Building Classroom team relationships

What does Grit have to do with it?Classroom and program team conversations about our practice, the Common Core, and the children we teach

January 22, 2014Todays staff meeting is a conversation about standards and instruction and an opportunity to share your stories of working with the new standards. You have just finished going into the deep end with the new standards with respect to NYSSA and youre beginning a round of annual reviews with version 9. For these reasons, this seemed like a good opportunity to take some time to share experience and effective strategies. The goal is for you to take away a strategy or instructional approach that can be useful for your students in your classroom. We are having this conversation in grade level groups, but we are going to be sharing across grade level groups so that we can get instructional ideas for students who are working at instructional levels that differ from the age range. 1Learning Targets for This Meeting from SWOTEffective teams Effective structures so that all voices are heard Shared knowledge & pride On-going professional development about the field specific to our student population infused into all meetings

And, continue our sharing of bright spots

2AgendaPaseo (energizer and introduce topic)Where did the Common Core come from and what does it have to do with us?What does grit have to do with it?Instructional strategies from our practice (Speaking and Listening Standards) (teaming and shared pride)Instructional strategies from our practice (Reading Standards)(teaming and shared pride)Social Emotional Learninggrit and growth mindsetShare out/take an idea away

3The PaseoA traditional Sunday afternoon stroll in the plazaA way for members of a community to begin to get to know each other, or reconnect, quicklyA method of energizing a group and introducing a topic

Paseo should start at 3:15.

Participants count off by twosForm an inner and an outer circle according to the number (ones on the outside, for example)Make sure there is an even number.Exercise in serial listening. The person listening does not talk or respond. Nodding and smiling are encouraged.Each pair has four minutes for each question. Then the facilitator will have one of the circles move.

Whats something that you are doing in your personal life or in your classroom to teach about or celebrate Valentines Day (dont embarrass your partner). (1 minute)Switch. (1 minute)

Move (facilitator decides how many places and which circle).

Describe something a student can do now that he/she couldnt at the beginning of the year. What did the adults do that supported that growth? (2 minutes)

Switch (2 minutes)

Move (facilitator decides who and how far).

What is something that concerns you about the Common Core? (1 minute)Switch (1 minute)

What is something that you think is positive about the Common Core? (1minute)Switch (1 minute)

Whats something that you have learned that was very difficult for you to learn (doesnt have to be academic)? What made it possible for you to learn it? (2 minutes)Switch (2 minutes)

15 minutes4What does Grit have to do with it?

Video start at 3:40

This is a TED Talk. Angela Duckworth is a researcher and the video pretty much tells her story. She references work by Carol Dweck, which has been around awhile, but there is also other research by John Hattie and also my personal favorite, Peter Johnston.

When the video concludes, take a minute to share your impressions with an elbow partner56

6Smart is something you can get.77Fixed Mindset vs. Growth MindsetThe fixed mindset creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, personality and moral character, then youd better prove you have a healthy dose of these.

The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although everyone may differ in every wayeveryone can change and grow through application and experience.

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Assumptions:Innate ability explains only part of learning and achievement.Intelligence is not fixed.Intelligence grows incrementally and is influenced by expectations, confidence and effective effort.Effective effort=working hard and smart (using effective strategies)

Growth Mindset9Fixed Mindset10

Assumptions:Intelligence is a thing. Intelligence is innate and fixed.Intelligence is measurable and is unevenly distributed.Innate ability determines learning and achievement.Very important to tell them that Alfred Binet developed the IQ test as a kind of evaluation not of the intelligence of children but of the appropriateness of French Schools. It was really at its inception kind of an RTI sort of approach. If the child scored low in IQ it meant the schools had failed him and the school program needed to change!10A few modern philosophersassert that an individuals intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased.

We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally become more intelligent than we were before.Binet co-authored the IQ test.Alfred Binet11Self reflectionWhat is your story?1212StudentsHow do you see fixed mindset playing out in your work? How does it affect the behavior of adults and/or students around you?

How do the concepts of grit and fixed ability relate to our students?

How do the beliefs we have about students play out in Common Core implementation?13Pair share13CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson

14Common Core?Requested by Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governors Association (NGA). Developed by Achieve and others, including College Board.Primarily back mapped from skills needed in college and career rather than a variety of other ways standards have been built (current practice, developmental stages, national standards of organizations such as IRA, NCTE, or NCTM).Each state (45 at this point) adopted them independently.So a context Angela Duckworth doesnt mention is the Common Core. Lets see what thats about.

3:5015Folks dont LIke folks Like ELAs theoretical foundation is old-fashioned and not based on contemporary theory (more New Critical than Reader Response)Some find too little value on narrative textMath has limited topics in elementaryImplementation of standards, and assessments has been too fastSome people think they are too rigorous; some people think they arent rigorous enough

Fewer, clearer, higherConsistency across statesStrong relationship to real-world applicationsAnchor Standards in ELA provide consistency across grades and elegant organization

Your knowledge and experience with the Common Core may vary, but since its here, and I would say here to stay, I thought I would just briefly get out some of the praise and critique16What did the Regents Do Yesterday?Reduced the penalty for students by extended the date at which students will have to achieve college and career ready scores on high school exams until 2022.Allowed districts to choose not to participate in the data portal and continue to accept RTTT fundsPromised to consider slowing down any possible consequence to teachersAllowed the old geometry exam (not Common Core aligned) to be offered for an additional year (this was expected and is similar to other exams) Said they will require SED to include in its waiver application a provision to allow students with disabilities (who are not alternately assessed) to take assessments at their instructional level rather than Grade/age levelAttempted to assign blame for over testing of students to districts, emphasized that required testing take less than 1% of student time and made unclear requirements on testing for students in grades K-2 that are unlikely to have any impact on students who are alternately assessedSo, the Common Core, was not particularly affected by actions yesterday17Speaking and Listening College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and ListeningComprehension and Collaboration1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.3. Evaluate a speakers point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence.Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.6. Adapt speech to a variety of context and communication tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.Heres how its organized in ELA.18Grade Level Essences for Listening and SpeakingComprehension and CollaborationPresentation of Knowledge and Ideas32. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a variety of materials presented in diverse formats.4 6. Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English and situations where informal discourse is appropriate; use formal English when appropriate to task and situation. 51. Be an active participant in a collaborative discussion. Make prediction(s) based on a discussion(s). Answer key detail questions from a discussion(s). Summarize information from a discussion. 62.Interpret information from diverse media and formats and connect it to a topic or issue.72.Analyze the main idea and supporting details in diverse media and formats. 86.Adapt expressive communication as appropriate for a students audience and the particular social context.HS4. Present information conveying a point of view, which includes supporting ideas appropriate to a specific audience.These are effectively the Standards for students who are alternately assessed.19What does the Common Core offer Pines Bridge and Sunshine so far?Lets find outA slice of the standardsRelated effective instructional strategieswhat helped your student make effectiveEffort toward the standards

Three roundsSpeaking and Listening ReadingImpacts on mindset and grit (positive and negative)

3:55

Orient people to the materials in front of them:

Pale pink sheets are reading, bright pink sheets are speaking and listening, white sheets are for social emotional impacts

Everybody pick up a stick

Red sticks are facilitatorsthere should be threeOrange sticks are recorders/reportersthere should be three.

There are three rounds. The first facilitator (person whose birthday is next) facilitates a discussion in which folks share what strategies they used to support students learning of one of the reading standards. Try to make sure everyone has a chance to talk within the 10 minutes. Recorders/reporters, take good notes.

Second round. The second facilitator (person with red stick whose birthday is next) facilitates a discussion in which folks share what strategies they used to support students learning in one of the speaking or listening standards. Make sure everyone has a chance to talk with the 10 minutes. Recorders/reports, take good notes.

Last round: Last red stick facilitates a discussion of ways that this instruction affected kids emotionally, positive or negatively. What were positive effects in terms of grit and mindset, what were negative effects?

Well share out if we have time.

20Your grade level band: k-2; 3-5; 6-8; transitionsInstructional Strategies that have supported your students to work toward these standards.Effective Instruction21Positive for grit and growth mindsetNegative for gritpromoted fixed mindsetSocial and Emotional IMpacts22