Imagine a classroom where students are responsible for monitoring and assessing their own learning, what are these students doing, saying, and thinking that provide evidence of them assuming responsibility for their own learning? What is the teacher doing to support these learners in this endeavor? These two essential questions will guide our professional development as we begin to study, analyze, question, and implement ideas on Ron Berger's Leaders of Their Own Learning.
Teachers were given an article to read entitled When Students Lead Their Own Learning by Ron Berger. Teachers were asked to choose one challenging statement from the text, write an opinionated response or ask further questions as it relates to challenging statements or asks further questions, and share aloud. Some opinionated responses and/or further questions that were embedded in our discussion were: How do we get at-risk students to take responsibility for their own learning, students should be able to verbalize where they are, where they need to go, and where they want to grow to improve, students should be able to present and defend evidence that they have the required skills and how it has helped them even if it did not impact them, students assess their effort and decide whether it is good enough- is my quality good enough—our kids-why can’t they do it?, and lastly having parent, student, teacher conferences where students lead their conferences.
Next, teachers were given four pictures of people running, practicing ballet, gourmet cooking, and fly fishing. Teachers had to explain how each activity reflects student engagement. Responses for people running were student engagement is like running because it requires determination (you have to be determined to go the mark and finish), you need endurance-you need endurance, can’t quit it gets hard, you have to train to get better, it’s a competition, and it takes practice to get higher levels of success. Student engagement is like ballet because it requires a discipline to be your best, balance in all areas for things to work out, you have to master certain skills before you can move on, practice and be synchronized, and it requires precision. Student engagement is like gourmet cooking because you can do your own thing, it doesn't matter how you do it so long as the final product is a success, it's a process, and allows you to be creative. Lastly, student engagement is like fly-fishing because you have to have patience, be willing to take the time, you need precision, desire, projection, and the ability to visualize what you want (have a target).
This was a great foundational lesson to guide us into our professional development centered on the book Leaders of Their Own Learning.
Teachers were given an article to read entitled When Students Lead Their Own Learning by Ron Berger. Teachers were asked to choose one challenging statement from the text, write an opinionated response or ask further questions as it relates to challenging statements or asks further questions, and share aloud. Some opinionated responses and/or further questions that were embedded in our discussion were: How do we get at-risk students to take responsibility for their own learning, students should be able to verbalize where they are, where they need to go, and where they want to grow to improve, students should be able to present and defend evidence that they have the required skills and how it has helped them even if it did not impact them, students assess their effort and decide whether it is good enough- is my quality good enough—our kids-why can’t they do it?, and lastly having parent, student, teacher conferences where students lead their conferences.
Next, teachers were given four pictures of people running, practicing ballet, gourmet cooking, and fly fishing. Teachers had to explain how each activity reflects student engagement. Responses for people running were student engagement is like running because it requires determination (you have to be determined to go the mark and finish), you need endurance-you need endurance, can’t quit it gets hard, you have to train to get better, it’s a competition, and it takes practice to get higher levels of success. Student engagement is like ballet because it requires a discipline to be your best, balance in all areas for things to work out, you have to master certain skills before you can move on, practice and be synchronized, and it requires precision. Student engagement is like gourmet cooking because you can do your own thing, it doesn't matter how you do it so long as the final product is a success, it's a process, and allows you to be creative. Lastly, student engagement is like fly-fishing because you have to have patience, be willing to take the time, you need precision, desire, projection, and the ability to visualize what you want (have a target).
This was a great foundational lesson to guide us into our professional development centered on the book Leaders of Their Own Learning.