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Sept. 15th - ish

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Sept. 21st

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In today's world, peace needs to be more than just a word.

Imagine... millions of pinwheels spinning in the wind - pinwheels in the United States, Great Britain, South America, Australia, the Middle East, Canada, Africa, Europe and Asia; pinwheels all over the world! - big pinwheels, small pinwheels; pinwheels of all shapes and sizes - colorful pinwheels, decorated with drawings, paintings, collages, photographs - pinwheels with words of peace and harmony written on them - fields of pinwheels, pinwheels along roadsides, in schoolyards, in parks, pinwheels EVERYWHERE!

This is the Pinwheels for Peace project!

Please join us EVERY year on International Day of Peace, September 21st, as we create a visual public statement about peace!

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In today's world, peace needs to be more than just a word. Imagine... millions of pinwheels spinning in the wind - pinwheels in the United States, Great Britain, South America, Australia, the Middle East, Canada, Africa, Europe and Asia; pinwheels all over the world!

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Oct. 2nd - Nov. 10th

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The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a truly global connection with milllions of students having participated.

What is it?

The premise is simple; we pick a book to read aloud to our students during a set 6-week period and during that time we try to make as many global connections as possible. Each teacher decides how much time they would like to dedicate and how involved they would like to be. Some people choose to connect with just one class, while others go for as many as possible. The scope and depth of the project is up to you. While there are commonly used such as Skype, Twitter, Padlet, or Flipgrid, you choose the tools that will make the most sense for you. Teachers get a community of other educators to do a global project with, hopefully inspiring them to continue these connections through the year.

When is it?

Once a year, starting in early October and running through mid-November. Due to the time commitment, this is only a once a year project, however, two fantastic spin-off projects run at other times; the New Zealand Read Aloud and the French version of GRA, Ecouter Lire le Monde.

I have questions as a Participant

Please see " For Participants" to have all of your questions answered.

I have questions as an Author

Please see "For Authors" to have all of your questions answered.

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To see the blog with the latest news and ideas, go here. To join our Facebook Community, go here - this is how you sign up The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a...

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Oct. 6, 2017

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GGSLOT777: Situs Judi Slot Gacor Gampang Menang dan Situs Slot88 Terbaik 2024

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GGSLOT777 adalah sebuah situs judi slot gacor gampang menang sekaligus juga situs slot88 yang resmi dan terpercaya di Indonesia tahun 2024.

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The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education-developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. With more than 7,700 programmes being offered worldwide, across over 5,600 schools in 159 countries, an IB education is designed to develop well-rounded individuals who can respond to today's challenges with optimism and an open mind.

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Harvard's Project Zero - Visible Thinking Strategies

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Harvard's Project Zero - Visible Thinking Strategies

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Over many years of working with inquiry-based approaches in schools, I have relished the opportunity to explore ways to extend the approach to the teachers themselves. When I became particularly interested in personal inquiry for children around a decade ago, I gradually widened my focus to explore the potential of personalised, professional inquiry for staff. I continue to see this as a really valuable way not only to build teacher capacity but to strengthen everyone's understanding of what it means to bring an inquiry stance to our work.

Professional, personal inquiries are ultimately not only about discovering but about transforming both the teacher and the learners in their care. This concept is not new. The idea of teacher inquiry is, for example, strongly embedded in school throughout NZ where it connects to the cycle of action research. Other 'situated professional learning' approaches have been around throughout my teaching career and well before that. There is an enormous body of research on teacher inquiry - this blog post (already too long!) is not the place to explore it. I will simply share one more recent voice from the field whose work I have been reading lately. UK based researcher and head teacher Dr Kulvarn Atwal writes:
"My research found that teacher engagement (in their own learning) is dependent on how well the activities are personalised to their own and their children's needs...when teachers engage in professional learning they don't see as relevant to their needs, they rarely persevere...The informal aspect of this teacher choice is that we develop practitioners who are self-motivated, independent learners... They are not engaged in professional learning that is done 'to' them they are driving their own learning, eager to continually improve." (2019: 32-34)
I have been fortunate to have partnered with Bonython School in Canberra for several years now. It has been wonderful to watch the careful and thoughtful way the leadership team and the staff as a whole have worked on growing a culture of Inquiry from the ground up. As is the case for several schools I work with, one feature of their work is the expectation that educators will engage in their own inquiry journeys throughout the year. I invited deputies Marc Warwick and Amanda Hawkins to chat to me about their approach, late last year and share some key moments from our conversation including some teacher reflections here.
Kath (K) So, what exactly ARE 'educator inquiries' at Bonython Primary School ?
We have both come from other settings that introduced us to the idea of professional learning through engaging teachers as inquirers. At Bonython, we expanded this idea to include all educators - including all of our support staff so we are careful to describe these 'educator inquiries' rather than just the teachers. Basically, it means that each adult in our learning community commits to an investigation of their choice, exploring a professional interest, passion or area of need. They are usually linked to the work they are currently doing with students but not necessarily . They select a focus early in the year and work on it across the year with a celebration and sharing at the end.

What were some of the questions your educators explored through the year?

There was such a range! But some examples are:

How can learning in the outdoors grow students capacity to think creatively to come up with new ideas and solve problems?

How can I get to know how autism presents in the students I teach, and how can I get to know them as individuals to find out how they learn best?

As an Inquiry School, to what extent is our approach to using split-screen teaching achieving what we want with our student learners?

How can I develop my understanding of the Inquiry process through play?

What is anxiety, what does it look/feel like and how can I best support someone experiencing it? How can we create a safe, supportive and positive environment for our rainbow community?

K. Why have you taken this approach at Bonython?

The most important aspect of this is that the process allows our educators to develop their inquiry mindset by explicitly practising what it means to be an inquirer. And we want a strong inquiry mindset throughout our community. We really want to position the 'grown ups' as inquirers which means they can relate to and empathise with the experiences of our younger learners across the school as they engage in this kind of learning. We feel that everything we do with our teaching team should mirror what we are asking them to do with our students. We are trying to build that cultural marker you have written about: that 'professional learning itself should be inquiry based'.
K.This is quite an undertaking for staff. How have you managed to get 'buy in?'
When we first started, some people were reluctant and fearful. Especially the support staff who are not ordinarily asked to work in this way. But they are actually our real success story. In their enterprise agreement there is an expectation that they will do some professional learning. So we have said, 'well, the way we do this is through inquiry'. Some of them had not had great experience in their own schooling and many were worried about having to 'present.' We really had to give a lot of support. We had to say 'We are going to do this, but we hear you are uncomfortable, we hear your concerns and we will accommodate them.

When we had our celebration at the end of the year one of the people who had been reluctant came and gave us a hug and said that we had 'kept our word' - that the experience was great and she was eager for her next inquiry. She was the first person to take the new LSA's under her wing this year and say 'this is great. Now the experiences LSA's are supporting the new ones. We also brought people in from our previous school (Macquarie PS) to share their stories. One of those teachers asked: "What would you do if you weren't afraid' . That really resonated with people.

K. I would say another reason why you have people on board is that you had already built a strong inquiry culture prior to introducing the professional inquiries. My impression is that people felt excited about the direction you were heading in, they trusted the leadership, liked each other and liked working at the school. ALL that helps with people's willingness to go with something new.

That's true. Marc and Greg (principal) had been working on building that culture two years before I (Amanda) came here so it was a great foundation to build on. We started with building the capacity of our young learners to inquire and then moved to strengthening our educators identity as inquirers as well.
K. So, you say educators choose something to investigate that they are interested in. Are there any criteria? Does it, for example, have to connect with your strategic plan or school vision?
Not really - We give people full choice. We want them to feel empowered. It is interesting when you do that - key themes emerge that actually connect to a lot of our priorities anyway. Themes like wellbeing, trauma, Aboriginal perspectives , play and literacy.

One thing we do is that once everyone has chosen their focus we invite them to consider the relationship between these and your 10 pedagogical practices. Then they form what we call CICs - 'Connected Inquiry Communities' - the practices help link people's interests. The interests have to come first. The teachers have to have agency in all this.

K.As a vehicle for professional learning, this is entirely driven by and within the school itself. And it requires a commitment to time. How have you managed that?

We dedicate regular staff sessions to this. The bare minimum is 2 staff meetings per term where they all reflect on what they are doing and what they are noticing and work with their CIC group. Because it is personal, people will also negotiate times to attend seminars or workshops elsewhere that might connects with their inquiry. We also provide time and encourage them to visit other school so teachers are talking to other teachers with similar interests or expertise in the area they are interested in. We really want to broaden this and have more teachers talking to other teachers in other schools as a way of supporting the inquiry process.
K. Of course, the success of any professional learning should ultimately be gauged according to the impact on the children's learning. Have you explored this?
Several of the inquiries involve the children directly - teachers (and kids) are gathering data and the whole thing is very transparent and immediate. In some classrooms, the teachers make their own inquiries really visible to the kids and gather and reflect on the data through the year. One of our educators last year was inquiring into the relationship between our school values and her use of picture books in the classroom to increase students understanding of them. She really involved the children in this exploration - they were aware of what she was investigating. Another one of our early career educators was working on an inquiry into the teaching of writing. The kids knew this and she was asking them about what they were noticing about whether they were improving as writers. The way those children could talk about themselves as writers really showed the impact of her research into this field. Other inquiries are less directly involving of the learners - rather more an investigation into something that then becomes the basis for new approaches or refinements to practices later on.
K. Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser, Canadian colleagues with whom I have had the delight of connecting in recent times, are champions of teacher inquiry. There work has a slightly different location/purpose but is still broadly connected to this idea of teachers as inquirers. Their 'Spirals of Inquiry' model, developed with NZ's Helen Timperly is well worth exploring and I think would add a lovely layer to the work you have begun here - perhaps by bumping up the interesting question of impact? Their pivotal questions might be of value to your work too: What is going on for our learners? How do we know? Why does it matter? (from Halbert and Kaser 2017 The Spiral of Inquiry Playbook) Anyway..., I was so delighted (and jealous) to see the photos of your celebration of professional learning at the end of the year (2020). You took the staff to Birrigai (In Tidbinbilla). Tell me more about that.
We believe that getting off site is really important. It helps us get away from our 'to do' list, gives us fresh perspective and gets us focussed. Last year we started at Art centre and finished at the Art centre - this year it was Birrigai. Birrigai is a really special place for us as a school. We know when we are there something special happens. The name Birrigai means 'the place of laughter' I tell you, when you are there you feel that. We have taken all the kids there this year. This also connects to our Cultural Integrity work which focusses so much on connection to place AND the other thing we have often spoken about with you - the way the environment nurtures curiosity and is such a natural home for inquiry. We try to get outside - even for staff meetings and it just changes the whole atmosphere.

To conclude the Educator Inquiry Journeys in 2020, we asked the staff to bring artefacts to Birrigai that would help tell the story of their inquiry. They each spent some time alone in this to curate a small 'exhibit' in this amazing outdoor space. The staff then spent time quietly walking around this exhibition and learning from each other. It was so creative! One of our LSA's had inquired into anxiety and she created an exhibit in a thistlebush - prickly and challenging. This whole idea of curation is, we believe, really important to the mindset. The experience was about connecting, curating and contemplating. We walked amongst the artefacts of people's learning and made connections then walked down the hill to a final celebration. The experience was also connected to the work we have been doing on cultural Integrity -which focusses so much on connection to place AND the other thing we have often spoken about with you - the way the environment nurtures curiosity and is such a natural home for inquiry. We try to get outside, even for staff meetings, and it just changes the whole atmosphere. '
It sounds really beautiful - and such a powerful way to promote reflection. I love that you have used that word 'contemplation'... we have SO little time to contemplate in schools and surely the work we do would benefit from more of it! Thinking ahead - what's in store for 2021? What have you learned this year that you would tweak or change for 2021?
I think we have created a rod for our own backs! We have created beautiful experiences for the last 2 years so, now, how do we sustain that?! How do we keep it fresh? The core won't change. Each educator will have a question, go through a cycle of inquiry and conclude with some form of sharing - none of that will change. We have started to dabble with the focus on the Future of Education which the department here is talking about and that might help anchor our questions. We are not sure...

One thing that we think could be extended is the opportunity for teachers to share their work with a wider audience. We already have a relationship with the University of Canberra and there would be some teachers who could take their work to a conference or write for a journal which would be a wonderful way to take it further. We have played with the idea of inviting other schools to hear our stories but that would be a second share time. It's so valuable to have that safe, vulnerable space to share as a staff first. It would be interesting to see how that would impact on them. The staff have also suggested we could make the final sharing something that happened over a longer time frame - a week of sharing perhaps.
K: Like a festival of personal inquiry -you could have kids sharing some of their inquiries too? And maybe even have the kids see the teachers' artefacts? (at this point we all get a little excited about this idea...) So, If a school wanted to explore this idea - what would be your most important piece of advice?
If you are already using an inquiry-based approach with your students then dive in! Just DO it. And remind people that this is what we have said is good for learning in our classrooms - and it's good for OUR learning too. And know your people. We have worked really hard on culture building by establishing strong relationships with individuals. We try to take the time to inquire into our people and build those relationships. We try to really listen to them and modify what we do in response. I also think sometimes this kind of work can be overcooked, over complicated and made more complex than it needs to be. When I talk to other schools about their approaches, It can just seem too much. I think this is about learning, as leaders, to release, keep it simple , trust your staff and personalise it for each staff member.

Some teacher reflections:
The challenges that I/we have faced through our inquiries have required us to become more flexible and demonstrate increased levels of grit. This is something we encourage students to do each day and as they delve into inquiries, but don't necessarily experience ourselves. We need to tap into students passions and provide them with opportunities to explore them, following a range of different pathways. I feel that Educator Inquiry continues to develop my empathy of how kids feel each and every day and the strategies and supports I can put in place to help support them as they work through the inquiry cycle, particularly in things like iTime. I like the agency we are offered, to choose professional learning that is right for us. This is particularly helpful as a new educator as the things I would like to learn are not the same as those further along in their career.

AS I write, teachers around my home country of Australia are preparing to begin the school year. Others are returning after their winter break or perhaps after a prolonged period of remote learning. Regardless of the reason, returning to school is an opportunity to 'reboot' and refresh - to ask ourselves and our students important questions about the kind of learners we want to be and the kind of learning community we want to build.

'Building', 'constructing', 'growing', 'creating' ... these are all words that align beautifully with the ethos of inquiry. As inquirers, we value the process as much as the content or product we might be working towards. As inquiry teachers we see learning as a process of construction, building on prior learning through investigation, analysis and reflection And we relish that building process in collaboration with our students.

So, as we begin the new school year or return after a break, we might ask ourselves and our students 'What will we build together?'

When I came across Oliver Jeffer's new book "What We'll Build" late last year, I was immediately captivated by it as an allegory for the collaborative journeys of inquiry we take with our students. It is a book about parenting - a loving letter to Jeffer's daughter and has all of his wonderful hallmarks - gentle prose, symbolism, glorious illustrations, humour and big ideas.

As a full-time classroom teacher, I ALWAYS made sure that on our first day together, we connected through at least one really sensational book. I know of no better way than to commune with children than through powerful literature. If I were starting the year now, I think this is the book I would choose. Revisiting it yesterday, I imagined the questions it might prompt me to ask myself, my team and my kids. I imagined how it might help us "make plans for our future together". I imagined , perhaps returning to the book each day. Page by page, question by question.

Because that is the way classroom culture is built. Word by word, action by action, minute by minute , day by day. As teachers, we are culture builders. And this culture determines the way our children come to see themselves as learners and how they see learning itself. If we truly want to build a culture that nurtures curiosity, agency, courage and compassion - we have some important questions to explore from day one. And this beautiful book might help you get the ball rolling. Here are the questions I played with, in response to the text...

What shall we build, you and I?

Take time to ask your learners what they hope and indeed IMAGINE their classroom community will look and feel like. How might the physical space be arranged? What kind of space will support learning? What kind of relationships do students hope to have with each other? With their teachers? What is your vision for your team? How will you build a wonderful, collaborative team this year?

Let's gather all our tools for a start

What skills and disposition will help us learn together? What is already in our toolkit as learners? Do we have the tools to manage ourselves, communicate, collaborate, think and be awesome researchers? What do effective learners DO? What dispositions or attitudes can we cultivate? Do we have the language to talk about these tools for learning?

 For putting together - and taking apart

How will we help ourselves stay resilient and strong? How will we view mistakes and failures? Are we willing to take things apart and start again? What might we want to 'take apart' from the past and put back together in new ways? What might we let go of this year? What needs to change?

Let's build a door where there was none

We'll build a house to be our home

How might we create a safe and supportive community where we ALL feel we belong? This is more than a classroom or a school - this is a community. How can we make this a truly inclusive place where each person feels seen?

I'll build your future and you will build mine

What can we offer each other? What are your goals as learners? What are my goals as a teacher? What gifts can we give each other? How can we help each other grow?

We'll build a watch to keep our time

What might our days look like? How can we co construct a routine or timetable to allow for flexibility as well as predictability and routine? How will we document our journey together?

We'll build some love to set aside

And build a hole where we can hide

And what about those times when we need to be alone? Is there a space in our classroom that we can go to when we need time with ourselves? What might that look like? How can we ensure we all get that time out when we need it?

A fortress to keep our enemies out

And higher walls for when they shout

But you don't always lose and you don't always win

So we'll build a gate to late them in

We'll build a table to drink our tea and say

"I'm sorry," "me two", "me three"

Conflict is an inevitable part of living and learning with others. We need to be OK with our differences and we know that will help us learn and grow. How might we manage conflict? What do we consider to be our rights and our responsibilities in this learning space? What agreements can we draft to help us learn together? How might this extend to our teaching teams? We need vigorous debate and different perspectives? How will we both ensure and manage that? How can we stay open to new ideas? Different voices?

We'll build a tower to watch the sky

And other worlds to pass us by

How will we stay connected with what is going on in the world? How can we connect with people and ;places beyond our school? Can we make more use of the outdoors this year? How will we record and share our wonderings and be relentlessly curious about the world? Let's make this a place where curiosity is welcome!

Let's build a tunnel to anywhere

Let's build a road up to the moon

Let's imagine where we want to be at the end of this week, this term, this year. What are our goals? How might we help ourselves get there? How will we stretch and challenge ourselves as learners?

Let's build a comfy place to rest

For we'll be tired soon.

Rushed, frantic classrooms do not make good learning environments. How will we help ourselves slow down and take more time to notice ourselves and our learning? How will we pay more attention to what's going on and be more present in our day? What routines will we create to ensure we regularly reflect on what we are learning, doing and feeling?

Let's build a boat that can't be broken

That will not sink, or be cracked open?

What do we really believe about learning? What do we understand about how we learn? What are the foundations of this classroom community? What are the things we can all agree are important? What do we value?

A place to stay when all is lost

To keep the things we love the most

We'll put these favourite things beside

The earlier love we set aside

How will we ensure that school is a place where our true passions (as teachers and learners) and interests are nurtured? How will we introduce new possibilities and ensure we widen our horizons? What do we want to learn more about? What do we want to learn to make, do and be?

I think that we might want them later

When times are hard and needs are greater

 And will the learning that happens this year be the kind of learning that travels with us for life?  What do our students think is important for them to learn? How can we close the gap between school and the world beyond school?

But first things first, let's build a fire

For we've planned a lot and now we're tired

It'll keep us warm like when we're born

Then we'll say good night , as all's all right

Where will our 'campfire' be? Do we have a gathering place? Would rituals and routines might we develop as a class to bring a gentle, connecting rhythm to our days?

These are the things we will build, you and I

What does it mean to be in true partnership with each other, with learners and with families?

What will we build?

Beyond the power of this text to stimulate thinking about building classroom community, this text is about hope and about agency. The agency we all have to onsciously and thoughtfully build our future together.

"What We'll Build" is available here

A trailer for the story is

You can find out more about the inspiration for this book

So....

What (and how) will YOU build with your students as you create a culture of and for inquiry?

Just wondering...

As some of you might know if we have worked together, I am as passionate about music as I am about teaching. When I was full time in the classroom, I used music to punctuate the day, signal it was pack up time, bring the mood up or calm it down. I wasn't great with discipline or 'classroom management' so singing was the best way I knew to bring a fractious group together, to move on from a challenging moment, celebrate successes and build a sense of community. Music remains such an incredibly important part of my life and I have been struck by the way so many musicians have used their art to make sense of the experience of lockdown. There has been some extraordinary work produced in this time. Like all the arts, music is a way to both make and express meaning - and 'making meaning' during 2020 has been a challenge and a gift.

One song in particular caught my attention recently. Missy Higgins is a well known singer songwriter here in Australia. She recently released a song "When the Machine Starts". You can listen or watch . As my home town of Melbourne emerges from lockdown and months of remote teaching, we join the rest of the country in returning to school albeit in a "covid-normal" way. Listening to Missy's song conjured up an image in my mind of the 'machine' that can be our schools. It reminded me of the Leunig cartoon below:

For a period of time, some (not all, I know) learners and teachers have felt they have had a reprieve from what Huberman once described as 'the classroom press': the machine.

In her song, Missy pleads, "When the Machine starts will you remind me? I saw the truth once...Please don't let me forget." It got me wondering about those lessons we all felt we had learned during lockdown and remote teaching. What have we done with the gold we mined from our experience of remote learning? What did we promise ourselves we would relinquish, restore and renew on return ? I have had SO many conversations about these things, and they include:

More choice for learners

More opportunities for learners to plan aspects of their day

Smaller, more focussed teaching groups

Stronger connections with families and home life

More ongoing reporting through seesaw and other digital platforms

More team work - genuine collaboration with colleagues

More trust in our learners. Get out of their way!

More use of digital technologies to enhance creative collaboration and sharing of learning

A slower more thoughtful pace

Many teachers returned to school exhausted by the remote teaching experience BUT also committed to taking what they had discovered back to the classroom - determined to do things differently. So now, I am wondering....did we? Are we? Will we? What's changed? Have we had the courage to resist the inevitable spinning of the wheels, the acceleration of speed, the frenzied, fragmented rush that is the anti-learning pace of so many classrooms?

I am not saying that the remote experience was preferable for teaching - far from it. BUT it did offer us some lessons we were determined to remember. It revealed to many of us some new truths about ourselves, our children, our families - about what it means to teach and what it means to learn. For some of us it was simply an intense reminder of all that is good and beautiful about meeting with young people face to face on a day to day basis and that we would never take those beautiful faces for granted again! For others it opened new doors to thinking about how we can design for more powerful learning. Regardless of the lessons we learned, how can we help ourselves remember - when the machine starts up again?

When the machine starts up again
Will I forget what it's like to be standing here looking up, drinking in the sky?

When the machine starts
Will you remind me
I saw the truth once
I saw it floating in the air

Oh, don't let me forget
Don't let me forget
Don't let me forget

When the machine starts up again
When the machine starts up again
When the lockdown ends
And the speed is picking up
Will you remind me, darling
What it felt like just to stop

Lyrics By Missy Higgins, 2020. Missy Higgins - 'When The Machine Starts' Stream / Download: https://MissyHiggins.lnk.to/TheMachineID

Today marks five weeks we have spent in stage 4 lockdown here in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, we were in stage 3 for weeks. So time actually IN schools is indeed becoming a distant memory! I remain incredibly grateful to the many educators who have been willing to continue our work together in the remote context. As I have said before, this has been the steepest of learning curves and I - like so many others - am still on it. For years I have banged on about inquiry classrooms being places where teachers and learners learn to live with uncertainty, where we need to expect the unexpected and where we plan in response to what is needed. Never have those features of an inquiry-based environment been more relevant. (Although, to be honest, a little bit of certainty would be more than welcome right now!!)

A month ago, I posed a question on this blog. When working remotely, how can we continue to work in the dynamic, interactive ways of the inquiry teacher? In the weeks since, it has been fascinating to explore this question with teachers and students alike. It has meant a lot of reflection, experimentation and risk taking. My inquiry muscles have most definitely been getting a work out.

In my last post, I explored the way I felt the pedagogy of inquiry' could transfer to the remote setting by considering five of the 10 inquiry practices I have found useful when working with teachers and learners. In this post I continue that conversation by examining the remaining five. As always, I am indebted to the teachers with whom I have been working - particularly those in my partner schools who help me think more deeply and creatively about what's possible. So, how can we continue to bring an inquiry stance to our work - even when we can't physically be with our students?

Keep it real: Inquiry teachers harness real contexts for learning

There is no doubt that when learners are engaged in inquiring into something they care about - something that is real and relevant to their lives, they are more invested and committed to the process. Time and time again, teachers and kids tell me that the journeys of inquiry that have stayed with them have been the ones where they felt they made a difference. - and where they were connected with real people, real places, real issues.

On the surface, this is a huge challenge for remote teaching. Gone are those field trips that instantly motivate and engage the learner, gone are the hands-on materials, the guest speakers, the spontaneous walk around the neighborhood.... Well, yes. For some learners this has been the case. Not withstanding the fact there are still some schools and communities that do not have sufficient access to decent wifi/internet, I have been dismayed by the stories I hear from friends about their children being issued with endless worksheets and cute 'activities' without ever engaging with teachers through video conferencing (especially when the option to do so exists) or even a simple phone call. By contrast, I am seeing and hearing many wonderfully authentic inquiries happening while in lockdown. Field trips still happen - albeit virtually and there have been expert guests in abundance! Students at St Bernadette's primary School in the western suburbs of Melbourne have forged connections with several designers/makers who have been designing and constructing facemasks. The designers have shared their processes and the children are now using what they have learned to consider a design challenge in their household or neighborhood. As part of their iTime, students at Mother Teresa Primary school have been investigating a wide range of authentic projects from how to set up a frog enclosure when back at school to investigating coping mechanisms for remote learning across the world. Journeys of inquiry need purpose and passion. It is even more imperative that we help our learners see the worth of what they are inquiring into. So, keep it real:

Play: Inquiry teachers know the power of play

When we think of play - we often associate it with something light- and even frivolous. And it certainly can be (nothing wrong with that!). Throughout the last 6 months I have noticed how much being able to play with possibilities, play with ideas, experiment and tinker has helped me learn. So as you engage students in remote learning:

Allow yourself to play with possibilities as you explore the online environment with and for your learners. This means being prepared to fail! I have had to let go of my tendency to want to get it right before I try something new online and to dive in. Such important modelling for our learners.

Play is a powerful community builder. So playing games together as you meet in the virtual space is hugely connecting. Those of you beginning your year will be acutely aware of this. The morning and end of day meetings can be the perfect opportunity to explore ways to take favorite classroom games and adapt them to the online space.

Be bold and don't forget the power of the unexpected, playful moment. A friend of mine had a sudden 'glitch' with technology during a lesson last week. She needed a minute or two to try to fix it. Instead of having her students stare at her on the screen while she did so she said "OK guys, out of your seats, run to your front door run back, run around your chair three times then sit down. First one back wins! A silly, spontaneous moment that had them all laughing ...and gave her a minute to sort her tech issue.

USE MATERIALS. Just because you are working online does not mean you or your students can't get your hands on materials. Invite children to share their thinking by making and creating using household items.

Be playful. Humour is one of the most powerful ways we have to diffuse tension, build connections and help learners to relax into a space in which they are ready to learn.

Collaborate: Inquiry teachers value collaboration between learners and regularly collaborate with other educators.

Many schools are ensuring that our precious team meetings remain part of our weekly schedule even when working remotely. Teachers have reported to me that they feel collaboration has strengthened in response to the situation. So it may go without saying - but stay connected to each other!

It has been amazing to watch teachers and students forging connections with others in the community albeit within the virtual space. Perhaps as we become more comfortable with using online meeting tools, we ae realising the ease with which we can, in fact, collaborate with someone on the other side of the world!

In an inquiry journey, we can act as 'brokers' helping learners connect with experts in the areas they are inquiring into. Use this opportunity to collaborate with experts online. Authors, historians, biologists, artists, musicians - inviting them to share their passions with your students is only a click away.

Collaboration is also about teachers collaborating with learners to co construct agreements, assessment criteria and the design of tasks. This can continue to be the case even when we are physically apart. Remind yourself to ask rather than tell when it comes to learning agreements.

Think Big: Inquiry teachers design and teach with concepts in mind.

Teaching remotely brings with it the temptation to parcel learning tasks up into neat, bite sized activities. The abundance of 'choice grids' so popular in the 90's is a case in point. Of course we want to find ways to allow learners to make choices and manage their time more independently but the down side of activity grids is that they can simply be that - a bunch of things kids DO rather than a connected flow of tasks that promote deeper learning.

As we design learning tasks with and for our students, let's keep concepts in mind and resist the urge to provide what amounts to 'busy work'. It makes sense to consider the concepts that are particularly relevant to this time. The context of living in a time of a pandemic can help us explore wellbeing, interdependence, freedom and responsibility, equity, community, empathy, global citizenship, rights and responsibilities, perspective, media influence and ethics just to name a few!

We are living in a time that necessitates big picture thinking. The very concept of 'schooling' itself is being closely examined as our historically ridged institutions are being faced with this massive challenge. Ask your students what they think are the big ideas they should be exploring right now.

Grow learning assets: Inquiry teachers help learners develop skills and dispositions for life long learning.

If there is one thing that this situation has offered us, it has been the chance to put learning itself in the spotlight. Whatever language you use to talk about learning with your students - make sure it is amplified when working remotely. For IB/PYP teachers, it will be the profile attributes and the approaches to learning. Others may use Art Costa's Habits of Mind or Guy Claxton's Learning Powers. For me it is what I call the Learning Assets to be more successful as learners.

Ask your learners to reflect on the similarities and differences they are experiencing when they experience remote learning vs classroom learning. What skills and dispositions are they finding they need to draw on more?

Continue to share intentions for learning using the 'split screen' metaphor where we identify not just what we are learning about but HOW the learning us being done - how we are building learning muscle as we learn

Notice and name the skills and dispositions your learners are demonstrating in your observations and feedback. This is not simply about completing assigned tasks - this is about growing ourselves as learners.

Invite learners to talk about what they are noticing about learning itself - what challenges are they experiencing in this contexts? Is anything working better for them as learners?

And, as always, BE the learner you want to see! Be open and vulnerable. Talk about the skills and dispositions you are needing to draw on as you teach in this new environment. Share your reflections on yourself as a learner with your students.

My heart goes out to all those teachers beginning the year - some in new countries, new roles and with new students and so many without actually being in the same space as their students! Teaching is such a relational profession - and being so disconnected is anathema to the way we love to interact with our kids. But we are all surprising ourselves with what is possible and this experience can help us understand even more deeply that inquiry is not a subject. Inquiry is not just 'the unit'. More than ever before, inquiry is a stance - a way of being that most definitely helps sustain our positivity, our growth and our learning amidst a sea of uncertainty. have
How are YOU sustaining the art of inquiry teaching as you engage children in remote learning?
Just wondering...

Someone described it to me as the 'moment when the clouds parted and the sun shone through'. That is what it felt like way back in June (remember June?) when, for a few precious weeks, I was able to go into schools and work with kids and teachers face to face. It was definitely NOT the same experience as the 'old normal' ... but for a little time there was a sense we were on the way out of this. It was short lived.

We are now not only remote learning again...we are in stage 4 lockdown here in Melbourne. Remote learning is with us at least until the end of term. As I scroll through twitter, I see more and more of my colleagues overseas returning to school in an unprecedented way - online. And I feel for those in countries where schools are expected to open despite the virus being uncontrolled. Strange and challenging times indeed.

This is a time that really does test our capacity to manage our thinking and emotions. We didn't choose the virus that lead to this lockdown but we CAN choose the way we personally respond to it. For educators, our choice of response carries extra weight. Our learners are watching us. They are listening to what we say and how we say it. I am reminded of the quote I often use from Guy Claxton's work where he reminds us:
"HOW we teach slowly shapes the way children respond to the unknown - to change, challenge complexity and uncertainty. The culture that a teacher creates acts like a magnetic field that attracts stimulates and rewards certain habits of mind and not others." Claxton 2019:17
We don't stop creating culture - for better or worse - when we teach remotely. The HOW of teaching seems to me to be more important than ever before as we now go deeper into the question of what remote learning can look like. While there is definitely a sense of weariness and heavy heartedness for many of us about returning to remote learning, I am trying hard to approach it with as much curiosity , interest and open-mindedness as I can. And there are some interesting things emerging.

Many teachers are much less challenged by the technology this time (myself included) so we can focus much more on the pedagogy - on our actual teaching. Teachers are telling me over and over again that their young learners are craving the social connection with their peers. This has meant for many, rethinking the balance between synchronous and asynchronous tasks. In the schools with which I am working, we are ramping up the live teaching opportunities both to meet the social and emotional needs of our learners, to reduce the strain on parents (it's OK - we've got this, you can go make yourself a cup of tea now!) AND most importantly, to continue to play the critical role that we have in an inquiry classroom. To question, to cultivate curiosity, to notice and respond, to collaborate with our learners, to grow their learning assets....to teach. Just yesterday, a teacher friend told me that the increase in her "live" teaching time this time around had been invaluable for her own wellbeing. "I think last time, we did a great job of designing learning tasks for the kids to do in their own time - and giving them feedback and support but adding a lot more small group live sessions has actually made me feel like I am teaching again..."

Of course, when my inquiry-based colleagues are talking about 'teaching' ... they are referring to the role of the teacher as skilled facilitator, learning designer, coach and co-learner. In the remote learning context, there is perhaps even more danger of too much TELLING and endless, tedious, slide show presentations. That is a waste of precious synchronous time, inevitably putting learners into what my facilitator colleagues Johnnie Moore and Viv McWaters call 'a teacher trance' (a 'zoom trance' being a similar state!).

With weeks and weeks ahead of remote learning, how can we continue to work in the dynamic, interactive ways of the inquiry teacher? I invited some feedback on this question on twitter recently and had some fabulous responses. I have attempted to weave them into the suggestions below but do check out the thread @kjinquiry for more ideas. How can we take the 'Art of Inquiry' online? And before you read any further, of course I acknowledge that there remain many learners for whom working online is a real challenge either because of poor internet access, unsupportive conditions at home, or lack of access to a device. I know schools working really hard to find ways to support those disadvantaged students but it remains a big challenge. I also want to say that having some asynchronous learning is still important. When designed well, it allows families to manage their time and resources and offers exciting scope for learner choice and the building of independent, self-management skills.

So my wondering of late has been about how I can take 'The Art of Inquiry teaching' into the remote context? I am going to respond to this question in two parts, referring to each of the ten inquiry teaching practices I have shared previously . For Part one, we will look at the following 5 practices: Cultivate Curiosity, Release, Notice, Question and Get Personal and how they can translate to remote teaching. In part #2 I will look at 'Keep it real, Think Big, Collaborate, Grow Learning Assets and Play

Cultivate curiosity: Inquiry teachers provoke, model and value curiosity

Make use of the MANY amazing sites that are all about nurturing curiosity. Wonderopolis , Mystery Doug , curiosity.com and The Kids Should See This are amongst my favorites. These sites can be part of your asynchronous offerings - something learners can check out in their own time but then discussed and reflected upon in small groups or morning meetings. Watching a short clip together and using a chat function to document wonderings is another way to make the most of these sources. Use visuals, clips, pieces of music, etc. to provoke curiosity and invite learners to do this for each other.

Most families are able to take a walk at least once a day. Provide your learners with some prompts to nurture their curiosity as they walk around their neighbourhoods. Take photos of things that intrigue them and share them with the group. Start a digital wonderwall using apps like padlet. Be on the look out for images, clips and objects you can share that will give pause for wonder and awe.

Remember - one of the keys to nurturing curiosity is BEING curious! Talk to your learners about the things have been noticing and wondering. Share your questions out loud.

Bring objects to online meetings. Invite learners to bring something along to a meeting that might prompt others to get curious.

Question: Inquiry teachers ask more than they tell.

Asking the right question and encouraging learners to frame questions is a central strategy in the inquiry teacher's repertoire. When meeting with small groups, we can continue to use questions to frame our learning intentions, to invite learners to share their question with us and to explore the ways questions work.

This is not a time for dreary "read/view this and answer the questions" activities. Questions should contribute energy and alive-ness to learning. The lovely thing about many online platforms is that they allow the learners to share their questions both orally or in written form through the chat function. This can accommodate more learners simultaneously and allow us to get a clearer window into their thinking.

Share your own questions - the things YOU have been wondering. Question aloud as you meet with learners.

When meeting learners on line, you might find there is more silence, more 'wait time' between questions and responses. That's a good thing! Don't feel tempted to fill it. This space can be really powerful for deep thinking.

Sometimes asking a question during a virtual meeting can feel confronting as we all stare at each other thinking about our response. Try this. Pose your question and then have learners turn their cameras OFF and have some quiet thinking/jotting time. Turn cameras on again, then you can invite individuals to share their thinking. If you are able to work with break out rooms even better - you can do think, pair share this way.

Where appropriate, share the intentions for your synchronous sessions as questions.

Invite your learners to share their questions at the end of your sessions (use the chat function, virtual whiteboard or other shared documentation tool) - its an easy exit ticket and allows to think about 'where to next' to help respond to the question

Keep the groups you are meeting with small. Just like the classroom, the quality of our questioning seems to diminish as the group size increases. Small groups allow more time, space and depth. The whole class meetings have a different purpose - they are more about building community, sharing and connecting.

Release: Inquiry teachers expect the unexpected and let learners to do the 'heavy lifting'

For many teachers, remote learning has accelerated their willingness to release responsibility more often and more easily. The remote context is perfect for the 'upside down' lesson - or the rapid rather than gradual release of responsibility. Instead of I do, we do then you do...we flip it. Sharing a clip, provocation, posing a question or problem that learners can engage in in their own time THEN inviting them to a live, small group session where they share their thinking allows you to hold off the 'direct instruction' until it is needed. If it is needed.

There is something about the online context that seems to make us talk more. Mute yourself! Try turning off your camera to encourage learners to talk with each other rather than through you.

Just as you would in the classroom, invite learners to head off for a while to write/draw/make/explore/practice then return at a given time. Having everyone in the meeting staying at the screen for a whole lesson is a bit like having them sitting on the floor listening to you for a whole lesson - not OK.

Let's continue to give our learners the freedom to plan their day albeit with an increased opportunity to attend workshops and group meetings. Some learners may need more support from us in figuring out how to structure their days but for the majority, this is something we can let go of and trust.

If you are able to use break out rooms - this is wonderful for release. And don't think you need to visit them all! Trust that this is a time to allow learners to talk with each other without the constant presence of an adult.

Keep inviting learners to help you construct the best learning opportunities you can for them. Ask: what's working? What isn't? How might I do this differently? In a remote and online environment - many of our young learners have more technical expertise than we do. Have them run mini workshops for each other. Release responsibility to them to support their peers.

Notice: Inquiry teachers observe, notice, reflect and respond.

There is a lot we can notice when learners share their learning via email, seesaw posts, flip-grid posts and other digital sharing platforms. However, nothing beats the noticing that can happen as we listen and observe the learning happening in real time. Supporting learners to talk with each other (rather than through us) online allows us to listen.

We also want to encourage our learners to notice. So keep inviting them to reflect on their learning, notice not just the what but the HOW of their learning. Self-assessment, reflection and the activation of the meta language of learning can add such depth to our conversations with learners whether online or off.

For younger learners, we might ask parents to film short snippets of their child at play and share it with us. This allows us to do some 'noticing' as we would in the classroom - and to respond with ideas for the way we might support the child through materials and questions

Get Personal: Inquiry teachers know their learners - as people as well as learners and help them find and pursue their passions.

Interestingly, many of the teachers I spoke with during the first round of remote learning said that they felt the experience actually strengthened their connection with individuals and helped them get to know their children as people as well as learners. Relationships with parents strengthened and we generally related to each other on a more personal level. Of course, the remote learning experience can go either way. I have seen examples where, for a range of reasons, children have simply been issued with tasks to complete and have had very little one - one contact with teachers other than an email. A phone call at the very least would seem to me to be one way of maintaining the relationship if a virtual meeting is not an option.

For teachers beginning the school year online, the opportunity for 1-1 meetings with each learner may well be even more powerful than the traditional whole class first day. I would suggest that before there is an expectation of a whole class, virtual meeting, time can be used to meet parents and children in a more personal way and to really find out more about each of their interests, strengths and goals,

In inquiry classrooms, we get personal by offering choices about what, how, when, where and with whom learning happens. There is no reason why this can't continue in a remote context. This is a perfect opportunity to invite learners to dive into their passions, teach themselves a new skill, create and make something for an audience and work on a project of their choice.

Combining both asynchronous time to work on personal inquiries with conferences to share and give feedback to small groups show our learners we value their interests and potentially enriches the entire class as we share with each other. Make sure you share the inquiries YOU are engaged in too!

These are just some of the ways that the art of inquiry can be sustained and indeed enriched through remote learning. I received many wonderful suggestions via twitter ... here are a few to whet your appetite. Check out the thread for more:

Stay tuned for post #2 as we explore this further...

So, how are YOU ensuring the 'Art of Inquiry Teaching' continues in a remote context?

Just wondering...

We've just passed the winter solstice here in my part of the world. In Victoria, teachers are in their final week of what feels like the longest term in history. Many colleagues are visibly exhausted from months of remote teaching and adjusting to new ways of working back at school. My overseas colleagues are also now counting the days down until the school year comes to an end in the northern hemisphere. This past weekend was the first one for almost four months in which I had not worked in some capacity - either delivering online workshops, writing or planning. We are all, undoubtedly in need of some time out. Immersing ourselves in things that take us away from the world of teaching is vital for rejuvenation: for our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. This past week, I have also been reminded of how important our engagement with the world beyond teaching is for, ironically, nurturing the quality of our teaching.

One of the most profoundly important elements in designing for inquiry learning is the dialogue we have around the 'planning table' about the concepts and big ideas that lie at the heart of any inquiry journey. If the journey is exploring the 'way living things adapt to changing environments' it is not enough simply to find a few resources and develop some activities - we need to interrogate our own thinking about this big idea. What do we really understand about adaptation? What background knowledge do we bring to this? If our inquiry is into the 'role that the arts can play in changing the world', we must ask ourselves how we feel about this statement? What lived experience do we have of this phenomenon? What examples have we heard about? Read about? If we are supporting children to inquire into the 'relationship between sustainability and materials', what decisions have we made recently about choices of materials in our own lives? What do we really understand about the science of materials? If we are designing a journey of inquiry to examine the concept of exploration, how far have we come since our own impoverished education about our history? How many of us might have made the same mistake as our Australian Prime Minister did recently when he claimed we 'did not have slavery in Australia?

When we engage learners in a process of inquiry, we most often begin by spending time tuning in to their prior knowledge. We identify their 'first thinking', theories and ways of seeing the ideas they are inquiring into. But do we do this sufficiently for ourselves? How often do we give ourselves time, as a team, to discuss our own experiences, positions, perspectives and understandings of the very things we are inviting our learners to inquire into? And how often do we take the time to inform ourselves when we feel less secure in our understandings of the issues that sit at the core of the conceptual understandings we have designed for learners? In my experience, the stronger inquiry teachers - the ones who question with most dexterity and bring a more intentional disposition to their observations, are the teachers who have the better grasp of both the concepts and the 'content' the learners are exploring. I have always been wary of the glib phrase: "Inquiry teachers can learn alongside the children". While there is certainly truth in that (I have learned SO much simply being part of an inquiry journey with groups and individuals) it doesn't mean we are 'off the hook'. Our ignorance can prevent us from asking better questions, helping learners make connections or pointing the way to critical information that can help struggling learners make meaning. In fact I have often observed in my own teaching that the deeper my understanding of something is, the better I am at listening, waiting, questioning and holding back to support the learner. Even when we might be assisting learners in a personal inquiry that goes well beyond our own field of interest and expertise, we need to know enough about how to connect to and locate others with the expertise ... and that, in itself, requires us to stay awake to the world around us.

At the very least, taking time to inquire into our own understanding and experience of the conceptual landscape into which we are taking our children can help fuel our own curiosity. True inquiry teachers have what Susan Engel (2015) so beautifully calls "hungry minds'. They become fascinated by the questions children are raising, they are curious about their own ways of thinking about and seeing the material they are sharing with the class. They are voracious learners with open minds and open hearts Spending time connecting with our own experiences and understanding of and questions about the field our learners are inquiring into is time well spent. It doesn't mean we need to be experts on every discipline. Primary classroom teachers are generalists by nature. But that doesn't excuse us from being informed. So what might this look like? How can we stay more awake in the world and keep our minds hungry?

Some ideas...

Prior to a planning meeting, ask each person in the team to locate a clip and/or reading to share with others. These might not be resources you use with students but may fuel your own thinking about the issues.

If you design inquiries under a compelling question (broad/open ended/conceptual and non-googleable) go round the table sharing each of YOUR initial responses to the question. How have your individual life experiences shaped your view of this big idea? How might that impact on your dialogue with learners?

Consider having staff book/movie clubs using texts that are not directly about teaching. Imagine a whole staff here in Australia reading and discussing Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu" or collectively viewing the documentary "The Australian Dream" about Adam Goodes. What a fantastic way to bring the spirit of inquiry and powerful dialogue into the staffroom!

Share your favourite podcasts with each other - the ones that help you really grow your brain. Watch some Ted talks together.

If as a team, you are feeling less confident in your background knowledge, invite someone with expertise to come and spend time with you or 'zoom them in' to your planning meeting. Be inquirers. Most people with expertise in an area are delighted to have an opportunity to share their passion.

If there are places you might take your students as part of the inquiry (gallery/zoo/museum/parkland/historical site) why not have your team meeting at the site after school or on the weekend?

Read. Or watch some clips. Or listen to some podcasts. Or talk to people that have passion and expertise in this area. Come to your planning meeting ready to share some case studies or examples of the big ideas that will drive the inquiry.

When planning, as yourselves: What is it that we hope our students will come to understand as a result of this inquiry? And commit to documenting these as full statements (students will understand ....) not dot points/questions/phrases. It is easy to generate questions like "What is sustainability?" or "How do people express their culture through the arts?" or "What does it mean to be healthy" and never actually discuss the conceptual understandings that might be developed through those questions.

Most importantly, give this work time. I would argue that these conversations are just as important as the design of learning tasks. They help us connect to the why. They help us get clarity about our own thinking. They help reveal our biases, our blind spots and our confusions which can pave the way for poor questioning and missed opportunities when we are engaging with children.

While there is a strong emphasis on learning processes in inquiry, it remains the case that powerful inquiry is fuelled by content of significance. We can't get to those conceptual understandings without exploring case studies and examples that gradually help us see patterns and make connections. As inquiry teachers, we need to remain awake to the world around us. We need to have hungry minds that stay relentlessly curious about the way the world works and the way we understand the world. We need to keep pushing ourselves out of our "comfortable knowledge bubbles" and be prepared to be the geographers, historians, scientists, authors, mathematicians and artists we hope our students will be. And when we don't know, we need to experience the thrill of the hunt - to yearn to know more.

So my wish for you - as so many of you take a much deserved break, is that you can spend time revelling in the joy of your own learning about things that go beyond teaching. So go find those podcasts, visit that museum (even if online), talk to your engineering/landscape gardener/pharmacist/builder friend about their job, listen to some music you have never listened to before, go look at some art, read some long form articles, take a walk in the forest and ask yourself what you know about the ecosystem around you, catch up on some documentaries...and enjoy cultivating your own curiosity. You'll be a better inquiry teacher for it.
How do you 'stay awake to the world' amidst your busy life as a teacher?
Just wondering

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Over many years of working with inquiry-based approaches in schools, I have relished the opportunity to explore ways to extend the approach to the teachers themselves. When I became particularly interested in personal inquiry for children around a decade ago, I gradually widened my focus to explore the potential of personalised, professional inquiry for staff.

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the art of inquiry: questioning strategies for k-6 classrooms

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The Art of Inquiry: Questioning Strategies for K-6 Classrooms

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The Art of Inquiry: Questioning Strategies for K-6 Classrooms [Cecil, Nancy Lee, Pfeifer, Jeanne] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Art of Inquiry: Questioning Strategies for K-6 Classrooms

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[This] book is an appropriate reference for anyone interested in sparking the curiosity of children.
—Science and Children

It is a commonplace occurrence: a group of students gathers at the classroom window, watching the activities of birds and sharing their informal observations. But for Phyllis Whitin, her class, and her collaborator, David Whitin, what began as a common event grew into an uncommon journey of shared wonder and discovery.

On one level, Inquiry at the Window is the story of an elementary classroom's yearlong study of birds. But it is also the story of children looking closely at their world, raising questions, confronting scientific problems, and becoming empowered by the fruits of their own efforts. It is the story of inquiry itself and an inspiration for any educator concerned with preserving and fueling the innate sense of wonder we all possess.

In order to support their belief that inquiry is a spiraling, interwoven process, the authors do not offer a strictly chronological account of their year. Rather, they start with the premise that firsthand experience must be the beginning point for scientific study. We see students throughout the year sharing observations, interpreting their own scientific data, and constructing tentative theories. We also see them conversing with a community of learners that includes families, members of wildlife societies, and ornithologists--a remarkable process that generates further questions and legitimizes children as scientific thinkers in their own right.

Inquiry at the Window leaves the reader not with a prescriptive formula to follow but with a vision of learning that celebrates surprise, thrives on doubt, and honors multiple perspectives. It will be a valuable resource for preservice and inservice teachers who want a close look at interdisciplinary learning.

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This] book is an appropriate reference for anyone interested in sparking the curiosity of children. -Science and Children It is a commonplace occurrence: a group of students gathers at the classroom window, watching the activities of birds and sharing their informal observations.

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We've all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.

Practitioner's Guide to Next Gen Learning

Ownership. Freedom. Respect. Trust. Courage. Souls on Fire. Find out what student agency is and why it's so important to education today.

Student agency is one of the reasons why next gen learning looks and feels different from traditional instructional practices.

Despite the best of intentions, whole group instruction that is teacher-centered or curriculum-centered tends to ignore the agency of individual students to own their learning and direct their own path through it. When student agency is embraced, the instructional model shifts to a student-centered learning model.

For educators, the shift can be messy, uncomfortable, and hard. As a parent, I get it because I struggle with honoring the agency of my kids as I parent them. I wholeheartedly want my children to be agents of their own lives, growing into adults who are empowered to question the world and confident in their ability to change it for the better. But today, I just want them to put on their shoes so we can get to school on time, to wear sneakers instead of flip flops because it's cold outside, and to do it in the next three minutes! Under the pressure to get out the door, I ignore what choices they want to make now and what they will need to learn to do for themselves as they grow up.

The shift to embracing student agency is messy, uncomfortable, and hard, but the payoff is priceless. The guest experts in December's #NGLCchat on Student Agency-Grace Belfiore, Dave Lash, Andrew Miller, Casey Montigney, and Michele Savage-have the passion and commitment and strength and expertise to recognize the agency within students, enabling them to be agents of their own learning today and their own success tomorrow. In this post, I'll share what they and the other chat participants taught me about what student agency is, why it's so important, and how it can be promoted and supported in the classroom.

Why Student Agency Is So Important

Why are we talking about Student Agency? Because agency underpins the whole broader, deeper range of MyWays competencies needed for student success. And today's students NEED the skills to be lifelong learners:

Harvard professor Roland Barth has observed that in the 1950s when young people left high school they typically knew about 75% of what they would need to know to be successful in life. Today, he predicts that young people know about 2% of what they will need to know. (Barth, R.S. (1997, March 5). The leader as learner. Education Week, 16(23). 56.) This shift is not because young people are learning less than previous generations. In fact, there is good evidence that they know much more. The force behind this change is the rapid and ever-increasing pace of change, the complexity of the world in which we live and the unpredictability of what people will need to know in the coming decades-the future for which we are preparing today's learners.

Understanding Student Agency

Student agency is a bold concept, demonstrated by the words #NGLCchat participants used to describe what student agency requires and how it is exhibited:

But student agency is more complex than what is captured in a collection of related words.

Ownership & Persistence: Agency is present when students take charge of who, what, where, why, and when they learn. This includes choice, self-awareness, self-management, social relationships, responsible decisions, time management, organization, and self-regulation on the way to a long-term, personalized goal.

Agency also requires resilience, tenacity, and grit. It involves persistence to tackle challenges, to use failure along the way to success, and to embrace curiosity, creativity, and innovation as essential as breathing.

Students exhibit agency when they persevere, not just feeling in control but having the skills and tools to persist when challenged. We don't give young people enough credit for their ability to take on significant challenges, and facing challenges may be a necessary prerequisite for becoming strong adults.

A Student's Perspective: What conversation about student agency is complete without asking students what they think? One thread during the chat looked to the EdSurge article by Davidson College student Andrew Rikard who defines agency as recognizing the responsibility to take action in a world that needs makers and creators. He also said that agency isn't something you give or take, it's collaborative. It is a two-way street, part of a school's culture. Armaan Ismail, a student at Incubator School, started another thread of conversation when he joined the chat, this one about freedom:

Empowerment, not Learned Helplessness: Another thread during the chat focused on how children recognize their agency in relation to their environment. Agency is being in control of what happens around us, where we can influence events. And that starts with children believing that they can actually change or reshape their environment through their actions. When the environment is unpredictable, turbulent, and non-responsive to a child's actions, the child learns that they have little or no effect on the environment and are, in fact, powerless. A poor environment leads to learned helplessness in place of agency.

In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough describes how adverse childhood experiences create a hostile environment for students. Our schools exacerbate this when they teach compliance and prioritize getting the one right answer, both of which produce learned helplessness. To avoid learned helplessness, we need learning environments that empower students. When students are empowered, they can take an active role in their life path.

To sum up all of these ideas about agency, I like the imagery and impact of the MyWays definition of student agency that Grace Belfiore shared: " A deep and durable self in charge of one's learning and development."

How often do we think of ourselves as deep and durable and in charge? How wonderful would it be to have a generation of deep and durable and in charge citizen-learners in our midst?

Promoting Student Agency

This list includes strategies that guest experts and other participants shared as a way to describe what student agency looks like in the classroom and how schools can honor and encourage agency in the learning process, helping students learn not only that they can influence the world around them but also develop the tools and skills to do so.

Reflection. Students reflect on their learning, make connections to their prior learning, and engage in ongoing conversation through writing and dialogue.

Transparency. Students need to know where they are to know where to go.

Scaffolded and thoughtful teacher prep. Agency looks and sounds different for every student, and prepared teachers can more effectively release control to students.

Teacher modeling. Students need the support of their school leaders so teachers and administrators need to self-monitor as well.

Self-direction. Students are empowered to work on their own or collaboratively on assignments and projects at their own pace. They engage in learning strategically without waiting to be directed.

Choice. More than providing a menu of options, choice provides students with control leading tolower stress and more capable students.

Growth. Students work in their zone of proximal development, at exactly their level, all day every day. There's a school-wide growth mindset.

Real roles. Agency lives when students take on the role of inventor, artist, scientist, scholar. Agency increases when we provide broader and deeper student experiences. Historically, this was more often found in extracurriculars than in the classroom. Today, classrooms may provide whole game learning opportunities.

Many thanks to everyone who provided these insights and resources including, but not limited to, the #NGLCchat guest experts!

Grace Belfiore, Researcher and author, lead developer of MyWays project

Dave Lash, Researcher and author, lead developer of MyWays project

Andrew Miller, Consultant with Buck Institute and ASCD

Casey Montigney, Teacher at Medill-Shue Middle School, member of the Carnegie Foundation's Student Agency Improvement Community

Michele Savage, Principal of Medill-Shue Middle School, member of the Carnegie Foundation's Student Agency Improvement Community

Kristen Vogt

Knowledge Officer, NGLC

Kristen Vogt, knowledge management officer for NGLC, focuses on identifying lessons, strategies and outcomes from NGLC grantee projects and making them available to a wider audience.

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How Next Gen Learning Can Support Student Agency | NGLC

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We've all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.

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Charlotte, NC 11/7/2017

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ELA.RI.2.1

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RI: Reading Standards for Informational Text K-\x80\x935

2: 2nd Grade

1:
Ask and answer such questions as who, what,
where, when, why, and how to demonstrate
understanding of key details in a text.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.RI.2.5

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RI: Reading Standards for Informational Text K-\x80\x935

2: 2nd Grade

5:
Know and use various text features (e.g.,
captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries,
indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key
facts or information in a text efficiently.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.SL.2.1a

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

SL: Speaking and Listening Standards K-\x80\x935

2: 2nd Grade

1a:
Participate in collaborative conversations with
diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts
with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g.,
gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to
others with care, speaking one at a time about
the topics and texts under discussion).

b. Build on others'\x80\x99 talk in conversations by linking
their comments to the remarks of others.

c. Ask for clarification and further explanation
as needed about the topics and texts under
discussion.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does Ms. Gavin help her students own the learning goal of the lesson?

2. What strategies does Ms. Gavin use to scaffold the learning?

3. How does this lesson build students' academic language?

School Details

William Paca Elementary School
200 North Lakewood Avenue
Baltimore MD 21224

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Informational Texts: Reading for Inquiry

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Students in Nicole Gavin's second grade class ask and answer questions about key details in informational texts. First, Nicole and her students take time to discuss the lesson's objective. Next, Nicole models how to ask questions of a text. Then, students move to their cooperative groups where they read texts and write questions on sticky notes.

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Math.4.NF.A.1

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

4: Grade 4

NF: Number & Operations--Fractions

A: Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering

1:
Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.

Grade 4 expectations in this domain are limited to fractions with denominators 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 100.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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A "Notice and Wonder" routine encourages students to make meaning of a context or image in a way that makes sense to them.

Discussion and Supporting Materials

School Details

Shields (Richard A.) Elementary School
910 Shields Avenue
Lewes DE 19958

Data Provided By:

Teachers

Math / Kindergarten 1 2 3 4 5 / Teacher

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Notice & Wonder Math Routine: Fourth Grade

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Math.4.NF.A.1 Common core State Standards Math: Math 4: Grade 4 NF: Number & Operations--Fractions A: Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering 1: Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size.

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Identifying Inquiry in the K-5 Classroom

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Identifying Inquiry in the K-5 Classroom

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IB Standards C3: Teaching and Learning Self-Assessment

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IB Standards C3: Teaching and Learning Self-Assessment

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Characteristics of Authentic Tasks Types of Authentic Tasks
Authentic Task: An assignment given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges

In other words, a task we ask students to perform is considered authentic when 1) students are asked to construct their own responses rather than select from ones presented and 2) the task replicates challenges faced in the real world. (Of course, other definitions abound.)

If I were teaching you how to play golf, I would not determine whether you had met my standards by giving you a multiple-choice test. I would put you out on the golf course to "construct your own responses" in the face of real-world challenges. Similarly, in school we are ultimately less interested in how much information students can acquire than how well they can use it. Thus, our most meaningful assessments ask students to perform authentic tasks.

However, these tasks are not just assessments. Authentic assessment, in contrast to more traditional assessment, encourages the integration of teaching, learning and assessing. In the "traditional assessment" model, teaching and learning are often separated from assessment, i.e., a test is administered after knowledge or skills have (hopefully) been acquired. In the authentic assessment model, the same authentic task used to measure the students' ability to apply the knowledge or skills is used as a vehicle for student learning. For example, when presented with a real-world problem to solve, students are learning in the process of developing a solution, teachers are facilitating the process, and the students' solutions to the problem becomes an assessment of how well the students can meaningfully apply the concepts.

Another way that authentic assessment is commonly distinguished from traditional assessment is in terms of their defining attributes. Of course, traditional assessments as well as authentic assessments vary considerably in the forms they take. But, typically, along the continuums of attributes listed below, traditional assessments fall more towards the left end of each continuum and authentic assessments fall more towards the right end.
Traditional ------------------------------------------- Authentic
Selecting a Response ----------------------------------- Performing a Task

Contrived -------------------------------------------------------------- Real-life

Recall/Recognition ------------------------------ Construction/Application

Teacher-structured ------------------------------------ Student-structured

Indirect Evidence ------------------------------------------- Direct Evidence

Let me clarify the attributes by elaborating on each in the context of traditional and authentic assessments:

Selecting a Response to Performing a Task: On traditional assessments, students are typically given several choices (e.g., a,b,c or d; true or false; which of these match with those) and asked to select the right answer. In contrast, authentic assessments ask students to demonstrate understanding by performing a more complex task usually representative of more meaningful application.

Contrived to Real-life: It is not very often in life outside of school that we are asked to select from four alternatives to indicate our proficiency at something. Tests offer these contrived means of assessment to increase the number of times you can be asked to demonstrate proficiency in a short period of time. More commonly in life, as in authentic assessments, we are asked to demonstrate proficiency by doing something.

Recall/Recognition of Knowledge to Construction/Application of Knowledge: Well-designed traditional assessments (i.e., tests and quizzes) can effectively determine whether or not students have acquired a body of knowledge. Thus, as mentioned above, tests can serve as a nice complement to authentic assessments in a teacher's assessment portfolio. Furthermore, we are often asked to recall or recognize facts and ideas and propositions in life, so tests are somewhat authentic in that sense. However, the demonstration of recall and recognition on tests is typically much less revealing about what we really know and can do than when we are asked to construct a product or performance out of facts, ideas and propositions. Authentic assessments often ask students to analyze, synthesize and apply what they have learned in a substantial manner, and students create new meaning in the process as well.

Teacher-structured to Student-structured: When completing a traditional assessment, what a student can and will demonstrate has been carefully structured by the person(s) who developed the test. A student's attention will understandably be focused on and limited to what is on the test. In contrast, authentic assessments allow more student choice and construction in determining what is presented as evidence of proficiency. Even when students cannot choose their own topics or formats, there are usually multiple acceptable routes towards constructing a product or performance. Obviously, assessments more carefully controlled by the teachers offer advantages and disadvantages. Similarly, more student-structured tasks have strengths and weaknesses that must be considered when choosing and designing an assessment.

Indirect Evidence to Direct Evidence: Even if a multiple-choice question asks a student to analyze or apply facts to a new situation rather than just recall the facts, and the student selects the correct answer, what do you now know about that student? Did that student get lucky and pick the right answer? What thinking led the student to pick that answer? We really do not know. At best, we can make some inferences about what that student might know and might be able to do with that knowledge. The evidence is very indirect, particularly for claims of meaningful application in complex, real-world situations. Authentic assessments, on the other hand, offer more direct evidence of application and construction of knowledge. As in the golf example above, putting a golf student on the golf course to play provides much more direct evidence of proficiency than giving the student a written test. Can a student effectively critique the arguments someone else has presented (an important skill often required in the real world)? Asking a student to write a critique should provide more direct evidence of that skill than asking the student a series of multiple-choice, analytical questions about a passage, although both assessments may be useful.

I have used the term traditional assessment on this site to refer to the many tests that are commonly administered to assess the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Tests usually consist of selected-response items (see below) and, occasionally, some constructed-response items. In contrast, authentic assessments include tasks such as performances, products and constructed-response items that typically require more direct application of knowledge and skills. These types of tasks are described below along with common examples of each.

In response to a prompt, students select an answer from among those given or from memory or from allowable study aids. Typically, no new knowledge is constructed; students simply recall or recognize information required to select the appropriate response. Examples include

Multiple-choice tests
True-false
Matching
Fill-in-the-blank
Label a diagram

In response to a prompt, students construct an answer out of old and new knowledge. Since there is no one exact answer to these prompts, students are constructing new knowledge that likely differs slightly or significantly from that constructed by other students. Typically, constructed response prompts are narrowly conceived, delivered at or near the same time a response is expected and are limited in length. However, the fact that students must construct new knowledge means that at least some of their thinking must be revealed. As opposed to selected response items, the teachers gets to look inside the head a little with constructed response answers. Examples include

(product-like):
Short-answer essay questions
"Show your work"
Ordering decimals
Limericks and rubric
Concept maps; another example / rubric
Writing a topic sentence
Identifying a theme
Making predictions
Brief summaries; another example
Peer editing
Figural representation (e.g., Venn diagram; web / rubric)
Journal response; literary journal reflections
Homework reflections; article reflections / rubric
Evaluating work of others; another example; another example
Self-assessment; another example / rubric
Self and group evaluation
Goal setting; another example / reflection
Question generation; another example
Explain your solution

(performance-like):
Typing test
Complete a step of science lab
Measure objects
Conducting bank transactions
Utilizing library services
Computer catalog search
On demand, construct a short musical, dance or
dramatic response
On demand, exhibit an athletic skill
Reading fluently
Conferences
Participation (and self-assessment)

In response to a prompt (assignment) or series of prompts, students construct a substantial, tangible product that reveals their understanding of certain concepts and skills and/or their ability to apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate those concepts and skills. It is similar to a constructed-response item in that students are required to construct new knowledge and not just select a response. However, product assessments typically are more substantial in depth and length, more broadly conceived, and allow more time between the presentation of the prompt and the student response than constructed-response items. Examples include

Essays, stories, or poems
Ballads
Obituaries
Satirical pieces
Metaphors
School rules
Research reports; another example
Annotated bibliographies
Works cited pages
Reading strategies and rubric
Projects / rubric; another example / rubric; another example
Literary analysis; another example; another example
Character analysis; another example
Diction analysis
Advertisement analysis
Biography/Autobiography analysis
Argument analysis / rubric
Analyzing primary sources
Analysis of painting
Film analysis
Geometric analysis
Article reviews
Book reviews / rubric
Case study / rubric
Speech critiques
Extended journal responses
Identification of goals
Reading guides
Feudal contracts / rubric
Art exhibit or portfolio
Models; another example
Constructing objects
Floor plans
Musical compositions
Photo compositions
Design an advertisement
Design an experiment
Lab reports; another example
Surveys
Data recordings
Graphing of data
Data analysis; another example; another example
Anaysis of statistical use in media / rubric
Real-world problem solutions; another example / rubric
Logical sequences
Error analysis
Planning for a task
Preparing for a discussion
Proposals and criteria
Road trip directions
Map construction / rubric
Road trip budget
Scavenger hunt
Newspapers
Newscasts; another example
Editorials; another example
Peer editing / rubric
Posters; another example; another example / rubric
Collages
Pamplets; another example
Brochures; another example / rubric
Magazine covers
Bulletin boards
Videos / rubric
Podcasts
Games; another example; another example
Comic strips
Books; Booklets
Timelines; another example / rubric
Issue awareness campaigns
Letter writing; persuasive letter writing; complaint letter
Advice letter; letter to Congress; letter to Emperor

In response to a prompt (assignment) or series of prompts, students construct a performance that reveals their understanding of certain concepts and skills and/or their ability to apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate those concepts and skills. It is similar to a constructed-response item in that students are required to construct new knowledge and not just select a response. However, performances typically are more substantial in depth and length, more broadly conceived, and allow more time between the presentation of the prompt and the student response than constructed-response items. Examples include

Conducting an experiment
Musical auditions; group auditions
Conducting an ensemble / rubric
Conduct band rehearsal / rubric
Create musical arrangement / rubric
Dance or dramatic performances
Dramatic readings
Skits
Role-plays / handout
Talk show performances; another example
Book talks
Debates; another example / rubric
Panel discussions
Fishbowl discussions
Coffee shop conversation
Athletic competitions
Oral presentations; another example; another example
Teaching/explaining
Speeches
Interviews
Self-introduction
Cooperative group behavior; another example

Also, see

Examples of Authentic Tasks
How to Select an Authentic Task

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Authentic Tasks (Authentic Assessment Toolbox)

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Characteristics of Authentic Tasks Types of Authentic Tasks Authentic Task: An assignment given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges In other words, a task we ask students to perform is considered authentic when 1) students are asked to construct their own responses rather than select from ones presented and 2) the task replicates challenges faced in the real world.

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Can I do Portfolios Without all the Fuss? How do you Create a Portfolio Assignment? Why use Portfolios? What is a Portfolio?
Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to tell a particular story about the student

Note: My focus will be on portfolios of student work rather than teacher portfolios or other types.

Student portfolios take many forms, as discussed below, so it is not easy to describe them. A portfolio is not the pile of student work that accumulates over a semester or year. Rather, a portfolio contains a purposefully selected subset of student work. "Purposefully" selecting student work means deciding what type of story you want the portfolio to tell. For example, do you want it to highlight or celebrate the progress a student has made? Then, the portfolio might contain samples of earlier and later work, often with the student commenting upon or assessing the growth. Do you want the portfolio to capture the process of learning and growth? Then, the student and/or teacher might select items that illustrate the development of one or more skills with reflection upon the process that led to that development. Or, do you want the portfolio to showcase the final products or best work of a student? In that case, the portfolio would likely contain samples that best exemplify the student's current ability to apply relevant knowledge and skills. All decisions about a portfolio assignment begin with the type of story or purpose for the portfolio. The particular purpose(s) served, the number and type of items included, the process for selecting the items to be included, how and whether students respond to the items selected, and other decisions vary from portfolio to portfolio and serve to define what each portfolio looks like. I will describe many of the purposes and characteristics in the sections below.

Some suggest that portfolios are not really assessments at all because they are just collections of previously completed assessments. But, if we consider assessing as gathering of information about someone or something for a purpose, then a portfolio is a type of assessment. Sometimes the portfolio is also evaluated or graded, but that is not necessary to be considered an assessment.

Are portfolios authentic assessments? Student portfolios have most commonly been associated with collections of artwork and, to a lesser extent, collections of writing. Students in these disciplines are performing authentic tasks which capture meaningful application of knowledge and skills. Their portfolios often tell compelling stories of the growth of the students' talents and showcase their skills through a collection of authentic performances. Educators are expanding this story-telling to other disciplines such as physical education, mathematics and the social sciences to capture the variety of demonstrations of meaningful application from students within these disciplines.

Furthermore, in the more thoughtful portfolio assignments, students are asked to reflect on their work, to engage in self-assessment and goal-setting. Those are two of the most authentic skills students need to develop to successfully manage in the real world. Research has found that students in classes that emphasize improvement, progress, effort and the process of learning rather than grades and normative performance are more likely to use a variety of learning strategies and have a more positive attitude toward learning. Yet in education we have shortchanged the process of learning in favor of the products of learning. Students are not regularly asked to examine how they succeeded or failed or improved on a task or to set goals for future work; the final product and evaluation of it receives the bulk of the attention in many classrooms. Consequently, students are not developing the metacognitive skills that will enable them to reflect upon and make adjustments in their learning in school and beyond.

Portfolios provide an excellent vehicle for consideration of process and the development of related skills. So, portfolios are frequently included with other types of authentic assessments because they move away from telling a student's story though test scores and, instead, focus on a meaningful collection of student performance and meaningful reflection and evaluation of that work.

The previous section identifies several valuable goals that make portfolios attractive in education. The sections that follow emphasize that identifying specific goals or purposes for assigning a portfolio is the first and most critical step in creating such an assignment. Just as identifying a standard guides the rest of the steps of developing an authentic assessment, identifying the purpose(s) for a portfolio influences all the other decisions involved in producing a portfolio assignment. I will list several of the most common purposes here, and then I will elaborate on how each purpose affects the other decisions in the section below.

Why might you use a portfolio assignment? Portfolios typically are created for one of the following three purposes: to show growth, to showcase current abilities, and to evaluate cumulative achievement. Some examples of such purposes include
1. Growth Portfolios

a. to show growth or change over time

b. to help develop process skills such as self-evaluation and goal-setting

c. to identify strengths and weaknesses

d. to track the development of one more products/performances

2. Showcase Portfolios

a. to showcase end-of-year/semester accomplishments

b. to prepare a sample of best work for employment or college admission

c. to showcase student perceptions of favorite, best or most important work

d. to communicate a student's current aptitudes to future teachers

3. Evaluation Portfolios

a. to document achievement for grading purposes

b. to document progress towards standards

c. to place students appropriately

The growth portfolio emphasizes the process of learning whereas the showcase portfolio emphasizes the products of learning. Of course, a portfolio may tell more than one story, including more than one category above. For example, a showcase portfolio might also be used for evaluation purposes, and a growth portfolio might also showcase "final" performances or products. What is critical is that the purpose(s) is clear throughout the process to student, teacher and any other pertinent audience. To elaborate on how the purpose affects the portfolio assignment let me answer the question...

I think of most tasks as problems to be solved, or questions to be answered. So, I find it useful to approach how to do something by thinking of it as a series of questions to be answered. Thus, I will attempt to offer a possible answer to the question above by answering a series of questions that need to be addressed when considering the design of a portfolio assignment. Those questions are:

1. Purpose: What is the purpose(s) of the portfolio?

2. Audience: For what audience(s) will the portfolio be created?

3. Content: What samples of student work will be included?

4. Process: What processes (e.g., selection of work to be included, reflection on work, conferencing) will be engaged in during the development of the portfolio?

5. Management: How will time and materials be managed in the development of the portfolio?

6. Communication: How and when will the portfolio be shared with pertinent audiences?

7. Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, when and how should it be evaluated?

As mentioned above, before you can design the portfolio assignment and before your students can begin constructing their portfolios you and your students need to be clear about the story the portfolio will be telling. Certainly, you should not assign a portfolio unless you have a compelling reason to do so. Portfolios take work to create, manage and assess. They can easily feel like busywork and a burden to you and your students if they just become folders filled with student papers. You and your students need to believe that the selection of and reflection upon their work serves one or more meaningful purposes.

Selecting relevant audiences for a portfolio goes hand-in-hand with identifying your purposes. Who should see the evidence of a student's growth? The student, teacher and parents are good audiences to follow the story of a student's progress on a certain project or in the development of certain skills. Who should see a student's best or final work? Again, the student, teacher and parents might be good audiences for such a collection, but other natural audiences come to mind such as class or schoolmates, external audiences such as employers or colleges, the local community or school board. As the teacher, you can dictate what audiences will be considered or you can let students have some choice in the decision.

Just as the purposes for the portfolio should guide the development of it, the selection of audiences should shape its construction. For example, for audiences outside the classroom it is helpful to include a cover page or table of contents that helps someone unfamiliar with the assignment to navigate through the portfolio and provide context for what is found inside. Students need to keep their audiences in mind as they proceed through each step of developing their portfolios. A good method for checking whether a portfolio serves the anticipated audiences is to imagine different members of those audiences viewing the portfolio. Can each of them tell why you created the portfolio? Are they able to make sense of the story you wanted to tell them? Can they navigate around and through the portfolio? Do they know why you included what you did? Have you used language suitable for those audiences?

As you can imagine, the answer to the question of content is dependent on the answers to the questions of purpose and audience. What should be included? Well, what story do you want to tell? Before I consider what types of items might be appropriate for different purposes, let me make a more general point. First, hypothetically, there is no limit as to what can be included in a portfolio. Paper products such as essays, homework, letters, projects, etc. are most common. But more and more other types of media are being included in portfolios. Audio and videotapes, cd-roms, two- and three-dimensional pieces of art, posters and anything else that can reflect the purposes identified can be included. Some schools are putting all the artifacts onto a cd-rom by videotaping performances, scanning paper products, and digitizing audio. All of those files are then copied onto a student's cd-rom for a semester or a year or to follow the student across grades as a cumulative record. Realistically, you have to decide what is manageable. But if the most meaningful evidence of the portfolio's goals cannot be captured on paper, then you may consider including other types of media.

Obviously, there are a considerable number and variety of types of student work that can be selected as samples for a portfolio. Using the purposes given above for each type of portfolio, I have listed just a few such possible samples of work in the following tables that could be included in each type of portfolio.

b. to help develop process skills

samples which reflect growth of process skills

self-reflection sheets accompanying samples of work

reflection sheets from teacher or peer

identification of strengths/weaknesses

goal-setting sheets

reflections on progress towards goal(s)

see more detail below under Process below

c. to identify strengths/weaknesses

samples of work reflecting specifically identified strengths and weaknesses

reflections on strengths and weaknesses of samples

goal-setting sheets

reflection on progress towards goal(s)

d. to track development of one or more products or performances

obviously, drafts of the specific product or performance to be tracked

self-reflections on drafts

reflection sheets from teacher or peer

d. to communicate a student's current aptitude

representative sample of current work

match of work with standards accomplished

self-reflection on current aptitudes

teacher reflection on student's aptitudes

identification of future goals

a. to document achievement for grading

samples of representative work in each subject/unit/topic to be graded

samples of work documenting level of achievement on course/grade-level goals/standards/objectives

tests/scores

rubrics/criteria used for evaluation of work (when applied)

self-reflection on how well samples indicate attainment ofcourse/grade-level goals/standards/objectives

teacher reflection of attainment of goals/standards

identification of strengths/weaknesses

c. to place students appropriately

representative samples of current work

representative samples of earlier work to indicate rate of progress

classroom tests/scores

external tests/evaluations

match of work with standards accomplished

self-reflection on current aptitudes

teacher reflection on student's aptitudes

parent reflection on student's aptitudes

other professionals' reflections on student's aptitudes

Other Content

In addition to samples of student work and reflection upon that work, a portfolio might also include a table of contents or a cover letter (both typically composed by the student) to aid a reader in making sense of the purposes, processes and contents of the portfolio. This can be particularly useful if the portfolio is to be shared with external audiences unfamiliar with the coursework such as parents, other educators and community members.

One of the greatest attributes of the portfolio is its potential for focusing on the processes of learning. Too often in education we emphasize the products students create or the outcomes they achieve. But we do not give sufficient attention to the processes required to create those products or outcomes, the processes involved in self-diagnosis and self-improvement, or the metacognitive processes of thinking. As a result, the products or outcomes are not as good as we or the students would like because they are often unsure how to get started, how to self-diagnose or self-correct or how to determine when a piece of work is "finished."

Although a variety of processes can be developed or explored through portfolios, I will focus on three of the most common:

selection of contents of the portfolio;

reflection on the samples of work and processes;

conferencing about the contents and processes.
Selection of Contents

Once again, identifying the purpose(s) for the portfolio should drive the selection process. As listed in the tables above, different samples of student work will likely be selected for different purposes. Additionally, how samples are selected might also differ depending on the purpose. For example, for an evaluation portfolio, the teacher might decide which samples need to be included to evaluate student progress. On the other hand, including the student in the decision-making process of determining appropriate types of samples for inclusion might be more critical for a growth portfolio to promote meaningful reflection. Finally, a showcase portfolio might be designed to include significant input from the student on which samples best highlight achievement and progress, or the teacher might primarily make those decisions.

Furthermore, audiences beyond the teacher and student might have input into the content of the porfolio, from team or department members, principals and district committees to external agencies to parents and community members. External audiences are most likely to play a role for evaluation portfolios. However, it is important to remember there are no hard rules about portfolios. Anything can be included in a portfolio. Anyone can be involved in the processes of selection, reflection and evaluation of a portfolio. Flexibility applies to portfolios as it does to any authentic assessment. That is, you should be true to your purpose(s), but you should feel no constraints on how you meet them with a portfolio assignment.

How might the selection take place?

What I will describe below are just a few of the many possible avenues for selecting which samples will be included in a portfolio. But these examples should give you a good sense of some of the choices and some of the decisions involved.

When?

when a sample of work is completed -- at the point a piece of work is ready to be turned in (or once the work has been returned by the teacher) the student or teacher identifies that work for inclusion in the portfolio;

at periodic intervals -- instead of selecting samples when they are completed, the samples can be stored so that selection might occur every two (three, six or nine) weeks or once (twice or three times) every quarter (trimester or semester);

at the end of the ... unit, quarter, semester, year, etc.By whom?

by the student -- students are the most common selectors, particularly for portfolios that ask them to reflect on the work selected. Which work students select depends on the criteria used to choose each piece (see below).

by the teacher -- teachers may be the selector, particularly when identifying best pieces of work to showcase a student's strengths or accomplishments.

by the student and teacher -- sometimes portfolio selection is a joint process involving conversation and collaboration.

by peers -- a student might be assigned a "portfolio partner" or "portfolio buddy" who assists the student in selecting appropriate pieces of work often as part of a joint process involving conversation and collaboration. A peer might also provide some reflection on a piece of work to be included in the portfolio.

by parents -- parents might also be asked to select a piece or two for inclusion that they particularly found impressive, surprising, reflective of improvement, etc. Based on what criteria?

best work -- selection for showcase portfolios will typically focus on samples of work that illustrate students' best performance in designated areas or the culmination of progress made

evidence of growth -- selection for growth portfolios will focus on identifying samples of work and work processes (e.g., drafts, notes) that best capture progress shown on designated tasks, processes or acquisition of knowledge and skills. For example, students might be asked to choose

samples of earlier and later work highlighting some skill or content area

samples of rough drafts and final drafts

work that traces the development of a particular product or performance

samples of work reflecting specifically identified strengths and weaknesses

evidence of achievement -- particularly for showcase and evaluation portfolios, selection might focus on samples of work that illustrate current levels of competence in designated areas or particular exemplars of quality work

evidence of standards met -- similarly, selection could focus on samples of work that illustrate how successfully students have met certain standards

favorite/most important piece -- to help develop recognition of the value of the work completed and to foster pride in that work, selection might focus on samples to which students or parents or others find a connection or with which they are particularly enamored

one or more of the above -- a portfolio can include samples of work for multiple reasons and, thus, more than one of the above criteria (or others) could be used for selecting samples to be included

Reflection on Samples of Work

Many educators who work with portfolios consider the reflection component the most critical element of a good portfolio. Simply selecting samples of work as described above can produce meaningful stories about students, and others can benefit from "reading" these stories. But the students themselves are missing significant benefits of the portfolio process if they are not asked to reflect upon the quality and growth of their work. As Paulson, Paulson and Meyer (1991) stated, "The portfolio is something that is done by the student, not to the student." Most importantly, it is something done for the student. The student needs to be directly involved in each phase of the portfolio development to learn the most from it, and the reflection phase holds the most promise for promoting student growth.

In the reflection phase students are typically asked to

comment on why specific samples were selected or

comment on what they liked and did not like in the samples or

comment on or identify the processes involved in developing specific products or performances or

describe and point to examples of how specific skills or knowledge improved (or did not) or

identify strengths and weaknesses in samples of work or

set goals for themselves corresponding to the strengths and weaknesses or

identify strategies for reaching those goals or

assess their past and current self-efficacy for a task or skill or

complete a checklist or survey about their work or

some combination of the above Reflection sheets

Probably the most common portfolio reflection task is the completion of a sheet to be attached to the sample (or samples) of work which the reflection is addressing. The possibilities for reflection questions or prompts are endless, but some examples I have seen include

Selection questions/prompts

Why did you select this piece?

Why should this sample be included in your portfolio?

How does this sample meet the criteria for selection for your portfolio?

I chose this piece because ....

Growth questions/prompts

What are the strengths of this work? Weaknesses?

What would you work on more if you had additional time?

How has your ______ (e.g., writing) changed since last year?

What do you know about ______ (e.g., the scientific method) that you did not know at the beginning of the year (or semester, etc.)?

Looking at (or thinking about) an earlier piece of similar work, how does this new piece of work compare? How is it better or worse? Where can you see progress or improvement?

How did you get "stuck" working on this task? How did you get "unstuck"?

One skill I could not perform very well but now I can is ....

From reviewing this piece I learned ....

Goal-setting questions/prompts

What is one thing you can improve upon in this piece?

What is a realistic goal for the end of the quarter (semester, year)?

What is one way you will try to improve your ____ (e.g., writing)?

One thing I still need to work on is ....

I will work toward my goal by ....

Evaluation questions/prompts

If you were a teacher and grading your work, what grade would you give it and why?

Using the appropriate rubric, give yourself a score and justify it with specific traits from the rubric.

What do you like or not like about this piece of work?

I like this piece of work because ....

Effort questions/prompts

How much time did you spend on this product/performance?

The work would have been better if I had spent more time on ....

I am pleased that I put significant effort into ....

Overall portfolio questions/prompts

What would you like your _____ (e.g., parents) to know about or see in your portfolio?

What does the portfolio as a whole reveal about you as a learner (writer, thinker, etc.)?

A feature of this portfolio I particularly like is ....

In this portfolio I see evidence of ....

As mentioned above, students (or others) can respond to such questions or prompts when a piece of work is completed, while a work is in progress or at periodic intervals after the work has been collected. Furthermore, these questions or prompts can be answered by the student, the teacher, parents, peers or anyone else in any combination that best serves the purposes of the portfolio.

Other reflection methods

In addition to reflection sheets, teachers have devised a myriad of means of inducing reflection from students and others about the collection of work included in the portfolio. For example, those engaging in reflection can

Good skill development requires four steps:

Instruction and modeling of the skill;

Practice of the skill;

Feedback on one's practice;

Reflection on the practice and feedback.

Reflection itself is a skill that enhances the process of skill development and virtually all learning in innumerable settings. Those of us who are educators, for example, need to continually reflect upon what is working or not working in our teaching, how we can improve what we are doing, how we can help our students make connections to what they are learning, and much, much more. Thus, it is critical for students to learn to effectively reflect upon their learning and growth.

As a skill, reflection is not something that can be mastered in one or two attempts. Developing good reflective skills requires instruction and modeling, lots of practice, feedback and reflection. As many of you have probably encountered, when students are first asked to respond to prompts such as "I selected this piece because..." they may respond with "I think it is nice." Okay, that's a start. But we would like them to elaborate on that response. The fact that they did not initially elaborate is probably not just a result of resistance or reluctance. Students need to learn how to respond to such prompts. They need to learn how to effectively identify strengths and weaknesses, to set realistic goals for themselves and their work, and to develop meaningful strategies to address those goals. Students often have become dependent upon adults, particularly teachers, to evaluate their work. They need to learn self-assessment.

So, the reflection phase of the portfolio process should be ongoing throughout the portfolio development. Students need to engage in multiple reflective activities. Those instances of reflection become particularly focused if goal-setting is part of their reflection. Just as instruction and assessment are more appropriately targeted if they are tied to specific standards or goals, student identification of and reflection upon strengths and weaknesses, examples of progress, and strategies for improvement will be more meaningful and purposeful if they are directed toward specific goals, particularly self-chosen goals.

Once opportunities for reflection (practice) take place, feedback to and further reflection upon student observations can be provided by conversations with others. Conferencing is one tool to promote such feedback and reflection.

With 20 or 30 or more students in a classroom, one-on-one conversations between the teacher and student are difficult to regularly arrange. That is unfortunate because the give and take of face-to-face interaction can provide the teacher with valuable information about the student's thinking and progress and provide the student with meaningful feedback. Such feedback is also more likely to be processed by the student than comments written on paper.

Conferencing typically takes several forms:

teacher/student -- sometimes teachers are able to informally meet with a few students, one at a time, as the other students work on some task in class. Other times, teachers use class time to schedule one-on-one conferences during "conference days." Some teachers are able to schedule conferences outside of class time. Typically such conferences take only a few minutes, but they give the teacher and the student time to recap progress, ask questions, and consider suggestions or strategies for improvement.

teacher/small group -- other teachers, often in composition classes, meet with a few students at a time to discuss issues and questions that are raised, sharing common problems and reflections across students.

student/student -- to conserve time as well as to give students the opportunity to learn how to provide feedback along with receiving it, teachers sometimes structure peer-to-peer conferencing. The focus might be teacher-directed (e.g., "share with each other a sample of work you recently selected for your portfolio") or student-directed (e.g., students use the time to get feedback on some work for a purpose they determine).

As appealing as the process of students developing a portfolio can be, the physical and time constraints of such a process can be daunting. Where do you keep all the stuff? How do you keep track of it? Who gets access to it and when? Should you manage paper or create an electronic portfolio? Does some work get sent home before it is put in the portfolio? Will it come back? When will you find the time for students to participate, to reflect, to conference? What about students who join your class in the middle of the semester or year?

There is one answer to all these questions that can make the task less daunting: start small! That is good advice for many endeavors, but particularly for portfolios because there are so many factors to consider, develop and manage over a long period of time. In the final section of this chapter (Can I do portfolios without all the fuss?) I will elaborate on how you can get your feet wet with portfolios and avoid drowning in the many decisions described below.

How you answer the many management questions below depends, in part, on how you answered earlier questions about your purpose, audience, content and process. Return to those answers to help you address the following decisions:

Should the portfolio building process wait until the end or should it occur as you go?

The easiest solution is to collect work samples along the way but save the selection and reflection until the end, keeping selection simple and limiting the amount of reflection.

The more involved (and more common) approach is for participants to periodically make selections and to engage in reflection throughout the process. This gives the student time to respond to identified weaknesses and to address goals set.

Will the portfolios be composed of paper or stored electronically (or both)?

Paper Portfolio: As you know, the most common form of portfolios is a collection of paper products such as essays, problem sets, journal entries, posters, etc. Most products produced in classrooms are still in paper form, so it makes sense to find ways to collect, select from and reflect upon these items.

Hybrid Portfolio: Other forms of products are increasingly available, however, so teachers are adding videotapes, audiotapes, 3-D models, artwork and more to the containers holding the paper products.

Electronic Portfolio: Since many of the paper products are now first created in an electronic format, it makes sense to consider keeping some samples of work in that format. Storage is much easier and portability is significantly increased. Additionally, as it becomes easier to digitize almost any media it is possible to add audio and video examples of student work to the electronic portfolio. A considerable amount of work can be burned to a CD or DVD or displayed on a website. An electronic compilation can be shared with a larger audience and more easily follow a student to other grades, teachers and schools. Copies can be made and kept.

Where will the work samples and reflections be kept?

A common model for portfolio maintenance is to have two folders for each student -- a working folder and a portfolio folder. As work samples are produced they are stored in the working folder. Students (or other selectors) would periodically review the working folder to select certain pieces to be included in the portfolio folder. Usually reflection accompanies the selection process. For example, a reflection sheet may be attached to each piece before it is placed in the portfolio.

In addition to manilla or hanging folders, portfolio contents have also been stored in pizza or laundry detergent boxes, cabinets, binders and accordian folders (Rolheiser, Bower & Stevahn, 2000).

For older students, some teachers have the students keep the work samples. Then they are periodically asked to select from and reflect upon the work. Students might only keep the working folders while the teacher manages the portfolio folders.

As a parent, I know I also would like to look at my child's work before the end of the semester or year. So, some teachers send work home in carefully structured folders. One side of a two-pocket folder might be labeled "keep at home" while the other side might be labeled "return to school." The work likely to end up in the portfolio would be sent home in the "return to school" pocket.

Who will be responsible for saving/storing them?

Typically the teacher keep the contents of the portfolio as they are usually stored in the classroom.

Older students (and sometimes younger ones) are also given the responsibility of managing their portfolios in the classroom, making sure all samples make it into the appropriate folders/containers, remain there, are put back when removed, and are kept neatly organized.

As mentioned above, older students sometimes are required to keep track of their work outside the classroom, bringing it to class on certain days for reflection and other tasks.

For electronic portfolios, it usually depends on teacher preference and whether or not students have access to storage space on the network or can save samples locally, or burn them to CDs or DVD, or add them to websites.

Who will have access to it, and when?

Usually the teacher and student will have access to the working folder or the final samples.

But, for some types of showcase portfolios, only the teacher might have access because she is constructing the portfolio about the student.

For older students, the teacher might only have limited access as the student controls the portfolio's development.

Parents might have access and input as samples of work are sent home.

Other educators might also have access to final portfolios for larger evaluative purposes.

When?

Typically, students and teachers contribute samples to a working folder as they are created. Access to a portfolio folder is gained on a more regular schedule as times for selection and reflection are scheduled.

Parents or other educators might have access at certain intervals depending on the purpose of the portfolio and the process that has been chosen.

How will portfolio progress be tracked?

A checklist sheet is sometimes attached to the front of a folder so that the teacher or the student can keep track of when and which samples have been added, which have been removed (temporarily or permanently), when reflections have been completed, when conferences have taken place, and whether or not any other requirements have been completed.

The teacher might just keep a schedule of when selections, reflections or conferences are to take place.

Older students might be required to keep track of the process to make sure all requirements are met.

What will the final product look like?

Showcase portfolios will typically have a more formal and polished presentation. A cover letter or introduction along with a table of contents might be included to provide context for a potentially wide range of readers, and to give the student or teacher a chance to more fully flesh out the student's story.

Growth or evaluation portfolios might have a less formal presentation, unless the evaluation is part of a high stakes assessment. If the student and teacher are the primary readers, less context is needed. However, if parents are the primary or a significant intended audience, more explanation or context will be needed.

What if students join your class in the middle of the process?

Obviously, one advantage of choosing to build the portfolio at the end of a period of time rather than build it along the way (see the first question) is that transient students can still easily participate. They have less work to consider, but they can still engage in the selection and reflection process.

If selection and reflection occur as work is being produced, the new student can simply join the process in progress. Some adaptation will likely be necessary, but the student can still demonstrate growth or competence over a shorter period of time.

If the portfolio is also to be evaluated, further adjustment will need to be made.

Why share the portfolio?

By the nature of the purposes of portfolios -- to show growth, to show case excellence -- portfolios are meant to be shared. The samples, reflections and other contents allow or invite others to observe and celebrate students' progress and accomplishments. A portfolio should tell a story, and that story should be told.

Students should primarily be the ones telling their stories. As students reflect on the balance of their work over some period of time, there is often a great sense of pride at the growth and the accomplishment. By telling their own stories students can take ownership of the process that led to the growth and achievement. Assessment is no longer something done to them; the students are playing an active role through self-assessment.

Furthermore, others will be able to recognize and celebrate in the growth and accomplishment of the students if their work is communicated beyond the borders of the classroom. A portfolio provides a unique vehicle for capturing and communicating student learning. Parents tend to learn more about their children's abilities and propensities through a portfolio than they do through the odd assignment that makes it home and into the parents' hands. Moreover, other interested members of the school and local community can recognize and celebrate the accomplishment.

Finally, the portfolio can provide an excellent tool for accountability. Parents, educators and community members can learn a great deal about what is happening in a classroom or school or district by viewing and hearing about the contents of these stories. Perhaps more importantly, the student and teacher can uncover a vivid picture of where the student was, where she has traveled to, how she got there and what she accomplished along the way -- a fascinating and enlightening story.

Considering the audience

Of course, deciding how to tell the story will be influenced by the intended audience. For example, presenting a collection of work to a teacher who is already familiar with much of the content will likely require a different approach than presenting that work as part of a college application.

Audiences within the classroom

In some classrooms, a portfolio is used much like other assignments as evidence of progress towards or completion of course or grade level goals and standards. In such cases, the only audience might be the teacher who evaluates all the student work. To effectively communicate with the teacher about a body of work, the student may be asked to write a brief introduction or overview capturing her perceptions of the progress (for a growth portfolio) or accomplishments (for a showcase portfolio) reflected in the collection of work. Teachers who assign portfolios not only want to see student work but want to see students reflect upon it.

As a classroom assessor, the teacher also has the benefit of communicating face-to-face with each student. Such conferences take a variety of forms and vary in their frequency. For example,

A teacher might review a portfolio at one or more intervals, and then prepare questions for the face-to-face conversation with each student;

A student might run the conference by taking the teacher through her portfolio, highlighting elements consistent with the purpose of the portfolio;

A "pre-conference" might occur in which teacher and student discuss how the portfolio should be constructed to best showcase it or best prepare it for evaluation.

Additionally, classmates can serve as an audience for a portfolio. Particulary for older students, some teachers require or encourage students to present their portfolios to each other for feedback, dialogue and modeling. For example,

Pairs of students can review each other's work to provide feedback, identify strengths and weaknesses, and suggest future goals;

Sharing with each other also provides an opportunity to tell a story or just brag;

Students can always benefit from seeing good (or poor) models of work as well as models of meaningful reflection and goal-setting.

As students hear themselves tell each other about the value and meaning of their work it will become more valuable and meaningful to them.

Audiences within the family and school community

As many of us have experienced with our own children, parents sometimes only receive a small, fragmented picture of their children's school work. Some work never makes it home, some is lost, some is hidden, etc. It can be even harder for parents to construct a coherent picture out of that work to get a real sense of student growth or accomplishment or progress toward a set of standards.

Portfolios provide an opportunity to give parents a fuller glimpse of the processes and products and progress of their children's learning. Many teachers intentionally involve the parents in the development of the portfolio or make parents an audience or both.

For example, to involve parents in the process,

teachers make sure parents view most student work on a consistent basis; for example,

some teachers require students to get much of their work signed by parents to be returned to school;

some teachers send work home in a two-pocket folder in which one pocket contains work that can stay home and the other pocket contains work that can be viewed by parents but should be returned to school, each pocket carefully labeled as such;

some teachers use a three-pocket folder in which the third pocket is a place parents can pass along notes or comments or questions;

teachers also invite parents to provide feedback or ask questions about student work; for example,

a reflection sheet, perhaps similar to the ones students complete, can be attached to some of the pieces of work sent home inviting parents to make comments, ask questions or provide evaluation;

parents might be invited to provide a summary reflection of work they have seen so far;

or simply identify one or two pieces of work or aspects of their children's work that they most like or are most surprised about.

To share the portfolio with parents,

many schools host Portfolio Nights, at which students often guide their parent or parents through the story of their work. Having the Night at school allows the student to more easily share the variety of two- and three-dimensional work they have created.

after teacher evaluation of the portfolio (if that is done), the complete portfolio might be sent home for the parents to view and possibly respond to. This might occur once at the end of the process or periodically along the way.

A Portfolio Night also provides an opportunity for other members of the school or larger community to view student portfolios. The portfolios may simply be on display to be sampled, or students might guide other audiences through their work.

Similarly, during the school day students can share their portfolios with students from other classes or with school personnel.

Audiences beyond the classroom, school and family

An external audience for student work can serve to motivate students to give more attention to and take more seriously their performance. First, it may give more legitimacy to assigned work. If the work is to be externally reviewed, it suggests that it is not simply "busy work" that provides a grade but that it is something authentic valued outside the walls of the classroom. Second, some students may take more care in their work when they believe a new, different, and perhaps expert audience will be viewing it.

To extend the audience beyond the classroom, school and family, teachers have adopted a variety of approaches, including

expanding the audience at Portfolio Nights to include a larger community, perhaps even authors, or scientists or other professionals relevant to the work in the portfolio;

inviting professionals or experts in a particular field to come listen to presentations of the portfolios;

inviting professionals or experts to serve as one of the reviewers or evaluators of the portfolios;

encourage or require students to share their work with a larger audience through the Web or other media. Publishing on the Web also allows students to solicit comments or questions.

Preparing the student to share

Just as we do not expect children to write or speak well without considerable instruction and practice, it is not reasonable to expect students to effortlessly and effectively share their stories without some help. Teachers have devised a number of strategies to prepare students to communicate with the target audience. Some such strategies include

pairing up students in class ("portfolio partners") to practice presenting their work to each other;

pairing up the author of the portfolio with an older student a few grades above. The younger student would practice presenting her work as if she is presenting it to the intended audience (e.g., parents at a Portfolio Night). Both students can benefit as the older student provides feedback and encouragement and may increase her own self-efficacy for the task through modeling and tutoring the younger student.

providing models. Teachers provide models of good portfolios that illustrate how the product itself can effectively communicate with an audience through the way it is constructed. Teachers can also model the process of communication by walking through how he or she would share a portfolio with a specific audience.

Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, how and when should it be evaluated?
As with all of the elements of portfolios described above, how and when evaluation is addressed varies widely across teachers, schools and districts. Take, for example,

Evaluation vs. Grading

Evaluation refers to the act of making a judgment about something. Grading takes that process one step further by assigning a grade to that judgment. Evaluation may be sufficient for a portfolio assignment. What is (are) the purpose(s) of the portfolio? If the purpose is to demonstrate growth, the teacher could make judgments about the evidence of progress and provide those judgments as feedback to the student or make note of them for her own records. Similarly, the student could self-assess progress shown or not shown, goals met or not met. No grade needs to be assigned. On a larger scale, an evaluation of the contents within the portfolio or of the entire package may be conducted by external bodies (e.g., community members, other educators, state boards) for the purpose of judging completion of certain standards or requirements. Although the evaluation is serious, and graduation might even hinge on it, no classroom grade may be assigned.

On the other hand, the work within the portfolio and the process of assembling and reflecting upon the portfolio may comprise such a significant portion of a student's work in a grade or class that the teacher deems it appropriate to assign a value to it and incorporate it into the student's final grade. Alternatively, some teachers assign grades because they believe without grades there would not be sufficient incentive for some students to complete the portfolio. Ahh, but

What to Grade

Nothing. Some teachers choose not to grade the portfolio because they have already assigned grades to the contents selected for inclusion.

The metacognitive and organizational elements. But the portfolio is more than just a collection of student work. Depending on its purpose, students might have also included reflections on growth, on strengths and weaknesses, on goals that were or are to be set, on why certain samples tell a certain story about them, or on why the contents reflect sufficient progress to indicate completion of designated standards. Some of the process skills may also be part of the teacher's or school's or district's standards. So, the portfolio provides some evidence of attainment of those standards. Any or all of these elements can be evaluated and/or graded.

Completion. Some portfolios are graded simply on whether or not the portfolio was completed.

Everything. Other teachers evaluate the entire package: the selected samples of student work as well as the reflection, organization and presentation of the portfolio.

How to Grade/Evaluate

Most of the portfolio assignments I have seen have been evaluated or graded with a rubric. A great deal of personal judgment goes into evaluating a complex product such as a portfolio. Thus, applying a rubric, a tool which can provide some clarity and consistency to the evaluation of such products, to the judgment of quality of the story being told and the elements making up that story makes sense. Moreover, if the portfolio is to be evaluated my multiple judges, application of a rubric increases the likelihood of consistency among the judges.

Examples of Portfolio Rubrics

What might a portfolio rubric look like? If the focus of the grading is primarily on whether the samples of student work within the portfolio demonstrate certain competencies, the criteria within the rubric will target those competencies. For example,
Evaluating competencies Or, Completing requirements Meeting standards Evaluating the portfolio as a whole

The more we can involve students in the assessment process, the more likely they will take ownership of it, be engaged in it, and find it worthwhile. So, it makes sense to involve students in the evaluation process of their portfolios as well. They have likely engaged in some self-assessment in the reflection or goal-setting components of the portfolio. Additionally, students are capable of evaluating how well their portfolio elements meet standards, requirements, or competencies, for their own portfolios or those of their peers. Furthermore, older peers could make excellent judges of the work of younger students. Cross-grade peer tutoring has demonstrated how well the older and younger students respond to such interactions.

Obviously, the classroom teacher, other educators, review board members, community members, etc. can all serve as judges of student work. If multiple judges are used, particularly if they are not directly familiar with the student work or assignments, training on a rubric should be provided before evaluation proceeds. The evaluators should be familiar with and clear on the criteria and the levels of performance within the rubric. A calibration session, in which the judges evaluate some sample portfolios and then share ratings to reach some consensus on what each criteria and level of performance within the rubric means, can provide a good opportunity for judges to achieve some competence and consistency in applying a rubric.

Oh, what fun would that be! Actually, the answer is a qualified "yes." Portfolios do typically require considerable work, particularly if conferencing is involved. But with most anything, including assessment, I recommend that you start small.

Here's a quick, easy way to get started if any of the above thoughts has either encouraged you or not discouraged you from considering assigning portfolios in your little world. The following describes just one possible way to get started.

Step 1. Depending on the age of your students and other considerations, have students select two pieces of their work over the course of a quarter (or three or four over a semester). Decide (with your students or without) upon one or more criteria by which the selection will be guided (e.g., their best work). To limit management time, don't wait for the end of the quarter for students to make those selections. Otherwise, all their work will have to be collected along the way. Instead, if you want to keep it simple, tell your students ahead of time that they will be selecting two or more pieces matching certain criteria, and that you will ask them to do it at the point each sample is completed.

Step 2. At the time a student selects a sample to be included in his portfolio, require the student to complete a brief reflection sheet and attach it to the sample.

Step 3. Depending on the age of your students, ask your student to save that sample and the attached reflection sheet until the end of the quarter or semester, or collect it and store it yourself at that point.

Step 4. At the end of the quarter or semester, ask your students to reflect upon the samples one additional time by describing what they liked best about their work, or by identifying strengths and weaknesses, or by setting one or two goals for the future.

There, that wasn't too painful. Okay, you ask, that was relatively simple, but did it really accomplish anything? Good question. If you don't think so, don't do it. On the other hand, it could possibly have a few benefits worth the effort. First, if nothing else it gave you some experience working with portfolios. If you want to pursue portfolios in a more elaborate manner, at least you are now more familiar with some of the issues involved. Second, if you think developing self-assessment skills in your students is a worthwhile goal, you have also begun that process. Even a little reflection on your students' part may be more than some of them typically give to their work. Finally, you may have opened, even if it is just a little bit, a new avenue for you and your students to communicate with their parents about their performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and their habits. Any of those reasons may be sufficient to try your hand at portfolios. Good luck!

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Can I do Portfolios Without all the Fuss? How do you Create a Portfolio Assignment? Why use Portfolios? What is a Portfolio? Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to tell a particular story about the student Note: My focus will be on portfolios of student work rather than teacher portfolios or other types.

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As you enter, complete the following:

1. Register in MyIB as a New User

2. Gallery walk of global posters using Zoom In visible thinking strategy

3. Provide feedback on charts

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5. Don't forget to sign in on Timekeeper

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Count off 1-4, read your assigned text
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2. Learner article
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Record one new fact about PYP changes
Share with your group

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Which skills have you used so far?

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Resources for quick inquiry into Pi
1. Wonderopolis
2. Math is Fun
3. Scientific American
4. All About Pi
5. Why Pi Matters
6. Pi Day 2018
7. What Makes Pi So Special?
8. Celebrations Around the World
9. Jobs that use Pi

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Brainstorm questions organized around the IB Key Concepts

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Video Reflections from An Inquiry into Pi

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Video Reflections from An Inquiry into Pi

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Share your findings by recording a video reflection and post.

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Use the resources below and others you find online to meet your writing challenge. For literary devices click here.
1. UN
2. Favorite Poem Project
3. International Forms of Poetry
4. Poets by Nationality

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Voice - Choice - Ownership
Try out Popplet

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10:30-11:15 a.m.
Click on the choice board and download to your desktop. Use your teacher agency to complete activities. Click on the hyperlinks for resources. Head to the materials table for craft supplies if needed.

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11:15-11:30 a.m.
Respond to this prompt by adding a sticky to the Linoit.
"The Important Thing About IB at WHES is..."

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Here is a list of the strategies used during our AM session.

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1. Choose one of the following to read:
Choice A - I'm Finally Using the Key Concepts
Choice B - The Power of the PYP Concepts in Math
2. Read and reflect on your reading – select ONE key concept or big idea

3. Partner with someone who read the other online article

4. Share your key concepts/big ideas

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1. Read/share your favorite children’s book with your teammates.

2. Decide on one book for your team.

3. Work collaboratively to complete the chart. Copies are on tables.

4. Record the title, author and a brief summary.

5. Decide on 2-3 related concepts the book could be used to develop.

6. Consider a Transdisciplinary Theme the book develops AND the concept descriptors to prove this.

7. Develop a central idea for one of the enduring understandings of the book. Refer to the related concepts you selected.

8. Decide on 1-2 key concepts and develop related questions.

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Related Concepts: Behavior, Peace

Transdisciplinary Theme: Who We Are

-personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health

Central Idea: Mindfulness leads to a peaceful life.

Key Concepts: Connection, Responsibility, Reflection

Questions:

How are your emotions connected to your environment? How do you keep your emotions in check? How can you take action to bring peace to the world?

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Related Concepts

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Theme Descriptors

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Active Verbs for Central Ideas
Verbs to avoid - affect - are - influence - impact - is - have

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Post your examples here

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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Vertical Progression for the Approaches to Learning

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Vertical Progression for the Approaches to Learning

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1. Refer to MTPYPH for ATL
2. Start with Communication Skills
3. Using a conveyor belt, indicate the EOY goal for your grade level
4. Pass your chart clockwise
5. Discuss the K-5 progression and make revisions as needed
6. For a great example from Westlake Academy, click here

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Why include skills as an essential element?

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What skills does the PYP suggest?