On 11/12/20 our #G2Great team launched the first podcast chat in our nearly six-year history of weekly twitter chats. We chose this amazing Heinemann podcast as our podcast launch knowing that educators needed to listen and learn from the wisdom of Nell Duke and Colleen Cruz on such an essential topic: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice. We were honored that both Nell and Colleen engaged in our chat.
This podcast was a virtual celebration of the wonderful series, Not This, But That currently edited by Nell Duke and Colleen Cruz. They explain how the series rose from a shared concern of researchers and professionals who agreed that there are certain practices unsupported by research which seem “intractable.” The podcast continues:
“They’re out in the field and they’re frustrating when we see them, but we don’t seem to be successful in uprooting them at a large scale.”
The Not This, But That series strives to bridge this research-practice gap by including the voices of both researchers and practitioners. Each book revolves around three key sections that seem like areas we could highlight when engaging in professional discussions about our practices:
NOT THIS: Intractable Practices
WHY NOT? Research Support
BUT THAT: Shifts in Thinking
Nell Duke and Collen Cruz shared some of their favorite books in the series:
Adding to her enthusiasm for this book in the podcast, Colleen illustrates why this book is a particularly important read now:
“I love its focus on anti-racism and practical classroom practices teachers can put into place to create classrooms that welcome and celebrate kids and where they come from and who they are and their identities and build healthy, lasting relationships with their teachers.”
Inviting our #G2great chat family to suggest other “intractable practices” make it seems fitting to turn our attention to our second chat question. These topics may well be worth exploring in future books or at the very least within conversational explorations in our schools.
There was no shortage of #G2Great additions as shown below:
In the podcast, Nell Duke and Colleen Cruz bring their wisdom to our current instructional reality in the midst of a global pandemic. Discussing the role of research during this crisis with virtual teaching and learning at the center, they shared an important point:
“Be cautious about people who say “research says…” in this situation. Those studies didn’t address what we’re doing now because they were written PRE COVID.” Colleen
“If people are telling you things like, “Here’s what the research tells us,” they’re probably making it up, because we don’t have research on a lot of these questions.” Nell Duke
They ask us to be thoughtful as we look to what research says but then consider what that might look like as we transfer these practices into a virtual setting. For example, we know that interactive writing is supported by research but we must now contemplate how this research can then be translated into a virtual setting given available technological tools and resources. These conversations could not only draw attention to available research around key practices but also help us to evaluate those practices in light of pandemic-fueled teaching as we keep children at the very center of our thinking and thus our decision-making.
Another critical podcast discussion was focused on the all-too-common instructional battle cry of “learning lost” and the widening gap. Nell Duke implores us to assume an “asset stance” as we focus our attention on what children have gained during this time, stating:
“We don’t bemoan all the things kids didn’t learn while they were/are home. We think about what they did learn.”
I have returned more times than I can count to the story Nell Duke tells so eloquently from Ernest Morrell,
“The kids did nothing wrong here. We don’t need to come at them with all the things you missed and all the things you weren’t doing, and how far behind you’re getting. We need to come at them with look at all that you have been doing, look at what you’re experiencing in this once in a lifetime event and you are enduring, and you are here with me, and you’ve learned things and you’re going to learn things, and we value you, and you’re important to us, and to our work, and to the future of our country.“
How can we then shift our view from our assumption that children come to us somehow lacking and rather celebrate what each of our children bring to the instructional experience? With that in view, how do we then use those assets as a stepping stone to to the teaching and learning choices we make on their behalf?
I’ve enjoyed this podcast on many occasions and with each listen I manage to hear something new that makes me stop and think even more deeply than the time before. I hope that each of you will do yourself a tremendous favor and listen to their eloquent wisdom as well using this LINK.
As I close this post, it seems appropriate to look ahead as we will be pairing this amazing #G2great chat experience with the newest addition to the Not This, But That series. On 12/3/20, we will celebrate a new book written by Erin Brown and Susan L’Allier, No More Random Acts of Literacy Coaching (Heinemann, 2020). We hope that you will considering joining us for this incredible discussion.
This seems like an appropriate segue between the two chats by returning back to #G2Great chat tweets from both Nell Duke and Colleen Cruz.
Nell also supported our thinking about coaching in the podcast by sharing that there is research evidence on the impact of coaching in remote settings where coaches could offer digital learning support through feedback. She also supporting this knowledge by sharing the research references on coaching below:
Colleen Cruz piqued much interest with this tweet and “super active coaching with readers.”. We hope to learn more about her ‘experiments’ in the near future.
Your #G2Great team would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Nell Duke and Colleen Cruz for sharing their wisdom in this remarkable podcast, for their commitment to personally support each book in the Not This, But That series, and of course, for taking part in our #G2great chat. We are so inspired by you both and eternally grateful for all that each of you have so generously done to enrich our understandings of research-supported practices and our responsibility to our children.
For a record of the chat check out the Wakelet here and if you are interested in learning more about the work Matt Karlson (@matt_karlsen) and Susan Harris Mackay (@sharrismackay) are doing at Opal School please check the link The #G2Great team are so grateful they were able to join us this week.
It is funny when I think back to my times in school from K-12 I remember the times I was free to have fun, to wonder, to explore to be curious and to pursue the learning I was interested in. Those moments are still so vivid even in some cases 30 years later.
As we started the chat this week participants shared what they felt were the unique gifts of childhood and as teachers how do we honour them. Here are a few of the responses.
All week I have been pondering the times in my life that I was free to do these things as a student. So I wanted to treat this post as my own love letter to playful inquiry and inquiry in general and the teachers that fuelled my most powerful learning experiences.
Grade 2 Mrs. Anderson
I remember in Grade 2 we were studying life cycles and wetlands. We could have just spent our time looking at overhead transparencies of a frog and butterfly life cycle and doing some colouring sheets. However, Mrs. Anderson had different plans. She packed up this group of 2nd graders and we went to the local wetlands armed with nets and buckets and spent the day exploring. We caught bugs and freshwater shrimp, tadpoles and frogs at different stages of development, we brought them back to class and studied changes. I still remember where the tank sat in the classroom and the toad I caught that got out and was found on another students desk after recess.
Grade 5 Mrs. Fast/ Mrs. Ness
Studying plant life was scavenger hunts and exploring nature at a Provincial Park. We did have a booklet to complete but it was more like a field book to collect samples and different leaf rubbings to describe what we were finding and identify different plant life we encountered. We could have done it all with simple worksheets but through allowing us to run, play, explore and wonder our teachers had 30 Grade 5 students engaged for a whole day and I can still remember moments from that learning experience.
Favourite Teacher Mr. Soetaert Grade 8 Science
There is that one teacher for so many that makes school more than just a place but an experience. Mr. Soetaert was that teacher for me. He allowed use to explore our interests. In one instance I had an acquaintance bring me a frog they had caught for me (my frog obsession is real) but in the process of capturing it had broken the poor amphibians leg. I asked my teacher if he thought there was anything we could do and we started researching how to induce hibernation, freeze the frog, amputate the leg, cauterize it and then wake the frog up good as new, well minus a leg. Now of course my teacher was fully aware that we could not do this and that the frog would die but he didn’t shut down my wonder or curiosity. He let me explore and look at the potential ways we could save this frog. He didn’t dismiss me and tell me we had “more important things to learn”. He let me learn. The frog died but my curiosity grew and I will never forget that learning experience.
Play and Democracy
Too often teachers brush off play as just “something fun” or “extra”. As the chat continued participants reflected on the relationship between play and democracy.
These common threads of freedom, collaboration, creation, compromise. They all come from play and are important pieces to reflect on not just as our students make their way through school but also going out into the world. We need our students to be prepared to question, to push back on injustice, to speak out when they think there is a better way. Because without that, when our students just conform and become compliant we end up with something else.
Fostering World-Makers
As I read this quote on playful inquiry I focus on “citizen world-maker” and can’t help but think about these last few years and the youth of the world that have refused to be compliant and how they are being given or just taking the opportunity to question, to challenge, to push back and to lead. They are becoming the leaders of change movements. They are pursuing their goals and fighting to achieve them. As we look at classrooms that are built around playful inquiry I can’t help but notice these qualities our youth activists display are first modelled and nurtured in these settings. The skills our students learn in these playful inquiry classrooms indeed are the skills they will need to make the world a reflection of their values.
What if?
Reflecting on this chat I can’t help but wonder,
What if we shifted our focus? What if we put more value on students exploring learning than we did formally assessing it? What if we allowed our students to create their curriculum? What if their interests guided our teaching and not the other way around?”
How much more engaged would our students be? How much more prepared would they be for the world they are in and one day will be asked to lead?
I think teachers are doing what we’ve always done — we’ve taken what we’ve been handed and we are making sure that our students get the best educational experience possible. And we are continuing to stay up late at night, trying to figure out how to make that happen. We don’t want our kids to get the short end of this pandemic and lose out on things that they have a right to, things that they so desperately need. –Neshonda Cooke (Time Magazine, August 2020)
We first chatted about what educators had learned during the spring of 2020 in a #g2great chat back in July. Recently, #g2great followers revisited the lessons learned by educators in the first weeks of the 2020-2021 school year. Much has happened, much has changed as a result of the pandemic and teachers are reflecting, collaborating, creating in order to make the current learning environment optimal for all kids.
There’s been much to lament about during this pandemic, but there have been equal amounts of moments to celebrate. The job that teachers, administrators and support staff are doing is worthy of praise. It is even more amazing that in the midst of all the difficulty, teachers are still pursuing learning for themselves in order to improve online, hybrid and face-to-face learning for their students.
We’ve known for years that academic needs of students are not the only concerns teachers consider when planning. The pandemic has brought attention to the fact that in educational settings, whether F2F or online, that social/emotional needs of kids must be a priority.
It’s been both heartbreaking and awe-inspiring to see how teachers have risen to the multitude of challenges brought on by the pandemic. In spite of personal, family, health and staffing issues, teachers have persevered in planning, teaching, assessing, building community for their students. Let’s be real–that’s what teachers always do, regardless of the situations that arise.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly evolving situation that is causing stress and uncertainty. However, there are steps that school leaders can take to foster health and well-being in themselves and their school communities. Keep in mind that recovery from a crisis takes time and may not happen in a linear fashion—especially during a pandemic that does not have a discrete, known end. Awareness, balance, and connection can help! Set and celebrate achievable goals and celebrate the resilience of the great people in your school who go above and beyond as they support and help others in times of crises. (National Association of School Psychologists (2020). Coping with the COVID-19 crisis: The importance of care for the caregivers: Tips for administrators and crisis teams.)
There is no precedent for the times we are living in at the moment. It’s difficult in our personal lives to navigate the changes required from day to day to attend to our physical and mental health. It’s even more challenging to be an educator and care not only for one’s self, but for a classroom (in person or virtually) full of learners. Our #g2great cadre of educators is committed to supporting one another during this difficult year. Join us each week on Thursday evening for collaboration and professional camaraderie.
Imagine a little girl with dark curly hair, very thick glasses, and a huge vocabulary. This child came from a family who believed that children had important things to say. A family with a mother, a father, two brothers, and a sister who all shared their views, spoke their minds without hesitation as though their ideas were all important. This same child, who had a big extended family that shared the same values in an even larger social setting. Then, as if that were not enough, another whole layer of family friends also encouraged children to speak their minds and who were genuinely interested in hearing what they had to say. Imagine the benefit of having such a rich social language learning environment to grow up in. Couple those lived experiences with voluminous reading and writing and now the child has, even more, to think about, more to say, and more opportunities for self-expression. That is a child who is being immersed in a language learning process that will help her for the rest of her life. How fortunate would that child be? Very. That is my story. That child was me.
The reason why I specialized in literacy is that I wanted to give as many students as possible the same experiences I had growing up. Believing that a school is a place where teachers may cultivate a social learning environment that holds purposeful talk in the highest esteem is very powerful. If you believe that, as I do, then you know we have the power to reshape a child’s life. So you can understand why, it was a real thrill to welcome author/educator, Maria Nichols, to lead #G2Great in a conversation about how to create a process of growing purposeful talk.
What voices are being valued?
Show students that you believe that they have something important to say. Help them believe that their voices matter the most to us and then there will be boundless growth. Children, who feel as though their words hold weight with teachers will be more likely to share and elaborate on their thinking in deeper more meaningful ways. Part of the work is to create equity and access for purposeful talk, and there is a lot we can do in school to make that a reality. Teachers are setting the table for talk by giving space for feedback and reflection. Don’t be afraid of those quiet moments. Be generous, give space for students to process their thinking. Give them the chance to fill that space with their own words.
A6: I’ve found the typical dinner table conversation isn’t necessarily a staple in all homes. The art of conversation needs to be taught and scaffolded. #G2Great
A6: Feedback and reflection (and a lot of videoing) have been invaluable. It helps me to see where and how I may be hindering children’s constructive process, and strategize for myself. #G2Great
A6 While it may not seem "revolutionary," I still think we can grow in facilitation by really practicing that wait time. Sometimes, we jump in to fill the silence or to "save the lesson." What we don't realize is that it sometimes discourages Ss from participating. #g2great
Be curious about what students think. Whenever we start to fill in their words for them just stop. Let them go, find out what they really think. Treating classroom talk as you might an inquiry study will help to cull out what they think through lean questioning and wait time. Then if we teach them how to take a questioning stance, we create other “teachers” in the room. We create more opportunities to uncover the collective thinking that is happening in real time. When we use mentor texts that serve to underscore thoughtful talk we add another layer of support to elevate students’ thinking. It is an amazing process.
A5: Learning to avoid value-laden responses is a humbling first hurdle. I’m continuously working on my inquiry stance, and facilitation that supports and makes visible children’s’ constructive process. #G2Great
A5 Kids need to develop a questioning stance—have the disposition to question, be curious, wonder. these are all connected to feeling confident to ask questions I think.
A 5 use texts with multiple interpretations. Let students know there isn’t one answer and teach them the art of conversation through student- led discussions. #g2great
Listen to learn first, not to evaluate. Be strategic when planning spaces in conversation to pause and ponder. This not only fortifies stamina, it also models what thoughtful dialogue looks like. Building a culture of “talk” starts when we take the time to reflect on what went well and when we invite students into that reflective process we raise the quality of purposeful talk over time. Purposeful talk requires a plurality of perspective to inform how it is going. It is not just what teachers think, teachers are one part of a broad community of thinkers. The talk in the classroom mirrors everyone who is part of that community. That is what makes talk so important.
A7: Differentiating between hearing (superficial awareness), and listening (deliberate meaning making) is often the first step. Making listening as concrete as possible – pauses to hold other’s thoughts, process them, and respond – builds listening as a habit of mind. #G2Great
A6 This journey requires US be a talk model. I don’t mean lesson model, but a model of living & breathing this process. We can’t ask rigid Qs & expect kids to lean into real life talk. A talk culture begins w/choices that reflect the talk we envision for kids #G2Great
A6. STUDY TALK 1) when it goes well (WHY?) 2) when it blows up (What could we do differently next time?) 3) Debrief w/ Ss: What went well? What shut down talk? What is helping you grow? What do you need + of? – of? #g2great
Purposeful talk measures the level of intellectual rigor. It conveys the level of trust and relationships within the community. The words that fill a classroom reflect the learners themselves. Think of it this way, talk paints a picture of students’ culture, beliefs, passions, and even their fears. We are showing students how to communicate in the world, we are teaching them that their words are valuable, that they are important, and every child deserves to know that they have a voice that is worthy of being heard. Thank you, Maria Nichols. Thank you for writing your beautiful book, Building Bigger Ideas: A Process for Building Purposeful Talk.
Wow! The Twittersphere was on fire on 10/22/2020 when the #G2Great chat discussed Alfie Kohn’s article from the Boston Globe, “Is Learning ‘Lost’ When Kids Are Out of School?” You can check out the article here and the Wakelet for the chat here.
I trust that you will want to check out the article as Alfie Kohn succinctly answers his own question. But that also causes a few more questions for readers which is why the discussion was scheduled with the #G2Great audience. What’s important? What matters?
Here are a few tweets illustrating that point.
Where do we begin? Many government officials and capitalists would have us begin with assessments but if you espouse “student-centered” education then you already know that we must begin at the very beginning. Are there really gaps? How would those be assessed? And how would we really assess learning? And that circles back to student-centered learning. We begin with student assets as identified in the tweets below.
In the Boston Globe article, Alfie Kohn pulls no punches with his beliefs about standardized tests. Do they REALLY measure learning? Well, that then requires us to think about learning. Is learning merely the regurgitation of factoids, examples, and curriculum that could be answered by a Google search? Or is “learning” something else? What do educators believe? How would students respond?
Here are some thoughts on “What is learning?” from the #G2Great community.
So if we are not going to use standardized assessments to measure “Learning”, what can the education community STOP doing now? How can we help “Learning” be the sustained focus and not just the “flavor” for a chat response or a newsletter? How can we make LEARNING the focus of all our future conversations?
In order for instruction to provide opportunities for learning as well as choice, and adding in “student-centered”, what will educators need to be working on expanding? What about: Student agency? Empowerment? Choice?
These four tweets will jump start your thinking about additional actions for your school community.
Is learning lost? There may be some summer slide, but as previously mentioned, students have shared powerful learning from their at-home work that has longer lasting life-time implications for their communities. Where will change come from? What will it look like? It will begin with a belief in the need for change. We can no longer afford to prepare our children for the 20th century. Change has been needed for decades and is evident that we are now in the THIRD decade of the 21st century. The pandemic just made the need for change more visible when schools were shuttered across the U.S. (and Canada) last March.
Where will YOU begin? Who else needs to read and discuss this article with you? When? The time for action is NOW! The students are depending on YOU!
Having devoted my life to a joyful dive into all things literacy, I was struck by the lovely way that Kassia and Christy created a complementary merger where literacy and math converge into glorious harmony on the talk playing field. Engaging student discourse has always been central to my work, but I had never considered the talk process beyond my own literacy lens. I quickly saw the many commonalities between talk that takes place in literacy and talk that takes place in math. By acknowledging commonalities across varied contexts, I see the potential for transfer of learning as we also contemplate our role in lifting student voices in varied talk opportunities while avoiding pitfalls that may silence those same voices.
This thought is beautifully verbalized by Kassia and Christy in a quote from their book that we shared during our #G2Great chat:
With the exception of those who wrongly believe that school is defined by a teacher talking and students listening, I am confident that educators share a deep desire to empower student voices. But empowerment doesn’t happen by chance. Rather, we must assume responsibility for daily decision-making that allows us to approach talk in a way that keeps students at the center of talk experiences. This assumes that we model purposeful talk but are also willing to step out of their way as we begin to relinquish control of the talk process. These choices impact whether students find themselves on a talk path where they feel empowered or one where disempowerment is a dark cloud that silences them.
In their amazing session for The Educator Collaborative Gathering 9/19/20, Hands Down, Speak Out: Making Space for Student-Led Conversations in the Primary Classroom, K-2 Kassia and Christy illustrated this point through their shared goal, “We want to create a classroom community so that every child who wants to talk will feel comfortable doing so.” To our benefit, Kassia and Christy expertly show us how to do that across their book with student examples, micro lessons, teacher tips, resources and rich advice peppered generously across a vast sea of wisdom.
Before I turn my focus to our #G2great chat, I’d like share insight into Hands Down, Speak Out from our authors. We were so enamored by this talk merger across the curriculum that we were inspired to do what we have never done in nearly six years as a weekly twitter chat. We combined two books over two weeks with our first “Book Pairing” that includes Maria Nichols on 10/15/20 for her wonderful book, Building Bigger Ideas: A Process for Teaching Purposeful Talk (Heinemann, 2019).
As we discussed the idea of Book Pairing around the topic of TALK, Kassia, Christy and Maria had a wonderful idea to create video conversations about their combined books. This week, I’d like to share two of those captioned videos with the final two videos shared in Maria’s post next week. In these videos, Kassia, Christy and Maria reflect on:
Since this blog post is an after-chat reflection for Kassia and Christy twitter wisdom, I turned back to the chat for inspiration. First, I gathered several of their tweets looking for insights to extend their book. There were so many amazing points that it was challenging to limit the spotlight tweets, so I opted to share a slightly condensed list with Fifteen Talk Tips from Kassia and Christy with my brief reflections. Their combined tips include both talk moves and cautions that will allow us to make those moves.
Talk Tip #1: What we believe becomes our reality (and theirs)
Kassia gives us the ideal starting point since the beliefs we carry into our learning spaces impact all we do. Well-meaning teachers may maintain control of classroom talk out of concern for student success – a belief that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we allow shaky beliefs to cloud our view, we see our children from a deficit lens. Believing deeply in their talk potential with needed supports initially builds a culture that nurtures talk. We must question how students can see what is possible if we don’t.
Talk Tip #2 Avoiding descriptors that limit talk
Schools have long held on to numerical values that often become labels used to define children. Just as this is true from a testing perspective, it is also true when we apply labels in the form of descriptors designed to reflect who we assume them to be. Christy’s reminder to use quiet as a source of curiosity that leads to observations is important as this can gently nudge us to new understandings of what quiet means from a broader perspective.
Talk Tip #3: Re-envisioning our role in the talk process
It’s not an accident that Christy’s tweet is followed by Kassia’s repetition of the word “curious.” When we assume that is is our job to be the knower of all things, then children will look to us for assistance or confirmation. In the process, we miss the wisdom that may remain underground. This move to “curious inquirer” invites opportunities that are likely to make the invisible visible, and thus teach us much about student thinking.
Talk Tip #4: Learning to break old habits that derail
I’ve never heard the term “revoicing” but I recognize it as something all too common based on Christy’s description. How often to we take students’ words and repeat or restate them, often changing the underlying message in the process. To help students engage in real world talk we must be willing to demonstrate real world listening. That require us to stop coming to the rescue and acknowledge what they say and how they say it.
Talk Tip #5: Supporting a talk path leading to ownership
Kassia eloquently worded how this path to ownership begins by setting the stage for talk while leaving room for students to assume ownership of how they express their ideas. Using a reflective talk mirror to listen to students allows for observations as students explore talk options for getting their ideas across. Students are then given time and space to model this process for each other while engaged in talk as we get out of their way.
Talk Tip #6: Loosening the reins to invite authentic talk
As I read Christy’s words, I thought of the many times I have experienced this talk view. When we create an obligatory TALK BOX, we limit expression and promote talk that is far removed from real-world discourse. We can’t invite students to express their ideas and then refute how they get those ideas across in meaningful ways. This is a great disservice that sends mixed messages about the purpose of turn and talk as a task vs exploring ideas.
Talk Tip #7: Re-defining talk with a virtual learning space
Kassia illustrates the digital instruction that is a reality for many teachers during this pandemic. In spite of the challenges that have come with our move to a virtual space, it also affords us an opportunity to redefine talk within this new teaching and learning experience. This seems like a worthy discussion for schools to have as they explore viable options and consider powerful ways to embrace, nurture, support and extend those options.
Talk Tip #8: Using small groups as a precursor for talk
Christy continues Kassia’s virtual teaching focus by reminding us that carefully chosen talk tools can elevate small group learning. More than ever before, we have a variety of tools that can maximize these collaborative talk opportunities. This can create space for students to think about their own thinking before sharing their ideas in whole class digital experiences. This rehearsal time offers a scaffold that is sure to enhance any next steps.
Talk Tip #9: Exploring talk from multiple perspectives
Kassia extends Christy’s small group theme by showing us that a wide range of talk experiences in varied groupings will support different “kind of talkers” that can thrive in different kind of groupings. This is a wonderful way to rethink instructional design in any setting so that we can support these conversations across different groups with different purposes.
Talk Tip #10: Turn and Talk as a thinking playground
Christy beautifully illustrates how she shifted her perspective from turn and talk used to prove thinking to others vs. turn and talk that offers an opportunity to explore thinking in small collaborative partnerships. Her view of turn and talk as opportunities to construct ideas is so important and it frees the teacher to become a fly on the wall observer listening to those conversations in action that can take root and grow.
Talk Tip #11: Inviting real world talk into our schools
I’ve always found it fascinating to listen to how young people communicate beyond the school setting. Listening to these authentic exchanges can teach us so much about students and how they use talk within their every day surroundings. Kassia reminds us to use what students do naturally in their own lives. Listening to conversations that aren’t bound by contradictory rules and directives can help us to elevate school talk by celebrating the home-school connection.
Talk Tip #12: Dismantling the existing social power systems
Christy asks us to acknowledge the imbalance of power that can exist in the talk students engage in within our schools. She helps us to consider how we might shift that imbalance using tools that will support collective ways we might “critique, dismantle, and redesign those systems”. I love her reminder to stand beside students and support them within this rebalancing process.
Talk Tip #13: Creating an equitable talk landscape
Kassia extends Christy’s point as we begin to notice the inevitable ‘social hierarchies and inequitable power distributions’. This requires our honesty but it also demand that we have a sense of awareness about both individual students and the collective culture of classroom structures that we may be inadvertently perpetuating. ‘More just’ classrooms is a collaborative effort fueled by talk that can either invalidate or support new understandings.
Talk Tip #14: Knowing where digging deeper counts
Christy’s tweet is a critical point any time but especially during a pandemic. If we want to create classroom communities where talk makes room for students to explore topics at greater depth, we must avoid viewing the day as a never-ending instructional obligatory distraction. Highlighting “juicy” bits across the curriculum that matter most will create experiences with huge payoff that matters in the lives of students.
Talk Tip #15: Looking for what is already there
I purposely saved this tweet from Kassia for last since it allowed our tips to move full circle. We start by believing that every student has great potential for leading meaningful discussions and then take ample time to admire the brilliance that beckons us to listen carefully. This also extends Christy’s last tweet to honor the precious limited time we have available so that we can open a door to opportunities where deeper talk experiences await us.
My Final Thoughts
These fifteen talk tips and more are written in great detail in Hands Down, Speak Out so I hope this entices you to take a closer look. You can start by checking out these two wonderful resources including their Stenhouse podcast, Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math and website/blog.
As I come to the end of this post, I return to The Educator Collaborative Gathering on 9/19/20 with a guiding question from Kassia and Christy we should all be asking if we truly desire to move toward more powerful talk:
“What are students ALREADY doing in their talk and where can we start to help them grow?”
This essential starting point is wonderful advice. Too often school start from the outside-in by making decisions based on curricular obligations. What if we followed this wise advice and approached talk from the inside-out as we begin with students and what they bring to the talk experience now? In this way, we could use the curriculum to enrich what they already bring to the learning table rather than inviting them to a table that has already been set according to a school induced agenda. I think that this could dramatically alter our efforts to create a “hands down, speak out’ talk culture.
In closing, we’d like to thank Kassia and Christy for sharing their knowledge and passion for listening and talking across literacy and math. I know that many of us will return to this chat and their book again and again.
Please join the second half of our pairing next week when Maria Nichols is our #G2Great guest. To whet your talk appetite for week two, here are four tweets Maria shared during our chat this week for a tantalizing preview. It’s our hope that you will bring what you learned from Hands Down, Speak Out and notice the many intersections that lead to Building Bigger Ideas.
An archive of this weeks chat with Dr. Anindya Kundu can be found here.
This past week we had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Anindya Kundu about his book The Power of Student Agency. As we look at the hurdles our students face, we very often forget how resilient our students are and see them through a deficit lens.
What motivated you to write this book?
“I was motivated to write TPSA after years of seeing how strapped schools, students, and districts can be when it comes to resources. At the same time, there are so many students overcoming incredible challenges in their lives (homelessness, incarceration, broken families, etc) and schools that still create cultures of success despite limitations, that I felt these stories needed to be shared. This book compiles a couple years of my fieldwork research meeting exceptional people and sharing their stories to make the case that achievement is possible for all students, if we can get behind them and support them holistically.”
The Power of Potential
A few years ago I was touring a potato farm, bear with me I am going somewhere with this, as we walking in one of the building I noticed a drain hole in the floor. I walked towards the drain and found this.
Through the concrete, with so little nutrients and the required materials to grow, this little plant was growing. Instead of focusing though on the adversity faced, I think we look at the plant and its potential despite the conditions faced. When we look at our students who face hurdles we (teachers generally) tend to look at the deficits as a starting point instead of the potential. As Dr. Kundu asks in the question, “What happens when we stop looking at the Rose in Concrete and begin looking at our schools as gardens” we see things like this.
I feel like the term “grit” has always been misused and in our current Covid reality of teaching it continues to be. I love the different reflections that came out of this simple question because they look beyond just saying things are not working and offer up hope. As Heather mentioned, schools are in need of some heavy weeding; by focusing on the schools that need to look at their practices, we are taking some of the weight off our students. By not falling back on the analogy of the rose through the concrete or the potato plant and instead looking at the environment we are providing and the potential of our students to succeed, we move away from this “grit” concept and towards a space were students see that where they are planted is fluid and can be adapted to fit their needs.
What are your BIG takeaways from your book that you hope teachers will embrace in their teaching practices?
“The whole book is structured around highlighting the social side to grit and resilience. All students have these internal reservoirs of necessary character traits for academic and professional success; however, structural limitations are real and must be acknowledged and addressed because otherwise, we place the onus of achievement on the student alone and absolve ourselves. Instead, when we constantly think about a student in terms of their agency, or potential, we reintroduce that teaching and learning are foremost social practices that require collective responsibility.”
Shifting the System Requires Change
When Covid-19 first hit there was this call to change the system. To create systems that provided our students with what they needed to succeed in this new normal. The thing was, however, as some made moves to make those changes it was a lot easier to talk about it than do it. Especially when the practices and thinking you have held so near and dear are the ones that are limiting our students. So how do we begin? We let go of power, we question the systems that are in place that have continued to limit the potential of some students and we get uncomfortable. Growing pains are a real thing. I started a new weight lifting plan a few weeks back. On day three EVERYTHING hurt. I started to look at how easy it would be to go back to me tried and true (and easy at this point) routine. Maybe just add a little weight. But I also understood that the hurt was my muscles repairing and growing stronger. If as teachers we are honest in our desire to create a system where all of our students are able to meet their potential we have to be willing to push through the discomfort of change that is required. No more calling for system changes but being unwilling to change our practice.
Just this morning I was talking with a colleague about the needs of a student. We discussed this idea that so often we ask students, especially students with learning needs, that they change to fit our needs and we don’t change to fit theirs. So where do we begin? Always with our students.
What is a message from the heart you would like for every teacher to keep in mind?
“I hope that teachers and educators can challenge themselves to see the giftedness in all students, even the ones who can be more difficult. They need our help more than others! If we can learn how to take a child’s existing interests, competencies, and talents and use those as motivational tools, we can create vibrant learning environments where all students thrive. This requires a thorough understanding of who our students are as people. It may sound complicated, but I hope the narratives I share (of how homes and families, educators and schools, and students themselves) can personify actionable, simple, and FREE strategies to inspire student agency.”
Our Students Don’t Need Saving
The hero or saviour narrative that is often applied to teachers of students who learn differently or have obstacles in their lives that potentially disrupt learning needs to be one of those things we put aside. Our students don’t need saving, they need us to be better. These last few months I have often raised the question on social media if our practices are doing more harm than good, especially in this time of Covid-19 where inequity has been under the spotlight. Sadly, it is met by hostility. If we are really interested in shifting and changing practices we have to be willing to change. Our students’ success is not dependnnt on us, because kids will succeed despite us. But we can do more to make room for them to shine. We must purposefully question our practice and explore the gaps we have that limit our students and we can make the moves to be better and help create those opportunities for them to realize their potential.
I am no saviour, hero or gardener. I am a teacher. My students are not statistics. They are amazingly talented human beings who, when provided the space to learn in ways that suit them and display that learning in ways they can shine, they will.
If you are looking for more from Dr. Kundu you can check out these links:
On Thursday, September 24, 2020, #G2Great welcomed authors Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey to chat about their current book (which is one of the titles in this series, Link). The Wakelet from the chat is available for your perusal here.
This review of their book by Jackie Acree Walsh said so much that I actually thought my work was done as far as this blog post.
Echoing through the pages of this timely book is the message: Effective teaching is effective teaching, no matter where it occurs. Teacher voices and classroom examples animate core principles of research-based teaching and learning, enabling the reader to visualize practices in both face-to-face and online learning environments. Multiple self-assessments and templates for reflection support reader interaction with the content. The authors connect Visible Learning and informed teacher decision-making to all facets of effective lesson design and delivery, and address the important issues of equity and inclusiveness; learner self-regulation and driving of their own learning; and use of formative evaluation and feedback to move learning forward. A must-read book! Jackie Acree Walsh, Book Flyer Link (Corwin site)
What a great book that builds on our existing knowledge and pedagogy as well as our values and best intentions! But never let it be said that I didn’t share my own ideas and thinking! Let’s get started with Doug and Nancy’s thoughts about a message from the heart!
What is a message from the heart you would like for every teacher to keep in mind?
Taking care of oneself is essential. Teachers are so giving, sometimes to the point where they sacrifice their own physical and mental well being for the sake of the students and communities they serve. Self-care isn’t selfish. It gives you the emotional muscles needed to serve others effectively.
So what does self-care entail? What do teachers and school staff need to be thinking about? Module 1 in The Distance Learning Playbook addresses this topic. Individual teachers and teams can work through this module to consider actions that will engage and impact students. An excerpt is available from Corwin at (Link) to explore a work / life balance.
One example: If you are considering a “standing desk” to avoid sitting all day every day, think about how you could “try this out” without spending money on a new desk.
HOW? Try a paper box . . . those sturdy boxes that reams of copy paper come in. Do you have one on hand? Or a crate? Set your computer on that box or crate to “raise” the eye level camera for distance learning. Find materials in your home that could be used to raise the work level of your desk in order to create your own DIY standing desk with $0 cost. WIN/WIN!
Do you want to increase the likelihood that you will carry through with actions to increase engagement and impact? Find a commitment partner and agree on what and when you need assistance from your partner in order to be successful.
All of this is possible because Doug and Nancy are quite specific about their success criteria and share those criteria as well as ways to think about rating the criteria and determining the importance of each factor. Link to an example.
What are your BIG takeaways from your book that you hope teachers will embrace in their teaching practices?
The big takeaway is that we realized that as a field we know a lot about teaching and learning, and we didn’t forget it when we needed to engage in distance learning. We hope teachers will regain their confidence as they link what they know to new implementation practices.
This book is titled: The Distance Learning Playbook with a subtitle “Teaching for Engagement and Impact in Any Setting.” That “any setting” means that the basic principles apply across all settings. Yes, distance learning may be one setting but it does not wipe out all other teacher knowledge around pedagogy and curriculum. We don’t reset at zero when the delivery models change; instead, we sort and sift to ensure that we are choosing the BEST strategies and tools for engaging and impacting learning. This information is included in Module 9: “Learning, Distance or Otherwise”.
What motivated you to write this book? What impact did you hope that it would have in the professional world?
Like educators everywhere, we had to rapidly shift to remote learning this spring. But going forward, we knew that we couldn’t remain in a state of crisis teaching. John Hattie’s Visible Learning scholarship has transformed education worldwide. Dozens of educators opened their virtual classrooms to us to create a new visual lexicon for how those evidenced practices are enacted in distance learning. Weaving the two together has transformed the conversation. We hope that it sparks action about how schooling in any setting can be better than ever.
“Action about how schooling in any setting can be better than ever” is the goal. Time, learning opportunities and resources like this text have provided examples of increased learning for students. With a “can do” growth mindset and a toolbelt of best ideas and resources, we can and MUST improve learning. And as a part of self-care and informed, reflective decision-making, our days do not have to be filled with doom and drudgery. We can and MUST build in time for laughter and relationships with our students, parents and communities in order to sustain our lives in these challenging times. Additional ideas on this line can be found in “Module 3: Teacher—Student Relationships From a Distance.”
How are you handling your self-care needs?
What impact are you designing in your lesson planning?
Additional resources: The Distance Learning Playbook – Corwin link Free resources – Corwin link Introduction to Visible Learning – Corwin link 3 part Webinar – Teaching Channel and Distance Learning Playbook registration – link Free Webinar: Going Deeper With Distance Learning, Tuesday Sept 29 @ 12pm PDT/ 3pm EDT – Registration on Corwin site
This blog post is dedicated to all of us who are either working in schools or attending schools across our nation and throughout the world. Unless you are going to school right now, it would be difficult to understand the level of stress we are all experiencing. Teachers, administrators, support staff, and especially students are all coping with the impact of COVID-19 and it is not without some cost. This is why #G2Great focused on taking our professional and personal pulse for the 2020 -21 school year. As I think about how to shape this post I can scarcely get through the replies to question one of the Wakelet without my pulse beating like a rabbit.
Some are 100% virtual. Others are hybrid which may look like this: two cohorts of students attending in person Mondays and Tuesdays or Thursdays and Fridays Every Wednesday is a virtual day for all students. Some are attending in-person full time with social distancing and mask-wearing. Others are attending full time within their own class bubble without social distancing. It may be easy to read and conceptualize what these options might be like; a person might say, “I get it, I am informed. I read the the CDC’s Continuum of Risk but school administrators and leaders know what they are doing.” You’d be correct to have confidence in us. We are doing everything we can to make school safe and secure for students and staff. However, we have never done this before, and it is the ongoing emotional strain of working within these systems that is like a silent oppressive force.
A2: both professionally and personally, I feel like I’m drowning. So much to do and not enough time to get it done. I also feel like my voice and concerns aren’t being heard so it’s extremely frustrating. #G2greatpic.twitter.com/OWswjBNgyf
This teacher is speaking her truth, and her truth is very much in line with my own. Many of you reading this post today may be feeling the same way. We bring both expertise, empathy to the job regardless of our personal struggle. Whether we are showing up virtually or face to face we are giving it our all. The word that keeps coming back to me is resilience. Teachers are resilient.
Did you know, there are seven essential building blocks for resiliency? According to Kenneth Ginsburg, they are: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control. It should be no surprise that teachers demonstrate all seven every day.
Competence & Confidence
A3 I support a 3rd grader a couple of days a week and last week after hearing her read, I shared with her the strengths I see as she reads. She's below level and a little down on herself and when she heard her strengths, her demeanor visibly changed. #g2great
Val brings up a very important point and good reminder for us all with her tweet. Use an asset lens because we all feel much better about ourselves and our circumstances when we feel competent.
A3: I’m enjoying the small class size and doing authentic kid watching!! I was worried about relationships, but I’m getting to really know my students. Virtual curriculum night was well received by Ps and got a lot of positive feedback for the future.
Once you feel competent it is a natural shift to grow confident. Mollie is making another important point, growing confidence comes from putting your professional energy to tried and true professional practice. Emphasize “kidwatching” and relationship building and bring some familiar experiences back no matter what setting you happen to be teaching in right now.
Connection & Character
A2: Professionally…I feel like this time has created new reasons to connect with “old” pals and new ones. I would prefer not to be going through this time, but there have been silver linings that have filled my life with new beginnings, grace, and gratitude. #g2great
I got you Julie. Knowing that a caring community is there to give you advice, or just there to listen without judgement is something we all need. Get that any way you can. Maybe your school is not a place that offers that support, but then look for it someplace else. Twitter, and #g2great in particular have become very important to me. I know I belong, I found my people.
A4. Advice: 1) Don't take anything personally. 2) Plan for tech to fail. It will. 3) Start each day new. 4) Turn off screens "for a bit" every day. 5) Do something for yourself every day. 6) Communicate with families twice as much as ever before. 7) Ask what Ss can do!#g2greatpic.twitter.com/rfhd8FJdYA
I was drawn to Fran’s tweet, because it is just good advice for us all. Living the advice offered in her tweet would be an excellent model of character in action. Especially living in these times where people of good character can be difficult to find. I can do my part, I can try to live up to Fran’s words and that helps to ground me.
Contribution & Coping
A3. I gave every child two brand new books that I purchased. It made so happy to see the books in their hands! #G2great
While I don’t know this for sure, but I would wager that Kathy Sahagain, paid for those books out of her own pocket. I feel it in my bones, but even if she didn’t, she is a great example of an excellent teacher. Teachers like Kathy contribute towards the wellbeing of students above all else. I have found, that while we teachers may have varied professional beliefs, the one constant is the compassion and dedication we have for students. We care. We do whatever it takes.
A3: an administrator said to her teachers yesterday, “teach less and connect more” … such an important reminder of what matters #G2great
No administrators have said these words to me, but it helps me to know that they were said. I can borrow those words, and repeat them in my mind and that is helping me to cope with the strain.
Taking Control
I cannot give you a favorite book. I cannot be the leader who is present in your school to deliver the words that help you to cope with the professional load. I can be the little voice that reminds you to take control in this moment. May I direct your attention to my esteemed colleague and friend, Laura Robb? I say this on Twitter all the time, but I need you to really do it this time, “Listen to Laura…”
Teachers, admins, and school staff: make this a self-care weekend after coping with changes in teaching! pic.twitter.com/lXNjWVqDiu
Whether you are coping with the pandemic just fine, or if you are drowning, or struggling like me, know that it is all ok. Everything you are feeling is ok, and needs no justification. There is so much that is out of our control, so grab onto what you can. One thing you can do, is to take good care of yourself.
Nurture yourself, treat yourself as you would your students, or a beloved family member, or friend. Take the weekend as a gift to yourself, because you are strong, you are talented, and you are resilient. You are doing the impossible five days a week, so breathe and take a lesson from the incredible Viola Davis and know you are deserving of self-care. You are worth it.
For an archive of the chat this week check out the Wakelet here.
So I am sitting down to reflect on both the chat this week and how we, the teachers of the world, are keeping things moving despite the challenges we face. I don’t want this post to come across as roses because this uncertain time we are in is anything but roses. Many of us are faced with new teaching situations that people call hybrid models or working online. Another group of us are in our buildings face to face with students. Wearing masks, behind plexiglass dividers. With our students but still so far away. It is hard not to feel as though it is all too much. So I don’t want this post to come across as some kind of “It will be great” rose coloured glasses mess because we don’t know if it will be and I don’t want to put that on teachers. I do want to reflect on why holding on to our passions and purpose can at least provide a bit of light in this time of uncertainty.
Passions
Before the school year started I wasn’t sure what it was going to look like. I knew that I was going to focus on reading and writing and sharing because that is what I am passionate about. This summer I did a lot of reading around equity, I read books and took online classes to further explore my own understandings around race. I started the year with a plan. I was passionate and put the learning I had done into my planning and the work I wanted my students to do. Now as we all know things never go according to plan so the beautiful work I had planned has turned out kind of like a DIY project that you find on Pinterest. Not a fail by any means but it sure is not as pretty as advertised. Here is the thing though, it is ok. We are faced with a challenge we have never had before and we are a passionate group teachers. We will work and push and strive to be the best because people have told us we are rockstars and superheroes and the best. We work and push and strive because we want to be. Not for ourselves, not most of us anyway, but for our students. We want to bring this energy to the craft we love because we know our students can feel that excitement. The passion is important but so is giving ourselves grace to rest when we are weary. None of us have unlimited tanks. Taking time to care for ourselves is important. Taking time to acknowledge that we are not rockstars, we are not superheroes, we are people how love what they do, are passionate about it BUT we also need time to regroup. We need to be given the chance to explore new ways of teaching that meet this challenge we face and when we fall, and we will, we need to let our passion lift us up when we are ready to try again.
Purpose
In the simplest of terms I think as teachers our purpose is to teach. I think in these uncertain times we often over think that. I have many times seen these types of images
and wondered to myself if just teaching, if just reading with and writing beside my students was enough. We are asked to be so much, expected to be so much, it can become so heavy. Lately I am seeing more and more seasoned, amazing educators considering stepping back. Leaving the profession they love because the purpose has become muddy and the passion burns out. I don’t blame them, I think it sometimes, too. It is ok. I came across a friend’s post that referred to themselves as a failure. I was struck in that moment because this teacher who serves the greatest purpose inspiring so many students and teachers felt this way, how many others are feeling it too? The uncertainty of our work right now is shaking us all but we also know a little secret. We will figure it out. One thing has not changed, our students. We don’t do this work to be rockstars or superheroes or champions or pirates or saviours. We do this work because we want to teach and inspire our scholars to seek out knowledge and create change. It might be muddy right now, we might be pushing our way through and we might stumble but holding on to what we have always known to be true, that our purpose is to teach, we will find our way out and back up. We might just need a hand.
Conclusion (Professionalism)
I think in the end if we can manage to keep our passion for this beautiful work we are blessed to do burning and keep our eyes on the purpose, the true purpose, we will weather this storm. There are so many distractions out there. Quick fixes, platitude spouting carnival barkers, door to door salesmen pushing the next book that doesn’t really address the work we do but says all these nice things. These all cloud our purpose. As teachers we sense these things and avoiding them is what that sense of professionalism is all about. Who are we working for? What is our purpose? Where is our passion for this work? Are we, despite the ever-changing landscape, holding true to who we are as teachers and keeping our students as the focus? In the end, I think we must look at the simple truths. Here are mine.
I got into teaching because I wanted to help my students think critically and find joy in learning. I am fuelled by that spark we see when those learning moments come alive. No pandemic can erase that, no uncertainty can wash it away. Will I need to take more breaks? Sure and that is ok.
