A Guide to Documenting Learning
Page 26
Image 11.6
Share the Learning
For the share learningflow routine step, each student drafted a blog post that highlighted his or her key points related to the two learning goals (high-quality discussion skills, text-based evidence), personal goal, and the task rubric’s criteria: Blog Post Reflection.
Emily also shared guidelines for the reflective post expectations:
Explain the purpose of your Literature Circle Video Analysis and why or how it has helped you improve, and reflect upon your ability to participate in a discussion group and your ability to use text-based evidence to support your claims.
Reflect on your own participation in your literature circle group. Share with your audience what you did well, and what you realized you can improve on, based on the video’s evidence.
Embed your group’s video into your blog post as an artifact.
Choose an engaging and relevant title for your blog.
Check your punctuation and spelling.
Check your professionalism: Does your blog post look and sound professional when someone views and reads it? For example, in your blog text:
This is not professional: My group’s video is AWEsome!! XOXOXOX!!!
This is professional: I learned a lot by creating our group video. I realized that I need to get better at having evidence ready for my reasoning.
QR Code 11.1 Scan this QR code to view Literature Circle Video Analysis—Annotexting.
http://langwitches.me/literaturecircles
The students worked on their reflection drafts and participated in content revision and editing feedback meetings with their respective discussion group members, as well as with Emily. Based on the task calendar’s due date, each student added the post to his or her blogfolio. Figure 11.1 is an excerpt from one of the posted reflections by a student whose second language is English.
QR Code 11.2 Scan this QR code to view Annotexted Literature Circle Discussion—Student Reflection.
http://langwitches.me/litcircle
To access GianLuca’s group’s annotated video, scan QR Code 11.2.
As a follow-up to posting their personal reflective blogs, Emily had her students visit one another’s posts and leave comments that conveyed positive feedback, and if appropriate, caring critique based on the rubric expectations.
Figure 11.1 GianLuca’s Reflective Blog Post Excerpt
Amplify the Learning
While the sharing and commenting of their reflective allowed for some degrees of amplification, Silvia reached out to her Twitter professional learning network, as well as wrote and posted a reflective professional blog post. This level of learningflow amplification created an unexpected and exciting extension to this documenting opportunity.
The co-creator of Habits of Mind, Dr. Bena Kallick, follows Silvia on Twitter. She sent her a direct message to share that she was intrigued by the metacognitive mindfulness displayed in both the textual aspects of Emily’s students’ blog posts, as well as their embedded annotexted videos. Silvia asked Bena if she would be willing to skype with Emily’s class so they could be connected with an expert in metacognition and the Habits of Mind behaviors. Bena shared that she would love to do so, and the amplification and continuation of the 21st century skills and now literacies began!
To prepare for the virtual call, Emily’s students learned about Dr. Kallick by researching her professional work on the Internet, as well as investigated the Habits of Mind characteristics. Given this was the first time Emily’s students would be involved in a Skype interview call, Emily and Silvia provided descriptions and examples of the video conferencing call roles they would be fulfilling.
After being certain that the students understood each role’s function, the students shared with one another the roles they were most interested in performing during the video call:
Videographer (records Skype call)
Photographer (takes visual notes with images)
Speaker (begin introduction, keeps the flow of conversation going)
Live Blogger (creates a post for the classroom blog)
Official Scribe (notes the key points shared during the Skype conversation)
Notetaker (takes individual notes for personal learning and making connections)
While it can vary depending on the purpose of a virtual conference call, the responsibilities of the first five roles are often assumed by one to three students. Emily had her students volunteer to take on these roles. The students who did not want any of these roles became notetakers.
The students discussed in small groups how they could personally display evidence of learning related to eight I Can . . . statements Emily posted related to participating in the upcoming Skype call:
I can explain why sharing with a global audience amplifies my learning.
I can explain why it is important to network using social media with a global audience.
I can explain how my learning and information does not only come from books.
I can explain my thinking about my personal learning habits.
I can make connections to my own learning and work.
I can express my communication skills in an authentic way.
I can use my collaboration skills to help my classmates learn new information.
I can take notes that are meaningful to me, as well as to others.
Emily visited with each group’s members and listened to their I Can evidence ideas. When appropriate, she coached them on additional suggestions for how they might capture evidence of their learning.
Lastly, she facilitated her class’s efforts to collaboratively create their upcoming Skype call’s agenda:
Introduce our class to Dr. Kallick.
Explain our two literacy circle discussion goals, including the process we used to create our annotexted videos and reflective blog posts.
Listen to Dr. Kallick share how she found out about our Literature Circle discussion work.
Ask our interview questions (if we have not already asked them): What are the Habits of Mind?
How did you make connections between our work and the Habits of Mind?
How are the Habits of Mind connected to our learning goals for the task we did?
Participate in an open question and answer time with Dr. Kallick.
Conclude our meeting with Dr. Kallick by summarizing what she shared with us.
Thank her for spending time with us.
Finally, the interview day arrived! Dr. Kallick was inspirational. She was impressed by the students’ professionalism and depth of questions. Throughout the virtual meeting, the students were engaged as the primary learners. Emily and Silvia were engaged as secondary learners, observing the learning taking place around them in order to create evidence for Emily’s professional growth learning, as well as for her students as primary leaners (see Images 11.7 and 11.8).
Image 11.7
Image 11.8
All of her students were enthusiastically and authentically involved throughout their 30-minute call (see Images 11.9 and 11.10).
Image 11.9
Image 11.10
While observing the students in action, Silvia commented to Emily,
It is impressive to witness an entire conversation flow between your collective students and Dr. Kallick. Bena is talking to the students via a screen, looking at the two speakers directly. Yet the rest of the class is equally experiencing and being involved in the conversation with Bena (see Image 11.11).
Silvia continued to explain to Emily that while the rest of the class was listening in on the conversation transpiring between Bena and the two speakers, a sharing degree of amplification was taking place through the Google Doc because it was serving as a backchannel extension of the conversation. Students were responding live to Bena’s comments by adding their thoughts and questions in the backchannel, which was being moderated by a student sitting next to the speakers. He was able to read the backchannel created by his classmates and choose worthwhile ques
tions or comments, while he simultaneously eliminated non-essential or duplicate ones, and passing the relevant ones on to the speakers to ask Dr. Kallick directly. The conversation flow continues as Dr. Kallick responds live to the posed questions (Image 11.11).
Image 11.11
Silvia adds, “This ebb and flow of conversation, and intertwining of synchronous conversation with technology tools to aid in amplifying the interaction and crowdsourced perspectives is 21st century skills and the now literacies in action!”
Here are two of the anecdotes Emily and Silvia wrote during the Skype call that were shared with the students (along with the appropriate photographs) during their debriefing time after the call was concluded.
Speakers took charge of introducing our school and class. They were prepared to ask the planned questions, as well as ones that surfaced during the conversation based on the collaborative Google Doc that had been shared with all the students to add questions that they had for the expert.
The Live Blogger, who was in charge of preparing a post on the classroom blog, was taking notes and jotting down ideas for which images to incorporate from the photographer and videographer segments once the video was edited.
To view the Skype interview Emily’s students conducted with Dr. Kallick, scan QR Code 11.3.
During the interview call’s debriefing time, Emily and her students realized that they had collected a lot of information that was stored in various media formats, including the following:
Mental models (what is personally in their own minds)
Flip camera recordings
Smartphone and iPad photographs
Google Doc with posed questions and responses
Google Doc with the Official Scribe’s text
Live Blogger textual notes
Notetakers’ journal textual and sketched notes
QR Code 11.3 Scan this QR code to view the Skype call with Dr. Bena Kallick: Habits of Mind.
http://langwitches.me/habitsofmind
Emily posed the question to her class, “What do you think would be the best media selections to aid you in providing evidence of your learning when interviewing Dr. Kallick when considering your learning goals?” The students brainstormed and decided that (a) having an interview transcript would be beneficial to closely read later, (b) important moments captured and annotexted would highlight key learning points, and (c) creating a collaborative reflective document—What We Remember the Most—would help them to think about their thinking.
The students broke into teams to create evidence in the three selected forms. For example, the Official Scribe and a few other students worked collaboratively to generate a text-based interview transcript by reviewing the scribe’s notes and listening (and re-listening) to the Flip camera recording. Here are three excerpts from their transcribed text:
Dr. Kallick: What kind of questions do you ask at the circles?
Brenna: Clarifying questions and deep discussion questions.
Dr. Kallick: How does that extra person help? The person taking notes in the discussion.
Maya: At the end of the discussion, they tell us what we do well on, what we should improve, what they liked about the discussion.
Dr. Kallick: Are you using Habits of Mind? I think it would help, sort of help, you guys to discover new things.
Maya: No, but I think we might start to.
Brenna: Where did you get the idea for Habits of Mind? And, when did you make it?
Dr. Kallick: I had the idea since I worked with my partner, and we started looking at all those different ways to think like in those literature circles. All of those skills, like comparing and contrasting. Disposition for thinking, not only do you know how to compare and contrast, but you dare to do so. Disposition attitudes are called Habits of Mind. Listening is a habit of mind, and empathy is too, because you are not just going to say something, you ask questions and try to understand the points of view. When you hear another person’s perspective, you try to understand, which helps your mind be as flexible as possible.
Maya: Can we have this for other subjects?
Dr. Kallick: You can use Habits of Mind for any area, and even outside school. I worked with students working with Habits of Mind. Some people started getting bored at a party and they thought flexibly and used Habits of Mind skills. I hope you can bring them everywhere. Bring it to some of your classes and show them about it.
Brenna: Have all your books been about Habits of Mind?
Dr. Kallick: They have been about educational things. Not all Habits of Mind, but all about how to think and ways of thinking. Higher-level thinking is how the world is right now. You are asking good questions, which is a habit of mind. Communication, which you guys are doing. From Mrs. Tolisano, I noticed you guys work hard, and maybe you can start mapping things out. I have co-authored all my 16 books! Thinking collaboratively, is also a habit which is why I worked with a partner.”
Maya: Why did you choose us?
Dr. Kallick: You are special. I was interested in what you guys were doing. Since I was following Mrs. Tolisano, I saw it. I wanted to bring Habits of Mind to your work, so you don’t just use ordinary skills, but you understand them. I skyped with other classes. What makes you special is that you guys brought in technology.
In their collaborative What We Remember the Most Google document, Emily’s students contributed their personal thoughts. Here is an excerpt of their comments:
I remember that she said, “Habits of Mind are everywhere” that affected me because it made me think that we think all the time and we don’t even notice it. —Jess
What I remember the most from the conference was how she talked about how you should be flexible, so that creativity will come to you. Also, you will learn more.—Maya
I remember that she said that habits of mind can be used outside of school. —Jack
I remember how she said that it [HoM] wasn’t only for humanities or English but it is for everything. —Martin
One thing I remember is how she said that people need to learn how to use more exquisite language in our everyday talking instead of saying “that was awesome,” but saying why it was “awesome” and making our conversations meaningful.—Claudia
I remember when she mentioned that she made a museum for a good reason that really was an inspiring thing to help kids understand about how important Habits of Mind are. —Juan Pablo
One thing that I remember she said was that “two people are better than one” so she likes to write books with other people. —Samuel
One thing that I remember is that she said that not all [her] books are about habits of mind, but all of them have a connection to education. —Juan
I remember is that she said she worked with partners because of the habit of thinking interdependently. Also, how she worked with a partner for all of the books because it is better to work with two minds that have two perspectives, than one mind that thinks on its own. —Yael
After they all contributed and read each other’s comments, Emily asked her class, “What trend or pattern do you see in your collective comments? Why is it important for us, as learners, to recognize a trend or pattern?” This began an interesting dialogue that allowed Emily to segue back to reflecting on the focus and goals of the task. She provided one more time for reflective thoughts to be shared centered on their experiences during each of the learningflow routine steps, followed by celebrating their many accomplishments throughout the documenting opportunity. After the shared their thoughts and ideas collaboratively, the students recorded their personal thoughts in their reflection journals.
Summing Up
Silvia met to debrief with Emily regarding her personal professional learning. They began by revisiting Emily’s documenting question: How do I make my students aware of their personal reading strategies and behaviors when reading and discussing text? Emily reflected on some of the photographs, annotexted videos, and blogfolio examples that best conveyed evidence of her desired outcome.
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br /> Silvia then asked her, “Where did you see or hear evidence of your goal?” Emily was introspective for a few moments and then shared, “Reading the annotated commentaries embedded in their videos was the most powerful for me as a learner. They were very specific about their exhibited behaviors, both positive and those areas that needed improvement.” She added,
I think that my interactions with them, coaching them really, helped them to determine their personal strengths and weaknesses. Reading through their reflective blog posts also provided evidence of each student’s personal awareness of the reading strategies or characteristics that they were feeling good about, as well as those that were missing or needed to be worked on.
At the conclusion of their debriefing time, Emily mentioned,
It is such a valuable way to grow as a professional learner to visibly see and hear my students thinking and reflecting, as it informs me in ways that I would only have been able to infer without them creating their own learning-thinking artifacts. It is also given me another set of strategies for better personalizing instruction and mini-lessons for my students.
Applying the Challenge
Your Turn!
This challenge focused on providing students with an authentic opportunity to document their learning focus and goals through the infusion of 21st century skills and the now literacies.
Now that you have read through the vignette, consider these questions as you brainstorm your own challenge: