Tag Archives: creativity

My Favourite – Getting Students Talking to Each Other about Math #MTBoS Week 2

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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So “my favourite” in my math classes is really quite general: student-to-student conversation. This does not entail formal math talks per se, but activities or investigations in which we engage that naturally encourage, or even necessitate, students working together and discussing the concepts or strategies.

A lesson where I talk too much is usually a boring lesson. Even though I put on a show and extol the wonders of math and get overly excited when introducing a new topic, when I’m spending the majority of the period “on the stage”, it is somehow not as energizing as when students actively engage in an activity and take the lead. In addition, in a me-focused period I don’t get the chance to collect as much assessment data or to give as much feedback to students, so I’m often not as certain about how much learning has actually occurred.

When I step into the background and circulate in the room, listening and observing, questioning and probing, I can directly see the learning, I can record observational and conversational data, and I can provide direct feedback during the process rather than a few days later. Here are two general examples of things I do to encourage these student-to-student math conversations:

1. Daily Warm-Ups

Each day I have a warm-up exercise on the screen when students enter the room. Inspiration for this comes from Mary Bourassa who has blogged about her warmup regime here. I do something similar, where each student has a “cahier” (exercise book in English…I teach math in French) that stays in the classroom purely for warmups. Some days I do activities like Mary’s such as Estimation 180, Would You Rather, etc., and some days I do a lagging concept. For example, it could be a question based on what we did the previous day, but I like to reach back a bit further sometimes and select something that we looked at two or three days before.

While students are working on the question, I circulate and select a group of students each day. Depending on the question and what they are doing, I sometimes just observe their process, sometimes I listen to their conversation, or I engage them in a conversation by asking questions such as: “How do you know that your answer is correct?”, or “Can you explain your process to me?”. From there I record a level for each student I observed or conversed with for that overall curriculum expectation. At the end of a unit of study, I look through their cahiers at all of their solutions and provide written feedback as well.

2. Group Challenges/Manipulatives

This one really forces the students to interact because they have a common goal to reach with their group. I like giving them something to touch and move around to elicit the conversation. Some examples:

  • for exponent rules, I have matching cards with the original and simplified expressions
  • for solving linear systems by substitution, I have cards that have different steps of the solution that they need to put in order
  • for factoring and expanding, I like to give them algebra tiles to physically create the rectangle
  • for word problems, I give the problems on cards, the unlabelled diagrams on cards, and the solutions on cards, and students need to match the three by completing the solutions

Again, these activities always seem to initiate student-to-student talk, usually within the mathematical processes, as students try to prove to each other that their answer is correct, or explain their thinking, or suggest a process to complete the challenge.

 

So in very general terms, these types of activities are my favourite activities in my math classes. Especially when teaching math in French, getting students to speak about the concepts in the target language is key for both the development of their understanding of the math, and the development of their second language skills.

Staying Inside the Lines: Reflections on Learning from my Adult Colouring Book

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

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I have never been very good at art. Dramatic Arts yes, music definitely, but visual arts were never my cup of tea. Despite this, I asked for and received an adult colouring book for Christmas, and I must admit that I’ve become slightly obsessed with it. I have spent so many hours flipping through the pages, trying to select which one to colour, then agonizing over which colours to choose, then engaging in the slow and meticulous process of filling in the design. And although colouring is not visual arts per se, my somewhat meditative hours spent in the book have brought me to reflect on my very first statement and the nature of learning.

Reflection 1: On the Messiness and Scariness of True Learning

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I began this post stating that I’m not good at art. Most of that is my own fault. As a child and a teenager, if I wasn’t good at something right away, I stopped pursuing it. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately?), at the risk of sounding braggy, I had a natural aptitude for enough things that I had the luxury of avoiding those areas where I struggled.

I have always said that I love to learn; as a child, as a teenager, and as an adult, I have never strayed from the desire to discover new knowledge and skills (I mean, look at the title of this blog!). But reflecting now, the learning that I loved as a student was the easy, neat kind: the kind where the next piece of knowledge followed logically from the previous and fit perfectly into my cognitive construct, where the next part of the skill flowed perfectly and built directly upon the foundation I already had. When learning was too challenging or messy, I ran for the hills. Again, at the risk of sounding braggy, I was a gifted identified student and considered by my peers and teachers as one of the top students in my grade, but my mindset was so narrow and fixed. So many of our students, especially those who are gifted or who usually pick up on new concepts quickly, do respond as I used to and avoid the struggle.

It wasn’t until my math courses in university that I encountered a situation where I couldn’t avoid the struggle anymore. This was the first time that I found math to be truly difficult, and I couldn’t just pick another course as math was my chosen minor. I had to engage in some productive struggle and stretch myself in order to understand, but in the end, some of that learning was so much more satisfying than any of the learning I had done before. Again, even though colouring is not me creating a visual arts piece from scratch, I’m considering it my first small step toward stretching myself in that area and truly learning some new skills.

Reflection 2: On Perfectionism

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Every time I have gone outside the lines on my drawing so far I have cringed. The patterns are so intricate that sometimes a small error is unavoidable. But when I zoom out and look at the whole image, those little imperfections fade away, and all I see are the beautiful colours and patterns.

As a teenager, you guessed it, I was a pretty hardcore perfectionist. Those tendencies still rear their ugly head from time to time now in my adult life, but as an educator my mindset really has changed. It was always so important to me to pour hours and hours into each project and task, to script and time oral presentations exactly to the teacher’s specifications, to check and double check and triple check math questions – all with the mindset that the final product was final, the endpoint, and there would be nothing more to take from it once it was completed and submitted.

Now I know, and try my very best to demonstrate to students, that there is still learning to be had and that perfection is not the ultimate, nor really an attainable goal. Instead the focus should be on continuously learning and improving, reflecting on those products that were thought to be final. In French classes, so many students are afraid to speak in discussions because they don’t want to make a mistake (totally the teenage me). As a teacher, I always call attention to my own oral production. As a bilingual person and a teacher of the language, I still make the occasional grammar mistake when writing or speaking, or can’t find the word I want to say and need to talk around it or use a more basic word. Obviously my students (and myself) are working toward more grammatical precision, but at the end of the day, if their message is clear despite some mistakes, then the goal of the communication has been accomplished – just like when I zoom out of my coloured image and my scribbles outside the lines become less and less evident. As long as we are improving each time we engage in a task: whether that task is a math problem, engaging in a second language conversation, or colouring, then perfection ceases to be the be-all and end-all goal. Learning instead takes its place in the forefront.

Funny the thoughts a simple colouring book can provoke.

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How do we teach culture?

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

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This is the third article in a series dedicated to the Enduring Ideas presented in the front matter of the revised Ontario FSL Curriculum.

In the document, this enduring idea is titled: Interdependence of Language and Culture. Culture has not previously held such a prominent place in our FSL Curriculum as it does in this newest version, so many educators are stuck on my titular question: how do we teach French culture effectively when it encompasses so many different things?

In my test run with my FIF2D (Grade 1o French Immersion) classes last year weaving the old curriculum with the new, I focused on intercultural awareness with a biais towards pop/youth culture and arts culture, mainly in France and French-speaking Europe. I wanted to start with something to which my students would readily relate. Here are two ways I exposed my students to French pop culture:

1) Music Videos

Each week, we watched and analysed a music video. I used my personal knowledge of popular French artists as well as a Google search for current Top 10/20/50 songs in France (many of which are English-language songs from North America – interesting how our culture crosses more into theirs than vice versa). Depending on the song and video, our approach differed:

  • Watch/listen and then discuss meaning/theme/reaction in small groups or as a whole class
  • Watch/listen, do an individual quick-write or some form of written response
  • Watch/listen, read along with a copy of the lyrics, discuss how the video does or does not represent the lyrics
  • Watch/listen, read lyrics, rewrite sections of lyrics for another purpose or audience
  • Compare/contrast songs/videos from the same artist or from different artists

My students enjoyed all of these activities and readily participated. Many of them actually downloaded songs and albums of these French artists from iTunes!

2) Festivals

I had a student teacher last year, and she was excited to explore teaching culture to the students as well. Her unit was based on festivals (music, art, food, etc.) in French countries/regions. She researched and presented to the students a variety of festivals from all over the world. Students analysed posters and videos promoting these festivals, planned a visit to a festival of their choice, and then had to create and promote their own cultural festival. Again, this was a strong unit for cultural awareness.

Growth Areas/Future Plans – Cultural Inquiry

As much as I am proud of the work that my student teacher and I accomplished in terms of exposing students to and leading them to interact and engage with different French-speaking cultures, both of these examples are teacher-driven. The next time I have an FIF course on my timetable, my personal goal is to approach culture through student inquiry. My student teacher found so many festivals and resources which were so wonderful, but how much more wonderful would it have been if the students had asked the question about French festivals and celebrations of culture, conducted the research, synthesized the information, and shared the findings with each other? What about having the students find the artists and music videos and taking a lead in the discussion and analysis rather than being guided by me? This is one of my own personal goals as a teacher not just in FIF language classes but in all of my classes – take a step back, and let go of the reins a little more often. Every time I do, my students rise to the occasion.

Authentic Oral Communication in FSL – Part 2 of Ontario FSL Curriculum Transition Series

12 Wednesday Aug 2015

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So my second (and very long overdue…) post in my series about the new FSL curriculum will address the enduring idea of Authentic Oral Communication: Reception, Production, and Interaction. There is so much that could be said here in terms of methods and tools, but I will highlight three strategies that I used this past semester to promote spontaneous oral communication and interaction in FIF2D.

  1. Scaffolded Discussions (Chart Paper, Chalkboard, Padlet)

For the first three months of the semester, just about every whole class or small-group discussion we had involved some sort of scaffold to engage, encourage, and involve all students in the interaction. This also allowed for a bit more pre-thinking time so that it wasn’t always the quick-processing students dominating discussions. Although this makes the initial offerings less spontaneous, I find this method invites students in so that myself or their peers can then ask probing questions to allow for an actual spontaneous conversation based on their semi-planned opening.

As stated in the heading, I used the traditional chart paper and sections of the chalkboard for students to gather and display their thoughts of a small-group pow-wow before sharing with the whole class. I also discovered Padlet which is a web-based cork-board. I create the board, and then students can double click anywhere on the board from their device and begin typing ideas. I can display the padlet on the projector so students can see their own thoughts and everyone else’s being added instantaneously. To give you an idea, here is a Padlet I used in the first few weeks of the semester where I pre-created the five boxes, each with a different question, and each group added in their ideas before presenting their assigned question to the class. Here is a second one used later in the first month where I created the board with one question, and each group created their own box to gather their thoughts. This second style was more interesting as students could easily see what other groups were typing which forced everyone to think more creatively in order to have a unique response.

  1. Debate

I only held one debate at the beginning of the semester, and looking back, I wish I had planned for more. When structured well, students really get into the debate and it offers a wonderful balance of prepared and spontaneous oral production. I mentioned in my first post in this series that the subject of our debate was which educational program (French Immersion, IB, SHSM, etc.) is the best. I compiled a list of seven such programs, I allowed students to select their own groups of 3-4, and then each group indicated their top three preferences of programs to argue for.  I compiled their choices and assigned each group either their first or second preference, and then they researched arguments for their program, and if they so desired, arguments against any of the other programs.

On debate day, each group received up to three minutes to present their case for their program. From there we jumped into free debate! I kept a speakers list, and granted a group 1-2 minutes to argue against a program, followed by the “attackee” having a chance to defend their program, and then moving on to the next “attacker”. My students LOVED this part and just about everyone was active, engaged, and speaking French spontaneously. I definitely need to brainstorm some more topics like this where there are multiple points of view rather than just two sides so more students are pushed to actively participate.

  1. Oral Interviews

Over the course of the semester, I conducted four oral interviews: 1) an end of the first month self-assessment conversation, 2) a small-group interview based on our reading of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, 3) an interview in role where my student teacher was a journalist and each student acted as a real or invented artist, and 4) a final oral interview based on the content of their culminating tasks and their learning over the whole semester. They take up a lot of time when you have a large class, but they are totally worth it. I also think it was important for me to vary the type of interview and not just follow the same formula each month. The more contexts in which students are able to practice speaking in the target language, the more vocabulary they encounter and use, and the more learning they experience. Also, similarly to our discussions, the first two interviews were much more scaffolded with some of the questions being given in advance, whereas the last two interviews were entirely spontaneous. The final interview took the most planning on my part, as it involved me reading each student’s culminating task and pulling out questions to ask them based on what they had each individually written. It was time-consuming to prepare, but I really enjoyed how the interviews were truly differentiated and personalized, and each student comfortably and confidently expressed their thoughts to me. It was a wonderful way in my opinion to finish off the semester.

Goal-Setting, Reflection, and Metacognition in FSL – Part 1 of Ontario FSL Curriculum Transition Series

07 Tuesday Apr 2015

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For the first official post in my blog series about transitioning to Ontario’s new FSL curriculum in my classroom, I begin with some context. I have been teaching in a secondary French Immersion program for almost three years. This semester is the first time I have had an FIF course on my timetable. During the first two and a half years, I taught the other courses in the program, such as Mathematics and Dramatic Arts, in French. Right now, I have two FIF2D courses and a PPL3OI (Co-ed Immersion HPE). I have been experimenting with aspects of the new curriculum in my two FIF2D classes and that’s where my reflections will be coming from.

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Speaking of reflection, the new curriculum now has a metacognition expectation in each strand, and goal setting and reflection comprise one of the Enduring Ideas addressed in the front matter of the document. I spent the first two weeks of the semester simply engaging in diagnostic learning activities with my students. We listened to French (mostly through videos), had small and large group discussions in French, read two short stories in French, and wrote two short compositions in French. After these initial diagnostics addressing each strand, students consulted their feedback – written comments I had made on their work, assessment rubrics indicating their levels of achievement in various aspects of oral and written communication, and their own impressions of their strengths and growth areas. I then asked each student to set a small, specific goal for improvement. They each wrote their goal on a post-it note (in French of course), and stuck it to the wall of the classroom, so that all of our goals were visible and so that we could hold each other accountable. (Side note: writing goals was a great opportunity to review futur simple [“I will…”], futur proche [“I’m going to…”], and verb + infinitive [“Je veux faire/atteindre…”]).

At the end of February, I had a one-on-one oral interview with each student as an evaluation of their oral communication and as a check-in on their goal. Each student took their post-it off the wall that day and brought it with them to the oral interview. They were also given a self-assessment organiser with a short rating scale and some questions to guide their reflections about their progress over the first month (this tool was developed in conjunction with the French Immersion Department). During the interview, each student justified their choice of goal – why was it their choice, where did it come from – and then also explained what steps they had taken so far, and if they had been successful in achieving their goal.

Many students set a goal that was too large and complex to accomplish in two weeks, but all students had at minimum made progress towards their goal. This shows me that I need to be more purposeful about explicitly teaching goal-setting as a skill, as well as breaking down your big goals into smaller ones to make tracking progress simpler.

In addition to this multi-step process, I have been including reflection pieces at the end of evaluation tasks, a practice that I had already been using regularly, mostly from the influence of teaching Dramatic Arts and Physical Education where reflection and self-assessment occurs constantly. For example, we had a class debate on the topic of which educational program (French Immersion, IB, Coop, SHSM, etc.) is the best course of study. Following the debate (which occurred in teams), each student completed an individual written reflection discussing their personal opinion after hearing everyone’s arguments, which other students they found to be the most persuasive and convincing during the debate and why, and a self-assessment of their personal performance in the debate. Most students gave quite an honest appraisal of their level of achievement for the debate, and some were even more critical of themselves than I was.

Finally, I often ask students in all of my classes to self-assess when they are about to submit an evaluation. They take out their rubric (or grab a new copy from me) and either circle or highlight the levels of achievement they believe that they have demonstrated and submit this along with the task. Then I use a different colour pen or highlighter when I complete the evaluation. Sometimes I also have students complete a justification, either in writing or through a conversation. This works best when the rubrics have either been co-created with students, or are designed with clear student-friendly descriptors for each criterion.

If you are curious to see any assessment tools or the tasks that I have discussed in this post, please feel free to visit my class website at fif2d1i.wikispaces.com. What have you done in your classroom to promote metacognition, reflection, goal-setting, and student self-assessment? I’d love to hear ideas from other teachers, FSL or otherwise.

One Word for 2015 – Creativity #oneword

19 Monday Jan 2015

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So I’m definitely a little late to the game (if I can call it that without trivializing the conversation), but tonight I feel inspired to craft my #oneword blog post. I first saw Sue Dunlop’s post on New Year’s Eve, then Aviva Dunsiger’s entry, followed by Vicky Loras, and most recently George Couros. I know there have been other blog posts as well as Twitter statuses by many other educators sharing their #oneword, but these are the four that stand out in my memory so far in terms of diversity of word choice and explanation.

Without much further ado, my word for 2015 is Creativity.

My goal is to continue to be creative in my teaching practice and to push myself even further in this pursuit. My timetable for semester 2 is entirely comprised of courses that are new to me, so this is the perfect opportunity to try new things.

With my leadership course at HWDSB and my participation with my PLN on Twitter I am also hoping to be more creative in a professional and leadership capacity. I am learning creative ways to be a leader and to share my thinking and my growth as a teacher and as a leader with others through conversations, face-to-face or virtual, and more frequent blogging.

Finally, since my students are at the heart of everything that I do, part of my #oneword is to foster creativity in my students to a greater degree. It comes naturally when I teach drama, as it is one of my 6 C’s at the core of the course (Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Concentration, Control, and Confidence). However, I will be teaching different courses next semester and so will be searching out new strategies to encourage creative thinking. I already know that differentiation and student voice and choice will be major factors in this part of my goal, but I am also seeking outside input and ideas for my quest to encourage student creativity in Grade 10 French Immersion and Grade 11 Health and Physical Education.

Thanks to all the #oneword sharers so far, and to all, bon courage with your 2015 goal.