How to use student's questions in AP Biology to drive learning

By Mark Heintz, Krista Glosson, Avi Patel, and Alexa Fontanetta




I had the pleasure of going into Krista Glosson's AP Biology class.  In the class I came to visit, she used the Question Formulation Technique to foster students connections between topics.  The students were into it.  They worked collaboratively, were inspired, and wanted to learn more.  Krista was able to walk around and see the learning taking place.  The students knew what they learned and they knew that their teacher did too.  What follows is a reflection of a post-visit discussion I had with Krista and what her students felt about the process.

Teacher: Krista Glosson

Now that we have a working definition of learning and some values behind it, how are you putting your beliefs into practice?  

I am giving students an opportunity to determine their own beliefs about my statement, then to branch out in a direction that interests them while they construct their knowledge around their belief.  It was refreshing for all of us to give them a challenge that did not have a right or wrong answer.

What were the students learning?  

The students were researching specific examples of cell signaling pathways to apply the information we had previously covered in class.  The process allowed them flexibility and an opportunity to stretch themselves to answer a challenging question while we worked on asking good scientific questions.

How do you know they learned? 

I talked with each group and they were excited to share their new information with the class the next day.

How do they know they learned?  

They were able to make a connection between the material we learned in class and the information they chose to learn.  They were confident in sharing their interpretation with the class.


Student: Avi Patel

Now that we have a working definition of learning and some values behind it, how is your teacher putting the beliefs into practice?  

She beats the knowledge into us! Just kidding! For real though, she connects with us on a level further than just academic. She understands and communicates with us, and that I think is the best values a teacher can have; Connection, Communication, and Understanding


What were you learning?

We were learning whether or not a fault in signaling pathways causes diseases or not.

How do you know you learned?

I walked out of class knowing more than what I knew walking in.

How does your teacher know you learned?

By noticing my responses and answers to questions she asks, and also me asking her questions.


Student: Alexa Fontanetta

Now that we have a working definition of learning and some values behind it, how is your teacher putting the beliefs into practice?  

Mrs. Glosson understands that though we chose to take this class, we are all taking biology for different reasons. She has taken the time to get to know us on a personal level. By incorporating relatable examples into the lessons based on the things that interest us, she has conveyed the “integration of values, or importance to the individual.” Therefore, because of the connections she's formulated, the curriculum has become more valuable for all of her students.

What were you learning?

If faulty pathways always cause disease.

How do you know you learned?

I know I learned because I left the room with more knowledge than I had before. I also felt challenged throughout the lesson and accomplished at the end.

How does your teacher know you learned?

Mrs. Glosson knows I learned because she allowed time for us to brainstorm before fully understanding the topic. After brainstorming, she encouraged us to have meaningful conversations on the topic to gather any additional ideas from our peers. The questions we couldn't answer as a group was researched. Mrs. Glosson also gave her attention to each individual group to clear up any further confusion. Consequently, due to the structure of the lesson, Mrs. Glosson knows we learned.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Mathematics - Living our Values

By Dave Dompke, Evelin Cortez, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

Dave is part of a group that came together and defined learning.  Part of that group's goal is not only to have a definition but to live its values.  In other words, try to create conditions to represent the values stated in the definition.  I visited Dave's class and met with him after.  Here is our group's definition and his reflection on how attempts to live his values.

Learning is the integration of values, or importance to the individual, and beliefs with new and relevant information, skills, and/or abilities for long-term application in life outside of the immediate task.

The process of learning is an evolving journey that includes engaging tasks and processes, emphasizes voice and shapes meaning and authenticity.

The product of all of this is an ever-evolving worldview, the development of skills and awareness to continually evaluate and reflect upon themselves and the world around them.

Now that we have a working definition of learning and some values behind it, how are you putting your beliefs in to practice? 

I continue to focus my work on the individual.  Students are not going to learn from me until they are comfortable with me.  I continue to use time during the period to engage with the students, not about schoolwork, but about what’s going on with them personally.  I feel getting this knowledge will help me with their background and build a better relationship.  Once that relationship has trust, then I feel the student will be open more to learn from me.  Sure, students will learn something regardless, but with trust, they can learn more.

What is holding you back and not letting you live your values?  

Time is the biggest obstacle.  It is tough to reach each student every single day.  I want to make sure our conversations have value and aren’t simply scripted and rushed.  I want to value their time and work together.

Evelin Cortez

Why do you like school?  

I like school because I feel comfortable and feel supported.  I also like how teachers are nice to me and help me.

What is it about Dompke’s class that you like or makes it especially good?

He makes the class fun comfortable and is supportive of all the students.  Anytime someone has a question he helps them and helps them understand.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: AP Spanish Literature and Culture - Living our values

By Dean Burrier-Sanchis and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

Dean is part of a group that came together and defined learning.  Part of that group's goal is not only to have a definition but to live its values.  In other words, try to create conditions to represent the values stated in the definition.  I visited Dean's class and met with him after.  Here is our group's definition and his reflection on how attempts to live his values.

Learning is the integration of values, or importance to the individual, and beliefs with new and relevant information, skills, and/or abilities for long-term application in life outside of the immediate task.

The process of learning is an evolving journey that includes engaging tasks and processes, emphasizes voice and shapes meaning and authenticity.

The product of all of this is an ever-evolving worldview, the development of skills and awareness to continually evaluate and reflect upon themselves and the world around them.

Now that we have a working definition of learning and some values behind it, how are you putting your beliefs in to practice?  

I believe the process element of learning is something I am really integrating well, in particular in this lesson. I strive to have student voice and to allow for more authentic applications of course objectives and goals. I think I need to develop more on the product end here. Students were engaged in skills of writing and editing, and working on evaluation, but I don’t know how encompassing of a world view or how much this lesson allowed students to reflect on themselves and the world around them, particularly because our analysis of the song at the end was limited to the final minutes. That said I think there were poignant messages that connected to students and will connect more in future classes.

What is holding you back and not letting you live your values?  

I do feel at times the urgency, sometimes as an afterthought, to do real, hard test prep. Some of our higher level students feel more drawn to and motivated by that practice, others do not. I try to disguise this and makes this as relevant and engaging as possible, but I also feel the need to expose them to the difficulty of the exam and feel like they are developing the confidence they need to be successful in May. I worry that if they are not confident heading into the exam, or not adequately prepared for the rubrics, the requirements and the nuance of the exam, they will not be successful, or worse not register for the exam. I think a lot about how this year, class and experience will shape the way they look back on the experience of this year and their 4 years at EG. These pressures sometimes keep me from taking more risks and confronting objectives in goals more freely.

Lit Circles in Human Geography

By Mark Heintz

“Why is your book better than mine?”  I know I have written about this comment a few times in the past, but it continues to play in my mind over and over again.  Kristen Lesniak and Jackie Randall started using literature circles in their sophomore English courses last year.  Many visits and even more conversations later, I started a lit circle in my freshmen human geography class.  Despite my love of them and enthusiasm to use them in my class because it gave more students autonomy and agency over their learning, one of my students pointed to a shortcoming of the process by asking, “Why is your book better than mine?” 

Why Lit Circles

Lit circles resonate with my beliefs on learning.  In lit circles, students read for themselves.  They make connections to their world and then share those understanding with others in their group to make those understandings richer and deeper.  Lit circles emphasize voice and shape their world around them.  Another reason I love them is the process deemphasizes the teacher knowing all of the answers.  I am learning and reading with my them.  Lit circles create a culture of learners, readers, and collaborators as its focus are on reflection upon themselves and the world around them with the people around them.

Even though I loved using lit circles last year, there was something off about the way I implemented it.  I was still the driver and the student’s question clearly showed the issue.  It was too much of me telling my students what they had to do and how they had to do it.  Most of the problems stemmed from everyone reading the same book. 

I went back to Kristen and Jackie and learned how they read a variety of books.  To allow kids to read different books I partnered with my librarian, Dawn Ferencz, to help get into a number of choices for the students.  With attention to the class’s essential question: To what extent can we do whatever we want to the Earth and its people? To focus it even more, the current unit is Political Geography which made the essential question steered towards how laws stated or not, governments, family practices, or social structures are dictating the behaviors of the people in the book. Dawn found ten books that aligned to the theme that the students could choose from.   Each book offered a unique perspective on how people treat each other and allowed students to come together to make sense of how that relates to their understanding of the world.

The Process

On day one Dawn introduced each book and had the students select three they were interested in reading. From their choices, I created groups of four or five. For lit circles to be successful, they need a lot of class time. To ensure their success, I had four consecutive days dedicated to getting them off the ground.  Two of those days, including the first, were full reading days. To learn alongside with them, I read one of the books I hadn’t read.  With the exception of one group, everyone started reading without any coercion.  That one group started reading once they saw I was reading;   We were in it together.  The kids and I read for forty minutes and then I noticed a few kids looking at the clock.  They only became restless after forty minutes of sustained reading! 

On day two, Dawn and I worked together and started with the students coming up with questions. We used the question formulation technique to allow each group to work together to get all of their questions.  We centered their thoughts and ideas about the rules and laws that dictated the behaviors in the book. These rules could be implicit or explicit laws from anywhere in the book.  It didn’t matter who created the rules, we just wanted the students to generate questions.   Afterward, we borrowed/stole from Kristen and Jackie some guides to help focus the students' thoughts on their beginning understandings of their book and the questions that they generated.

From there, the students started recording and talking about their book.  Dawn and I bopped around the different circles.  We tried not to dictate the conversation. The process repeated itself over the next days.  Dawn and I ran into a bit of a problem; one of the groups finished the book after day two.  Most of the kids in that group went home and finished the book after the first discussion.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a great problem to have, but now Dawn and I are trying to figure out what they should do next.  As I write this sentence, I realize the mistake in my thinking.  Dawn and I are trying to come up with everything they are going to do, which goes against the purpose behind the lit circles.  

Partnership

The partnership with Dawn was/is one of the best teaching moments in my career. We had a similar goal and a vision for how we were going to implement it. Having Dawn was crucial to the success of lit circles.  One of the days, a group was struggling.  Dawn went to the group and built on their strengths instead of telling them what they weren't doing.  She worked through their questions and guided them to the place the group wanted to go.  She asked the members to make claims and back those understandings with evidence.  She dug a little deeper and asked the students to explain their thinking.  I’m in awe of how she worked with the students and not talked at them.  

The greater partnership that occurred was the one that developed with Dawn, the students, and myself.  We were in it together. We read, recorded, and worked through our understandings together.  We were all learners and we were learners together.  That's what I wanted from the beginning. 

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Intro to Health Careers - How do you define learning?

by Krista Glosson and Alyssa Trausch

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

Learning is:

• risk-taking.

• trying.

• application.

Learning occurs best when:

• it's repetitive. 

• people are involved in the process. 

• people collaborate.

How do you define learning?

Krista Glosson (Teacher): I define learning as the willingness to try new things and take risks in the classroom.  When students try (anything at all in the classroom) they will find an end result.  The end result could be positive or negative for them, but even a negative experience could end up contributing to success later on if they continue to try.  For example, in the microscope lesson, all of the students tried to use the microscope.  Some students enjoyed the process more than others and had varying levels of success.  All of the students left the lesson with new information and some left with a new career to think about pursuing.

I always tell students that I expect to see attempts and failures when we start an inquiry lab in class.  Time is built in for students to have at least one failure in their investigation so that they can re-evaluate their approach and try again.  Assignments that require them to try to explain big phenomenon are assignments that I assume I will provide feedback on and they will try again to get it right.

Ultimately, as teachers we are still learning by trying new things sometimes they are successful and we learn to keep going in that direction or we fail and try again.  If we can provide an atmosphere where failure is safe (to an extent) we can help them build a tolerance for momentary failure while keeping the end goal of success in focus.  If we can teach them to learn this way, then I think we have had a significant impact on their success as an adult after they leave us.

Alyssa Trausch (Student):  I would define learning as getting information that is remembered and applied throughout your life. I may be a skill, an emotion or even just a fact, but it’s something that you will use again.

How do you believe people learn best?

Krista Glosson (Teacher):  Since I believe that trying is a big part of learning I like to make sure that the students are involved as often as possible.  They should be creating and contributing to the class material and discussions as often as possible.  I like to have them developing material for their classmates, completing activities in the lab, designing, running, and explaining their own experiments as well as having multiple small group discussions.

Alyssa Trausch (Student): An example would be a skill like writing which you learn at a young age. Writing is something that was consistently done over and over and over until we learned how to do it. It wasn’t one of those things where we “learned” it for 3 days took a quiz and then maybe a final later and then never use it again. That’s what I think learning is.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: AP Spanish Literature and Culture - Defining Learning

by Dean Sanchis, Jackelyn Campos, Daniel Salgado-Alvarez, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• personal.

• solving problems.

• applicable to new situations.

Learning occurs best when:

• people collaborate. 

• it's hands on. 

• it's repetitive.

How do you define learning?

Dean Sanchis (Teacher Dean Sanchis): Cuando añades algo de valor y relevancia personal y colectiva a tu ser.

When you add something of value or personal and collective relevance to your personal life and identity.

Jackelyn Campos (Student): I define learning as the process is where we gain knowledge or skills on a particular subject and then apply them to real-life or theoretical situations. It is the process where we are able to solve problems with the knowledge that was taught to us or which we acquired by reading.

Daniel Salgado-Alvarez (Student): Gaining knowledge and being able to interpret and apply it to various situations. While you might not know everything, you are able to use previous knowledge to understand unknown topics.

How do you believe people learn best?

Dean Sanchis (Teacher Dean Sanchis): In collaboration with others, pursuing personal interests,  and self-discovery.

Jackelyn Campos (Student): I believe people learn best by learning hands-on, for example in science courses through labs. Repetition is also a major key to be able to learn something thoroughly and clearly. However, repetition doesn’t always mean making students memorize things, this approach can be taken on by presenting students with the same subject in different ways.

Daniel Salgado-Alvarez (Student):  I think people learn the best when they are exposed to the material in multiple formats and repeated exposure (reading, lecture, discussion, etc…).

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Art Survey

by Mark Heintz and Cindy Pacyk

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

There are certain classes in the school that are close to what I hope schools could be.  Really, what we should all aspire to be.  Art is one of those places.  I loved to draw a kid. As I got older, I didn't make time for it since I had more "academic" subjects to focus on.  Art didn't fit into my schedule.  I'm making room for it now.

I went into Cindy Pacyk's art class and was blown away by the atmosphere.  Students worked at the own pace on their projects.  It was a lunch period and students were dropping in and helping kids who aren't even in their class.  Freshmen through seniors are mixed in and working together.  Cindy pulled small groups together to show them a technique and answer questions.  There was a calm and ease to the class that is hard to create.  It was amazing.

I had to know more.  I wanted to know what her definition of learning was and what conditions she felt people learned best under. This is what she said:

How do you define learning?

Cindy: Learning is the ability to master the basics of a subject matter and use them appropriately to find one’s own voice.  It is the acquisition of problem-solving skills that allow a student to be flexible in their approach to different scenarios.  This level of mastery helps students develop a portfolio of meaningful and individual artworks.



How do you believe people learn best?

Cindy: I believe people best learn by making mistakes with the understanding that this is a tool they have gained or an understanding.  If the mistake is seen as only that, a mistake, a greater lesson is not learned but if they view it as a way of gaining insight they have learned.  In making that “mistake” they know one way something did not work that is knowledge gained.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Introduction to Strength and Conditioning Defining Learning

By Anthony Furman, Daisy Crus, Jaina Pfister, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• having a vision.

• decision making.

• new concepts.

Learning occurs best when:

• people collaborate. 

• people are comfortable. 

• through feedback.

How do you define learning? 

Anthony Furman (Teacher):  I believe students are truly learning when their approach or vision about school is not just as a “grade” but as a stepping stone and source of preparation for their futures. There is a natural progression of this as students mature and move through each year, but there are so many ways for students to develop, enhance and catapult this progression as they make decisions for their future.  Our guidance, teaching, reflection, and challenging of students can put them in a position to recognize and embrace this opportunity.  It is not something that is done alone.

Daisy Cruz (Student):  Learning means adding more knowledge to what you already know.

Jaina Pfister (Student):  I define learning as understanding new concepts and adding new information to your brain.

How do you believe people learn best?

Anthony Furman (Teacher): I truly believe that students learn best when they recognize that we are all in this together as one team.  Students need to know that they can be themselves especially as they begin recognizing who they really are and what they believe in.  Within this comfort and recognition lies a place with unlimited opportunities for learning, support and involvement.

Daisy Cruz (Student):  People learn best by observing and listening to the feedback you get so you can improve.

Jaina Pfister (Student): I believe people learn best by working hands on. Throwing yourself into a situation that may put you out of your comfort zone is the best way to really learn.

Freshmen P.E. Reflection

By Anthony Furman

Anthony wrote a lesson reflection a few months ago.  He again is reflecting as he tries to build a student-centered physical education course that is responsive to the diverse needs of each student.

What do you hope to do for the next time? 

I will be looking to see that we are practicing our “Building a Culture to be Proud Of” statements. That will come from teacher to student as well as student to student.  Exercises learned will be practiced and then given was to be made more challenging.  Ideally, we begin to build an atmosphere where class expectations are maintained by all students and we continue to build on the program focuses set each week.

What aspects of your hopes came true? 

I do believe we are making progress in our practice and work each day.  Whether it be in the weight room or in other areas we continue to talk about the importance of taking pride in how one accomplishes a task and then attempt to practice that skill during class.  The form is getting better and kids are starting to understand the process of making things challenging in order to see results.  We continue to stress the importance of being prepared and then having high expectations for our effort.  I have noticed several students beginning to challenge their own classmates to improve, try or something simple like listen. 

What did learning look like in this lesson?

As we move further into the second quarter we continue to challenge our students to learn the value of completing work in a way that they will genuinely see the benefits of their efforts.  Within our lifting segment we are looking for students to continually work on the form and understanding of how to complete lifts, and as they continue to get better at that process begin to add more resistance that will create an environment of forced or quality sets of work. 

We continually drive the conversation for the need to do things a certain way to see the benefits.  As different students progress and improve at different rates, we challenge some to take on roles of leadership and example in class, their groups and within different activities.

The focus of today was to complete 4 sets of squats, 4 sets of jumps on the plyo box, 4 sets of quality spotting of their partners and then introduce a self/peer assessment activity they will complete in the near future.  This assessment involves two components.  A “BUY-IN” component in assessing your level of work and then a “preparation” component that assesses how you come to class each day.  The combination of these two represents what the student brings to class each day.  The goal of this assessment is to truly look at how you utilize your time in class and recognize the need for improvement, maintenance or the ability to help others succeed.   It is important to remember that where you fall on the two-part assessment represents what we need to work on for success in the future.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Psychology - Part 2 Defining Learning

By Melissa Curtis, Devin Peterson, Paige Hermann, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• lifelong.

• not memorizing.

• not random facts.

Learning occurs best when people are:

• experiencing.

• excited.

• wanting to learn.  

How do you define learning?

Melissa Curtis (Teacher): Students being able to discuss a topic intelligently with each other and defending their thoughts, applying the concepts we learn in class to a real-life example, students generating thoughtful questions, proving their knowledge on summative assessments.

Devin Peterson (Student): Being able to process new information and then applying the information.

Paige Hermann (Student): I define learning as processing new information and being able to understand it.


How do you believe people learn best?

Melissa Curtis (Teacher): Multiple exposures to the material (in-class, on their own, review), testing yourself, discussing the material with others, applying the content to your own life, spacing out the studying over several days instead of cramming.

Devin Peterson (Student):  I believe people learn the best when there is a positive environment and there is some type of reward or punishment when learning and applying what was learned

Paige Hermann (Student):  I believe people learn best when they actually see it and they can see how it's done.

What do I want students to be?

By Mark Heintz

The inspiration for this post comes from the Modern Learners podcast with Pam Moran and Ira Socol. I recommend everyone listening to it.

What do I want students to be?  Most of my career, I answered this question with some vague response such as be college graduates, obtain a technical certification, or just generally have a life plan. I’ve also thought that students should be filled up with every discipline’s essential knowledge (not sure what that even means, but I am pretty sure I’ve said it. It also sounds cool: Essential knowledge.  Like every student will need to know when the Ottoman Empire took over the Byzantine. 1453. Sigh.).

But, that’s not really what the question is asking.  What do I want students to be? This isn’t just for when they leave school, or when they enter school, but also when they are in school.  So, let me rephrase the question: What do I wish all students were like?  If I could wave a magic wand and make all students have certain traits, what would those traits be?  Well, I’m waving my wand.  Here is what I want my students to be.

• Students are healthy.  I want students to be healthy. It’s near impossible to learn if you aren’t.  And, it’s not enough just to know what good physical and mental health means. They should have good physical and mental health.  

• Students are empathetic.  Students should care for others and be mindful of others’ lives.  Not just for those in their community, but for everyone.  

• Students are learners. It’s disingenuous for a school to believe they can give students the skills and knowledge that will sustain them for life. But, we can make them learners. If they are learners, they will be able to adapt as the world changes.  What do I mean by learning? You can read that here. 

• Students are curious.  They need to want to know things. They should enter school with questions needing to be answered and leave school with even more questions.

• Students are in charge of their learning. They should have agency and make choices.  I wish for this deeply. 

• Students are literate. I define literate by having competence or knowledge in a specified area. To rephrase, students are literate in the specified area of their choice.   

• Students are connected. They should be collaborative with not only those around them, but should reach out beyond their community to help them and others debate, share, and diversify to maximize learning.

• Students are persistent.  They should be able to continue learning about something that is curious to them and endure when things get challenging or daunting.  

• Students are reflective. They should be thinking about what they did, how they did it, and what they would do differently. 

• Students are decision makers.  When faced with a choice or the unknown, they should be able to make decisions that they thought out and not needing someone else to tell them what direction to turn.  

I want my students to be healthy, empathetic, learners, curious, in charge, literate, connected, persistent, reflective and decision makers.

Why aren’t most students this way? I know there are a lot of reasons outside of a teacher or school’s control.  But, I don’t want to be cynical; I want students to be this way.  This is my mission: To ensure every student is healthy, empathetic, a learner, curious, in charge, literate, connected, persistent, reflective and a decision maker. Instead of focusing on preparing them for an unknown future or browbeating content knowledge into them, I want to create conditions for these traits to develop if they aren’t already there.  My attention is to focus on lesson and course design to instill these qualities in them not to better teach the causes of World War I.  I aspire to have each day every student walking through the school have their teachers focusing on these ten characteristics.

 Call to Action

Write down what you want your students to be.  Then make a shift in your practice to allow for those things to happen.  If you are bold, and you should be, share your list with your students, your school, and make them public.  Debate them, change them, and hopefully get your school to have the same value system.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Pre-Calculus - Part 2 Defining Learning

By Dave Dompke, Kesha Patel, Alyssa Cobb, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• lifelong.

• not memorizing.

• not random facts.

Learning occurs best when people are:

• experiencing.

• excited.

• wanting to learn.

How do you define learning?  

Dave Dompke (Teacher):  Learning is gaining knowledge through experiences.  Those experiences can be with teachers, friends, or by themselves.  It doesn’t have to be in a classroom setting.  Learning is not some quick fact that can repeat to you, but something that will stay with them longer than a day.

Kesha Patel (Student): I define learning as exploring new topics and gaining an understanding for them. It’s not really learning if you’re just memorizing a formula and using for problems that are written differently but based on the same idea. It’s more understanding why a formula works the way it does and being able to apply it to a problem that barely has anything to do with what I already learned. I think that’s when I can say I truly learned the concept.

Alyssa Cobb (Student): I define learning as acquiring new information whether school related, life/career related or simply a random fact. It can be something completely new or taking old information to better master it.

How do you believe people learn best? 

Dave Dompke (Teacher):  I believe people learn best when they experience it through activities they enjoy.  When they come across new ideas or concepts and are learning new things, they are excited to learn about it.  They want to know more.

Kesha Patel (Student): I think people learn best when they’re understanding what they’re learning. I feel like with all the math formulas I generally just memorize them and I don’t get how it was created and why it works every time. If I get why something works the way it does, I can work out problems with needing to memorize a formula.

Alyssa Cobb (Student): I believe people learn best when they get to pick the environment they’re expected to learn something. If you’re distracted or not able to focus and you’re not the one choosing how you’re learning or studying it really isn’t your fault if you’re not able to understand the concept, but with that, the learner has to be mature enough to pick a good place to learn. Also, a person with a mindset of wanting to learn will generally learn better than those who don’t have that same mindset. If you’re focused and willing you will be able to learn overtime time whether that’s quickly or a longer period of time.

It's Easy to Create Curriculum

By Mark Heintz

It’s easy for teachers and schools to create a curriculum.  This comment was made in a recent Modern Learners book chat on Timeless Learning.  It’s easy, really?  I’ve spent a lot of time creating curriculum and codifying objectives.  Literally, I’ve spent years creating, reflecting, and fine-tuning. It’s difficult to figure out how the learning will take place and find a logical plan for content to be explored. It was hard to create it. So, that comment made me pause. And, I know many of you would argue with that point, too.

But, if I am being honest with myself, they were right.  By creating a curriculum, teachers plan all of the learning that will take place.  We create tasks, write tests, and develop daily lesson plans ahead of time.  In doing so, we put a limit on what we teach; therefore, we put a limit on what students learn.  It gives us an out.  When a student asks why they need to learn this, we can come back with authority, “It’s part of the curriculum.”  Or, if a student is curious about a topic, we can tell them that topic will be covered later or next year or in a more specific course.  We essentially take most of the thinking and student voice out of the learning. A curriculum that is planned out asks kids to be compliant instead of curious.  In the end, that’s easy.

So, what’s an alternative? 

We come up with questions that will lead to inquiry. We create conditions to tap into what they are curious about and show them how the content is present in what they already want to learn.  We push their thinking through different lines of questioning and give them resources that will challenge them. We get them to research.  We force them to make their thinking visible. We ask them to collaborate with others and share their learning.  We get them to reflect on what they learned, how they learned, and what they should do next.

I know what you’re thinking. What about standardized tests? Who are these magical kids that are self-directed?  Students who are learning for themselves will read, write, explore, and think more than those who are forced into learning. If they do the four things, they will excel on standardized exams because they will be learning for themselves. As for the magical kids, all students are curious.  They might not be curious about what we are teaching, but they are curious because all people are curious.  So, the “magical kids” are all kids. The barrier is the learning conditions. If you allow kids to learn the way they learn best, they will.

What does that mean for your class?

Start with a question. One that is open-ended and allows for multiple paths and potential answers. I quit concerning myself with the summative assessment and how it will go in the grade book.   Quit concerning yourself with summative assessments and how it will go in the grade book.  Let students learn. Let them debate the question and come up with the way to present their new understandings.  Let the assessment be created by the students, monitored by the students, and for the students to make sense of the questions they asked and the content they explored.  It’s hard to let go and be that free. But, try it for a few days, reflect on it, then try it again.

It’s not our fault.  We have been trained to do this.  I’m not throwing anyone under the bus.  Teacher training, our own experiences, and professional development are largely geared towards the traditional model of school.  Even American culture wants more accountability in schools, which would continue to favor the traditional model.

The American values put pressure of what the traditional, rigorous classroom looks like.  Imagine a guardian of a student walking into two different classrooms.  One where students have a book out, filling in a packet, taking diligent notes with a clear content objective to cover a particular topic by the end of the period. Or another, where students are talking about individual projects and are at all different places with the teacher bouncing around the room to engage with as many of the students as possible.  We have to overcome the historical legacy of the traditional classroom and the easier metrics of learning. It’s easier to collect learning data on students for content acquisition, rather than the more difficult task of collecting data on engagement, questioning, writing, reading, and critical thinking.

Now I get why they said it was easy.

It’s easier to create the final assessment that allows you to ignore the students’ interests along the way.  It gives you an out and a reason to shut down the things kids want to explore when they want because it’s not in the curriculum. It becomes the students’ fault for not learning the things you wanted them to learn at the pace you predicted they would learn. You told the students explicitly what you wanted them to know and some still couldn’t get it.  Furthermore, a teacher can be blamed for not having the right curriculum. If only the teacher would find the elusive right book, right scope and sequence, or the right material, they could be better.  Finally, a school can be blamed that their kids are not being as successful as others.  They can be fixed by having someone with THE MAGIC CURRICULUM that is PROVEN to work.

In the end, that’s a lot easier than learning together with your students, tapping into what they are interested in, being flexible in the learning environment that allows for choice and agency.  That is an art.  It takes immense skill to give the freedom to learn in a classroom.  There isn’t a silver bullet.  It takes a lifetime to continually work at because each year new kids with different interests and ideas come into your learning network.  That. Is. Hard.


A huge thank you to Kim Miklusak for editing this post and her constant willingness to debate me on pretty much everything.  

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Dual Credit College Composition Part 2

By Emily Mikuzis, Madison Reed, Jake Mizialko, Alexandra Glinski, and Mark Heintz


This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for. 


In this second visit to Emily Mikuzis's class, Emily and her students reflected to see if what they had hoped for in my first visit came true.  We are attempting to build a reflective culture, where teachers and students come together to create the school they hope for.  The teacher and student are honest and collaborative.  We are fostering a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality.

Emily Mikuzis 

What do you hope to do for the next time?

Through the comparison of three engaging texts with very different structures and purposes, I hope to give students options for attacking their first writing assignment, Narrative as Argument. My hope is that students will begin to build confidence to make their own stylistic and structural choices in writing assignments. I hope to, throughout the semester, continue to create opportunities for students to work together to build understanding and hopefully begin to develop their own writer's voice through greater investment in our writing tasks.

What aspects of your hopes came true? This is a work in progress, but I think we are getting there. In each unit, I am trying to scaffold experiences that will allow students to dig into the real work of writing - the ruminating, the thinking, and the connecting that happen away from the computer. In each unit, we are working through choices, rather than prescribing them. Currently, we are working on evidence awareness to determine which kinds of support work best for which kinds of claims. As we build our argumentative essays, students are challenged to argue (almost) any claim. I want them to have a real investment in getting a reader to accept their claim and in choosing the evidence that is most effective, compelling, and convincing.

Madison Reed

What do you hope to learn for the next time? 

I hope to learn more about the other types of writings that are out there. Writing is one of my favorite things to do in school. I love the freedom of ideas and creativity it allows us as students to have most times. Also, I hope to learn how to better my writing abilities. So far in my senior year here at EGHS, College Composition has been one of my favorite classes and generally my favorite English class I've taken.

What aspects of your hopes came true? 

My hopes completely came true. We are on our third writing style/essay now and I have definitely learned more about the writing styles we have covered. I have also learned some tips and strategies to really rock writing in such styles.



Jake Mizialko

What do you hope to learn for the next time? 

For the next lesson, I hope to learn how you can you words, phrases, and sentences to help you learn more about the message that the author was trying to get across to his readers. I hope that students will be able to branch off of those three things and be able to incorporate it into their own writing. By practicing this task, this will allow students to strengthen their writing abilities and easily identify key parts to a story.

What aspects of your hopes came true? 

Students were able to use what they wrote in the planner in order to make a strong argument when the class was split.

Alexandra Glinski

What do you hope to learn for the next time? 

In the next lesson, I would hope to find a style of writing/narrative the best suits me. Trying and testing different essay structures will be a big part of finding out what I like. I want to be able to write an effective essay that not only has a good narrative but also gets my argument across. Hopefully, in our next few writing assignments, my best style of writing will become more clear to me.


What aspects of your hopes came true? 

Since we have been able to pick out topics for this next essay, I think it will be easy to experiment and find what really is the best style of writing for me and many others.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Dual Credit College Composition Part 2 - Defining Learning

By Emily Mikuzis, Madison Reed, Jake Mizialko, Alexandra Glinski, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for. 

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• for everyone.

• transferable.

• thinking deeply.

• growing.

Learning occurs best when people are:

• invested.

• around others that want to learn. 

• comfortable.

 

How do you define learning? 

Emily Mikuzis (Teacher):  Learning has happened when new information or skill is transferable. For example, in my own writing instruction, I have often focused on practicing the skills needed to perform a particular writing task. In the past, I might have given students an outline or sentence stems or templates for embedding quotes. I have noticed that these supports can help students succeed on a product, but do not support the transfer of skills. When I instructed this way, students were in danger of becoming overly reliant on prescriptive assignments. They may ask things like how many paragraphs do I need? How many citations are required?  By reflecting on rhetorical choices along the way, thinking deeply about purpose and audience, my hope is that students are better prepared to make these choices about writing in writing situations across disciplines.

Madison Reed (Student): I believe that learning could be a few things on a few different levels. Learning is discovering or being taught a new topic or thing. Learning is also finding out more about something you may have already known or learned everything about something.  Learning defines so many different things. Learning could be gaining knowledge of something physical, or just an idea. Learning can also be positive or negative. Learning involves the future, present, and past. It involves everything on the planet. It’s amazing all the different things that are learnable. And, the best thing is that it’s for everyone. Learning is power.

Jake Mizialko (Student): I define learning as anyone, doesn't matter the age, that gains a better understanding of a certain subject. These subjects can be actual school subjects, lessons about how to improve your job, or even social skills. Learning occurs on an everyday basis multiple times a day and is the biggest factor in personal growth. Learning can be seen in all different aspects of life and it will benefit you greatly if you learn something new every day.

Alexandra Glinski (Student): I would define learning as acquiring knowledge about certain things that you experience. This could range from your everyday things to the curriculum that you learn at school. Everyone learns and processes new information from the second that they're born and continue to learn for the rest of their lives. Learning involves expanding the mind and adding additional information and strengthening what the mind already has. One of the most important things that come with learning is allowing yourself to not only explained your knowledge but actually grow as a person too. How do you believe people learn best?

How do you believe people learn best?

Emily Mikuzis (Teacher):  I believe people learn best when they have invested in the process and the outcome. Students learn best when they know exactly what they are supposed to do and how doing that will help them. If the usefulness of the targets are in question, even if those targets are clear, it can be difficult for students to be invested enough to truly learn.

Madison Reed (Student): I think that everyone learns in different ways. For example, some people are more visual learners, while some are physical or verbal, etc. as well as people’s learning styles that way, everyone also learns best in different environments. For example, some people learn best one on one and some people learn best being with other students. Personally, I do not think that there is the best way to learn.

Jake Mizialko (Student):  I believe that people learn best when they are surrounded by the environment that will be the most beneficial to them. If everyone around you wants to learn and improve on a topic that will subconsciously drive you to do the same. Motivation and determination are two key factors when someone is deciding how much of a certain subject they want to learn and how much of that they will use later in life.

Alexandra Glinski (Student): I believe people learn best when they're in an environment they're most comfortable in. I think this plays a huge role in learning because being at ease and somewhere where you aren't under stress can completely change your mindset and how you perceive everything that you're taking in.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Intro to Engineering Part 2

By Alexander Danan, Margi Patel, Ryan Libiano and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for. 


In this second visit to Patrick McGing's class, Patrick and his students reflected to see if what they had hoped for in my first visit came true.  It had been eight weeks since my first and it was great to see if they are living what they believe.  Even though it was only eight weeks ago, it's hard to stay vigilant on the goal. Read what each of them has to say.  The first entry in italics was what the teacher and student wanted to happen by this point, and the next questions get to what came true.

Patrick McGing

What do you hope to do for the next time?

At Elk Grove, the majority of teachers, including myself in Technology Education has adopted Standards Based Grading as the majority of the learning in our classrooms revolves around learning and developing essential skills (“Standards”). These essential skills sometimes get lost in “day to day school.” Therefore, part of my reasoning for having students create a resume and document their skills is so they know where they are starting the year off. As we continue the school year and cover more essential skills I would like to have students add to their resume; along with anything else that applies from school, extracurriculars, or other.

Students can then begin to see growth, even if they started with a very bare resume, personal growth will be documented.

On top of this, as one of District 214’s goals is career ready and we fall in a Career and Technical Educational course, developing resume building skills will further help students as they begin looking for careers that require the same skills they have developed in their CTE courses and others.


What aspects of your hopes came true?

It comes back to documentation. At this point in the year, we have now covered two essential skills that are the foundation of a lot of what we do in Introduction to Engineering Design. My goal with the resume building is for students to document their growth and learning and designating time to do that can be difficult. The aspect of emphasizing skill building has come true, but the documentation is an area that I will need to work on with students.

Alex Danan 

What do you hope to learn for the next time?

What I'm interested in is going through the design process to create some different but amazing things. I also want to learn more about how to use all the machines to make 2D into 3D. One of the biggest things that I hope I learn next time or later in the year is all the small things in that I'm able to do while designing program so I can make whatI'vee already made and make it better to the best of my potential.

What aspects of your hopes came true?

 One of the things that I was finally able to do in class was creating a different object while drawing, both in paper and on a creation software. We have also started to learn the different ways to draw out our ideas with different styles for different reasons. For some portion of time, everyone chose a career to learn about and make slides on, this way people could start choosing what they want to do in the future. but lastly in class after finishing our work I was able to make whatever my mind desired in a creation software, letting my mind be free.

Margi Patel

What do you hope to learn for the next time?

I hope to learn how to use the 3D printer and the new technology. By end of the semester, I would love to know what I should put it in my resume and cover letter. I'm a senior so I'm glad I took this class because I'm sure it's going to help me figure what I want to do after high school, specifically in engineering. I'm excited to learn more about the topics that we talked about. I'm also excited to see what interests me the most.

What aspects of your hopes came true? 

One of my favorite things we started doing is different types of designs and sketches. I also learned how to use the inventor after all the struggle.

Ryan Libiano

What do you hope to learn for the next time? 

Although we did not cover any engineering related topic in this lesson, I am still very excited to learn more about how to write a resume and cover letter and prepare myself for the future. Along with that, I am still very excited to dive deep into the engineering process and design my first object/thing (I don’t know what it is yet). Another huge hope is to finally use machinery such as the shop bot, CNC mill, Laser cutter, etc.

What aspects of your hopes came true?

We finally broke into the class and have learned important aspects of design: utilizing Inventor, understanding basic sketching types and using line conventions in our sketches. Another desire that was fulfilled was understanding how to prepare myself for the future and how to start a career.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Intro to Engineering Part 2 - Defining Learning

By Alexander Danan, Margi Patel, Ryan Libiano and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for. 

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is...

• personal. 

• not just obtaining new knowledge.

• not easy.

• rebuilding after failure.

People learn best when...

• they are actively doing the work.

• they learn from their mistakes.

• you are interested in something.

• want to learn. 

How do you define learning? 

Patrick McGing (teacher): Personal growth through a change or development. Learning is not just obtaining new knowledge but must also be a continual development and challenge of that knowledge. The knowledge must continually grow and impact the individual and their experiences.  

Alex Danan (student): Learning to me is when you take a topic that you have an interest in and get to know something new about it. Also, learning can’t be easy. Learning has to have a struggle or mistake in the process, so if you make a mistake then learn from it and do better the next time.

Margi Patel (student): I define learning by accepting my mistakes, trying, understanding the concepts, experience, being taught, knowledge, and learning from the results. 

Ryan Libiano (student): Learning through failure and accepting faults, if this could be achieved then the ability for one to rebuild themselves and improve will ultimately help accelerate future success and open up new opportunities.

How do you believe people learn best?

Patrick McGing (teacher): Doing, failing, adjusting, doing, failing, adjusting, doing. 

I don’t mean repetition and drill is the way to learn, rather people must recognize failure and develop adjustments to change the process. Personal growth through a change or development. 

Alex Danan (student): In my opinion, I believe that people learn best by getting taught or researching what they to. If the mistake is in the process of doing a project that they want to do then they can do better the next time or they can learn from their mistakes.

Margi Patel (student): People learn best when they learn from their mistakes and don’t do the same mistakes again. Also when they don’t give up in tough situations. 

Ryan Libiano (student): As mentioned before, people learn the best when they accept their faults and build themselves through failure and proper guidance.