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Work smarter, not harder Sandra H.Coyer, MJE English/journalism teacher The Viking Vanguard adviser Puyallup High School Puyallup, Wash.

Work smarter, not harder

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A presentation for teachers intended to help them reflect on their teaching practices.

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Page 1: Work smarter, not harder

Work smarter, not harder

Sandra H.Coyer, MJE

English/journalism teacher

The Viking Vanguard adviser

Puyallup High School

Puyallup, Wash.

Page 2: Work smarter, not harder

Background

• Newspaper, AP Senior Lit, Sophomore Honors

• Burnout eminent

• Found this book:

Page 3: Work smarter, not harder

Today’s plan:

• Walking through my process

• Talk about changes I have made

• Share some systematic processes

• Format: • Discussion• Q&A• Speak when the moment moves you

Page 4: Work smarter, not harder

Understand yourself and your students

• Activity #1:• Divide paper into two columns—on one side list behaviors and

characteristics of your ideal student. What would that student look like (in terms of what he/she is doing in your classroom)?

• This list helps you see what currencies you value.

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Activity #1 cont…

• Next, place an asterisk next to each characteristic that is necessary in order to master the objectives of your course or grade level.

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Activity #1 cont…

• On the other side, list the characteristics, behaviors, and values of the students in your class. What do they actually look like? How do they behave? What do they value?

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Activity #1 cont…

• Compare your lists to see what currencies your students are spending and what currencies you value. What are the similarities? Where is the disconnection? How many of the starred characteristics do your students have already?

• What can you do to help your students acquire the starred characteristics they don’t have already?

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Share out

• What did you notice about your list versus your student list?

• What did you notice about the starred characteristics that need to be developed?

Page 9: Work smarter, not harder

Activity #2: Teaching as a metaphor

• What metaphor do you use to describe teaching?

• These metaphors provide powerful clues about your beliefs about students.

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Gardening

• If you see teaching as gardening, you see your students as plants to be tended.

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Coaching

• If you see teaching as coaching, you see your students as players on a team.

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Scenarios

• In one scenario, students are passive and must be coaxed and nurtured in order to grow.

• In the other, students are more active and need to be guided in order to reach their peak performance.

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What I noticed about myself…

• Felt like I held all the power and responsibility, how can I shift it?

• What I changed: • District is moving to SBG.• Courses have Power Standards and Learning Targets• Created a chart for students to track measurement of Learning

Targets.

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Learning Target tracking sheet

What I do: • Students receive a copy of the chart (it is

several pages long) at the beginning of the year, usually in a vivid color so it stands out in their binders.

• Summatives are all passed out at the same time, on the day they are passed back, we take a few minutes to record scores according to the rubric.

Page 15: Work smarter, not harder

What it does…

• Students can come up with their own ways of demonstrating mastery.

• Students can spend time reflecting individually on ways to improve skill or discuss in partners or groups ways to demonstrate the skill.

• Power shifts from me to them.

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What I also noticed

• I became more intentional and strategic.

• Had to look at big picture; I needed to understand what the targets were asking the students to do.

• Students are more intrinsically motivated when they see the connection between the work we are asking them to do today and where we are headed in the future.

• Needed to examine each target for the processes that are implied and break them down for students as well.

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Assessing learning targets

• It’s magic rubric time:

• 4: Sophisticated and consistent

• 3: Sophisticated but inconsistent

• 2: Average, basic, ok

• 1: Missing components

• 0: Doesn’t do what it was suppose to

do, too short

Page 18: Work smarter, not harder

Philosophy of rubric

• Learning targets=minimum proficiency

• Should be rigorous and challenging=students can learn and grow

• Not so rigorous that few students can reach them

• When grading, only looking for the targets, only a few

• Able to read and assess quickly, becomes a gut reaction

Page 19: Work smarter, not harder

How it works in the curriculum

• Summatives are designed first then the unit is designed backwards with the end in mind.

• Formatives serve as benchmarks of skill and its development

• Skillbuilding along the way to develop aspects of the targets and practice using tools of thought.

• Skillbuilding: weighted zero but still tracked

• Formatives: formatted the same as summatives, count until then

• Summatives: What the ultimate grade is based on

Page 20: Work smarter, not harder

Student example

• Learning targets are frontloaded.• Divided by standard• Letter grades used, correlate to

rubric• All weighted the same

Page 21: Work smarter, not harder

Student example

• Assignments recorded as either skillbuilding, formative, or summative.

• Problem: formatives and summatives may assess several targets, hard to know which is assessed without looking at rubric.

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What I LOVE!

• Actual conversations about learning and skills that need to be improved.

• Puts power back in student’s hands.

• Can show actual learning taking place!

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Reassessment

• Students have options and choices:• Redo formative: all skillbuilding leading to that formative MUST be

completed.• Redo summative: all formatives leading to that summative MUST be

completed.• Student must also explain either verbally or in writing what he/she

has done to prepare for reassessment. No preparation=no reassessment.

• Format could be the same, or different. Students can also pitch assessments.

Page 24: Work smarter, not harder

Activity #3:

• Looking at gradebook is key!

• Take a few minutes to write down/sketch your gradebook.

• What does it look like?

• What does it show about what you value and award credit for?

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What does this show I value?

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Your gradebook:

• Does your gradebook provide an accurate assessment of where students are in relation to the objectives of your course?

• Or does it record points for completing tasks or completing them accurately?

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Activity #4

• Make a quick list of the activities you are currently using in your class.

• What is the ultimate learning goal for each?

• If you cannot articulate the learning goal implied in each activity in one sentence, consider whether or not the activity is best suited to helping you achieve your learning goals.

Page 28: Work smarter, not harder

Activity #5: Understanding your core values

• Make a list of the 10 most important attributes of a teacher (ie. Integrity, love, truthfulness, wisdom, ability to manage a classroom effectively, intelligence, charisma, sense of humor, etc.).

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Activity #5 cont…

• Go back over your list. Cross out the three characteristics that are least important to you.

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Activity #5 cont…

• Next, narrow down the list to five by crossing out two more characteristics.

• Then, narrow the list to three by crossing out two more characteristics.

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Activity #5, cont…

• Finally, of that list, choose two that are most important to you. These represent your core values in teaching for which you are so passionate that you would never give them up.

• Next, examine whether your current teaching practice reflects your core values.

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Activity #6

• To understand what you truly believe, pay attention to both your assessment of your teaching situation and your assessment of your own ability to handle that situation.

• On one side of a sheet of paper, list your teaching strengths. At what parts of teaching are you really good at?

• On the other side of the paper, list all the constraints of your current teaching situation.

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Activity #6 cont…

• Now compare the two lists. Do you believe that your teaching strengths are enough to overcome your constraints? Are there some constraints that are too overwhelming given your current teaching abilities? What strengths might you need to develop to overcome any constraints you face?

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What Activity #6 illuminates

• What do we have control over?

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Epiphany

• How do you get grade hungry students to see the value of learning?

• They need to reflect on what they’ve done and the feedback they’ve received just as much as we gain from reflection.

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Checking for understanding

• Has to happen authentically during instruction

• Want to try:• Giving students whiteboards and providing an opportunity to

answer random questions about what we are doing, hold up the white board, so I can scan and check for understanding.

• “Can you hear me now”—what’s your signal strength(correlates with how much the students feel they understand)

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Other strategies

• Data notebooks• Students collect their own feedback about their learning• Determine their own goals in achieving these objectives• Create action plans that are designed and deployed to meet these goals• Identify evidence that they will use to determine whether they have met

their goal and how they will monitor their progress. • Students can create data charts to monitor their progress toward each

goal.

• Helping students collect and analyze feedback helps them keep track of where they are in relationship to the course objectives, set goals, and make corrections towards achieving these goals.

Page 38: Work smarter, not harder

Learning vs collecting points

• Shift in perception regarding grades• Not a definitive of themselves as individuals• Not a judgment• Grades are a checkpoint, a snapshot of their progress at a single

point in time• Not a final evaluation of who they are and what they are capable of

• There is a fear in rejection, in failing; helping students to see the real measure of grades versus the collection of points and judgment.

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Other things I’ve tried

• Test analysis: • Connecting individual test questions with various objectives

and standards the test is designed to measure.

• When students receive their graded tests, help them break down their performance based on the standard.

• Then, help them determine which objectives and standards they still need to master.

Page 40: Work smarter, not harder

Other things I’ve tried

• The power of the anchor sets

• Give students clear criteria for success and models of successful performance. Explain to students why the model meets the criteria for success.

• Have students apply rubrics to sample assignments, explain why they gave the scores they did, calibrate, then have them grade skillbuilding for practice not only applying the original skills but their ability to assess their and their classmate’s work.

Page 41: Work smarter, not harder

Other things I’ve tried

• Color-coding assignments

• Have students indicate in their assignment where they have attempted to demonstrate certain skill.

• Annotate an evaluation of their own work next to where they have marked that skill using a certain color.

• Different color=different skill

• Students are able to see how they did before they turn in the assignment, then make the decision whether to submit or reassess.

Page 42: Work smarter, not harder

Final reflection

• Please use your Smartphone or laptop to go to www.socrative.com

• Log in as a student into room number: 793326

• Complete the exit ticket:

• Your question: Was there something you thought I was going to cover today but didn’t?