Teaching Student to DRIVE Their Learning
Pages 44-57
Take a moment to number the students you have in each column. Which column has the most students? What Best Practice would help the majority of those students move closer to Driving? Explain.
This week, we will continue with thoughts on moving students from Surface to Deep Learning (pages 34-39). Let’s discuss the challenges and the tools or resources we could use to overcome those challenges: 1-Post a high-impact teaching strategy you know your class needs, but you're struggling to implement effectively. Tell us about the specific challenges that are getting in your way; and 2-try to respond to others’ challenges with ideas, tools, or resources to help them.
The most challenging students I have this year need to progress from Passive Disengagement and Engagement to Active Engagement. To do so, the Best Practices I want to focus on most are conferencing with students about their interpretation of data; identifying success criteria and inviting students to identify which of these will be difficult for them (and why); and, creating a climate of risk-taking and understanding that learning occurs across a continuum. I want to try more deliberate one-on-one conferencing so students can understand their own learning paths and self-assess their current progress with my guidance. This will help them gain the confidence they need to embrace challenges in strategic thinking and build stamina.
ReplyDeleteLooking at my homeroom class breakdown, I have 0 students Disrupting, 4 Avoiding, 6 Withdrawing, a majority of 10 Participating, 6 Investing, and currently 0 in the Driving category. Since the bulk of my students are sitting right in the middle at "Participating," it tells me they are generally compliant, following instructions, and completing the assigned work, but they haven't quite taken ownership of the learning process. One way I could shift this group closer to the “Driving” stage would be to implement structured student-led goal setting combined with self-assessment routines. Right now, these students are great at waiting for my direction. By shifting the responsibility so they have to articulate what they want to achieve on an assignment and monitor their own progress, I can help them transition from passively complying to actively steering their learning.
ReplyDeleteI have found unless I have the correct activity my students tend to vacillate between withdrawing and participating. This year I have used Wayground more to shift my students into participation. I have found when I can present bite sized chunks of material followed by questions we can talk about, they tend to engage a little more fully. I have more students In participation with assignments and projects. I struggle to move students into investing and driving their learning. A few will invest and ask probing questions or are willing to go looking for answers and report back to the class. I have done a few activities using collaborative slides with questioning, putting students in groups, and letting them collaborate to find better responses. This activity can sometimes push some students into investing. There will always be a few who attempt to avoid altogether, even in the virtual setting. I would like to build out better blends of information gathering (notes) and questions that prompt discussion. I would also like to work on more collaborative work that can deepen engagement in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI have a total of 23 students in my homeroom. They are known as 8-1. If anyone knows 8-1, this group for the most part is smart, quiet, and completes all assignments. I do have 1 student that falls between avoiding/withdrawing. The remaining 22 are so quiet, I can't tell if they are invested or driven, because they won't talk - not even in the chat really! But they do care about their grades; so, I would label them as participating. One area that I would like to work on more with my students to move them to driven is "SEEK" feedback, rather than "RECEIVE" feedback. I do send immediate feedback from Curipod or Writable, but they know that the feedback is AI-driven and not me (personally), so I try to watch them in Go Guardian as they write to give them instant feedback from me. On the other hand, me providing feedback may not change a thing, but students "SEEKING" feedback are much more likely to accept and act upon it. The key to great feedback is: Was the feedback "Heard", "Understood", and "Actioned". l also want to integrate more use of Graphic Organizers (0.62), which there is an array of them, but this serves as one tool that will allow the students to drive their learning by recording their ideas into story maps, Venn diagrams, and Frayer models (I use for voc. journals) etc. This does introduce the students to a range of tools, provide opportunities for them to practice using these tools, structuring learning tasks for students to decide which GO they want to use, and having student provide feedback that reflects on the effectiveness of the strategy that they choose. Me hearing their feedback can help or "Drive" me in improving instruction!
ReplyDeleteLooking at students in my homeroom class, I have found that there are two columns that have the most students - Withdrawing and Participating. While most students are in the Participating column, there is a fine line between it and Withdrawing. Students may be focused, paying attention, and doing work in one class or on one day, but then by the next class or by the next day, they can be distracted, focused on another assignment or reading, or sleeping. The Best Practice that would help the majority of these students move closer to Driving is having my students understand the goals I have for them and let them set some goals for themselves to help them invest in their learning, and then allowing them to have opportunities to self-monitor and evaluate how they are doing in reaching their goals.
ReplyDeleteI discovered that most of my students,eleven, fall under the Investing column. I have one student (SPED) that I feel falls under Withdrawing, four students that I feel fall under Participating and then three who fall under the category Driving. I think the Best Practice that would help my students move closer to driving is “Learners Know their Current Level of Understanding”. Currently, I do not spend a lot of time conferencing individually with students and setting learning goals with them. I believe that if I incorporate more mini conferences I can help the students better understand where they are currently in their learning process and what steps they need to take to go further.
ReplyDeleteLooking at my homeroom students (5th grade), my breakdown is as follows:
ReplyDeleteDisrupting - 0
Avoiding - 5
Withdrawing - 3
Participating - 5
Investing - 6
Driving - 5
As I was going through each student, I don’t feel that any of them are always in one category. Honestly, I’m not either. The column typically describing the highest number of students is Investing. To help the majority of these students move closer to Driving, a best practice would be to implement student choice and leadership opportunities in their learning. Based on the survey we took several weeks ago, many students expressed a desire for more student choice and leadership opportunities or student-student interactions.
My students who fell in the avoiding or withdrawing categories may benefit from an individualized checklist. Granted, they do have one already with daily assignments, so I may need to just intentionally direct them to look at it or break down one assignment into smaller chunks for them. Maybe emphasizing Dojo rewards could be a good incentive for them as well.
After taking a look at my caseload, I would say it is a tie between avoiding/withdrawing and investing/driving/participating. Some days these numbers flip and one category may have more than another. However, one thing I value from my students is that typically when given feedback they respond well and work to do their best in class. I think the best actions that can be implemented for this is providing choice in how students demonstrate success criteria. We work hard to implement all of the teacher actions that foster students' knowledge. This allows for students to not only have great relationships with other students but us as well. When students have good relationships with their peers and teachers, it makes them feel more motivated to do the work and be an active listener in class.
ReplyDeleteI have 19 students and this is the breakdown I have:
ReplyDeleteDisrupting - 1
Avoiding - 1
Withdrawing - 1
Participating - 6
Investing - 4
Driving - 6
While my students naturally ebb and flow between different levels of engagement and focus, I believe this snapshot represents the current vibe of my classroom fairly well. We have moved toward a culture where peer influence is a driving force—not for distraction, but for productivity. Because the students are genuinely excited to complete their weekly checklists, they have begun to create a positive 'domino effect' where one student's momentum fuels another's.
DeleteI have intentionally made a 'big deal' out of student initiative. By celebrating the moments they take charge of their own goals, I’ve shifted the narrative from 'doing work for the teacher' to 'pursuing personal growth.' This shift is most evident in their growing accountability; they are starting to view their grades and assignment completion as a direct reflection of their effort rather than an arbitrary number I assign to them.
Ultimately, I feel that my positive relationships with my students serve as the safety net for this independence. Because they feel seen and supported, they are more willing to take risks, own their mistakes, and push through the 'ebb' periods to get back to the 'flow.' This mutual trust is what allows me to step back into a facilitation role while they take the lead in their own learning journey.
In my classroom, the majority of students fall somewhere between withdrawing and participating, depending on the day. Some students appear disengaged and apathetic, while others comply with directions and generally seem interested in their learning. This is very frustrating when what any teacher wants is to have all students engaged and driven in their learning. The best practices would be by increasing student ownership through strategies like self-reported grades and clear "how do I know I have succeeded with this standard?" criteria. If I can find a way and time to have my students predict their performance, monitor their progress, and reflect on their growth, I would think they would begin to see themselves as active participants in their learning. Along with clear learning intentions(why do I need to know this?)and exemplars of success, it will help students understand not just what they are doing, but why it matters and how to improve. Ultimately, these practices will move students from withdrawing or merely participating toward investing and driving their own learning.
ReplyDelete