Grade 1's are capable...

As a Grade 1 teacher at St. Gabriel School, I was inspired by Rola's ability to involve her students in curriculum based inquiry. I wanted to learn more about student ownership of expectations, and  how I could gather valid and reliable evidence of student learning. I wanted to know how this process would unfold in a Grade 1 classroom that was also trying to bridge the gap between full day kindergarten by incorporating play based learning activities.

My goals were to develop a better understanding of assessment and evaluation in the primary classroom by involving the students in planning the learning goals and success criteria.  I also wanted to begin collecting more reliable evidence of my students' learning, and establish methods to assess on a daily basis. I decided to begin with our math unit in Geometry, with a specific focus on two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures.

Unpacking The Curriculum in Grade 1:
We began by learning about the curriculum documents and why teachers use them. The Big Ideas for Geometry were shared with the students and "dissected" to examine what they really mean, using more familiar and comfortable Grade 1 language.

The dissected expectations easily became our learning goals and success criteria.

In hopes the students would take ownership of their learning and be motivated and excited about the learning activities, I provided them with the opportunity to assist in the development of play/learning centers. I showed the students what materials we had that could help us learn about shapes (i.e.: Play-Doh, geoboards, pattern blocks, building blocks, books). The students were invited to bring their own materials from home as well.  Using the materials and keeping the learning goals in mind, we decided together what activities could be done at the different centers (i.e.: using pictures from books and magazines to help us build structures using 3-D shapes).

Co-constructed learning goals and success criteria allowed students to identify their learning and also made the assessment and evaluation transparent. The students knew how to demonstrate  they were learning. Students also decided when they were both ready to be evaluated by putting their names in the assessment bubbles. They also decided how they would demonstrate their learning (i.e.: during a center activity or through and conference with the teacher).

Ideas for each learning center were co-constructed with the students. Using the activities, materials and learning goals, the students and I worked together to create success criteria in the form of  'I can' statements. This not only helped to motivate the students, but also helped them stay on task and do their best - holding them accountable for their learning.

Students assisted in the creation of vocabulary charts, helping them to use geometric 

vocabulary in their dialogue.

Mind maps were created with the students throughout the unit to document the learning process. Students added something new to the map each day, helping them to identify their learning.

Learning centers like this building block center allowed the students to collaborate, and communicate using math vocabulary, to build structures that matched with the pictures provided.

The Play-Doh center was a perfect activity for the students to create products through play. They decided on the success criteria and informed me when they were ready to display their knowledge and communicate their thinking.

Reflections:

My Grade 1 students enjoyed co-constructing learning centers using ideas, activities and materials they were familiar with and genuinely interested in. The students took pride in co-constructing the success criteria, allowing them to recognize that they were "playing" in the learning centers to help learn concepts. The learning centers provided multiple opportunities to assess students and gather a triangulation of data - reliable evidence of student learning based on products, observations and conversation. Most students easily conversed with me about their learning while they played at the centers. They were engaged, motivated and using their hands and imagination to inquire about the concepts we determined were important from the curriculum. Natural and genuine conversations between peers about the concepts occured easily at centers that required students to collaborate with eachother (i.e.: the building block center and the pattern blocks center). Assessment and evaluation was natural and on-going due to the nature of the centers. Similarly, feedback was natural due to the genuine conversation and questions about products and obseravtions. The learning centers also provided opportunity to evaluate those students who were ready, and assess those students who were still building their knowledge. The nature of the learning centers provided opportunity for inquiry based learning, and allowed me to assess and evaluate all categories of the achievement chart using student products, observations and conversations.

When students are given the opportunity to participate in the planning, and when assessment and evaluation is made transparent by co-constructing learning goals and success criteria, students are more likely to be engaged in the learning tasks, and motivated to experience success. Furthermore, co-constructed learning centers allow teachers to collect a triangulation of evidence using examples of students products, conversations and observations.

Lisa Blue Grade 1 St. Gabriel @mslblue

Real Learning... Thinking through Inquiry

 I am publishing this inquiry post sharing how students take full ownership of learning.  We have been pursuing ownership of thinking and learning of curriculum based curiosities since September. I am reflecting on the inquiry process of the Middle Ages that began in April. It always amazes me how  excited and motivated students are when they own their learning and how curiosity drives learning. My role was just to guide not to instruct.

Curiosity is always provoked (in class we call it frontloading) through objects, news, pictures, read aloud, videos or a speaker. This Social Studies journey began through a picture of a modern knight in Ottawa who last year traveled across Canada preserving the love of culture. 

Students' discussion focused on the knight and the importance of preserving a culture. 

Students were aware that they would be exploring the Medieval Time in Social Studies. They individually began writing curiosity questions on the Middle Ages. In teams students shared their questions on chart papers. If team members were able to answer some questions sticky notes with an answer were added on, followed by group discussions that provoked more curiosity.    

Our curiosities are generally curriculum based, we do dedicate a curiosity block not curriculum oriented once week. Students unpacked the curriculum by focusing on the big ideas and the overall expectations. The purpose is to align their curiosity with the curriculum expectations for full responsibility and ownership of learning in achieving the big ideas. 

Students consolidated on their inquiry questions and categorized them based on curriculum expectations. 

What is important is to let students experiment first before I step in with required skills and strategies. I let the students find their own way first.

From the beginning Students took responsibility at building the French language through tasks and activities. In groups they explored, compared and co-constructed French language vocabulary supported by oral discussions. Students selected images off Google and wrote about their journey through medieval time. Students shared and compared their learning through a gallery walk of images and gathering learning. 

Oral, reading and writing strategies are applied throughout the inquiry process. Through many resources students analyze, annotate, determine important ideas and summarize. 

After reading and analyzing the information. Teams summarized to share their curiosity on a story board that was recorded using iMovie trailer or educreation. Teams went public sharing the process with their classmates. 

Every journey throughout the year has demonstrated that when students are given ownership of learning, learning is persistent, enhanced and easily amplified in class. What inspires me, is how I can always learn from my students and from each other in a never ending learning experiences on metacognition and the inquiry process. 

Here are some samples of team ideas on organizers: Using chart papers and Google extension Murally. 

During shared learning classmates took notes on organizers and confirmed learning by using audio Boo. 

iMovie evidence:

La vie en ville Pendant le Moyen Age

L'art de la joute

videos les maladies

video sur l'attaque

Audi Boo oral discusiions:

Audi Boo on La vie en ville.

Team discussion La ville en ville.

audi boo sur les maladies

I will continue updating as students continue sharing their learning process in class. 

Finally Catching up 2013

I have FNALLY disciplined myself to catch up and publish some postings from Sept 2012.  Reflecting on former postings rippled into more reflective learning that never got published or shared.  Oh well, I will improve on the click of the"Publish" button! 

I will click the button today on a summary of learning from 2012 to May 2013. I always credit my students and the Learning network community online and my fellow colleagues on a whirlwind of new learning. Learning is real with my students, it is a conversation, listening, reflecting, observing, sharing, thinking, building on ideas and always relevant to real life. 

There are so many variables in the classroom and the school academic year that directly influence what works from one year to the next.  If learning is real, who would want to cover the same content activities with the students?  Giving students more control, ownership and responsibilities, that is the focus of my pedagogical approach. Yes of course is there really enough time to cover the process? we try! 

The positive gains with my students were and still are, that the learning process is transparent by allowing them to develop active inquiry taking all ideas and learning from each other (will update the inquiry post). This process also includes, a culture of questioning, listening and reflecting We also embrace that failure is fine as it is in the context of success and if we do not make mistakes then we are not learning.  Reflecting and consolidating are daily routines of how the process worked and what did not work in order to pursue in our learning. 

Our learning environment is always the center of collaborative decision making by handing the responsibility to students. Through this cooperative learning community, curiosity, questioning, listening and speaking are respected.  The core of this process involves daily reflections on our experiences. The fluidity of the process includes the co-construction of criterias, feedback,  group and individual goal settings (will update assessment post).  Parallel to the process is the culture of empathy, respect and making every one matter.

From September the focus has been on students designing their own thinking. Students were able to design the needs of collaboration through many tasks (September/October) . Questions that students unpacked during tasks include:

• What is collaboration?
• How to listen and speak with partners?
• How to share ideas as a team?
• Why is collaboration important?
• How do I agree and disagree with my team? 
• How does collaboration guide my learning with others and enhances my thinking?
• What strategies do I need to share?
• How do we compare and share our new learning?
• How do I ask questions for clarification? 

It is always important to set the collaborative culture environment in and out of the classroom. Through many tasks on collaboration the students created the following tools:

• A team box that included a talking stick (watched a video on talking sticks).  In the box, team members signs/name tags using foam on colored Popsicle sticks, clothe pins to attach to the name tag when the student is ready for discussion or ready to share & sticky notes of all sizes in each box.
•  Daily questions on news events were presented to encourage oral communication and create situations for teams to build success criteria on listening and speaking and provoke curiosity. 
• Activities that also covered the importance of a learning goal.
• Daily reflections on learning goals.

The following are activities that students co-constructed:

 Links are on Google drawing about conversations on daily needs. 

           Travail en équipe   Les outils en équipe  Les sacs d’école  L’évier  L'eau
           The students  also learnt to use Google Drawing.

Some examples of building Collaborative Criteria:

Gr 4 collaborative skills discoveries: 

 Gr 4 students: also took pictures of themselves demonstrating collaborative criteria.

Gr 4 bubbles for everyday necessities

A slide of pictures on why I matter Gr 4 and Gr6 projects:

Students' examples on Why I Matter

Whose learning is it?

An idea of a learning journey through blogging has been lingering with me this past year. The purpose of this blog is to be a partnership with the students’ thinking and my learning with them, the curriculum, technology, inquiry and assessment. As a learner this year I focused on: How can collaborative learning be effective? What does curriculum inquiry look like? How can learning be effectively assessed?

It has been a bouquet of learning this year. The iPads have been a large part of this journey as well as many other web 2.0 tools. All learning tasks aimed to support students' thinking and  reflecting on their effectiveness based on the learning goals through observations and conversations.

The students and I have been impressed as to how much learning has been accomplished through questioning, projects and reflections. We have been a team engaged collaboratively in the planning and the consolidation process of the learning tasks. The learning was integrated through technology serving a purpose for a voice and sharing the thinking. 

I hope to continue this coming year to create opportunities for myself and my students to learn together.  I have come to accept that the process is slow  in order to best serve our learning and thinking together. 

I owe this blog to my students and I believe in sharing my learning from my students. Being connected with twitter and following passionate educators who share their success has kept me in touch with professional development online with evidence and opportunities for growth.  I would like to recognize my colleagues from the Students Success Department at the Ottawa Catholic School Board for being my learning partners throughout this learning process. 

This is where the learning takes place

A video introduction by the students