MLP- MODERN LEARNING PEDAGOGY: PART EIGHT

All rights belong to: NSW Dio School*

http://www.slideshare.net/Rossini/effective-pedagogy-and-personalised-learning

The internet is a powerful thing, yes we're living in the 21st century. But ICT is not what MLP is ALL about. I've just finished reading Lyn Ross' (2014) presentation. She is a CORE consultant with extensive knowledge of MLE and MLP. I started reading from about slide 14. It's great to read and know that we've personalised our space to promote learning. We're working on personalising the learning more and more to target our students learning.

Key points:

• learning requires thinking

I know, that's not exactly ground breaking. But the ability to 'think' about learning is, and to be cognisant of the learning process and to use 'metacognition' in action, these are all things that show 'learning requires thinking'.

• learners need to be actively engaged

It's not rocket science, but teaching learners to be learners can be like rocket science. Engaging them and awakening their curiosity is what PBL (problem based learning) is all about. We've recently purchased a set of ACTIVE MINDS boxes. They are INCREDIBLE. Seriously, if you've not got one / two / three of them? GET THEM. The sheer chaos and enthusiasm in my classroom was 'OFF THE CHAIN' ;-D. Check them out: https://twitter.com/activemindsnz

Our students were actively engaged in this learning. NO ICT was involved. Just good old curiosity and OPEN-ENDED science tasks, such as how can we make a paper plane fly the futherest, or let's make the pig fly. VERY COOL TASKS. The level of engagement was incredibly infectious. We teachers ended up trying to work out how to complete the tasks.

• learners have to want to learn
• learners have feel in charge of their own learning
• learners needs to develop in-depth knowledge

We've really worked hard to develop strategies to engage our students with their learning, to foster a love of it, to encourage the students to be in charge of their own learning. For a majority of our students, this flexi-learning space (early days of course, albeit an 'under-construction' space) has supported them to realise their ability to be independent learners. There's a core group of students that just GET ON WITH IT. They love the freedom to choose when and what to learn during SDA (self directed activities). We're not completely there yet, in terms of timing all of our teaching workshops. But Maths is working very well. We have set times, that each of our groups have to attend, these are our workshops. They then fit their independent learning in and around that. They choose which activity and space will work for them daily. In time, I hope to have all the BYOD students adding their workshops to their personal google calendar, with reminders beeping at them to get ready for their workshops. On the walls and windows we have a scaffold of how to win a pin. It's got pictures of the things they must bring and do to win a pin. (refer to PART 4 for the breakdown on Independent licence and our PIN system). Personalised learning space is a huge part of Poutama. Below is some recently acquired furniture and furnishings, kindly donated by D.Peck, our wonderful principal.

• learners need to be encouraged to search for the right approach
• learning involves interaction
• learning usually needs structure

Our vision: we will provide all the workshop times that students must attend, then they'll be able to even more successfully 'TIMETABLE' their learning. This is to further promote STUDENT AGENCY. We want our students to fully take charge of their learning, and know that CHOICE is an important skill to have have as a life long learner. Lyn Ross (2014) sites that problem solving as a process is the learning NOT just the answer. I feel that we have strived to support our students to learn how to problem solve. I see our students one day being able to think:
"oh, I can't do my collaborative task because my buddy is at his maths workshop, or at 12.30-1.00 we can book space x and then collaborate."

This is a timetable that my colleague modelled after Russell Street schools visual timetable. We project this on a TV in the think space. It's also available on our class blog with links for the students to go to in order to be set up for the day. As teachers, we always provide structure, it's a given that students LOVE knowing boundaries. As you can see in this timetable, our maths workshop times are given. As mentioned, we hope to eventually have all teacher workshops recorded, so that the students know when to meet with us.

Presently, we're focussed on INQUIRY. We want our learners to ENQUIRE into the LEARNING PROCESS through technology. At Riverdale, we have TE AKO RITENGA, it is our cyclic model of the learning process (more on it here: RIVERDALE INQUIRY, nb- this observation is a little outdated, so I'll update it in a new post). Our students apply EXPLORE in a range of learning contexts. Technology is just one of the many ways we have begun to promote this learning process. Through EXPLORE the students are focussed on DESIGNING. This will encourage them to understand the technology process at the planning level.

In summary, based on the presentation I've read. I know that our collaborative teaching is demonstrating many of the facets of effective pedagogy in action. Are we all the way there? OF COURSE NOT! We're on 7 weeks into it, but we're moving at LIGHT SPEED. I'm really proud of our work ethic, passion and drive to succeed. We're not in the practice of preparing our LEARNERS for intermediate or highschool, where they sit in rows, and regurgitate knwoledge and do 1hour of homework, we're preparing our LEARNERS to meet the demands of the future, an uncertain future, a future where jobs will not look like what they look like right now, one where the ability to CHOOSE and ENQUIRE will prevail, not simply the random reciting of generic knowledge. We're supporting our LEARNERS to be life long LEARNERS that know how to PROBLEM SOLVE and ENQUIRE.

END RANT
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Personalised learning image link

MLP- modern learning pedagogy: part four

My last few posts haven't had photos, and are a little bit boring. 

Here are some photos of what we've NOW got in our flexi-space.

OUR PEDAGOGY
CAN BE SEEN IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

*** INDEPENDENT LICENSE ***

Independent License pins.

Criteria drives success. We want our students to be successful. To do this, we want them to learn to be autonomous, but obviously they have to jump a whole heap of hurdles before this can happen. Above you'll see the criteria for each zone. This model of independence was developed by J.Bron and S.Mccallum (2014), we've simply re-branded it and added to it for our purpose.

Example- WORKSHOP ZONE: CRITERIA- be on time, write the date & walt in your book, participate, and support others. When students have demonstrated the above criteria for this ZONE at least twice, we then award them a pin. When a student earns 3 pins, they become an expert, and are given an 'expert' label. There are 10 zones of learning to be independent. 30 pins in total. As they earn pins they move up the LADDER of independence. This then EARNS them certain rights.

Ladder of Independence

When students become LEVEL 3 they're allowed to move exclusively to particular spaces in our school. Obviously, this upward movement in independence is hopefully guided by our scaffolding to support them to ACTUALLY be independent.

 *** LEARNING SPACES ***

CLOAKBAY

We've set up a table and chairs in our cloak bay space. This is a BREAKOUT area for students to complete work quietly without interruption. What's great is that it's not too far from the CONNECT, so therefore teachers are always able to roam and support students in this space.

CLOAKBAY

CREATE

This CREATE space is where we hope to allow students to MAKE AND BREAK things. However, we're a few weeks away from fully realising its potential.

TEACHING- connect

In this space we provide opportunities for specific groups to meet with us for workshops.

LEARNER HUB- this suite of computers is pretty sweet!

TECH - PERTS

There are many students in our class that are just learning to use digital technology. Luckily, we have a group of students that have spent a year learning in an MLE. We've asked these students to be on call to support our kids with questions they might have about digi-tech. They wear very cool MARVEL-SHIELD themed tech-pert lanyards.

TEEPEE- this is another chill zone for our kids.

CONNECT WALL.

We created a visual display of our students REACHING FOR THE STARS. The students collaged their name and wrote goals on their forearms.

LITERACY CORNER

This space houses our SYNONYMS display, WRITING PROCESS and library books. The students move their name on the writing process so that we can visually see where students are. The plastic pockets have synonyms that students can use to replace words we highlight in their writing.

THINK- This collaborative space is awesome.

As you can see some students are playing a card game, while another is on their device. The box is full of SDA games, each has a task card or set of instructions describing what they are meant to do. On our MUST DO and CAN DO google sheet or scrap book the students must complete a certain range or number of independent tasks. They have to record this on doc pictured below.

MUST DO / CAN DO google sheet.

These SHEETS are on our blog (1 group has theirs glued into a personalised scrap book each). We have grouped our students into 3 levelled INDEPENDENT SDA groups. We track their completion by checking daily what has been completed. As you can see their are triangles in the right corner of some cells. The students will have written the exact activity they have completed. All MUST DO tasks must be completed before CAN DO tasks. 1 teacher tracks our scrap book SDA group, and the other 2 teachers track and conference all the other students.

IN & OUT BOARD

Clearly, with this many students it's important for us to track where our students are. They have to simply move their name on the board so we know where they are at all times.

BREAK OUT SPACE- teachable moments

In the breakout space there is often a group of students problem solving or collaborating. Whenever possible one of us is roaming and able to provided non-traditional support. Sometimes, students just need a hand with printing or to help with a task. Having three teachers is amazing for this very reason.

THESE KIDS SMASHED IT!

As the year progresses we hope to present the AWESOME work that students create. This is our VISUAL way of celebrating student learning. It's a place for STUDENT VOICE to be heard.

SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY

On many walls there are tonnes of posters describing Riverdale School's learning process. It's definitely worth a read.

MLP- modern learning pedagogy: part one

Photo copyrights belong to QUOTIVEE.

As is the common expression, a journey is made up of single steps. 

I began the journey into this modern learning paradigm early on in 2000. It is when a teacher is learning to be a teacher that one asks, why is a lecturer teaching me using a behaviourist model of instruction. If we are to promote the paradigm of co-constructivism, why am I made to sit and listen for 90minutes on a topic that I could just as easily read about from a book. 

It was through many years of teaching that I began to further develop true co-constructivist techniques in the classroom. Early on in my teaching years, I created 'spaces' in my single cell classroom. These would be simple areas for my independent learners to work in, a space for them to be away from other learners and to focus. Often, I'd write up a task sheet and pin it to a wall, or I'd record my activities in scrap books and have the ss take it with them to work from. I have always believed that learning doesn't just occur when a teacher is talking to ss. Learners learn well by themselves and from one another. At the front of a teacher's mind, should be the idea that student collaboration and peer work enhances learning and not just the model 'sage on the stage'. 

I have always been keen to allow times for students to be independent and quiet, as well as, work in groups and be loud. Real life places us in many situations where we learn on our own, or with a partner or in a group. Is it such a strange notion that this too be applied to 'where we learn'?! As an adult, I enjoy drinking coffee. I don't think it strange to find myself sitting at a cafe, with my Mac, headphones on, listening to top 40, while I'm planning. In fact, if you stroll by any cafe at midday, you're more than likely going to see adults on a couch with their smart phone or tablet. You'll probably see adults partaking in the daily grind of a work meeting, over a latte and salad.

We adults know where to learn, based on years of teaching ourselves to either seek solace or crave interaction with friends. 

I know it shouldn't come as a shock to see adults laughing and chilling out on beanbags or at a bench, feet up, and talking about work. If we as people can continue to work or learn in various spaces, sitting or standing, then why would it be so difficult to imagine our children doing the same in school?!

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My rant has only but begun.

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My goal is to document my experience in an MLE and the developing MLP I'm developing. A flexible learning environment is our school's terminology for an MLE (modern learning environment). At the core of this is the pedagogy around COLLABORATIVE TEACHING. It is more than just the provision of learning spaces but the way in which we grow as co-teachers, because we guide our learners as they learn to drive their learning.

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