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John Hendron

Director of Innovation and Strategy

g21

Visualizing Depth of Learning

by John Hendron · Oct 25, 2017

I firmly believe in a very qualitative approach toward describing deeper learning. We can see deeper learning through student interviews and reflections, observing the work being done by students in and outside classrooms, and through the products students produce to demonstrate or apply their learning. And, of course, a project-based approach toward learning often includes a product.

Earlier this summer, I wanted to help demystify deeper learning through a model that looked at different facets (ingredients, themes, components) that define a deeper approach toward learning. I called these Pathways Toward Deeper Learning and have lately wanted to think about how to visualize and quantify these pathways when we see learning in action.

Splotches of paint

I wanted to show depth in a visual, like going down into a cavern, or going towards the core of the Earth, or… maybe drilling down into a “mountain of knowledge.” Figuring out how to take data and map it to something like that was going to take a lot of time for what I finally admitted was a cute gimmick.

Then, in talking to Bill Rankin, he showed me a developing model he was creating called cubic learning. And he’d already begun to think about how to look at learning through some visual means. We liked the three planes of learning into how I saw deeper learning.

Then the suggestion was made (by my peer Sean Campbell) to consider a radar plot. I’d thought about this too, but wasn’t sure it was adequate in two dimensions for showing depth. But if we stop and think of this less as a three-dimensional concept in our mind (a play on words, really), then let’s think about area. That’s when I thought about paint or ink splotches you might see on the wall (or an art classroom). Then the question becomes, how big is your paint blob?

Radar chart with 6 pathways

If I then take the scores (using a four-point scale) and plot them, I get the outline of my paint blob.

There’s a few goals with this. We typically want to match-up our pathways, so that we’re matching a level 3 in each area across the board. But I also want to look at a lesson in a numerical sense, so beyond the aid of the radar plot, I want an overall metric for the “depth” of the observed learning.

Showing that by itself is non-sensical, unless you want to see it in relation to a larger scale. But to take multiple learning experiences and to compare them by depth, this index value might be interesting.

To compute the index value, I grouped the content and Depth of Knowledge pathways together as an overall “Content” value. This gets multiplied by the average of the three twenty-first century skills ratings across Mishra’s three groupings and the “context” score. And finally, we multiply that to the square root of the technology score and the community score. The resulting range of results goes from 4 to 448 (see more on the formula, below). If we really wanted to visualize that, we could consider this index score, say, an area factor for a circle (bubble) plot. More interesting, say, to a teacher, might be a series of lessons, all computed this way, with the values presented as a line chart or sparkline.

I will continue to tinker with the ideas behind how to capture depth of learning and how to communicate this. I believe qualitative data is also important, and most important for teachers, I believe, is to know where their design of learning fits into what they feel students need. In generating these scores, it doesn’t speak to good instruction versus bad. It’s about a way to conceptualize depth in learning to compare one activity, lesson, or unit to another.

Instructional Depth Index

Among the pathways, I see pairings. And I wanted these pairings weighted.

To compute “twenty-first century skills,” the evaluator rates, on a scale of 1 (no skills present) to 4 (mastery level), on how students are exhibiting foundational skills, meta skills, and humanistic skills. Then we average these three ratings to generate a “skills” score.

I balance content and depth of knowledge. The maximum score is an 8.

I unbalance twenty first century skills with context, generating a top score of a 7.

Then in combining community and tools (think: resources), I believe the wetware outweighs the digital code and hardware by an entire power, so I used a square root. This makes the top tech score a 2, and the top social/community score a 4.

The equation looks like this:

IDS = (content + DOK) * (context + average of skills) * (community + sqrt(technology use))

This is admittedly an evolution of my thinking about this and I’m indebted to Dr. Rankin for ways we can think about modeling or seeing learning among different facets.

Filed Under: Resource of Interest Tagged With: deeper, g21, learning, pathways

Observing Deeper Learning

by John Hendron · Oct 25, 2017

I’d like a tool to help us see and measure what we mean by Deeper Learning. There are a lot of definitions for deeper learning, and there are a lot of ways and models for measuring components of teaching. Learning is more difficult, but there are models there too.

I’m not sure this is great or not, but our leadership team this summer was inspired by a presentation by Dr. Rankin (at our strategic innovation symposium) where he shared his model for learning he terms “cubic learning.” What was interesting for me was that we never really said much about the “tools.” It’s not a “how are you using your iPad or laptop” model, it was a look at how we learn in a formalized way.

Bill’s cube helped me see learning as facets. I chose the word “pathways” to consider because I see teachers emphasizing some things over others. It may be deliberate, or it may be a strength. I tried taking all these ideas into something that could tell us “how deep is it?”

I hope to start sharing this soon within Goochland and try to refine it more. In the interest of open commentary, I’d invite you to take a look.

  • Observation Form
  • Understanding the Model

For further reading

Edutopia (2014). Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor. Accessed from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/webbs-depth-knowledge-increase-rigor-gerald-aungst

Mishra, P., Metha, R. (2017). What we educators get wrong about 21st-century learning: results of a survey. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 33:1, 6-19. Accessed from http://www.punyamishra.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mishra-Mehta-21stCenturyMyths-2016.pdf

Puentedura, R. (n.d.). The SAMR Model: Background and Exemplars. Accessed from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2012/08/23/SAMR_BackgroundExemplars.pdf

Rankin, W. (2016, December 9). “Formal” learning. unfolded learning [weblog]. Accessed from: https://unfoldlearning.net/2016/12/09/formal-learning/

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. (2017, May). Decoding deeper learning in the classroom. Accessed from: https://www.hewlett.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/DL-guide.pdf

Filed Under: Resource of Interest Tagged With: cubic, deeper, g21, learning, pathways

Designing for Deeper Learning

by John Hendron · Jan 10, 2017

This past summer I had the opportunity to work closely with four teachers in a new project that defined new roles. We wanted four innovative teachers to think about spending extra time with us to help us develop a set of instructional experiences. We called these new positions “Curriculum and Innovation Teachers” or C&I for short. What resulted from this extra month of work over the summer was a series of G21 projects that we populated into Schoology, our learning management system. Before I get to the projects, please permit me to go into a little more detail about our aims.

Several years ago I wrote a plan which helped establish a blueprint for the type of instruction we knew would help benefit students in Goochland when we had a 1:1 program that support it. I called this our “Innovation Plan” and I don’t aim here to re-hash the thirty-eight page document here. However, there were a few important things in that plan that are worth pointing out.

  1. What might we expect with the expenditure of money for a 1:1 program? A benefit of some sort, we’d hope, right? The thing is, there will be no academic benefit to students in a 1:1 program if the pedagogy used in the classroom hasn’t changed alongside the introduction of the tools. Meaning, if we’re still teaching the way we did before the 1:1 came, then something is wrong.
  2. We see motivation and excitement about learning wane as students get older. We label this “engagement with school.” And so we have to address learning head-on. Who is responsible for learning? Let’s let students own their learning. By designing instruction around learner-centered approaches, we hand-over control to students. When students feel they have control, they take ownership. The best example I’ve seen of this thus far has been our approach with Scrum.
  3. Projects offer us an alternative to traditional assessment. Projects many times include skill development and opportunities to apply knowledge. Using a student’s performance at tasks designed by the teacher allow us to capture evidence of understanding and application in a more real-world way.
  4. We need, as educators, to engage with quality exemplars of good instructional design. Our work started with looking at a “gold star” project aligned to the best practices established by the Buck Institute, a leading source for project-based learning resources. We spent time together dissecting the project, looking at how it aimed to engage learners, support the standards, and above all else, gave students choices in the learning activities. Our first project was a re-write of one of their example projects, to more closely align it to the Virginia SOL and adapt it to our technology.
  5. Finally, deeper learning. We had to make sure everyone was on the same page about what deeper learning is, and what it’s not. Our aim in every single experience was to approach deeper learning. So much of the design of a quality PBL is the same as the aims for deeper learning: tight integration with standards, student voice and choice, problem-solving, developing an academic mindset, developing communication…

As August approached, we took stock of what we’d come up with. So much of the work was done in my absence, so it was amazing, from my perspective, to stand back and take a look at what these four ladies–Krystle Demas, Sarah Smith, Beth Ferguson, and Jennifer Gates–were able to produce. We introduced these projects to teachers in grades 3-8 with a series of “Launch Parties” at different schools.

G21 Launch Party Participants at GMS

Today, our C&I projects are located in the Resources section of Schoology for elementary and middle school teachers. Projects cover all content areas, with many overlapping. We created a chart to capture which content areas were covered with each project. Finally, we produced a document for distribution to our friends (PDF with hyperlinks) in other parts of Virginia so they could get a peek at our work.

This January-February we will be making a recommendation to our school board to expand these roles to a total of eight C&I teachers for the upcoming summer to continue this work. In addition to writing these curricular documents, these teachers are honing their skills, becoming coaches and trainers, and are able to creatively re-think our approach to instruction. As a result of their work, everyone now has access to high-quality exemplars of what’s possible when we change some of our ideas about pedagogy and provide world-class tools in the hands of each one of our students.

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: C&I, g21

G21 Projects Provide Deeper Learning Experiences

by John Hendron · Aug 18, 2016

Congratulations go to our three sets of G21 Award Winners, recognized this year at our annual 2016 Convocation.

G21 is our project-based learning program that is focused in how we use technology to foster twenty-first century skills, deeper learning, and student-centered instruction.

Each August we recognize three superlative projects from the past year.

  • Elementary Award – Jennifer Gates and the 4th Grade Team at RES
  • Secondary Award – James Frago
  • Divisionwide Award – Ariel Perry (GES Kindergarten) and Jennifer Abbott (9th grade English)

G21 Awards 2016

gates

perry-abbott

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: g21

G21 Award Winners Honored at Convocation 2015

by John Hendron · Aug 21, 2015

This year at our opening Convocation on August 13, 2015, the Goochland County Public Schools awarded three prizes of distinction to teachers based upon learning that took place by students during the 2014-15 school year. These G21 Awards were presented to teachers based on their success in planning and executing engaging learning experiences focused on the development of twenty-first century skills using a project-based approach.

beasley_hendron

Our elementary winner was Mr. Joe Beasley from Goochland Elementary School. As a 1:1 iPad teacher, Joe’s G21 Project was entitled “Zooapedia,” and required students to develop their own class wiki on animals. Modeled after the world’s most famous wiki, the Wikipedia, students developed webpages that collected factual information, photos, and even animations of animals. Using Google Sites software, he was able to engage the entire class with every page through commenting. Students took great pride in figuring out how to construct the pages in ways they wanted them to behave, using HTML code in some cases.

burch_holloway-costa

Our secondary winners are Mrs. Emily Holloway-Costa (English) and Mr. Neil Burch (drama). The two teachers worked together to find new ways to approach the teaching of myths. Students wrote their own plays, and Burch’s students performed the dramatic works. The approach adopted focused on the art of creation in the learning process. The resulting works penned and acted by students were of high quality.

kuykendall_alvis_greenway_hendron

Goochland also likes to recognize projects that go beyond a school’s walls. This year Goochland Elementary Teachers Ms. Ariel Kuykendaal, Mrs. Betsy Alvis, and Mrs. Sara DeLong (Kindergarten) designed a calendar project where their Kindergarten students developed calendars they could sell, with the help of older students who had iPads at the school. They later got help from Mr. Tim Greenway (CTE) at the high school and had outdoor easels built for art projects. The students got to see the fruits of their labor with a cool new outdoor learning space.

G21 is a district-wide initiative begun in 2008 to bring project-based learning opportunities to students. The G21 Awards are a way for us to highlight superlative efforts by our educators. GCPS appreciates the support of the Goochland Education Foundation which underwrites this award each year. Congratulations, teachers!

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: g21

A New Professional Development Opportunity

by John Hendron · Dec 29, 2014

An Online Course for Teachers

PBL for Teachers. That’s the name of a new online course I have developed that will begin officially on January 12, 2015. Delivered via Schoology and facilitated by both Bea Leiderman and Zoe Parrish, this course will cover why we advocate for engaging, project-based approaches in our classrooms, the eight essential elements of a project-based lesson, assessing projects and twenty-first century skills, how technology adds value to learning, developing driving questions and entry events, and the role inquiry plays in deeper learning experiences such as projects. 

The course is designed to move about one section per week, and requires the participant to read, watch a number of videos, and participate in a few online discussions with peers. The culminating part of the project is the design of a PBL experience for students, which can be your G21 project for this year. If you deliver the project after its been submitted as part of this course, you can also submit a short reflection on the project and receive additional recertification points.

Recertification

Regular participation in the course and completion of Parts 1-8 will receive 25 points as an “educational project.” Completion of the project with students and submission of the reflection adds an additional 15 points for a total of 40. Please note that each time you apply for re-certification for your teaching license, only one educational project may be submitted for credit. If you already have conducted a project in this category, you will not be able to apply these points towards re-certification.

How do I sign up?

The attached PDF outlines the 8 parts of the course and an online enrollment code. Simply sign into Schoology, click on “Courses” at the top and click “Join.” Paste in the enrollment code and you’re in! 

What are Bea’s and Zoe’s role in this course?

As course facilitators, they will be available to answer questions via email or iChat. In addition, they will be the ones monitoring course discussions and assessments. They will also be the ones providing feedback on project ideas and project submissions. For the project reflections, I will be reviewing those and certifying that all work is complete in concert with building principals.

Does this count as my technology integration course?

Absolutely.

Anything else I need to know?

This opportunity is open to all teachers. Because there is a significant number of videos included in the course, access to broadband Internet is required to watch the videos. You may, however, watch the videos from school to access this content.

This opportunity presently is only open to teachers in Goochland County, Virginia.

Filed Under: General News, Learning for Teachers Tagged With: g21, pbl, pd

Presenting your Learning

by John Hendron · May 28, 2014

When I recently visited Randolph Elementary School, I visited a lesson “in action” where students were presenting information they had mastered (presumably for review purposes). This is a very strong instructional approach, and I was pleased to see the students had used video to capture their instructions for their peers on how to solve math problems.

student presentation

During the visit highlighted above, a student had made a mistake in the video, and then told everyone about the mistake and the “correct” way to solve the problem. This reflection on the recorded performance was another excellent sign of strong learning.

Earlier this spring, I began looking at our G21 Framework and areas for improvement. One of the things I wanted to “remove” was the necessity of any expert in the room to fill out the planning form. While it made for a nice sleek form, I wanted to put more of what it takes to develop a good project-based experience for students into the form itself. It would make for a more complex form, but hopefully too would provide teachers a scaffold on which to present an awesome learning experience.

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, my new proposal for G21 adopts the Buck Institute for Education model for project-based learning. The format is more complete at helping teachers plan for the project-based experience. One of the things it encourages, too, is student presentation. While I am not certain that every PBL needs a presentation, and there will be times where the resource of time may prevent a formal presentation, it does not dilute the effectiveness of presenting as an instructional activity. Since 2008 when we started G21, we have used “teaching others” and “communication” as two of our core 12 twenty-first century skills. But we need to remember that these skills do not need to wait for a “G21” to be utilized in our designs for instruction.

I look forward to sharing more in my blog throughout the summer about G21 3.0. On August 7, for our Mission Possible: Operation Engagement professional development day, Bea and I will be offering sessions on the new framework. For now all I will say is consider the new format “smaller” but “more potent!”

Filed Under: Learning for Teachers Tagged With: g21, instruction, presentation

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This is a blog by a Goochland County Public Schools Employee. © 2021 Goochland County Public Schools · PO Box 169 &middot Goochland, VA 23063 · (804) 556-5623

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