Workshop 4 - Flexible Pathways

Module

Self advocacy...required for a student to be able to create a path

Transferable Skills

Equity
- do all students have the opportunity?
- flexible pathways should not be limited to extension activities

We must prepare them for the opportunities at the secondary level

Structures
- PLP exploration  - My Next Move
- Geography section - mapping places they have been in the curriculum and where they have been or would like to go
- Digital Citizenship - managing their time on line
  - equity issues need to be considered here as well
- Curriculum Development
  - multiple pieces of evidence opportunities needed

Inviting community partners in and ask them to talk about how they got to that job - teaching pathways
  - this is a nice twist on having "experts" into the classroom

The biggest takeaway for me was the idea of equity...keeping that in mind at all times so that students have equal chances at learning and the expression of it.

Workshop 3 - Students as Partners

Students as Partners Module from MGI

Rachel's Module

The Continuum of Voice
 - It's not about judging our location on it...we should be at different places at different times depending upon what our goals and needs are

More references from Bray and McCloskey

Do we even want our experiences to be all learner driven?  Again, we are in two places at a time, working on training our students to be independent designers

Video - Role of students in personalized learning
- metacognition
- how can I improve?
- they know where they are and how to plan next steps
- consulting with teachers
- pacing

Negotiated Curriculum
- I need to remember this when designing ways to get students more engaged in their PLP posts!
- Present a choice framework that includes non-negotiables, but then offering student choice for what they want to learn and how they will present what they know.

How Might Middle School Students Be Involved in Classroom Curriculum Planning? 

Article focuses on the idea of giving students say in a structured way so they are more invested

Giving them choice in the product may be the easiest way to start

Students are driving for their own independence so let's give them some say and control

Asking students for their input makes them feel like their ideas are heard

Choice of Content is the easiest place to start?  I'm not sure I agree with that...how will this happen with math content that is coming from the top down

How much talking am I doing as a teacher?  I appreciated this question

Try out the idea of a Genius Hour/Passion Project/Personal Interest Project

Workshop 2 - Facilitating Personalized Learning

Second workshop on Tuesday with Life...

Facilitating Personalized Learning

Engaged vs Empowered

- we certainly strive for empowered but sometimes a student won't always be interested
- isn't it a mix?  A two way street?
- We provide the opportunity and guidance for them to get empowered?

Students may not always know what they need to learn...
 - they need a push further into their interests to further research
 - can they choose their interest within that framework?

It's a balance, not just turning kids loose...

Video...
How do you facilitate learning in Project Based Learning?"

Playlists
Giving students academic choice
Giving them some say in their process
- Use this during summative review sessions or reteaching post assessments to manage the class and allow for conferring

One does not have to think of Personalized Learning as "you are doing it or not"
- Where to inject this?  Playlists during reteaching times?  PLP posts in an effort to increase student engagement?

Workshop 1 Redefining Engagement

- What does engagement look, feel and sound like?  For you and for your students?

This "chalk talk" intro was great because it was "student" created.  We were not told the definition, but got to create it from our own experiences.

We want to build persistence and perseverance

What is our definition?
- excitement
- confidence
- persistence

Phil Schlecty  - link on today's workshop page
- intrinsic motivation

Strong, Silver and Robinson
 - SCORE

strategic compliance vs engagement
- does the content stick with them in later opportunities
- project based  - can they carry out a complex task
- students that naturally extend and personalize the task
- are they asking more questions than answering?

Engagement to Empowerment

John Spencer - blog and YouTube channel
AJ Juliani - blog


How do we design engaging experiences?  See checklist in slides

Creation of our own Quipu beads

I was glad to see this idea come back from a few years ago.  Here's the rationale behind them:

Green Fuzzy - I found it on the floor on the way up to the bin.  Perfect.  Engaging students is a squishy and inexact task.

Silver Flower - student input in their learning is like watching a flower bloom!

Silver Prism - There are many ways to engage students, and teachers need to have a variety of options for a variety of situations.  It's not rolling the dice, but having a set menu of options.

Setting Up Identity - Reflection Day 1

  The idea of intentional creation of student identity was modeled well today as we started our own Identity Wheels.  I think that facilitating lessons around helping students be able to express their identity is key, especially as I work on expressing my own identity as  a new member of this 5/6 Team.  Variations on an Identity Wheel and integrating it with Team wide literature groups around developing and expressing identity is a way we have talked about starting the year.  I am personally thinking about creating my action research around increasing student engagement in their PLPs by giving them more creative choice in what they post and how they post it.  This focus on engaging students authentically is how I identify as a practioner!

Identity to Reflection - Identi-tree and the PLP

I loved the idea of the imagery of a tree to build a student identity

Starting with the roots that support and nourish the tree - fill the roots with phrases and words that make them unique

Habits of Work and Learning (HOWL) - self assessing character goals

Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan (WOOP)  - a way of self assessing a goal

PLP in the Elementary Classroom

PLP Template
- I didn't use this!
- I was focusing on reflections and not as much a formalized PLP plan

Started with All About Me projects
- Multiple forms of presenting this

Goal Creation
- was not a new activity but there hadn't been the reflection part
- What are you good at?
- What is challenging for you?
- Academic and Personal goals

Reflection
- Proud moments and Epic Fails
- Designed some questions and sentence starters - was still challenging for this age group

Student led Conferences
- Using their sites as a guide for the conference
- Fall is goal sharing
- Spring is progress, reflection and evidence on those goals

There is a need to teach Reflection skills specifically!

Reducing the number of goals and the frequency of which they set new ones is a key

Self-direction and independence is the direction to head and that will bring about engagement!