November 2015 – Educational Aspirations

Roller Coasters and Math

Screen Shot 2015-11-29 at 7.55.48 AM

One goal this year is to have my classes complete more interdiciplinary projects. These projects move beyond district-adopted texts and often involve multiple subjects and student groups. I find value in having these projects as students often need to work in teams and apply their mathematical thinking in different situations.

Back in September I came across the tag #paperrollercoaster. After completing a quick search I came across multiple pages where teachers had students create paper roller coasters and answer questions. The questions were often related to math/Science objectives. I thought this had potential so I finalized a decision and ordered a set from here. My thinking was that if one worked out well I might order more.

Screen Shot 2015-11-29 at 8.30.29 AM

The materials arrive around a week after I placed the order. I decided to use the project with a third grade class. After a brief explanation, students were placed in three groups.

rollercoaster-01

One group drew out and created an outline for the base on a piece of cardboard. The group was asked to create six square bases where students would be placing support columns. The second group scored, cut out and attached the base columns together to be placed on the outline of the first group. The third group was in charge of creating the support beams. Students scored, cut out and opened up both ends of the beams so they could be added to the columns.

All groups had approximately 20 minute to work in their group. They were supplied with tape, scissors and directions. Afterwards, the class met in the front of the room and we started to build the base for the roller coaster. During that time the class started to discuss some of the math vocabulary we’ll be using as the building continues. Most of the terms will be coming from the geometry and measurement math strands. The terms area, surface area, volume, length, formulas, speed and height were all discussed before the students left for their next class. I appreciate the multiple math entry points available through the use of this project. As the project progresses I’m planning to add activities/sheets that we use. In the meantime, feel free to check out a few lessons here.

Multi-digit Multiplication Strategies

Multiplication strategies-01

This past week my third grade class investigated different ways to multiply numbers. Before diving into this concept I asked the students their thoughts on multiplication. A few students explained to the class their view on the topic of multiplication.

repeated addition
double or triple “hopping”
using arrays
“timesing”
Increase the number by “a lot”

Most students were able to showcase examples of the above. Even though their vocabulary wasn’t exactly spot-on, students were able to come to the whiteboard and show their thinking.

I received different responses from the students when asking them about multi-digit multiplication. Actually, it was more of a lack of response. I feel like some of this is due to exposure. A few students raised their hands and asked to show their process to multiply multi-digit numbers. These students showcased their ability to use the traditional algorithm. The class reviewed this method with a few examples. Although students were finding the correct product they had trouble explaining the process. Students weren’t able to communicate why it worked or another method to find a solution.

On Tuesday my class started to explore the partial-products algorithm. Students were able to decompose individual products and find the sum. This made sense to students. Students were able to connect an area model with the partial-products method. They started to write number models right next to each partial-product.

Later in the week students were introduced to the lattice method. This method seemed “fun” for the students, but didn’t make as much sense as the partial-products method. Students were able draw the boxes and create diagonals to find the product. Some students had trouble with laying the boxes out before multiplying.

During the last day of the week students were asked to explain in written form how to multiply multi-digit numbers. Even though all of the students could use the traditional, partial-products and lattice methods, they were stuck for a bit. Soon, most students started to lean towards using the partial-products method to explain how and why this method works. I asked one student in particular why it made sense and she said “I can see it visually and in number form.” Although most students were able to use the other methods effectively they didn’t seem confident enough to explain why the strategies worked.

Students will be expected to multiply multi-digit numbers on the next unit assessment. The method to multiply these numbers will be determined by the student, but I’m wondering how many will gravitate towards the strategy (not just the process) that they understand.

Useful Feedback

feedback

The Illinois 5Essentials survey asks teachers many questions related to school climate, leadership and other factors. This is the second year that teachers and parents were asked to take the survey. The data is available to the public and I believe it’ll soon be used to partially evaluate schools. As I was reviewing the data, I noticed a few trends in particular. Like all schools, my school has strengths and areas that need bolstering. One area that jumped out to me was a question related to useful feedback. The question is below.

Teachers report that a member of the school leadership team provides me with useful feedback to improve my teaching.

The majority of Illinois teachers answered this question with strongly disagree, disagree, agree, or strongly agree. After speaking with a few colleagues the term useful in this question can mean many different things. What’s useful to some might not be useful to others. Generally, the majority of adminstrator feedback related to teaching comes directly from teacher observations. This isn’t always the case, but I’ve seen this happen throughout my teaching career. Teachers are often observed by administrators and educators receive some type of feedback shortly after the formal evaluation. The feedback is often related to the state’s Danielson evaluation model. The feedback fits into the categories of needs improvement, proficient or distinguished. Usually an administrator narrative follows each rating. This provides some feedback to the teacher, but I’m not sure if this brings the most value as far instructional impact is concerned. Although it’s mandatory from a policy perspective, useful feedback doesn’t always take the form of the evaluation cycle.

Based on the evaluation model, feedback is constructed based on the lesson that was observed. Feedback applied to that particular lesson might not be applicable for other lessons or subject areas that you teach. Understanding the scope and sequence of a unit will give the observer a better birds-eye view of what to expect and the feedback can be adjusted as needed. In some schools, the pre-observation session includes a conversation about what was taught before the lesson.

The usefulness of this particular feedback may lose value as it targets a specific lesson. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still valuable/useful, but there’s a ceiling to this type of feedback. Also, I’m not optimistic that it brings extended value to other content areas. Having a transparent non-evaluative system of feedback can bring more of a long-term impact. Here are a few other feedback options that don’t involve the formal observation process:

Walk-through data

Teachers and administrators travel to a different school within the district to collect data. Not being from that particular school brings a new perspective that may be less subjective. The data often follows district/school initiatives and can easily be collected without disturbing the instruction that’s happening. For example, three people quietly walk through your classroom and write down observations related to a checklist. The data is transparent and can be seen by the teacher. Some schools use Google Docs to document these observations and share them with the teacher.

Informal look-outs

Administrators are often the people that tell teachers what they’re looking for. Using the informal look-out model gives teachers the option to ask administrators to look for particular items as they enter the classroom. One teacher may want the administrator to give feedback regarding how effective their math stations are in relation to the objective. This feedback is informal and non-evaluative. The feedback will be useful as teachers are explicitly asking for particulars.

Peer observations

This isn’t really for administrators, but I believe peer observations provide value. Administrators can help organize the logistics involved with this model. Teachers visit other classrooms throughout the day, take notes, and have opportunities to debrief with each other. This is especially beneficial to specialist teachers as they can visit other buildings to see subject-alike classes. I’ve had the opportunity to partake in a peer observation and picked up strategies/ideas that are currently being used in my own classroom.

One of the keys to all of these feedback models involves trust between administrators and teachers. Without the trust it can be nearly impossible to provide feedback that will be deemed useful. Having the models be non-evaluative also plays a pivotal role.

How do you receive useful feedback?

Mindframes and Teaching

Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 9.27.27 PM

This last Thursday I was fortunate enough to attend a conference around the topic of visible learning in schools. The conference had so much information. I had to filter and compartmentalize the discussions and presentation. One of the discussions revolved around John Hattie’s effect size and how schools can make learning visible in classrooms. The last day was dedicated to organizing a school plan that’ll be carried out through the remainder of the school year.

One of the more memorable pieces of the conference were the discussions that happened between the school teams. My school sent a team of four teachers and two administrators to this particular conference. Discussing our views on teaching and learning was a powerful experience. Many members of the team don’t regularly work with one another, so meeting to discuss these issues brought about other views as we’re all in different roles . Not everyone thinks the same and each member of the team was willing to hear out different perspectives. As a team, we agreed that our school has some great initiatives happening right now. That affirmation was great to hear, but at the same time, we felt that there are steps we need to make to become better. In order to put these initiatives in place the school has to communicate the importance and reasoning behind these proposed changes.

This brought up another discussion about how change will not happen unless stakeholders are truly committed to the cause. Even if they’re committed, the initiative doesn’t reach its full potential unless the organization and individuals have mindsets that are aligned with the initiative. This type of thinking falls in line with Hattie’s Mindframes for Teaching. Teachers have beliefs that impact their teaching. That belief often stems from a self-developed mindframe. Understanding your own mindframe can help stakeholders better define their own role. The mindframes are explained in the video below.

All of these mindframes are discussed in Hattie’s Visible Learning book.

Early in September my school was introduced to the idea of teacher mindframes. A staff meeting was designed to have educators analyze Hattie’s mindframes and reflect on their own. We plan on revisiting this topic throughout the school year. Understanding deep-seeded beliefs about our role in education can help bring awareness to how we think. I believe that thinking impacts instructional decisions that influence student learning.