Sa-Hali School of Unique and Innovative Teaching and Education (SUITE)

Where adults AND students

learn the work by doing the work...together

Good news from the �Sabre Nation!!!

An Open Forum

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Adult modelling/observation

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Systemic Interventions/ Proactive Activities

The Attributes of a Sa-Hali Student

Academic Achievement

Pride/ Soc. Responsibility

English

Math

Socials

Language

Science

Prac. Arts

Fine Arts

PE

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Guaranteed Curriculum, Tasks and Recognized Struggle Points

Technol.

School Imp

Technol.

School Imp

Green=

Collaboration Zone

• Thinking
• Communication
• Personal/Social

Four Questions - And How It ALL Fits Together

• What is it that we want students to learn?
• How will we know when they have learned it?
• What will we do when they haven’t learned it?
• What will we do when they have learned it?*

What is it that we want students to learn?

Guaranteed Curriculum

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Common Struggle Points

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Engagement Strategies

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Deep Learning

Adult modelling/observation

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Systemic Interventions/ Proactive Activities

The Attributes of a Sa-Hali Student

Academic Achievement

Pride/ Soc. Responsibility

English

Math

Socials

Language

Science

Prac. Arts

Fine Arts

PE

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

S

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Guaranteed Curriculum, Tasks and Recognized Struggle Points

Technol.

School Imp

Technol.

School Imp

Green=

Collaboration Zone

Classroom Observation Scenario #1

Imagine being in the middle of teaching a science lesson and your Principal coming to your class, doing an observation, and giving you this feedback:

• "the pace was fast"
• "you assigned a highly complex lab to the students"
• "the students were actively engaged with their groups during the lesson"
• “overall, the lesson was amazing”

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Reflection: So what?

Imagine receiving this feedback--what would you know and be able to do/change as a result of hearing this about your lesson?

• "the pace was fast"
• "you assigned a highly complex lab to the students"
• "the students were actively engaged with their groups during the lesson"
• “overall, the lesson was amazing”

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Classroom Observation Scenario #2

You have invited a group of educators to come to look at something that you and your department determined as an area of focus, such as "we find that students struggle with doing multi-step problems that involve applying more than one formula and creating a visual representation of their data" After observing your class and several others in the department, they then gave the following feedback:

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• "when you moved from the first step to the second step, 11 of the 19 students were still doing the first step"
• "you assigned the students a task that required them to collect, plot, and analyze and draw conclusions from data"
• "the students worked in small groups to examine each other’s solutions and evaluate which processes led to the right answer"

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Reflection: So what?

Imagine receiving this feedback--what would you know and be able to do/change as a result of hearing this about your lesson considering your focus of "we find that students struggle with following instructions and using higher level thinking skills to connect labs to the concept we are doing in class." ?

• "when you moved from the first task to the second task, eleven of the 19 students were still doing the first task"
• "you assigned the students a task that required them to collect, plot, and analyze and draw conclusions from data"
• "the students used a rubric to provide feedback to their peers on the structure of the conclusions they had drawn and the strength of the evidence to find those conclusions."

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Learning to SEE...unlearning to JUDGE

• Seeing is a DISCIPLINE
• It’s like a MUSCLE, it gets better with REPETITION
• It is a foundation of the practice of observation

Sample Class Observation

Let’s Practice “learning to see, and unlearning to judge!”

But before we observe...through what lens are we observing?

The Problem Of Practice

Video Observation

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Video Observation #2 (TIMSS)

Purpose for today...

• To continue to re-visit the ‘why’ of deeper learning
• To begin the process of...
• developing our muscles around ‘learning to see, unlearning to judge’
• To model deeper learning strategies and uses of technology that everyone can use ‘tomorrow’

Moving forward...

• Consolidate our vision with all of our stakeholders (and more) and existing research (in progress)
• Use a variety of means to examine our current practices and structures through the lens of our vision and existing research
• Discover and showcase our innovative tasks/practices that require students to demonstrate attributes from our innovation
• Determine required supports at EVERY level
• Design and implement tasks and structures that require divergent learning

Consolidating Our Vision

Our attributes...

• will be the lens through which we look
• will guide our discussions around
• the skills we want our students to leave with
• the pedagogies that require students learn and demonstrate these attributes
• the way we organize ourselves/the learning environment we want to create
• awards/recognition
• Others???

Process

Create multiple, diverse ‘focus groups’

• staff - we will make a committee
• students - both former and current
• parents - SPC/PAC
• community members

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Bring back a set of attributes - a group from which we will choose from to create a framework for deeper learning

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Determine what each of these attributes look, sound, and feel like when they are being demonstrated by our students

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Use them as our ‘touchstone’

In order to showcase our practices around deeper learning...

• develop a common language around innovative practice (what works???)
• task analysis - do the tasks we ask students to do require them to demonstrate the attributes we want (today)
• “learn to see and unlearn to judge” - understand descriptive language and feedback
• creating a mechanism for observation

So about that common language...

Factors that Influence Learning

John Hattie “Visible Learning”

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Online Exercise

“Everything (and anything) makes a difference”

Average effect size of all 138 measured factors

Off to the “Sandbox”

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Quiz - “Factors that Influence Learning”

How STUDENTS believe that they will do...WOW!

Developing a Common Language:

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“Task Predicts Performance”

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If the learner is not doing what we intended, let’s examine the TASK

Before we get started...

“Assignment” versus “Task”

Content as it appears in the instructional materials

Assignments as designed by teachers

Tasks as implemented by students

Student Learning

“If you were a student in this classroom, what would you have learned by doing this task? What is the actual work that the students were asked to do?”

“If you were a student in this classroom, what would you have learned by doing this task? What is the actual work that the students were asked to do?”

Our ‘homework’

• select an important unit in one of your classes
• look closely at the tasks that students are required to do in that unit
• what is our evidence that a student actually HAS to do it?
• what is our evidence that students are actually learning?
• what they are SAYING or what they PRODUCE
• bring back a task in which to our next staff meeting that you feel requires students to learn

Stay Tuned...Next Month

• ‘learning to see, unlearning to judge’
• working with Coordinators to examine things that excite/concern us determine our mechanism for releasing us to come into other classes
• reporting back on attributes
• update on May Pro D day and High Tech High

Our innovative educators...

Staff learning from each other and others through

• discovering and showcasing existing and innovative teaching
• co-creating tasks that engage our students and require them to demonstrate attributes
• observations, co-teaching, modeling
• sustained and deliberate PD

Our innovative school...

Will be the place where students want to go, where educators want to teach, and where teachers pre-service (TRU), new and veteran want to learn

The Final Word

• Planning 10 Activation
• Music between classes
• Sign Update
• Others?

STUDENTS

CURRICULUM and INSTRUCTION

EDUCATORS

Our Theory of Action

If we provide focused, consistent, sustained and intentional professional development to our teachers to design and implement meaningful, deeper learning tasks and commensurate evaluation tools, then students will effectively demonstrate deeper learning of the attributes that we have collectively determined will equip them for the future.

The research on high leverage strategies

Consolidate Our Vision

Our innovative students...

Will demonstrate (while they are at Sa-Hali AND after they leave us) the attributes that our community (school, home, community and beyond) needs from them.

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Our innovative educators...

Sa-Hali,SD 73 and and new TRU teachers learning from each other and others through

• discovering and showcasing existing and innovative teaching
• co-creating tasks that engage our students and require them to demonstrate attributes
• observations, co-teaching, modeling (our staff, SD73, TRU***)
• sustained and deliberate PD

Our innovative programs and curriculum...

Students working through meaningful, real-life tasks that require them to demonstrate our collaboratively determined attributes to us and to the community

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Our innovative school will be a model...

Will be a place where our students and teachers-- pre-service (TRU), new and veteran--want to learn the work by doing the work

Sa-Hali School of Unique and Innovative Teaching and Education (SUITE)

What if this was OUR school?

Considering the research, what could this look like?

What could it look and feel like?

For Sa-Hali, SD73, TRU Educators

• immersion in PD
• co-planning lessons and assessments
• co-teaching
• observing other teachers
• getting/giving feedback from peers and coaches
• trying new things
• modeling ‘learning by doing’

For Sa-Hali and SD73 Students

• co-authorship of attributes
• choices and flexibility in how they demonstrate their learning
• increased rigor, measured by what they PRODUCE
• connections to the community
• capstone projects

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What are people saying about the concept?

• Staff?
• PAC?
• TRU?
• Students?

How are we going start into deeper learning?

• Now-June: ask questions, see examples, visit our classrooms, invite experts, send teams, develop attributes/units/assessments, liaise w TRU
• Sept-January: in Grade 8 or Grade 8/9, one pilot PBL unit per course (ie. in a block of Science 8 with a volunteer teacher) complete with presentation of learning (POL), more classroom visits, invite visitors
• January-June: in Grade 8 and 9, one pilot PBL unit per course with POL

Consolidate Our Vision

Multiple Entry Points To PBL

• Level 1: Co-creator and Consultant
• Level 2: Implementor
• Level 3: Adopter

Level One: Co-creator/ Consultant

• helps co-create the problem, critical question, lesson design, evaluation strategies
• along with panel of students and colleagues, is a member of a “Project Tuning Team” that helps Implementors and Adopters refine their problems so they are meaningful and engaging for students
• investigates, designs and implements deeper learning strategies for their class

Level Two: Implementor

• co-creates, develops, and executes PBL unit in their class
• is a member of a “Project Tuning Team” that helps Implementors and Adopters refine their problems so they are rigorous and engaging for students

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Level Three: Adopter

• co-creates, develops, and executes entire course using PBL
• is a member of a “Project Tuning Team” that helps Implementors and Adopters refine their problems so they are rigorous and engaging for students

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How are we going start into deeper, problem-based learning?

• Now-June: ask questions, see examples, visit our classrooms, invite experts, send teams, develop attributes/unit/assessment (HTH PBL 101, Buck Institute)
• Sept-June: release time for classroom observations, co-teaching and co-planning; peer-coaching; inservice (HTH Residency - Jan); presentations of learning

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Multiple Entry Points to Observations

• Level 1: Observer/Feedback Provider
• Level 2: SSS Host/Observer/Feedback Provider
• Level 3: TRU/SD73 Host/Observer

How are we going to discover our/other “pockets of innovation”...

• develop a common language around deep learning (what works???)*
• task analysis - do the tasks we ask students to do require them to demonstrate the attributes we want*
• “learn to see and unlearn to judge” - understand descriptive language and feedback*
• release time for teachers to get into other classes and learning situations
• existing collaborative time/staff mtgs to discuss, design, implement

This is not just about Sa-Hali kids and teachers, it’s more.

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It’s about ALL kids and teachers.

Some Questions...

• Is a ‘lab school’ like this something the district would support us in creating?
• Who can we connect with to talk about authentic attribute development and innovation?
• What are some of the grant avenues (either in-house or out of district) that we might be able to pursue to help us fund
• innovative, problem-based teaching
• sustained PD (capacity building, coaching, etc.)
• supplies, technology to make a HTH of the North?
• How can/does this fit w BC Ed Plan?
• Others?