Engaging Student Minds with Authentic Intellectual Work

In our work as educational coaches, we find that the challenge at the forefront of most teachers’ minds is engagement.  How do I engage my students?  Why aren’t my students motivated? What are ways I can get and keep my students interested? Across the country, across disciplines, and across grade levels, questions like these are echoed time and again.  

These are critical questions and ought to focus any consideration of teaching practices that produce higher levels of learning.  Our view is that student engagement is the most authentic driver for deep learning.  Engagement is like being in the zone, where kids – totally engrossed in an endeavor to the point where time almost stands still and outside distractions almost disappear – are fully immersed and invested. To push learning beyond acquisition of basic skills and inspire perseverance, students need to feel connected to what is being learned.  If learners are not greatly interested and involved in the task at hand, we are lucky to get compliance, let alone real engagement.

This is, of course, not new thinking.  Engagement is a frequent topic at conferences, school-based professional development, and has inspired many “how-to” books and articles.  We find, however, that teachers sometimes assume that engagement requires “fun” assignments.  Often engagement and intellectual rigor are seen as a trade-off.  We’ll make it fun or we’ll make them work their brains hard.  But can we do both?  And can we afford not to?

At Abeo’s College Prepared Project, we’re turning these assumptions inside out as teachers learn how to engage students with work that is both relevant and intellectually challenging.  Using a framework known as Authentic Intellectual Work, we support teachers through collaboration, reflection and inquiry to ask students to construct knowledge and use disciplined inquiry to produce products or performances that have value beyond school. In the Project, cohorts of teachers learn to assess and fill the gap between the work they are asking students to do and the expectations students will be asked to meet in college. Teachers learn to design tasks and deliver instruction that encourage students to research into a particular discipline and create new knowledge for a real purpose and a genuine audience – the work of adults.  As teachers examine their own assignments and those of their peers, they’re asked to consider how each task expects students to use their minds well.  Is it rigorous and relevant?  Will it prepare them for college and beyond?

Why are the three elements of AIW so significant to college preparedness and engagement?  As we’ve guided teachers to be researchers into their own practice, here’s what we’ve learned.

Students need to construct knowledge.  In many facets of life we are required to problem-solve in order to make sense or meaning of a particular situation.  If successful, we have used information to make inferences and predictions; we’ve interpreted and synthesized input from a variety of sources.  If successful, we’ve analyzed and exercised some level of evaluation to make decisions.  And, if successful, we have created something purposeful.  These cognitive processes are routine for all of us in every day life; students exercise them routinely as well, but rarely in association with academic work.  We find that an expectation of creativity touches the spirit of what it is to be human and connects students to academic work in a powerful way.  

CPP participants link this element of engagement to intellectual rigor by considering the authenticity of the task and evidence of thinking.  Questions guide their work:  What is the purpose of the task? How are students being asked to think? Will there be a new idea or simply an evaluation of an old one? What will be evidence of new thinking?

Students need the opportunity and expectation to learn deeply. Disciplined inquiry emphasizes depth of knowledge versus breadth of knowledge.  When students are taught and asked to approach content or subject as disciplinarians, students learn the ways of thinking, reading, writing, and communicating that occur within the field. Students engage deeply with the subject to understand the content, processes, and forms of communication unique to the discipline.

As CPP participants collaborate around their work, they look for evidence of disciplinary research, thinking and communication. Questions guide their work:  How is knowledge acquired? How are students being asked to think and use knowledge?  Is there deep knowledge and how is that expressed?

Students respond powerfully to real work.  Purposeful work is relevant work.  No one wants to engage in tasks that are pointless and serve no purpose.  We have learned that student detachment isn’t a sign of low motivation or laziness; it’s a natural response to work that lacks purpose. When students are asked to tackle the kind of open-ended and undefined tasks that are encountered in daily life, we see an investment of energy that comes from doing something that matters.  There is a “so what” to the hard work they are being asked to do.

CPP participants examine and design tasks to ensure that this dimension of relevancy is present and that student assignments provide opportunities for authentic purposes. Critical questions become a lens for their scrutiny: What value does it have beyond exhibition of knowledge? Are there a purpose and an audience for the work? Does it mirror the adult world?

So what engages students? Authentic intellectual work that incorporates rigorous and relevant tasks, where learners are asked to use their minds well and to originally apply knowledge and skills.  If you ask students to go beyond the routine use of facts and procedures, carefully studying and resolving a challenging problem that has meaning beyond success in school, they will engage authentically and learn well and deeply. If we want students to be fully present and interested in learning, we need to routinely ask ourselves if what we’re offering them is authentic intellectual work

From Abeo Partners, Chris Hoyos and Harriette Thurber Rassmussen

Collaboration - Integral in Common Core Assessment

One on the most striking and pleasant surprises that I encountered in the Common Core Standards, was the prevalence of Collaboration. This alone says that we are on the right track with common core.  What is a needed 21^st Century Skill? Collaboration. What does Sir Ken Robinson say is required for a change in education? Collaboration. He says eloquently, that “collaboration is the stuff of learning.” What are experts and writers calling out for in books such as Curriculum 21 edited by Heidi Hayes Jacobs, and 21^st Century Skills by Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel? Collaboration. Whenever I conduct a training with teachers as ask them what they want their students to be able to do when they leave their classroom or school, what is the hot word? Collaboration.

If we truly want and need this for our students, they will need to teach and assess it. It needs to be leveraged in the grade book. This of course means we need to arm educators with the skills to effectively teach to the standard of Collaboration in the classroom. 

Let’s be honest. I doubt many of us have our state standards by our bedside as inspiration reading. But I would say the standards including collaboration can allow for exciting and engaging teaching and learning. Here is the power from the English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies,

Science, and Technical Subjects. 

K-5 and 6-12 Speaking and Listening

1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners,

building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

This standard is even broken down with specific criteria for each grade level. Collaboration is going to look similar and different across grade level. Your job is to figure out an assessment that will accurately show that they have performed that criteria and made that criteria clear to all partners in the student’s learning, from the parent, to the administrator. Collaboration is best seen in solving a problem, so of course, I am bias towards PBL, Project-Based or Problem-Based Learning. This sets an authentic task in motion for students to work on collaboratively to problem solve.

So what could an assessment look like? Let’s use the example above as our focus. Here the content of the actual collaborative effort is completely open. In fact, this could be done across the classroom. Although this is defined as a Listening and Speaking Standard, there is no reason why it couldn’t be leveraged in a variety of disciplines, as it is a 21^st century skill. So what could show these criteria regardless of the content?

Perhaps students create a portfolio defense for a one on one with the teacher, bringing a variety of pieces of evidence. Perhaps students create a podcast articulating how they solved problems and met criteria for collaboration. Perhaps students journal daily to critical thinking prompts on their collaboration, which is then collected as a summative assessment at the end of the unit or project. Perhaps teachers use a rubric to grade them as they actually work in class on specific day.

Of course these great summative assessment ideas need to be supported with ongoing formative assessment. Journals could be used as this as well as a summative. If you plan on grading students on collaboration, then you must provide feedback to the students using the rubric as the focus piece. You can set goals with groups and let them know you will specifically look for that in the future. You will need to collect drafts of a podcast and give specific coaching on what they can do to make it better. Again, you cannot assess what you do not teach, and good teaching includes useful, ongoing formative assessments. 

There of course are more places to “push” and explore in terms of assessment of Collaboration. Perhaps you have students work collaboratively on a Common Core in a project that has a culminating product that showcases they know that standard. The key is to have both a Collaborative product, to grade them on collaboration, and an individual product that holds students accountable to the other Common Core Standard. If students are creating a research project that is targeted toward to a Common Core Research standard, have them create one product collaboratively and a separate on their own. Look, you have head students accountable to two powerful Common Core standards that are rigorous and real.  Just remember you must teach your students how to collaborate before you can assess how well they do collaborate. This is good practice. 

From Andrew Miller, New Media Innovations

Abeo Partnership - Lincoln High School's Success

Lincoln High School in Tacoma, WA is one of Abeo’s success stories. It has been a long term partnership with Abeo that has allowed Lincoln to become an exemplary program in Washington State. Recently, Algebra 1 and Geometry end of course assessment scores were published and the results are amazing: 90% pass rate with no achievement gap. This alone should cause eyebrows and wonder, what is going on at this school? What is fostering this community of scholars? In addition, Fisk University, after being impressed by Lincoln students and the city college fair, visited the school to meet one-on-one with students. 5 students were offered admission on the spot, and one is being flied out to interview for a full ride scholarship. Clearly, when we are talking about education reform, we need to be talking about Lincoln High School.

Lincoln has been mentioned in the Tacoma News Tribune often, chronicling its journey from one of the lowest performing schools in Washington State to a school with much to celebrate. One of the key structural changes mentioned was creating Lincoln Center with an extended school day. Students can choose to participate in the program, while some are counseled into it. The school day runs from 7:30am to around 5pm. This extra time provides structural support for students including homework help, clubs and other programs that help students complete their work and meet standard.

There are many other best practices in terms of instruction and structures that Lincoln boasts. Staff have common planning to work on integrated projects across grade level and provide intervention support for students needing it. Late arrival on Wednesdays allows for further staff development on a regular basis to foster reflection and implementation of best practices. Classrooms have an open door policy where essential questions and clear learning targets are posted. The staff is reflective and constantly seeks feedback from teammates and Abeo coaches on an individual basis. Staff loop with students in order to build relationships, and students look at data often to set and meet goals.

The culture of excellence is evident. Teachers constantly exert the phrase “You will go to college” They have unfailingly high expectations, so much so that they commit to this ongoing professional development in real ways. Teacher efficacy is seen in everyday conversations between teachers and coaches. The teachers openly tell students that hey have coaches. How was this culture built? As one teacher says, “If we have high expectations for our students, then we need to have the same for ourselves.”

Great work is occurring at Lincoln High School, both in terms of student work and in terms of teacher practice. Through shared leadership, clear vision, and commitment to excellence, Lincoln has created a safe place for students to learn at their highest potential.


From Andrew Miller, New Media Innovations

Fall Forum of the Coalition of Essential Schools

Holli Hanson, partner at Abeo School Change and director of the CES NW Center travelled along with Abeo Executive Director, Andrew Kelly to Providence, RI to participate in “A Conversation among Friends.”

The forum kicked off with a series of school visits to area schools known for their progressive work around schooling in the Boston, MA and Providence, RI communities. Participants were invited to join in discussion and learn from practitioners in schools that are working to continually improve through the implementation and growth of the 10 Common Principles.

Over the two days of the conference there were a variety of teacher-led presentations about improving pedagogy in classrooms and serving students better. Focused conversations around inquiry, helping students to use their minds well, crafting essential questions and using various methods to allow students to show what they know and are able to do. Highlights from the teacher-led conference were two exceptional presentations by Washington teachers. Amy Lavold, teacher at Lincoln High School/Lincoln Center from the Tacoma School District facilitated a session titled: I am the Master of My Fate: Understanding Resiliency. This session focused on the real work that has occurred at the Lincoln Center to equitably crate high-level rigor in every classroom ensuring that kids graduate college ready and that the achievement gap ceases to exist. Jennifer Zamira, also of Lincoln High School shared: The Classroom’s a Stage: Building a Bridge to College Preparedness through the Canon, giving participants practice in bringing the classics to “life” for urban kids through creative interaction, drama and fun.

Highlights also included some of the great thinkers of our time inspiring us all to continue to dream for the future and continue to press on in the work. Dennis Littkey, founder and co-director of Big Picture Learning and The Met center put student voice front and center as he shared his vision for continued expansion of personalized learning. His work to capitalize on kids’ passions as a strategy to overcome obstacles has truly created a model worthy of consideration and/or replication for all of us. Many at the conference were thrilled to hear that he is launching a college to counter the dysfunction in post-secondary education. Statistically, 86% of first generation students who make it to college fail to earn their degree and/or drop out. His work may very well reshape how we think about post secondary learning.

Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn invited us as a group to consider the ideas of work, play and learning and how all three interface within schools today. Their conversation reminded each of us to consider the whole child and whenever possible resist the lock step initiatives that have time and time in our nation failed to yield consistent results. Perhaps the most powerful quote of the dialogue came from Kohn who challenged us to “consider that the most important factor in schools isn’t engagement, but rather joy.” Inspiring to think about the learning that could happen and the challenges that could be overcome if there were more joy in each classroom, each day, for the benefit of students and teachers alike.

Debbie Meier’s quote, “Only secretly rebellious teachers have ever done right by our least advantaged kid,” left us with encouragement to think outside the box and push the assumptions of the systems, schools and leaders around us.

Both Hanson and Kelly return to Seattle from Providence, RI eager to engage our colleagues, schools, teachers, and leaders to continue to push for more innovative ways to meet the diverse needs of our students.

Look for several innovations from Abeo School Change in the months to come to offer more support and keep the Coalition ideals alive and well in the Pacific Northwest.

From Andrew Kelly, Abeo Executive Director

Online Learning Needs True Student Collaboration

Steven Johnson, the author of “Where Good Ideas Come From,” was featured on CNN last year where he shared his ideas from his TED talk aired earlier this summer. Learning does not occur in isolation. Great ideas do not occur in isolation. Why then are most online courses structured in a way that fosters mostly the teacher-student relationship?  

If we look at the way many learning management systems and courses are setup, it is still very traditional. Students have an assignment, they complete it, and they turn it in. The material is geared toward multiple learning styles, but authentic learning style of collaboration may not exist. Now there may be occasions where discussion board posts are required, or peer review. In fact the best online teachers are using these tools synchronously and asynchronously. The best teachers are doing their best to create activities and routines that foster student interaction and collaboration.  But is the curriculum and structure set up in a way that requires collaboration, problem-solving and critical thinking?

One of the biggest strengths of online learning is fosters true student-teacher relationship in order to create an individualized education plan. Parents say this, teachers say this, and students say this. Julie Young, CEO of Florida Virtual Schools, recently shared in an article that “it is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of online learning that teachers and students often find it more personal than the classroom experience.” She then goes on to advocate for more hybrid programs, in order to balance face-to-face learning with online. I would agree that with the hybrid model, you can build face-to-face experiences that foster more collaboration, but this is one idea.

If we truly want the 21^st century skills, we need to create online environments that truly require collaboration, problem solving and critical thinking. Are students working together to problem solve and create while still being held accountable individually? Are the student forums open so that students may collaborate? Are students leading discussions and live class meetings?  Are students allowed voice and choice in their assessments? These are just some of the questions that educators of the online world need to consider. 

In online education, we are in danger of replicating a system that has only worked well for some. The traditional classroom, where the teacher is the center and the students do the assignment, has not worked for all. We in the world of education reform agree on this. We believe in these 21^st century skills. We have seen brick and mortar and hybrid programs that have worked, where collaboration and innovation is occurring regularly. We need to look at these examples and learn from them. We need to ensure the structures and curriculum foster not only online individualized instruction, but collaboration for the purposes of innovation.  As Steven Johnson says, “Chance favors the connected mind.”

From Andrew Miller, New Media Innovations

Letter from a Teacher - Need for Transparency

Good Morning Editor,

Excellent article in Sunday's paper by Sharon Noguchi on problem teachers.

I'm a "second career" teacher after having served as a Navy pilot, currently teaching 4th grade in Los Altos.  Teaching has been a tough job but presents a lot fewer risks than landing on a pitching / rolling deck at night in the middle of the ocean.

I've always been of the opinion that my classroom is open.  The principal or parents are welcome anytime - they never need an appointment.  There is nothing I do in my classroom that is ever "hidden" from public view.  Want to learn about H.A.W. Tabor and Chicken Bill?  How about Charles C. Fremont and how his ranch was stolen but it resulted in his becoming California's first Senator and stupendously rich?  How about the fact that the only reason we're not part of Mexico today is that John Sutter and James Marshall kept their mouths shut until the Treaty of Gualalupe Hidalgo was signed?  Come on down.

We learn multiplication but in such a way that we're given the "Keys to Quadratic Factorization."  We study art but also use it to write stories about going fishing with Winslow Homer or trekking with Hieronymus Bosch.  If we use a video it's never more than 8 to 10 minutes and ties directly into the lesson we're teaching.

What I do is public.  I'm standing in front of 20 to 30 people (4th graders though they may be) and presenting materials, guiding activities, helping them learn to work together, maintaining classroom discipline (mostly), and hopefully inspiring students.  

The last thing I teach is the most important - inspiring.  What did you learn the most about?  It's something you WANTED to learn about.  Inspire a student and then get out of their way.  They'll learn more than you could ever teach them, all on their own.

I consider that duty my most important.  Every single human has a specialty.  As a teacher it's my job to help them find it and point them in the right direction.  

The rest of teaching is an overview of data - learning something about many things and, most important, learning how to "go and find out."  The motto of our classroom comes from Rudyard Kipling's story, Rikki Tikki Tavi.  "The motto of the mongoose is 'Go and Find Out.'"   That's the motto of Room 9 at Gardner Bullis School, where I am very proud to help young men and women learn a little more about the world and how they fit into it.

ciao and best

jim

James Thurber 

4th Grade - Room 9

Gardner Bullis School

Los Altos School District

Do you need a coach or a consultant?

Do you need a coach or a consultant? 

A good question – one we like to ask and help clients answer often because there are distinct differences and justifiable needs for both.  The key is in knowing the difference and assessing your needs as an organization.

A simple way of distinguishing between the two is to think of a consultant as a way of adding staff capacity and a coach as building staff capacity.  Here’s how it looks:

Many organizations need a task completed for which they lack adequate staffing.  This could be a numbers game (everyone’s busy) or a capacity issue (nobody knows how to do this).  Often it’s in the best interest of everyone to bring in an expert to complete the task and hand it off, particularly if the expertise needed is likely to be sporadic or very specialized – such as strategic planning.  This calls for a consultant: someone who comes in from the outside to do internal work, temporarily adding staff capacity….and then departing.

A coach, however, is called for when there are ongoing needs within an organization, yet the skills are not present within current personnel. This is where an organization would be better served to build the capacity of existing staff so that they are able to take on the task into the future.  This might be a completely new area (such as a new approach to literacy or numeracy that calls for an instructional coach), fine-tuning practice as might be the case with a leadership coach, or preparing and implementing a major change initiative where there is anticipated resistance.  For more thoughts on who needs to be coached, see our web site post, “Oh to be Coached!”

We see very few schools and districts that would not benefit from additional support.  The trick is to make sure it’s a good match for the task at hand.  Coaches teach you to do the work.  Consultants do the work for you.  It’s as simple as that.

From Abeo Partner, Harriette Thurber Rasmussen

Online Teacher Professional Development – What do we do?

At the iNACOL conference this last fall, I encountered many professionals asking the same question. “What does Professional Development for online teachers look like?” Many sessions addressed the topic, but most of it was around processes that were in place to train and evaluate teachers. These were great sessions and highlighted many ways to create effective systems, but many participants were disappointed. They wanted to see content. What were teachers being trained in? What do online teachers do when they participate in professional development? Great questions all. They were looking for modules to take back to their schools and districts. iNACOL recently put out a report around professional development and it too gives great indications of what online teachers need. Since we lack a plethora of content to distribute, we need to think about ways to create an effective professional development program for online teachers. As a teacher and teacher trainer in the online education world, here are some important steps I believe one must take in order to create an effective professional development.

1)      Identify what good online teachers do – Take time with teachers to identify and discuss with them what online teachers do. You will hear comments like “They are in constant contact with their teachers,” or “They give useful feedback in a timely matter.”  You will end up with many topics to cover.

2)      Identify critical components of the school framework – Schools have a vision, and this vision is articulated in its framework which includes, of course, structures and curriculum. Perhaps your school has an iRTI structure. Perhaps you focus on PBL. Perhaps you focus on competency –based pathways. Regardless, teachers will need coaching in these areas of the school framework.

3)      Analyze what teachers need – Through both feedback from teachers and things noticed while “walking the halls,” identify what teachers need to know. There is no use in covering everything, and frankly, there is not enough time. You may find that only some teachers need a certain topic, while other content will need to be pushed out to all teachers.

4)      Create modules or trainings based on each of these needs – Use a competency-based pathway model to create modules based on needs the teachers.  Some of these modules will call for synchronous and asynchronous learning. On a side note, ensure that if a PD session is synchronous, keep it sacred. Don’t crowd it with logistics, announcements or other pieces that might distract from focused, deep learning.

5)      Show teachers what it “looks like.” – Teachers, like students, need specific models and examples. If they need help with effective communication with students, play them a recording of a model phone call. Have teachers look at a model welcome email. Show them paragraphs of ideal feedback for student work. Again, examples and models speak volumes.

6)      Continue to monitor and set goals with teachers – Be authentic and transparent with teachers with the quality indicators for evaluation. Don’t do “drive by” evaluations, but instead, create a culture of continuous feedback and improvement.  Partner with teachers to set goals and improve.

While all of these pieces may seem obvious to many, I see many professionals skip to step 4. Professional development should come from authentic needs and quality characteristics of online teachers. This is just a starting point in the conversation around professional development for online teachers. A major next step in this world of professional for online teacher is to create open source training resources. Although there will specific components unique to individual schools that teachers must be trained and coached in, there are some common pieces all teachers will need in the future. 

From Andrew Miller, Abeo New Media Innovations