TTT 07.08.2020 Working Toward a Collaborative Course in Uncertain Times
Author: Teachers Teaching Teachers
https://youtu.be/wg4qvSFCMCk
We invite you to join a group of teachers exploring collaborative curriculum building.
Join the conversation at https://teachersteachingteachers.org tonight, Wednesday, July 8th at 9E/8C/7M/6P.
What if a group of teachers organized their curriculum for this fall together? What if they were to build courses that had the flexibility of being used in socially distanced classrooms and by youth from their homes when needed?
We can do this.
A group of teachers is meeting tonight, Wednesday, July 8th at 9E/8C/7M/6P to give skeptical feedback (as critical friends) to this course: "ELA 9-10 - Youth Voices" https://www.youthvoices.live/ela9-10/ that takes advantage of four platforms: Gmail & Docs | LRNG.org | NowComment.com | YouthVoices.live
We are treating "ELA 9-10 - Youth Voices" as a draft or a prototype, a beginning with lots of specifics for our planning.
We want to get real about a collaborative course that we might teach together in our different schools and locations.
We will make revisions to the current plan that might make it possible for teachers in diverse situations to adopt and adapt it.
There are a lot of details that will or will not work for individual teachers, depending on who and where they are teaching. We will work to make clear to each other what would and wouldn't work for our students this fall.
Perhaps the frame of this course isn't clear enough or perhaps it is too limiting or doesn't fit each of our ways of working with youth or with the present uncertainties.
OR perhaps we can revise this draft together to meet many of the needs of our colleagues in the Youth Voices/NowComment/LRNG community.
Join us if you can, Wednesday evening, July 8th at 9E/8C/7M/6P. We'll leave the link to join the Zoom conversation at https://teachersteachingteachers.org.
21:04:16
From Reed (He / Him) : my connection may be acting up
21:12:58
From Joe Dillon : Eating and listening!
21:24:21
From Anna Maine : In summer school we're talking a lot about asynchronous and synchronous learning. I think my biggest question about playlists is how they would logistically work.
21:28:00
From Reed (He / Him) : Good point Anna
21:29:31
From Reed (He / Him) : the tighter the playlist the better it is to navigate Asynchronously and Synchronously
21:30:52
From emilywilkinson : Synchronicity is definitely something that’s been on my mind, too. Would this be something addressed in the “remixing” that individual teachers/programs would do with playlists?
21:30:59
From Kiran Chaudhuri : Teacher as coach.
21:31:54
From Christopher Sloan : @Anna I’m thinking playlists are a way to have curriculum cued up whether we’re synchronous/asynchronous, face-to-face or completely online. And whether we’re asynchronous or synchronous could happen at a moment’s notice. And Sam’s right - the tighter the better
21:36:26
From Jeff Dierking : @anna Yeah, I've been saying a lot that synchronous time needs some clear sense of its best uses. For me it's a waste to use it for direct instruction. Playlist structure is a great sense of that - the direct instruction can be delivered asynchronously and we come together to answer questions and conference and get guidance (if needed). I want teachers to think in playlist language.
21:39:57
From Anna Maine : I also have a question about the gaps students might develop if they're given soooo much choice. When students are turning in different "materials", even if they're focused on the same skill, my main concern would be identifying gaps in student knowledge or skills
21:40:17
From Christina Cantrill : @Anna @Chris - Jeff does a nice job here talking through why playlists, badges, etc are useful tools for designing learning: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/165zLtmSI4Faso2XWyMAgtDvpzfpODobB0CgCScCyWfc/edit?ts=5ee06df7#slide=id.p
21:40:18
From Anna Maine : also, thanks for all the clarifications everybody!
21:43:38
From Reed (He / Him) : anna good point less is move
21:50:07
From Reed (He / Him) : Chris was this COvid or pre Covid
21:50:18
From Reed (He / Him) : Hybrid
21:50:19
From Christopher Sloan : Covid
21:52:25
From Christina Cantrill : This proposed approach to schools opening struck me as interesting - https://twitter.com/Jess5th/status/1280148007623802880
21:58:23
From Reed (He / Him) : Christina, PVA in the district kind of does this
21:58:34
From Reed (He / Him) : for their middle school kids
21:58:37
From Christina Cantrill : PVA?
21:58:40
From Kiran Chaudhuri : PVA?
21:59:19
From Reed (He / Him) : Philadelphia Virtual Academy - the district virtual school
21:59:28
From Christina Cantrill : Oh. Interesting.
22:01:04
From Reed (He / Him) : maybe not exactly.. but close
22:01:24
From Reed (He / Him) : and I was asking my principal what best practice we can learn from them
22:03:23
From emilywilkinson : Question: What advice might you all give a teacher who’d like to create a curriculum that’s centered around essential questions?
22:03:32
From Christina Cantrill : The idea of a building as a community space and then the learning happening online is interesting to me in this moment and in those old buildings. Keeping the overall population low in the buildings themselves.
22:05:15
From Joe Dillon : @Christina- agreed. I think there’s a lot that this plan takes into consideration that schools don’t want to take into consideration until teachers, youth and the health system force them to consider.
22:05:27
From Christopher Sloan : @emily. It’s an inquiry-driven approach. The questions become what they research. Teachers can teach argumentative writing or informational, which meets most ELS standards
22:05:40
From Christopher Sloan : ELA standards
22:06:24
From emilywilkinson : Also, silly question: Could there be a page/template for each teacher/school where playlists could be put together (in the vein of project) to form a curriculum?
22:07:54
From Joe Dillon : @Janet - the position of influence is huge. Not just as a strong planner, user of digital tools but also b/c of our access to a network of folks and their designs.
22:08:37
From Reed (He / Him) : control
22:08:48
From emilywilkinson : @Christopher thanks! I appreciate the student-driven learning, but am not sure that all schools will want to give that “direction” up
22:08:52
From Jeff Dierking : The dream would be to have this sort of design become the standard - so that we're not on the outside but instead are the best practice. Pushing back is the only way to do that.
22:09:55
From Christopher Sloan : @emily That’s why I think if it’s packaged as a path to informational or argumentative writing, it’s easier to put into place
22:12:14
From Christina Cantrill : https://www.votebydesign.org/
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I agree that making clear the “why” is helpful to many – both the students doing the work and the other teachers/admins involved in giving the student course credit for this. And further in her comments – how do we make sure this is not perceived as “canned curriculum”?
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Having the language of “what are students accomplishing” is important to be there in order for teachers to be able to do the curriculum (like this one) that they believe in.
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How might a playlist have a way for an individual teacher to input the standards/outcomes/skills that are being demonstrated via this specific playlist?
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He makes a great point that teachers want to feel like they have had a part in creating “the recipe” for this “dish”.
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Anna makes a great point that teacher familiarity with this work and how to assess it (or how to rethink assessment?)is important. Teachers need to become familiar with this before they bring it to their students. This could be a distinction that makes this work rise above the others – it is not canned curriculum, but teacher-made curriculum.
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I would love for this to come from the individual teacher context – teachers write in the achievement this will demonstrate in the language of their course/school. Make this the teacher-facing aspect.
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His point makes me think that – seeing this as just the curriculum may be short-changing the work. Seeing what happens when youth do their own work, share it with others and then converse with others IS the bigger point which would be great to get people to understand as they adopt the curriculum.
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