Tag Archives: lesson planning

by | August 30, 2024 · 11:51 am

Lesson/Unit Planning: a guide for quick review of the essential points

This is a quick guide with questions you might ask yourself about your lesson/ unit plan to check that are considering the most essential points while planning.

1. Why do we teach..?

Let’s start with this video to help us understand why thinking about the goal of your lesson/ plan is the first step to achieving students’ learning. Please click to view.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan and ask yourself:
    • Why do I teach? Is this reflected in my planning?
      • Who do I teach? Are my learners at the center of my planning?

2. Goal vs. Activities

One way to start planning is to select some activities you think your students will enjoy and then try to organize them together as a lesson or unit. The problem with this is that we can lose the focus, and move too far from what the goal of all these activities actually is. Moreover, choosing activities first rather than learning goals tends to not allow for differentiation, as these activities generally require all students to show their learning in the same way. See the difference between both processes:

comparing more backwards planning with more traditional approaches where backwards planning begins with outcomes in mind and moves to designing activities while former approaches might begin with a resource or activity idea.

Source: https://teaching.cambriancollege.ca/studio/backwards-planning/#1532372758719-5b1d9546-624f

 

In this example, a “backward design” process is recommended for planning because it allows more flexibility and focus and takes a more student-centred approach. The video below explains the step-by-step process of planning using backward design.

Personally, I like to do a brainstorm of all my resource and activity ideas around a central theme (because that’s often where my excitement and creativity lie!). Then, however, I set it aside and look to the curriculum for the specific content and competencies that are important for my students to learn/practice at a specific point in the year. Once I’ve established the learning goals, I’ll break them down into a progression of lessons and outcomes. Now I’m ready to get inspired again and look back at the resources I set aside to see if or where they might fit (or not!)

Do you want more examples? This Cult of Pedagogy blog post will be of interest. Dr. Shelley Moore offers examples of Inclusive design templates and frameworks that align with a backwards design model.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Did you start by choosing the activity or the learning goal? (if you started with the activity, look at it again and ask yourself “does this activity help students achieve the learning targets?”)
    • Can you identify pieces of evidence that your lesson/unit is focusing on learning goals rather than being merely a set of activities?

3. Write good learning goals (Part 1)

Defining learning goals is essential to a effective plan. The image below describes the features and examples of what a well-defined learning goal looks like:

Source: https://citl.illinois.edu/docs/default-source/online-course-in-a-box/good-vs-bad-learning-objectives.pdf?sfvrsn=2

 

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Is your learning goal…
      1. Clear and specific?
      2. Measurable?
      3. Concise?
      4. Tied into course/curricular objectives?

4. Write good learning goals (Part 2)

When we are choosing our learning goals it is essential to pay attention to the ones that are similar to each other so that we can plan in a more focused way. Look at these three learning goals from the BC Math Curriculum (grade 3):

  • “Fractions are numbers that represent an amount or quantity”.
  • “Fractions can represent parts of a region, set, or linear model”.
  • “Fraction parts are equal shares or equal-sized portions of a whole or unit”.

Even though they are similar and these learning goals are all likely part of a unit of teaching, they likely aren’t part of a single lesson and teachers will want to plan different activities and assessments to achieve each one of them.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Are your learning goals related?
    • In what ways do the lessons/activities help students achieve these goals?
    • How do you know students have achieved the goals?

5. Connecting the why and what

In the BC Curriculum, we can interpret the Big Ideas as the “why” we teach and the content and competency as the “what” we teach, or in other words, the learning goals.

Now it’s your turn:

Look at your lesson/unit plan:

    • Do the curricular competencies and content work together to support learning around the big ideas?

6. Who are my students?

We do not plan for imaginary students but for the ones we have in our classes. Thus, it is essential to think about the student profiles and how to adapt your lessons to their needs and, potentially, their interests.

Tomlinson (2001) proposes a model to think about different student features we can consider while planning our lessons:

Source: Tomlinson, Carol A (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms

Now it’s your turn:

7. Classroom setting

Our lessons happen in a space (physical or online). Thus it is important to think about how we will organize this space for each moment of the lesson. Tomlinson (2001) gives some ideas of how a teacher can organize that space:

Source: Tomlinson, Carol A (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Have you planned the space for each moment of your class?
    • Behavioral expectations. How can different class instructional arrangements be used to deal with students’ behavior?
    • How can different classroom arrangements support your learning goals and students’ behavior?

8. Time

Our lessons also happen between some time frame. In this sense, it is not reasonable to plan the best lesson/ unit if they can not be implemented within the time limit you have.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Are your learning goals achievable within the time limit you have?
    • Do you have suggested times for each moment?
    • How many minutes are teacher-focused
    • How many minutes are student-focused?

9. What is next?

The last step in planning a lesson/ unit is to think about what is my next learning goal and how I can connect it to the current one. In other words, it is essential to think about the learning trajectory of my students and how I will support their progression.

It is important to understand how each learning goal is connected with the others. The BC Ministry of Education provides Learning Progressions to allow us to visualize and plan for curricular and cross-curricular learning.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan:
    • Have you planned the progression of your learning goals?
    • Do you know your next goals and how they are connected to the current one?

10. Warm-up and end-up moments

Now that you have a good notion of your goals and the progression of you lesson/ unit, you can ensure the warm-up and end-up moments (opener/activating strategy and closure help to create coherence throughout your whole lesson/unit.

Now it’s your turn:

  • Look at your lesson/unit plan. Consider:
    • How you will start this class?
    • How will you provide closure?
      • Why did you make these choices?
      • How do they connect to the rest of the lesson?
      • Does your opening and closing help to start and complete a discreet cycle of learning? Are there opportunities to extend learning or signals of where you are headed?

More resources to support your lesson/unit plan

Guest post by Peer Mentor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Aug. 2024.

 

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Assessment, Blog Posts, Inclusive Practices, Lesson & Unit Planning, Planning

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | August 2, 2024 · 2:47 pm

Unit Planning: one teacher’s approach

Guest post by Ariane faria-dos santos, Peer Mentor, PHD student EDCP 2022

The BC curriculum presents some challenges for teachers to plan because it requires that teachers combine Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies. The purpose is to create clear goals which will guide teachers to design assessments and activities to develop concepts and skills in their students.

However, given the multiple possibilities of combining Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies, teachers or teacher candidates may feel overwhelmed while planning without understanding how to balance these three elements.

With this challenge in mind, I’ve tried to unpack the steps of planning and propose a possible teacher’s journey through an iterative process of design using the new BC curriculum.

This video titled: Know Do Understand Model provides a very brief overview of the initial stages of the approach noted below (thank you Lexie, peer mentor 2021-22, for included it)

Step 1: integrating Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies

 

 

As a first step, one might be select a Big Idea that a teacher wants to develop with their students through this Unit Plan.

For example, if teachers want to develop the Big Idea that “Numbers to 20 represent quantities that can be decomposed into 10s and 1s” (first-graders Big Idea), teachers will need to choose the Content and Competencies aligned with that Big Idea. (Keep in mind, that Core Competencies wrap around this process and are selected for inclusion based on what is the most needed or appropriate for the context/activity)

The math example beside shows some first-grade Content and Competencies that teachers can choose to develop this Big Idea. In this sense, teachers can choose the contents of “numbers concepts to 20” and “ways to make 10”. Teachers can also choose several competencies that students will do to demonstrate that they have learned the Contents and Big Ideas of this unit planning.

In addition, it is essential to pay attention that any Content or Competence that does not help to develop this Big Idea should not be included to not generate a loss of focus on this lesson planning. For example, the Content “addition and subtraction to 20 (understanding of operation and process)” should not be included because it does not help to develop the big idea chosen as the main focus of the lesson planning.

Step 2: integrating other relevant principles, subjects, and purposes

As a next step, I like to consider other principles, subjects, and purposes that I might include to make this lesson planning richer and more interested to their students.

  • Are there any first peoples principles of learning that are aligned with step 1?
  • Are there any ADST skills that I can include in this lesson planning?
  • Are there other subjects that may be integrated into this lesson planning?
  • Are there any other important principles to me as a teacher that can be integrated and aligned into this plan?

The only caution is that teachers should pay attention if the other points chosen are coherent with step 1 or if they are changing the main focus of the lesson planning.

Step 3: understanding my students’ prior knowledge, needs, and curiousities

My third step is to understand what students already know about these Big Ideas, Content, and Competencies with the purpose to discover the entry point in planning a sequence of lesson briefs (or, one might call this a pathway).

For example, in the example above a teacher should understand (or learn) their students’ background knowledge related to number sequence, how they count, if they are able to skip and compare numbers, etc. This prior knowledge will be essential to teachers design the more appropriate sequence for students to learn the Big Ideas, Content, and Competencies of this lesson planning. For a teacher just meeting their learners, they will want to incorporate some prior learning assessment during the first few lessons in a given Unit.

As you plan assessment and lessons, it is invaluable  to consider the needs of students regarding learning. Teachers should think about the diverse learners in their classroom and plan to attend to their needs which can be related to ELL, modified programs, career, etc.  Universal Design (UDL) suggests incorporating multiple ways of communicating and allowing students to represent learning in varied, multi-modal forms.

Finally, I like to consider the particular interests and curiosities of my students, planning lessons that engage students in the teaching and learning process.

Step 4: designing the units of my lesson planning

Now that teachers know the point they should start (step 3) and what they want to achieve (step 1), teachers should divide their lesson planning into several units (step 4) to design a pedagogical path to students achieve the lessons’ goals.

There are many ways of answering these questions and teachers should consider what will more support their students’ learning process.

If you want some suggestions and ideas, you can visit the Learning Design Blog

Step 5: designing the assessments

The fifth step is related to designing all formative and summative assessments for this lesson planning. Teachers should plan when they need to understand if their students have learned and design assessments to collect pieces of evidence of learning. Teachers should also consider when to choose formative or summative assessments and the format of each of them (written, oral, in a group, etc).

  • How should I give feedback to my students regarding their learning process?
  • When do I need formative assessments throughout the lesson planning?
  • When do I need summative assessments throughout the lesson planning?
  • What format should they have?
  • Should I propose performance assessments?
  • Should I use technology to support my assessment practices?

If you want some suggestions and ideas, you can visit the Learning Design Blog

Step 6: designing the learning activities

My next step in pre-planning is to design an outline of the learning activities that will give opportunities for students to develop skills and knowledge. These activities will ‘lead’ students to proficiency on the final Big Idea, Contents, Competencies in the Unit.

  • How long do I have for each lesson (may vary depending on your schedule and how much this unit integrates across the curriculum)
  • What are my objectives for each lesson? How do these link back to the overall unit objectives?
  • How many activities will my students develop in each class? Should they work individually, peers, in a group? What resources or strategies might I include? What digital tools or other manipulatives/hands-on learning will I integrate?
  • What kind of assessment will I incorporate? Initially, Assessment as and for learning including formative assessment to help guide the teaching and learning.

Video Overview

Below you can see a wonderful example of Language and Art Unit Planning from the BC Curriculum designed by Janis Sawatzky, Langley School district:

Planning Templates:

There is no ‘one way’ – that said, here are a couple that some teacher candidates have found helpful

For more on Planning for BCs Curriculum include examples, templates and tips, please visit:

Designing Learning Blog, UBC, Teacher Ed

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Dec. 2021; Edited by Yvonne Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager, Teacher Education

KDU image reference: BC Ministry of Education https://youtu.be/lXyyZql2PZQ

Modified image (shown above with curriculum filled in) courtesy A.F.S Template – BC Curriculum

2 Comments

Filed under Blog Posts, Lesson & Unit Planning, Planning

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | July 4, 2024 · 10:57 am

BC Curriculum: Core Competencies

Understanding the Core Competencies

Core competencies of Thinking, Personal and Social, Communication

from: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

According to the Ministry of Education, there are some essential understandings related to the Core Competencies and how they are connected with the other parts of the BC Curriculum:

  1. “The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning”
  2. “Along with literacy and numeracy foundations, they are central to British Columbia’s K-12 curriculum and assessment system and directly support students in their growth as educated citizens”
  3. “Students develop Core Competencies when they are engaged in the ‘doing’ – the Curricular Competencies – within a learning area” and, therefore, are an integral part of the curriculum.
  4. Even though the Core Competencies manifest in different ways, they are interconnected and are foundational to all learning.
  5. Core competencies are developed throughout the whole students’ life (before, during, and after school graduation, both inside and outside school settings). For these reasons, schools should not only value and integrate students’ knowledge acquired outside school but also give opportunities to students to learn and/or improve these competencies.

The BC Curriculum has three Core Competencies:

Communication

These are the competencies that students should develop to establish healthier relationships with others. In this sense, students should develop two groups of communication competencies:

    1. Communicating: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop to active a good communication:
      • Connecting and engaging with others
      • Focusing on intent and purpose
      • Acquiring and presenting information.
    2.  Collaborating: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop to be able to collaborate with others:
      • Working collectively
      • Supporting group interactions
      • Determining common purposes

Thinking

These are the competencies that students should develop to improve their intellectual development and produce new understandings:

    1. Creative Thinking: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop:
      1. Creating and innovating
      2. Generating and incubating
      3. Evaluating and developing
    2. Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking: BC curriculum identifies four facets (skills) that students should develop:
      • Analyzing and critiquing
      • Questioning and investigating
      • Designing and developing
      • Reflecting and assessing

Personal and Social

These are the competencies that students should develop to help them understand their own identity in the world. There are three facets within personal and social:

    1. Personal Awareness and Responsibility
    2. Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
    3. Social Awareness and Responsibility

The BC Curriculum recognizes that Core Competencies are developed inside and outside of school. Consequently, students, teachers, and parents/ guardians have different responsibilities and roles in the process of developing Core Competencies.

To guide students, teachers, and parents/ guardians in understanding how students develop proficiency in the Core Competency, the Ministry of Education has articulated profiles, or levels in the progression of development of each one of the Core Competencies. See an example on the BC government website

How to assess Core Competencies?

Assessment is another big challenge related to the Core Competencies but essential to guarantee that each student is developing them. BC Curriculum suggests that students should self-assess their own Core Competencies, but teachers have an essential role in developing strategies and tools to support students in this task.

Several school districts have published resources to help teachers engage in articulating and helping students self-assess the core competencies:

The Provincial Outreach Program for the Early Years (Popey) has some resources including PPTs with assessment examples  to support teachers implementation in  primary and pre-primary contexts.

Teacher Kerri Hutchinson from Surrey Schools explains and gives many examples of how she has developed and supported her students to self-assess Core Competencies:

Additional resources:

If you are looking for suggestions of how to develop the Core Competencies in your classroom, the UBC Education Library has a Core Competency booklist to support teachers in this work.

References:

Ministry of Education (2022, February 25). BC Curriculum Core Competencies. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Feb. 2022.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Assessment, Core Competencies, Curriculum, Lesson & Unit Planning, Not Subject Specific, Planning

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | June 30, 2024 · 7:02 pm

Know Do Understand (KDU): a starting point in planning

section header - what is it?

The BC curriculum’s more concept and competency based curriculum, expects that teachers combine Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies as they plan learning experiences for their students. The purpose is to create clear goals which will guide teachers to design assessments and activities to develop concepts and skills in their students.

section header - why is it relevant

The KDU Planning Model can provide a simple initial planning structure and can support planning with the end in mind (backwards planning). It allows you to consider the connection with and between areas of the curriculum. and how the core competencies ‘wrap’ around or are foundational to this learning. Think of it as a cycle – The big idea is what you want the students to ultimately understand as a result of their learning; The Know section is the curricular content… they need to know this in order to develop their understanding of the Big Idea; The DO section is what you want the students to be able to Do by the end of the unit (the skills they will practice throughout the Unit that help them learn the content and develop their understanding of the Big Idea(s)!) Wrapped around all of this are the Core Competencies (more about those in the video below and later posts)

 

The BC Ministry provides background on the KDU model in this “Starting Points in Planning” PDF. The video below, titled: KDU Model, was created by Lexie, UBC Teacher Ed Peer Mentor 2020-21, and provides a very brief overview of how to consider Know-Do-Understand as you plan for teaching and learning in your context.

Here is a blog post from Ariane, peer mentor Winter 2021-22, sharing her approach to planning as she learns more about our BC curriculum.

Planning Templates as starting points:

Below we offer a few templates that align with the KDU approach. Please remember, there is no ONE approach or specific template that is required when planning for your learners. Please feel free to use, modify, adapt & share. Additional samples can be found on the Teacher Education ‘Designing Learning’ blog.

The BC Ministry of Education provides some instructional samples including this overview or lesson brief of a primary Math Unit “Patterns and Circles” and this more elaborated lesson plan example “Collapse of a Society” for Middle Years learners.

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Lesson & Unit Planning, Planning

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 15, 2022 · 8:26 am

Student-centered classrooms

What are student-centered classrooms?

The following video discussed that student-centered classrooms are focused on students’ interests and curiosities. In this sense, students choose not only what but also how they will learn. Consequently, student-centered classrooms have many specific characteristics different from traditional ones. However, these features can bring many advantages to students learning.

Source: Edutopia (2022, May 3).

Characteristics and advantages of student-centered classrooms

  • Focus on both content and competency skills: student-centered classrooms aspire to develop both academic and non-academic students’ skills. Hence, teachers design lessons focused on content and competencies which is aligned with BC Curriculum.
  • Student voice & choice: listening to student voices and designing lessons based on students’ choices and interests can improve engagement (links to external resource) in the classroom, and consequently learning. In this sense, teachers align curriculum goals with student voice and choice to produce a more engaged and even personalized teaching and learning environment. One example of this approach would be a choice board of activities or a choice in how students represent their learning.
  • Differentiation: teachers should design lessons that support students with different backgrounds and needs. To achieve all types of diversity, teachers should vary what knowledge is taught, how they present curriculum content and competencies through activities, and how they assess students learning.  Offering several teaching and learning process help to engage and reduce inequalities among students.

How do teachers design student-centered classrooms?

Stanford University explains that the process of designing student-centered classrooms may be different from more teacher-centric course design. While teacher-centered lessons prioritize content, student-centered classrooms start by selecting the learning goals that students will achieve at the end of a lesson. Student-centered design, also known as Backward Design, inverts the order of more traditional classrooms.

5 aspects of student-centered learning design: content, learning activity, assessment, learning objective, learning goal.

Stanford University (2022, May 3). Teacher-centered vs. Student-centered course design.

Source: Stanford University (2022, May 3).

References:

Edutopia (2022, May 3). Student-Centered Learning: Building Agency and Engagement. George Lucas Education Foundation. https://www.edutopia.org/video/student-centered-learning-building-agency-and-engagement.

 https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/explore-teaching-guides/online-teaching-guide/theory-practice/teacher-centered-vs-student-centered

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), May. 2022.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Active Learning, Inclusive Practices, Lesson & Unit Planning, Planning

Tagged as ,

by | November 3, 2021 · 7:10 pm

Group Work Strategies for All Classrooms

Teachers can feel overwhelmed trying to support the different needs of their students. A group work activity can be a perfect strategy to encourage students to work together, develop their collaboration skills, build classroom community, and support each other.

What is group work?

Cohen & Lotan (2014) define group work as “students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a clearly assigned learning task” which should be carried out “without direct and immediate supervision of the teacher” (p. 1). These two characteristics are essential because they allow students not only to develop academic knowledge and competencies but also to learn social skills, such as collaboration and responsibility.

However, designing group work is not easy even in a homogeneous classroom and it becomes a big challenge in a heterogeneous classroom, where students have different cultural and language backgrounds, levels of knowledge, and many other distinct characteristics.

Thinking about the possible challenges of group work, Cohen & Lotan (2014) suggest that the group and the tasks should have some features that may help to minimize inequalities in educational settings.

The status problem

Cohen & Lotan (2014) highlight a serious problem in educational places: a student has a different status in the classroom based on both external or internal factors. For example, students who have a facility for mathematics tend to be granted a high status by their peers and teachers. As another example, students for whom English is their second language tend to have a lower status in school. The idea is that schools tend to value some knowledge and skills more than others and, therefore, students from some groups will not be considered “good students” because their competencies and knowledge are not considered “high status” in school settings.

With these considerations in mind, the authors suggest that group work can help change students’ status and, consequently, improve their learning. However, group work should follow some guidelines related to group composition and the nature of the task:

Tasks

To show that all students have equal importance during the group activity, tasks should be designed to include a variety of competencies and knowledge. Students should not be able to complete the task without the collaboration of all members. In this sense, Cohen & Lotan (2014, p. 85) suggest that a task should:

  • be open-ended, productively uncertain, and require complex problem solving;
  • provide opportunities for students to use multiple intellectual abilities to access the task and to demonstrate intellectual competence;
  • address discipline-based, intellectually important content;
  • require positive interdependence and individual accountability;
  • include clear criteria for the evaluation of the group’s product and of the individual report.

 

Group composition

Cohen & Lotan (2014) argue that three points should be considered when a teacher plans the composition of a group:

1) Size of groups: groups should not be so small that they do not allow a complex interaction between members, but also not so big that they prevent all members from having meaningful participation.

2) Composing groups: the ideal composition is one that balances different skills, knowledge, and status. The authors recommend randomizing students to avoid any bias in group composition. However, teachers may want to think about specific intentions and try to diminish inequalities in their classroom.

3) Hold individuals and groups accountable: even though students are working in a group, it is important to think of both individual and group assessments. It may help to understand individual progression while also considering the value of group work.

Individual roles

Cohen & Lotan (2014) suggest that each individual in the group should have a different role; roles can help to balance power since all members will be essential to complete the task. In addition, teachers can rotate the roles between students, giving more voice to students who usually do not participate or prompting some students to develop specific skills.

The roles can change, but these are some ideas:

  • Facilitator: Ensures that everyone gets the help he or she needs to do the task. They can be responsible for seeking answers to questions within the group – the teacher is only queried if no one in the group can help.
  • Time Manager: Makes sure that the group is progressing and will conclude the task on time.
  • Materials Manager: Is responsible for getting materials and resources and putting them away properly.
  • Participation Manager: Is responsible for making sure that all members have space to express their ideas.
  • Reporter: Is responsible for organizing a group report and presenting to the class.
    • How to implement group work in the classroom?
    • This post from the University of Waterloo discusses essential steps to consider when teachers design and implement group work in their classrooms.
    • Group work can include drawings, playdough, games, or design challenges to get students thinking, discussing, and working together.
  • Groups At Work: Strategies and Structures for Professional Learning, by Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman is full of group work strategies and activities. Although these strategies are marketed for professional learning, most of them are perfect for classroom use! The strategies are broken into several categories that makes it easy to select an effective activity for your scenario:
    • Strategies for Activating (consider using these for community & relationship building – links to post in this blog)
    • Strategies for Assessing, Goal Setting & Planning (consider using these for self or peer assessment)
    • Strategies for Dialogue & Discussion (consider using these to get students talking and verbally processing concepts)
    • Strategies for Generating Ideas (consider using these for design thinking and ideation. – links to post in this blog)
    • Strategies for Summarizing & Synthesizing (consider using these to help students clarify their understandings and integrate concepts or information)
    • Strategies for Text & Information Processing (consider using these when students are interacting with texts or new information)

 

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), 2021; Updated June, 2024 by Peer Mentor Lindsay Cunningham (Ph.D. student, EDCP)

References:

Cohen, E. G., & Lotan, R. A. (2014). Designing groupwork: strategies for the heterogeneous classroom third edition. Teachers College Press.

Lipton, L., & Wellman, B. (2011). Groups at work: Strategies and structures for professional learning. MiraVia.

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Active Learning, Blog Posts, Planning, Teaching Strategies

Tagged as , , , ,

by | October 6, 2021 · 3:38 pm

All Class Response – engage & assess

Educators and researchers have long considered the benefits of students actively engaging in the classroom and how this can lead to gains in student learning. One way to achieve such engagement is by effectively incorporating all-class response or a student response system (SRS) as a part of your classroom assessment (and teaching) approaches.

Be sure to keep in mind that the efficacy of any student response system depends on the quality of the questions and how you use the system. You will learn, as part of your course work, how to develop effective questions (including multiple choice). This work will be helpful in selecting an SRS and constructing a poll or quiz for formative or summative assessment. Using an effective discussion strategy will increase the value of an SRS.

All class response (vs. hands up/volunteers), including the use of a digital student response system (SRS) can lead to greater student engagement.  Martyn’s 2007 article in Educause describes how the efficacy of assessments and increases in student learning are achieved when an SRS is coupled with socio-constructivist methods. The use of these systems along with student discussion, peer teaching and pair share can also lead to greater student satisfaction and engagement. All class response is in keeping with a large body of research supporting more inclusive approaches to assessment (Nagro et al, 2016)

Providing time for your students to share their questions and understandings is key to ensuring that learning is happening in your classroom. All-Class Response is one ‘type’ of strategy that can support engaging more, or hopefully all, learners and inviting (or even requiring) participation. Some of these strategies and tools can even support anonymity which may encourage students who are more reluctant to share orally. In some cases, responses of the group can be projected so that students are able to access the responses of others as they formulate their own thoughts.

All-Class Response and Student Response Systems (SRS)

High Tech

  • Mentimeter – polling software that allows for various types of response and graphical representations (plot graphs, bar graph, word cloud, tiled short answer response)
  • Poll Everywhere – students answer poll questions using browser, mobile app or text response
  • Socrative – create a class account to track responses, students answer using browser or mobile app
  • Answer Garden – instantly generates a word cloud of responses, no account needed
  • Kahoot – gameify learning in your classroom with ‘Kahoots’
  • Flip Grid – creating and sharing videos in a Microsoft learning tools environment (NB: many coast metro school districts use FlipGrid and other MSoft tools because of their Canadian data housing). It can also be used free as a stand alone tool.

Here’s a Student Response System Comparison Chart for an at a glance view of each of the above systems.

Low Tech

    • Plickers – all you need are free printable scan cards, a teacher account and one mobile device to record and track responses.
    • iClickers – a set of iclickers for Mac and PC are available on loan in the UBC Neville Scarfe Education Library.

No Tech – a small selection of strategies

  • Thumbs up, down, sideways
  • Red card/Green card – I had a laminated set so students could flip the cards (cards can mean yes/no, stop/go, or A/B or…?
  • Letter or number cards (each student has a set)
  • Mini Individual White Boards – to record and show responses
  • Sticky Notes – have students share their idea, question, word, wonder and place on the board, around the room, on charts. Sort and classify and organize to work with the ideas.
  • Placemat Activities: Large format paper on a desk (can be separated into grids or more free form depending on your purpose) allows a group of 3 or 4 students to share ideas at the same time. These could also be concept maps/Mind maps for even more critical thinking!
  • Write around the room: students pick a spot on the whiteboard and record responses. This could be combined with a small group discussion and one or two students then go to the board to record… space dependent though I know teachers who also use their windows and put chart paper up…

It is important to note that while these no tech approaches do not provide the anonymity that digital tools can afford, they can provide authentic opportunities for formative assessment and student voice. To leverage the ‘visibility’ of responses, a teacher might have students turn and look at the responses of others, have discussion about varied responses and even change their response.

Content co-creation and brainstorming:

Allow your students to co-create their understandings, share their ideas and questions can lead to deep learning. Here are just a few suggestions:

  • Padlet – this multi-modal response digital wall is great for brainstorming, checks for understanding and formative assessment (and now includes ability to add audio and drawing in addition to text, hyperlinks, video, images)
  • Concept mapping is a powerful tool for illustrating complex links between ideas (be they images or text). Many softwares allow for hyperlinking and embedding images and video. Mindmup is a browser based application that allows co-creation of a concept map across time and space (NB: co-creation seems to now be a paid level of access – I’m trying to find another option… Schools/Districts using Google Classroom will have co-creation access).

Some Considerations when employing Digital Tech:

  • BYOD and Access – bring your own device – Are there policies in place in my jurisdiction, school, district or are there rules in my classroom to consider? What about students who do not have access to a device? When pairing or grouping students and expecting one device in a group, do you know if the student who owns that device is willing to share it OR are there devices in the school you can borrow? What impact does it have on students when they do not have the same access as others?
  • FIPPA – Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection act – Students data should not be shared on non-Canadian housed servers… Am I protecting students data privacy? Do I have necessary permissions or consent? Am I engaging my students in critical digital literacy discussion around privacy & safety in a broader sense? School Districts will have policies in place that meet the informed consent requirements of FIPPA. Be aware of local policies. (See this helpful guide from BCTF to support teachers and parents)

Additional Resources & Strategies:

Chapter 4 of Leahy and Williams’, Embedding Formative Assessment, makes a case for ‘all student response’ and limiting teacher questions to only those that propel learning. This book is a valuable addition to any teacher’s library and clearly links theory with practical strategies and relevant advice. (UBC Library has a copy)

BackChannel Chat:

By allowing students to voice their ideas or ask questions during a lecture or class work period using electronic tools such as those built into most learning management systems and widely available free online, you are providing opportunities for students to ask just-in time questions, share thoughts and connect with one another; potentially increasing student engagement and learning. These potential benefits come with ‘management’ needs and requires the development of a set of expectations in the classroom that student can follow. This can take time, usually involves some trial and error but is a risk that may be worth taking when one considers the increase in student agency that can result from the moderate risk. The notion that engaging the ‘backchannel’ during lectures and classes can add a more active component to what are sometimes more passive forms of teaching is taking hold with the growth in BYOD (bring your own device) in secondary and post-secondary classrooms.

High Tech

  • Mentimeter is one ‘tool’ example. Many other SRS’s can be used in the same way.
  • Teams and Google Classroom have their own backchannels and response systems either built in or that can be integrated depending on District permissions and access.

Low/No Tech

  • Question box – allow students to note questions on a slip of paper and pop into a question box. I’ve also had students flag a page in their notebook prior to handing in with a sticky note.

Random Selection

This isn’t strictly speaking an all-class response strategy but may encourage participation. In some instances, it may be acceptable to have an understanding in the class or in a particular lesson that you may randomly call on students to respond to questions, to share ideas or their wonders. When using this strategy, it is important to ensure you are equitable and that you are considerate of your learners… if the questions is very high level and/or will likely NOT return an appropriate or correct response, then probably best to avoid this approach. If the question is accessible and you give prior warning and you are confident all learners will have the ability to at least make good attempts, then these approaches might be employed:

High Tech:

  • Random Name Generator – there are several available online including some developed for interactive whiteboards/Smartboards. Ensure you do not include full names or other identifying info and always check out privacy policies. I’ve played with this one (developed by a Principal in the UK) https://www.transum.org/software/RandomStudents/

Low/No Tech:

  • Popsicle Stick names, Playing Cards, Bingo card, etc – Teacher draws a name at random and student responds
  • The teacher might encourage more responses by providing students with tokens and asking that they try to ‘use’ a token during each class discussion… this can also help limit the ‘over-responders’ who sometimes don’t leave space for others (i.e. they can only ‘spend’ up to X tokens each discussion…)

The value of anonymous responses…

We know that adolescent learners appreciate, or some would even say require, the opportunity to participate anonymously. Due to their sometimes heavy reliance on peer approval, students at this age can be reluctant to share their views orally. For this reason, employing an SRS can give voice to quieter learners and generate more honest responses. Of course, anonymity comes with risks so be sure to consider the following:

  • How are responses published, shared or viewed?
  • Can I moderate responses? (i.e. can I see them and approve them before they are ‘live’ to the students)
  • Can students change their responses or provide multiple responses?
  • Can I archive or track student responses in some way? (do I need to?)
  • How will I respond if a student posts an inappropriate response?
  • How can I create a class climate the promotes risk taking and accountability?
  • consider small group response vs. individual response – students discuss their ideas and, using one device for the group, record their response… this can lessen the potential for inappropriate responses especially where the teacher is actively engaged in/with the class by circulating and checking in.

Closing Notes:

Remember that creating a positive classroom climate and cultivating a place of respect and value takes intention, time and patience on the part of the teacher.
Any tool or strategy may take practice. Give yourself (and your students) the benefit of trying something more than once. If it’s a tool, try allowing time to ‘play’ with it in a low stakes way so that students can learn the affordances.

References

Low-tech classroom response systems(Clickers). (n.d.). New York Tech. Retrieved October 26, 2023, from https://www.nyit.edu/ctl/blog/low-tech_classroom_response_systems

Nagro, S. A., Hooks, S. D., Fraser, D. W., & Cornelius, K. E. (2016). Whole-group response strategies to promote student engagement in inclusive classrooms. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48(5), 243–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059916640749

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Active Learning, Blog Posts, Digital Tools and Apps, Inclusive Practices, Planning, Resources

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,