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Goochland’s Innovation Team

Archives for October 2019

Student Using iPad

October 24, 2019 by kdemas

Providing Explicit Feedback with Schoology Rubrics

Why Rubrics? 

Rubrics provide students with direct and explicit criteria that a project, activity, discussion, performance, etc. should contain while also providing the teacher with a framework to make grading more efficient. Rubrics designed effectively can encourage students to create their own learning path and showcase their learning in many different ways. Through timely, direct, and explicit feedback, teachers are able to enhance the depth of learning that is taking place.

Schoology Rubrics 

Rubrics in Schoology provide not only a way to assess student learning along a continuum of knowledge, skills (think Profile of a Goochland Graduate), and dispositions, but also a digital alternative that will make grading and alignment with specific learning objectives much easier. This type of meaningful and explicit feedback helps students achieve more than checking off a list of minimum requirements. Teachers are also able to save rubrics to their Resources to reuse and familiarize students with consistent expectations. 

Although the rubric is digital, you are not limited to assessing digital products. You can have students upload pictures of physical products to make it easier to grade these projects from anywhere! 

Pro tip: Using the Schoology app on an iOS or Android device for rubric grading will be the biggest time saver as grading will literally be at your fingertips!

Sample Rubrics 

Below you will find examples of Schoology rubrics to help you visualize all the many ways you are able to customize Schoology rubrics to meet your needs:

                               

Next Steps with Rubrics 

Need help on how to create rubrics in Schoology? This support guide answers many questions you may still have about developing and creating rubrics within Schoology.  Please reach out to your ITC if you have any questions or would like help building your first rubric!

 

  • Krystle Demas and Catherine Richards

 

Filed Under: Highlight

Explorer Statue

October 22, 2019 by John Hendron

Creative, Adaptive Problem Explorers

I recently read this article about a conference I did not attend. With the Internet, other people can go and report back what they found interesting. Didn’t cost me a dime, save my time to read. Love that.

The quote that stuck out, from Dr. Vivienne Ming, was that the future work, with the presence of AI doing routine tasks, will require creative, adaptive problem explorers. Those words, read the again. Problem explorers. It’s not the first time I’ve heard of the need to for the future workforce to go beyond problem solvers. An explorer seeks out problems and works (usually together as part of a team) to overcome those problems. It’s clear that anything we’re doing around STEM, developing and celebrating creativity, and tackling problems that take time and perseverance to solve (and discover!) is helping prepare the next generation for future work.

But wait, there’s more.

I enjoyed reading about a college in Texas that did something remarkable. They transformed their football field into a farm.

Not only did Paul Quinn College convert their football field into a fully functioning farm that provides produce for their student body as well as their local community, but they also slashed tuition prices, and implemented a work-for-school policy that has dramatically lowered the amount of debt each student leaves with — while also increasing the practical hands-on experience that each student takes into the workforce. These practical solutions to difficult challenges encouraged rethinking what defines education.

And it comes back again. Paul Quinn College was adaptive. Creative. And they didn’t wait for a need to turn into a catastrophic problem. They took action. They were problem explorers. How cool. The world around us is filled with disruptions and innovation will require disruptive solutions that sometimes will challenge our thinking.

But that’s good. Because in the future, the near future, we need to rethink our working models.

…it is important to continue to address that you only know what you know and to bring people to the table who have lived experiences in the conversations at hand. This is essential legwork in getting people to consider and include new voices in problem-solving, while also a beacon for large system reform and interpersonal intentionality within learning systems.

Filed Under: Reflection, Thinking

Deeper Learning Slide

October 18, 2019 by John Hendron

MERC 2019 – Pathways Toward Deeper Learning

Action Research Around Instructional Coaching and Evidence of Deeper Learning by Students

Presenters:

  • John Hendron – Director of Innovation and Strategy
  • Andrea Burton – Instructional Technology Coach, Goochland MS
  • Krystle Demas – Instructional Technology Coach, Goochland and Randolph ES
  • Morgan McMullin – Instructional Technology Coach, Byrd ES

Basic Idea

We used several models around learning and applied them through an observation instrument to define a score we called “depth of learning index.” This number would become an expression of “how deep” the learning, observed, was.

Our hypothesis was that the more a coach worked with a teacher, the more evidence we’d see of deeper learning (assuming that is the type of coaching that was being worked upon in their planning sessions).

The results tell us that a linear progression toward depth isn’t always what’s seen. More importantly than measuring depth for us, are the conversations our coaches, teachers, and building principals are having around deeper learning, about how to better-design for deeper learning, and how to better collaborate as a team.

Timeline

With the help of Ruben Puentedura as part of an Apple Action Research initiative, we planned in December 2017 and began work at Goochland Middle School in January 2018. We concluded our initial run in December 2018 and returned to California to report on our experience.

In January 2019, we began the same protocol at our three elementary schools: Byrd, Goochland, and Randolph. In November 2019, we begin again at GMS and also at Goochland High School.

Models Used to Define Depth

We used the following references together to create our depth index.

  • Cubic Learning Model , William Rankin, Ph.D.
  • Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, Norman Webb, Ph.D.
  • SAMR (modified), Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D.
  • Synthesis of Twenty-First Century Learning, Punya Mishra, Ph.D., and Kristen Kereluik, Ph.D.
  • Elements of Learning, Apple Professional Development and Stanford Research Institute
  • Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning (includes the Four Shifts Protocol), Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., and Julie Graber

The mathematical transformation we perform on these references are done to better model concepts around learning modalities (i.e., some elements are over-referenced) and to de-emphasize the impact of using technology. The belief is that when technology is used with high levels of teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking, it’s a multiplier, not something in itself that contributes toward deeper learning.

In discussing deeper learning, we have resonated with definitions and ideas by:

  • James Pellegrino
  • The Hewlett Foundation
  • Elements of Learning by Apple

While many of our deeper learning experiences designed for students focus-in upon projects (PBL), use of the Four Shifts Protocol by McLeod and Graber help us envision work towards deeper learning, short of a large-scale PBL unit.

Deeper Learning Slide 2

After our four sessions observing with teachers, we share the fruit of our data collection. We show them how the pathways compare between lessons, debrief with our notes, and discuss the next steps in helping them in their journey toward planning for deeper learning.

Elements of equity, inclusion, and diversity play a role in learning that is designed around the elements that help us define deeper learning: student voice and choice, significant amounts of student teamwork, and personalization of learning through student feedback and personal contributions.

Deeper Learning Slide 3

Questions from MERC

After our presentation, two questions were asked by attendees. I will paraphrase them below with a summary of our responses.

Did you account for validity of your instrument so that different observers would consistently report the same data based upon an observation?

Within the scope of time we had, we did not prime our observers or test the instrument for inter-rater reliability. However, we used one consistent observer for each observation, and observation decisions were made in committee. Discrepancies between ratings got averaged in our computations for a depth index score. We’d love to work with a third party to assist us in this effort.

Thank you for the slides related to the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Could you speak more about the connection and your work toward deeper learning?

The purpose of our action research wasn’t squarely focused on these important topics. Instead, our effort was focused on overcoming barriers to deeper learning. More specifically, how could we help our teachers plan for deeper learning and how could we help our coaches in their work with teachers?

Yet as we worked on these questions, the issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion were visible. For instance, our decision to go 1:1 in our school division was tied in part to helping eliminate the digital divide within a community with varied socio-economic levels among families; in some cases, students lacked the skills with technology that others did not. Our vision for 1:1 included a desire for students to experience deeper learning. Deeper learning should honor student voice and choice. By extension, classroom and group discussions should include the viewpoints and cultural richness that a diverse student body carries with them to school. Lesson design should honor student voice. And specific to our technology, the tools we use should bring equity to those with specific needs where the tool can level the experience toward learning via accessibility.

That said, there’s not a specific magic around deeper learning that will singlehandedly address the issues facing schools today around equity, diversity, and inclusion. We are however proud that a 1:1 program steeped in deeper learning does provide opportunities to address these issues through instruction and learning.

After our positive experience at MERC, we aim to look for more opportunities to discuss these topics in our coaching around lesson/project design.


For questions about our work, contact John Hendron | jhendron@glnd.k12.va.us

 

Filed Under: Highlight Tagged With: MERC

October 13, 2019 by aburton

What Student Choice Can Prompt

Over the summer, Ned Dressel reached out to me to collaborate on a project he wanted to complete in stages throughout the school year. His goal was for students to create something that answered the Essential Questions for each unit. I liked that he gave the kids a long list of tools they could choose from that best fit the content as well as their skills and interests. We added more options to the list after I shared some other types of media other 6th graders had created in other classes.

Each of his 4 classes had a variety of final products… attempts at stop motion videos, “white board” videos, screen recorded Google Expeditions used with in a video app with green sceen, ScratchJr animations, Keynote presentations with animations, 3-dimensional models, as well as a few additional variations. Many of these were options students were familiar with and we guided them to push themselves to try out some of the new features as well.

One student elected to create a MakeyMakey presentation using Scratch. What was interesting to me about this was she couldn’t remember how to do it and was a little nervous that she could pull it off. But she still tried. I admired this student’s tenacity and willingness to re-learn.

For a teacher who has never had a student create a MakeyMakey presentation in their class, it may seem a little intimidating. With some reassurance from me that she could definitely complete it in the two class periods they were given, Ned gave it the ok and was anxious to see the results. We were both so impressed at the 6th grader’s final product. The best part was that during her presentation to the class, she got the whole class to stand in a circle holding hands (or touching elbows) to demonstrate her project.

If all students in the class were required to create a product using the same tool, a moment like this would not have happened. This student gained confidence in trying something new, and her teacher got a chance to be impressed with a tool he was not familiar with.

The presentation day was enjoyable for students as they got to see their classmate’s creativity and be entertained by the variety of final products. All students had access to creating something great for this project because they got to pick how they showed what they know!

Filed Under: Highlight Tagged With: gms

Shalom Farm pics

October 11, 2019 by Noone

BES and GHS Collaborate

Collaboration is Key

Shalom Farm pics

This year, fifth grade students from Byrd are working alongside GHS Culinary Arts students at Shalom Farms. The goals for this year are to learn about the growing process of vegetables and herbs, building community relationships, and collaborating to prepare a farm to table meal in the spring.

In September, both groups of students met at Shalom Farms to learn about what Shalom Farms does for our community.  All students received a tour of Shalom Farms and helped maintain crops by weeding.

It’s inspiring to see former Byrd students come back to mentor younger students.  Some of these high school students also participated in Byrd’s Environmental Education program as an elementary student. 

Later this month, Byrd students will travel to GHS Culinary Arts to tour and prepare food.  I believe this year long project will be memorable for all students. 

Students view farmStudents working together

Filed Under: Highlight, Recognition

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