listening

I intend to…because…

Marina Gijzen Book inspired Thoughts, Culture of Learning in the Classroom, Mind Set, Uncategorized , , , , ,

As teachers we hear questions like this all day long…

“Can I work on writing?”

“Can I read a book?”

“Can I sketch in my art journal?”

“Can I use markers?”

“Can I go to the library?”

“Can I go get a set of headphones?”

We, the teachers, are constantly evaluating and making decisions for the students. We are doing all of the work and answering the questions with only part of the information. What if, instead, we taught our students to use,  “I intend to…because…”

What difference would it make? Keep reading. It is powerful.

“I intend to work on writing because I am almost finished my book and I really want to get it done to show my mom. I’ve been telling her about it every day.”

“I intend to read a book because I am really nervous about the swimming competition after school today and reading will calm me down.”

“I intend to sketch in my art journal because I want to practice drawing a mouth before I draw the mouth on my portrait. Every time I draw mouths I don’t like them. I need to figure out how to draw them.”

“I intend to use markers because the colours will stand out. The light in space is so bright, I think markers will  be better than pastels for this picture.”

“I intend to go to the library to get the next book in the series because the librarian told me it just arrived and I am so excited! I’ve been waiting a month for it!”

“I intend to get a set of headphones to listen to this video and I don’t want to disturb anyone else. Jack told me that this video had a lot of information about Kepler 186f, and I really want to know more about why it might be habitable.”

 

“I intend to…because…” is so powerful for many reasons. Here are a few:

  • The students are pro-active and take ownership of their learning, totally engaged
  • The students, not the teacher, think through and assess the reasons why they are choosing to do something
  • The teacher learns a lot about each student as they give their reasons for choosing a learning intention, their reasons are a segue into what they are thinking about and what is important to them
  • The students develop skills of self-management, critical thinking, evaluation, informed choices, and speaking with confidence

I intend to...

 “I intend to…” does not give a free ticket to do whatever.  For example, here is a possible scenario:

student: “I intend to play this Maths game because it is fun and I like it.”

teacher: “Tell me about what you are learning in the game.”

student: “I have to answer multiplication questions.”

teacher: “Is this a skill that you need to work on some more?”

student:”No, I know all the multiplication facts to 100 already! The game is easy! I always win!”

teacher: “So tell me about what you are learning in the game.”

student: “Hmm. I think I would learn more in the game about division. I still need practice with that.”

teacher: “Okay.”

If you, the teacher, are not convinced with the intention, probe (and guide) some more…

“Tell me more about the learning you will be doing.”

“Tell me about your plans to be safe.”

“Tell me about your plans to finish the assignment by tomorrow.”

“Tell me about your plans to…”

“Did you know that you could find out more about X by asking/by reading/by looking at Y?”

Asking the students to state their intentions sends the powerful message that we assume they are capable to make learning decisions. (see previous related post here)

We can teach our students to take control, contribute their full intellectual capacity and become healthy and happy leaders.

What do you intend to do?

(This post was inspired by David Marquet in his book Turn the Ship Around!)

(All examples of ‘intentions’ above were taken from the students in my Grade 4 class.)

 

Less Teacher Talk, More Class Discussion

Marina Gijzen Culture of Learning in the Classroom , , , , ,

 Do you ever feel like whacking yourself on the side of the head and saying, “Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Reading Aloud

While sitting on a chair reading aloud to the class one day with all the students traditionally huddled on the floor at my feet I noticed something. All the interesting  exchanges were happening between a student and me, the teacher. It was like a game of ping pong and I was always hitting the ball.

Teacher-student-teacher-student-teacher-student-teacher, etc.

I was having a great book discussion! But what were most of the students doing when they weren’t talking to me? They were picking at their shoes, trying to get a friend’s attention, staring blankly ahead. No engagement. They were waiting patiently for us to finish our conversation.

More than just Reading Aloud

From that day on we decided to sit in a circle when I read aloud. Reactions to the story, comments, questions, and discussions are now directed at each other not at me. Of course, I can’t help but jump in occasionally when I feel like I can’t resist!

Now our ‘ping-pong exchange’ sounds more like this:

student-student-student-teacher-student-student-student-student

What have I noticed?

  • students are expected to listen to and respond to each other, and they do
  • students answer each other’s questions, disagree with each other, build upon each other’s predictions
  • students work cooperatively to construct meaning from the story
  • students govern themselves, reminding each other to be respectful
  • students feel like they have an equitable learning community where the voices of the students and  teachers are equal
  • students take ownership and drive the discussions, allowing them to practice critical and creative thinking skills.

Very much like a Socratic Circle.

More Than Just Reading Aloud

Dare to Disagree

Marina Gijzen Questioning, Revolutionizing education , , , , , , ,

I read this great blog by Dave Secomb on Inquire Within about Why Creativity is Important in Education. He references Ken Robinson‘s work in Out of Our Minds.  He explains how innovation is a process that requires three parts:

  • Imagination – The power to bring to mind the things that aren’t here in the present.

  • Creativity – Applied imagination. The process of putting your imagination to work and having original ideas that have value.

  • Innovation – Putting original ideas into practice.

This is a very clear description of words we are using in reference to education every day. Innovation is a word we hear a lot of lately, not only in education but in business and one’s daily life.

I  believe one more important aspect of innovation is the ability to think together.

This video (Vimeo, 2:44 min.) on thought leadership explains the process that leaders might go through to spread innovation.

Thought Leadership

It suggests that working with and supporting the critical mass is the best place to put one’s energies. Trying to convince the people who are not interested is a waste of time. Working with the people who already support the innovation, while it may be fun and energizing, is like preaching to the choir. In order to reach the ‘tipping point,’ work with the critical mass.

The critical mass, however, has a very important role in innovation. They are the ones who must dare to disagree. They are the ones who will listen critically and question the innovation. They are open-minded yet feel a responsibility to move cautiously.

In her TED talk Dare to Disagree, Margaret Heffernan  tells an inspiring story of Dr. Alice Stewart. In the 1950’s Dr. Stewart discovered a two-to-one correlation that children who died of cancer had mothers who had been x-rayed while pregnant. The data was statistically clear yet the information “flew in the face of conventional wisdom.. And it flew in the face of doctors’ idea of themselves, which was as people who helped patients, they didn’t harm them…The data was out there, it was open, it was freely available, but nobody wanted to know. A child a week was dying, but nothing changed. Openness alone can’t drive change.”

It took 25 more years before doctors stopped x-raying pregnant mothers. Stewart never stopped fighting. She had a fantastic model for thinking. She worked with a statistician, George Kneale. Kneale saw his job was to prove Dr. Stewart wrong and to create conflict around her theories. Through this, he was able to give Stewart the confidence to prove that she was right.

It’s a fantastic model of collaboration –thinking partners who aren’t echo chambers. I wonder how many of us have, or dare to have, such collaborators. Alice and George were very good at conflict. They saw it as thinking.

Abraham Lincoln had similar leadership skills (from Drive, by Daniel H. Pink, p. 203):

  • He was self-confident enough to surround himself with rivals who excelled in areas where he was weak.
  • He genuinely listened to other people’s points of view, which helped him form more complex opinions of his own.

As someone who will often ‘hop on the first carriage of the train’ when it comes to educational innovation, I appreciate that I work with so many colleagues who are my thinking partners. Sharing and discussing conflicting ideas is  a powerful way of collaborating.

Thank you to all of you who collaborate critically and respectfully. It is definitely helping me form more complex opinions of how  to revolutionize education.

Watch the full TED talk of Dare to Disagree here:

Take the time to listen

Marina Gijzen Book inspired Thoughts , , ,

Following up on my last post about connecting with the book The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, I love the advice Novogratz’s mentor, John Gardner, gave her: (remembering, again, to substitute the word  ‘student‘ for ‘philanthropist‘):

“The one most important skill to teach is listening. If philanthropists don’t first listen they will never be able to address issues fully because they will not understand them.”

In her final chapter, Novogratz lists the most important things she has learned over the last 30 years. She said that people will almost always tell you the truth if you take the time to listen. If you don’t take the time, they will tell you what they think you want to hear.

Do we teach our students to listen? Not just to hear, but to listen, to question, to understand. How can we and our students become part of the solution if we don’t truly understand the problem.