The Opportunity
I'm trying to put some thoughts down on paper and see if they are good or not, I'd love some feedback as well.
As the Coronavirus rips back the band-aid of inequity in the public school system I fear that we are squandering the opportunity.
Yes I know students in undeserved neighborhoods are taking the brunt of the negative effects of shutting down schools and the economy. I know too many students don't have solid internet, don't have a device, don't have a quiet place to learn and study. I know so many have to take care of younger siblings. I know so many adults in these homes are essential workers, leaving their children to fend for themselves because they cannot take a day off, even when faced with sickness and death for going to work. And all of that is not even half the problems these children are facing right now.
Yet it is still an opportunity being squandered. The traditional school, with it's emphasis on tests, rigorous curriculum, unyielding rules, and so on and so forth has been failing for the 20 years since NCLB and it was failing for decades before that. Yet, still people argue for more of the same. Even when discussing remote learning the stepping off point is recreating the same classroom model.
Why?
Why are teachers who have half the class in school and half remote live streaming instruction? We already know teacher directed lecture instruction is one of the least effective models of teaching. Why when we talk about remote teaching do we even consider teaching 4 separate classes as I would at school?
I teach math and when I introduce a new skill it can be very difficult to get that down to a 5 minute lesson, but that is what I aim for. I'm really breaking down my skills instruction to the smallest possible bit because I don't intend to teach it live. Then I wonder if I could do this in a live classroom what would I do for the next 50 minutes of class? Would they practice the skill, seems a bit of overkill there. Even those who swear teaching math is all about practice probably think that is too much.
What do I do with all the extra time? Especially when I'm remote and this 5 minute lesson goes to everyone at the same time. I've suddenly freed up about 4 and a half hours. How would discussion work? Can I do that? If I were teaching live I'd have students quickly break into small groups of 2 to 4 and talk for a minute and then return and share. We can't do that in Google Meet. We can break off but just for a minute and back might not be feasible (It could be but would require some strong discipline on the part of the students and that might not be where I want to spend my time).
No, right now I have my 100 or so students watching a 5 minute video (or 4), and doing a bit of practice. How do I get some quality discussion in? In the classroom they would be sitting at a table, and naturally in groups of four. We can do this remotely too. Instead of synchronous session where I live teach and stream to some I'm kind of flipping my classroom and now I will ask student to meet in groups of 3 to 7 (less than 3 and there is no discussion more than 7 it gets unwieldy). They can watch the video right before, or even together, then answer some discussion questions together maybe writing down the answers. A Jamboard with a slide for each group and each group can peek into someone else's group if they get stuck (make sure to create clear expectations of not messing with other people's stuff).
This works pretty well, but I want to listen in to each group. Should I require everyone to do this at the same time? No way, let's have each group schedule their math lesson when they want it, but with me so I can monitor each group (I'll probably have to have two or three groups going at a time, but this could work). With 100 students and 5 students per group that is 20 groups, too many for one at a time and 5 at a time might be the limit for effective facilitating by me. What to do?
It is time to really break out the small group discussion and facilitation strategies. Sure I can just give out a worksheet and have each group work through it. I can even differentiate and give out one of three or so group worksheets. What I really need to do is play around with some class discussion models and adapt them for virtual work. My students need to create something, not just fill out worksheets. I've already talked about a shared Jamboard, but what would a gallery walk look like when not everyone in the classroom is meeting at the same time in the same place? Could we do a fishbowl discussion? How about a think pair share? I'm not sure how all of this works just yet, but I do know we need to build the sense of community because we won't be in the same groups all year.
Small group work is tough in the classroom. Often we are afraid that the students won't be on task. Can I get some help from a paraprofessional? Maybe they can help monitor some groups. Can I change the lessons up a bit? Instead of four 50 minute time periods a day we think in terms of the week? Jeff Utecht suggests 2 days a week focus on two or three subjects and rotate through the subjects. If I'm introducing new material for math on just Monday and Tuesday. I might introduce a bit more, but then expect my students to spend a bit more time on the math during those days, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday would be time for me to check work and give feedback and allow students to make, hopefully, minor adjustments.
With a weekly schedule like this there are more staff available to monitor small group discussions. Ok maybe they can't do the math, but they hopefully can utilize the parent and student resources I've provided and if they still can't help they can send me a message. Sure they are also looking at student work from their part of the week and giving feedback, but we should be able to work something out. In any case the teaching time I am doing is basically the same, but the schedule can be more flexible for the students. I know most of my middle school students hated getting up before 10AM or noon, so why do they have too? I can put in my 5 teaching hours but I might do an hour in the morning with the early risers, then 4 later in the afternoon for my later students. (Yes I know not everyone wants to split their schedule like this and it isn't a requirement, but not everyone has to start at 8AM either.)
Now instruction by the teacher is way down and small group work is way up and most groups have an adult actively monitoring the discussion or just a quick message away. Behavior is still going to be an issue, but a completely different issue. The majority of referrals (when a student gets in trouble and they refer them to the office) is for disruption and disrespect. It will be next to impossible for a student to interrupt a lesson (often the disruption or disrespect depending on how the teacher views it). In the groups they could cause havoc, but their influence is limited to just 2 to 6 peers. Perhaps Google can add a moderator level to a group function and we can assign a student as group leader, then they can mute or even kick anyone who is disruptive. Not the best solution, but allows students to be active if they want to be. It also puts these students into higher focus. Many disruptive students are less disruptive when in small groups, especially if partnered with a peer they like and respect. In our virtual small groups it won't be the teacher who calls a student out for disruption and make a scene it will be the student's peers and they will be more effective most of the time. Yes, there will be those who cannot be in any group and it is not the students responsibility to police each other. On the other hand part of the reason we put students in groups is to build those soft skills. Not just teach each other, but to learn to work together and overcome obstacles. If some students cannot work in small groups then they work one on one with the teacher as often as possible.
It seems to me that the largest problem most school districts had during emergency remote learning was students not turning in work, not showing up, or turning in unfinished work. In case you didn't know, this is a problem in live classrooms as well. It's just that we stop students in the hall, catch them before or after school, we sign them up for homework help or tutoring, we require them to come to class during lunch and sit them down and make them do work. This has been masking the real problem(s) the entire time. What those problems are have to do with, not knowing how to do the work, not having time or a place, not caring, etc.... Remote learning hasn't created those problems it just made it harder to cover them up.
I'm really big on using administration to work closer with these students. They obviously won't have students being sent to their office all the time. Now instead of calling these homes ans saying, yes your student is in my office again for disruption they can have a "wow I missed your student in class today>' The conversations are less about how are we going to stop your student from causing havoc to I really miss your student and want them to succeed.
I am also imagining more one-on-one time. It won't be much, but even 5 minutes a week can mean a lot to students. Think about my teacher schedule for a minute. I am expected to teach 5 hours a day, give or take. I have another 3 hours a day for planning and grading. Sure I could spend all this time doing that, but maybe I can also spend more time requiring each student do a one-on-one session with me. At five minutes a meeting I can get in 36 meetings in 3 hours. I can meet with my 100 students in 3 days a week. If the school has shifted schedules I might even have more time to meet with students. If I have to I'll cut a bit of small group discussion time to put for this. Why, because this is relationship building time. In my school we had advisory type class one period a day. I'll use that advisory time for relationship building. Maybe discuss an SEL lesson, or just how are you doing, what have you learned, what are you working on learning, how's the family. etc... (In Scouts we cannot meet one-on-one with kids for their protection so maybe this would be small group as well, but as all the technology can be monitored by the district I am less worried about this).
It may seem that all this small group would leave the students who are farthest behind alone to fail. I say no. First smaller groups without distractions of being in a class can hopefully focus more on helping each other. Having more adults monitoring means hopefully more teacher help. Finally, a bit part of this is creating or curating resources students can go to for help. If the choice is sending a message and waiting for the teacher to come help maybe they can spend that waiting time going to a suggested resource and seeing if they can answer their question on their own. This all really depends a lot on building strong norms, but that is the same in the classroom as well.
Let's recap how we can change teaching:
- Reduce teacher talk time (or more aptly student boredom) by keeping videos down to 5 minutes or less.
- Increase small group time by allowing students to work basically the whole class in a small group.
- Focus more time on facilitating discussions and student creation.
- Increase adult facilitation by playing with the schedule so that more adults are available when students are in these small groups.
- Increase student participation by allow for more flexible schedules.
- Reduce behavior by limiting the ability to disrupt.
- Build student relationships with more one-on-one time.
- Increase completion rate by helping students be more self sufficient.
Comments