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Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

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  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 ...
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Portfolio for Reflection

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In our student portfolio process, collecting and presenting artifact has taken priority. Traditionally, when present an artifact, they explain the artifact to an outside audience and how it connects to the unit outcomes. 
One day in class, we were doing an exploration in which they observed a Cartesian diver and hypothesizing how it worked. They recorded these observations and explanations to Flipgrid. Eventually in the unit we would discuss the reasons why things float and sink based on buoyant forces and weight. As we ended the unit, I had an idea based on the fact that students had recorded these ideas in Flipgrid and had access to them via my.flipgrid.com.
Many times students look at pretest and post test scores to reflect on growth. So, I had an idea to do something similar but without looking at scores. My idea involved going beyond a simple summary of the activity in the portfolio and an attempt for students to reflect on their past learning to see how their thinking had evolved.
Rather than having students explain how the Cartesian diver connected to the concepts addressed in the unit, I asked them to explain how their model of the diver has changed being sure to use terminology we had learned in the unit. 
I think there is power in students hearing their own explanations in the recent past. While this was the first time I did this, I think it has potential. But, I need to build in a better framework to guide learners to address how their thinking has changed to the original prompt.
  • What aspects of their original thinking were correct
  • What aspects of their thinking need to be changed
  • What questions do they still have
In Next Generation Science Standards, these phenomenon which students hypothesize about and investigate can be a great tool to elicit initial thoughts that force learners to draw on prior thinking. As students deepen their understanding it can be powerful to look at how their model has changed. Flipgrid is a tool with which this can be done. But again, I need to develop a better framework to include this as a part of the portfolio.
I can imagine a bunch of different ways to take this. Having students record their own ideas about the concepts at the beginning of a unit and revisit at the end. This could be for a unit, a term, or even a school year.
As I said, this is just something I decided to try out a few days ago. I’m excited to see where I can take it. Even more excited to see if people are already using Flipgrid for this purpose and how they are getting students to see how they have grown. As always, I would love to hear your ideas!
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