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Volume VII, Issue No.3
Listening
in on Learning The classroom is the theater in which studentsi and teachersi beliefs about learning come alive. At any given moment 20 or 30 minds are working to generate countless thoughts. In a cartoon drawing a good idea is represented by a light bulb appearing over the head of a figure. In real classrooms the thinking of students and teachers is harder to see. Understanding the complex environment of a classroom depends on the careful observation of what students and teachers do and produce. In the January, 1998 issue of The Web, Greg Farrell, president of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, interviewed principals about some of the hard, quantifiable indicators that help school communities assess their progress in implementing Expeditionary Learning as a whole school design. Classroom level indicators are "softer" and try to accommodate the variety and complexity of classrooms, while at the same time provide a useful picture of the Expeditionary Learning environment. To develop a working list of indicators, I interviewed teachers from across our national network and posed three questions: What does Expeditionary Learning look like in practice in a real classroom? What can you see teachers and students doing that tells you Expeditionary Learning is taking place? What evidence of Expeditionary Learning does a classroom itself hold? What the Classroom Looks Like Teachers at all levels and regions across the network described the physical Expeditionary Learning classrooms similarly. Substantial student resources, flexible work areas, and the presence of student work in all stages of development are essential for the Expeditionary Learning classroom, they said. "When I first walk into a good Expeditionary Learning classroom, the expedition theme or topic the children are studying is very apparent," said Nan Welch, a veteran Expeditionary Learning elementary teacher from Dubuque, Iowa, and current school designer. "There is an area loaded with books about the expedition theme. There are bulletin boards full of studentsi thinking about the expedition, counters full of projects in the working that support the expedition theme, and small groups of children are working together. There is usually a computer center up and running. There are research areas where students are working on physical kinds of projects." Becky Landa, a fifth-grade teacher at Douglass Intermediate Expeditionary Learning Center in San Antonio, Texas, agreed, The wrapping of Expeditionary Learning is the classroom itself." In an Expeditionary Learning high school, classrooms appear more like elementary classrooms, said Bill Fulton, a high school teacher and the upper school coordinator at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver, Colorado. "It would be hard to imagine a really effective Expeditionary Learning classroom in which the walls werenit adorned with the creations of students, and interesting and vibrant signs of learning werenit everywhere. One of the signs that a teacher is starting to grasp the idea of the journey is that the prioritization of what is important starts to lean toward supporting student creation and a dynamic sense of student learning." Teachers begin to rearrange their schedules or rearrange their rooms to create opportunities and space for powerful learning experiences, Fulton said. The physical presence of the design principles as well as their expression in the classroom environment and routines, student work, and interactions was critical to all the practitioners. "The design principles ought to be on the wall, maybe in the childrenis own language," said Dorothy Robinson, a Memphis curriculum coordinator on sabbatical working with Expeditionary Learning. "Walking around the room, the design principles should be alive. Maybe there are animals. There should be plants growing. The room may be a little noisier than the traditional classroom, but itis work noise." What Teachers Do Teachers in Expeditionary Learning classrooms are focused on guiding students through learning expeditions. These long-term, project-based investigations affect the classroomis physical layout and the relationships and interactions of everyone within the classroom. The teacheris role is facilitator, project manager, or coach, the practitioners agreed. "Expeditionary Learning gives teachers permission not to have all the answers," said Deb Schukar, lower school coordinator at Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning, Denver. Expeditionary Learning teachers are challenged to manage work and think of time differently than teachers do in more traditional classroom settings. "Because of the way work evolves in the classroom, not everybody is necessarily beginning and completing tasks at the same time, and so having different areas where different things can be going on at the same time is essential," said Laura Kelly, a middle school art and English as a Second Language teacher at IS30 in Brooklyn, New York. "With the luxury of time and space, the responsibilities of teacher and student can be divided differently. Students can be teaching other students. Students have a greater sense of ownership because they have to." The quality of studentsi thinking relates both to the quality of questions teachers ask and also to the time students have to grapple with important questions. San Antonio teacher Becky Landa observes that, "In interactions between students and between the students and teacher you see lots of questioning. Students in an Expeditionary Learning classroom are allowed time for understanding a problem or question. Itis about looking for long-term goals and achievement." Landa and other teachers stressed that a good "hands-on" expedition must be minds-on" as well. It is the thinking students do and the understanding they show through writing or speaking that matters most. I would hear evidence of the learning in the childrenis language," said Welch, of Dubuque. "Seeing the generation of ideas is very apparent in classrooms in which knowledge culminates in some sort of celebration of learning." What Students Do The projects within learning expeditions involve students in inquiry or research, including fieldwork. "Students are doing their own investigations," said Deb Schukar of RMSEL, "and they are trying to find answers to their own important questions." When students are developing products for their work, they usually discuss the standards for good work and often develop specific criteria for a given product. Critiquing their work against the standards, perhaps using a rubric, is another common practice. Teachers stressed, however, that just doing projects was not enough and that studentsi understandings of larger purposes were essential. "I would ask students, eWhat does it take to do a good projecti or eWhat does it take to be a good studenti and I would hope students in an Expeditionary Learning classroom would answer with something about the quality of work and not something about how smart you are," said Christina Patterson, who teaches seventh-grade humanities at The Harbor School in Boston, Massachusetts. Expeditionary Learning teachers made the point that the excitement of learning, the joy of learning, or even, when appropriate, sadness or anxiety, are essential components of a good Expeditionary Learning classroom. Teachers discussed the commitment of students, the spirit of service, the ownership students felt for their work and classroom. "When we are doing Expeditionary Learning at our best, the estuffi people are working on feels genuine," said Fulton, of RMSEL. "Whether students are holding sheep eyes in their hands, extracting DNA, working with primary documents, or discussing a text, there is a vibrancy or life to the work. The student is in contact with the power of the world, with the power of life itself." Doug Kilmister is director of Research and Development with Expeditionary Learning.
If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Indicators of Expeditonary Learning in the Classroom please contact us (info@elschools.org).
A
Classroom Observation Protocol This classroom observation protocol is a working tool for schools to use in their annual self reviews or periodic peer reviews. The protocol can be used internally, by a group of three to five teachers within a school, or it can be used by a visiting team of "critical friends" from outside the school. In preparation for the observation, the school faculty or leadership team defines what they want observers to look for and think about while conducting the observation, and reviews the design principles, Core Practice Benchmarks, and the indicators of Expeditionary Learning in the classroom The protocol has three phases: Orientation Phase: This orientation meeting also provides the team with an opportunity to discuss the schoolis focus, look at student work, review the classroom indicators, decide which criteria are of particular importance for the school, and go over the norms and logistics of the classroom visits. Observation Phase: Observers gather information, talk with students, and look for evidence of the core practices. They refrain, as much as possible, from making judgments or interpreting events, using the classroom indicators as a guide. Debrief Phase: After a half
day of visiting classrooms, the team meets to share observations.
Observers then meet with the rest of the faculty to report out on
what they noticed during the visit, pose questions about issues
or concerns that came up during the visit, and offer their perspectives
on possible next steps.
School
Review: A Path to a Stronger Community and Clearer Vision Like all schools across nation, Lincoln School in Dubuque, Iowa, is expected to improve, to renew, to overhaul, to restructure, to reform. The process of improvement is challenging and unclear at times, but it also offers opportunity for risk taking and examination of philosophy and strategies. For school leaders the school improvement process is a complicated one. While the vision of a good school with active, motivated learners, enthusiastic, knowledgeable teachers, and supportive, involved parents and community members is relatively clear, there is little clarity about how to achieve the vision. No "how to" instructions are included. Help with this improvement process came to Lincoln in spring 1998, through the publication of the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Core Practice Benchmarks and an opportunity to participate in school review. Our school has been involved in the design since its beginning and is immersed in the principles and philosophy of Expeditionary Learning. Still, the core practices led us to examine more fully how we have developed strategies that form the basis of quality education in an Expeditionary Learning school and set goals for future improvement. Working with the benchmarks was our first step in appraising ourselves as teachers and in preparing for the external peer review that framed our particular school review. To begin, I asked the teachers to review the Core Practice Benchmarks. Next, during a regular morning staff meeting, I gave each teacher a two-part rating scale with simple instructions: "Read each core practice and the accompanying descriptions of the three phases of the practice, and decide which phase most closely reflects your current practice in the classroom." Teachers checked the corresponding column on the form. In the second part of the same scale, teachers decided on the importance of the specific practice based on a scale of 1 (less) to 3 (more) again based on individual teacher perception of what would be most helpful in the classroom. As teachers hesitatingly began to mark rating scales, I noticed some discomfort, "Would a phase 1 rating be an indication of a personal weakness? Should all core practices be rated 3 in importance?" I assured the staff that the goal of this process was to establish school wide improvement targets, and teachers settled in and gave their best effort. After the teachers finished the forms, the leadership team tallied, averaged, and graphed the ratings. We made graphs of the composite of the whole schoolis response and of individual teamsi responses. The graphs gave us a concrete picture of the gaps between our own evaluation of our practice and our desired performance. This data became part of the documentation provided for external reviewers. The leadership team agreed that the graphed data would be a valuable tool to make decisions about improvement for Lincoln. Group discussion narrowed the school focus to three areas needing improvement: critique, quality work, and evidence of design principles. We selected three areas where we considered ourselves closest to the phase three descriptors: multiyear connections, parent involvement, and engagement and motivation of students. These areas became targets for our internal and upcoming external peer review and eventually all of the targets became strong areas in Lincolnis school improvement plan for the next school year. Additionally, we wrote several critical questions for our reviewers based on these areas of focus:
Once the leadership team set the target areas, preparation for external review began. We checked student portfolios, administered and tallied staff development surveys, collected and bound teacher and student reflections, and gathered expedition notes. We updated the school profile, prepared notebooks for the review team, and contacted parents for interview by the team. The school site council prepared an agenda that included classroom visits, student interviews, portfolio presentations, and a parent roundtable. We kept the visiting review team of local educators, business partners, and Expeditionary Learning staff very busy. After a brief session of introduction by the site council, the review team spent the next two days observing in classrooms, shadowing students, interviewing parents and teachers, reviewing student work, and collaborating with each other. Our mutual goal was to gain specific feedback on the areas selected for review. At the end of the two-day visit, the review team made an exit presentation before he entire staff. They gave specific feedback about the target areas we had identified as areas of strength or weakness. A written report of the oral review was provided within a few weeks. Reflection on the preparation for review, hosting a review team, and receiving feedback has led me to understand the power of group evaluation in establishing stronger community and clearer vision. I can think of no other experience in my 25 years as an educator that created sharper focus for a school community. It provided an opportunity to celebrate the areas where the school is an exemplar for specific practices that are essential to Expeditionary Learning. The review process also allowed us to take the time necessary to look more closely at areas where practices are not universally in place or understood deeply. Use of the school review process with internal and external components provides some of the best "how to" instruction for school improvement. Try it! Deb Otto is principal of Lincoln
School in Dubuque, Iowa.
Getting
Better by Self Appraisal
Aguilera: When we returned from the leadership conference in Cincinnati last year, we met with the staff to think about where we wanted to be and what we wanted the school to look like. From there we introduced the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Core Practice Benchmarks and began the process of deciding which particular core practices we were going to focus on. We eventually focused on planning, teaching, and improving learning expeditions, engaging and motivating students, assessment, critique and revision, and the culture of community and collaboration. Pesina: Once we chose the four core practices, we then began the collection of evidence. Some of the data collection tools we used were activity sheets that gave us a lesson plan for the day and a lesson plan of the activity. We also looked at staff attendance, meeting minutes, and agendas. We did a teacher questionnaire for feedback on Expeditionary Learning and on the process of writing expeditions. We looked at student point sheets [student contracts to monitor expeditions, behavior, and attendance], incident reports, assault reports, and medical reports. We did classroom observations, and looked at student work and rubrics. So basically, we collected data on what makes Alamo Achievement Center unique, and we analyzed the data looking for patterns, trends, and implications. Aguilera: Raquel Beechner, the school designer at that point, was really instrumental in keeping people focused and on task, and as well as recording the data. She met with teams of teachers, during their common planning times when they focused on a particular expedition. It turned out that a lot of the work she did individually with each of the pods was a process that brought teachers along. What are some things that you learned about student learning, or about the learning community itself? Aguilera: Sometimes teachers question whether the students can or cannot produce quality work because teachers are looking at test scores and prior history. This brought into focus for the entire faculty that with really quality instruction, focusing on the learning modality of individual students, they can do quality work. And so it created a sense of pride, and it really raised the standard for the kind of work that the students could produce. I think that was significant. Pesina: One of the things that struck me was that we started to find trends and patterns. For example, we could pinpoint where a lot of our absences were, which is one of the things that we had never done before. We had concentrated on looking at the school as a whole. Now we started to pinpoint that 25 percent of our students really werenit getting what they needed, and were very unsuccessful. Seventy-five percent of our students were showing some success. We decided that we needed to do something for those 25 percent of our students. We started to devise an action plan for this school year. We felt we needed to start off with an orientation program, which gave the students a clean, healthy start. Basically, we introduced activities that dealt with reflection, making projections, and making predictions on what they wanted to achieve this school year. And we did that through the use of initiatives, art activities, and also group work. We built teams and from those teams we had students collect artifacts from their orientation expedition that they felt would help them throughout the year. They placed those into a portfolio. We had a committee review portfolios, along with each studentis progression on the behavior management system. The team got together and decided whether or not the student met the standard for promotion, and then we would go on from there. The second thing we worked on was the behavior management system, which we felt needed to be more reflective of Expeditionary Learning and embedded in the design principles. Students are now expected to show evidence of learning, rather than just learning points on a level system. So itis a combination of things, and it provides for some standards, and it also provides for some checks and balances within our system. Aguilera: Essentially the biggest change has been that the focus is not just on how students are behaving while theyire here, but what they are learning as well. How is the school review helpful in assisting you to write a plan about what youire going to do the next year? I also know that youive been working on redesign, so how is it helping you to redesign the school? Pesina: The school review became our needs assessment for our campus improvement plan. We just added state requirements like dropout rate and attendance, which we had not stressed in the school review. From there we started to look at data in a different light. Before all the students were labeled special education students. But we really didnit know who they were, and now we look at environmental, medical, psychological factors as well as noncompliance issues, such as gang involvement. We know now that 79 percent of our students come from one-parent families. We know that 90 percent of them are economically disadvantaged. We are now focused, rather than on only behavior management, on providing academics to our students, many of whom have never had that experience before. Aguilera: We use the data collection
and analysis to form the basis for our decisions in terms of programming
and the allocation of resources and staff time. Our school is included
in the district high school redesign. The redesign is high school
reform, and there are certain parameters to make high schools small,
caring, learning environments. We found that a lot of those parameters
are naturally aligned with the design principles of Expeditionary
Learning. So, that the school review, campus improvement plan and
redesign process all tie in together.
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