S4 E33 BONUS: Coaching, Teaching, & Classroom Management Strategies Sparked From My Conversation with Julie Wright & James Goldberg (❤️Olivia Wahl)

Transform your classroom with real-world learning experiences that ignite student curiosity and foster deep learning. From one-on-one meetings to transferable skills, create a classroom community that students actually care about!

In this bonus episode, I unpack the powerful second mantra from The Limitless Classroom by Julie Wright and James Goldberg: "Kids deserve the why and the how, not just the what."

Learn practical strategies for creating meaningful learning experiences that connect to real-world applications, understand individual student needs through one-on-one meetings, and intentionally shift from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches. Perfect for educators looking to move beyond surface learning to help students develop deeper understanding and skills that last a lifetime.

00:00 - Introduction & Episode Overview
01:00 - The Second Mantra: Kids Deserve the Why & How, Not Just the What
02:00 - Planning Questions for Meaningful Learning Experiences
05:00 - Student Exhibitions of Learning: Process & Reflection
07:00 - Moving from Surface to Deep Learning
10:00 - The Power of One-on-One Student Meetings
13:00 - Final Thoughts & Conclusion

#EducationTransformation #DeepLearning #ClassroomCommunity #TeacherCoaching #StudentEngagement #MeaningfulLearning #OneOnOneMeetings #RealWorldLearning #TeachingStrategies #LimitlessClassroom #SimonSinek #WhyNotJustWhat #StudentCuriosity #EducationBeyondTheClassroom

Make sure to listen to my full interview with Julie and James (Season 4, Episode 33) before diving into this bonus content! 

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired, and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

New episodes are released every Monday, with a bonus solo episode on Fridays featuring research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better serve the children in your care.

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When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi there. I'm so glad you're here. Your time is precious, and because of that, I want to let you know right away what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this episode. My conversation with Julie Wright and James Goldberg focused on how we can create classroom communities where kids develop genuine curiosity that fuels deep, transferrable learning.

In this bonus episode, I highlight how to create truly engaging and meaningful learning experiences. And in order to do that, we must provide students with both the why and the how of learning, not just the what. You'll learn why effective teaching requires designing learning experiences that connect to real world applications and student interests.

How we as teachers can truly understand individual student needs through one-on-one meetings. And while moving students from surface to deep learning requires our intentional planning, that will gradually shift [00:01:00] responsibility from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches. Stay with me. I'm so happy to have you as a listener today.

This is Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the inspiration and support they need to thrive. I am Olivia Wahl, and this is a bonus episode.

It's an accompaniment to my conversation with Julie Wright and James Goldberg, season four, episode 33, and our conversation focused on their beautiful book, The Limitless Classroom Mantras to Deepen Learning. Throughout our conversation, Julie and James highlighted the three mantras within their book. Um, they spent a lot of time speaking to mantra one and mantra three.

I wanted to do a little bit of a deeper glimpse into mantra two for this bonus episode. Mantra [00:02:00] two. In their words, “kids deserve the why and the how, not just the what.” There's a quote on the top of page 36 that I think so beautifully captures the stress we feel, but also why working hard for something is worth it when we actually know the why, and it's a Simon Sinek quote: “Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress: working hard for something we love is called passion.”

And then below that quote, Julian James offer some questions for us to consider as a leader or coach. I would use these questions in when I'm in conversation with teachers. As a teacher, I would use these questions as a guide when I'm planning both long term and day-to-day.

Here are the questions. The first: “Do students have opportunities to engage in learning that mimics real world work products and experiences?”

So instead of a big test to that students [00:03:00] dread at the end of a unit, how are we creating projects and products that students can showcase their work and their learning by partnering with community members or other members of the school district?

Next question: “In your instructional design, do you create learning tasks that require students to showcase what they know? Why it is important to their learning, and is it responsive to their wants and needs?”

And so let's pause after that question because that's not a light lift. That's a lot to think about. It takes planning. It takes precision. Do not do this work alone. Meet with your colleagues, find your people, and take baby steps. You do not have to plan every unit of study at this level starting out. Choose one unit that you want to really hone and make sure you understand every nuance of the why and the how for your kids.

And then next time, maybe next semester, choose another unit - [00:04:00] during the summer, the following summer, choose two other units. Teachers are perfectionists often and want everything to be right; correct out of the gate. Just take it slowly and you'll reap the benefits. The next question: “Do you ask students questions that guide them to higher order thinking skills through your teaching, modeling, questioning, and assigning?”

I'd also pose a counter to that question. Do students ask teachers questions that guide them in higher order thinking skills? The questions the kids are asking, let us in on their level of understanding. Next question: “Do you create opportunities for students to wrestle with content that will matter to them now and (be) applicable in the years to come?”

A wonderful way to do this is to ensure that you're connecting texts from then to now, and so students can see the relevancy and that there are and enduring issues in history and [00:05:00] content that repeat over and over and over, and then together figure out the why. Why do these issues come up over and over and over?

Another question: “Do you develop instructional plans that include perfect pairings, materials, tasks, and experiences that go together to ensure students have multiple opportunities to make meaning, solve, experience, wrestle with ideas, challenge thinking, and come to conclusions?”

When we're thinking of these pairings, that could be text sets, it could be tasks that help kids go deeper and time to read text. And the last question: “Do you make time to meet with students individually? Do you prioritize one-on-one meetings?” 

And then on page 37, they go into naming the problem. They pose the question: “How often do we question the means through which we collect insights, quantitative or [00:06:00] qualitative, about what students learn?”

And they go on a bit later to say, “students are always taking cues from us about what matters. Our assessments say a lot to students about what we believe they're capable of and what we believe matters in education. What message do we want our assessments to send to learners?”

And then Julie and James have a spread that speaks to Student Exhibition of Learning. And the reason for the exhibition is so kids can have a chance to showcase what they know and can do with others. They have photographs of what it looks like in action, and then they offer some next steps. And what I appreciate about these next steps, they give you steps to take throughout the process, not just at the end, but then they also do offer end process reflection questions. 

Some of the mid-process reflection questions you could ask or students could ask of themselves [00:07:00] “What's going well? What's tricky, and or where are you stuck? Where are you headed with this work? What's next? What's the biggest, most important thing you want others to learn about what you're making, designing, creating, solving, showcase and sharing? Do you think you've accomplished that yet? What do you need next? What can I or someone else in our learning community do to help or support you?”

Again, I would use these as a teacher to ask children, so they have to let you know what's going on inside their brains. But even better, I would give those questions to my students, and so they're using them to self-regulate and ask themselves those questions. They could ask partners those questions as well.

And then here are some of the end process reflection questions Julie and James offer. “What are you the most proud of? What, if anything, would you change or do differently? What surprised you? [00:08:00] What are you wondering? What's your biggest aha or takeaway? How will you use this learning to impact or inform your future learning experiences?”

And so I've mentioned a few times that idea of moving from teacher-directed to student-directed learning, and I also think that parallels with moving from surface to deep learning. Another problem, Julie and James name is that, “often when we assign work, students follow through and produce exactly what we ask for.”

So they offer beautiful examples of surface, more teacher centered to deep, more learner centered learning. So if we want to help students move from surface to deep learning, we have to know what constitutes surface, more teacher-centered versus deep, more learner-centered. Surface skills could be “recall, reproducing, factual information, memorization, it's all about the [00:09:00] idea, content, knowledge or information surface feels immediate, it's short-term changes and it involves more teacher talk and doing.”

And in contrast, deep or more learner-centered learning, it involves “extending ideas, detecting patterns, applying knowledge and skills to new contexts in creative ways, integrating new facts, consolidation, long-term changes relating, extending or transferring surface learning and more student talk and doing.”

And Julie and James go on to say that “recall and other types of surface level learning are important starting points. Those skills create a foundation for deeper learning. However, a shift is needed to help students progress from simple to complex, moving from surface to deeper learning and transfer where ideas are [00:10:00] extended and new knowledge and skills are applied in new and creative ways.”

And lastly, I really want to emphasize something Julie said. She was speaking to choice boards or menus in our full episode, and at the very end of our conversation she highlighted that when students have choice, it forces teachers to give kids time to do the work. And if we are carving time for students to read, write, think, problem, solve, to be self-regulated and grow their stamina, then that gives us time as teachers to meet with students one-on-one. And Julie and James, highlight that “the one-on-one meeting is often the most glaringly missed opportunity in education. Sadly, students can go weeks, even months without one-to-one connections with teachers and even classmates.”

And they say, [00:11:00] “We get it. There's a lot of content to cover. Classroom rosters are filled with students' names, who in turn have lots of dynamic and diverse needs. There are days off school, shortened periods for special events and mandates that cannot be avoided or deferred.”

And then Julie and James, go on: “But when we neglect to include one-on-one meetings with students, we risk not really knowing them who they are, what they need, what they can give to others at all.”

A bit later they say, “Teachers are often looking for ways to differentiate their classrooms so that each student's needs are being met. But in order to do that well, we have to know students well, and that often goes beyond a quiz, a test, assignment, or classroom discussion.”

They ask us to think about ourselves as learners. What was more effective for us? “Was it sitting in the media center for hours in whole group lecture or brief meetings with a mentor to chat about our understanding, our goals? [00:12:00] And when we meet with students one-on-one, we can better assess what they understand, what gets them excited about learning, what's causing confusion.”

And this all ties back to moving beyond the what and to get at the heart of the how and the why. On page 58, they even offer reasons for meeting one-on-one: “You can celebrate learning, you can check for understanding, you can uncover or teach into misunderstandings. You may reflect on successes in areas of needing a lift, you may create next steps.”

They offer example conversation stems for insight or action. Some of these sound like: “Let's take a look at your work and celebrate your accomplishments, or show me________. What does this mean to you? Another, how did you solve this? Explain your thinking. What's going well? Where could you use some support?” 

And that idea of planning for the [00:13:00] future, that there's always a next step: “Where will you go next with this learning? What are your next steps?”

And at the end of the mantra two section of the book, they offer a final thought that I'll wrap with. Julie and James, say, “Providing the why and the how, not just the what gives students opportunities to own their learning. When we go beyond the what it positions students to understand why they're learning what they're learning, and also explore different ways to get there. Doing so gives students opportunities to showcase the what, how, and why through exhibitions of learning; gives them opportunities to make meaning; to connect one learning experience to another, to experience deep learning; to transfer their learning to future experiences and most importantly, be seen as an individual.”

I can't thank Julie and James enough for their work, their collaboration, [00:14:00] and their belief that all children can be successful as learners because they have amazing teachers that are doing this hard work. Thanks for tuning in today, and I cannot wait to see you next week. Take care. 

Schoolutions Coaching and teaching strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to solutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to. Never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. 

Now, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email @schoolutionspodcastgmail.com. Let me know what resonated most with you from this bonus episode, and also what you're curious about learning more.

Tune in every Monday for the best research, back coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. And stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guest [00:15:00] that week. See you then.