Joyful Practice! It’s All in the Details

In a human system, most of us follow a short set of “simple rules” that set conditions for the patterns we want to see across the whole system. These rules may be explicit or unspoken; they emerge from the system and work for everyone in the system over time (unlike “norms” that we might decide to follow for a particular event or in a particular context). In Radical Rules for Schools, we suggest some examples of these “rules” that seem to set conditions for authentic inquiry where everyone is learning. One of those rules is this:  Engage in joyful practice!

Recently, we asked colleagues to tell us how they sustain joy in their work–even in the face of oppressive mandates and urgent student needs. Jane Trkay, Lewisville, Texas, a Teacher Consultant in the North Star of Texas Writing Project and teacher of students who are learning English, writes that her joy is in the details–not the big picture:

So much of education focuses on the big picture: the curriculum, lesson plans, preparing students to pass the “big” test, data in large quantities, accountability ratings. But often, I feel that tackling these issues can be overwhelming – especially when teaching ELLs, and even more so, those ELLs who are entering this country as high school students. I have very little time to prepare them for tasks that some students, who have only ever spoken English, sometimes have difficulty completing successfully. Even the students who are motivated and have been well educated in their native countries come to us with a deficit – they don’t speak English.

If I think about the big picture – filling in missing background knowledge in addition to providing the skills and knowledge for their current grade level, it would be difficult to muster up any joy. So, I have learned to focus on the little things.

It’s rare that I get to celebrate a great SAT score or entrance into a highly selective university with my students.   Instead, what we celebrate is that the student made it to school for two weeks in a row without being tardy or absent. Sometimes we celebrate that he or she turned in a completed assignment on time for the first time. Sometimes we celebrate that the student read a whole book in English even if it was only 30 pages long and had pictures. Sometimes we celebrate that the student wrote a whole paragraph with no grammatical errors. And sometimes we celebrate that the student spontaneously and voluntarily spoke up in class.

Maybe this is what all teachers do. We spend our days subconsciously tucking away all those little details that become our source of joy. You’d never be able to quantify or attach dollar signs to our small celebrations, nor gather all our details into an in-depth report full of data, percentages, or graphs and charts to be used for or against the latest political movement. But they certainly are what get us through the door every day.

–Jane Trkay, April, 2015

Inquiry: Questions and Learning Quests

Earlier this fall, we explored the generative patterns that we want to see in classrooms and on campuses where students and teachers are having fun learning together:

No one of them is more important than another; there is no sequence or hierarchy here. And every great teacher will have a personal preference–emphasizing the one works best for students. Like multiple ingredients of a delicious stew, each one contributes to the whole and each one can open possibilities for the others.

For me, inquiry is the heart of the matter.  Puzzles, paradoxes, and wonderings make good things happen–whether the learners are five years old or fifty-five. Questions fuel learning.

What does inquiry look and sound like? Glenda Eoyang and Royce Holladay (Human Systems Dynamics Institute) suggest these four ways we can stand in inquiry:

This path is not always easy or safe. It’s much more comfortable to rely on what we know we know. Or what we think we know.

Here are juicy examples of inquiry at work in classrooms across the country:

• See, Wonder, Think about Art  David Cooper guides students to interpret art (The Teaching Channel)

• Literacy in Learning Exchange  Resources for faculty teams studying their work as they “remodel” literacy education

• By Any Media Necessary  Media literacy in action! Henry Jenkins, USC

• Maker Movement for Kids  This is just one of many links to projects and resources for educators who help students explore their worlds by making/creating/designing.

• Inquiry Beats Mastery!   Zachary Chase talks about his teaching approach.

Let us know how inquiry shows up in your work? How do you invite students to ask important questions and to look for answers?

Resources

Eoyang, G. & Holladay, R. (2013). Adaptive action: Leveraging uncertainty in your organization. California. Stanford University Press.

Patterson, L., Holladay, R., and Eoyang, G. (2013). Radical rules for schools: Adaptive Action for complex change. Circle Pines, MN: Human Systems Dynamics Institute.

Apprenticeship: Inviting Learners into Learning Clubs

They (children) learn – usually without anyone being aware that they are learning ‐ by participating in literacy activities with people who use written language. It can all be summed up in a metaphor: Children learn about reading and writing by joining the “literacy club.”

–Frank Smith, 1994

Frank Smith has been telling us for decades that there are two main jobs for literacy teachers. First, make sure there is a literacy club alive and working in our classrooms.  Second, make sure every learner is a full-fledged member of that club.

That metaphor resonates for me. And it works across the disciplines. Math teachers lead clubs for young mathematicians. Science teachers lead clubs for novice scientists.  Historians lead clubs for novice historians. Why? Because that’s the way human being learn. We learn best when we belong to a group of like-minded people–our partners in tasks that help us accomplish authentic goals.

Frank Smith points out that when we join a club, we are immediately immersed in shared activities. Even novices are included in those activities, even if their activity is somewhat limited at first. As novice club members gain experience, they take on more and more responsibility for the work of the club. That is what “apprenticeship” means–whether in a club or in our classrooms.

What does this mean for the way we teach?

1.  Teachers show more than they tell.

 A demonstration is worth a thousand lectures. If I’m a history teacher, and I want my students to analyze a historical document, then I need to do it myself and talk them through my process. What did I think about? How did I look for patterns? What questions did I ask myself?   What did I notice? Did I make lists? How shall I share what I’m learning with others?

I save my long explanations and background information until the students’ questions tell me that they are ready. In a club, new recruits typically watch more experienced members lead the work and gradually begin participating fully in the work.

2. Teachers invite students to make mistakes as they learn.

We expect novice club members to make mistakes. Teachers create spaces where it is safe for learners to make mistakes. We cannot create “risk-free” environments, and we shouldn’t try. We want to create time and space where learners can explore, investigate, and experiment as they learn our craft. We want learners to take the risks inherent in learning; we stand by to support their risk-taking.

3.  Teachers design instruction that anticipates what learners need to do next. . .and next. . . and next.

Experienced and thoughtful teachers know enough about their craft to anticipate the steps or stages of their learners’ progress. They use Adaptive Action, asking

WHAT are my students currently doing? What do they know?

SO WHAT does that mean in terms of what they need to learn next?

NOW WHAT shall I do to give them a task that is challenging, but within their learning zone?

They design lessons that build on what the learners now know and what they need to learn next.  Vygotsky called this the “zone of proximal development” — beyond what students can comfortably do without assistance, yet not so challenging that they cannot experience success, even with support.

We sometimes call this instruction “scaffolding” — building metaphoric structures that anticipate the kinds of support that learners will need to accomplish particular tasks. Here are four powerful “scaffolding” tools:

• Mentor texts — Choose articles, stories, poems, maps, charts, tables, paintings, videos of performances, or photographs that demonstrate whatever you want the students to learn. Lead the students in noticing and naming what makes the text effective or powerful. Talk about what we can learn from the authors or designers of these texts. Use them as models — copy the structure, the style, the tone. Matching these texts with students is particularly useful for struggling readers.

• Flexible grouping — Sometimes you want to work with the whole class as you demonstrate a skill or strategy. Sometimes you put them into small, heterogeneous groups–groups where students bring different skill levels in which they can learn from one another. Sometimes you have students work in pairs–with more knowledgeable students working with students who are still learning. Sometimes it’s best for learners to work by themselves, and you move around the room, checking in with individual learners to give them “just-in-time” support.

• Individual conferences — Powerful teaching happens one learner at a time. Over the years, I realized that my most powerful teaching happened in the moments when I took time to have an individual conversation with one student as he or she was in the midst of a challenging task. Making time for those conversations takes some work, but the pay-off is clearly worth it. In English language arts classes, we call those conversations “conferences,” and whole books have been written to help us have powerful conferences.

Join the learning club!

So . . . organize a learning club in your classroom, and invite your students to join the club!  Patterns of apprenticeship show up when when we invite our students into real work — the work of readers, writers, mathematicians, historians, geographers, economists, scientists, artists, musicians, athletes, and more!

References

Smith, F. (1987). Joining the literacy club: Further essays into literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smith, F. (1994). Writing and the writer. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

The Power of Patterns

When I walk into a school, it takes me about five minutes to know whether it’s a powerful place for students and teachers to learn. It’s not about whether they have the latest technology, and it’s not about their test scores. There’s a feeling, an attitude, a tone, a climate on a campus like this–a campus where teachers and students alike can take the risks inherent in authentic learning.

What policy-makers do not seem to recognize is that each of these excellent learning places is unique.  Powerful teaching and learning cannot be standardized–no five easy steps; no fool-proof method. These powerful schools are by no means the same, but there are similarities–similarities in the ways teaching and learning even in the wide diversity we see across these schools.

Across these “schools and classrooms that work,” we see similar features, but these features are merely similar–not the same. They vary–sometimes only slightly–in response to the unique features of each community. We see these similarities as “patterns .”

What are the patterns in these powerful learning places? Here is a list of what we have seen–both in the classrooms we know and in the research we read:

• Empathy and Responsiveness
• Inquiry
• Dialogue
• Authenticity
• Re-visioning and Adaptation
• Apprenticeship
• Deep Content Learning

We use this list of patterns as a springboard for conversations about our goals for learners. There’s nothing sacred about these labels. Some groups decide to talk about “accountable talk” instead of “dialogue” or “modeling” instead of “apprenticeship.” The particular language is not important, but those conversations about the patterns are critical if we want to set the conditions for powerful learning.

Teachers in the North Star of Texas Writing Project (a local site of the National Writing Project) have developed this chart to explain these patterns as they use them in their professional development work:

Do these patterns make sense to you and your colleagues? Do they seem true? Do they seem useful? Which three patterns would you choose to prioritize on your campus? Check these out and let us know what you think!