedia projects such as slides, video products and audio reflections.  It is hoped that attendees will have lots of questions and suggestions.


What We Have Learned about Professional Development for the iPad
This school year Mercy High School transitioned from 1:1 HP laptops to  the new Apple iPad.  Quickly realizing that no cookie-cutter professional development programs would prepare its staff for a challenging year, Mercy customized its professional development.

The first step was determining how the iPad would fit into the workflow of various curriculum areas.  Additionally, a high priority was given to differentiating PD across a broad spectrum of staff tech mastery and interest. Achieving "buy in" to the new program was considered critical.

Mercy ran workshops, drop-in labs and even a "boot camp".  All these activities will be described in this presentation(warts and all).  Mercy had to adjust and refine its efforts "on the fly" as the staff became better acquainted with apps and the iPad itself.

How does a school provide meaningful PD when its staff possesses widely varied levels of skill and motivation?  Find out how Mercy is doing it in this session.

Means of Assessment in Challenge Based Learning

As I indicated in Learning from Failure, despite the fact that their solutions came up short I was assured that my students actually achieved significant objectives during their Challenge Based Learning projects.  I used a number of means to measure the achievement of these objectives.

Though these varied devices, I was able to arrive at individual "grades" despite the fact that they had worked entirely within groups. It is worth noting even though there were very few "A's", I received  no complaints about grades.  The final grade was my "gestalt" evaluation based on several modes of assessment:

* Early in the process, I surprised students by sending them off with their cell phones\to record impromptu audio reflections. They were asked to describe the research they had done for guiding questions, the contributions they had or had not made to the group thus far, what others would say about their contributions, and who in the group had distinguished herself through her contributions. I strongly recommend such a mid-process exercise because it implicitly calls students to task without a scolding or pep talk.

* I put a high premium on group presentations as assessments. Groups are urged not to strain to convince us of how much they accomplished. Instead, they are instructed to describe their journeys toward their solutions, remarking on the high points and pitfalls along the way. They are told to address specific topics, such as "What would you have done differently? What would you have done with more resources or time?

*During the presentations, their peers completed a rubric, scoring them on the criteria that had been established for the presentations. I, too, completed a rubric and jotted down comments. When I was absent one day, my sub completed these forms and later I did too while watching them on video.

* The group filled out a rubric together on different aspects of their CBL. This measured their solutions, presentation, methods of testing their solutions, etc.

* They concluded with an 8-10 minute video with the following instructions:

Please put your 8-10 minute culminating video reflection in our shared dropbox file by class time on May 1 (no extensions). If you have trouble with dropbox you can use a thumb drive in a sealed envelope with your name clearly indicated.

Your individual reflection focuses on your unique contribution and reflection. You may go beyond the time limit but ten minutes of prepared thoughts should do the trick. Here were the original goals of the project. To what degree were these achieved with you? If they weren’t achieved, please clearly note whether they were the fault of the group dynamic, you personally, or the project itself.

Goals

*Students will acquire greater political efficacy.

*Students will solve a difficult challenge.

*Students will learn to develop instruments of assessment.

*Students will show initiative.

*Students will become policy entrepreneurs.

*Students will acquire greater ability to collaborate.

You should also freely reflect on your own unique experiences and contributions.

There are many aspects of this particular project that I would change the next time around, but I was very satisfied with the assessments.

Learning from Failure in Challenge Based Learning

Under other circumstances it might have been a very grim experience for a teacher to listen to one set of students after another step up before the class and boldly expound upon their failures. I can't say I was gleeful, but theses acknowledgements assured me of two things: 1) The students had accepted that their challenge projects were experiments, where perhaps as much could be learned from failure as success. 2) in some cases that they had fell short of success because they or I had set the bar high (I always urge groups to seek a solution worth failing for).

The context for these admissions of failure were "unpacking" presentations for the entire class (I will describe these further in the next post). The groups were asked among other things to weigh two considerations: 1) Had their solution made a "demonstrable difference" in the community they targeted. 2) What hard evidence had they gathered to come to their conclusion in #1.

All of the teams acknowledged that they had not to their satisfaction made a demonstrable difference. In one case the group had determined to meet with a state or U.S. representative and had been led to believe this would happen in three instances (including time with a U.S. Senator), but had the rug pulled out from under them at the last second. There were surely lessons to be learned here, but none to positive about our system of representative government.

In other cases the teams had to admit that their means of assessment were lacking. Perhaps they had failed to do pre-testing, or had not successfully ruled out other variables for cause and effect interpretation. Ironically, the team with the very best assessment methods had to live with the fact that the results did not offer a shred of demonstrable support that their clever solution had made a difference.

Sure I would love to have touted four terrific solutions to incredibly challenging issues. But I also have no qualms about show-casing failure-- as long as it is connected with learning.

Using Challenge Based Learning in an AP Class - Critical Thinking

CC Image from core.org.cn

When I give presentations on Challenge Based Learning, I often drawn examples form my AP American Government and Politics class.  Occasionally listeners are skeptical about being able to "fit" this kind of sprawling project into such a structured curriculum. 


It's a fair question, and I frankly find framing a challenge more difficult for a College Board course.  This year, I made a conscious effort to bake some very challenging critical thinking into the CBL.  On the surface this challenge was the most simple and board: "Make a Difference".  But the challenge was qualified in two critical ways:  A) The students were challenged to make a demonstrable difference.  B) Students were called upon to use knowledge they had gained in this particular class.


The latter condition was poorly conceived by me and poorly executed by the students.  While the students were working through the CBL process, they were not given any kind of check point for assuring the the solutions they were moving toward were based on the course concepts.  When they were asked to account for these in their presentations to class after the their solutions had been implemented, it was clear that often the course concepts were applied retroactively-- In other words they did not form an explicit part of the solution development.


On the other hand the demonstrable difference condition notched up the challenge several levels and forced the students to think of their solutions as experiments rather than good works.  It might strike the reader as strange that I would explicitly instruct groups not to turn their CBLs into "service projects."  But given that I teach an political science class, data analysis is a fundamental part of this course, and I wanted them to grapple with it in the field.  For me, the methodology of assessing their solutions was nearly as important as the "good" they intended by them.


Frankly most of the measurements they used were greatly lacking.  However, through this failure, they clearly learned about proper assessment and since the challenge was so difficult, I considered their failures an instructional victory.  I'll discuss this in my next post.

Back in the Saddle with CBL

My AP Government students and I have been banging our heads against our Make a Difference CBL project.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the most abstract challenge that I have dished out.  What is more, I put the students on a pretty tight timeline. I knew all this, but what I forgot is how foreign the methodology can be for the kinds of students who have the academic confidence to elect an AP course.  They have experienced success with conventional assignments, and were pretty flummoxed by CBL's open-endedness and lack of teacher-direction.


At first I was pretty disappointed by how slowly they were rolling into action.  During the initial stage of conjuring up questions about the challenge, they explored the topic in a narrow or cursory way.  I snapped back on their shared Google Docs and gave out some low grades (temporary), which got everyone's attention.  However, I have to say that looking back on it, I took much for granted.  I insufficiently communicated the rigor necessary to truly tackling the challenge.


Last week, I "surprised" them with three prompts and asked them to make a spoken reflection (They had a half hour of class).  The prompts:

1) Single out a team member and explain a notable contribution that she has made thus far to the project.
2) When asked, what would your team members say that you have contributed?
3) What fresh knowledge have you gained from this experience to date?

I was blown away by what I heard: great ideas, terrific research, and impressive teamwork. I am reassured that the girls are on the "right track" (whatever that may be!), and I am excited about the solutions that may be in store.

I thought you might like to hear a sample. Christina has given me permission to share Christina's reflection.

CBL: "Make a Difference"

As I mentioned in Some Great New CBL Resources, I have conducted a challenge based learning project for a few months.  Tomorrow, I will be officially launching my AP American Government Challenge:

Make a Difference

Flickr CC by sheffpixie

Its aims are a bit paradoxical:  I want my students to engage in a rather sophisticated concept (political efficacy) through a very simple challenge.  This is certainly the most open-ended challenge I have ever presented to a class.  But each time I do this (Is this my eleventh CBL?), I seem to let go of the reigns and trust the process a little more.

In a couple of weeks I'll share my students first responses and reactions.  Wish us luck!

Challenge Based Learning Trifecta

"Woo-Hoo" Flickr CC by JAKULL

As the year ends, I am re-posting my five most popular 2011 musings.  This one was ranked #4 in page views.

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I have been more or less slogging away at the CBL wars for the past few weeks.  In some instances, particularly the professional development sessions (PCGs), it has been difficult to gauge how well things have been coming together.  So it was really nice today to find signs of success on three fronts:

* For the second consecutive day, staff planning for next year reported on some really interesting CBL projects.  In most cases they have moved from broad issues to logistics.  For the first time it is obvious that some really cool projects will be rocking the joint next year.

* Today, two "Fight Apathy" teams made presentations to their classmates on solutions for making teenagers care about politics.  The presentations were so sharp that the other teams  left the room chattering about how they needed an extra meeting or two to raise the bar on their own presos. (Yes!).

* A first AP Gov & Politics team presented to classmates both on their solutions and their panel experience.  This was very cool--  students had completely integrated the feedback from the "experts" on their panel into revised solutions.  Presenting to the class gave them a formal way of processing and owning the feedback.

This week has suddenly brightened up!

Some Great New CBL Resources

The new CBL community site replete with two Mercy challenges

I've been on a bit of a Challenge Based Learning sabbatical.  Distracted by learning a new job and ramping up projects like M-Hub and Mercy 2.0, I haven't participated in any CBLs this school year.  Fortunately, CBL has been moving along quite well despite my neglect:


* Mark Nichols has been working determinedly to bring The Challenge Based Learning Community site to fruition.  It's a beauty.  The site is utterly packed with top resources and it offers challenges that anyone can join.  It includes forums for discussing CBL and a place where anyone can post a challenge and find teammates.  It is gratifying to know that Mercy has contributed two of the challenges that seed the site.  Along with my AP classes' "Strengthen Democracy" challenge (albeit a lite version) our pilot teams' "Design a Better Cafeteria Experience" may be found.


*The New Media Consortium's new research report is also available.  Mercy, along with the other 19 schools in the pilot, were examined, and the analysis is now published online.


* The  report may be accessed at the community site.  But is also is available on the branded Apple site, where the  a set of webinar resources may also be found.  We now have some truly awesome go-to CBL sites.




Incidentally, I will soon be making up for lost personal time with CBL.  In a month , I'll be launching my big 2012 project.  Stay tuned!

Re-enlisting as a Digital Teacher

I told my boss last week that I want to continue teaching.  This is hardly an earth-shattering announcement as I have been teaching every school year since I started in 1975.  And now I am down to one class, since I have other duties.  So it is not necessary that I continue, but I think I'd like to do so.

Having a great group of students makes it an easier decision.  So does the fact that it gives me a nice oasis of familiarity in the middle of the somewhat random events that come my way when I wear my administrators hat.

But there is something else going on as well.  before I shifted roles in the building, I was really trying to stretch myself by bringing leveraging the technology we have at school and experimenting with Challenge Based learning.  This year I have lots of this stuff going on in my class but nothing that I consider brand new.  Now, that I've gotten a bit used to my new routine, I'd like to plan forward a few new techie tricks.

In other words, if this blog is going to truly feature "commentary on educational technology from down in the trenches",  I better make sure I keep both feet down there (at least once a school day).

Toolkit for Challenge Based Learning

It was fun discovering, recently, that four of my Challenge Based Learning movies have been grouped together in iTunes under "Toolkit for Challenge Based Learning".  I made these in 2010 after working on this project with fellow Apple Distinguished Educators at Full Sail University in Florida.  The marvelous Katie Morrow spear-headed this project.

Assessment Methods for Challenge Based Learning

CBLish

I had a nice meeting recently with a young English teacher who drove up to visit with me about Challenge Based Learning.  He'd been to one of my presentations and thought he would like to try this design in a new prep-- Business English. He had a strong understanding of the CBL model and terrific determination to innovate with the course. 

When discussing "rubber meets the road" issues like group dynamics, timelines, audience, and assessment;  I quickly introduced an MHS term-- "CBLish".  As I did so it occurred to me how undogmatic I have become about the CBL model.  Occasionally, I have run into adherents (usually higher ed) who have been startled, even disgusted by my heresy.   

After ten times around the block with CBL and a year of professional development teaching the process, I have found differences in time constraints, curriculum demands, and teaching styles call for modification and flexibility.  I am only interested in promoting projects which are organic to a school's curriculum. If someone wishes to promote community service or simply get students motivated to learn, one can follow this design in an all-out student-directed that allows them to even select the "big idea" that they will explore. 

On the other hand, "CBL" has been batted around so much in our school this year (a good thing) it's meaning has been severely stretched.  I assigned a video project for students which they completed in pairs.  The assignment was entirely prescribed.  I was very pleased with it.  It was not in any respect a CBL, but some of my students referred to it as such.   

So here is where I take my stand.  I am satisfied to call something CBL, if the activity. . . .


* Begins with an actionable challenge which affects the "community"


* A team of students determine its path toward a solution.


* The solution reaches beyond the classroom for an authentic audience


* At the end of the process the students reflects on the entire process.

And, hey, if a project has a couple of these elements, I am likely to deem it CBLish.  If this sounds wrong, I welcome the criticism, so long as its based on your experience using CBL.

Moving over to the "Dark Side"

This was my first week in the new role of Associate Principal/Operations.  While I can still "blog from the trenches" by continuing to teach one class,  two friends have congratulated (?) me by noting that I have moved to "the dark side".  Several have wondered if I will miss teaching (Of course I will), but after 36 years in a full time teaching gig, I welcome a very different challenge and for the last few years, new challenges have reinvigorated me.  Here are some of the things to which I am looking forward:

My last English section?

1) Instructional technology.  It could not be a more exciting time to be charting a path in this area.  Mobile devices, cloud computing, etc, have made the need for learning to learn with new, tools all the more important.  Our school has a fantastic infrastructure in place for exciting new possibilities that ought to cost us even less.  I've spent portions of my first two days with IT, and our staff really rocks!

2) Speaking of staff-- An administrative position allows me to collaborate with outstanding folks all over our school building/plant.  I might be in a position to inflict some major damage to the school if we didn't have such committed and talented staff in grounds and maintenance.  I have a huge learning curve here, but I'm getting great help especially from my predecessor).  While I can't say I'm looking forward to a water heater bursting or the like (now in my purview), it is really interesting to be in on some of the construction plans, and have an excuse to work with the talented folk in Advancement who present us to the public.

3) I have previously written about the blurring lines between curricular and extra-curricular. I see the two areas as part of a total educational program and thus they should enhance each other. Excellence should be pursued in both areas and an active student will have to make tough decisions about prioritizing her time.  In particular,  I really relish getting more involved in sports, again.  I'm seriously determined to see each team play this year.

4) I have a number of other interests that I can explore as a liaison to other departments in the building.  I have always loved art, music, and drama.  I came late to my interest in fitness, but now I have caught the bug.  I have some ideas about design and media production.  My new responsibilities will give me a chance to run some new ideas up the flagpole and be closer to these passions.

I used to think I would not have the stomach for administration-  the conflict, the unpopular decisions, etc.  But you know what?  Several years of coaching and one challenging year of doing professional development with a veteran staff has toughened me up quite a bit.  The latter also left me feeling as though I have some unfinished business.  As a result of our hard work this past year, we have some really cool CBL's plans rolling out this next year, and this position will keep me closer to the action.

So, if I haven't convinced you, that this is a good idea, I've sold myself on the project.  And one thing hasn't changed-- I'm still one of those lucky persons who looks forward to going to work .

Challenge Based Learning Pep Talks

I always enjoy hyping CBL projects with my students. I urge them to consider how important making a difference for our "Big Idea" will be.  I ask them to set the bar high and be willing to fail doing something important rather than settling for something ordinary.  I tell them that this is the special something they get by having me as a teacher.  I jump around a bit and shout.  I look them in the eyes and convince each student I am talking to her.

I think I do the motivating thing well.  But the best motivational efforts for CBL this year did not directly involve me-- it came from the students, themselves.  Lynn, Mike, and I were planning our "Fight Apathy!" event.  The two of them teach ninth graders and wondered how passionately some of them felt about the challenge.  They suggested that I send some of my sophomores across the hall to see if that sparked more enthusiasm.  This worked beyond my own expectations.  It was clear that the ninth graders were very locked in when the tenth graders were talking.  Though I did not ask them to prepare, one pair brought screen shots of their intended project solution.  Sarah, who did most of the talking in both classes, was well prepared and spoke to them very personally.  I learned more about my own students' approach to and understanding of their challenges.

These pep talks were ten/fifteen minutes of the best quality time I have experienced this year.  Good team work by all concerned!

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Flickr CC photo courtesy of M.V. Jantzen

I Failed!

Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.   ~John Dewey

When we received our ADE Training two years ago, the class of '09 was taught to celebrate failure. After all, it is fundamental to learning and success.  So rather than making this post a show and tell, I'll dance through some of this school year's failures, and remark what I have learned.


See through Cycle
Early in the school year I came up with the idea of our staff experiencing a "see through cycle" for six days-- staff would visit each other during six consecutive school days in a conscious effort at transparency and collaboration.  It was a terrific success, but had no legs.  I was not really surprised that this experience could not be sustained.  But it was an important experience for what lay ahead-- the terrific challenge of effecting change in a school culture.


Fantasy Candidate
I am glad that Cindy (my government teaching collaborator) and I threw open our school's mock election, allowing the kids to basically draw up the experience from scratch.  No regrets in this respect, but my brain storm of having the students create fantasy presidential candidates and create their campaigns was a bit of a fiasco.  Some of the zaniness of the fantasy campaigns drowned out the rest of the experience.  Allow students to create and  administer their own election was a fine learning experience, but the fantasy candidates became a distracting sideshow.


Passionate Collaboration
I think that my strategy of designing an in-service experience around "Pitching Your Passion" to fellow staff members may have been my greatest success in terms of promoting collaboration and challenge based learning at Mercy.  However, I would judge my own participation in the project to be in large measure a failure.  First, I was not fully engaged with my "Fight Apathy!" team at the inservice session.  Then I did little to bring us together before our spring launch.  I sort of forged ahead on my own, communicating very little with my teammates.  They were both dealing with younger, smaller groups which probably meant I was not blazing much of a trail.  We pulled together in the late going, and we were all happy with how the event turned out.  But it is more than a little ironic that my own collaborative experience was more shallow than many of the other teams I helped to organize.


Laggards
Last October, I reflected on how Everett Rogers' model for the adoption and diffusion of innovations might apply to my attempt to promote a new learning design (CBL) with colleagues through professional development training.   Rogers describes "laggards" -- those in an institution most resistant to change.  At times I've been rather stunned by how extremely resistant to new ideas some persons have been.  At times this has been expressed through outbursts, but commonly, it has been completely passive behavior along the lines of Bartleby the Scrivener-- who though continually reasoned with by Melville's narrator offers nothing but his signature "I would prefer not to."  


Back in the Fall I vowed to ignore the inevitable laggards and focus on the true innovators.  Alas, the laggards have been difficult for me to dismiss.  More than a few nights I've come home grinding my teeth over some ridiculous passive aggressive behavior.  Though my efforts have not been particularly well served by this distraction, the laggards have only made me all the more determined and make sure that the final failure is theirs.  

Assessment through Reflection

Elaine Wrenn:

I absolutely love having kids do video reflections!  They have been such an authentic way for us to understand our students' thinking, where they are in the process, how they are feeling about the process, and what they are learning.  It's hard to describe the element that is captured in a video reflection that you don't always get in a written reflection.  It's like you can see them thinking as they speak and also hear the emotion and passion in their voices. I've always felt that reflection is an important part of the learning process for both the teacher and the students.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use video as one way to reflect but it is definitely in my reflection toolbox going forward.

I agree with Elaine. Audio and video reflections are an extremely effective way at getting at important aspects of learning.  What did the student learn from her mistakes?  What skills did she acquire through her collaboration.  How hard did she work?  In what respects did she show initiative and leadership?  Did she engage in activities that did not show up in the groups' presentation or final solution?

At Mercy, we are engaged in exploring ways to teach Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills.  I believe that Challenge Based Learning is an effective vehicle for addressing these.  Consequently, I have shared two of my recent student reflections in a recent slide presentation in order to provoke a discussion on how to effectively assess for these skills.  Here are the slides:

Assessment through Refection

After having required numerous reflections, I have found it critical to invest thought and time into developing good prompts.  Without specificity, the students sometimes drift into superficial commentary.  If the prompts are too specific, the respondents more or less treat them like a check list.  In the audio reflection below, Madison is responding to the following:

1) What concretely did you contribute to your group’s research and solution (I don’t mean suggested and idea . . . . What did you do like conduct an interview or edit a video).

2) Assess your individual contribution to the group’s in class presentation.  Describe your performance and your personal contribution to the slide show.

3) What did you personally learn from your project?

4) To what degree did you offer your best effort and maximize your talents in this project.

Madison's Audio Reflection

The consensus of the teachers who have listened to both reflections, agree that the following video piece is even more personal and authentic than the audio

I believe Elaine Wrenn's enthusiasm for video reflections is borne out by videos like this one.

Professional Development End Game

As I mentioned in The Other Side of the Coin post, I have heard repeated calls to assess CBL-- particularly our school's Dallas Team pilot.  On the one hand this is ironic, because no educational venture at our school has been more studied and transparent.  And on the other hand,  the call is premature since the majority of our teams have not even implemented their plans.  Don't get me wrong, I think CBL needs to be assessed-- but so should the rest of the curriculum.

Consequently, I am asking the teams of staff which are planning new CBL projects to participate in “CBL Pilot 2”at Mercy High.  Since we have plunged into CBL in order to address Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills for a New Economy, I have asked the teams to consider how those skills will be assessed by their new CBL projects.

I proposed that we help position our Curriculum Council with a framework for planning and assessing instruction for the Wagner Survival Skills.  The framework would invite assessment of CBL and other forms of instruction.  In other words, CBL would not be scrutinized in isolation.  If CBL does not accomplish what we hope to achieve then we need to change in more effective ways.  But change itself cannot be rejected merely by throwing stones at CBL.  If we are teaching the Survival Skills across our curriculum than any academic department should be able to demonstrate how they are attaining them.

You can see the "End Game" proposal to the CBL teams, below.  Next time, I will describe how we move from this to a (hopefully) serious contemplation of assessment.

End Game Proposal

Two of my students check out iPod touches.