Parents sometimes ask what we do when we have student free days for "professional development." What exactly is that? This is an understandable question, as we know it is an extra burden for parents to plan additional child-care, schedules, rides, etc on these days.
What do we do on these days? We learn to be better teachers and to use more effective methods of instruction. A couple big ideas we have been working on all year long, starting with book groups and conferences this summer, are "Learning Progressions" and "Success Criteria."
To learn effectively, a student needs to have a clear idea:
- What specifically they are learning
- Where they are in the learning progression (a sequence of skills from novice to more advanced in a particular area)
- What they need to learn next.
- How they will know or be able to prove that they have learned it (Success Criteria).
Our teams worked on a few important learning projects at Sacajawea on Thursday, including teaching scientific inquiry, personalizing reading practice and building better instruction in math and ELA (English, Language Arts).
One simple activity was surprisingly powerful as a learning tool for us. Our instructional coach, Mrs. Knowlton, took us on a field trip up and down each hall in Sacajawea to see the different ways we have implemented "Learning Progressions," "Success Criteria," and the idea of the "Learning Pit" in each of our classrooms. We walked to eight or ten rooms from kindergarten to 5th grade and learned so much from examples shared by our colleagues.
All of these examples really are up and used in our classrooms. None of these teachers knew we were going to visit their classroom until a few seconds before we headed to their room. They shared their real life instructional tools.
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| Professionals ready to learn from each other, clipboards in hand. |
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| Mrs. Campbell shows us a writing learning progression for kindergarten writing from 1 star to 4 stars. |
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Mrs. Friddle shows us a 1st grade learning progression with examples from each level of writing.
They are posted on the wall so kids can compare their own writing. |
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| Mrs. Rohall shows us how she uses "Austin's Butterflies" as an example of working towards great writing in 1st grade. |
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Ms. Morton shows us her learning progression for 2nd grade addition and subtraction.
Students are eager to show that they can move from one level to the next more advanced level. |
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Ms. Burton uses this learning progression for 2nd grade reading fluency.
Students advance their avatar when they can prove they are at the next level.
They also use a similar progression for addition and subtraction fluency. |
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| Mrs. Cataline shows us their learning progression for 3rd grade writing with examples at each level. |
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| Mrs. Hoilien's learning progression for 3rd grade math. |
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Ms. Lovell shows us the learning progression they use for 4th grade writing.
They also use writing folders with rubrics and checklists for ARMS and CUPS (revision and editing). |
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| 4th Graders use this "I'm Lovin' It" tool to choose more effective words for their writing. |
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| Mr. Thomas uses criteria to determine physical intensity in PE too. |
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We use the concept of "The Learning Pit" throughout our school.
Mrs. Olsen shows how they have adapted theirs to also include different levels of cognitive demand and to include typical phrases or feelings that kids might have as they struggle through the learning pit and up the other side to understanding. |
