I'm taking a break from Spreadable Media because I'm at iNACOL this week. Palm Springs is beautiful! Here is a picture I took while here:
One of the 1/2 day sessions I went to discussed the emerging blended competencies. You can find a link to those by looking at the iNACOL resources. The mindset part, which surrounds the rest of the thinking, is what I found interesting. Here is the mindest iNACOL looks for in blended teachers (which I think works well for online, too...):
- entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, imagination, and drive
Orientation toward change:
- embrace change
- embrace ambiguity
- change in response to student’s needs
The document moves to qualities, which includes:
Qualities -
Grit
- Persevere
Transparency
- open and frequently share successes, failures, challenges
Collaboration
- balance individual with team and proactively seek to learn from and with others
We ask for a lot of these qualities from the students. I'm glad iNACOL brought up some of these qualities and mindsets needed from the teacher perspective. In particular, the ability to embrace ambiguity and be flexible strikes me as important. Embracing ambiguity means not seeking to order everything too quickly, and being okay with multiple interpretations of an event and a little bit of flux. This goes against our nature - we want to organize - to look at clouds and see things we understand.
Here is a video from IDEO about embracing ambiguity:
The video brings up some key emotions about ambiguous situations - there can be fear, discomfort, and frustration. Realizing that is natural may help us remember SCARF with no just our students but with our teams.
What stands out to you about the qualities and mindsets? Let me know - I think this is an interesting conversation...
Too often, I finish a task, put away my materials from it, and start thinking immediately about the new task before me. Last night, I finished another chapter in my dissertation writing, and I went right into an outline for the next one. I didn't even mention it at home or at work. I just saw it as a part of an overwhelming whole and moved on.
In talking to a colleague today, I realize I shouldn't have done that. I should have told my family (they were all in the room). I should have told my friends at work. Heck, I should have tweeted it or put it on Facebook. Why? Because celebrating the steps, the small successes is important - and often overlooked.
Do we do this in our courses? Probably somewhat. There are some busy times of the year when we all are just trying to get by. I think, though, that celebrating those successes would actually make us feel better when we are doing what seems overwhelming. Take a look at this video where complete strangers shared their successes:
In our district, we try to celebrate Strategic Design successes on our Strategic Design in Action website, which is regularly updated. On this site, we celebrate amazing learning experiences, provide a means for any stakeholder to nominate a bright spot in the district, and run a twitter feed showing how our goals and beliefs look in real life.
What about in our courses? How can we celebrate the successes? How public should that be?
I'm not sure about all the answers to this, but here are some thoughts: Badges - my Creative Writing course runs on badges. Some indicate mastery of a module, but others are spontaneous. They include being a good communicator, being insightful, and other qualities I want to highlight. Those badges show up on their profile for all to see. Twitter - we can celebrate successes more publicly on Twitter. If the person we are celebrating is also on Twitter, tagging that person can encourage others to chime in and celebrate as well. Padlet / Lino / Whiteboard - we could have a space embedded for people to paste successes on the wall. This way the students could have some say in what gets celebrated. We may find out more about their lives, and this will certainly build the relatedness needed. Synchronous Sessions - early time in synchronous sessions could be used to encourage people to share successes of their own or of others in the room. This will build community, which is also so important. Showing gratitude - with successes comes the idea of sharing gratitude for someone who did something that really meant something to you. That's a celebratory-worthy act as well. Even paying a gratitude visit can be worth discussing and celebrating. Specific, Positive Feedback - in our opportunities to provide feedback, I think we can celebrate what the student does well. I think this can be more celebration-worthy when the student shows significant growth in a certain area. For this to be a celebration, I think the more specific the better.
As we move from one module to the next, from one unit of study to another, from one project to another, what can we stop and celebrate along the way?
Many of us have taken personality quizzes on Facebook or other sites. Buzzfeed, in particular, holds many popular ones. In this clip, Ellen takes a quiz on which queen of comedy she would be:
Ellen asks an interesting question in the clip. Basically, she wants to know why finding out what kind of pizza slice we might be helps us in the world. Likely, knowing that I'm a particular type of pizza won't spring to mind when I'm facing a difficult problem. Knowing that won't help me make an important decision, or explain a particular reaction (other than when it comes from pizza). Pizza slice aside, how can finding our role in a popular television series, film, book series, or play benefit us at all?
In Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins discusses the need for role play. In discussing the Sims, a favorite of my daughter's, he wrote, "nothing is ever just a game. Games have consequences. Games also give us an opportunity to break out of the roles and actions that we might be forced into in real life" (231). I don't want to go down the trail of games in general, mainly because I already have before. In this case, I want to specifically look at the benefits of role play.
A recent Mind Shift article discussed the use of role play in a college course. And, of course, the article mentions a book to add to my wish list. In the article, the students reflect on a long-term use of role play to cover content. Students brought up engaging aspects of this kind of learning experience that included engaging the competitive spirit in some, engaging curiosity to learn how to play the appointed role in others, and more lively discussion.
Structuring a course-wide role play can be difficult to design, and may not be practical for some high school courses. In some high schools, student populations change, which makes a sustained role play hard for students with schedule changes and new students. Here are some smaller possibilities:
scenarios or simulations - these can be on a small scale as a beginning of class activity or a review towards the end. Here is one I wrote to review SCARF.This is more indirect role play, but people can read out the parts (that's what we did).
short skits to explore an idea - when done using a protocol (here is the protocol we used for the observers during SCARF role play where teams could tag in and tag out when it was their turn).
creating personality quizzes to help students with choices - one of our VLA teachers created a great personality quiz to help students see which book may be more to their liking, but this possibility can go beyond the book into types of writing, projects, etc.
creating or using personality quizzes to begin discussions of texts or other content - if we are more like Elsa in Frozen, for example, what does that say about her? about us? do we even agree?
finding online simulation games where students can role play in a content-oriented situation, explore possibilities, discover consequences, and reflect
I'd love to hear how other people use this strategy for engagement!
Recently, Seth Godin wrote a great post called "Deconstructing Generosity," and in that post he discusses the qualities that make up a generous act (as well as qualities that do not). It's a very thought - provoking post.
To me, when participants in a course share a product that reflects an inner truth or perspective about themselves, I consider it a generous act. Why? Often, students do not have to dig that deeply and be that personal in their work. Compliant students do not see a need to share something so authentic and personal because most tasks do not require that degree of personal sharing and openness, even if the design of the assignment calls for a personal connection. Here is a perspective on this from the Schlechty Center:
In looking at his characteristics for gratitude for students, here are some ideas that may make some more generous with the tools they have: their time, their individuality, and their vulnerabilities.
Sacrifice - I think the element of sacrifice lies behind the "Is this for a grade" question that many students ask about every task. They have finite time, interest, and patience for a task that they see has no payoff. This does not mean everything should be graded - far from it. To me, a couple of things are at play:
- be able to answer to yourself as well as to students, parents and others why you are asking students to do what they do. Here some of the work of Rick Wormeli helps. Here is one of his videos (but many are good) on mastery where he encourages looking specifically at verb usage:
In addition, here is a presentation that Wormeli shared via his Twitter account discussing homework and 21st century skills. To me, the payoff does not need to be a grade. It should point to a larger understanding that we have shown the students they need to know.
- be sure to spend the time early to get to know what matters most to the students - This way, you can connect their passions and goals to the skills and content in your course, making it more personal, meaningful and relevant. Here is Jeff Wilhelm on relevance:
Kindness - Kindness comes from being flexible when a situation calls for it, using your own discretion to accommodate for students who need it, and responding to their work in ways that help improve the work and their confidence in their work. One of the biggest acts of kindness can be allowing students to redo something. This shows the students we care about their learning and mastery of the work at hand, not about marching through a rigid course whether they remain with us or not. Again, here is Wormeli:
and Part Two:
Kindness also comes in the form of designing participatory experiences that engage our students. This means adding that touch of what Godin calls "magic" to the experience - that extra "beauty and style" to an experience that takes the experience to a deeper and more personal level. This shows the students we care about the experience - it is not a perfunctory lesson we all must sludge through before the end of the year. How can we add the magic? Through elements such as: creative responses, collaborative challenges, engaging opportunities to share and discuss the learning without fear of a grade. Here is an example of a student showing an understanding of First World Problems in music via video:
Recently my son was chosen by his Spanish teacher to go to an elementary school and share a Spanish poem and talk to the students in Spanish. Kindness and generosity permeated the experience. The high school students sacrificed their extra time to learn the needed poetry and other pieces as well as the time they will have to make up work because they were gone. The elementary kids sacrificed time from their busy schedules. Both groups made a real connection from the experience, and it was nothing that needed to be quantified. Here is a picture the AP sent me:
My son is a part-time gymnastic coach. He loves working with children. Being selected meant the world to him, and he will go the extra mile for his Spanish teacher because of this opportunity.
Vulnerability - Godin sees part of vulnerability as "showing up and caring and connecting, even if this time, it might not resonate." This is so perfect for learning. Being fully present is hard for all of us. If we can model that kind of attitude, the students will respond. This also means being acknowledging when a student participates in an area that normally causes him to be reluctant and making sure that student understands that we notice and appreciate that choice. If students can do this, they can grow in the learning, and the learning will be more meaningful. This means frequent and timely communication as well as making attempts to build relationships with all students. Otherwise, the learning cannot resonate, because they would not give it a chance. Maybe it is because the person is an introvert:
Or maybe it is because the student is afraid of losing status or respect because this area is a struggle. For more about working with those kinds of fears, see my post about SCARF. On Wilhelm's site, there are some presentations and other resources that show his research on motivation (primarily with boys) and its connection to learning.
By doing some of these things, we are beginning generous with our students, and many of our students will repay the favor.
When I hear scarf, I immediately go to pop culture, the house scarves in Harry Potter, mainly because I saw so many students wearing them, and Tom Baker's Dr. Who. In the case of Harry Potter, the scarves were part of their house identity on campus. It aligned them with other housemates immediately.
David Rock created the SCARF model for collaboration in 2008, and it is a fundamental part of coaching. In some ways, this model can work as the Harry Potter model: using SCARF, you can understand the causes of a barrier to collaboration, reduce the problem, and then align so that the group is harmonious. You can read the article here that shows the brain-based thinking behind the science and an in-depth description of each piece of the scarf.
You can also watch him talk about it here:
For this post, I wanted to look at the elements of SCARF and talk about how we can identify them quickly and reduce the barriers in the way of learning. I also want to key into which of Schlechty's Design Qualities address the components and some of the tools possible that can help.
S - Status Description: According to Rock, status is about "relative importance, 'pecking order.' and seniority" Threat to status: A threat to status means a reduction in potential or importance to the person, and Rock writes that it can "generate a strong threat response." Once this has happened, the person may shut down. This can happen through a well-meaning suggestion or Ways to reduce threat: Let people give feedback on themselves (self reflection)
Provide some opportunities for formative assessment that is not tied to a grade and that the student can use autonomously (but that you can have access to)
Make available all summative assessment tools (rubrics, etc.) so that the student knows all the time how s/he is being assessed and what mastery needs to be shown
Communicate often - show students where they are, what they have learned, and that we have noticed their growth Design Qualities: Protection from Adverse Consequences, Affiliation, and Clear and Compelling Standards Tools: Google Drive can provide a way for students to collaborate, reflect, and revise easily. Spaces such as Padlet can create a single space for students to share ideas in a non-threatening, non-graded way. Tools like Padlet or Lino can be a safe place for students to play with ideas before committing to a larger focus or product. Announcements in the course that can show visually a public acknowledgement of an accomplishment will go a long way as well.
C - Certainty Description: According to Rock, certainty structuring work so that the brain can "know the pattern occurring moment-to-moment." This allows the brain to predict, and this lets the brain focus on other things. Threats to certainty: Unclear expectations, unexpected obstacles in the completion of a task, implementation of big changes without clear guidance
Ways to reduce threat: Break large ideas or products into smaller, attainable steps
Celebrate early successes
Recognize and reward growth
Help guide large ideas and visions into a plan with action steps Design Qualities: Clear and Compelling Standards, Organization, Choice, Authenticity Tools: Introducing students to organizational options at the beginning of the course will help them start organized and (hopefully) stay that way. Encourage them to choose the method that works best for them, and offer some examples of products such as Popplet, Evernote, Google docs, and many more will help students find the right tool for their thinking and working styles. Further, providing multiple pathways to engage with and present content helps provide certainty. For more on this, consult Universal Design for Learning and see the breakdown here. Growth can be rewarded using badges, either internally if the LMS offers it or externally through something like Mozilla. Badges can be given at certain expected achievements and given at unexpected moments when the student does something remarkable.
A - Autonomy Description: Rock calls autonomy "the perception of exerting control over one's environment" and the perception of choice. This is the opposite of being micromanaged. Threats to autonomy: lack of control, excessive management, being forced to collaborate, no choice in collaborators or roles in group work Ways to reduce threat: Provide flexibility when possible
Allow room for choice in an authentic way (not overly limited choice with no read meaning)
Spend time with class building so students feel more connected
Provide opportunities for student goal-setting, norm creation, and product planning within set boundaries that will enable success and learning Design Qualities: Choice, Authenticity, Protection from Adverse Consequences Tools: Providing authenticity means providing students to work on things that matter to them. Finding compelling questions and allowing students to choose how they want to answer them gives them the authenticity they want and increases autonomy because they have contributed to the design and process of their learning. Sites like Tricider help students weigh in on anything from controversial questions to class norms and processes. Building lists together in places like Pinterest or Learnist let students add their unique voice and have it recognized. With sites like Wiggio, students can work alone or in groups and set the times to collaborate when it is good for them.
R - Relatedness Description: According to Rock, relatedness is a sense of belonging and feeling a part of the group. The opposite of this is feeling lonely. Relatedness is also connected to feelings of trust. Threats to relatedness: always seeing the others as a competitor, lack of communication, lack of opportunities to connect to classmates, the teacher, or the learning Ways to reduce threat: Provide opportunities for class building, especially early in the course, that is not tied to a grade and clearly intended to begin a feeling of relatedness
Encourage social connections by sharing stories, photos, etc.
In large group settings, form smaller groups or teams to build more connections Design Qualities: Affiliation, Affirmation, Protection from Adverse Consequences Tools: Building connections in any class helps with the feeling of relatedness. Creating spaces on places like Padlet, Mural.ly, or within the LMS to share ideas, place images that are important to them, and share their work with the people inside the course and outside the course who matter can help students feel connected. Connecting students with the outside world when appropriate during the course of their learning will also help.
F - Fairness Description: Rock describes fairness as a sense of reciprocity or evenness. If an exchange does not seem fair, people are less likely to experience empathy or relatedness. Threats to fairness: feeling that rules are being applied differently for some, feeling that top-down directives are being applied unilaterally regardless of context, feeling that another does not act in accordance with stated values or beliefs Ways to reduce threat: According to Rock, these actions help - Increase levels of transparency
Increase communication
Establish clear expectations in all situations
Provide students with a clear voice in procedures and norms of class Design Qualities: Clear and Compelling Product Standards, Product Focus, Authenticity, Affiliation Tools: Creating more transparency in a class helps all students. This can be done with open access to materials, notes and other resources. This can also be done with clear explanation of the objectives to cover, an available rubric to show how the work will be assessed, a suggested pacing guide to show how much time to allot for the work at hand, and regular feedback about progress and expectations. Most of these products would reside within the system at hand, but communication can happen in a variety of ways in addition to within the course. Use of tools such as Twitter, Remind 101, and others can help keep the students prepared.
