Feeding Your Feedback Strategies

This week was day one of the annual Leadership Academy for secondary schools in my district. It's a chance for anyone who sees themselves as a leader or just wants to get more involved in their school to participate in the annual data dig as we sort through ACT and ACT Aspire numbers and student engagement data. As a department head, I feel an obligation to go but I also really like to know what's going on. These Academy days are also when we plan PD for the staff.

Recently I wrote how my school really shifted our early release Thursday focus last year to be more teacher centered and used this time for PLCs to meet. That isn't changing for this year but it does appear that our day just got 15 minutes longer. Hopefully those minutes can be used for those, "must dos" like epi-pen training and quick nuts and bolts. Plus, there is something to be said for a staff to connect for just a few minutes each week for celebrations. We're a big school and there are some people I only see throughout the week when we have staff meetings.

This week when we broke into smaller committees, I found myself focusing on the 4 C's, the 4 C's rubrics and how those skills can be integrated into classrooms. This built on the work we did last school year looking at the rubrics and writing, "I Can" statements and a descriptor for each of the 4C's. Our why behind this work is still a little foggy to me and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that since I've been a part of every single step so far. Ultimately, we defined skills that students need to be successful after high school not just in an academic setting but also in a career or just life. We want teachers and students to be mindful of these skills in the classroom.

Communication:  I can respectfully ask questions and provide comments to create clarity or prompt further discussion. 

Critical Thinking:  I can use reasoning to create logical solutions to problems. 

Collaboration:  I can use feedback to prioritize and monitor individual and team progress toward producing high quality work.

Creativity:  I can generate insight and develop original solutions, persevering through setbacks. 

What I'm afraid is that it will be perceived as the staff as, one more thing. My goal, since I'm now on this committee, is to make the PD surrounding the message meaningful. I enjoy designing PD and presenting to my co-workers strategies that they can implement in their classrooms. I see this as an opportunity to have an honest discussion about feedback in the classroom.

This summer I had the opportunity to hear Garnet Hillman speak about giving effective feedback. I think if you spend 20 seconds in any conversation about how to move students forward the idea of feedback is going to come up. This is not a new idea but do teachers know how to give meaningful and effective feedback? From my work as a Destination Imagination team manager, I know all too well that it's easy to guide a student to the solution and that it's difficult to guide them through the process of having them discover the solution on their own. I see this in classrooms all the time. Teachers spend so much time writing comments on what needs to be fixed, what the next steps are and I ask who's doing the learning when this happens? Or, items are just marked wrong on an assessment with no feedback. Does that promote learning?

What I hope to provide my staff is an understanding of the why behind meaningful feedback. We need to move beyond punitive, recognize when corrective feedback is appropriate and provide  actionable feedback. This is when the student takes action to correct their own errors. During Garnet Hillman's presentation, I wrote down a dozen or so apps or websites to help teachers provide feedback. However, the strategies that I am most interested in sharing out are Mark Barnes' SE2R strategy and TAG,


S:  Summarize, include a positive or strength here
E:  Explain, include or reference the standard
R:  Redirect, direct students to reflect on prior learning or seek help from a teacher or peer
R:  Resubmit,  once the work has be revised, ask the student to re-submit

Going back to the 4C's "I Can" statements, students will need to also learn how to give quality and meaningful feedback to each other in order to develop communication and collaboration skills. I like the TAG strategy for this one.

T:  Tell What You Like
A:  Ask a question about the work
G:  Give an actionable suggestion

On the back of a scrap piece of paper, I currently have sketched out a plan on what a PD session, that's also going to double as the PLC kick-off, could look like. It's partly inspired by a Destination Imagination activity that I do with my team at every practice (and will be fun and promote laughter...I think they'll be more likely to remember with that emotion attached to it), introduces the work that has been done with these "I Can" statements and provides teachers with two, if not more, feedback strategies that they can start using right away. I'm a little nervous but in the end, I think it will be well received.

 

Chapter 2 of "Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth:" Hook Your Students

When I started Chapter 2 of, "Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth," I thought it was going to be all about engaging lessons. After all the title is:  Hook Your Students. I was partly right. It was the end of the chapter that really spoke to me. The author, Aaron Hogan, included a piece about the invisible student which challenged teachers to find the learners who are in our classrooms who are unnoticed,  compliant and are disconnected. The reasons they are disconnected could be anything; shy, missed the information about how to join a club, communication problems, oldest or only child and doesn't have anyone at home to "mentor" them. These individuals need to get "hooked" in school to avoid becoming that invisible learner.

As a Special Ed case manager, we have meetings every February with our incoming freshman who have IEPs. When I run my meetings I try to learn as much as I can about the person, not just how they like to learn and create but also what are their passions. This information is not important just for transition and career planning but also making sure they find a place in the school. When I know more about a student, I can make recommendations for clubs and activities. In addition to all the expected clubs and activities my high school also has P.A.W.S. (an acronym for something to do with dogs but I can't recall what) and a sci-fi club. These are outlets that a student could plug into and make a connection with school (which we all know is important). Clubs and activities are one way to "hook" the students.

At the conclusion of one of Aaron's sessions last week, he challenged us to learn three things about all our students within the first month of school.

Sounds like an important challenge and one I'm going to try.

Teaching Expectations

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Aaron Hogan, author of, "Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth," speak on two topics; blogging and his book. After hearing his presentation about his book, an Amazon order was placed.

One leadership role that I think every experienced teacher can have is to be a mentor to less experienced teachers. I was fortunate enough to have strong mentors when I was new and most of them weren't in my department. This gave me a unique perspective on the inner workings of the school. Through conversations and simply being around these teachers, I quickly began to understand issues that different departments face. In sort of a give back attitude, I've always introduced myself to new teachers in the building as someone who is here to support students, but also teachers.

The title of the book grabbed my attention because I feel like I've had this conversation with teachers a hundred times; no one is perfect. I was excited when the book arrived and chapter one provided some insight on classroom behavior. It provided some perspective I've never considered and will ultimately change some of my own practices.

The chapter begins with the blunt statement that there's a myth that, "the best teachers never or rarely have behavior problems." As a Special Ed teacher, I spend large parts of my day with students who struggle with self-regulation, difficulty with forming relationships and have defense mechanisms to deal with the difficulty with academic requirements that present themselves as, "behavior problems." Special Ed teachers do behavior mapping, social stories and believe that some students are doing the best they can at that moment with our students with Autism or trauma filled backgrounds. We go back and teach behavioral expectations constantly. We provide visual cues and foreshadow situations that we know are ripe for problems. Sometimes we have success and sometimes we need to try a different approach. Why don't we do this as classroom teachers????

Hogan addresses that teachers use strategies when a student doesn't understand a concept within the curriculum. We try different ways of presenting, different ways to interact with material and different ways to assess. When it comes to behavior, we tell them what we expect on the first day and then that's it. Or, we expect they know how to act and don't require instruction (have you ever heard someone say, "come on, you know better than that?"). He suggests that teachers establish clear expectations and teach them in a positive manner right from the beginning and then go back to them and reteach. He also suggests that teachers make a list of warning signs as a reminder to teach these expectations should situations arise. This was sort of a "duh" moment for me. Why don't we go back and reteach these expectations?

One of my summer goals is to investigate if I can use AR/VR applications to create social stories for some of my students with Autism. I'm not sure how practical it will be given the time it may take to create and I'm sure it will be engaging but will it be even be effective since it won't be "real life?" I still want to give it a try.  When thinking about whole class instruction, the use of apps like Metaverse or Co-Spaces might prove to be a memorable and novel way to teach behavior.

Going back to the perfect teacher myth, I think this idea of going back to reteach behavior just gave me another tool when I work with my co-teachers but also when I'm having a conversation with someone who just wants some advice. Looking forward to Chapter 2!