S5 E20 - If They Knew It, They Would Do It

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Chapters

• 1:15 Welcome and Introduction
• 2:04 The Fundamental Flaw in Our Thinking
• 4:01 Shifting Language to Focus on Outcomes
• 5:24 Five Steps to Change Our Approach
• 9:13 Teaching as a Long Game
• 12:46 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

Transcript

Jocelyn: 0:38

Hi there, welcome to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast recorded here in Tasmania, the home of the Palawa people. I'm Jocelyn, and today I'd like to talk with you about the language we use and the assumptions we make about student learning. Have you ever found yourself frustrated when you know that you've taught something, but students just can't remember or use certain content? Have you ever taught a unit of work that felt amazing and then three weeks later, the students couldn't remember what was in it? Have you ever planned a unit of work based on the fact that students already knew certain things, but when you began to teach, it was very clear that they didn't know those things? And we say to ourselves but they know this or they knew this, and I'm sorry to say that maybe they don't, because if they knew it, they'd do it. Have you ever found yourself saying phrases like we've already taught that or they've done that before or, my personal favourite, they covered that. Well, I know that I have and I still do it, and I think most of us have fallen into this trap at some point and perhaps still do it on a daily basis. But there's a fundamental flaw in this kind of thinking and this kind of language that I want to address today.

Jocelyn: 2:07

We often assume that because we've said something, students should remember it. We teach a concept once and twice and expect it to stick, but what we know from cognitive sciences is that students need many more repetitions than we think they do to embed new learning into long-term memory and develop schema. John Sweller, who has been called the architect of cognitive load theory, helps us remember that learning is a permanent change to long-term memory. That means it's not just about students being present in the classroom when teaching is happening. We need knowledge and skill to be transferred to long-term memory for actual learning to occur. And when we think about the different types of memory, declarative, procedural and conditional, we realise that our assumptions about learning are often misguided. We've been taught to teach in a way that makes the assumption that if we engage students in the procedural, if we have them do things, they will develop the declarative, or the knowledge themselves. Most of the time, this just doesn't work.

Jocelyn: 3:20

The language we use matters, and I would like to challenge everyone about this, including myself, because those phrases like we've done that or they've done that or we've taught that, all lead us down the path of assumption and, as my mother used to remind me, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. We need to shift that language to be focused on student outcomes. What do students know? Is the question we should be asking. And then hot on the heels of that question is how do we know? Some of the challenge in all of this is the pressure we feel to do all of the things in the curriculum. This propels us helter skelter through the school year just doing one thing after another. But we really do need to slow down and focus on going deeper. We need to do less and do it better.

Jocelyn: 4:17

Another way I've heard this expressed is to go a mile deep and an inch wide, instead of an inch deep and a mile wide. Give yourself permission to teach the students in front of you, rather than beating yourself up because you feel like you haven't covered every content descriptor every semester. These language habits are hard to break. So how can we do it? How can we shift our language and therefore our focus, to where it needs to be?

Jocelyn: 4:46

I've got five steps for you, and the first one is to notice and reframe. Whenever someone on your team or yourself uses phrases such as I've taught that or they've done that, we could pull them up really gently by saying whoa Nellie unless, of course, you have someone on your team named Nellie, then maybe choose a different name, but keep it fun, keep it light and keep it consistent. So, collectively, saying whoa Nellie and having a bit of a giggle makes it so that we're not being attacked, but we are pulling ourselves up on the language we use. The next part of this is to reframe with things like I have introduced, or we are practicing, or we are consolidating. These are all great alternatives to we have done, and when you're having planning meetings, you can say things like in previous years, students have written narrative text, but I'll base my instruction on how much of that has stuck. So I know how much has stuck, because. This is keeping the focus on where it needs to be, so that we know how best to support the students. So step two, then, is evaluate lesson and unit plans, and you can do this with this question in mind: have we organised instruction to make learning stick, or have we organised instruction to tick curriculum boxes?

Jocelyn: 6:18

Too often we structure our teaching to cover content rather than ensuring strong learning and, as we know, covering content doesn't necessarily lead to learning. We need to build in deliberate practice. We need to revisit concepts regularly and check for understanding frequently. The third step is to do this work collaboratively. Work collaboratively and collegially to address instances of box ticking in instruction. And leaders, help your team define what is expected and where wriggle room sits within the terms. Now, one of the simplest ways to address this to start with is just to leave an extra week, or maybe two, in every unit plan to be able to pause new learning and consolidate as needed. We don't want to wait just until the end of the unit and then say, oh, here are seven things we need to consolidate. We need to notice when things are and are not sticking and pause right then, right in that moment, to give the students the time and practice they need. Leaving this extra room just takes the pressure off. In our Spelling Success in Action program, every fifth week is recommended as a consolidation week, so give yourself the breathing room in other areas of the literacy block or across the curriculum.

Jocelyn: 7:45

Another part of working collaboratively is to help each other reframe learning intentions and success criteria to include strong verbs. Verbs that sit in the Australian curriculum and other curriculums, such as explore, know and understand, are wishy-washy. They make it extremely hard for us to confidently determine what the student learning outcomes are. Instead, use verbs like select, define, explain, calculate and classify. These strong verbs lead us down the path of really understanding where students are in their learning, rather than just having to guess.

Jocelyn: 8:35

Step four in this is to plan regular retrieval and consolidation. So we've heard a lot in recent years about daily review and retrieval practice. In fact, we have a whole research to the classroom series on it, so you can search research to the classroom daily review and retrieval and it will come up. Rather than just having students review content, though, make sure they are actively recalling it. This is the power of consolidation. They also have to use it. So it's not enough just to have consolidation opportunities that result in a one or two word answer. They need to also have opportunities for elaborative retrieval and rehearsal, where they have to put what they are learning to work and think about it a little more deeply.

Jocelyn: 9:24

Step five collect evidence of learning, and this ties directly back to that reframing of the learning intentions and success criteria. We have to move beyond assumptions by collecting evidence of learning, and it doesn't have to be super formal summative assessment, exit tickets, observing students as they work and recording what they've done, or having them record their own understanding of a concept using an iPad are great ways to capture where student learning is sitting right in this moment. When we have the evidence, when we plan to have the evidence right from the start of our unit planning, it is so much easier to stay out of the trap of we've done that and help us down the road of making informed decisions based on what students have actually learned rather than what we included in the unit plan. The big question here is what does it mean to teach? Is it that we've conducted lessons? Is it that we've covered content, or is it that students have learned and have learned it for the long term? If they haven't learned it, we haven't taught it. And how do we get them to the learning? Well, fundamentally through the explicit teaching model and remembering that explicit teaching is the whole model, all the way through independent practice and retrieval and rehearsal. It's not just the part where the teacher presents information and provides that quick follow-up task.

Jocelyn: 11:06

Teaching and learning have to be viewed as a long game. There are no quick pathways here. So I encourage you to be mindful of the language you use, the assumptions you make and the evidence you collect. Give yourself and your students permission to go deeper rather than wider, and create space in your planning for consolidation and mastery. And when next you hear someone saying we are doing the solar system or they've covered narrative, say in the lightest, most fun way possible, whoa, Nellie. And then help each other reframe your language to keep the focus on the students rather than the actions of the adults. You're all doing important work, and by focusing on what students actually know rather than what we've covered, we'll be able to make that work even more impactful. As is often said about many things, this work is a marathon, not a sprint, and sometimes slowing down is exactly what we need to do to help our students to succeed for the long term. Until next time, everyone, happy teaching, bye.