Since the Instructional Partners Network online space launched in fall 2011 (with two dozen users) we’ve grown into a robust virtual community where nearly 400 school-based IPs, coaches and other professional learning specialists share and learn together.
Inside “The Ning” (as most of us call our private forum) participants can reflect (24/7) on what worked and what needs improvement; ask for help and ideas; and generally explore the best ways to promote teacher growth with colleagues doing the same work. This summer, we’re sharing several IPN Ning posts from the 2014-15 school year.
by Jamie Roby
For the majority of the school year at Tarrant Elementary we have been discussing learning targets and more specifically how to use them in the classroom to empower our students to own their own learning.
We have had professional development on how to write appropriate learning targets, making sure they are in student friendly language and owned by the students and not just the teachers. Having the students own the targets is a work in progress. Here are some ways we do this:
► Teachers talk explicitly about the target. The target is not just posted but it is referred to throughout the lesson.
► The target is written in student friendly language that is easy for the students to understand.
► Formative assessment helps students understand what they are supposed to be learning, where the students are currently, and what needs to be done to reach the target.
► Teachers have discussions with students about the targets and the relationship between the targets, student learning and achievement, and the need to become college and career ready.
Sample target: Compare and contrast
In early April, I was in a second grade classroom and the teacher, Mrs. Pigman, was incorporating throughout her lesson all the things we had learned about targets during professional development.
The students’ learning target for that day was: I can compare and contrast two versions of the same story. The teacher used a pair of picture books that presented the Three Little Pigs story from two very different perspectives…the pigs and the Wolf! I asked her later if I could video her and share with the faculty.
To make our video, Mrs. Pigman actually went into another second grade class and taught the same lesson with a different group of students, expanding her own expertise even further in our school. This can often be challenging when you don’t know another class of students as well as your own, but she made it happen!
I used an iPad to record the lesson as this helped me to be able to move around the room easily. After I recorded the lesson I downloaded it to my computer into iMovie. Once in iMovie I was able to put all the clips together to create the video you see here.
Sharing the professional learning
As we shared this video with other teachers, it served as a springboard for opening up dialogue about using learning targets with students as part of the instructional process. Teachers were open and reflective about the lesson and wanted to know more.
Over the next few weeks, in multiple classrooms, I saw more learning targets being posted and discussed throughout the lesson. When I mentioned the change, teachers told me that seeing the practice put into action with our own students helped them realize that, yes, this shift toward more ownership of learning can be accomplished with our children in our school.
Sometimes we just need to see a new concept in action and then we’re willing to take a risk.
I have also had teachers approach me about videotaping their lessons to share as examples or just to use as a personal reflective tool. We are now discussing how this might be accomplished on a regular basis and stored so that the teachers in our school have a video library to access when they want to see example lessons.
Jamie Roby is the instructional partner at Tarrant Elementary in Birmingham’s Tarrant City Schools district. A 12-year veteran, she taught third grade for six years and has since served as a reading coach and instructional partner. She has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood/Elementary Education from the University of Montevallo and a Master’s in Education Technology from Lesley University
