Sturgeon Public School Division – Four Winds Public School Professional Learning

Working Documents – April 12, 2019

Learning Intentions Collaboratively establish principles, processes, protocols and norms for

designing learning experiences that foster optimum learning for all students in Four Winds Middle School

Build collective efficacy through collaboratively designing worthwhile tasks and assessments to establish the conditions for optimum learning of all students.

Establish assessment practices that build student agency and strengthen students’ sense of self-efficacy.

Explore “What Matters” - Learning for Deep Understanding Insights from the learning sciences strongly suggests that becoming more proficient in a domain is not simply a matter of acquiring knowledge. Rather, learning in a content area involves a process of engaging in disciplinary practices that require learners to use knowledge in the context of discipline-specific activities and tasks.

~ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018) How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Mathematics The components that constitute proficiency in mathematics were articulated in the National Academies report Adding It Up (2001b, p. 107). The five strands of mathematical proficiency are:

1. Conceptual understanding, which refers to the student’s comprehension of mathematical concepts, operations, and relations

2. Procedural fluency, or the student’s skill in carrying out mathematical procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately

3. Strategic competence, the student’s ability to formulate, represent, and solve mathematical problems

4. Adaptive reasoning, the capacity for logical thought and for reflection on, explanation of, and justification of mathematical arguments

5. Productive disposition, which includes the student’s habitual inclination to see mathematics as a sensible, useful, and worthwhile subject to be learned, coupled with a belief in the value of diligent work and in one’s own efficacy as a doer of mathematics.

These five strands are interwoven and interdependent in the development of proficiency in mathematics. This means that instruction in mathematics needs to address all five strands. Traditional instruction in mathematics, however, has typically focused on procedural fluency (National Research Council, 2001b). In order to develop mathematical proficiency as described above, significant

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instructional time needs to be devoted to developing concepts and strategies, engaging in discussions, and practicing with feedback. Discussions in the classroom need to build on students’ thinking, and attend to relationships between problems and solutions and to the nature of justification and mathematical argument.

Science Similarly, a report from the National Research Council on learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade (National Research Council, 2007) described four strands of scientific proficiency.

1. Know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world 2. Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations3. Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge4. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse

The four strands work together in the process of learning such that advances in one strand support and advance those in another. The strands are not independent or separable in the practice of science or in the teaching and learning of science.

In contrast to these four strands, traditional views of science learning focused on individual learners’ mastery of factual knowledge. As a result, lecture, reading, and carrying out pre-planned laboratory exercises to confirm already established findings were common instructional strategies. Contemporary views of science learning and teaching instead emphasize engaging students in the practices of a science framework including asking questions, developing and using models, carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, and engaging in argumentation.

This kind of approach is reflected in the “Guided Inquiry Supporting Multiple Literacies” model, which engages early elementary school students in scientific inquiry and the use of scientific practices. In a classroom-based study, the researchers designed a scientist’s notebook that was used to introduce children to the ways in which a scientist formulates research activities that could answer questions about a real-world phenomenon, models the phenomenon, systematically gathers and interprets data, tests his ideas with scientific colleagues, and revises claims based on challenges from peers and new data. They found that second-grade students taught with this approach improved their ability to use data as evidence, to interpret multiple representations, and to model scientific phenomena (e.g., the relationship between mass and momentum).

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HistoryKey Features of the Discipline

Implications for Student Tasks/Activities

Implications for Teaching & Assessment

An interpretation based on evidence that makes an argument about another place and time

Evidence-based

Requires reasoned thinking and discourse

Debatable – all historical ideas and interpretations are contested

Perspective matters

Very specific processes and procedures that historians employ to investigate, analyze and interpret historical evidence.

Use discipline specific concepts as a lens to construct narratives and arguments about the past.

Students experience history as a process of investigationUnderstand history as being actively constructed based on interpretations of artefacts from past events. Requires thinking and active engagement with ideas at the heart of the discipline.

Engage in authentic historical inquiry

Interpret different accounts of historical eventsStudents are supported in experiencing history as a process of investigation.

Students construct interpretations of historical events as they read primary and secondary texts, attending to the perspectives of the texts’ authors, the contexts in which the texts were generated, and the ways in which the texts corroborate, or fail to corroborate, one another.

Students engaged in such disciplinary practices as identifying and contextualizing primary sources, discussing and evaluating evidence, examining and developing historical claims and arguments, and writing narrative accounts of their work.

Designs inquiry tasks, increased opportunity for social interaction & debate, strategies to engage students in investigating history and building situational interest, Inviting students to apply historical ways of “knowing” and “doing” history and opportunities to reflect upon historical knowledge and reasoning. Designs activities that require students to investigate different perspectives about the pastProvides alternative sources from multiple perspectives for students to analyzeSupplements textbooks with detail-rich historical fictionUses refutational texts that confront assumptionsLooks for historical controversies and silenced viewpointsEncourages independent, evidenced-based interpretationsEnables students to reflect on each text independently and in connection with other textsAssesses learning based on students’ ability to reason causally, develop arguments and use evidence to support interpretations and claims.Assessments are based on students’ ability to demonstrate understanding of discipline concepts as well as such disciplinary practices as identifying and contextualizing primary sources, discussing and evaluating evidence, examining and developing historical claims and arguments, and composing narrative accounts of their work.

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Science Exemplar – Waste in Our World – Decomposition Inquiryhttps://galileo.org/teachersasdesigners/desiging-for-discipline-based-studies/

science/Contemporary views of science learning and teaching emphasize engaging students in the practices of a science framework including asking questions, developing and using models, carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, and engaging in argumentation and discourse (National Research Council). The following proficiencies have been identified as key elements of contemporary science learning and teaching:

1. Know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world 2. Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations3. Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge4. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse

Teaching Actions (design decisions, actions, comments

etc.)

Student Responses

Discussion Questions:1. What essential science ideas have these students come to understand?2. Which scientific practices, ways of working and thinking are being developed

through this inquiry?3. In what ways have students been actively engaged in the documentation of

their learning progress?

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4. Which of these teaching and learning practices could be adapted to fit your context?

Concept Mapping

Part 1: Explore your topic

Use the chart paper provided to engage in a concept mapping process to further explore your topic of study.

What matters about that idea and why should we care about it? What is the main or most salient idea within this area? What are the issues, questions, and ideas surrounding this topic? What are the unresolved questions and/or problems within this topic? Who are the experts who work in this field or area? Who are the audiences

for their work? What formats do they use to communicate ideas, information, findings etc.? Which processes and skills are required and developed by experts in this discipline or field?

Are there opportunities for student work to make a contribution to the field being studied? – issues, problems, field studies, experiments, communications etc.

Part 2: Identify the big ideas and fundamental concepts you want to emphasize and map it

Mapping Your Topic: How is your topic connected to other ideas in your discipline or field of

study? Working with your Program of Studies, identify and map critical

relationships, key ideas, processes and skills related to the topic

Establish Clear Learning Intentions:Establish clear learning intentions/goals related to important concepts, skills and processes you expect students to understand or master and record them on your map.

At the end of this study students will understand... Through this study students will gain greater proficiency in these

skills/processes....Identify where these concepts, skills and processes occur in the world beyond classrooms and schools. (i.e. journalists, historians, wildlife biologists, politicians, diplomats, musicians, photographers etc.)

Part 3: Peer Feedback To what extent does the conceptual understanding that the group

articulated represent a key understanding inherent in the discipline or field

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of study? To what extent are the identified skills and processes/procedures

representative of the ways of knowing and doing inherent in the discipline or field of study?

Are there skills/processes that need to be added or omitted?

Examples of Concept Maps to explore “Big Ideas” within a discipline and their relationship to skills and processes

Concept: Identity

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Concept: Multiplication

Concept: Proportion

Conceptual understanding - Proportion is a relationship between two equalities

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Statement of key skill/process: Learning to attend to two quantities simultaneously 

forming a multiplicative comparison of two quantities forming a composed unit  creating a family of equivalent ratios by iterating and partitioning or by

using multiplication and division 

Concept: Globalization

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Authentic Performance-based Tasks

A performance task presents a situation or problem that calls for learners to apply their learning in context. Performance tasks:

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Require the application of knowledge and skills rather than merely remembering information

Are more open-ended and typically don’t yield a single correct solution for resolving the issue/problem.

Are situated in novel and/or authentic contexts Provide evidence of understanding through the thoughtful application of

knowledge in context Are multi-faceted and complex and therefore enable the assessment of

several standards or outcomes at once Often require the integration of 2 or more subjects as well as other 21st C

skills and habits of mind. Are usually complex and is therefore assessed with rubrics and other

instruments that can measure proficiency in more than one dimension

Facets of Understanding

Demonstration of conceptual understanding enables students to:

1. explain, interpret, and defend what they know, not just present what others have said.

2. make and explore connections that are not immediately obvious3. argue a point of view while taking other perspectives into account4. create new ways to express ideas, insights, and feelings: working with what

they understand in new situations and/or novel contexts5. take action when their understanding of issues, problems, and ideas

demands something be done6. engage in complex thinking with experts/expertise beyond the school

– Clifford and Friesen (2001)

Generate Task Possibilities

Generate as many ideas as you can for authentic performances or tasks that have the potential to engage students in understanding the concepts and/or skills/processes outlined on your concept map.

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Record ideas on post-it notes (one task idea per post-it) and add them to your chart.

Gallery Walk with a Partner

Review the task ideas posted on the concept map of 2 colleagues Consider your colleague’s initial task ideas through the lenses of Performance

Based Tasks and the Facets of Understanding Identify potential gaps in terms of opportunities for students to demonstrate

their understanding of important concepts, skills and processes. Using the post-it notes provided, generate 2-3 ideas about authentic tasks that

students could undertake to demonstrate their understanding of concepts, skills or processes outlined and add them to the poster.

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Exemplars and Non-Exemplars – Establishing Success Criteria with Your Students

Task: compose and deliver a speech to motivate or inspire people to take action about an issue you really care about.

Contrast 2 different speechesExemplar – Professional Quality SpeechCharacteristics that make it exemplary

Non-Exemplar – Poor Quality SpeechCharacteristics that make it non-exemplary

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Designing Exemplars and Non-ExemplarsChoose one of the task possibilities that you think would be engaging for students (real work for a real audience and purpose or disciplined-based inquiry).

The Exemplar

Search for and find an authentic exemplar of this type of performance task (i.e. an inspiring speech delivered to a real audience for a specific purpose; or a music piece performed at a concert; or a film review posted by a film critic; or a debate between representatives of different political parties; or a field study of a local natural area or pond study to determine environmental impacts of human actions, or sequence of math, spoken word performance, professional storytellers, common errors in thinking within math, well-reasoned explanation/student response to a math problem, problems that deepen student understanding about a particular mathematical concept etc.)

List all of the characteristics of your exemplar that make it exceptional

The Non-Exemplar

Generate a second list identifying the opposite characteristics that would constitute a “non-exemplar” or completely unsatisfactory performance/product. Think about how you would create or find a non-exemplar to illustrate the contrast between a high-quality performance (the exemplar) and an unacceptable performance/product (the non-exemplar – what not to do). Consider a teacher generated example – very safe and fun!.

Discussion:1. How might you use this exemplar and non-exemplar with students to

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deepen their understanding of your expectations for high quality work?2. How might you use the exemplar and non-exemplar to surface assessment

criteria for sub-tasks or activities that may emerge from a study of this topic?

Applied Learning and Next Steps:

1. Touch base with colleagues and look at as many of the topics from your Program of Studies as you can to identify preliminary ideas about concepts, skills and processes that need to be emphasized. You may want to organize around particular grade teams or subjects for this activity.

2. Be sure to consult the resources that we’ve provided to help you identify the key ideas, processes and skills. Please submit into Google form we create. This will help to inform our work next day.

3. Next professional learning day – Focus on creating assessment rich learning environments as well as documenting and reporting on evidence of student learning (portfolios, peer and student self-assessment, strengthening student agency and self-efficacy).

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