Tag Archives: planning

by | November 1, 2023 · 3:26 pm

Planning and Studying Tips

Congratulations!

You made it to the Bed program, and you have made it through a busy two months!

You have probably got a sense of the weekly tasks and potential study routine(s).

Since the start of the BEd. program, we (peer mentors) have had several discussions with teacher candidates about study tips for the Bed program, so we thought of sharing these.

1. Plan ahead of time

It is easy to get caught up in overthinking about a “big” assignment that is due in two weeks, getting ready for tomorrow’s class, thinking of housekeeping tasks, and at the same time, feeling I am just tired, I wish I could have a break.

Planning ahead helps keep our busy minds calm and focused on the current task in hand:

    1. Look at your current class schedule, and highlight ‘free time slots’ that you could dedicate to do ‘deep work‘ such as doing class readings or working on an assignment.
      Take into account other tasks such as lunch breaks, commute time, family/social time, and free time to unwind.
      These time slots could be in the early mornings, between classes, or after classes on weekdays, or on the weekend.
    2. Look at each course and consider its ‘weekly workload‘, that is the nature of its readings and assignments. Have an estimate guess when you could possibly work on it. This could be the day before class, on a weekend, or on a weekday that has late classes or few number of classes. Jot down on your schedule the task for each ‘deep work’ time slot.
    3. Consider the ‘deadlines‘ of big projects/assignments, and think of the time needed to prepare for them. This could be a long time slot on a weekend, or a dedicated weekly time slot.

2. Stay focused on the task at hand!

Now that you have an outline of working hours throughout the week and month, don’t overthink about upcoming deadlines, since you have these scheduled in your plan. Instead, only think and work on that task during its dedicated time slot. Make sure not be distracted by social media when working on a particular task.

3. Know your peak learning/productivity time

Some of us are early birds waking up early, others are night owls staying up late at night. Some of us prefer to have an unwinding routine before working, others would like to start with the big tasks and relax in the afternoon. Whatever it is, know you preferred work style, and stay attuned to it.

4. Find your ‘preferred’ working spot

 

Find your preferred spot where you could focus the best, that could be at a certain library on campus, a certain café, or at home. (For example, I have found that I tend to focus the best when I am at the Chapmans Learning Commons, at IKB, where students from different disciplines work quietly for long hours)

5. Take breaks

Take breaks whenever you feel are needed and make the most of the time in between. Beyond class times, there are many moments of walking and socializing that could be rejuvenating and refreshing. Enjoy these moments!

6. Allow for Flexibility and Spontaneity

It feels nice to be in control of your schedule, yet this is not always the case. We all have bad days or days when we feel drained. I tend to listen to my body, if I need a rest or feel like doing something else, I could skip that task, do something entertaining and schedule another slot for the task I missed. I know that this break will actually refresh me and help me do better.

7. Use Audio-to-text apps to help with readings

If you would like to listen to some of your class readings on your commute or during a walk, try these audio-to-text option, for example, Natural Reader.


We hope these tips are helpful! Please share with us any other tips that you have been doing in the past and have found useful!

 

Guest Post: Nashwa Khedr, EDCP graduate student, peer mentor 2023

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by | October 15, 2022 · 8:21 am

Classroom Discussions

What are classroom discussions?

group of multi-ethnic students engaging in a discussion outdoors at school.

Remember: Discussions can occur outdoors!

Classroom discussion can be defined as an oral activity where teachers and students develop together a specific curriculum content or competency through each other ideas. “The purposes of a discussion are to build collective knowledge and capability in relation to specific instructional goals and to allow students to practice listening, speaking, and interpreting, agreeing and disagreeing” (Teaching Works, 2022, May 2). In this sense, students use the ideas, words, explanations, and interaction with their teacher and peers as a resource for their own learning.

Classroom discussions are not merely to help students answer a question but to establish a conversation. This conversation may begin with a provocation, have a beginning, a sequence of processes, and an end or closure. What happens during the process is essential to developing the content and competencies of the curriculum and achieving teaching goals. Differing opinions, moderating interaction, taking turns, etc, are essential to developing student competencies and helping students to deeply explore content. Therefore, classroom discussions are a teaching and learning process that believes that students will accomplish curriculum goals together, through the process of sharing ideas (Teaching Works, 2022, May 2). Well-designed and orchestrated class discussions can help build classroom community.classroom community (links to post in this blog).

Classroom discussions can occur in both synchronous and asynchronous contexts. When planning an asynchronous discussion, teachers should consider the ability of students to self-regulate and manage the discussion. When discussing critical issues, the teacher may need to monitor and help guide the discussion. The Bell Foundation provides some suggestions for how to improve classroom talk that can improve students’ ability to participate in synch and asynch discussions.

Why are classroom discussions important?

Classroom discussions are important because they develop both academic and non-academic skills in students. Communicating is essential to living in the current society and developing a healthy democracy. Being able to share, justify, defend, listen, and understand diverse perspectives and ideas is one of the most important competencies that human beings use in our current world. Hence, students need to learn these skills to be successful in their adult life.

Moreover, classroom discussions support student development during their school years. Through classroom discussions, students can learn to make sense of complex ideas and organize their thoughts. Students can also develop the confidence to present their views and use evidence to justify them. Finally, classroom discussions can support teachers to reveal students’ conceptions and misunderstandings about a topic, helping them to identify contents and concepts that need to be better explained in a lesson.

However, developing rich classroom discussions is a complex task that may generate several problems if teachers do not conduct the process well. Teachers should know how to value different views and pay attention to each child’s needs. Therefore, the challenge (and secret) is to be conscious of all micro details involved in classroom discussions, as we will show next.

What are elements of a rich classroom discussion?

The Teaching Works Team (2022, May 2) from the teacher education program of the University of Michigan defends that teaching practices should be unpacked in chunks or elements to support novice teachers to develop these skills. In this sense, they divide the task of developing classroom discussion into several parts and elements, detailing what teachers should pay attention to in each part. In the next sections, we will details these steps and elements as well as complement them with additional resources and orientations.

Source: (Teaching Works Team, 2022, May 2)

Preparing for a discussion

1. Selecting a task:

Teachers should choose tasks, texts, and materials that allow multiple views, discussions, and solutions for a topic/question, encouraging students to explore different possibilities and arguments. Teachers may need to adapt a task to support multiple views and disrupt inequalities.

2. Anticipating student thinking:

Teachers should think about possible questions, mistakes, or understanding that students may have about the topic. This means both activating previous knowledge but also anticipating problems that may deviate students’ attention from the curriculum goals in that classroom discussion.

3. Setting up the task:

Teachers should select the purpose of the activity and prepare the orientations to support students’ work. In this sense, teachers also should plan the moments for students to work independently, in small groups, or with the whole class as well as the resources needed to develop the discussion.

Conducting the Discussion in class

1. Launching the discussion:

2. Orchestrating the discussion:

Teachers should pay attention to a couple of elements and tasks that will create thinking routines to explore and deepen their understanding of a topic. The following elements may happen in a different order but, according to Harvard’s Project Zero, they should be part of any Thinking Routine (links to Harvard’s Project Zero) chosen by teachers:

    • Eliciting the discussion: teachers should state the multiple ideas that their students are bringing, helping them to see several points and arguments during the discussion.
    • Orienting students’ attention: teachers should ask to students pay attention to specific ideas and contributions of their peers, encouraging them to learn with each other.
    • Encouraging student participation: teachers should encourage all students to expose their ideas and control who ideas have been highlighted or ignored. It helps that classroom discussion not only become richer since diverse ideas will be developed but also supports decreasing inequity among students.
    • Probing new questions: teachers should put new questions that support students to explore and deepen the topic, move to the next learning step process, or summarize what they have discussed.
    • Making contributions: teachers should make contributions or introduce ideas/ concepts that were not brought by students but are essential to achieve the purposes of the discussion. If possible, teachers should connect these new ideas/concepts with what has already been discussed validating students’ contributions and establishing connections with previous knowledge.

3. Concluding the class discussion:

    • Supporting summary: teachers should support students to summarize and remember what has been discussed, helping to establish the most relevant points worked during the class and issues that they will develop in the next classes.
    • Acknowledge student contribution: teachers should highlight, with examples, how students’ ideas were essential to developing both content and competencies during the class.

4. Evaluating (after the discussion)

The final step is to reflect on what has happened in the classroom discussion to evaluate what works (or not) and how to improve future discussions.

Elements to consider as you plan, conduct and reflect

1. Maintaining a focus on the instructional objectives: teachers should always direct each student’s intervention to build some knowledge or example that will help to achieve content and competencies goals.

2. Monitoring students’ work: teachers should pay attention to what students are discussing in their groups and which ideas/ people are been highlighted. In this sense, teachers will be able to use students’ work to develop the content and prevent inequalities or bias in the discussion.

3. Seeing and disrupting patterns that reproduce inequalities: teachers should make interventions to stop patterns that may generate inequalities. These interventions do not need to be explicit. For example, teachers can use the work of a student who may not always be recognized as one of the more advanced or capable students in the class to exemplify a topic, helping to improve student status among his/her peers.

4. Recording the representation of content: teachers might record (on the board to the whole class or just to themself) what students are saying during the whole process because it can support the teaching and learning process. Students might also take notes as the discussion ensues. The notes can be used for formative assessment to help teachers understand students’ struggles and misconceptions, or to help with review to demonstrate student thinking or rationality and understanding of an issue. Teachers might find strategies to make student learning visible (Project Zero). Recording could take the form of a digital whiteboard (link to post in this blog) for all to see or for future reference, sorting & classifying ideas, etc.

Strategies to increase classroom engagement

There are many ways to design and lead a discussion to support more active classroom engagement. Teachers should also consider context including the age, background, needs and preferences of their students.

  • In her blog, teacher Jennifer Gonzales also provides some suggestions. You might also listen to the Cult of Pedagogy #28 Class Discussion Strategies podcast (see embed below).
  • Liberating Structures provides a menu of varied activities for discussion and group work.
  • Harvard’s Project Zero offers Thinking Routines that teachers can implement across grade levels and across the curriculum.
  • The Teaching Works Team from UMichigan, offers an open library of Curriculum Resources that include strategies to support teaching in specific aspects of the curriculum and for more interdisciplinary approaches.
  • The Bell Foundation is a charity that seeks to . The Bell Foundation website contains frameworks for discussion including video demonstrations and lesson plans for structures including ‘Information Gap’ activities such as JigSaws.

How might challenging or high-stakes topics be addressed?

Classroom discussions about challenging or complex topics need extra teachers’ attention because unexpected reactions may appear and some rules should be established to guarantee respect. The University of Michigan has prepared a specific orientation on how to conduct classroom discussions about challenging or high-stakes topics (UMich). Moreover, Edutopia discusses how classroom norms can support teachers during challenging discussions.

What can classroom discussions look like in each content area?

Teaching Works Team (2022, May 2) from the teacher education program of the University of Michigan has many specific tips and classroom resources for different subjects:

Additional Resources:

 

 

The courses below bring many classroom videos as examples of how to conduct good classroom discussions. They break down real situations and show how teachers dealt with these, conducting rich classroom discussions:

University of Pennsylvania (Coursera):

University of Michigan:

References:

Project Zero (2022, April 30). Project Zero’s Thinking Routine Toolbox. Harvard Graduation School of Education. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/

Liberating Structures (2022, April 30). Liberating Structures Menu. https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu/

Rochester Community Schools (2022, April 30). Think from the middle. Discourses Strategies. http://www.rcsthinkfromthemiddle.com/discourse-strategies.html 

Teaching Works (2022, May 2). High-Leverage Practices. Teaching Works. https://www.teachingworks.org/work-of-teaching/high-leverage-practices.

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), May. 2022; edited Y.Dawydiak April 2024

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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.

 

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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

 

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by | October 16, 2020 · 3:00 am

BC Curriculum: Planning Templates

The Learning Design Blog is a resource developed by Claire Rushton, Director TEO & Yvonne Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager. We gathered some templates from across school districts and developed some resources with faculty to support TCs in planning for practicum.

As TCs develop their understanding of planning and begin to engage in designing learning experiences for their students and for class assignments, they may be supported with some starting points and easily accessible links related to many different aspects of planning: from indigenous perspectives to digital technology integration and assessment. While this isn’t a comprehensive resource, we have tried to source quality materials we (as former Faculty Advisors and cohort coordinators) feel will support pre-service teachers. Please remember, there is more to planning than filling boxes!

Visit the Learning Design Blog to learn more!  

and remember, these are suggestions – there is more than one way to plan!

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by | August 13, 2020 · 8:32 pm

Learning about and through Food: podcast resource post

Food is an interdisciplinary concept that intertwines through a wide range of subjects: home economics, science, math, arts, and many more.

In Episode 5 of our recently launched Thinking outside the Sandbox podcast, Dr. Kerry Renwick, Dr. Susan Gerofsky, and Dr. Lorrie Miller share their ideas and experiences with respect to food and the development of interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Below are a few resources that might be used to support each of the main points discussed in this episode:

1. Home Economics and Interdisciplinarity

Dr. Kerry Renwick shares how the concept of food could be intertwined with biology, chemistry, as well as issues of race and class.

The topic of food could be used as an entry point to discuss many topics and disciplines. Various interdisciplinary food-related activities and lesson plans are available at Teach BC:

  • Our Animal Neighbours; this unit identifies how animals were and continue to be relied upon and an important part of the lives of First Peoples; furs and skins for clothing and shelter, meat for food, bone, and antler for tools and weapons, etc.
  • Forced from home; this unit explores refugees’ experience with finding food
  • Mock Advertisement: Sustainable Community Lesson Plan; introduces marketing and advertising tactics aimed at children and youth, including those involving food and supplements.

Other resources are available at Teach BC that teach about food in relation to other cultures and geographic regions.

2. Learning from and in School Gardens

Dr. Susan Gerofsky spoke of her experience of the UBC Orchard Gardens where teachers could experiment with teaching outdoors. Check the UBC Orchard garden blog for more ideas on teaching, learning, and growing in the outdoor classroom.

  • Growing your own food helps you eat fresh fruits and vegetables, helps you choose which fertilizers and pesticides come in contact with your food, and control when to harvest your food, thus having more nutrients in your garden-grown vegetables, as highlighted in this Harvard Health Letter.
  • Engage your students with gardening their food in the school garden, or in one of the nearby community gardens.
  • Encourage your students to learn about gardening through the various activities and lesson plans provided by Kids Gardening.
  • Another interesting interdisciplinary idea in relation to gardens would be to encourage students to share their inspirations and reflections through writing poems. Explore this learning experience with the garden as a co-teacher where teacher candidates wrote their poems from the garden.

3. Food Literacy

Dr. Kerry Renwick elaborated on “food literacy” highlighting topics as food choice and responsibility when buying food, as well as seasonality and harvesting options/decisions.

Food literacy is knowledge, attitudes, and skills about food. This includes understanding the connections between food, health, and wellbeing; knowing how to select nutritious foods; and understanding what constitutes a healthy diet, as explained by Healthy Schools BC.

4. Engaging with Aboriginal Knowledge and Understanding

Dr. Kerry Renwick spoke of the importance of incorporating Aboriginal ways of learning about food specifically on sustainable ways of dealing with food.

FNESC  (First Nations Education Steering Committee) provides various resources that highlight food in relation to First Nations Knowledge.

    • Science: Traditional Aboriginal cultures used natural resources for transportation, shelter, and food gathering.
    • Social Studies: Aboriginal peoples developed distinct foods, medicines, and clothing.
  • For Grades 5-9, there is a teacher resource guide titled  “Science First Peoples”, which highlights First Peoples’ connection to the land for food. Examples include:
    • Science grade 5: How does Traditional Knowledge about body systems help First Peoples prepare and store food for the winter?
    • Science grade 6: How does Traditional Knowledge about life cycles help First Peoples harvest food in their territories?
    • Science grade 7: How did/do First Peoples use their knowledge of organisms’ survival needs- including food-to modify the environment for harvesting? (e.g. clam gardens, controlled burning, herring roe harvesting ), as well as other resources and activities.

5. Creative ways for sustainable engagement with food consumption

Dr. Lorrie Miller spoke of creative ways to make use of food scraps, one of which is food dyes.

  • More ideas on creating natural dyes from food waste could be found here.
  • Review these tips on how to compost kitchen scraps.
  • Check this teacher’s guide by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority & Source Reduction and Recycling Board, San Leandro, California, for activities on how to bring compost into the classroom as a valuable teaching tool.
  • Inspiration on ways of growing vegetables from kitchen food scraps is available in this blogpost by the UBC Orchard Garden.

Guest Post: Nashwa Khedr, EDCP graduate student, project assistant 2020

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by | March 1, 2020 · 4:41 pm

Taking a dip into inquiry planning & resource curation – LLED 351

Designing a cross-curricular unit plan that incorporates aspects of student inquiry is a major assignment in LLED 351, Literacy Practices and Assessment, and also excellent practice for practicum and future planning. The following resources were developed to assist BEd students in completing this assignment but are helpful to anyone getting started with inquiry-based learning.

Trevor MacKenzie Characteristics of Inquiry Poster

with permission from https://www.trevormackenzie.com/school-posters

When designing learning experiences to support all learners in your class, it is essential to consider your learners and context. A teacher will ask themselves a variety of questions to ensure they are planning objectives and activities to engage, support and extend learning for all learners in their classroom. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) supports this approach and recommends that teachers think ahead about all learners rather than relying solely on differentiation. This doesn’t mean that differentiation isn’t of value – it is! See this link for some strategies. What it means is that UDL will help to ensure the teacher is cognizant of planning for the success of a far wider range of students lessening the need to explicitly and individually differentiate as you teach.

Here are the slides from our in -class session to help review inquiry, planning, accessing and evaluating resources.

UNIT PLAN EXAMPLES

In our session, we discussed topical research projects we often see in K-7 classrooms that might involve students researching specific aspects of a given topic (for example, if animals, students may be asked to learn about the Appearance, Food, Habitat, Life Cycle, etc.; if planets, they might find out about appearance, size, density, gravity, location/position, etc; if a Country study or Ancient Civilization study, they might find out about the culture, religion, population/people, etc…).

To put a more inquiry oriented ‘spin’ on this traditional topical research practice, the teacher might provide a guiding or essential question (or the students might co-create questions) to provide a REAL purpose for gathering the information. A couple of examples:

  1. Dinosaurs or animals – Which animal would make the best pet and why? Students learn about different dinosaurs (including appearance, food, habitat etc) in order to determine what dinosaurs needs and how they might adapt to life in our class, in our homes, in this particular habitat etc.
  2. Space – on which planet would you prefer to live and/or what would you need to survive? You might even incorporate ADST by designing and cardboard prototyping a tool that would support survival (thanks to one of Lisa’s students for this suggestion!)

Examples of Unit plans that incorporate elements of inquiry (remember, what these look like can vary greatly… these are simply examples!)

Digital technology links:

Resource Evaluation and Setting Criteria:

As students engage in inquiry, you might have them develop their digital literacies. Consider helping them learn to effeftively evaluate resources! In our session, we look at the  “Tree Octopus”  and students worked to determine the validity of the site and provide evidence for their reasoning. You can find similar activity ideas to help your students develop digital literacies on MediaSmarts (Canadian developed). You can even search the resources by province, grade level, and curriculum.

As we developed criteria, it was impressive that the class was able to come up with most of those that one would use to evaluate a resource! Please remember to come up with your own 5 finger rule for evaluation (or feel free to adapt one you find – be sure to cite your sources)

  • Is it verifiable using external resources? Is it reliable? How do I know?
    • Authorship or sponsorship or ownership.
      • Using WhoIs you can try to identify the domain owners of a particular website – can help determine ‘fake news sites’
      • Check the About page
    • Time, when was it published? is it dated or still relevant or current (or appropriate!)
  • Appearance, navigation, organization, accessibility – including thinking about reading level, learning differences, use of visuals, text heavy, use of text features (bolding, captions, chunking etc)
  • Language use (leads to credibility and also accessibility) – is it text heavy? is it visual? Are there frequent errors in grammar etc? Does it use a lot of jargon or does it use scientific language? What is the appropriate register of language for your needs? your student needs?

5 Finger Rule for Website evaluation (for your interest/reference) – from Kathy Schrock’s guide to everything. (links to additional critical evaluation resources from Kathy’s site)

TEMPLATES for planning?

Personally, I really like the Unit Planning template designed by the Coquitlam school district. I find that the question prompts support TCs and beginning teachers in particular as they consider their students’ needs. Working with Claire Rushton, Director of the Teacher Ed Office here in Scarfe, I’ve put together an ‘in progress’ UBC blogs resource site with planning templates we’ve created or gathered, resource links and examples: Designing Learning. Should you select a template, it is important that it doesn’t simply become a task of ‘filling boxes’ – more importantly, you want to consider how the learning path or sequence of learning helps build students towards their understanding of the ‘Big Idea’ or Essential Question.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & Resources

Scaffolding Inquiry:

Keep in mind as you plan that inquiry can take different forms. It does not have to look like a completely ‘free and open’ student directed process and it is important to scaffold for student success. See this short video about Trevor McKenzie’s illustration of the swimming pool as a representation of the ‘stages’ or kinds of inquiry.

Know your Students – Inclusive approaches:

As mentioned earlier, knowing your students is critical. I’d suggest creating a class profile (a profile of sorts is, I believe, required for your assignment) and even, at the start of practicum or beforehand, surveying each of your students individually to learn about their preferences, interests, etc. This information (in addition to knowing if they have access to a digital device they can bring to school regularly) can be of value in planning for engagement and success! Shelley Moore has done some excellent work on inclusion and has several examples of class and student profiles – Templates here: https://blogsomemoore.com/shout-outs/templates/.

The Learning for All pdf is an assessment guide from the Ontario Ministry of Ed, 2013  P.34 contains info about creating class profiles (more in-depth than needed for this course assignment, but of possible interest/use in your teaching.)

Students can create their own learner profiles – an excellent metacognitive activity that supports core competencies.

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