Ten Things We Should Say Everyday (and Why They're Important)

Sydney Church of England Grammar is also known as the 'Shore School'

Earlier this year I attended the Project Zero conference at the Sydney Church of England Grammar School. It was ace, and I've already written about some of the other professional learning I did there on feedback processes and pushing for depth in student thinking. The conference itself was a great opportunity and saw over 500 people in attendance from the full gamut of Australian schools - state schools, independent schools, religious schools, and other educational sectors - and I recommend checking it out the next time it comes around.

One of the keynote lectures drew on the concept of a culture of thinking, with Dr Ron Ritchhart speaking quite passionately about the joy of 'learning together' and defining a culture as a shared language that represents a collective way of thinking. In the case of a learning culture, Dr Ritchhart identified several cultural forces that can shape this shared language:

• Routines
• Opportunity
• Modelling
• Time
• Interactions
• Environment
• Language
• Expectations

In the specific case of modelling, Dr Ritchhart elaborated further by describing this as demonstrating good practice and thinking aloud. More particularly, modelling of exemplar responses allows students to explicitly see how teacher cognition works, and - in the words of the great educator Vygotsky - lets "Children grow into the intellectual life around them". 

And that brings us to the title of this post, the ten things that Dr Ritchhart says we should say to students everyday. I've jotted them down here with his explanations of why they're important.

Dr Ron Ritchhart's presentation ^

1. Hello and Goodbye - all students need to feel known and acknowledged. Disruptive behaviour decreases, learning and engagement increases. Try not to be busy during this transition time while students are entering and leaving the class. 
2. WMYST?: What Makes You Say That? - make this an integral part of the classroom. Ask students this question so that they are forced to become more independent in terms of responding to class activities, providing their own thoughts rather than relying on the teacher's.
3. Talk to me about what you're doing - with this prompt, students are also being asked to make their metacognitive process more visible. Leave it open-ended, let the student find their own way to articulate what they're doing.
4. Here's where we're going with this - purpose is important. When people have a sense of purpose their learning increases dramatically. There is no research supporting 'learning intentions', the research tends to centre around 'purpose' instead, and this is because they aren't the same thing - stating a learning intention may not be as effective or the same thing as the broader purpose of something.
5. Here's the thinking you'll need to do... - when teachers explain an assignment or project to students we tend to get into the logistics by default. Then students fulfill these logistics and are surprised when they do get an A, and some aren't even sure how it happened or how it can be replicated. As teachers we need to keep in mind that i's the thinking that needs to be striven for, not the result.  
6. Let's debrief - new learning is incredibly fragile, so it's important to go over it to help reinforce/consolidate what students have just learned. Students in a high school setting are most often about to move on to another class or activity with completely different demands (for example, once the student finishes English they may be about to move on to their Mathematics or Geography class). One way that Dr Ritchhart highlighted was the 'IQ routine' in which students are invited to give insights and ask further questions at the end of each lesson.
7. I've noticed... - contrast this with 'I liked', which flips attention back onto the teacher. The language of 'I've noticed' is that it's less about turning students into people-pleasers and more about them considering what they've just done as learners. 
8. We - this creates a sense of community with the students.
9. I'm sorry - teachers need to be willing to admit mistakes, rather than seeing apology as a sign of weakness. 
10. Wow! - give students an opportunity to surprise us. Delight in their learning. If there are no 'wow' moments then you're playing too safe. 

More on this can be found on Dr Ron Ritchhart's website here.

Making Feedback a Big Rock

One of my mentors, a History/English teacher named Yvette Woodrow, once told me to "Pick what you want to be good at". There's a lot to consider when it comes to being a teacher in the 21st century; first and foremost are our students - teaching them, assessing them, assisting them in their journeys through school, and fulfilling our duty of care as their legal supervisors. Then there are other elements of our job (and I don't think I could ever successfully list all of these here without missing something) so here's just a few:

• Administration pertaining to student attendance
• Programming / writing resources
• Building behaviour management protocols that can be used beyond the immediate time and place
• Monitoring and assisting in the welfare of students, also beyond the immediate time and place of the classroom
• Professional learning 
• Collecting data in support of whole school initiatives and student growth
• Timetabling classes and playground duties
• Organising excursions 
• Report writing and parent-teacher evenings
• Year Advising
• Working in conjunction for Federation to support issues such as staff wellbeing and Gonski funding
• Whole school programs separate to our assigned classes, such as: Literacy and Numeracy initiatives, supporting AIME and other diversity-specific mentoring, after-school homework assistance programs, Gifted and Talented projects, sports coaching, student-led discussion and special interest groups, Positive Behaviour for Learning, learning support, leadership programs, community links, debating and public speaking, Tournament of the Minds, music and dance and drama performance evenings, etc.

You would be hard pressed to be doing all of these things well all of the time. So when I went to the Project Zero 2017 Sydney Conference a few weeks back and was shown a particular video I found myself thinking of what Yvette said: pick what you want to be good at.

The video in question is Stephen Covey's philosophy on 'Big Rocks'...

This clip was used by Rachel Merhebi, a HSIE teacher from the Ku-ring-gai High School Action Research Team, in support of a session titled 'Making Feedback a Big Rock'. It put me in mind of Yvette's maxim because we can't do everything as teachers, just as we can't in life. We have to work out the priorities first and then make these the 'big rocks'.

Okay. Metaphor over.

Ms. Merhebi took us through a few ideas centered around feedback, some of which were influenced by the texts Power of Protocol by McDonald, Mohr, Dichter, and McDonald, and Feedback edited by Robbie M. Sutton. The driving question for this professional learning was: How can I help my students become more disposed to seeking feedback?

Part of this process is establishing the kind of feedback we want to provide for our students, and Ms. Merhebi drew the conclusion that feedback should be:

• Descriptive
• Goal-oriented
• Specific
• Actionable
• Constructive
• Timely

In the case of peer feedback, the main areas to focus on should for it to be specific and constructive. The reason for concentrating the feedback in this way is that when peer assessment is involved we want to keep in mind that it's just as useful for the student giving the feedback as it is for the student who receives it. I've found that engaging my Advanced English students in the process of giving feedback has been an effective activity in directing their focus towards discrete essay writing skills.

For the Preliminary and HSC Advanced English comparative study modules I've made use of a peer editing proforma as part of the essay writing process. These modules are: Animal Farm and Elysium for Year 11, and the 1984 and Metropolis option for Year 12. In order for students to meet the 'reflection' requirements of the assessment task (for both modules) they need to have at least two students complete peer editing proformas for their work.

The proforma they use is here.

In addition to this I was inspired by Ms. Merhebi's session to make use of one of the many strategies she outlined. This particular approach comes from Creative Cultures of Thinking educator Simon Brooks and involves running individual feedback sessions for students. The basic gist is that the student comes along to a pre-arranged appointment, receives feedback from the teacher on the spot as the teacher marks the piece of writing right there, and then walks away with specific goals.

Simon Brooks - Professional Development guru

It sounds fairly straightforward and, really, it is - but I also found it to be quite empowering for the students, and immensely practical for me.

Putting it into Practice

The reason I waited until now to write this blog (rather than writing it directly after the Project Zero conference) was that I wanted to see how this approach went.

There are so many great ideas at professional learning conferences like Project Zero that it's just about impossible to put all of these ideas into practice. This brings us back to Yvette's wisdom and the 'big rocks' approach. Whilst sitting in Rachel Merhebi's workshop I decided to zone in on just this one strategy as something I'd like to try. I picked something and ran with it, rather than tried to note all the things. That might just sound like commonsense to some of you... for me it's a piece of advice that I need to constantly keep in mind so I don't drown in trying to do too much.

Anyway, here's my recount of how this feedback approach went down:

1. I had students undertake a past HSC Creative Writing question in exam conditions during class time. It was something I wanted to provide some meaningful feedback on as I find it difficult to embed creative writing into the set modules for the HSC.
2. I collected the responses and then put made available a booking sheet where up to 5 students could book in to see me in one of six times (a couple of my lunchtimes and non-teaching periods that overlapped with their own study periods). 
3. The students then came to see me in groups of 1-5 and I sat them down independently for ten minutes at a time.
4. Before this point I didn't even read the responses. The key idea that Ms. Merhebi spoke about was that it should be assessed in front of the students so they can see what the process is. The bonus of doing it in this way is that I'm also not spending time marking responses for those senior students who aren't interested, which is very practical when it comes to non-formally assessed tasks. 
5. While sitting with the student I read the piece and talk them through what works and what doesn't, show them the HSC criteria, and give them an idea of what needs to be aimed for the next time they write a creative piece under the same conditions. Something that many of the students struggled with was to sustain their idea across at least three to four pages within the time limit given, so the advice could include a goal in the sense that they should aim to increase the length of their piece by a page each time we undertake a past HSC Discovery Creative question.

 And so ends this freewheeling account of professional learning and feedback ideas.

Pushing for Depth in Our Students' Thinking - David Camp

The Shore School (also known as the Sydney Church of England Grammar School). What a view!

It's a drizzly, slightly-steamy Saturday morning in Milson's Point, and I'm mingling with the learning cultures set at the Shore School for the 2017 'Cultures of Thinking' Conference. This convergence of teachers from all sectors of education comes at the behest of Project Zero, the Harvard School of Education's 50 year-old investigation into the Arts as a cognitive science.

It's free professional learning, which in my mind is one of the best kinds, and it's the best way to end a teaching week. Imagine contrasting the chaotic daily challenges that come with teaching in a comprehensive high school setting with a day of positive pedagogy. The sharing of growth-promoting teaching practice not only meets our Professional Standards for Standard 6 (Engage in Professional Learning); it also feels good and enables me to continue developing my approach to the classroom. 

There was mention made today of 'learning teachers'. If I'm anything in my job, I believe that I'm a 'learning teacher'. I won't ever stop learning and it's explicit exploration of this concept that continues to give my job meaning and, if I'm honest, adds value to my life.

David Camp is Head of English at the Emmanuel School, a Jewish school in Randwick, and he presented a fantastic session on rendering thinking more visible in line with Project Zero's aims for building a more pragmatic and embedded 21st century learning culture.

I've written before about Project Zero's See Think Wonder activity but it's always useful to revisit this practical tool for visible thinking with different examples, and Mr Camp showed us a great example in his session, which I'll outline below.

But firstly, to recap, the See Think Wonder paradigm asks for the responder to look at a text and ask the following questions, in this order:

1. What do you see
2. What does that make you think about?
3. What does it make you wonder?

Watch the Pink Floyd film clip above (a classic) and then See Think Wonder it. Can I use 'See Think Wonder' as a verb? Why, yes I can, it's a neologism.

So, firstly, we SEE. Identify what you can see but don't attach anything of significance to your notes for this part.

Secondly, THINK. What associations or connotations come from what you see? What is being suggested?

And the third part, we WONDER. What do you want to know more about? What does it make you wonder? What are the bigger questions that arise from this text?

Here's my modelled example, completed in context during the session administered by Mr Camp (IE. The conditions we would ask students to do it in, only perhaps I was given less time to do it in - which is fine as Mr Camp covered a lot!)

See

People walking, classrooms, stuffy, high angle vs. low angle shots, muted colour scheme, modern/1970s music, montage of images, corporal punishment, drudgery, panning shot of bricks and grey, marching students, cellblocks, large clock, close-up on feet walking in unison, identical uniforms, teacher with idiosyncratic accent, angry, wide shot of hundreds of students, shadow of hammer falling with machinery, students turning into sausages, students smashing school, breaking bricks and windows, piling up of wood, burning building down, camera panning down to flames, flames are the first glimpse of real colour in the whole clip.

Think

Historical associations - teacher's accent reminiscent of German / hard to understand - allusions to Nazism and Hitler? Dystopia. Symbolism of students being ground into sausages representative of exploitation and waste. Piling up of wood - French Revolution. Panning shots show how big and insidious the control is. Wall being broken down - connection to Berlin Wall coming down (a prediction?) Revolution. High angle and low angle shots establish relationship of power.

Wonder

When was this text made, specifically? What was going in the world at that time? What happens to the sausages? Do the adults eat them? Who directed it? Is it a criticism of private schools? Or all schools in general? Or education in general? Or society in general? Which message is the most important - the value of the individual? The rigid structured nature of education? Has the system ever worked?

As you can see, the See Think Wonder activity is a great way to deepen student cognition. Mr Camp says that it takes thinking from the 'literal to the figurative, the shallow to the deep', and he also speaks about applying the framework to non-visual texts, explaining it as thus:

1. What do you see? (identify the key words)
2. What does it make you think about? (Which of the elements you have studied - themes, techniques, moments, quotes - comes to mind for these ideas?)
3. What do you wonder? (What are the deeper ramifications raised in the question?)

This was just a small part of David Camp's overall seminar.

Something else I'd like to share that he covered was exploring what the future classroom might look like. 

The Jetsons view of the future classroom gets points for including robot teachers, however, the apparent presence of a blackboard seems unnecessarily hip and retro.

We were asked to imagine what our class would look like if money and time weren't issues. In other words, what would we do with our room to create the sort of student we want to see. This activity was guided through the use of six key questions, and it might be fun, intrepid reader, if you wanted to try this too - it's a useful activity for rendering our abstract philosophy as something more explicit.

• What does this classroom look like?
• What does it sound like?
• What type of questions are being asked? and by whom?
• Who is interacting with whom and how?
• What types of activities are taking place?
• What is the headline for your classroom? That is, if a newspaper came along five years after you created this perfect classroom, what headline would they run?

My thoughts in relation to each of the above questions:

• I'd love to have windows that could be closed with shutters to keep light out, screens on each wall for projection from my computer, air conditioning, whiteboards on every wall, single tables to facilitate better maneuverability in the classroom - or, better yet, some way of programming a table-organisation plan into an app that then moves the tables around in my room for me on a period by period basis. How cool would that be? Also, I'd love a way of electronically opening my classroom door with a button on a key (like my car). 
• Soundwise, I'd hope my classroom would sound loud during discussion, and quieter than that when I'm trying to speak to everyone. To be honest, I haven't really thought about sound in the classroom that much. I'd love to have high quality speakers that played loud enough without distracting neighbouring classrooms. Sound-proofing between rooms, maybe?
• In terms of the third and fourth points, I would want students to question everything, from in-context and comprehension questions relating to the content of texts being studied, to metaquestions about curriculum and teaching practise. I would like students to feel comfortable giving honest and useful feedback to me, and to ask why we learn what we learn, and how it relates to what they might want to do with their lives.
• The kinds of activities would be predominantly student-designed with teacher guidance (where necessary). Students would match what they learn with their vocational goals and interests, they would research projects of their choice in order to apply their learning authentically to the outside world, and would interact with teachers in a meaningful way to meet their personal learning goals.
• And my headline? Students Take Control of Classroom: Coming to grips with co-design between teacher and student.