I don't claim to be an expert, but even as a novice in the philosophy of mindfulness, I can see how the strategies inherent to leading a mindful life might help children cope with the multi-tasking that is demanded of them in life today. We need to be talking to children about how to deal with these distractions/ stimulations in their lives so they remain positive opportunities rather than harm invasions.
In a multi-media frenetic era, it can become increasingly difficult to focus. I know this from my own studying. While the internet and online journals provide access to a wealth of information, I find I have some days where all I do is download more articles to read or open more tabs, without ever actually stopping to read the information I am accessing. Even when I do read them, I find it hard to concentrate as I am thinking of all the other things I want to read too. The ability to focus is sometimes one that aludes me.
Yet as an educator, I know the importance of teaching children how to prioritise. Children are living in homes where there are televisions in several rooms (including bedrooms), everyone has mobile phones, laptops/ tablets (with gaming) abound and internet (with its social networking) is 24/7. Yet the costs of multi-tasking are great, as research shows. First, tasks take longer to complete. Second, working on several tasks at once causes mental fatigue and third, learning is impaired by multi-tasking, due to reduced processing and storage. Learning Tony Wagner argues that the real challenge in schools today is not just to get more students to pass more tests, but to create new knowledge about how to improve the level of instruction for all students. He outlines 7 key principles, which should be implemented as a package to be truly effective.
...how do you know what learning is taking place?
Recently, our school has been focusing on becoming more learning aware. How? Well, we’ve started in three ways. First, we discussed what learning is – a harder question that it might seem. But without a clear idea of this, or at least an engagement with it in our own minds, how can teachers know what they are trying to do on a daily basis? We also thought about the benefits of making children more aware of what they were learning and, more importantly, why. These included improved levels of engagement, enhanced metacognitive skills, developing a sense of responsibility and independence and helping them find purpose, without which, let’s face it, why would any of us do anything. Next we developed 6 essential questions which we could use in the classrooms to engage children in the process of thinking about their learning (actually we came up with over 20, but agreed on 6 that would be used in ALL classrooms so that they became second nature to the children). And we brainstormed ideas for how these questions could become part of our daily practice...plenary balls; posters; lucky dips; conversation etc. Our second step for making learning more explicit was to look at our displays. Displays matter. Why? For students, they are a visible recognition of their learning – their work is worthy of a larger audience. For the wider school community, displays in and out the classroom send a powerful message about school culture and the value it places on learning. Finally, learning displays can drive on the learning process, by providing learners with reminders of what they’ve already learnt and by getting them to engage with it, which provide different ways of challenging students. Successful and meaningful display reflects the ethos of a school, and an exciting, learning-focused environment makes for excited learners. An environment that mirrors respect and care makes learners feel cared for and respected by the place in which they learn. This positively impacts on how well students learn, how happy they are as they learn and the respect and care with which they treat their school; the same applies to staff. . If we care about our school environment and our classrooms, it shows we care about our students, our colleagues and our schools. While there are many lovely displays in our school and this is something that has improved a lot in the last year, when we reflected on how well they highlight learning, we realised we could make some improvements, like using more learner-centred that draws attention to the learning that has taken place; including questions to the displays that help engage the learners in prior or further learning; to make an effort to refer to displays in teaching; and to keep changing them (even in small ways) so that students keep noticing them. Finally, we decided to trial learning journals. This is a fledgling idea right now. While a common practise in many schools, our school has not used them before and neither have most of our teachers. The goals are to build in dedicated time to the timetable, during which children have the opportunity to reflect, share, question and evaluate their learning, in order to make encourage a sense of responsibility, independence and motivation around their learning, while also encouraging creativity and building clear communications skills. While some teachers were concerned that such skills would be beyond the children we teach, especially as it is not Khmer culture to engage in this type of reflection at home, most teacher were excited. And if there’s one thing about me they know, it’s that I have the highest expectations of what our students (and our teachers) can achieve, and I will not give up on those until I have tried and tried and tried again. Watch this space. Our staff training this month looked at ways in which we could make our classrooms more learning focused, where the focus is on what the children learn, not on what the teacher teaches.
We began by asking ourselves 4 key questions:
We then chose three strategies, drawn from research into effective schooling, to use in our classrooms. First we collaboratively developed 6 key questions about learning that we could use in the classroom to get the children thinking more about their own learning. We brainstormed times and ways we could integrate these questions into daily classroom practice, such as plenary balls, picking questions from a hat, issuing questions at the door as student left the class, etc. Next, we thought about how we could make our displays more learning-focused. While our school has developed the quality and quantity of displays over the last year, there is often little reflection of how the displays link to children’s learning. We agreed we could remedy this by adding descriptions/ captions to the displays that highlighted the learning that had taken place; using questions to engage children in the displays and continue their learning and we even discussed where we should place the displays so that they engaged the children at the right times without distracting them at others. Finally, we planned the introduction of learning journals, which we will use to help children engage with and reflect on their learning. At our next training in a month, we will discuss how each of these is going and if there need to be any changes made. After discussion in last month’s training (Introduction to Accreditation), it became clear that, while staff were aware of and approved of our schoolwide learning goals, as a school we are currently struggling to make them more than sentences on paper. After training at the beginning of the year, some teachers had developed displays that reflected these goals and we had developed pupil statements that were displayed in both English and Cambodian in the school hallway. However, when we reflected, we felt that most pupils were probably unaware of them and that while our school and classroom practices did provide some opportunity for students to develop towards those goals, it was more by chance or default than by design or intentionality.
We agreed on three actions to try and improve this. 1. After reviewing the pupil statements, it was decided that they should be made into colourful posters that should be displayed in all classrooms, and around the school grounds. We decided to use statements that were suitable for Grades 1-6, so that a common vocabulary would be embedded in the childrens’ language surrounding the school’s personal, social and emotional learning goals, although some adaptations were made to use in the Kindergarden classrooms. 2. Teachers will be more reflective about how they are providing opportunities for pupils to work towards the personal learning goals across the curriculum. As well as planning activities, for example, that help them meet the Math learning goals for Grade… teachers will choose a range of activities that will provide opportunities for children to work towards the schoolwide learning goals. 3. Teachers will start to look for evidence in children’s work and actions to show how children are developing towards/ meeting those goals. Initially this will be just to improve their own awareness and understanding of what they need to do to facilitate such development in the children, but the goal will be to involve children in being able to take responsibility for their own development too. As always, the challenge will be following through on these actions and finding ways to embed them in school practice. But sustaining change is a topic worthy of its own post. A shiver of dread spreads around the room at the very mention of this word and a black cloud seems to settle over people's minds and hearts. As I teacher, I used to associate differentiation with endless versions of worksheets, hours of extra work and often little success (and certainly not the time to measure it).
However, reducing the barriers that some children face to learning can emerge from the development of some simple approaches, such as the way we talk, what we write on the board and the attitude we have to learning (see previous entry 8 things skilled teachers can think, say and do). There is a wealth of published material on differentiation and various ways of approaching it. Good teachers do it all the time without really thinking about it. Differentiation by input
Differentiation through support
What skilled teachers can THINK
1. Remember that authoritative beats authoritarian. Being authoritarian means wielding power unilaterally to control someone, demanding obedience without giving any explanation for why your orders are important. Being authoritative, on the other hand, means demonstrating control, but doing so relationally through listening and explaining. Do you explain your words and actions to your students? Do you listen to their point of view? Do you try to find out what's making them behave a certain way? Studies show children are more likely to engage positively with authoritative styles of classroom management. 2. Believe that everyone can grow. The mind-set we hold as teachers directly impacts the progress of our students. Whether we believe that everyone has the ability to grow and progress and learn (a growth mind set) or that people's traits (such as intelligence) are unchangeable (a fixed mind set), can have a massive impact on which students in the class make progress and which don't, before we've done a thing, especially for those students with learning challenges. Teachers with a fixed mind-set tend to immediately and permanently place students in to categories. They place the primary responsibility for overcoming learning difficulties with the student. Those with a growth mind-set consider responding to a student's challenges to be the joint responsibility of the student and the educator. Teachers aren't superhuman but we must ask ourselves whether we too readily write off students who try our patience as 'incapable' without first considering whether differentiated instruction for these students might spur change and growth. 3. Sharing power. It doesn't mean having less, it actually means the power spreads and more things become possible. Listen to what the students, colleagues and parents say, admit your mistakes, ask for advice and ideas. What skilled teachers can SAY 4. Give positive messages. They are essential for motivation. Small shifts in the language we use can transform learning experiences. Use positive framing (e.g. it's your choice, but if you do this, these good things will happen) that links student behaviour to outcomes they find desirable (as opposed to things you find desirable). Say yes. Tell students what you want them to do, not what you don't want them to do (e.g. Of course you can go to the bathroom, but it would be great if you could wait a few minutes, as I think it's important you hear this part). Say please and thank you. People are more likely to comply with a task if someone asks them politely instead of telling them. Research shows that people who are thanked for doing things are more likely to co-operate, feel calued, and exhibit self-confidence. 5. Apologize. We're human. We make mistakes. We can apologize. However, apologies can sometimes seem a little thin. Show you mean it by explaining your reason and how you are going to remedy it. (e.g. I'm sorry I didn't have that activity ready for today. I wasn't feeling well last night, but it will definitely be ready for tomorrow and I'll make sure we really enjoy it). What skilled teachers can DO 6. Be flexible. Being flexible might be the most important thing teachers can do to help students who challenge us get past their own challenges. Differentiating instruction and classroom management can help everyone. Help them get started. Getting started can be the hardest part. Often once tasks are started, people find it easier to finish them. Provide a variety of ways to get started: e.g. a ladder of shorter tasks of increasing difficulty; a menu of questions that stimulate thought in the right way and lead it in the right direction; partner talk; visual aids; writing frames. Help remove tempting distractions. We are all familiar with the classic procrastination techniques - going to the bathroom, needing water, sharpening the pencil, finding exactly the 'right' pen. Set goals and schedule time for those 'tempting distractions' so that they happen when they don't get in the way of the task in hand. (e.g. 'It would be great if you could get to the end of that paragraph before you go to the bathroom' or 'when we've finished this, we'll be taking a break for water and bathroom visits'). Acknowledge stress and concerns. Giving a child the opportunity to express their worry or stress and acknowledging it in an understanding way while encouraging them to try and put it to one side while they do the task in hand can often help the student put it to one side and engage with what they have been asked to do. 7. Set the right climate. Creating an environment in which students learn to value what they and you are doing in the classroom leads to longer-lasting motivation than offering extrinsic rewards. This can be done through demonstrating and fostering core values such as fairness, caring, engagement and a passion for learning. 8. Teach life lessons. Integrate some of the bigger picture lessons about life that help students understand the short-term and long-term benefits of trying their best into the classroom. Help them see why they are there and where this is all going. What are they going to need to be happy and successful individuals. After all, if we can't see that, what hope is there for them? Most teachers are probably unconsciously and implicitly doing many of these things. But becoming a little more aware and putting a little more conscious effort into each of these areas can transform classroom life. Underlying it all is the notion of relationships...fostering caring relationships with students helps them build motivation and resilience. References: Ferlazzo, L., 2012. Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say and Do. Educational Leadership, 70: 2 |
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January 2014
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