Here's another loved lesson as described by Ms. Johnson from the halls of J.T. Henley:
Last week, I was able to observe and listen to a book discussion, similar to a Socratic Seminar, in Mrs. Bowden’s language arts class. There was an inner circle of students, who were the “Wizards” and an outer circle of students who were the “Silent Ones”. Their task was to discuss specific chapters in Ender’s Game. Each student had discussion starters in the form of questions that were either able to be proven in the chapters or were open-ended and led students to sharing their thoughts, ideas, and opinions about the characters and plot. Students were actively engaged with one another throughout the discussion and Mrs. Bowden was simply a facilitator to guide the process. As I was leaving, I noticed that the “Silent Ones” were dying to have a chance to speak and share their thoughts. This activity definitely supported all of the 4 C’s and could be easily used in multiple content areas. It’s always exciting to see students discussing literature and my guess is, in the end, Mrs. Bowden had a hard time ending the discussion to move onto the next class. Way to go, Mrs. Bowden’s students!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Strategic planning and student feedback
You’ve probably heard that the school division and the school board have been putting a lot of work into revising the division’s strategic plan. It’s been dubbed “Horizon 2020” and it’s driving motto is “Unleashing Each Student’s Potential.” There are five goals that go along with this strategic plan, and they are to engage every student, implement balanced assessments, improve opportunities and achievements, create and expand partnerships, and optimize resources. Now that these goals have been set, the much harder parts begins—defining what these mean, figuring out how we will implement them, and developing ways to measure our progress toward meeting these goals. I’ve no doubt that if we can do these five things, we will be a better system for it.
As a part of the process to figure out how to implement and measure these goals, the school board held a work session last Thursday night. I had the opportunity to attend and participate in a session with three high school students. In the session, the students were asked about what types of activities really got them engaged in their learning. For them it came down to two things that we probably already knew, but were really reaffirming to me. Hands down, the most important element of engagement for these students was the classroom teacher. Students reported that it didn’t matter what the subject was, how much they already knew about it, or how technology was used—if they did not have a good teacher who cared about them, who understood their subject and who understood how to relate to kids, learning was not going to take place. Students also reported that when they are learning something, they always want to learn it with others. They want rooms that are set up for collaboration, and they felt like figuring out how to work with other students in a productive way was an incredibly useful skill. When they were asked to learn something independently, they felt that any type of learning that took place was often not authentic or relevant enough for them to have strong retention.
We recently surveyed students at Henley to get feedback from them about what they enjoyed most about coming to school and learning. The results that we saw show that our kids have many of the same feelings about what type of work is most meaningful to them when they are in our classes. They also were very clear that great teachers make a big difference. We are blessed at Henley to have a building full of teachers who build relationships and make a difference with kids. They may not always acknowledge it, but kids notice and appreciate when staff goes the extra mile to make a lesson engaging and to get to know them as individuals.
As a part of the process to figure out how to implement and measure these goals, the school board held a work session last Thursday night. I had the opportunity to attend and participate in a session with three high school students. In the session, the students were asked about what types of activities really got them engaged in their learning. For them it came down to two things that we probably already knew, but were really reaffirming to me. Hands down, the most important element of engagement for these students was the classroom teacher. Students reported that it didn’t matter what the subject was, how much they already knew about it, or how technology was used—if they did not have a good teacher who cared about them, who understood their subject and who understood how to relate to kids, learning was not going to take place. Students also reported that when they are learning something, they always want to learn it with others. They want rooms that are set up for collaboration, and they felt like figuring out how to work with other students in a productive way was an incredibly useful skill. When they were asked to learn something independently, they felt that any type of learning that took place was often not authentic or relevant enough for them to have strong retention.
We recently surveyed students at Henley to get feedback from them about what they enjoyed most about coming to school and learning. The results that we saw show that our kids have many of the same feelings about what type of work is most meaningful to them when they are in our classes. They also were very clear that great teachers make a big difference. We are blessed at Henley to have a building full of teachers who build relationships and make a difference with kids. They may not always acknowledge it, but kids notice and appreciate when staff goes the extra mile to make a lesson engaging and to get to know them as individuals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)