Monday, March 16, 2015

Dreaming of Differentiation

The Slice of Life Story Challenge is hosted by the talented team at Two Writing Teachers--thanks TaraStacey, BetsyDanaAnna and Beth. Click over to the Two Writing Teachers' comment stream for seconds or to serve up your own slice.
Is there a way to deliver differentiated professional development face to face in one room? I know well that  I can dip into the Twitter stream or tune in to a web-, pod-, lecture-, great course- cast, but can that autonomy and differentiated be duplicated face to face in a one-room professional development situation? Is there a a way to assess the adult learners in the room--or have them assess themselves--and break into three, four, even five groups based on where they stand in terms of the day's learning goal?

It's not a new question. I'm not the only one who has been wondering if it's possible. Professional organizations are on the verge of delivering it virtually (they have been for a while actually). NCTE is launching differentiated professional development--it's self-paced and online. I don't know that I've ever experienced it in person though. Can be done face to face with adult learners?

Can a stranger assess a learner in a thirty minute warm-up sequence? Can a teacher? I'd like to say I can get an intial assessment--enough to group and go and level up as we went. Certainly I know I can plan for a variety of levels of understanding. I am thinking: I need entry level guidance, I have some some experience and need practice, I understand but would like peer support and perhaps  let me investigate on my own. I'm just thinking here how it could look.

Can learners--adult learners-- accurately assess themselves or will they or we, like many of our students, choose to sit with learners we know? That's a different issue, isn't it?

Today a group from school participated in an "elements" training -- elements being items in the Marzano Art and Science of Teaching Framework that is being used to evaluate teachers in the state of Florida. My group thought the day would be different than it was. We've had experience with the elements and I think we expected to go deeper than we did. The day was not wasted though. We all wanted to get smarter and learn more.  With that mind set anything can be instructive.

The facilitator did a great job of going back and forth. She spoke from the power point and then we paired up or form triads or talked in table groups or picked person across the room, got up and talked. Of course, she called it "chunk and chew," a strategy moniker I could have done without, but names aside, she worked the room and the content in ways that modeled strategies. I appreciate that. The facilitator clearly has mastered the quick back and forth that Judith Langer describes in her Beating the Odds research.

She read the room, first thing, by asking for a show hands. It was the usual, who here is from ___ (insert grade level or job description). Perhaps she could have gone a step further in that assessment and read how experienced the educators in the room are with the Marzano model. A few folks I talked with were new to the elements and new to using scales to assess learning; others had one to four years of experience. A few questioned the change in language being used: desired effect of an instructional strategy to desire result or learning scale to learning progression for example. I wondered.

I wondered if there were a way to capture the group's experience and then divvy us up accordingly. Could we have met in years-used groups (how many years has your building or site used the Marzano model) ?  Could a written response or a quick post-it on a graph have given the facilitator enough information to sort and seat us?  Could the facilitator have differentiate the content we received? I wonder.

I appreciated the time. The time to reexamine my own thoughts about Marzano's elements and what they mean in terms of how I plan. The time to consider how to engage teachers in my department in that planning process. I appreciated time with teachers and leaders from my school too.

This was the first time I've sat a table learning side by side with some who attended and I must admit, I liked that they all took notes, that they all wanted to learn and that they shared their thinking. It was fun to focus on learning together.  We had interesting conversations even if the session didn't exactly fit our current needs. I appreciated the company and community. Still, I wonder.


8 comments:

  1. You are posing great questions here, Lee Ann, for we are like our students: learning and processing at different entry points and needs. I did like the fact that all of you were glad to have the opportunity to be together and learn, that you engaged in the process. Company and community are important in teaching...

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  2. You are posing great questions here, Lee Ann, for we are like our students: learning and processing at different entry points and needs. I did like the fact that all of you were glad to have the opportunity to be together and learn, that you engaged in the process. Company and community are important in teaching...

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  3. I wonder, too, Lee. I wander why PD often feels redundant, why presenters seemingly often speak from a false premise that ALL attending a district mandated PD have little to no experience w/ the PD focus. It's not as though Marzano is new. You take a far more positive posture about these things than do I, although I have valued the review and refocusing of some--not many--mandated PD. I suspect that I'll still be wondering about this when I retire.

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  4. To me, It's always all about choices - who gets to make them and who gets to offer them. These were great questions that we struggle with at our school, too.

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  5. To me, It's always all about choices - who gets to make them and who gets to offer them. These were great questions that we struggle with at our school, too.

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  6. You're not the only one wondering this and trying things out. I've been trying to do some of this in my work, and I've recruited teacher leaders in the region to help. At one PLC, we constructed "consensograms" then broke into groups. The ELA Fellows (my teacher leaders that I recruited) then lead different groups in some PD that responds to their level of understanding or need. It was really cool, but it required A LOT of planning since we weren't sure what the groups would look like. Another approach I've taken is to have people do a poll ahead of time so I know who's attending when I plan. Still working things out but we're learning together.

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  7. We are casual with the PD at our school, and each person chooses goals per their needs, just like the students. Conversations that spring from need then bring those teachers together. It sounds as if you are trying to say that your wishes had come true. Was there feedback so that those who plan these sessions can make some changes? I love hearing what you are doing, and that you are 'wondering'.

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  8. I've been thinking about this a lot this week. I have to do PD on small group instruction and I'm thinking about how I can model what I do in my classroom. Erin's right... It takes a lot of planning when you don't know and can't group (assign) your learners. I plan to do a preassessment and establish groups based on that, but this pre-assessment will be a self-assessment, so I could be sure how accurately it will match my expectations. And I have to plan for scenarios such as - what if everyone thinks they're an expert. The topic matters too. I find it much easier to pre-assess for technology-related trainings than this small group training, for example. And, of course, what the administrator requests sometimes affects the PD. Lots of variables, but these are the questions we need to always think about if it's what we expect from our teachers.

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