The Tempered Radical

Stuffing Kids with Content

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Clear Vision of Intended Learning

So here's an interesting question:  If students cannot self-assess without a clear vision of the intended learning, what is your learning team doing to make sure that students understand the expected outcomes for your lessons?

 

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Embracing What Could Be?

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Pencils Can't Fix This

In response to my recent slide on the students of tomorrow and the classrooms of yesterday, regular Radical reader Mike H wrote:

So I showed this slide to the department chairs I work with from middle school to high school and 15 new teachers of the county. We have a 1:1 so I talked about the need to use the laptops our students to bring to school, as well as the need to make our students think more critically. But, alas, overwhelmingly, the concern was the end of course exams.

Honestly, every time I hear teachers talk about the importance of preparing kids for their end-of-course exams, I wonder where we've gone wrong as a nation.   There are greater challenges that many our students will walk out of schools knowing nothing about.

So I made another slide.  It shows an abandoned baby struggling to survive in the slums of Lucknow, India, and it broke my heart.  I almost couldn't bear to look at it.

But I also couldn't handle the implications of a world where children struggle to survive in one country while others sit oblivious, studying for final exams in another.  The pain in this picture encouraged me to rethink the kinds of content that our kids need to wrestle with in order to become responsible global citizens.

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Many thanks to Andrew McLagan, the photographer who shot this original image, for reminding me that I have a responsibility to prepare my students for something more. 

A Place for Gathering. . .

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When Teachers Fail. . .

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It's a Pedagogical Problem. . .

I've got this wicked mashup blog post brewing in my mind right now that has been burbling ever since I stumbled across a conversation that Scott McLeod started over on his blog after sharing this slide with his readers:

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While reading through the comments, I was relatively blown away by the number of readers who were like a thousand-percent opposed to the idea that cell phones could be used as an instructional tool. 

Some were concerned about the potential for students to take inappropriate pictures of peers without their knowledge, but most were just plain peeved because students were spending more time texting friends in class than paying attention to the teacher. 

Barry probably expressed these concerns best when he wrote:

Scott- I know what you are trying to say with the slide and in theory, I agree agree with you. The practical reality of high school (and even grad school) is that most student use their cell phones to text their friends or to make phone calls. From anecdotal observation, I see very few kids using phones for academic research, academic photography, or academic messaging for collaboration on a topic...

Adults and students alike becoming to the point of rude where they refuse to engage with a teacher or instructor because they are too focused on their handheld....the list goes on.

I may be naive, but aren't distracted students texting from the back of the classroom pretty convincing evidence of poor teaching? 

"World Class Public Education?"

It seems like schools are constantly buried under reminders that we're in a competition with developing nations like China and India to produce tomorrow's workforce, doesn't it?  That is, after all, how Friedman made some serious cabbage! 

And let's not forget Compton's Two Million Minutes?  

 

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Poke through articles on the "crisis," and you'll find quotes like these: 

U.S. students spend too little time and effort on academics in high school, compared with harder-working young people in China and India. (Ed Week)

China’s efforts to develop entrepreneurship among its young is no less than scary for many in the US. The US is also in awe with the education system India. (The Business Standard)

Stating that parents both in China and India contribute their might to shape their children's career keenly, Mr Compton said this was, however, gradually dwindling in U.S. (Web India)

"The Indian education system is more rigorous than the US and students and their family are more dedicated towards an academic pursuit than in the US," said Compton. (India Info)

In our sports-crazed society, Compton uses a sports analogy to drive home his point. The U.S., he says, ranks 23rd or 24th in global academic performance. "If our Olympic team finished 24th, the president and Congress would mobilize our country and never allow it to happen again."  (The Memphis Flyer)

While their peers in China and India study longer hours to sharpen their math and science skills, top students from one of the best high schools in the U.S. are playing video games and watching Grey's Anatomy during a group study session.  (US News and World Report)

Now that we've firmly established that the sky is indeed falling, that American schools are failures and that the time for change is now, I guess it's time to ask one simple question:  What, exactly, would students be doing in a school that was delivering a world class education?

I mean, aren't we just spinning our wheels until we can describe the kinds of learning experiences that can prepare our kids for this "competition" that everyone keeps talking about?  Heck, I'm willing to listen:  What does a 'world class public education' look like?

Is it grounded in basic skills?  Does it promote math, science and engineering above all else?  Would it put creativity and innovation at the center of the school experience?  Should it be globally centered, designed to build awareness of the world?  Must it prepare kids to create, communicate, collaborate and manage information?

And don't tell me that it must do all of these things! 

I've only got 2 million minutes to spend.

(Image credit:  Day 432/365 by ooOJasonOoo, licenced Creative Commons: Attribution)

Living with My Pedagogical Tension. . .

In a comment on my recent post about Motivational Herrings, Adam asked:  "What do you mean by this statement, 'After all, in most situations, the one doing the talking is the one doing the learning.'
I think what you are saying is that students need to be able to articulate the learning in their own voice."

(click to enlarge)

 

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You got it, Adam.  For me, learning has always been about articulation.  A perfect example is this blog, where I reflect on what it is that I think I know about teaching and learning.  Writing---just like talking----forces me to think deeply about topics because the act of putting what I know into words that others can understand is inherently challenging.  What's even better is that once I make my thinking transparent, it can be challenged----and challenged thinking goes through the "refining fires" that lead to true understanding.

What's unfortunate about schools is that we're so completely buried in meaningless content that opportunities to talk----which can be time-consuming, messy affairs----are pushed aside in an attempt to maintain our "pacing."  I can't give my kids 30 minutes to think through a concept together---even though I know it's the way that I learn best----because I've got 647 concepts to get through this year! 

You should live inside me sometime and wrestle with the pedagogical tension that I feel on an ordinary day.  I'll watch my kids working on a science lab and be completely jazzed by the new knowledge that they're building together but completely impatient by the process.  In those moments, I'm forced to make painful decisions: Give the kids the answer and stay on a schedule that sees me covering the entire curriculum or let them work out the answer on their own and experience real learning.

More often than not, I end up giving out the answer. 

Can you blame me? 

Remember, getting through the curriculum is the only thing I'm held accountable for.

Classroom Technology and the Motivational Herring. . .

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a group of preservice teachers about 21st Century tools.  In the course of my presentation, a participant asked, "So are you always on the lookout for opportunities to use digital tools in the lessons that you're teaching because they're so motivating to kids?"

My answer:  Heck no! 

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Instead, when I'm teaching a lesson, I'm looking for opportunities to engage my kids in a study of motivating content.  For middle schoolers, that usually means a study of a concept connected to fairness.  Justice and injustice simply resonates with tweens, doesn't it?  That kinda happens when you're the last one in the shower every morning, you're stuck sitting in the back seat for a decade, and you have to wait until your older brother gets off Facebook before you can surf the net for the latest Hannah Montana video!

I'm also looking for opportunities to engage my kids in good conversations.  The way I figure, trying to SHHUUSSHH 12-year olds is an uphill battle at best.  After all, in most situations, the one doing the talking is the one doing the learning----and besides, any living creature willing to hang out around urinals in a middle school bathroom just to steal a few minutes shooting the breeze has a determination to connect that I'm never going to squelch! 

danah boyd said it best in this blog post when she wrote:

School is one of the few times when [students] can get together with their friends and they use every unscheduled moment to socialize - passing time, when the teacher's back is turned, lunch, bathroom breaks, etc.  They are desperately craving an opportunity to connect with their friends; not surprisingly, their use of anything that enables socialization while at school is deeply desired.

Listen to that language and tell me it ain't true:  They are desperately craving an opportunity to connect.

Long story short: The digital tools that I use in my class aren't motivating.  Instead, it's the content that I select, the questions that I ask, and the interactions that my students share with one another that are motivating.  Start a conversation on hate---like this one----or on why the world turns a blind eye towards inequality----like this one---and students will wrestle with deep issues in a way that just might surprise you. 

Ask students to reflect on the deeper meaning behind my boy Pythagoras' theorem, and you'll have a bunch of dead air on your hands, no matter what digital tool you're using!

The teachers who count on blogs, wikis, Voicethread, Skype, Animoto, Emodo, Blackboard, Youth Twitter---or any of a thousand other products that come and go---ALONE to increase engagement fall for what my buddy Dina Strasser calls the "motivational red herring."  Digital tools do nothing more than make ongoing conversations efficient and approachable.  They give kids a chance to participate in a school culture that continues to discourage participation. 

As my friend Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has been telling me for decades, motivation begins and ends with good decisions made teachers who know both their content and their kids.

(Image credit: Baltic Herring by Visulogik, licensed Creative Commons: Attribution)