Why Being Proficient isn't the Same as Getting An "A"

The landscape of assessment and evaluation has changed dramatically in recent years.  As a student, I was anchored in a world of right & wrong, percentages, and letter grades.  I think most of us were.

That’s why wrapping our heads around the changes is so difficult. 

When I started teaching 25 years ago, I marked all of my student’s work by adding up the things that were right and wrong.  The assignment was “out of 25,”  blank spots were marked as incorrect.  Answers either met the mark or they didn’t.   Once we’d finished the test for that topic or unit, we moved on.  Some of us had “good” marks, others did not.

At the end of the term, I would go into my gradebook, added up all the marks, find the percentage and then convert it to a letter grade.  Tests were weighted more heavily than quizzes or daily assignments.  If you handed something in late, it lost marks.  It’s a paradigm that’s super familiar to most of us.  It seems really clear.  If you got an A, that meant you learned more than the person who got the C.  It probably also meant all of your work was handed in on time, and that you used your class time wisely.

Here’s the challenge.  The curriculum is really different now.  We aren’t teaching the way we used to, so it doesn’t work to assess our learners the way we used to.

Let me use math as an example.

Instead of being focused on a list of discreet skills (Can this student subtract with re-grouping to 10 000?), the curriculum is focused on Big Ideas and Competencies (Does this student have computational fluency and flexibility with numbers extend to operations with larger (multi-digit) numbers)? Letter grades and percentages don’t tell us how fluent a student is, or if they have developed the mental-math strategies required to approach problem solving in a way that lets them work through things more flexibly and creatively.

For example, in terms of computational fluency and flexibility, Grade 5 students should be:

·   using flexible computation strategies involving taking apart (e.g., decomposing using friendly numbers and compensating) and combining numbers in a variety of ways, regrouping

·   estimating sums and differences to 10 000

·   using addition and subtraction in real-life contexts and problem-based situations

·   whole-class number talks

Lessons to explore math this way look a lot different than doing equations in a textbook.  They will be working independently, and with peers, to build physical models representing these equations, or designing challenges for estimation, or building opportunities for addition and subtraction into coding lessons or a project for science class.

When we evaluate how the students are doing, we will look at how their managing the traditional equations, but we’ll also listen to how they explain things to us as teachers, and to peers as they work through the challenges and projects they tackle.  We’ll take a look at the diagrams or models they make to explain their thinking.  We’ll structure deliberate opportunities to reflect on their learning, and describe their own level of understanding.

A sample from the Ministry of Education website describing how this might look is as follows:

Knowing that this is the kind of data we are collecting, it is very difficult to convert that to a percentage or letter grade.

This is where the new reporting system comes in.

The new report cards represent a continuum of a student’s learning journey.  We define the stages as:

Emerging	Developing	Proficient	Extending
·   The student is starting to acquire skills, strategies and processes. ·   This student demonstrates an initial understanding of the concepts and competencies, but is not yet working with them independently, or applying them in other contexts. Direct adult support is required for success with these skills.	·   The student has the ability to apply the skills, strategies and processes, but still requires support. ·   The student has a partial understanding of the concepts and competencies, but is not yet independently successful with these skills.	·   The student consistently demonstrates  the required  knowledge, skills and strategies ·   The student demonstrates a complete understanding of skills, concepts and competencies, is able to apply the knowledge independently, can clearing describe their learning and understanding of the concept.	·   The student demonstrates a sophisticated knowledge of the skills, strategies and processes- both creatively and strategically. ·   There is a sophisticated understanding of the concepts and competencies.

When we describe learning in this way, “Extending” is not about bonus marks, or doing extra assignments, it’s about a deep, sophisticated understanding of the material explored in the classroom.  We are not able to say whether it is “like the old A,” or “kind of like getting a 90%” because we have measured things in a completely different way.  We look at the complete body of a student’s work around a particular concept or competency, and determine their level of independence, understanding, and application of it.   

Where assignments are missed or incomplete, we assess their learning on the basis of what we have seen-  and learning is represented in different ways.  For example, if a student is a struggling writer, but can provide a diagram, or sophisticated oral description of a process explored in a science lesson, they can receive a mark of extending for that scientific concept, even if the quality of the writing on the lab that was submitted falls more in the developing range.  In a situation such as this, their writing is marked as developing, but the curricular competencies for science are evaluated separately.

So…in a nutshell, letter grades and percentages have been replaced by a continuum.  We work with our students from whatever place they are on that continuum at the beginning of the year, and support them in growing and developing to whatever spot they are ready for next.  Being proficient means that the student is confidently, independently, successfully tackling the learning before them.  This student is able to reflect on their learning, is growing in their understanding of new concepts, and has mastered the skills needed to forward.  If a learner is Emerging or Developing in a skill, we will provide them with opportunities for extra support and practice.  If a student is Extending, they have demonstrated a sophisticated understanding, and we will provide this learner with opportunities to further their learning in that area, perhaps take on additional challenges to stretch themselves moving forward.

This approach allows us to support our children in taking more ownership of their learning, and to demonstrate their growth in a variety of ways.  The flexibility in the approach in the classroom also helps us to develop flexible graduates who are ready to tackle the changing world when they graduate.  For me, it’s an exciting time-  and I love to watch it unfold.  After all, They’re All Our Kids.

To learn more about the changing BC Curriculum, link to:  https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/assessment/classroom-assessment-and-reporting

Mindful Listening Leadership

This fall, I've been reading Shane Safir's The Listening Leader with a group of colleagues.  The subtitle reads "Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation." 

The text captured my attention right away.  It speaks to my desire to grow a collaborative, dynamic community of adults in our school as a way to increase student achievement and support school culture.  One of my favorite phrases in the whole book is in the introduction, which explains that Listening Leaders are able to "unleash unrealized energy" in their team.

My experience is that educators have a great deal of energy for the areas of practice and experience where we feel successful and empowered.  Where we have a deep, in-the-gut feeling that something we are doing with, or for, our learners, is making a real difference.  Conversely, finding the energy to tackle the things before us where we are less connected and involved is much more stressful and less inspiring.

Safir argues that leaders who adopt a Listening Mindset are better able to transform culture and release this energy.  He suggests four specific strategies to accomplish this:

Slow Down

Listen before Making Decisions

                                             

Harness the Wisdom of the Group

Distribute Leadership

                                                 
By approaching change in this super-intentional, recursive, and thoughtful way, Listening Leadership becomes a powerful driver for change.

I understood what he was talking about as I read these early chapters.  Applying it to daily practice became another story.

I had an experience with some members of my team heading into the break that really tested my understanding of these principles.  We were working through a super challenging situation with one of our very complex students.  Emotions and fatigue were running high, the student was not responding to the interventions or strategies we had in place, and the team was discouraged.

I jumped in to look for ways to support everyone.  I got a referral into our district's Inclusion Support Team, brainstormed with our Student Services teacher for ways to change things up, grabbed a few new visual tools and tweaked the student's timetable and the EA Schedule.  I hurried to get everything into the team's hands so I could help stabilize things.  I dug into my toolkit, built from all of my years supporting unique students and their teams toward success.

It was a disaster.  The strategies, even the ones that had been wildly successful for numerous other students in the past, did not improve the situation.  This young man's Classroom Teacher and Education Assistants were still frustrated.  Now they were becoming angry.  I started to feel defensive.

Two things happened that shifted my stance from defensiveness to something more open.  To nudge me from the feeling I had to hurry, to find all of the answers and allow me to be ready and able to listen for the ideas, emotions, and other information, that were needed to find our way through this difficult period.

The first was a conversation with a courageous colleague who laid it all out for me.  She identified exactly how she was feeling as a result of some of the decisions that I had made, and shared some key information about the situation with this learner that I was unaware of.  While I didn't agree with everything she said, it was an open dialogue that re-framed my perspective, and helped to shift the direction things were taking.

The second was observing the way that our Inclusion Support team interacted with the student's teacher when they visited our site.  They asked a ton of questions, about the challenging situation, strengths and interests of the student, the rhythm of the classroom, the student's needs, the adults' needs.  Every single question was one I knew to be critically important.  In hindsight, I realized that some were questions I had already made up answers to without checking to see how accurate my assumptions were.

I have worked in the area of student support for many years.  I have lots of knowledge about how to support highly complex learners, how to individualize programs, how to create visual supports and structured routines.  And a lot of the time, I believe I know how to listen and work with my team.  In reflecting on how this situation got to be so complicated and stressful, I  realized that I had been focusing on the TOOLS, not the PEOPLE who needed to use them.

Thanks to the perspective afforded to me through slowing down long enough to really listen,  to share the leadership, to harness ideas from everyone involved, we headed into Christmas break in a much better place.  We have some new tools and routines ready to go for the new year, and resource people coming to help us implement them.  We had a productive team meeting before heading off, I feel like we've mended some of the strained relationships and I'm hoping my efforts to really listen to everyone have allowed me to tweak some of our other structures and routines moving forward, so that we really can slow down and be super intentional moving forward.

Safir argues that to really do this well, Mindful Listening needs to occur with a bias toward action.  In reading a little more of this text over the break, that piece has landed as a bit of a "New Year's Resolution" for me.  My action step is going to be focusing on his metaphor of "watering for deep roots."  Safir argues that "strategic listening [can] create the mental space that can lead to more thoughtful action."

I believe I know how to leverage some of these strategies with the "big picture" stuff-  I feel good about the work we did in creating a school vision statement, planning for PLCs, building our tiered support structures by reflecting on student data.  What I learned through this experience is that it's much harder to do when emotions are running high in a crisis situation.  The irony of that is this is that mindful listening has the potential to stabilize things much faster and more effectively than digging in and handing over tools without real consultation.

Fortunately, Safir has a suggestion in this regard, as well.  If I had followed the three steps of Mindful Listening, I would have created the space I needed to navigate things in a much different way.  Being strategic and aware in approaching collaboration-  whether it's for a whole-school initiative, or problem solving with only a few members of the team, it's important to:

1. Look in the mirror....reflect on your own role and interactions.
2. Step into the other person's shoes...no matter how different their perspective, the individual involved has life experiences, information, emotions that need to be considered in moving forward...begin with a bit of empathy.
3.  Step up onto the balcony....take on the stance of a neutral observer watching your interactions with others during the discussion

This situation was an important reminder that our whole team wants what's best for our students, and that the real power to support our learners lays in our collective wisdom.   After all, They're All Our Kids.  

Being Passionately Curious

I saw this on Twitter this morning, and I can't stop thinking about it.  When I went searching for the post so that I could take this screenshot, I saw other examples of it-  but this image with the wings captures my thinking better than any of the other "inspirational picture quote" versions I came across.

I love the vibrancy of this image.  I love that interwoven into this vibrancy is a diverse set of images that span a large cross-section of interests and abilities, thoughtfully interwoven and layered to create movement and energy.  Possibility. 

I think I take issue with it just a little bit-  to me, being Passionately Curious is a special talent.  In fact, I believe the art of nurturing oneself, and others, toward being passionately curious is the most special talent of many educators.  It's what we do when we engage everyone in exploration and foster the sense of wonder the compels all of us to keep reflecting and learning even when the lesson is complete.

It's the bit of bird's nest that comes in after we've looked at habitats in science class.  It's the toppling, sticky-taped, toilet-roll-and-bent-straw ramp that shows up after we've talked about forces and gravity.  It's the outlandish-but-interesting connection that someone offers during lit circle that we keep talking about all week.  It's the Reggio Inspired primary program that has little ones building, creating, inventing.  It's inquiry, and maker-space, and innovation and problem-based learning. 

But it's not just for our kids.  It's for us, too.  It's finding ourselves in deep in the cupboard looking for solo cups or shimmering elastic thread because the perfect community building lesson dawned on us when we woke up at 3 in the morning still thinking about yesterday.

It's the gathering of 2-3 colleagues to plan a special activity, or outing, or buddy project because we're all excited about the same thing.  It's also the energy that builds after reflection on student work samples, or assessment data, and we begin moving forward as a school team in crafting an approach to help propel our leaners to the just-right next place.

I'm not the first person to be inspired by this notion.  A bit of a websearch around this idea landed me some pretty interesting websites to explore almost instantly-  check out the Passionately Curious Kindergarten, the work being done at UBC regarding Transformative Educational Leadership.  or even the goings-on at Science World.

It's such a fantastic time to be a BC Educator.  Embracing a competency-based approach with open-ended exploration is the very best way to be passionately curious students and adults.  Every day, I am blessed to wander throughout my building and hear the buzz of learners and teachers co-creating learning opportunities and exploring ideas together.  It's pretty special to be passionately curious as a community.  And it works. Our learners move forward together when we engage them in what they are curious about as individuals.  Good thing, because They're All Our Kids!

Becoming a Focus School: Literacy Interventions for Intermediate-aged Readers

My school was given a tremendous gift this fall.  We’ve become a Focus School.  That means we have been given extra counselling and Child and Youth Care support, and a half-time Literacy Coordinator.   We have such an opportunity to make a significant difference for our kids-  the means to provide additional resources and support where it’s needed the most.

To prepare for the year, I decided to do a bit of a literature review to see what it said about intermediate readers.  I was looking for a launch-point, some information about the best way to target these supports-  even with all this extra help, I have a hunch that we’ll still feel stretched - being strategic and deliberate will be the key to making this work.

After combing through about 20 research studies and articles that have been published in the last 10 years, my hunch about being strategic and deliberate was actually the reassuring piece that fell out the bottom.   There are definitely some key strategies and understandings that have been shown to make a HUGE difference in student achievement outcomes.  Some things that, time and again, helped intermediate students become strong, confident readers. 

What I DIDN’T see was a big list of stuff I’ve never heard of. 

What I DID see was that the implementation of tools and strategies has a much greater effect when they are chosen super carefully, used in a targeted  way, and tracked carefully so that teachers knew whether or not they were working, and what adjustments need to be made along the way.  

That makes sense.  In his research regarding teacher efficacy, John Hattie has learned that the impact of “[teacher efficacy (d=1.57)] is more than two times bigger than that of feedback (d=0.72), and almost three times bigger than the effect of classroom management (d=0.52). The message seems to be clear: together teachers can achieve more, especially if they collectively believe that they can do so!”[i]

Working collaboratively to make thoughtful, strategic, deliberate decisions, based on what we know about our learners and their needs, is the most powerful thing we can do to help our kids have success.

So what are the underlying principles to keep in mind when planning support for intermediate struggling readers?

Overwhelmingly, the research focused on a several key things:

         1.        A foundation of differentiated, flexible classroom structures that provide an entry-point for all learners.  Shelley Moore has a whole bunch of info and templates on her site that are useful in this regard.[ii]   Deshler et. al encourage us to “consider differentiated instruction by examining the demands placed on students”(2007)[iii].  Are we giving them a starting place they can manage?  Have we provided tools and opportunities that allow them to work independently towards success?

      

      2.       Intervention that happens outside of the classroom needs to be IN ADDITION TO, not instead of, classroom literacy learning.  A number of studies showed that struggling readers are exposed to significantly less print than their more successful peers. They need to read MORE OFTEN, and have MORE PRACTICE to move ahead.  When the team decides that Tier 2 or 3 supports are needed, they need to be super strategically scheduled so students are still part of key literacy learning in the classroom.

      3.      Interventions can’t be one-size-fits-all.  Every “reading group” shouldn’t be structured the same way.   While there are a number of areas that are consistently explored in the research, it is equally clear that, by the intermediate grades, struggling readers need an intense, strategic, focus on the areas they find the most difficult.  If they are word-spotters who can’t comprehend what they read, help them understand it.  If they chew over every vowel sound and phonetic pattern, explore that. 

4.      Intermediate learners are super-sensitive to their peers, and their perceptions of where they fit in with their peer group.  We need to honor them and listen to them.  Insisting they participate in a type of intervention that they are not comfortable with will almost always backfire.  Instead of being invested in the learning, they’ll be fine-tuning their radar for what is going on in their environment, or will be pre-occupied with the activities back in their classrooms.  Bass describes this as the “Discursive Identity Impact.”  She explains that “research has shown that while struggling readers may appear unmotivated or uninterested, this may not always be the case.  Discursive identity theory aids in the understanding of the intrinsic perceptions and motivations that drive outward actions of a middle school readers….by understanding how struggling readers view text, perceive themselves, and want others to perceive them, teachers can more likely respond to students’ needs.”[iv]

What are the areas of focus that have proven to be the most effective?

In summarizing the studies, the part I was most excited about was how recursive this list was.  The same few areas of focus cropped up for classroom learning, small group work, and individual supports.  What changed was the intensity and frequency of them. 

Repeatedly, the research indicated that the most impact for struggling readers came from supporting classroom teachers in creating deep, supportive, literature-rich, classroom environments.  Any intervention should add layers to what was already in place-  an individualized focus on specific areas of difficulty, not something totally different altogether, or a replacement for the stuff that is “too hard” in the classroom.

The research also repeated a few themes in terms of instructional focus:

• ·         Comprehension:  systematic and explicit instruction in flexible tools and metacognitive strategies to tackle print…strategic reading being key….
• ·         Time with High Success texts:  free, voluntary reading with books kids like, paired with corrective feedback and opportunities for reflection (oral and written)
• ·         Vocabulary knowledge:  making sure we build on prior knowledge and add layers before, during and after reading
• ·         Fluency:  comfort and “flow” with the written word
• ·         Working with words:  phoneme structures, syllabication, grammar (which is related to, but different from, a traditional spelling program)

I’ve plotted some of the more specific suggestions and strategies onto an RTI framework by way of a visual.

This is thoughtful, strategic work, for sure.  The good news, is that we’re charged with doing it together.  Beginning by making sure that classroom teachers have the tools and supports they need to effectively engage all readers in their classrooms will allow those of us in support roles to know when, how, and what, to add in support of our kids who struggle.

This is a super-optimistic bunch of research.  Over and over again, it confirms that we can make a significant difference for our kids.  There has been a lot of research done in the area of early intervention over the years.  What some of this research shows us is that significant gains can also be made by intermediate learners if we really get to know them and create lots of opportunity for them.  I can’t wait to see what this year brings.  After all, They’re All Our Kids!

---

[i] Hattie, Visible Learning (website), https://visible-learning.org/2018/03/collective-teacher-efficacy-hattie/

[ii] Moore, (blog), https://blogsomemoore.com/

[iii]Houghen (2015) “Evidence-Based Reading Instruction for Adolescents Grades 6-12,”  http://ceedar.education.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IC-13_FINAL_05-26-15.pdf

[iv] Bass (2015) “Reading Intervention Strategies for General Education Middle School Students: Providing a Space for Teachers to Share Effective Methods,” https://bit.ly/2O2X1EQ

If the visual is helpful to you, download it 

here:  Supporting Literacy Instruction for Intermediate-Aged Readers

Gratitude for this Year's Lollipop Moments

The end of the school year always has me reflecting back on the year.  June craziness gives way to July appreciation.  As the dust settles, I remember all the things I love about being an educator, and take the time to savour the bits of the year that were extra special.

This year was a whopper.  After 20 years in my previous school district, I found myself in not just one, but two, new school communities.  Not only were my surroundings unfamiliar, but I quickly realized that the scale of things in a larger school district was very different from what I had experienced before.  New people, new systems, different resources, different expectations.  It took until January not to feel like I was driving to someone else’s school every day.

Now that I have time to reflect on what made the difference in the new year, I’m realizing I have some people to thank.  Some lollipops to give out.

I don’t know how many others out there are familiar with lollipop moments.  It’s a new idea for me.  I stumbled upon this great TED Talk while I was looking for something about Leadership for a group of grade 6 students that I worked with this year.

 

Drew Dudley, "Everyday Leadership"

In his talk, Drew Dudley argues that lollipop moments are moments in life where “you have made someone’s life better by something that you said or that you did...” These are moments that resonate for us, as individuals, but the person who created them isn't even aware of what they've done for us.

He defines these moments as acts of everyday leadership, explaining that “we need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments, how many of them we create, how many of them we acknowledge, how many of them we pay forward, and how many of them we say thank you for.”

As I was wrapping up my time with students this year, I invited kids from a number of classes to make a lollipop for a special adult in our building.  Many knew exactly who they wanted to give them to.  An EA who “didn’t give up when I didn’t understand the math.”  A teacher who “let me be creative when we made puppets.”  A counselor who “helped me with my friends and finding people to hang out with at recess.”  These lollipops weren't created quickly.  I was astounded by the love, care and genuine appreciation that went into them.

Older students watched the clip with me.  It's less accessible for the little ones, so with them, I read Cara's Kindness, a great story about paying it forward.  The idea of giving someone a lollipop to say thank you wasn't hard to wrap our heads around after we thought about kindnesses that had been done for us over the course of the school year.

As educators, EAs, secretaries, principals, custodians, we are making a difference every day, whether we know it or not.  Our bulletin board had over 100 lollipops when we were done, and each one was different.  And I know with certainty that the adults receiving them didn’t already know how deeply the students felt about the things they had done for them, because I spoke to a few who were genuinely surprised, and touched, by some of the sentiments shared by the kids.

I wish I’d taken the time to speak directly to more of my colleagues before the year wrapped up.  the easy excuse is the fact that I was inordinately busy this June, even for someone who works in education-  I was at two schools, was packing to move to a third, had a kid turning 16, another graduating from high school, and both of them leaving for an overseas trip with their Scout group.

But that really wasn't it.  I didn't offer the lollipop thank yous personally because the thank-you’s were coming with good-byes for the second year in a row, and in all honesty, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I had lots of lollipop moments this year.  I was warmly welcomed by two school communities. I shared two different school offices with clerical and admin colleagues who always put kids first, even when they were making it really difficult for us to do so. I worked with dynamic educators who were creative, and energetic and positive.  I had the opportunity to learn alongside some beginning teachers who asked amazing, smart questions that pushed me to become a stronger educator.  I collaborated with a diverse team to bring a highly complex group of grade 12 students through to graduation, and shared a rich kindergarten/grade one classroom with a master teacher of infinite patience.  No one gets to do all of that in a single school year.  I was given a tremendous gift.  My lollipops are for the teams at Cedar Elementary and Secondary Schools. 

 

I highly recommend Dudley’s talk if you haven’t seen it.  Next year, I’m going to collect lollipop moments right from the beginning of the year.  And, I’m going to have a stash of lollipops in my desk to help me celebrate them.  I challenge everyone who reads this to do the same.  We should be celebrating and acknowledging the grown ups.  It's the work they do every day that makes such a profound difference for our learners.  We are all working together, because They're All Our Kids.