Single Point Rubric?

Let's talk about single point rubrics. Maybe I've been hiding under a rock for the past three and a half years but last night was the first time I'd ever heard those words uttered! I was at a Teacher Solutions PD session about the Digital Technologies learning area of the Australian Curriculum and single point rubrics were presented in with a slew of other information; I'm pretty sure the words "my head hurts" escaped my lips on more than one occasion more than once.  So, you guessed it: I had to do a little research on my own.  (I'm nothing if not predictable reliable.)

Long story short: it's a single set of criteria with room to record notes/evidence for performance above and below standard. Am I showing my age when I say "and here's one I prepared earlier"?

There are about as many formats as there are users.
I chose this one because it's familiar.

I struggled to get my head around the idea during the PD session for a couple of reasons. The first being that as a concept it's pretty simple, and glaringly familiar. I was confused by this. The example we were shown had about 30 criteria though (the entire Digital Technologies learning area) so I was puzzled: how was that remotely practical? Once the penny dropped that - in practice - these rubrics need only have the same criteria as any other rubric, aside from feeling a little foolish, I was intrigued by the potential.  Next I wondered how these were significantly different from the success criteria that I already use. (I post our success criteria on the wall (as you can see here) or task sheets.) In a nutshell: they're not! Well, sort of. They are in a different format with an assessment focus but using the same ideas and words.  Single point rubrics use these success criteria as the basis for identifying and recording evidence and feedback.

It was from this point that my inquiry began. The most interesting article I found was from the University of Nebraska that discusses the power of these rubrics as formative assessment and as a tool for responsible self-assessment. This resonated deeply with me because of my views on the importance of the role of 'self' in assessment and development.   It also reminded me of the anecdote shared doing the PD session: one teacher uses a red pen to write on these rubrics, the student uses a blue pen and their peers use a black pen. I'd been impressed by this story at the time but on reflection saw the potential as even more exciting: this opens the potential for a documented learning discussion. (I do wonder though whether there might be a digital option that works better? Perhaps a Google doc?)

Ultimately this is another tool to add to my repertoire. I can see how easily it could enhance my current practice: after building student capacity to identify success criteria - based on the curriculum achievement standards or whatever else we're working toward - these are publicly posted and used to create a single point rubric. Over time student capacity is built to use the rubric as a form of formative self assessment and peer assessment. In some ways it feels like a formalisation of what already happens.

Do you use single point rubrics? Any tips for success?

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 6 Engage in professional learning

Lean Change

Yesterday, at the Reflect Growth meet up, we heard about the synergy between good teaching practice and a particular business model called Lean Change Management. The speaker (Selena Woodward) related that as she read about this model she couldn't help but see the similarities with what we, as teachers, do all day everyday.

My interest was piqued and so I've done a little digging.

Lean Change Management Cycle from Leanchange.org

This image uses slightly different language to Selena's presentation (build, measure, learn) but demonstrates the similarities beautifully.

Our 'meta' process, or the green cycle involves planning (options), then teaching (experiment) and then reflecting (insights) before the cycle continues.

The part that REALLY appeals to me is the yellow cycle. That, right there, is the everyday, moment by moment reality of teaching. We have a lesson plan, meticulously researched, considered and prepared (prepare) in hand and ready to go. The lesson is moving smoothly (introduce) until we notice that there is an undercurrent of social tension and we instantly decide that a different path needs to be taken (review). Within seconds a  new plan emerges in our mind (prepare) and we move into that stream (introduce) and so on. It is this ability to fluidly review and re-start the cycle that characterises quality teaching.  It is making snap decisions between staying 'on plan' or being responsive that creates successful teaching and learning relationships.

Quality adaptive teaching builds on a series of decisions of whether to pivot or persevere. #reflectgrowth

— Markeeta RoePhillips (@MarkeetaRP) February 20, 2016

It is understanding that teaching follows this cycle widely and intimately that frees us to innovate our practices and meet the actual needs of our students.  In the end, that's what it's all about.

This business model comes from a field that relies on innovation. And for me, therein is the power of identifying this cycle in a field outside of education. It reminds me that what we do is not separate, or different, from the 'real world'. Our success as educators relies on being responsive and innovating.

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 6 Engage in professional learning

Sharing in Isolation?

For all that teaching is a high social role, it is not without its fair share of isolation. Perhaps more than its fair share? We spend most of our working hours surrounded by the young people who inspire us to become teachers, which is as it should be. For many teachers these hours are bookended by solitary periods of planning and marking, and punctuated by mad dashes to the bathroom or photocopier; not much by way of meaningful adult interaction; not much time to share our practice and encourage each other's growth.

It's the lack of sharing and encouragement that, I think, is particularly troublesome.  I know a lot of teachers who shrug their shoulders and say 'it is what it is' at this point but, as you know by now, I'm not that kinda teacher.

This morning I spent a number of hours at a Reflect Growth meet up where one of the the goals is always to try to address this very issue.  Under the wise guidance of Selena Woodward (she'll laugh at that description) we talked quite broadly about our teaching practices and then had the pleasure of listening to Chantelle Morrison talk about the innovative and student-lead process she used to set up her classroom this year. Following this we spent some time individually reflecting on big picture goals we want to strive for this term and perhaps more importantly sharing those goals. I was quite humbled to sit next to Chantelle who shared with me that she wants to work on her use and understanding of anchor charts. She asked me about them because she remembered hearing me talk about them. It was reaffirming that my experience could be used to encourage someone else. (I'm not 100% convinced she was encouraged but let's just leave it there shall we?)

I wondered, at the time, if everyone else found the act of sharing our goals confronting? And why did I find it so? Last year I shared my goal of developing my understanding and skills using working walls, and with the sure knowledge that I was going to share my growth in a public presentation. The act of sharing meant that I felt compelled encouraged to work towards my goal and gave me a sense of accountability. And you know what? I loved it. What was different this morning? I don't know.

We eventually used a (new to me) web based tool called canvaniser to build a plan around our goals using some of the language of 'lean change'. And again, we had the option to share this plan as we made it or within our virtual Reflect Growth forum. The idea of sharing our goals is to garner support, share ideas and encourage each other.

Created using https://imgflip.com

Notice the common themes here? You got it: sharing and encouraging.  Whilst I've been really blessed to have worked with some amazing people with whom I've shared and offered/received a lot of encouragement there is nothing quite like the coming together of teachers with the explicit goal of doing it.  The ways of achieving this sort of network are endless and I encourage all teachers to seek out a group, a friend or even online network that works well for them.

I feel renewed - and considerably less isolated - after spending the morning sharing with other teachers.  (I wonder if I'd feel even more renewed if I'd taken advantage of the free massages from KindaKneady that were on offer this morning?)

(Incidentally: my goals are around sharing learning goals and working with students to develop success criteria and learning more about the pedagogies that make stations/carousels successful in a rigorous classroom. If you would be willing to talk with me about these things I'd LOVE to hear from you. If you live locally, I know a really great coffee shop...)

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 6 Engage in professional learning
Standard 7 Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community

Drawing the Line(s and dots)

I can't be sure but I'm fairly confident in making the assumption that ALL classes love art. My memory of art at primary school was that it involved coloured paint and cartridge paper. It was all very practical and, if I'm completely honest, left this super nerdy kid wanting more. I enjoyed it, but wanted to know more about the artists, the techniques, how to show variation in shading, about different styles and periods... Which all leads me to the Australian Curriculum's version of the Visual Arts.

The Australian Curriculum website says:

Learning in Visual Arts involves students making and responding to artworks, drawing on the world as a source of ideas. Students engage with the knowledge of visual arts, develop skills, techniques and processes, and use materials as they explore a range of forms, styles and contexts.

Through Visual Arts, students learn to reflect critically on their own experiences and responses to the work of artists, craftspeople and designers and to develop their own arts knowledge and preferences. They learn with growing sophistication to express and communicate experiences through and about visual arts. (Visual Arts Overview, Australian Curriculum, accessed September 6th, 2015.)

This actually describes exactly what I wanted as a child. Now, as a teacher, I'm excited to be working within this framework.

Our school is lucky enough to have an onsite Art specialist teacher with whom each class has one lesson per week; clearly not long enough to teach the entirety of the five subjects within the Arts Learning Area.  I probably shouldn't be so excited by this but I am. I HAVE to teach Art. Oh darn. What a shame!  *Happy dance*

Earlier this term, I  guided my kiddos through a short unit of learning in Visual Arts about line and shading.   I started the unit without telling the class what we were going to be learning about. Sounds a bit odd but just go with me for a moment.  I shared four artworks with the kiddos and asked them to pick the odd one out, and to justify their choice.  Which do you choose? Why?

All images are taken from the public domain.

There are, of course, as many different answers as there are people in the conversation. I was looking for some group consensus though about the use of line to create shading. There are a couple of very cluey (and arty) kiddos in the class who started asking questions and requesting to look at the images up close. Without much help from me the class concluded that the burger was the odd one out because it as no shading and is made from all block colours.  It took them about 5 minutes of free discussion to come to this conclusion. How fantastic!

We moved on to look closely at hatching, crosshatching and stippling as the three main ways of using line to shade (as exemplified in the pieces above). Lots more discussion, viewing images and having a go. We rounded out our first session by coming up with a definition of the technique and creating a sampler of 3D shapes using these three techniques.  Just as my personal tip to you all: the sound of 25 pencils all tapping repeatedly on tables is not for the faint of heart or sore of head. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The Art working wall at the end of our first session.

The following week we started with a 'Silent Word Shuffle' (first time I'd ever done one with my class). I didn't put any restrictions on using iPads or the working wall to work out the categories and so there was a very high sense of engagement. The kiddos knew they could figure it out - even if they had to struggle to get it. Perfect example of encouraging a growth mindset!

We moved through a range of learning activities, and then I showed the class some examples of student work to inspire them in developing the success criteria for their art piece. (I have to admit here that I have completely lost the url of the website on which I found this student work.  If it is yours or belongs to someone you know PLEASE tell me so that I can credit you, and find the website again because it was brilliant!)

We constructed this project design using a democratic
process that ensured all voices were included.
You can see how closely our project mirrors the example.

Here are some of the final projects.

Student line and shading art work from Markeeta Roe-Phillips

The kiddos presented their finished pieces on the big screen at a whole school assembly. I'm not sure whether the big screen or the actual art itself  but my kiddos were very chuffed with the repeated 'oohs' and 'aaaahs' from the the junior primary children.

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 1 Know the students and how they learn
Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it
Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

All Those Extra Bits Like Thinking Skills. And Ancient India. And Weebly.

I've mentioned, I think, that we're learning about Ancient India at the moment. It's one of our Ancient World depth studies as outlined in the Australian Curriculum.  We're taking the opportunity to look at a range of ideas including 'who writes history' and whether or not we can trust what we read/view. I appreciate that our team decided to leave this study until the second half of the year because it has given my kiddos more than twenty experiences of Way Back Wednesday (WBW) to develop strong historical thinking and questioning skills.  You know - those extra little bits that are rather hard to explicitly teach but REALLY need to be taught.

Of course, as many of you will know,  my units of learning never stick to one content area and so we're looking at Art, Civics & Citizenship, Geography, Maths and, of course, Literacy as well as History.

I created this meme at imgflip.com/memegenerator

If I'm completely honest, until this year I knew next to nothing about Ancient India. I've been learning alongside the kiddos and have, on more than one occasion, said "I have no idea, but I'm sure you'll be able to teach me!" before offering whatever help is needed to get started.  The idea that they can teach me has been quite a powerful thought for many of my kiddos. For much of our school curriculum it's quite clear (and appropriate) that I know more than them, so it can sometimes frustrate a couple of them when I redirect their questions. "Why do you ask me to figure it out for myself you could just tell me how to do it?"  When they can see and believe that I'm just as new to this as they are they're SO much more motivated to do it themselves. (This raises some interesting questions for me about how we can achieve this in everyday learning when it's quite clear that in my role as teacher I DO know the material.)

Slightly off topic... Sorry.

I've taken the opportunity to get the kids involved in helping me build a website about Ancient India as well.  We're using the Weebly platform which makes it super easy.  At this stage we've only created landing pages and resource collection pages. We've also embedded our brainstorming pad lets.  We'd love for you to have a look (here) and send through your feedback.

If you've never used Weebly.com,  I suggest you have a look because in the time it would take me to explain how easy it is you will be able to create your own website.  True story. Check it out. (And no, I'm not getting any kickbacks - it would be lovely if I did because I send a lot of people there!) I've already raved about Padlet.com but seriously... Go look at that one too.

See! I can do it! (Or rather that linked website can!)
This is a screen grab from our Weebly site.

This is a fantastic opportunity for me to really push the  importance of crediting any images we use.  (Another one of those extra bits that need  to be learnt.) I'm not always the best at this myself so I'm hoping that the process will help me develop some better habits.  Creative Commons Australia website has a great guide, and here is a nifty little attribution builder.

It's a bit unit of learning with lots of extra bits on the side. I'm a little overwhelmed trying to keep it all coherent for the kiddos. Their mid unit reflections seem strong so I think they're doing well, but with 25 different inquiry questions and just as many varied 'learning products' I'm scared I've missed something/one.  Watch this space to see how I/they/we go. (And by this space I really mean the weebly website (here)).

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 1 Know the students and how they learn
Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it
Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

QR Code Trail Update & Reflection

I'm super tardy in posting this update on my book week QR Code Trail (the original post is here). Sorry! All I can say is that during book week I found a whole pile of new YA novels that I wanted to read before releasing into the wild my classroom. I finally reached the point of being ready to read Divergent. (Gotta say that I'm loving it way more than the movie, but when do bookworms ever enjoy a movie more than the book.)

The codes went all the way around the school.
Parents had to visit many classrooms to find them.

Back to the topic at hand: here's the update.  We had a small but significant number of parents participate in the trail on the first day of book week.  Some others came back the next day to do it. (Yay!) Some of my kiddos met them, with their iPads, and acted as tour guides. Thank goodness they did! Not all parents had wi-fi, and some didn't have QR readers.   Our school internet connection decided to play hide and seek for most of the afternoon too which didn't really help.

However... The parents  enjoyed the experience. My kiddos were able to talk them through both the process and the literacy concepts that each video covers.  From what I could gather, this aspect of the trail was particularly appreciated. Pretty proud of the kiddos for stepping up like this. 

What did I learn from the process on the day?

In terms of the videos themselves: my learning journey continues. I need to improve the sound quality and reduce background noise. The best comments came from children who were guided through very specific - almost leading - questions rather than allowed to freely discuss the topic.  You're welcome to view the videos on the school's YouTube channel.  We've set them to 'no comments' but I'm keen to hear your feedback through this blog or via twitter (@markeetarp).

In terms of the logistics: iPads don't have the world's loudest speakers. I need to provide headphones, especially if it's windy (as it was). 

In terms of the 'entry form': people rarely carry pens these day so I needed to provide those (which meant my kiddos had to run back to the classroom to grab them). I think a better option would be to set up a google form but that would reduce the drama of pulling a winner out of the hat when we choose the winner of the book voucher (to entice participation). Having said that, it would certainly give us another opportunity to demonstrate another of the e-tools we use in the classroom (random name selector).

I'm inspired to build on this experience in the classroom - both the videos and the QR codes.

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

Standard 6 Professional engagement

Standard 7 Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community

QR Code Trail for Book Week

Tomorrow signals the start of Book Week 2015.  Our school has a whole pile of fun events planned - including a fancy dress parade on Thursday (eek!) - including a reading themed  'open house' tomorrow afternoon. We've turned our timetables upside down and are running our literacy blocks after lunch instead of before recess so that parents, grandparents, neighbours, family friends and anyone else interested, can  come and take a peek at the awesome literacy learning we've got going on!

We'll see how it goes. Last year we tried a literacy themed open house one morning and had very few visitors. One of the ways we're hoping to entice more people in this year is with the chance to win a book voucher. We're just that nice! Joking. We totally are that nice, but not made of money so to be in the running to win the book voucher people will need to answer a series of questions based on videos that they'll access using QR codes that will be placed around the school.

Fun idea huh?  I thought so. (Of course I did. I helped come up with it!) I even volunteered to make the trail. It'll be fun I said. It'll be a great learning opportunity I said. It'll be easy I said.

And it has been fun. It has a HUGE learning experience. It has been... Well... OK, it hasn't been easy at all.

I booked a reliever for a half day to get the filming done. And then a meeting was booked, so I lost most of my filming time. Not a huge problem, but it took a little longer than I expected and I was left with less than 2 lessons to film. A lot of the filming I needed to do was in my building, which meant I was right there to witness my kiddos' awful behaviour. Again, not a huge problem, but dealing with it ate up more of my time. A 'social media' related issue broke while I was in the building and I ended up sitting in on the initial discussions with some of the students involved. I'm glad I was there for it, but again... Time was ticking away.  I am so grateful to the teachers who lent me students for filming, rearranged their schedules to let me film and particularly to Ms Sally Slattery who filmed the junior primary students for me.

iMovie is not a daily use programme for me. In fact I'm pretty inexperienced. The movies are OK, but I can't see Spielberg calling anytime soon. I'm so pleased I pushed through and feel much more confident now.  I can't wait to do more movie making with the kiddos now - usually I feel really out of my depth but think I might be able to offer more meaningful advice now.

YouTube is driving me mad. To be fair, it's not YouTube's fault.  The internet speed at my house has been heinously slow on weekends ever since Netflix hit Australia. In the end I packed up my computer and head over to a friend's house with a bottle of red wine and my best puppy dog face. He works at home for HP so usually has a super quick connection. Even there it took a couple of hours! Not happy!!

Next up are the QR codes. No major problems there. Although when I printed the codes and questions I discovered that my son had left some delightful green paper in the tray and we're almost out of black ink. Of course we are. Nevermind. I'll either use these or reprint in the morning at school.  If only my laminator hadn't gone missing during the last school holidays... Hmmmm.

This whole process is gambling on participants having QR code readers on their devices. We've invited them to come to the school library before starting the trail and my kiddos will help them download one if necessary.  Keep your fingers crossed that the school internet is playing nicely! (It hasn't been for the last couple of days.)

I'll update tomorrow when I get some feedback from participants.  I so hope it works, but am pleased to have done what I have even if not a single soul participates because I've learnt a lot.

This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers...
Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

Standard 6 Professional engagement

Standard 7 Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community