Students in today’s classrooms are bombarded with
assessments, standards and expectations for growth, but I wonder if they are
actually leaving the classroom as learners. Learners, who can access
information, think critically about what they read and hear, question sources,
wonder deeply, read for enjoyment and purpose, and pursue learning for its own sake.
It often makes me ask: “Are they truly leaving my classroom as learners?”
This question led me on a different path at the start of
the last school year. Traditionally, we begin with setting the stage for
learning and interacting in our classroom: what it means to treat each other
with respect, what things we are responsible for, when we share, how we access
materials, what it means to be safe in the classroom, getting to know you. Last
year, it occurred to me that all of these could be taught through the central
goal of ‘Being a Learner.’ We treat each other with respect and concern for
safety through our words and actions as learners, and in the process we were
reminded of how we too would like to be treated. We are responsible for our own materials and
focus in our work because as learners we need to have our materials at the
ready and respect ourselves by engaging with our work. We work smarter when we
know who we are, so we used learning style inventories and multiple
intelligence surveys to more deeply understand our strengths and limitations. ‘Be
a Learner’ became a mantra as students readily engaged with creating the culture
and community of our classroom, recognizing their own role and control in
making it a reality. Students would often step in to help a classmate to stop
talking during instruction or to question off-task behavior with a quiet
reminder of ‘Be a Learner.’ The mantra became our springboard for looking at
subjects that were new to us, and helped to define our work as scientists,
mathematicians, historians, readers, researchers and reporters.
Common Core State Standards and non-cognitive skills also
came into play as we began to focus on the Mathematical Practices, the
Capacities of English Language Arts and the Habits of Mind. These practices,
capacities and habits include concepts like perseverance, demonstrating
independence, remaining open to continuous learning, constructing viable
arguments, managing impulsivity and comprehending as well as critiquing. These
became weekly topics of focus to drive our learning, where we would define the
idea and process to understand it, connect with a quote and our personal experiences,
provide examples and set Learner Goals, as well as create an art piece or a
rubric to assess our work. We often looked for examples in our read aloud
books, analyzed characters for these concepts, and did self-assessments of our
individual and class progress towards meeting our Learner Goals.
Social-emotional skills came into focus as we
incorporated empathy and relationship building. Students began to write weekly
goals and affirmations to support their daily work, as well as reflect in
writing and through sharing with others how their goals and affirmations were
driving their learning. Connections were rich and words like metacognition,
growth mindset and interdependence quickly became part of our lexicon. Did
students struggle with these ideas? Of course! Sometimes you just want your
teacher to tell you where to find the answer, rather than to ask you open ended
questions to further your own independence. Did we face bumps in the road? Of
course! Routinely coming back to ‘Be a Learner’ helped us to refocus and
rededicate ourselves to our overarching goal.
During the last week of school, I had a student ask me a
question in relation to a math prompt, “How many weeks in a month and year?” This
led me to bring our whole class together for a conversation about ‘Being a
Learner’ for the summer. We talked about the fact that I would no longer be at
their side or available to guide them towards a resource, so how could they
continue to be learners outside our classroom walls? Students initially shared
their summer desires to play endless video games and watch TV. As I reminded
them of all the work we had done this year and wondered aloud about how they could ‘Be
a Learner,’ they began to share multiple creative ideas like researching how to
create a video game, building a fort or achieving a milestone at the pool. It
made me realize even more the importance of broadening our scope beyond the
measureable of test scores and standards, to the essential goals of building capacity
within our students to successfully “Be a Learner” in and out of the classroom.
Ann Ottmar
Former
4th grade teacher
P-5
Math TOSA
Cheney
Public Schools
aottmar@cheneysd.org
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