How to connect with students at the start of a new academic year

This post is from the Marshall Memo 797

Energizing Students from Day One

In this article in AMLE Magazine, teacher/consultant/author Rick Wormeli bemoans the fact that students’ eager and receptive frame of mind at the beginning of each school year is often deflated by the endless succession of going-over-the-rules, filling out forms, and stale getting-to-know-you activities. “Students grow increasingly disillusioned,” says Wormeli. “We’ve missed a golden opportunity for them to dive into the subject material with neurons firing on all thrusters. It’s probably the most significant time of the year to hardwire students’ minds to embrace our subjects, and we don’t want to miss it.”

He recommends mixing mandatory stuff with lively activities, so students learn something new about your subject every day. Wormeli believes teachers need to develop a “diligent awareness” of their students as people, and suggests eight ways to do that:

What’s the best way you learn?

On the first day of school, students jot down how they learn best in your subject area. Here are some comments Wormeli has received from students:

–  Give me lots of examples; I don’t get ideas without examples.

–  If you write it on the board, can I get a copy?

–  I need to see it, don’t just tell me.

–  Online assignments are a problem because my brother hogs our Internet connection. 

–  Speak slowly; I get confused with a lot of noise and fast talking.

The medium might be index cards, a Google Doc, or individual e-mails.

  • Students write how they learn best, taking the role of their own parents– “Pseudonyms can be freeing,” says Wormeli. “Looking through the lens of how they think their mothers, fathers, or caregivers see them, students have deeper insights and are more honest.” They might bring up things like babysitting responsibilities, religious school schedules, or hobbies.
  • Asking parents – In 2003, educator Deb Bova came up with the idea of asking parents, “In a million words or less, tell me about your child.” With a touch of humor, this request recognizes parents as the prime experts on their children and opens the door for all kinds of insights that will help “dimensionalize” students for the teacher.
  • Interest surveys– Students might be asked about a favorite book from childhood; the farthest point they’ve traveled from home; a recent movie they enjoyed and why; favorite foods, music, and sports; organizations, teams, and clubs to which they belong; people they admire and why.
  • Crowdsourced learner profiles– Some schools create a password-protected folder for each student, and teachers contribute insights over the course of the year – for example, the English teacher learns that a student is interested in dance, dirt bikes, and Fortnite; the physical education teacher learns about strong political views and a brother with muscular dystrophy. “If anything is truly confidential or private,” says Wormeli, “we can keep that in a separate folder housed in an alternative and secure location.”
  • Specific learning autobiographies– Ask students to tell the story of how they learned to read, or code, or play the drums, or speak Spanish, including the earliest and smallest moments. “Every time I’ve done this with students,” says Wormeli, “and no matter the subject I teach, I find out more about my students than I do from typical autobiographies.”
  • Six-word memoirs– This time-honored literary technique has strict rules: six words exactly! Some examples:

–  For sale: baby shoes, never worn. (Ernest Hemingway)

–  My greatest ideas involve duct tape.

–  Books. Music. That’s all I need.

–  Hobby became job. Seeking new hobby.

Students might write about how they feel about something important in their lives, how they felt last year as a student, as an American, or as part of their culture. Wormeli says the most interesting thing about six-word memoirs is how students elaborate on them.

  • Group tasks requiring problem-solving and collaboration– These might include building structures with playing cards, using 20 straws and 10 inches of masking tape to build the highest tower, or lining up in ascending order of birthdays without talking. “In each of these,” says Wormeli, “there’s a lot of give and take, problem-solving, initial frustration, listening (and not listening), risk-taking, leadership/follower behavior, and more.”

“Getting to Know Our Students” by Rick Wormeli in AMLE Magazine, August 2019 (Vol. 7, #3, pp. 31-35), no e-link available; Wormeli is at rick@rickwormeli.onmicrosoft.com.

 

On creative collaboration

When was the last time you had a really good idea?

 

And where were you when it happened? Some of my best thinking happens on the treadmill. I feel able to focus on an emerging idea or problem without other thoughts getting in the way when I’m running. Ironically I am at my most creative when I am nowhere near my office or classroom.

Creativity is THE most talked about 21st Century skill these days. The World Economic Forum identified Creativity as the number one skill for teams. Studies from IBM and the Harvard Business review single it out as essential for effective leadership.  

We know we want our students to be creative (it is in our profile) and we know that collaborative teams are more creative.

So what is the relationship between the two, and how can we encourage teams of teachers and students to collaborate creatively?

This was the topic under discussion in a recent meeting of the PD Dessert group. Our prompt was this episode, from Adam Grant’s hugely popular TED-sponsored podcast, WorkLife. In it, Grant visits the writers room of the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, to explore the ‘creative burstiness’ that takes place when collaboration is properly scaffolded in teams.

Our conversation was framed around these questions:

  • How can we encourage creativity within our teams and classrooms?
  • Does collaboration always lead to more creativity?
  • What are the barriers to creative collaboration and how can we overcome these?

Sharing our thoughts on this podcast and on what we see in our classrooms and team spaces, a number of important principles emerged:

 

Principle 1: Creativity is more likely when people feel psychologically safe

When there is trust in a group, people feel that it is ok to make mistakes and are more willing to take risks to propose more creative ideas. To create psychologically safe classrooms and offices we need to build playful atmospheres where challenging accepted thinking is welcomed. One practical way to do this is to prioritise trust building and inclusion activities in our meetings and lessons. Protocols such as ‘putting ideas on the table’ so that they can be critiqued in a ‘safe’ way can help with this.

 

Principle 2: Cognitive diversity leads to creativity

A study in the Harvard Business review showed that teams solve problems faster when they are more cognitively diverse. In short, great minds don’t think alike. When we recruit we should actively seek people who think differently. Ironically studies of recruitment have shown that we intuitively seek out people ‘like us’ and so we need to be intentional in our recruitment practices (aiming for deep-level diversity rather than just different nationalities or skin colour) if we really want our teams to be more creative. When it comes to picking a mentor or critical friend for our PLP we ought to be looking for people who might challenge our usual way of thinking to provoke us to explore new ideas. The connections between diversity and creativity are explored in this excellent article from the BBC. Interestingly diverse teams may be more creative but can find it harder to reach consensus which is why effective leadership of diverse teams is so important.

 

Principle 3: Structure is the friend of creativity

Counter intuitively, scaffolding and providing a focused goal for the outcomes of a creative project rather than leaving it completely open enhances creativity. Adam Grant explained that the team of writers have an intentionally structured approach to generating, consolidating and refining content for the Daily Show. A great educational example of this is the Japanese model of Lesson Study in which a triad of teachers work together to target an identified area for development in their students’ learning. The team collaboratively research, plan, teach and observe a series of lessons. It is a highly scaffolded framework but has been shown to lead to greater creativity in unit planning.

 

Principle 4: Deadlines help us to be creative but inflexible timeframes for thinking do not

This apparent contradiction relates to research from Teresa Amabile  that suggests that providing no fixed deadline for a creative activity is unlikely to lead to results. Apparently we thrive when there are parameters to the task. However, trying to get a team to be creative when there are constant interruptions is also a problem. A rigid school timetable can make it difficult for teams of students to really immerse themselves in the project. This is perhaps why some schools (like WAB and their FLOW21 project) are breaking free from traditional timetable structures to promote creative thinking in their students.

 

Principle 5: Remove distractions

Books such as Reclaiming conversation, Unselfie and Learn Better all speak to the value of removing distractions to allow ourselves headspace for daydreaming and creative problem solving. Being able to ping pong between focused thinking and diffuse thinking as a strategy can help us to be more creative too. Apparently Salvador Dali used diffuse thinking to come up with some of his best ideas!

Principle 6: Ring-fence time to focus and don’t be afraid to ‘sit with struggle’

This principle comes straight from writers workshop – a programme used in our junior and middle school English classes. In workshop, students are encouraged to spend extended periods of time simply engaged in their own writing. Some students find this really hard. But helping students to appreciate that some of our best thinking happens when we are not afraid to ‘sit with struggle’ not only builds resilience but also helps them recognise that developing creative ideas can take time.

 
Principle 7: Make time for conversations at the waterhole

Some of our most creative conversations happen when we take time to connect informally. This idea is explored by David Thornburg who identified learning spaces that promote good thinking and coined the term ‘watering holes’  to describe places where people meet and where informal collaborative conversations happen. Making time to sit and eat together as teams (rather than over our laptops) is not just important for our wellness but also for creativity too. Teachers are not the only ones who frequently skip proper lunch breaks. This article from the World Economic Forum explains why we need to prioritise time at the Watering hole.

 
Principle 8: Silo thinking can limit creativity

And while we are at it, we need to check out other watering holes too. Working in such a large and complex system as Dover presents challenges but also opportunities. Whilst it is understandable to want to focus on what is going on in our own tower, if we always do so, we may miss the chance for synergistic thinking and ‘collective intelligence’. Often applied to the way that social media has been used to leverage powerful changes in collective culture (for example in attitudes to Marine Pollution or the #Me Too movement) collective Intelligence is the capability of a group to collaborate in order to achieve goals that a smaller group would not be able to accomplish alone. Intentionally looking for ways to connect with people in other teams and schools at Dover not only builds community but is likely to lead to greater creativity.

From this

.. to this

Principle 9: The power of divergent and convergent thinking

Not all creative ideas are good ideas. The design thinking cycle shows the power to be had when groups shift through stages of divergent and convergent thinking as they solve problems. Effective leaders are able to support teams in this process, so that they can creatively brainstorm a range of ideas, but are then able to focus down and agree on the best one to take the team forward. Using a model like this to frame a conversation around, say, planning a unit or common assessment can help teams to be creative in both ‘modes’ of thinking.

References

Sylvia Duckworth sketchnote

Silo thinking

Collaborative thinking cartoon

Take note

What do your notes look like?

 

Think back to the last time you took notes. Perhaps you were in a PL session or meeting, studying for your masters, or preparing for a class?

What kind of note taker are you? Are your notes full of doodles, a series of unconnected key words that make no sense to you when you go back to them? or are they a source of personal pride, with colour coded key words and diagrams? Would your notes make sense to someone else? And should it matter if they don’t?

Were you ever taught explicitly how to take notes or has your approach simply evolved over time?

Why take notes?

 

Like collaboration, essay writing, problem solving and presentation skills, note taking sits under the banner of core learning life skills that we hope all our students will develop while they are with us. But why is this? What is the value of note taking in the learning process?

To many students this question might seem obvious:

“I take notes to record ideas so I don’t forget them.”

The implication of this is that note taking is about writing down everything you are told in class. We have probably all seen students attempting to copy information from presentations as quickly as they can, not sure what is relevant and so writing it all down just in case.

And if note taking really is just about recording external information many students might legitimately ask, why can’t we just be given a handout to save us the bother?

But teachers know that effective note taking is not just about recording information that has been learned (or so it can be ‘learned’ later for exams). Effective note taking is about actively engaging with ideas rather than passively receiving them. It is a way that we learn not just a record of what we have learned.

So effective note taking helps learning by supporting students:

  • record new ideas in their working memory so that these ideas can be processed and they can be later transferred to their long term memory
  • connect new ideas to existing knowledge
  • make their thinking visible so that it can be more easily processed and shared with others
  • organise ideas so that patterns can more easily be seen
  • make meaning from information by building conceptual understandings

In short, effective note taking is a powerful skill. And it is a skill that can be taught.

So what does effective note taking look like?

And when and how should we teach these skills to students?

 

PD Dessert is an open invitation group (an offshoot of Books and Burritos that is also led by Kurt) that meets once a month in the staffroom on a Friday afternoon for conversations on pedagogical topics. Our first meeting was about note taking. 15 teachers from middle and high school met to share what note taking looks like in their contexts and to discuss the research around good practice when it comes to note taking.

The stimulus for this meeting was this thought provoking blog post on note taking.

The conversation was lively and stimulating, the territory ranging from the merits of writing frames (such as Cornell notes) and graphic organisers (such as Venn diagrams) to the perennial debate over hand written notes vs use of laptops or tablets. Teachers shared their experiences of Sketch-noting and apps such as Evernote or Rocketbook. Middle school teachers explained how note taking is explicitly taught in their context; and we also discussed the role that note taking plays in different high school classes and the challenge we all face in getting students to transfer skills between contexts.

What emerged from our conversation was a tentative set of criteria that might inform how we support the acquisition and development of note taking skills. This criteria can be seen below

Note taking is most effective when

 

  1. It has been explicitly taught as a skill
  2. Students have an opportunity to practice a variety of strategies
  3. Students understand the affordances of a particular strategy (what that particular approach enables you to do)
  4. Students have the freedom to choose the approach that works for them and is appropriate for the task at hand
  5. Information is not simply recorded, but is processed in some way as the notes are made eg. connections between ideas are shown; questions are recorded; key concepts are identified; generalisations are made.
  6. Notes are reviewed, so that key ideas can be synthesised (Cornell notes has this built in with the summary at the foot of the frame)

What might this look like in our classrooms?

 

We already know how students learn (learning principles). Here are some specific strategies to support note taking skills, paired with the relevant learning principle. We might map these approaches on this document.

 

Learning Principle Strategies to try
learners construct new understanding by activating prior knowledge and experiences encourage students to transfer note taking skills from academic classes to new situations eg. within service leadership or mentor/advisory group

begin lesson with students reviewing notes to draw out key ideas learned in the previous lesson
learners use timely and goal directed feedback have check-ins for peer feedback;

as an alternative to marking homework occasionally collect in notes and provide feedback

Compare different sets of student notes on a shared presentation to draw out similarities and differences and identify targets
learners collaborate Co-create a rubric around what good notes look like for that class

Use shared note-taking software eg. TodaysMeet to expose students to how others take notes
learners are challenged add to their toolbox of note taking strategies with more sophisticated tools as they get older
learners feel secure and supported Explicitly teach students how they might organize their notes for your class (do not assume they already know how to do it)
learners construct meaning by seeing patterns and making connections
 model for students how to connect ideas in their notes, explore patterns in ideas, identify core concepts, and draw out generalisations
learners actively process and reflect provide time in class or homework for students to acquire and practice note taking skills, and then review notes later
learners apply metacognitive skills ask students to reflect on their note taking skills and set goals for improvement
learners understand the purpose of the learning remind students of the value of note taking as a life learning skill and model how you use note taking in your own learning
learners have ownership of their learning give students choice over which note taking strategies they wish to use

What is the best way to take notes?

 

This hotly debated topic has arguments on both sides. This article summarises some of the benefits of handwriting for building conceptual understanding but there are staunch advocates for the benefits of typing notes. The simple answer is that both approaches have their merits.

Merits of hand writing

Physical scripting of words & tangible value kinaesthetic aspects has cognitive value

Ability to draw

Practice for exams which will eventually be hand written

No lap-top barrier in class – engagement & human connection

Messy/crossings out remind students that mistakes are ok & help students to be in the moment

Reinforce the need to develop organisational skills as students need to curate and collate notes in some way (eg. Folders)

 

Merits of laptop/device

Redrafting later is easier

Mixed media can be incorporated eg. through inserted images, hyperlinks

Easier to share and opportunities for wider collaboration (eg. through google docs)

Notes less likely to be lost as can be stored in the cloud

Reinforce the need to develop organisational skills as students need to curate and collate notes in some way (eg. Google folders)

Devices such as tablets can be used to combine the benefits of both

The case for service blogs

In the online world, the humble blog arrived relatively late to the party. The term ‘weblog’ only emerged in 1997 (WebDesigner Depot), but since then the growth of blogging has been little short of meteoric. There are now over 172 million active websites on the internet (Netcraft).  75 million of these are using WordPress, which makes it the world’s most popular blogging platform.

So what might these trends mean for us as educators? Of course many of us already subscribe to educational blogs for our own professional learning, others have trialled digital portfolios with advisor / mentor groups, and many of us regularly encourage students to write blogs within our classes. There are pockets of rich practice all over the campus. Given what we know about how students learn, perhaps it’s time to open up the conversation around how blogs might fit within our tool box of pedagogical strategies?

Take Service for example. In both my College service and GC I have been exploring with colleagues how and why we might want to develop a collective service blog with our student teams.

It has taken me a while to be convinced of the potential value of blogs for student learning. My initial concerns were probably fairly standard: getting students to write meaningful reflections can feel like such an uphill battle… how do I persuade all my students to write their own blog? .. and what would they write about anyway? ..and what if no one reads their blogs? .. or people read them and post nasty comments? How can I control the ‘content’?

I wonder if the most important question we ought to ask though, is around who the audience for student blogs should be. And in this respect, I’ve experienced something of a paradigm shift. Rather than seeing blogs as summative Reports for external readers  I now see them as formative Journals of Learning for students themselves. I used to think of blogs as megaphones to publicise one’s personal view and now I see them as collaborative tools to deepen collective understanding. So in a school context, blogs have for me become less about communication and more about metacognition (awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes). 

Once I started thinking about our service blog as a place to explore and record the learning taking place together. I realised that it actually doesn’t matter if anyone else reads what we write at all. (Though I still think plenty of people will be interested in our Africa GC blog: parents, CAS & UAC advisors, potential new members of the GC, our service partners in Tanzania).

Moving from Blog as megaphone to Blog as learning bridge

So a ‘service blog’ could be a space for students to chart their shared service learning for College, Local or Global service. John Dewey famously said: “We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on our experiences.” Properly scaffolded reflection helps students to shift from a mentality of ‘just’ doing service to building understandings around how to ensure their service is effective, and to engage with what role they might be able play in making the world a better place when they leave UWCSEA.  Perhaps blogs represent a way of both encouraging and recording this shift. In turn, this helps those of us leading service activities to know that the intended learning is happening, and to take action if it is not. In short, I think blogs might represent an effective way to assess the quality of service learning happening in the groups I support.

Not everyone likes the idea of making their thinking visible in this way, and I accept that this tool will not appeal to all our students, but the other advantage of course with blogs is that the space is a collaborative one. Unlike a personal journal, CAS manager reflection or simply the thoughts in your head, blogs offer opportunities for students to ‘interact with others in a variety of situations.’ (If you recognise the quote its because it’s one of our learning principles!) Those who are reluctant to write their own post can still read, discuss, and comment on others’. Students who like me were initially shy about ‘putting their thinking out there’  have an opportunity to develop this skill in a safe and supportive context.

If you needed any more reasons to consider giving blogging a go, look no further than the Digital and Information literacy curriculum (which by the way we are all collectively responsible for delivering!). Here are two standards and you can see how blogs might fit in the jigsaw.

So to conclude, I would argue that because blogs are a place where students can ‘actively process and reflect’, ‘apply metacognitive skills’, collaborate and ‘have ownership of their learning’ (4 of our learning principles!)  I think they thoroughly deserve a place at our pedagogical table! The good news is that UWCSEA has invested in a WordPress CampusPress account called Edublogs (specifically designed for schools) which allows us to easily create and run thousands of WordPress sites, and keep complete control over privacy, users and content.

How are you using blogs to enhance student learning? What concerns do you have? Please join the conversation!

 

What have pineapples got to do with collaboration?

The sea captains of New England who traded among the Caribbean Islands would return to the colonies with cargoes of spices rum, and tropical fruits. Legend has it that once a captain returned home, it was customary to spear a pineapple on a post at the door, to let friends know of his safe return from sea. The pineapple was an invitation for them to visit, share his food and drink and listen to tales of his voyage.

A few weeks ago the HS Economics team held a Pineapple day. The aim? To welcome one another into their classrooms, increase a spirit of creativity, risk taking, collaboration and sharing among the team.

Pineapple day was an opportunity for the team to develop and then showcase some engaging teaching activities. Each room had a furry pineapple welcome mat to indicate that visitors were welcome. Invitations were sent out, and a google doc was published to show who was doing what, in which room and when. The team and visitors were in and out of each others rooms all day.  The mood was positive and celebratory. Lunch together in the office helped to honour the spirit of the original Pineapple day.

Steve would be happy to loan out the pineapple mats to any other team that would like to encourage others into their classrooms. Why not get two teams (one from MS and one from HS) to run a pineapple day together as a way to open up conversations across schools?

Pineapple Day is a celebration of the teaching and learning that happens in our department. It is often difficult to find time to visit colleague’s classrooms and yet there is such a richness to be gained from interacting with and learning from each other in this way. Pineapple Day focussed the whole team on doing just that and it was an empowering experience!

Steve Vorster

References https://www.southernliving.com/culture/pineapple-hospitality

Why do we need a home languages programme?

In my first 7 weeks at Dover I have had the good fortune to work with many teams in different parts of the school and it’s been absolutely fascinating. I’m discovering lots of exciting work that is going on, often behind the scenes. I am writing this post, therefore, to introduce you to what is a hugely significant but perhaps somewhat misunderstood initiative that is now in its second year at Dover.

Our UWCSEA student body speak nearly 70 languages. Apart from helping to build cultural identity; supporting mother tongue development enhances students’ cognitive development and leads to increased academic attainment more generally. As a UWC we recognise the value of linguistic diversity, and yet until relatively recently, we had been unable to offer the level of support that we wanted.

International mother tongue day

 

This situation has now changed.

The UWCSEA Home Languages Programme offers a wide range of languages and is one of the most structured and sophisticated programmes in Singapore. It is for students who want to maintain a language spoken at home but who do not study this language as part of the academic curriculum during the school day. Students in K1-11 are taught in mixed age, home language classes of 3-6, following a rigorously planned and highly individualised programme, by a team of 23 highly qualified specialist language teachers.

Thanks to very positive feedback after the first year, and high demand from parents, we now have 230 students enrolled in the programme, and expect this to grow in the future. Several parents report selecting UWCSEA over our competitors precisely because of our commitment to developing this programme.  

Here are some recent quotes from parents in our community:

“My wife and I would like to thank the UWC team on helping families by starting up the Home Language Programme. It seems to be growing in popularity and that’s a great endorsement. Both our children speak Spanish at home with my wife, however, neither had taken any formal lessons, and needed a lot of help with writing. Last year they both sat the Spanish examination from the Cervantes Institute, I believe three kids were registered from UWC. Last week we got the news that both boys passed and will work on advanced their Spanish. For many overseas families, it’s tremendously important to feel confident in their home language. Having that supportive environment within the four walls of UWC is a huge plus for families such as ours. To that end, I wanted to thank Pilar and the school for starting the Home Language initiative”

“I am writing this note to say that I am very pleased with my child’s Hindi teacher. She is doing all the right things to make my child interested and motivated to learn Hindi. I am sure there is a lot of hard work that has been put by both the Home Language Teaching team as well as the Hindi teacher, so thank you from a satisfied parent!”

“Thank you very much for your kind support and consideration to my child. I am very grateful and amazed that such keen attention can be extended to an individual student especially in a big school like UWC. I am really impressed with the Home Languages Programme.”

“We are really excited to have the Home Language Programme at UWC. Thank you for the great news.  We appreciate your support and effort to make this happen! ” 

 

FAQ

What languages are currently offered?

11 languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese,  Spanish.

Why are children of different ages in the same class?

Students are grouped according to proficiency rather than age. The programme is individualised so each child is provided with age-appropriate activities.

Why are classes so small?

The HLP is an individualised programme, so classes are capped at 6 to keep planning manageable.

How are parents involved?

As one or both parents speak this language with their children at home, parents play a central role in the success of this programme. They are fully involved so that they can reinforce the learning.

Are HLP classes just like conversation classes?

No. The students get ‘conversation’ when they speak the language at home. The HLP aims to do much more: such as supporting the acquisition and consolidation of academic language and grammar; and the development of reading comprehension and writing production skills for a wide range of literary to media-based texts.

How is HLP linked to language learning later on?

The HLP is a stepping stone for students who move into a First Language Class as part of the academic curriculum in Middle or High School (this includes Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Spanish, Self-Taught) or they can continue their home language development through these non-examination classes. It ultimately supports those who aim to study for a Bilingual Diploma.

Where and when do HLP classes take place?

Many of you have HLP classes taking place in your classrooms. We appreciate that this may be inconvenient when you want to work there. So thank you for your support here. The classes occur during lunch times and after school. Please help your students to reach their HLP lesson on time.

How can I support my students who do HLP?

Do ask your students if any of them do HLP and encourage them to share what they are learning. The learning that happens in all classes is indirectly supported by the HLP.

Who teaches HLP?
The HLP teacher team comprises 23 specialist language teachers. Many are new to our community. Please make them feel welcome when you meet them.

Thank you to everyone for direct and indirect ways in which you are supporting this flagship UWC programme. A special thank you to Pilar, our incredible Head of Home Languages. Without her energy, commitment and charm this programme would not have the reputation that it does.