Learning Skill Focus: Responsibility

In Ontario, "Growing Success", is the policy document that outlines educator's responsibility in terms of assessment and evaluation. An integral part of the evaluation "picture" are the Learning Skills and Work Habits. According to "Growing Success"; "the development of learning skills and work habits needed to succeed in school and in life begins early in a child’s schooling. As students move through the grades, they develop and then consolidate their learning skills and work habits in preparation for post secondary education and the world of work".

In my own classroom practice I have found, in the past, that reporting on the Learning Skills usually happened at the end, after completing all of the subject comments and grades. I relied heavily on a "bank" of comments that I had collected from colleagues and various online sites over the year. Even though I taught grades 4 through 8 over the years, my collection of comments remained pretty much the same. They were organized by category i.e responsibility, initiative etc... I even had some complete comments which touched on all the skills and I will admit here that I have "recycled" these complete comments... "oh this one I used for Z last year totally sounds like M that I have this year". I guess I believed that most parents probably did not focus on this section, would skip right over and go straight to the grades for Math, Reading, Science and so forth. I found it hard to spend so much time on a section that I felt often was just skimmed over (even though its on the front page!).

It wasn't until my own twin daughters came home one year with IDENTICAL learning skill comments that I realized I was likely not the only the teacher who had used the 'ol comment bank copy & paste tactic to attempt to fill the huge box on the report card. So over the last few years, I have really tried to focus on reporting on each student's achievement individually. I am proud of the fact that my comment in that box is unique to each student, reflects upon actual recorded observations and anecdotes and makes references to specific classroom behaviours/ examples. But I'm not satisfied yet.

"Growing Success" also states;

               It is expected that teachers will work with students to help them develop the

               learning skills and work habits identified in the following table. 

I understand this to mean that my students need to understand what each of skills/habits means, what it looks/sounds like and specifically how they will be assessed. I want my students to fully know what each of the skills/habits means, and hopefully can accurately identify their own success with each of them. Also, I need to clarify for my own understanding as well as my students how these learning skills look different in each grade, I cannot keep using the same comments/ expectations that I would for a grade 4 student as I would a grade 8 student. There must be growth, some deepening and some broadening of the definition.

While researching the explicit instruction of learning skills in the classroom, I came across a useful question; 

1. What opportunities will I provide my students to guide them towards demonstrating the learning skills  within the learning environment?

I took this as inspiration to ensure that I explicitly address each learning skill, to create lesson plans to deepen student's understanding and to identify specific opportunities for students to demonstrate their use of the skill and provide times to talk about and reflect on their success. 

We spent about an hour during the first week of school discussing the learning skill "Responsibility" (I will focus on one specific skill/habit about every 6-8 weeks). In groups, students were asked to identify ways in which they could demonstrate responsibility in the classroom, within the school and at home/in the community. Here is a snapshot of some of their thoughts;

I also found this video online that I shared with my class. It is part of a series of videos made by a Grade 4 class to help other students improve on these skills. I thought it was a brilliant example of how a teacher could help students to better understand the importance and relevance of the learning skills. (Note to self... this could be great activity for my class, even to extend it to try and show the development of the learning skills across the grades. For example; what does responsibility look like in grade 1? grade 4? grade 8?)

Next, I have decided to have the students reflect on their demonstration of the learning skills at specific intervals. I will use these as sources of evidence and even use direct quotes in the construction of the comments on report cards. This is a picture of the reflection piece I created for the end of the 2nd week of school with a focus on responsibility.

(I apologize for the quality. I am trying to learn how to create thumbnail images or even a picture of a pdf document that I made. Another one of my own personal learning goals lol)

The reflection contains a rubric for self-evaluation of four criteria;

• completion of classwork/homework
• use of agenda
• preparedness for class
• managements of one's own behaviour

There are also two prompts for self-reflection;

• Identify one example of a specific situation when you feel that you demonstrated responsibility at school recently. Describe it here. 
• Identify a responsibility goal for the next two weeks. Describe it here.

I am hoping that by explicitly addressing the learning skills and work habits, directly identifying what they look and sound like as well as providing many opportunities for students to demonstrate their use, I should be able to comment in a way that is transparent, accurate and meaningful. 

Thanks for reading,

Holly

Goal Setting

Another one of my staple "first week of school" activities is an exercise in goal setting. I use this activity for a number of different purposes. First, it is just one more tool in my box of "getting to know you" tasks, the more I can learn about my students then I better I am to develop and create a learning environment that is responsive to their unique personalities and interests. Second, I like to refer to their goals when I right the report cards. A friend who is also a teacher once shared with me her bank of report card comments and I loved her idea of using the student's own words to reflect on in the learning skills section of the reports. I ask the students to no only identify a goal (or goals), to explain their plans but also at the end of the term they are given the opportunity to reflect, comment and plan ahead.

I usually begin with showing two video clips that I hope shows that setting a goal is the easy part, but actually working towards it and sticking to it (I'm reminded of my own blog writing goals) is much harder. The first is the music video to Garth Brooks' "Standing Outside the Fire" and the second is a classic "Mr. Bean" sketch. For the digital generation anything that can be found on Youtube brings a certain sense of "authenticity" to the activity...lol! After a brief discussion, and some laughter I try to bring out the idea and trying new things can be scary and its okay to fail, the attempt and the determination and the effort are so much more important.

This year, I have used some of the Catholic Graduate Expectations (read more here) to shape these goals;

• A self-directed, responsible, life-long learner who develops and demonstrates his/her God-given potential;
• A collaborative contributor who finds meaning, dignity and vocation in work which respects the rights of all and contributes to the common good;

These expectations are posted in the classroom and I will refer to them often in order to remind and re-focus all us throughout the year,

My students were asked to identify both an academic goal as well as goal on how they might contribute to our classroom, school and community. I really want to encourage my students to set goals that are not only self-directed but also community directed. I am hoping that this activity starts us on the right path.

Getting to Know You

The first day of school is full of anticipation and excitement. This year it was also one of the hottest days of the year. It was hard to bring a ton of enthusiasm to the day when we were all melting. However my 30 grade 6 & 7 students were troopers! I was really impressed by their great attitudes. It was obvious that they were also excited to start a new year and were not going to let a humidex of 44 degrees spoil it.

The first morning is filled with all types of administrative activities; attendance, allergy forms and epipens, busing routes etc... These "housekeeping" routines are very important and I find that if I can have an activity that students can work on, I can usually get through these tasks fairly quickly. I have developed a "Introducing Me" questionnaire that I find works really well for me and luckily takes a bit of time to complete. Each year I tweek it a bit, This year, I added a new question;

"If you were allowed to get a tattoo today, what would it be and why? Explain and draw your tattoo below."

The question did just what I wanted it to do; encourage a deeper self-reflection and elicit interesting and varied responses that allow me a unique window into the personalities of my new students. Here are some of the responses;

"If I was allowed to get a tattoo it would be a dove flying up to a cross to show that I believe in God. The dove is for the people in my family that died."

"If I were allowed to get one I would get a picture of the Sun because I am afraid of the dark."

"I would get a tattoo of an explosion because outside of school I'm a bit crazy"

"I would get one of a Ferris wheel because one of my favourite Youtube videos was filmed on one"

"I would get the saying - where there is hope there is faith, and where there is faith there is miracles"

"A picture of a rosary and the WWE sign"

"I would get a dogy print with the name Shadow under it. Shadow was my dog and he died from canser"

I loved reading their responses and just from one question I learned much about my new students; 10 students actually wrote that they didn't want a tattoo and so they did not even imagine one. Many students did not explain why they chose the tattoo they did (note to self to emphasis the importance of answering all parts of a question). At least 6 students referenced their faith in their tattoo, with one actually mentioning two specific bible passages.

Overall, the activity was very useful and I find myself already excited to learn more about these young people and to be a part of their learning journey with them.

On a side note; as I am writing this blog post I have CNN playing on the TV in the background. Today is the 15th anniversary of the horrible events of 9/11. I remember exactly where I was that morning; on maternity leave with my twin 5 month old daughters watching the Today show with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. I was terrified at what was happening to our world and worried about my daughters' future would be like. Fifteen years later much has changed, but as I read through the responses of my students (for whom 9/11 is a historical event) I realized how much has not changed, These 11 year olds love food, video games, their pets, their families and God. I pray that our world will find a way to create peace and that these young people never have to experience such a horrific day in their own lives.

Season 19 Begins!

This is the start of my 19th year of teaching, its amazing to me that I started my career so long ago - in the last millenium no less! I have tried to start this blog many times and usually get off to a good start, but then life gets super busy and it gets forgotten. So this year again I will attempt to do this, even if I am the only person who ever reads it! I believe in the value of the reflection and documentation as a means to continually grow, learn and develop. If I add my blogging adventures to my Annual Learning Plan goals then I think it will add a new level of accountability and encourage me even more so to keep it up.

So the blogging begins....