Readings Links and Ideas

Self-awareness plays a critical role in improved learning because it helps students become more efficient at focusing on what they still need to learn. The ability to think about one's thinking increases with age. Research shows that most growth of metacognitive ability happens between ages 12 and 15(PDF, 199KB). When teachers cultivate students' abilities to reflect on, monitor, and evaluate their learning strategies, young people become more self-reliant, flexible, and productive. Students improve their capacity to weigh choices and evaluate options, particularly when answers are not obvious. When students have difficulty understanding, they rely on reflective strategies to recognize their difficulties and attempt to rectify them. Improving metacognitive strategies related to students' schoolwork also provides young people with tools to reflect and grow in their emotional and social lives.

7 Strategies That Improve Metacognition

1. Teach students how their brains are wired for growth.

The beliefs that students adopt about learning and their own brains will affect their performance. Research shows that when students develop a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset, they are more likely to engage in reflective thinking about how they learn and grow. Teaching kids about the science of metacognition can be an empowering tool, helping students to understand how they can literally grow their own brains.

2. Give students practice recognizing what they don't understand.

The act of being confused and identifying one's lack of understanding is an important part of developing self-awareness. Take time at the end of a challenging class to ask, "What was most confusing about the material we explored today?" This not only jumpstarts metacognitive processing, but also creates a classroom culture that acknowledges confusion as an integral part of learning.

3. Provide opportunities to reflect on coursework.

Higher-order thinking skills are fostered as students learn to recognize their own cognitive growth. Questions that help this process might include:

• Before this course, I thought earthquakes were caused by _______. Now I understand them to be the result of _______.
• How has my thinking about greenhouse gases changed since taking this course?

4. Have students keep learning journals.

One way to help students monitor their own thinking is through the use of personal learning journals. Assign weekly questions that help students reflect on how rather than what they learned. Questions might include:

• What was easiest for me to learn this week? Why?
• What was most challenging for me to learn? Why?
• What study strategies worked well as I prepared for my exam?
• What strategies for exam preparation didn't work well? What will I do differently next time?
• What study habits worked best for me? How?
• What study habit will I try or improve upon next week?

Encourage creative expression through whatever journal formats work best for learners, including mind maps, blogs, wikis, diaries, lists, e-tools, etc.

Reflection Link to article

• comment on why specific samples were selected or
• comment on what they liked and did not like in the samples or
• comment on or identify the processes involved in developing specific products or performances or
• describe and point to examples of how specific skills or knowledge improved (or did not) or
• identify strengths and weaknesses in samples of work or
• set goals for themselves corresponding to the strengths and weaknesses or
• identify strategies for reaching those goals or
• assess their past and current self-efficacy for a task or skill or
• complete a checklist or survey about their work or
• some combination of the aboveReflection sheets

Probably the most common portfolio reflection task is the completion of a sheet to be attached to the sample (or samples) of work which the reflection is addressing. The possibilities for reflection questions or prompts are endless, but some examples I have seen include

Selection questions/prompts

• Why did you select this piece?
• Why should this sample be included in your portfolio?
• How does this sample meet the criteria for selection for your portfolio?
• I chose this piece because ....

Growth questions/prompts

• What are the strengths of this work? Weaknesses?
• What would you work on more if you had additional time?
• How has your ______ (e.g., writing) changed since last year?
• What do you know about ______ (e.g., the scientific method) that you did not know at the beginning of the year (or semester, etc.)?
• Looking at (or thinking about) an earlier piece of similar work, how does this new piece of work compare? How is it better or worse? Where can you see progress or improvement?
• How did you get "stuck" working on this task? How did you get "unstuck"?
• One skill I could not perform very well but now I can is ....
• From reviewing this piece I learned ....

Goal-setting questions/prompts

• What is one thing you can improve upon in this piece?
• What is a realistic goal for the end of the quarter (semester, year)?
• What is one way you will try to improve your ____ (e.g., writing)?
• One thing I still need to work on is ....
• I will work toward my goal by ....

Evaluation questions/prompts

• If you were a teacher and grading your work, what grade would you give it and why?
• Using the appropriate rubric, give yourself a score and justify it with specific traits from the rubric.
• What do you like or not like about this piece of work?
• I like this piece of work because ....

Effort questions/prompts

• How much time did you spend on this product/performance?
• The work would have been better if I had spent more time on ....
• I am pleased that I put significant effort into ....

Overall portfolio questions/prompts

• What would you like your _____ (e.g., parents) to know about or see in your portfolio?
• What does the portfolio as a whole reveal about you as a learner (writer, thinker, etc.)?
• A feature of this portfolio I particularly like is ....
• In this portfolio I see evidence of ....

As mentioned above, students (or others) can respond to such questions or prompts when a piece of work is completed, while a work is in progress or at periodic intervals after the work has been collected. Furthermore, these questions or prompts can be answered by the student, the teacher, parents, peers or anyone else in any combination that best serves the purposes of the portfolio.

Other reflection methods

In addition to reflection sheets, teachers have devised a myriad of means of inducing reflection from students and others about the collection of work included in the portfolio. For example, those engaging in reflection can

• write a letter to a specific audience about the story the portfolio communicates
• write a "biography" of a piece of work tracing its development and the learning that resulted
• write periodic journal entries about the progress of the portfolio
• compose an imaginary new "chapter" that picks up where the story of the portfolio leaves off

Goal Setting Session

https://goo.gl/fhYfe4

Blogging on a regular basis to keep track of progress on work towards goals then the formal PLP reflection

Goals need to be about the process and continuous improvement, NOT achieving a specific thing that they either make or don't, and that they may not have enough control over to make it happen.

Team Summit 802>PLP link

Learning Plan Revision 2

  Today is indeed Moving Day.  It's been enjoyable to continue collaborating with colleagues, reading and meeting with students.  It's been easy to create reflection blog posts and think big.  So it's time to move on for sure, with the destination of the Action Plan in mind.  Moving isn't easy, but it's all about modeling the risks we hope that our own students will take so here goes...

  Research Question:  Does student reflection on goal setting improve with the use of structured digital tools and intentional instruction on evidence collection and reflection language?

  See the screen of my revised learning plan below for the abstract and follow this link for the post that will house my Action Plan.  The screen shot only has the most recent changes and the addition of the title and abstract.

   I think the parts of my day that had the greatest impact on my decision to pose the above abstract was meeting with another group of students and my interview with Mark from Tarrant.  I know that I wanted to build upon my work with goal setting from last year and move further into working on student reflection.  The conversations with students and seeing their PLP work really helped me understand that digital collection tools are an excellent way of showcasing and cataloging student work and thinking.  They allow for personal creativity, style and content.  I also learned that without intentional instruction on how to collect quality evidence, the time to do it, and allowing for the creativity and individual choices of students, buy in and interest in the PLP process will suffer.  That has led me towards the idea of structured use of digital tools and intentional instruction and scheduling of PLP work.
   The second part of my day that had a great impact was meeting for an interview with Mark from Tarrant about my previous work with goal setting and reflection.  It was good to reflect!  His questions helped me see the parts of what I did last year that worked well and how my approach changed over the year to goal setting.  I realized that reflection work was not nearly as intentional as my work with goal setting.  That further pushed me towards this idea of reflection work.  I realized that through this conversation I had learned to listen to the children and work with their ideas.  Be a guide, not the one pushing down ideas upon them.  I need to take that approach to this reflection work, allowing students to follow their own path and process.  They DO need intentional instruction and tools though.
   So my biggest Ah-Ha from the week so far comes from a combination of work and conversations.  Perhaps Don summed it up best after he was listening to me talk with students about their PLPs - Listen to your students!  If we listen to them, then we can start to understand their needs.  We can start to understand their interests.  We can start to understand their process and how they can become excited and invested.

Action Research Plan

Improving Student Reflection and Documentation Through PLPs

Abstract:

 I will research how student reflection on goal setting improves with the use of structured digital tools and intentional instruction around evidence collection and reflection.  Students will use personal blogs to record content and transferable skills goals, collect specific evidence on their goals, and reflect thoughtfully upon their learning progress.  Students will collaborate with each other through their blogs and the commenting process as well as share work with a wider school and family audience. Student data will be collected using a variety of means to allow for a broader range of student expression and ensure access to the work for all students. Instruments will include student surveys, individual student interviews, and student work analysis.

Introduction and Rationale:

At last year's MGI I created an action research project around goal setting and reflection where I investigated how direct instruction on goal setting improved students' abilities to perform those skills. After reflecting upon the school year and my work on this project, I found that student goal setting skills, and their ability to write using the SMART outline, improved noticeably. What did not get addressed as planned was student reflection and metacognition. This realization has led me to this action research project where I will investigate how direction instruction in reflection and evidence collection improves students' abilities to perform those tasks.

With recent legislation requiring that students demonstrate proficiency in being self directed learners, student reflection is at the forefront of teachers' minds. According to the Performance Indicators, students must be able to, "Identify, manage and assess new opportunities related to learning goals." Student must be able to, "Demonstrate initiative and responsibility for learning." This is the driving force behind why I chose to take on this project. I also feel that with the goal setting work I did with my multi age class last year, one half of my class will be practiced in this area, ready to move into reflection, and be able to mentor and teach my incoming students. Our school has done a great deal of work around teaching the essential concept of having a Growth Mindset. We employed the phrase "not yet!" as a way of changing our thinking about perceived failure and motivating ourselves to persevere. The time is right for moving into quality reflection through writing, speaking and documenting work evidence on those goals.

Student Conversation About PLPs #2

I had another great opportunity to chat with four students about their PLPs this morning.  This was very telling once again for me to get the authentic student input to balance out the theory we get in class.  Once again the vibe from several of the students was that their PLP process was missing the opportunity for putting in their authentic creativity.  I heard them say that the success of their PLPs was impacted by the amount of time they had to work on them and the investment of their teachers in sticking to the process.  One of the students who shared their work had a great deal of success in creating their own individualized PLP.  What I take away from this is:
- provide ample time for students to write and add evidence
- stick with it as a teacher!  Don't let the time on the calendar disappear
- allow student creativity and individualizing
- listen to the students!  They have ideas about what they want to do and how they want to do it.  You need their investment and their energy around this
- it's the process of the work and not the finished product that matters most

Designing PLPs Module Session

It was helpful to have an introduction to the PLP legislation which I had not read before. Here is a quote from the State Doc that I found particularly interesting:

While the requirement for PLPs applies to grades 7 through 12, Act 77 also makes it clear that the Legislature believes that “personalized learning and personalized instructional approaches are critical to students in kindergarten through grade 6 as well.” It is also clear that the Legislature has placed the emphasis not on the plan as documentation, but on the planning process. The definition of PLP includes “documentation of an evolving plan developed on behalf of a student in an ongoing process involving a secondary student, a representative of the school, and, if the student is a minor, the student’s parents or legal guardian and updated at least annually by November 30 … ”.

I chose this to pull out of the document because I like the way it addresses the lower grades. That is support for me and my work as I think that the earlier this work starts the better off the students will be when the stakes get higher. It has also helped me think of how this is reducing the divide between Elementary and Middle levels in our building.

It's not about what the PLP will look like but always keeping in mind what it is for! This quote from the session is meaningful as I get more clarity about the work I want students doing. I'm moving away from the format and the idea that it is a portfolio process, and learning to keep in mind the important work that thinking about your thinking is.

Keep in mind the 3 key pieces of the PLP puzzle...About Me, Goals, Reflection

Transferable Skills get covered with authentic activities

I did not have intentional sharing of goals with families last year. Nor did I encourage conversation with parents and their children to the extent that it could have happened. The fact that sharing PLPs with parents is in the law...it needs to be a bigger part of my relationships with parents not just for the law but for increasing individualized teaching.

Learning Plan Revision 1

  Today has been quite helpful in sharpening my focus on my goals and project.  I had been thinking that the digital platform that I would use was important, and while it is, conversation with two students and Life has changed my thinking.  My students are proficient and comfortable with Kidblog.  Why create a new platform for my goals of improving student reflection and documentation?  No need and that has refined my thinking.
  So how have I refined the project idea?  Last year I spent most of my time on goal setting and improving the quality of the goals using the SMART model.  This proved to be effective.  I was having students set a goal each Monday, then reflect upon it Friday.  Then students had the chance to set a new goal the following Monday.  While some kept the same goal, they were in the minority.  The majority just moved on and set a new one.  I now realize with conversation with the students and Life that I need to try something different.  Extend the amount of time that students have to work on one goal.  Give them the chance to reflect, confer with them each week, have them document, but continue to use that same goal the following weeks to truly have documentation of growth over time. Then have a culminating task for them to post and summarize their thinking over that longer period of time.  What difference does that make in students' ability to think critically about their learning and evaluate their progress?  I see this working well within the structure of my multi age class because half of my class will be comfortable with goal setting after the work last year
  Strengths this week so far for me have been colleagueship and taking risks to do work/play that pushes comfort level.  If teachers do not do this, then how can we ask children to?  Taking chances to ask others to come talk about blogs and for help refining my goal ideas, discussing social media tools, and talking to students candidly were areas of professional work this week.  Playing music and connecting socially have been examples of personal risk taking.  All of this matters as I will be expecting my own students to take risks with their learning and facing fears - we as educators need to do this!
  A question I have as I continue to refine my thinking is about student goal setting.  Can I guide them towards specific areas of learning?  Does that defeat the purpose of student directed learning?  Can they still create their own learning goals within a particular content area?  Perhaps it's one content area at a time?

My updated Learning Plan:

Student Conference about PLPs

   Very refreshing to have a conversation with two students about their PLPs.  I had to laugh as they both started with not liking them...they get in the way of us getting to do other things!  Well, that is not surprising I guess as schools roll out new ways of doing things.  What I did take away from this part was that it could be better to integrate PLPs into other blocks at first instead of making a set time when students feel like they are losing other time (to do homework and chat!)
   Another highlight was the way they wanted to have more creative say in what their PLP looked like.  Makes sense if we are asking for personal thinking then they should have the chance to be personal!  Provide an expected set of parts to include, like happened here, and let students have some say in making it their own.  Seems like that might have helped with these students.
  A complaint they both had was that during the roll out of the PLP, they were asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  That was the leading question to inspire what they wanted to study.  They both said this was very overwhelming for them.  They said just ask us what we were interested in and wanted to learn more about.  Good advice.
  For my purpose this week though I heard them say that teachers needed to make sure that they allowed more time for the reflection and collection of evidence.  Also, make it more consistent as they found long gaps of time between goal setting and documenting their work.  So much so that they forgot what they were working on!  Neither of them seemed very concerned about the platform they were asked to use - good to know as I can think about the work of improving reflection and not the format.

Three Pillars Conversation

   This is a very helpful way for me to continue to be introduced to personalized learning and just what it can look like in a classroom.  Personalize, connect with students, know what they like, let them find what they want to know!  Build your classroom community so that you can individualize and you can create independent, self-directed learning.  

   Personalized learning will not look the same as what others may have been used to seeing in a classroom.  It can be messy, difficult to plan and schedule, but more engaging in countless numbers of ways.  I was impressed with the idea of including the community and on line resources for students to pursue their learning.  Expanded learning opportunities (ELO) do just that - expand the world of the student beyond the classroom walls.
  What does it look like to meet a standard?  The teacher has to define what can be flexible within the curriculum that is being handed to us!  Start smaller than thinking students need to be out in the community but have experts come in.  We had two resident engineers in our school that could come in and do specific work with students and classes.  How to connect with these out of school resources?  Twitter?  It seems our tech integrationist would be a good person for connections beyond what I can make.  
   The shift from meeting and completing standards as an end result to designing a project that will have students meet those standards in different, personal ways.
  Start a pilot project, always lead with your kids...they will be your strongest advocates and evidence to support what you are doing...

Learning Plan

Here is the first take on my goals for the week and possible Action Plan to follow.  

Bio

   Michael Willis has been teaching 3rd and 4th grade at Williston Central School for the past 15 years.  He has two daughters, ages 8 and 11.  Trying to keep pace with them has continued to help him grow as a teacher and connect with students in the classroom in new ways.  Outside of the classroom he enjoys the mountains, particularly when covered in snow, and is taking on the challenges and precision needed to play golf and mandolin.
  As his children get older, his teaching interests are starting to shift from the elementary level to the middle grades along with them.  Building strong relationships with students and families is a strength of his teaching, and that has led to the desire to continue that work with older children and learn how to teach to a different social and academic level.
   Michael is looking forward to another year at MGI and furthering his work with student goal setting and reflection.  The power of students thinking about their thinking and reflecting on their own learning is an important tool that needs to be utilized in a more organized and productive way!