In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
This post is part 2 of my constellation construction. Read part 1 here.
Once I had a vision for my classroom, or the why for my classroom, the next step was to consider what it would look like in the classroom. The Institute calls these “learner look fors”. I have a vision, but what evidence would I look for from a the perspective of an outside observer.
- Students propose and engage in different forms of learning- modes, methods- based on their needs
- Students' interests and strengths drive their connection to the content
- Feedback drives next steps of learning and conferring is happening face to face and digitally
The vision and look fors are things we are working towards. The next part of the “what” is what elements would be considered key parts achieving that vision in my classroom.
After determining the “look fors”the next step is to find elements that align with the look fors. The honeycomb has many elements that are considered part of a learner centered ecosystem. With nearly 40 identified elements in 4 different focal spheres, no classroom model can intentionally focus on all. So as a part of the process, I was asked to focus on the essential elements to my vision from the different levels. Those levels are:
- Students propose and engage in different forms of learning- modes, methods- based on their needs
- Students' interests and strengths drive their connection to the content
- Feedback drives next steps of learning and conferring is happening face to face and digitally
Before choosing the elements, one really needs to understand what they entail. From the Interactive Honeycomb one can get more information on what an element entails, including resources for implementation. A key to this step is thinking intentionally and not overextending the vision.
After elements were chosen, I was asked to think about how they connected in my mind to build a physical representation, a constellation of elements. I'll address how they are connected in the next post.
Before thinking about how an element will be implemented, the teacher really needs to understand what each element entails. Once identifying the elements, the teacher needs to understand what the element entails. I was asked to reflect on my current level of understanding of each element. This is where the resources from the Institute come into play. For each element they have rich pages that address why the element is important, what the element entails, and resources that address how educators can implement practices related to the element.
This is really important to understand. Before you can design how to implement a practice, you need to know what it is. It's not enough to choose elements to implement, educators need to know what the practices entail before looking at how to implement.
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