English Language Arts LTT Mid-Module Discussion - Sept Cohort by Team LTT

Mid-Module 1 reflection

healy8 — 2022-09-14 14:50:53 UTC

Concepts and patterns allow students to see the same ideas happening in other subjects or in other situations, which allows them to draw upon an understanding from any source to apply to that new situation, subject or problem. If they only have memorised content in their heads—these words rhyme or these are the parts of a cell—with no emphasis on bigger ideas such as systems, patterns, forms, etc. then they cannot transfer understanding and all their knowledge exists in compartmentalised boxes that don't understand each other. But when they are engaged in using the content to achieve an understanding of concepts and patterns, they can recognise similarities across disparate fields of knowledge or areas of study and apply one understanding to another, or even use one understanding to deepen and strengthen another. This makes their learning of the content more memorable, as well, which helps them retain details more easily. It gives relevance to their learning.

2022-09-17 19:16:16 UTC

First of all I would like to say that my English writing is not so good (sorry :(). So if you don't understand, I'm available to explain. 
Another point: Can I make comments based on my class experiences?
The initial reflection was very interesting, because I was able to connect directly to an experience I had yesterday in the Portuguese IB class - We were talking about the concept of representativeness presented in one of the literary works to the first year students, and the students brought as an example the clip from Little Mermaid in which black children feel like in the movie. It was so beautiful to see the transfer that this group is already capable of.

Transfer = Rhetorical Flexibility

lisamoore14_1 — 2022-09-17 21:13:25 UTC

The videos discussion of the importance of showing students how concepts such as evidence, reasoning, and claims connect and how they are across writing genres is so important! Writing is complicated because there are so many concepts, techniques, and genres in which we communicate. In response to that complexity, there continues to be a push, now and then at my school, to simplify and standardize writing instructions for students by teaching the same formulaic approach across content areas. Though the intention behind it is good, this approach is problematic for a variety of reasons. 1. It does not provide students with the rhetorical awareness and flexibility they need to transfer conceptual knowledge to new writing situations and genres. 2. The standardized, formulaic approach privileges one discourse pattern over others. 3. It gives students the impression that figuring out how to structure their writing requires following directions - not thinking. As ELA teachers, our approach to writing needs to include reading from a variety of genres, styles, and authors and sharing observations about how the concepts of focus are used across of those texts. We need to help them see the strategy behind the writer's choices. In case you are not familiar, I included a picture of Jennifer Fletcher's wonderful book Writing Rhetorically, which provides many ideas about how to do this.

In my ninth grade class, we revisit argument several times. Students read opinion editorials and notice how they are written. Then they write them. Later, they do the same with argument reviews. After reading this, I can see a need to stress those concepts of claim, evidence, reasoning more - so I can be more intentional about helping them see the transfer of these concepts across these two genres of argument writing. This year, I could also connect to the five-paragraph argument essay they write in Social Studies. They are works in progress, but I have created some mentor text analysis assignments to help with this. Please let me know if you want me to share anything.

Mid-Module Reflection M1

sloane20223_1 — 2022-09-18 17:00:13 UTC

Being aware of concepts and recognizing patterns allow students to create mental boxes where they can organize information. It allows them to intake new information in an easier way because they can relate previous knowledge and structures with new knowledge. As students learn more and more the ability to connect conceptual understanding allows them to understand in more abstract and complex ways.

Mid-Module Reflection - Flávia Pamplona

2022-09-20 16:19:33 UTC

Concepts are organized ideas with distinct attributes that are shared across multiple example and they are sort of the brain's mental file folders. The connection between the concepts, however, are what help form the deep, structural pattern of a disciple. By having this pattern down, students can travel along that same pathway again to understand similar concepts

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-09-21 12:52:09 UTC

In today's modernized society, we have to understand that we are moving at a faster pace of change and complexity. Technology has become a huge part of the classroom since the COVID-19 pandemic and we have had to include it in our classrooms and make space for it in our curricula and assessments. The roles of students and teachers are deeply connected in my opinion, for neither one can exist without the other. Taking into consideration what's been mentioned, the role of a teacher needs to be to help students acquire, connect and transfer their knowledge, while the role of students needs to become more engaging and communicative.

Mid-Module reflection

lconrado2 — 2022-09-24 23:11:36 UTC

As an IB teacher, I need to work with the summative activities according to the course format: Paper 1, paper 2, HL Essay, IOC. But I always try to associate these practices with other activities, including receiving suggestions and proposals from the students.

In this quarter the students read the work Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, and one of the evaluations was the elaboration of a virtual and also a physical newspaper. Due to the great success and enthusiasm, we decided to publish a book with the students' productions and have an afternoon autograph session. The idea is to put the student at the forefront of learning, valuing their practices.

Reframing the role

healy8 — 2022-09-25 07:22:15 UTC

I think it is widely acknowledged anymore that the student, not the teacher, needs to be at the center of the classroom and the teacher is there to guide and facilitate the students in their own learning journey, but this is a major task that requires a lot of innovation in both physical and mental space. It requires us to reshape our curriculum in ways that we still address the skills students need while setting the learning experience in a meaningful environment, with purpose, that activates their curiosity. For a lot of us, certain assessment is predetermined by a community outside of our control, but the more students are able to build transferable understanding, to see the connection across disciplines, the better chance they have of success regardless of the nature of the exam. Ideally, we reframe all of these roles to give students the tools they need to approach unfamiliar situations and problems with confidence and clarity because there will be something in their experience that will help them address what's in front of them.

Mid-module reflection

rebecca20223_1 — 2022-09-25 07:57:11 UTC

Great to read all of these specific examples- thanks all.
I have just started out the year with grade 12 looking at how we can tell our stories powerfully, so as to connect with the reader. Thinking ahead to college apps on the horizon, we looked at a range of personal narratives, essays, poems and memoir extracts that all explored the concepts of identity, culture and community. Kwame Dawes, Binyavanga Wainaina, Amin Maalouf, Lemn Sissay poems too. Through our discussions, we examined these concepts and the complexity of identity (and its fluidity) in particular. We looked for patterns across different text types and examined how authors use a range of literary, structural and rhetorical devices in order to engage and involve the reader in their stories. Students then wrote about a significant event / person / experience, using some of these techniques for themselves. The next transfer will be to their college essays..
A couple of students had written drafts of college essays during the summer (before this unit of study,) and when they revisited these drafts last week- they were very critical and could identify, straight away, how to set about editing and improving. The transfer from our analysis of texts and relevant concepts was very clear. Anchoring our exploration of texts across genres in key concepts, and then intentionally looking for patterns in HOW authors told their stories, really helped the learning transfer.

Reflection--Emily Silva

emily_silva — 2022-09-25 17:52:22 UTC

I resonate with a lot of what everyone has already mentioned, ie. concepts and patterns allowing students to apply their learning to a new situation, to show transfer, make connections, connections between concepts allowing for deeper understanding etc.

At my school last year, we did a little bit of concept based learning work as we went through a curriculum review process. What I am realizing is that our ELA group needs to revisit the concepts that we anchored our units in so that we can get to the more complex and deeper understanding and not just a singular concept. And also, we need to think about concepts across contents (especially with contents areas like Socials and Science that include literacy skills) so that there is some common language and understandings.

Mid-Module 2 reflection

lisamoore14_1 — 2022-09-25 18:46:29 UTC

The reframing of these roles involves makes me think of the value of leading with students' genuine questions and providing the time, space, resources, and skills-practice they need to explore those questions in a meaningful way. Student curiosity should drive the curriculum. Assessment is controversial and complex, yes. We need to move away from grading and truly see assessment as a way for reflecting and monitoring growth.

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-09-26 15:46:42 UTC

I would say that the critical disciplinary perspective is the one that resonates the most with me, largely because I believe that every piece of information that reaches our lives needs to be collected, analyzed and stored in specific categories. A critical perspective allows students to understand what they are leaning, why they are learning it and how they will use this knowledge in their lives. It is one perspective that I would definitely like to implement with my students

Mid Module Reflection

rebecca20223_1 — 2022-09-27 06:23:22 UTC

I have really enjoyed the new changes to the IBDP Lang&Lit guide (a few years ago) and IBDP Theatre (this year). The way in which assessments are framed are more aligned with the approaches to learning that have been discussed in this module and that the IB are promoting.

Having students keep a learner portfolio or theatre journal and giving them scope to connect with core concepts and global issues that are relevant to them and their reading of the world, gives students ownership over the learning and opens up space for them to follow their own inquiry paths.

The Individual Oral in particular fosters autonomy in students- they choose a literary and non literary text and look for connections in terms of global issues explored, concepts grappled with etc. The emphasis is on looking at the interplay between different elements, across genres, and how authors use their craft to communicate certain messages, advocate for causes etc. across different fields of inquiry (values, beliefs, attitudes or science, technology, environment for example).

I would like to see us take this reframing one step further and truly embrace the connections that can be made with the core of the IB Diploma (CAS and TOK in particular). The challenge is for teachers to view themselves as co-learners in this process, and loosen the reigns a little. This can be difficult if teaching in a school that is results-driven or has performance related pay / appraisal..

Mid Module discussion

rebecca20223_1 — 2022-09-27 11:04:39 UTC

Fostering a critical perspective is probably at the top of my priority list. It is not enough for students to recognise injustice and inequality, they need to understand the complex historical and social contexts that are at the root of these problems. We then need to recognise our complicity in unjust structures, acknowledge the complexity of this entanglement, and work towards looking at how we can overcome falling into these patterns of coloniality and violence.

What does this look like in a literary study? Making relevant connections between human-experience concepts we may be exploring through the text, and then researching into the context of production as well as of the narrative at hand, guided by questions inquiring into cause (rather than effect). By looking at design concepts and how they frame the theme in a particular way, we can then dig deep into authorial intention and how we as reader are impacted.

For real world transferral, if students are to take action somehow, I always favour action that goes beyond feeding the helping imperative (eg. donation drives or fundraising for specific causes), and instead would encourage students to advocate or tell powerful stories of people in order to humanise global concerns (ensuring that all actors are included and given ownership over how their story is told.)

Mid-module reflection

healy8 — 2022-09-28 08:19:55 UTC

I definitely lean more towads the critical quadrant and human-experience concepts. I recognise that I am not very strong in the skills-based aspects and potential of the subjects and am struggling to figure out how to map and teach those skills. I certainly borrow from the traditional mode the idea of the shared experience of texts, and am a big believer in helpinng students find their own voices in the craft-focused aspect, looking at the social purpose of texts and understanding cultural contexts from the functional. I see the subject as text-context-subtext-intertext based, but my strengths and natural tendencies lean towards the literary theoretical lenses of the critical part—this is also tied to my belief that language and literature plays an integral part in developing critical competencies so students can become critical and creative thinkers.

Reflection

emily_silva — 2022-09-29 13:28:09 UTC

One of the ways that educators can reframe the role of students is to begin the shift in their expectations of students and student learning. Teachers can (if they have not already) lean into self-directed learning where students take ownership of their learning and become the drivers of it. In order for this to happen, this means teachers will have to shift their thinking and beliefs about students. It seems like once this shift occurs, then the others will follow suit (curriculum and assessment especially). We will always be up against systematic type challenges (schedules, grades/reporting/curriculum, etc.) but I think the change needs to begin within educators.

Mid Module Reflection

rebecca20223_1 — 2022-09-29 15:03:18 UTC

What concerns me most is the post-truth culture we have found ourselves in. It is really difficult to navigate texts (be they documentaries or political campaigns, social media posts or newspaper articles) in this climate. Identifying bias and agendas is becoming more and more difficult, and I feel my response to this in terms of how I am teaching critical literacy is lagging miserably. I don't really understand algorithms, the metaverse and AI, but I am aware that I need to in order to be an effective literacy teacher now.

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-09-29 18:47:23 UTC

Some challenges are the benefits and disadvantages of the use of technology in the classroom, and often those two are mixed up. The need of mixing traditional and modern literacies has has been growing and, frankly, it has not sunk in yet. There are so many students how know how to use technology wisely to their benefit, but there are so many others that use it for other non-scholar purposes. The real challenge is to know how to teach them and guide them towards that balance.

Mid-Module Reflection

lconrado2 — 2022-10-02 13:21:14 UTC

My priority is without a doubt the critical perspective and it is what I seek to establish in my pedagogical practice. This provides students with a critical, reflective look at the world through any type of text. I usually say that they, the students, must be suspicious, go beyond what is in the words, in the images. The goal is for them to actually be able to establish connections with the real world, with the experiences lived by them and those around them, and try to transform it.

Module 4

lconrado2 — 2022-10-02 14:48:25 UTC

One of the great challenges is to involve students in the learning process as protagonists. I have tried to include them in the decisions of the activities we develop in class. As they are much more technologically advanced than I am, I suggested that we collectively decide on the next summative assessment. As we are already completing the study of the work Claraboia, by José Saramago, and we have already carried out written textual productions, oral presentations according to the IB exam, students will make podcasts or digital videos to address the concepts, the global issues presented in the literary work.

Mid-Module Reflection (Emily Silva)

emily_silva — 2022-10-02 14:48:35 UTC

The disciplinary perspectives that resonate the most with me are traditional and critical. However as a MS ELA teacher they are what I focused on the least. That was interesting to notice/reflect on within my own practice. I felt I was very heavy on the craft focused perspective as we were very skills based. We have also been working on incorporating the workshop framework into our practice which lives a lot in craft. An area where I can improve is to blend the perspectives together.

ATLs

healy8 — 2022-10-02 15:19:53 UTC

It didn't occur to me while watching the video and listening to the discussion, but the slide 'examples of modern literacies' makes it clear: what we're talking about here are what the IB calls 'ATLs': approaches to learning. This is a list of skills to be incorporated across the curriculum and embedded into the school culture, either explicitly taught or explicitly embedded into our community mindset. The categories are Communication, Thinking, Research, Social and Self-Management. This may be something explicitly related to a skill (reading for comprehension and critical awareness) or something more affective (resilience and failing well). Not all of this can be taught in every discipline and in fact most need to be taught across disciplines (reading for comprehension is different in Language & Literature than it is in Maths than it is in Science than it is in Visual Arts, etc.). A lot of this can really be explored in interdisciplinary unit planning which, when done right, can really open up the students to an incredible depth of thinking, but is also a chance to really show what, say, digital citizenship looks like not just within a discipline but across disciplines, outside the classroom, beyond the borders of the school community and out there in the wild. A lot of this is really challenging stuff to help students devleop, learn and grow—a lot of it's hard for us! Growth mindset, adaptability, creativity—it's hard to teach creativity, it's hard to teach students to be resilient, it's hard to teach ... financial literacy? I'm steeped in debt, so how can I make this meaningful to students? It might not exist within the discipline, but it exists across disciplines and can be woven into the fabric of the school culture which is, at its core, a microcosm of the authentic world outside but one wherein students can examine that world, practice who they are in that world, make mistakes in a fairly risk-free environment.

Module 1

wearethebest — 2022-10-02 23:58:11 UTC

By grasping concepts and patterns, the students will be able to understand the key elements of the learning and it allows students to draw from what they have learned and use it to grasp new topics and make predictions of their new learning.

Module 1

jessica20223_2 — 2022-10-03 13:19:50 UTC

I work with younger students (kindergarten – grade 2) and my focus is to teach them English. I happen to use a lot of repetition for them to understand a concept in English. It’s amazing to see that once they completely have understood something – it could be a word, a phrase – they are able to recognize it something they are doing in class and add more to it. If they are older students, sometimes they might see/hear a similar pattern and/or concept in their own language, where they are not only making a personal connection but transferring what they have learned in English which can allow them to have a better understanding of what they’re learning.

Mid-Module 2 Reflection

jessica20223_2 — 2022-10-05 14:30:40 UTC

I think that we’re able to develop curriculum and assessments once we understand who and what kind of students we’re working with. We’re not going to make a new curriculum, but we will be adapting it according to our students needs. We should acknowledge what they want to learn and how they want to learn it, in a way that they are responsible but interested in their own learning, thus, making us someone who can guide them as they make their own discoveries.

Mid-Module Reflection

jessica20223_2 — 2022-10-06 10:42:21 UTC

As a lower ES EAL teacher, I believe I focus more on traditional and craft-focused disciplinary perspectives, because I think that an EAL student needs the foundation so that they can start to think more critically in English. Maybe they already know how to in their own language, but how can they transfer their thoughts and express themselves in English. But I would definitely want to work more on the critical disciplinary perspective and work alongside the main classroom teacher to help broaden the EAL students understanding. It would be interesting to hear their perspective on how they understand something coming from a different background.

Mid-Mod Reflection

emily_silva — 2022-10-07 02:08:16 UTC

Earlier this week I was working in a teacher's classroom on a concept mapping activity. Many of the students were very much cognitively engaged. Some of them were not. When I walked around and just took note of what students were doing (even though the expectations were clear) there were still some disruptive behaviors. I got to thinking that maybe one of the challenges we might face is with executive functioning. Task initiation is big challenge these days. As is impulse control. I don't have a solution, but it was something interesting to note that there were some outside factors at play.

Mid-Module 2 Reflection

sloane20223_1 — 2022-10-13 04:35:03 UTC

I think it is pretty obvious that we need a massive overhaul of how we do things in education. I think we are still lacking a level of authenticity and relevance in schools that we need in order to truly help kids make a difference in the world we are living in. Maybe we aren't truly asking ourselves how can what we are teaching in each unit apply to the students' lives right now and in the future. And maybe we need to explicitly teach and apply the skills in real life instead of pretending in "real-life". For example, instead of just writing a persuasive essay or making a speech, why are we not actually using persuasion and social media to show kids the power of persuasion on online platforms. Or using the students online activity as material for a lesson to show how to evaluate sources or analyze human communication methods or behaviors.

Mid-Mod Reflection: Emily

emily_silva — 2022-10-15 14:56:50 UTC

This year I am actually out of the classroom (instructional coaching), but I am thinking back to my classes last year in G6 and G8. In grade 8 a story that is threaded throughout the units is one of awareness. It seems like no matter the skills or concepts included, that awareness (social awareness, individual awareness, from awareness to action) in some fashion makes an appearance. This is interesting to recognize because those deeper connections and transfer can be made if the units are designed with just a tiny bit more intention!

Emerging story

healy8 — 2022-10-16 13:13:26 UTC

I first began noticing emerging stories in my curriculum last year. For example, in DP1, I realised that there was a natural transition from our post-colonial unit to our indigenous lives unit, and because we were talking so much about who gets to tell which story and how that shapes our understanding, it became natural to move what had once been a starter text to the end of the first year, The Storyteller, by Mario Vargas Llosa, and re-shape that unit by calling it The Story and the Story Told. All of these units connect with the way they explore indigenous cultures, colonialisation, power, trauma, land, heritage, etc.

In MYP5, I realised at the end of the year that my last unit had the word power (language and power) and my first unit had also been about power (power and privilege). This year I reshaped the year so all four units address some aspect of power or power structures, recreating one from being about character and perception to being about power and relationships, giving us more of a focus for how the characters develop through the stories. I am adding a unit about power and abuse/ambition, which might give me a chance to reintroduce Macbeth to my curriculum, or perhaps something like The Crucible, all leading to the final unit, which is about power and resistence, particularly the use of language (taboo language, dialect, etc.) as a form of resistence.

MYP2 I had much the same revelation, but it's a little less conceptual. In a unit about travel writing, in which we explore style, purpose, etc., we looked closely at rhetorical appeals and developed skills of comparison and contrast. At the end of the year, I had a unit about community appeals, exploring the way groups like Amnesty International and Avaaz appeal to communities, etc., and thought it was a great opportunity to spiral their previous learning back into the course, deepend their understanding of the rhetorical appeals and strengthen our ability to compare and contrast. This gave me all kinds of ideas for developing the MYP curriculum from MYP1-MYP5 in our whol department, a project we are all working on developing now. The story of MYP2 is still developing, but since we recognised that much of MYP1 was about 'discovering ourselves', I thought MYP2 could take that a step further and be about 'ourselves in the world', beginning with a unit about taking responsibility for ourselves (removing the 'youth rebellion unit to MYP4), then reframing the travel unit about taking responsibility in the world (while still maintaining the style focus), etc. I am still working on the overarching narrative (the third unit is about the refugee/immigrant experience and the fourth, as mentioned, is about this kind of community outreach, so there's something about needing help/offering help there).

All of this makes it much more exciting to plan these units and teach these lessons, but I get impatient a bit not having just a dedicated amount of time to map this out, really solidify the ideas and create some overview unit maps that would help me consider the timing and approach of the units.

Our brains are geared towards looking for similarities and differences in order to find patterns. Uncovering patterns lead to understanding bigger concepts. Moving from similar to dissimilar contexts in applying a concept is what leads to transfer. Once students can transfer their learning they have skills/tools to problem solve in real life, which increases motivation for learning.

techishtrish — 2022-10-16 17:05:33 UTC

Reframing

techishtrish — 2022-10-16 19:19:33 UTC

To reframe the roles in education, I think educators need to really look at the world we live in and how fast change is happening. We need to take the time to think about how these cultural shifts impact what needs there are for learning. There also needs to be less emphasis on single standards and more on future outcomes for productive citizenship.

Mid Mod 3 Reflection

techishtrish — 2022-10-16 21:26:32 UTC

I would like to integrate the functional perspective more. I'm working on understand how better to help my 6th graders use literacy skills to engage with their life/community/world. I have a really hard time getting to this perspective because of all the work we need to do in the other 3. literacies.

Mid Mod 4 Reflection

techishtrish — 2022-10-16 22:54:54 UTC

Some challenges include authentic assessment that involves students goal setting to meet criteria associated with the assessment and involving them in the evaluation process (more student driven rather than teacher driven). I also would like to see students students construct more of their own meaning. A challenge with both of these is executive functioning skills. The big challenge is how to teach all the "soft skills" to my 6th graders so that can take on more the cognitive and metacognitive load. I just know that some great engagement and motivation would be the result.

Mid Mod 5

techishtrish — 2022-10-17 00:05:15 UTC

I have a literacy course, rather than a humanities at my school, which gives me a double block to teach literacy. I teach 6th grade with 2 other colleagues (history/art & STEM) and 6 grade is the 1st level at our middle school. The thought was that I could help build the foundational literacy skills so our students would be successful in 7th and 8th grade, which means helping students performing below grade level to catch up. What a big task with 90 students!

A story that is emerging is that of what it means to be literate and why that is important. My students need to know why our learning this year is crucial to their lives. I'm thinking of how to tie the story to relevant things in their lives and future situations they may want to be in and why these skills would be helpful.

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-10-20 13:08:46 UTC

I am not a regular teacher, I work in Learning Support for kids with learning disabilities. However, I have been trying my best to correlate what they are learning in a certain subject and how it can relate to their lives.

Mid-Mod Reflection: Emily

emily_silva — 2022-10-23 22:58:06 UTC

As we continue through this course, I continually come back to thinking about implementing more project based learning. Last year I was a classroom teacher (this year I am instructional coaching) for 6th and 8th grade. In 8th grade we launched a project based learning unit as our finale to the year. It was great for being the first time. It allowed for student voice and choice as well as an authentic audience. This year, I hope to work with the grade 8 ELA teachers to really amp up the use of concept based learning within the project based learning unit. I think this will truly allow for students to get to that transfer level in their learning.

Voice and choice

healy8 — 2022-10-24 12:32:43 UTC

I think it's always important that students have a certain amount of choice in what they experience and the content they explore. Providing options but letting students make the choices keeps the 'ordered liberty' of the unit intact while giving students the freedom to pursue their own interests within the framework. For students to have agency in what material they choose to engage with and how they choose to respond to it, within a guided framework, provides the best feedback for the teacher on what their levels of understanding are and what their learnined needs might be.

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-10-24 12:57:49 UTC

I'm not a specific classroom teacher, I work with specific students with learning disabilities. However, I do try to give them a voice, listen to them as much as possible and provide them with possible solutions to their problems. I also try and give them as much autonomy as possible when doing a task and try to connect whatever it is they are learning to their personal lives, which helps, most of the time

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-10-24 13:36:04 UTC

While during the Self-Assessment, I realized that I frequently guide and help students to understand how to focus and learn on their own. What I realized that I could do more often is work on helping students to know how to identify better ways of assessing their knowledge, their strengths and weaknesses.

Assessment practices

healy8 — 2022-10-25 08:47:12 UTC

I am deeply intruiged by the idea of getting students to select their own goals for the unit or the course and keeping track of that on their own. I am working more on implementing what the IB calls learner portfolios, which is ongoing student reflection, and am coming to a better understanding of how that can work well. I do quite a lot of self- and peer-review but need to be stronger in helping students determine their own strengths and weaknesses and making that process more meaningful.

Mid-Module Reflection

fpamplona2 — 2022-10-26 13:04:27 UTC

By giving them the space and opportunities to ask as many (topic related) questions as they want so I can guide them into understanding how these concepts transfer to real-world situations

Mid-Module 3

sloane20223_1 — 2022-10-27 09:07:16 UTC

The disciplinary perspective that resonates with me most is Functional. I am a firm believer that the true purpose of education is and will be (hopefully more emphasized) in the future is building well-rounded, self-examined humans. This means really emphasizing the social impact and context of the subject and teaching students how to adapt and flourish in the ever-changing world they are in. I really want to integrate this more into my teaching and continue to ask myself, "Why am I teaching this?" "What impact will this truly have on student learning and success in the real-world?"

Mid Mod 6 Reflection

techishtrish — 2022-10-29 18:45:13 UTC

Harnessing voice is so important for relevance and engagement in our classrooms. I have been trying to do this more and more. One of the ways is to ask students, at the beginning of the year, what is important to them (in life, at home, in school, etc). I do this in a google form so I can constantly look at this. This year, I'm thinking of putting a little activity together where they update this. I'll do it in January so I can see if there are any other concepts I can add to our learning.

I'm also thinking that during the learning I'll pose this question more, "How do you see the concepts we're working with play out in your lives (personal and academic)?" I want to help my students see that what we do in class is directly related to their world.

Mid Mod 7 Reflection

techishtrish — 2022-10-29 20:04:39 UTC

Based on the self assessment, I am doing a really good job at doing all the work for my students. I know I need to provide more opportunities for students to set goals, determine the learning criteria for themselves and monitor that learning in meaningful ways.

Here's where I get hung up....how and is there time. This work on assessment in this module is really having me think deeply about what is important for my student to learn, which includes how to learn. I am at a school that allows me to work on this stuff, so I think I just need to jump and not look back.

Mid Mod 8 Reflection

techishtrish — 2022-10-29 22:46:09 UTC

I want to use bolt and hexagonal mapping more. I don't think I give as much time as I should to this kind of transformational thinking. Part of creating a culture of transfer is to hear different perspectives as a way for driving thinking in ourselves. It's important for students to see that there is often more than 1 way to understand concepts.

I also want to work on student self driven assessment strategies, so they can monitor their own learning. This empowered learning will help with the transfer. I've been reading and thinking about "ungrading" for the last year or so and recently read an article about how on any given day, a student will learn through their perspective, experience, etc., so why are we trying to stick with cookie cutter learning experiences. This has really stuck with me and as I've worked through this course, the need for a culture of transfer is critical for students to be educated.

Mid-Mod Ref.-Emily

emily_silva — 2022-10-30 23:52:07 UTC

An area where I feel pretty confident is in modeling (or demonstrating) my thinking or a process for my students. But an area where I can definitely improve is involving the students more in developing clear criteria of a good learning practice. I love the idea of using an exemplar/model and then using that to create the success criteria for "what good looks like". I think that really provides clarity for students and I hope to use this strategy more.

Culture of transfer

healy8 — 2022-11-02 17:45:17 UTC

I'm interested in the intentionality of these ideas. This is something I've been lacking in my units, that sort of narrative structure. Looking at my current units, esp my MYP2 unit, I see so much more clearly how it can be rebuilt for next year without making major changes to the ideas or materials in order to move from one idea to the next meaningfully and powerfully. I've always sort of hodge-podged things and hoped something stuck, and the content hasn't always had such intention in when I present it. I really love this idea of using the content to build that meaning across the unit and develop and deepen understanding without being completely abstract. I've found that Harvard Project Zero is a life-saving resource for me when I'm designing lesson plans and I've seen such positive reactions from the kids when using these resources, because they really love thinking and sharing their thoughts. Now I feel that these tools offer a way to harness that power and drive the learning experience meaningfully in a way I've never really been able to manage before. I'm very excited for this and am eager to transform my units so they build meaningfully and fully. I also like the simplicity of the design, the easy way we can use these tools to visualise the journey.

Mid-Mod Reflection: Emily

emily_silva — 2022-11-05 16:45:25 UTC

We are going through some changes at my school around our assessment practices. This year, our "highest" grade is complex which fits with transfer perfectly. I have been working with teachers on how to get kids to show real-world transfer and so far it has been going well, meaning that teachers have been flexible in their thinking around it. As far as activities, I have brought concept mapping and hexagonal thinking to the teams that I am working with and it was very fun to see the kids so cognitively engaged. I hope to include the frayer model and SEEI-t to a group of social studies teachers that I am working with as well.

Mid-Module Reflection

jessica20223_2 — 2022-11-07 10:24:41 UTC

The adaptability in lessons regarding multilingual students. We sometimes forget that even though all of our students speak English, doesn't mean that all of our students understand everything we're saying.

Mid-Module Reflection

jessica20223_2 — 2022-11-07 11:36:31 UTC

Part of working with EAL students is helping them build those personal connections as they also learn English foundational skills (phonics, reading, writing). Something that I like about the PYP is how it makes those connections with the real world while building on vocabulary that they need to learn.

Mid-Mod 7 Reflection

lconrado2 — 2022-11-15 10:44:00 UTC

I believe that my strength is the ease of creating diverse learning opportunities in the classroom and also the collection of data to improve the teaching process. While the criteria are quite clear, the challenge is to help students identify ways to get personal feedback and monitor their own learning process.

Module1 Response

mslili — 2022-11-16 08:33:36 UTC

The transfer of learning required students to have a certain cognitive structure, only by establishing a system in the original knowledge background can students master the similarities between learning materials and different contexts. The establishment of this system requires concepts and patterns as elements.

Voice and Choice

2022-12-12 16:28:32 UTC

I have learned that 12th grade Resource English can be challenging to teach as students are on their way out and it is hard to keep them motivated. One way that I have gotten to know my students better and learn how to keep them interested is using Connection Circles (Restorative Practices). This has been a positive way to get to know the students and allow them to make connections with other students in the classroom. This gives students a voice in the classroom.
When giving students, at all grade levels, choice, there needs to be a guide to help keep them on track. This may be for Project Based Learning, or what book they will read, etc.
-Alisha Mihoda

Module 8

lconrado2 — 2022-12-15 16:20:24 UTC

My attempt will continue to be the attempt to correlate the concepts worked in the classroom with the real world. From experiences, reports, and students as protagonists of learning, being able to participate in decisions and choosing ways to apply what is learned.

An evolving story in my IBDP classes..

rebecca20223_1 — 2022-12-20 16:05:25 UTC

After ten years away from him, I am reading George Orwell's essays with fresh eyes and he is weaving together our whole course. Against totalitarianism, for democratic socialism, anti-capitalism, pro-the simple pleasures of life, be it nature, food, the common toad... admitting complicity in cycles of harm as a first step towards attempting to reduce it, be it neocolonial endeavours such as subscribing to linguistic hegemony or contributing to the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.. These are the stories that are emerging...

Module 6 - Mid Module Reflection

2022-12-31 03:54:19 UTC

I think it’s important to give students voice. I work with EAL students, and sometimes find it difficult, especially when they don’t speak any English. But, by providing materials where they can use their mother tongue to work, using translanguaging, and letting them choose their own way of showing their understanding is a way for them to have agency as they are learning the English language.

Jessica D - Mid Module 7 Reflection

2022-12-31 05:22:36 UTC

An area of strength that I notice that I have is that I am able to provide learning opportunities for my students by identifying their needs as I collect data from them and improve my instructional practice to target their needs. An area of growth for me allowing my students to their own personal goals and allowing them to monitor their learning progress. However, I find this difficult since si work EALs…

Jessica D - Mid Module 8 Reflection

2022-12-31 06:14:27 UTC

I really liked the concept attainment map that was shown for the kindergarten class. Since I work with lower elementary EALs, it’s important for me to use more visuals rather than words. Allowing translanguaging is well, will also provide that culture of transfer in class.

Mid-Mod reflection-Alisha Mihoda

2023-01-02 17:27:40 UTC

An area of strength for me is that I teach students how to set up their own goals. An area for growth is being very intentional about ensuring that students keep coming back to the goals they set and ensuring that the goals are meaningful for students.

LiLi's teaching practice

mslili — 2023-01-05 01:51:29 UTC

An area of strength and an area of growth

mslili — 2023-01-05 02:12:58 UTC

An area of strength for me is in my teaching practice, I always make sure that students clearly know the success criteria and the path to success. During their learning process, students will choose the best way according to their advantages and meets the success criteria.
An area of growth for me is how to monitor students' individual progress in their learning process and provide the best progress plan and feedback.

Create a culture of transfer in my teaching

mslili — 2023-01-05 03:05:42 UTC

In the teaching plan stage, I will build a key concepts system and embedded in teaching and learning. I will also stimulate students to think deeply about conceptual question. Students will be provided as many opportunities as possible to reflect their learning. I will also guide students to connect the conceptual questions they learn to life practice such as providing them with real life problems.