I have now learned, I am not a terrible teacher after all! Instead, I am learning how to broaden my teaching toolbox in order to best teach our 21st century learners. The community is changing, we now have new challenges and factors to take into consideration while teaching. Which then means, our teaching also needs changing. First step being including more design into planning units to teach the standards. Second tool is PICKLE. In class, Dr. Norton made reference that it is not important for students to know the standards in order to move to the next grade. When she said this, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself and say "tell that to my principle." i agree that the standards are not always the goal in every lesson. But if that was the case for the year, my grade book would not necessarily be able to back up the report card that parents are glued to. When designing, yes we always have the end goal in mind, the process to go about teaching it however is PICKLE. By linking all three elements, standards, design and PICKLE, that is the idea teaching that adheres to our 21st century learners.
While planing and designing, I will now strive to make sure that the design of my unit will have opportunities for students to practice the PICKLE process. I now have a new teaching goal to incorporate PICKLE as much as I can to ensure my students are well rounded individuals rather than good test takers. When students leave my class I want to make sure they are problem solving, information using, community participants that are knowledgeable and have the literacy competency to make ethical decisions. I will now revise my thinking of what we call "Planning or teaching to the standards" and now evolve to designing real and engaging learning experiences that incorporate the knowledge the students need that can be measured in various ways besides a test.
Yay, so glad you're not down on yourself as a teacher after this week! You bring up an excellent point that it's the parents who are often glued to the report card. It's the parents that want proof that their child has learned something and can get all the questions right on a quiz to prove it. Parents, of course, went through schools doing traditional practices and might still hold traditional values when it comes to education, which might explain why they always want traditional looking evidence. Maybe part of our educational progress as teachers is to include parents in the conversation about changing our design principles and the PICKLE related goals we have for our students.
ReplyDeletewow I did not even factor the parents into this huge topic. You bring a good point to start including parents into the conversation to bridge the gap between their traditional learning and the 21st century learning. Thank you!
DeleteDesigning for the PICKLE is definitely more of a goal now for me, too. I worry about how much time we have to dedicate to that process though. We'll get there, right? It could make our teaching more impactful and possibly reduce the amount of remediation time.
ReplyDeleteInforming parents of shifting goals away from grades and more onto PICKLE-skills would definitely be a good idea. The grades 3-5 report card includes both 4-3-2-1 "standards-based" scores as well as a letter-grade equivalent. These 2 rating scales do no correlate and should not be used together, as none of us can comprehend how a 3, or meeting the standard, should earn the student a B on the report card. I though for sure when this report-card scheme was introduced 6-ish years ago that it was going to be short-lived. However, 2 weeks ago at Back To School Night, I was still forced to explain to parents that we wish they would focus on the 4-3-2-1 skills ratings and ignore the letter grades... I think some parents are afraid of change and yes, they feel the way they learned was just fine, so keep it going. Others may have been burned with the education pendulum swinging to "New Math" or learning pods with no walls or whatever other fads have come and gone. This will be a process for all of us, and if parents see the goal and understand the "Why?," it may be a smoother transition.
I can relate to your feelings that this class can make you judgemental about your teaching methods and I’m glad you are able to find the positive. I, too, have actively involved parents that are grade conscious. Everyone knows what an A means however, I still find there are a lot of questions about grading standards using numbers, instead of letters. Despite years of explaining this to parents the idea/concept has not made its way into understanding in the conventional sense. I understand that change takes time but I’m baffled by the immediacy of the need for change (creating 21st century learners) and the seemingly high level of resistance (or is it just misunderstanding) on the individual/parent level. Grading the standards using the numeric system to explain a student's level of mastery seems more authentic than letter grades and supports the End Principle of creating 21st century learners.
ReplyDeleteYou were never a terrible teacher and I am so sorry that you felt that way! You are changing your thought process to better help students in a world that is not made of tests. You can still teach to the standards but do it with a PICKLE instead of a multiple choice test. Students can still show their understanding the concepts and will prove it on the state tests later. Maybe the counties are moving to the number grading system to try and get us to use the PICKLE idea. ‘A’ meant you turned in all your papers, answered questions in class, and got 95+ on every tests, while ‘4’ means that you have mastered the concept and are able to explain the thinking when questioned about the answer.
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