Primary Years Programme (PYP) - Judy Imamudeen

Together, We are Better: Communication That Creates Community with Our Families

By Judy Imamudeen | November 15, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

How do you see your parents? What words would you use to describe the families in your learning community?

Are they a nuisance? Are they demanding? Or are they helpful? Supportive?

Take a moment and think about the words you have used recently to talk about a family in your learning community. Were you complaining or complimenting? And, if you had to evaluate the language you use to talk about parents, in general, would you say you use mostly positive language or negative language?

In the Ubuntu tradition of South Africa, they have this expression: “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu / motho ke motho ka batho” which translates to “A person is a person through other people.” Or also said, “I am because you are”.

The expression …means that we are recreated anew in every encounter with another person, bringing to each other the unique gifts of our humanity. Those gifts include our differences, which are worth celebrating and preserving. You enrich my life with your unique difference….Ubuntu does not ask that we erase differences and become the same. It asks that we interpret others positively, recognizing that whatever our differences, our humanity is equal. It is an invitation to dialogue, to understanding, even without agreement, and with understanding comes compassion, tolerance, nobility, sharing.

From “Ubuntu: A Philosophy of Dialogue” by Zara Houshmand

When you consider these words, it makes you wonder how are you interpreting others around you? Needless to say, it’s important to reflect on our “normal” discourse about our families at our schools because we need to consider if we have compassionate perspectives or critical viewpoints of them. Moreover, we need to recognize that those points of view create a bias in how we interact with them.

In the book, Letters to a Young Teacher, Jonathan Kozol provides advice and insight into how we make judgments of parents:

It is even more important to reach out with special care to parents who may seem to have the least involvement, or least commitment to, the education of their children….it’s all too easy to for young teachers, even quite unconsciously, to write off the parents who are not cooperative at first, instead of trying to discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up to meetings that we schedule.

The parents that are most reliable, and the most cooperative…quickly win the loyalty of teachers because they are genuinely helpful. They also tend to share more of the social styles and the value systems of the teachers, so that teachers feel a natural rapport with them and find it easy to converse with them. In the case of the less cooperative parents, on the other hand, I’ve known teachers who throw up their hands and, out of sheer impatience or a feeling of futility, give up on any serious attempts to engage their interest and end up really knowing them.

I feel that he accurately describes the tendency we have to relate better to parents who seem similar to us, and, on the other hand, judge harshly the parents who seem disconnected. However, if we can recognize this bias and reflect upon it, I think it will help us to stay open to the ways in which we can “discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up to meetings that we schedule.” I wholeheartedly agree with his advice to pursue a relationship with those families who seem detached from their child’s life. Whether or not it’s written in our job description, all educators must make parents a priority if they are going to create transformative learning experiences for their students. We must engage with our families.

Finding a Sweet Spot

Although I hate to simplify complex relationships, you can think of parents on a continuum, in which there is a range of engagement practices from completely disinterested and uninvolved to over interested and obtrusive.

Parents and Trust2

As I consider why it is that some parents, whether they are busy or not, make the effort to engage with schools, I think it boils down to trust. Sometimes, we have those helicopter parents who hover around the school, who are often seen as meddling. Often times, they appear intrusive and seem to lack confidence in our ability to meet their child’s needs. They are one level of the extremes and on the other side are those parents who seem to care less about their child and school. We often wonder why they drop off their kids and seem apathetic about their child’s cognitive and social development? In some painful instances, their children seem like more of an inconvenience than a blessing.

Oh and in the middle? These are the “helpful” parents, the ones that are easy to love, in which trust is freely given by the parents to the teacher and reciprocated by the teacher regarding the parents’ efforts to develop their child as a learner.

But what about other those “difficult” parents? The ones on the extremes. Well, I think we all recognize that we can’t match disinterested parents with our own disregard, nor can we get stressed out over the parents who are trying to prepare their child for the SATs in 1st grade. However, we need to “turn to wonder” and become deeply curious about the causes of this apprehension, and not only have an open mind but also have an open-heart to the struggle and conditions that create an unwillingness to partner with teachers. Likewise, the same ingredients that develop trust and get parents to “move toward the middle” work for both sides of this continuum. And this comes down to communication. Although others have identified that there are 9 traits of trustworthy people, in particular, there are 3 main messages that must be communicated to demonstrate to families that you are deserving of their confidence and time:

Competence: Trust me, I know what I’m doing.
Integrity: Trust me, I keep my word and am acting in your best interest. I wouldn’t steer you wrong.
Kindness: Trust me, I like your child and want to help.

Of course, if teachers can connect and develop a rapport with parents, it is easy to communicate these messages. The question is how do we establish these opportunities? And who’s job is it to initiate the contact? Well, in short, it’s EVERYONE’S!

The Institutional Handshake

School-wide communication

These are the newsletters, Twitter feeds, and other channels of communication that go out to the whole school community. In general, these are passive forms of communication, in which there is a one-way flow of information with very little expectation for parents to respond. In my mind, these forms of communication are the bare minimum that a school needs to do to keep families in “the know”. However, the school leadership and administration must plan school events to create occasions to celebrate learning and inform families of the progress that is underway in the learning community.

The School Calendar of Events

Creating school events that make face-to-face communication possible is really important to create a vibrant and engaged community. Sports Day, an International Fair, and concerts/performances are such events that mix fun with learning. They are low commital events though for families, but are necessary for culture building and are important opportunities for families to have exposure to staff to engage in informal conversation. Conversations are the heart of any relationship, which is why academic conferences are also sprinkled around the school year so that more directed discussions can take place around student learning. I know some schools have Celebrations of Learning after every PYP unit. That’s a tremendous amount of energy put forth into a class presentation, but Student-Led conferences are also a great way to share learning which may be less work to pull off on a frequent basis.

Listening Campaigns

In Stephen Convey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit #5 is to seek first listen to understand to understand, then to be understood, in which the ability to listen with empathy is a key skill. When we genuinely listen to a person, it not only opens our eyes to their concerns but also validates them as a human being. This has the opportunity to build a lot of trust between the organization and the families they serve in the community. The possibility to generate an atmosphere of caring and positive problem-solving is high when schools engage in this level of communication.

Depending on the nature and size of an issue, schools can host “listening campaigns” in which they invite families and employees and students to give feedback about their experience of the system. There is an open invitation issued to participate in gathering and analyzing information.

So what is a listening campaign? In a nutshell, this is a research process, in which leaders strive to:

Examine a problem or issue in which school leadership would benefit from multiple perspectives, so as to identify and define a specific issue that needs to be addressed.
Explore possible solutions and find the necessary resources to implement the desired solution
Identify the decision-maker with the authority to resolve the issue
Gather “intelligence” on the dynamics that contribute to the problem.

More Up Close and Personal: The Classroom level

As a teacher, what words do you think parents might use to describe you? How do you make them feel?

I find it important to reflect on these questions because those answers depend on your level of communication. In general, parents are more satisfied with their child’s teacher when information about the learning is being conveyed. So what, when and where is this information being announced and shared?

Digital Communication

This is probably the most common form of communication–the emails, the SeeSaw posts, Google Classroom announcements, etc..

But how often do you communicate learning? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day?

One Harvard study shows that the frequency of communication really matters:

We find that frequent teacher-family communication immediately increased student engagement as measured by homework completion rates, on-task behavior, and class participation. On average, teacher-family communication increased the odds that students completed their homework by 40%, decreased instances in which teachers had to redirect students’ attention to the task at hand by 25%, and increased class participation rates by 15%.

When you consider this, how often you communicate really plays a significant role in your ability to create partnerships with parents. Moreover, the predictability and persistence of your communication matters.

What does that mean?

It means that you are sending out messages on a consistent basis such as a summary of the learning in a Friday email. Also, when you are sharing information or a request for support, do it with expectant gratitude. Here’s an example of a big ask (dedicating time to help your child research), followed by an affirming message of their support.

Dear Families,

We are embarking on our first research mission for our unit and need your help! During this project, students will be responsible to research the different points of view when it comes to screen time usage for their age group. I have provided some websites for them already, but I’d like them to find 2 more so that they explore at least 5 different perspectives. In this way, they are not only learning HOW to research but also getting into the habit of discerning the information on the sites. Naturally, this complex task needs guidance and so I am so grateful for your support of your child, helping them to be independent and confident researchers. Your encouragement and assistance will make all the difference to their success, so please contact me if you need help in supporting your child with their use of the research guide I provided. I know that when we are partners in their learning, your child achieves more.

As always, I am grateful for your support and care. If you have any questions or concerns, I am happy to help.

All the best,

Ms. Judy

What do you think- Would you, as a parent engage? Why or why not? Do you feel that you could contact me with questions? As an educator, never underestimate the power and precision of your message. What you communicate and how you communicate creates the culture of your classroom–even to parents! They are a part of your learning community! And YOU train your parents to be kind and helpful when you deliver messages in the same way–it’s those mirror neurons kicking in, so develop your “teacher voice” in your digital emails to be one that is courteous and encouraging.

The Face-to-Face

At the end of the day, I used to love running out with the kids to have an opportunity to chat with parents. I know you may be tired and have a long list of things to do, but a few minutes of chit-chat is worth its weight in gold. It’s a good time to be friendly, share an anecdote about a child’s day and ask questions.

“Oh my, Mia seemed so tired today. Is she sleeping well at night?”

“Paulo really made me laugh today. He told me that he knows all about the past since his mom comes from the past. Apparently, you are an expert!”

“Ollie mentioned that his grandma is in the hospital. Is everything okay?”

It’s these little conversations, more so than the formal parent meetings, which makes for the lasting glue in a relationship and the information you mine from these conversations–PRICELESS. And when you do have to conduct a formal parent meeting, families aren’t as nervous and defensive because whatever you are going to share with them comes from a place of genuine care for their child. They know that since you’ve been nothing but considerate and approachable from Day 1 of school.

There are a lot of really great teachers who squander the opportunity to meet and greet families on a regular basis. This frequently happens in the upper grades since you may not have to escort students out at the end of the day and so stay in your classrooms. But when you avoid parent contact, families don’t actually think you’re so hot. They find you aloof and often discredit your teaching approaches. You end up being a source of complaint in the WhatsApp or WeChat group, which sometimes ends up with an email to the principal. All it takes is a smile and a bit of banter to change the tides. The time spent is absolutely worth it.

“I am because you are”

In the PYP, we are social constructivist. We grow through each other. Keep parents in that equation. They matter. A LOT. They are a part of our learning community. Lean into the challenges of your parent groups and enlist them through positive and productive conversations. It is our collective positive effort that lifts everyone–all members. So, I hope I have inspired you to reflect and consider your communication style and its impact on student learning and relationship building. Please share any unique way that you or your school cultivates parent involvement. We all do better when we do it together.

Judy Imamudeen

Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.

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Bias, Prejudice, and Racism–Oh My! 2 Ways to Uncover Blind Spots in Curriculum

By Judy Imamudeen | November 3, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Every vertebrate on this planet has a blind spot. There is a break in our visual field when the optic nerves converge and exit the eye to connect into the brain. In that tiny area, there are no light-sensitive cells and thus our ability to perceive something is diminished. Would you like to test this?

Now wouldn’t it be so lovely if all of our blind spots were that obvious to demonstrate and discover?! However, most of us have biases and prejudice that are concealed and seemingly obscured by the busyness of our lives. We are rarely conscious of them unless someone who is wise to it and courageous enough to bring it to our attention. Although there are tests that can reveal our implicit bias, we have to take action on it if we are sincerely keen to be a better human being.

“Wait?–a better human being?! Why would I want to do that?”

Well, why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Did you know that when we are working at the highest levels of compassion, altruism, and kindness, our brain sends out signals that create shots of happy chemicals like serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine that bath our bodies (and mind) to generate well-being? So doing good is good for us. That’s why it feels so wonderful when we appeal to the better angels of our nature. Thus when we take action to overcome racism, poverty, and injustice, it’s not just for the benefit of others, but it also has a personal physical benefit for ourselves. And, what may become a selfish motivation becomes addictive over time, with a positive feedback loop created by these neurochemicals.

Oh and it should not just be us, the adults in the room, but we have to inspire the students in our class to do the same. If we are to do real justice to addressing societal issues then, first of all, we need to draw awareness to the “implicit” biases that serve to favor “white people” against Blacks and other people of color. Sustainable action can only be possible when we shine a light on understanding and overcoming those biases. When we become conscious, a pathway becomes possible to shift energy away from frustrating and hurtful debates over who is or isn’t “a racist”; I think all of us can agree that this name-calling isn’t helpful in directing our efforts toward the problems we are actually trying to solve by confronting racism.

We can no longer go about pretending we do not see race, since it is a construct deeply embedded into the social conscious of (American) society. We assign it to our children at birth. We check race boxes on our applications. We select it on our identifications. We include it in our educational text and use it to tell the story of our country. More important, we recognize that disparities in education, economics, criminal justice and health exist across racial lines. Therefore, pretending we don’t see race and that racism doesn’t exist is not only socially immature; it is also irresponsible and dangerous—it ends up placing blame for racial disparities on those being marginalized rather than tracing those disparities back to a long history of oppression based on color.

Rethinking Racism, by Focus Hope

The term of Culturally Responsive Teaching has started to get attention in educator circles. So what does it mean?

In a nutshell, it describes the ways in which schools and educators recognize, respond to, and celebrate the fundamental cultures within classrooms, as well as providing equity for students from all cultures to gain access to the curriculum. It is divided into three functional dimensions: the institutional dimension, the personal dimension, and the instructional dimension.

Even though there are distinctions between them, when you think about the curriculum, you can see how all of these dimensions are connected. So what makes up our curriculum?….. The units we teach, the books and resources we use, and the ways we develop the culture of learning in our classrooms. To that end, there are 2 main areas, in my opinion, in which culture is transmitted in our school and “blind-spots” begin to develop.

#1-Supporting “The White Man’s Burden” of Curriculum Topics

Most of us have probably not read the poem by Rudyard Kipling which encouraged the Western expansion of the colonial reach of its culture to other parts of the world. It was a “burden” that white people had to bear, to civilize other non-white people, whether they be in the far places of other parts of the world, or to indoctrinate native and immigrant people into their way of living. Of course, this sentiment was prevalent long before the poet’s plea for colonial imperialism, with its basis from the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries displacing the natives’ religion, proposing that the “white race” is morally obligated to rule the “non-white” peoples and to encourage their progress (economic, social, and cultural) through domination.

Well, many of us are not marching into neighborhoods and demanding that different cultures change and adapt a “white man’s” habits and perspectives, it’s hard to deny that there is definitely a prevalence of “whiteness” in our curriculum, whether we acknowledge it or not. We teach about the “Koren War” or “Vietnam War” when, in Korea and Vietnam, they call those wars the “American War”, which is much closer to the truth of who wanted to make the war in the first place. If we were to look at our educational standards, the depiction of history in either neutral or positive light of this “white man’s burden” perspective, instead of drawing to mind the misconceptions and malice actions that “white” people did; and furthermore, how they strained to find rationale for the atrocities they engaged in.

More often than we like to admit, very little attention is given to the history or culture of “minority groups”–the very fact that people call “non-white” people “minorities” is a hidden bias lurking in our language. Why are they called “minorities” to begin with? Is it due to population size? Well, that’s a myth that needs to be challenged because more minorities are the new majority. But in terms of which culture is favored and appreciated in our world, you’ll hardly find these “minorities” painted positively. More often than not, they are described as being less intelligent and lazy.

Needless to say, imbuing our curriculum with culturally responsive teaching practices provides not a one-off learning experience for global holidays like Chinese New Year and Martin Luther King Jr Day but opportunities to go deeper with concepts by having ongoing multicultural activities within the classroom setting in order to increase a natural awareness of cultural history, values, and contributions. When you think about cases like Henrico High School‘s Black History Month assembly that went wrong, it’s not surprising because those students and that community had never had to confront other perspectives of history in their schooling and thus got annoyed by the “white guilt” they felt as a result of it. When we provide context for some of the social issues we see today in our world, we have to keep in mind that if we only present this information once a year, then it’s going to bring up backlash. However, if we have continual conversations and design curriculum units that unpack our bias and prejudice, then dealing with conflict and controversy can have a more reasoned approached instead of feeling affronted by the truth of history.

#2-Bland and Myopic Libraries

Books take us through space and time like no other instrument of learning. We get into character’s heads and learn about places far away. So it’s easy to see how reading influences our thinking and understanding of others.

Now, let me ask you this if you were to “audit” your classroom library, how many books were either written from the perspective of a character of color or were written by a non-white author? Pretty slim selection, right?

And in my mind, early reading books are the worst! When you look at your guided reading/leveled reading books, whether it is Biff and Chip or I Can Read reading sets, you will see a deficient of multiculturalism. Now there are some publishers like Reading A to Z that try to include a variety of characters of difference but rarely write about cultural issues from their perspectives. Needless to say, we don’t promote culture and difference among the youngest learners, especially in fiction.

Now I dare you to take a walk into your school’s library–what do you see? The same myopic view of the world according to “straight, white, middle-class Christians” or do you see other texts being highlighted and valued that describe the lives of others? Furthermore, do you see other languages being valued along with English?

When you think about it, it’s no wonder prejudice and bias becomes embedded so early in our learners. Their lives are embued with a bland perspective that may encourage the “love of reading” but not the “love of others”. We need to stop and question this.

As educators, we need to demand more of our children’s book publishers, and of our school libraries, for a start. Furthermore, we must take the time to pull those books off the shelves that promote other cultures, reading them aloud and discussing them in class. Exposing kids to “difference” helps them to develop compassion. And for the kids of difference in our class, how do you think it makes them feel–valued and appreciated? –Why wouldn’t we wish to provide that experience for them?!!

There are so many good things that come from this. In this article from The Schools Catalogue Information Services, they list at least 4 benefits from multicultural libraries:

Promotes empathy and unit
Promotes cross-cultural friendship
Helps students to look critically at the world
Encourages identity formation

So, with this in mind, the value of diversity in our classroom and school libraries cannot be understated. We need to examine it critically and work towards having a more culturally-aware and robust selection of literature while using these types of books in our instruction.

We can’t change the past, but we can alter the future

When you examine these 2 areas, content and resources, it is easy to see how bias and prejudice become established in the minds of our learners. The implicit bias becomes formed early in our lives and is not challenged unless we work to dismantle these blind spots. For some of us, this might take a real conscious effort on our part, but for others, it is a natural beacon call to create more peace, understanding, and justice in our world.

Everyone benefits when these blind spots are revealed and barriers to appreciating our differences are removed. We cannot change the conflicts and injustices of the past, but we can alter the future through education. And with enough love and persistence, I do believe that we can collectively, around the globe, can create a better world that works for everyone.

Judy Imamudeen

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Are We Asking “Beautiful Questions”?

By Judy Imamudeen | September 23, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

We are hard-wired to be curious. Have you ever been around a little baby before? When a newborn begins to realize that they have a body and becomes fascinated with their hands, they study them intensely. They put them in their mouths, they linger on different textures, wanting to squeeze them to feel them oozing through their fingers.

We are born curious, our brains pattern-making machines, trying to make sense of our environment, both outer and inner. Our schools shouldn’t be a place where student questions go to die. Schools should be a place where curiosity is nurtured and sustained.

In The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead, Warren Berger pronounces “I am a questionologist.” I love that! When you look at the graphic that summarizes Berger’s book, you get a sense of possibility that deepening our inquiries can create through broad questioning techniques. The questions are not complicated, but the path they lead you on can branch into new avenues and creative opportunities. As educators, we should not only be modeling these broad-reaching questions but encouraging tangents of thought through open-ended questions.

A poem comes to mind which reminds me of the wonder and inspiration within the power of a question. Its words penetrate my soul and awaken the child within me, the one with a million “whys”.

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

When I consider the excitement of beginning a new unit of inquiry, despite its familiarity, a fresh set of questions always come to mind. Just like the students, I am there with them, embarking upon the inquiry, seeking new understandings. I want to “live the questions” that Rilke speaks of, knowing that curiosity is a way of being in the world, experiencing awe and elegance in the search for answers. It is more than a pedagogical approach, it is a way of being.

So to develop our “questionology” is not only important for our classroom culture but it when you think of it, it generates well-being. To question is to shake hands with possibility, and possibility opens our focus, inviting new information into our awareness. So this drive to wonder is what makes us “inforvores”, and is a psychological need. In fact, science is beginning to show that if we are not organizing our classrooms in such a way that spark interest, we are literally deadening the brains of our students. I’d also like to add that our own teaching practice becomes joyless when life is all answers and no questions.

So let’s take a page from Berger’s playbook and start generating opportunities for curiosity by asking more “beautiful questions”. It’s a habit worth cultivating.

Judy Imamudeen

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The #PYP Key Concepts and Developing a Critical Literacy Approach

By Judy Imamudeen | September 8, 2019 | Comments 2 comments

When you read words, you are actually reading different versions of the world. Most of us never pause to consider that. We see written words as fixed truths, and depending on the perceived credibility of this source, we take for granted that every author has a unique experience of the world and applies their imagination to communicate these thoughts and feelings in different ways. It doesn’t matter if it is a book, a magazine article, a video or on a website–the form of the communication may differ, however, to identify the intention behind the writing is rarely explored in our approaches to literacy.

As teachers, we need to ensure that language is a catalyst to becoming curious in order to investigate and solve problems and understand ideologies within texts. Often times we focus on strategies and skills that address the content but not the context of what they are reading. In today’s society of “fake news”, the domination of disinformation demands a need to dive deeper into the purposeful use of language, in which media is used to manipulate and confuse others. Paulo Freire, who coined the term “critical literacy” reminds us in his work that it is impossible to “think of the results of language without thinking of ideology and power.”

Actively engaging with text types and media forms is not enough. Not only is it important to facilitate language learning, but it is the teacher’s duty to cultivate the understanding of the students that they too are agents of change, participating in communicating ideas to our local and global contexts. As educators, we need to develop their awareness that students are creators that …

Have a unique way of expressing themselves
Have a right to speak and be listened to.
Have a need to develop the ability to comprehend the ways in which language is being used to trying to position and manipulate readers.

With this in mind, in our Primary Years Programme, we need to be asking ourselves if our approaches are generating passive readers and consumers of the content or rather that they are actively applying thought to the text. Furthermore, it is not enough to develop the skills of genre-writing and instill a “love of reading” but it is also our job to shape their understanding that they are contributors to thought in our world. freire education.jpeg Students are members of our communities and although our political systems may not value them until they are 18 years old, the truth is, they can be actively engaged in our societies at any age. We need to provide authentic experiences in which they develop craft along with a deepening of knowledge.

So, as we design units of study (stand-alone language planning) or embed literacy into our transdisciplinary themes, we should be considering the key concepts as important aspects of planning. As we approach literacy instruction, instead of merely using it as a tool to “learn about” content, we need to be “learning to” dissect and discuss texts, which includes multi-media forms as well.

Through an exploration of the key concepts, the student becomes able to develop an understanding of…

Form: What is this text type/form of media? What are its features and characteristics?

Function: How does this text type or form of media work? How can I apply its features to my own writing or creation of media?

Connection: How is my experience connected to this type of text? (Can be a text-self connection or text-text connections) How might this text or form of media influence others?

Perspective: What might be the purpose of this text? What “world” does the creator live in?- What biases are within this text/form in media and what evidence is there to support this claim? What is the deeper meaning and intention of this text/form of media?

Causation: What is the origin of this text/form of media type? What created its popularity or use in our world? What is its impact now?

Change: How does the message change when visual information is employed? What techniques or forms can be employed to create more impact and understanding of the content?

Responsibility: What is my role in responding to or creating texts that inform, provoke and entertain others? What are the ethical aspects of this text?

Reflection: What is my response to this text–what emotion or ideas are sparked by my engagement with it? How might my word choices and ideas be impacting others, as I create content? How am I contributing to the larger context of this genre and/or issue?

As you reflect on these questions, I’m sure you are generating further questions (or at least that is my hope). Yet, so often, we get stuck in the form and function of literacy instruction that we fail to miss opportunities to develop critical skills that our students need in navigating the world of media that we live in. I believe that we shouldn’t just be plugging standards into our units of inquiry, but become quite intentional with creating a holistic view of our language. Learning how language works and becoming conscious of the role of visual imaging in molding the audience into a certain point of view is one dimension of learning that needs to be emphasized in our schools. This involves immersing students in authentic literacy experiences and developing a reflective practice when engaging in language.

Although the ideas I share may not be comprehensive enough to create a well-rounded program, hopefully, it inspires a greater analysis of how your school approaches literacy instruction and transforming language into rich meaning-making experiences.

How might you create engaged learners who identify themselves as contributors to our world?

This is a question that compels me as I think about our learners, not as mere cogs in the wheel of life, but as agents of change and transformers of our world.

Judy Imamudeen

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What is an #IBEducation? Developing Moral Imagination in the #EnhancedPYP

By Judy Imamudeen | August 17, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Recently an educator asked me what is the difference between the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and a “normal school”. I really stumbled in describing the value of an IB education.

Yes, we do “transdisciplinary learning” with the use of our framework to develop conceptual understandings, but there’s plenty of international schools that attempt to mimic our integrated approach to the subject matter. To me, that isn’t what makes us stand out.

Then I thought about how we are shifting our views to reflect the changing nature of the student-teacher relationship, with having “agency” as the center of learning. However, there are many great schools out there who are developing a more personalized approach to developing content knowledge and skills. I’m not sure if we really have “the corner office” on that one either.

After more reflection, I settled on moral imagination.

Morals?–that’s a word you don’t often hear these days, as it seems old fashioned, harkening back to a time of “purity and goodness”. Perhaps it conjures up some religious connotation that reeks of absolutes and “thou shall nots” as we try to discern “right” from “wrong”. So it is no wonder why this word “moral” has gone by the wayside as something worth promoting in our secular education systems. With this in mind, just because morals aren’t taught in schools doesn’t mean that this black and white thinking doesn’t exist. In fact, probably because we don’t address it, it has become dangerously polarizing, particularly in our politics. Hence the reason why we need to add imagination to our morality.

When you think back to the inception of the International Baccalaureate (IB), its mission to develop “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”, came in response to atrocities witnessed around the world such as in World War II. In the early days of crafting the PYP, the curriculum writers were heavily influenced by the progressive ideas of many educational philosophists. Consider the words of Earnest Boyer, whose ideas shaped the model behind our transdisciplinary themes:

Today, not only has this commitment to teach virtue before knowledge dramatically declined, but we now feel uncomfortable even talking about such matters. It’s all right these days to talk about academic standards, but it’s not all right, we’re told, to talk about ethical and moral standards.

And yet if history has taught us anything at all, it’s taught us that knowledge unguided by an ethical and moral compass is more dangerous than ignorance itself. The British philosopher George Steiner defined the challenge this way: “We now know,” Steiner said, “that a man can read Goethe in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert at sundown, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning.

What grows up inside “literate civilization,” Steiner asks, that seems to prepare it for barbarism? What grows up, of course, is information without knowledge, knowledge without wisdom, and competence without conscience.

Excerpt from The Basic School, by Earnest Boyer, 1995

When you consider his words, you can appreciate the depth of thinking and intention that went into creating the PYP. To think that we just do “concept-based learning through an inquiry approach” is really missing the point and value an IB education.

Recently I listened to an interview with Kerry Kennedy in the audiobook Power Moves by Adam Grant. She talked about her work in teaching human rights and empowering students, not only with the skills to become advocates for social justice issues but the motivation to be agents of change. She understands how important it is for young people to develop empathy so that this next generation can transform how power is wielded and how problems can be solved using “moral imagination”.

So what does this term mean?-In the book, Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics , Mark Johnson explains that “We human beings are imaginative creatures, from our most mundane acts of perception all the way up to our most abstract conceptualization and reasoning. Consequently, our moral understanding largely depends on our…metaphors and other imaginative structures…which give us alternative viewpoints and concepts from which to evaluate the merits of a particular moral position. They make it possible for us to envision the possible consequences of a proposed course of action, such as how other people are affected, how it might change our relationships, and what new possibilities it might open up (or close off) concerning how we may grow.” When I read this, I began to appreciate the Learner Profile and how it helps to shape our students into developing the skills necessary to examine issues through a variety of perceptual lens. It is the blend of our “essential elements” which craft the faculty of moral imagination.

So how can we amplify this as we look to “enhance” our PYP programs? When I consider how we look at developing “agency”, it’s more than considering students’ ability to self-regulate their learning, it is the chance to develop their voice as a citizen and a contributor to our humanity. We need to provide opportunities to support this as we consider our students’ understanding of complex issues, encouraging the practice of courage so that they can “be the change that you want to see in the world”. We need to show them examples of young people who are challenging the status quo, whether it is about gun violence, climate change or equity in education. In this way, they can perceive possibilities and really begin to embody the true sense “agency”. And, in my heart, I hope it can transform our traditional views plagued by this dualistic thinking to create thinkers who can rumble in the grey-area of life to create new answers to old problems. In this way, our PYP curriculum will truly be “enhanced”.

Judy Imamudeen

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The 3rd Teacher: Messages in School

By Judy Imamudeen | August 4, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

As I walked my daughter to her summer camp’s team table in the lunchroom, I noticed that there were signs on the walls. Since I am an educator, I love coming into schools to examine the clues about the school’s culture. (Student art is my favorite!) 3rd teacher malaguzzi But I stopped and gawked at the walls, having busy parents brush past me, I was mesmerized by their PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) posters: large, realistic with students posed. No colorful mascot with catchy graphics. It was the kids. The character traits that the school focused on were: Safe. Trustworthy. Accountable. Respectful.

I was too stunned that I didn’t take a photograph, but now I wish I could share the poster that had transfixed me: Respectful.

The Poster: Imagine a group of students, about 5 of them, mostly white but there’s a mixed-race kid thrown in for diversity, standing complacently at the camera with fingers pressed against their lips. “Shhhh” is what I hear.

My heart feels a pang. Respect=Quiet. Really?….Really?

I think to myself, “Judy, this is the cafeteria. Maybe they just want the students to use quiet voices in the lunchroom. Calm down”. This self-talk doesn’t help much. So I take a deep breath as I exit the room.

Why does THIS bother me? Why do I feel such a strong reaction to this image?

As I buckle my seat belt in my car, I sit with this feeling for a moment: Anger?…nearly…but not quite that charged…Disappointment…yes, there’s a hint of that..but I decide on Frustrated Confusion. “Frustrated” because it combines mild anger and disappointment. “Confusion” because I feel puzzled by what this image is suggesting.

In school, every inch of its campus should be designed to promote learning. Loris Malaguzzi, an Italian early childhood psychologist and founder of the Reggio Emilia’s preschools, was the first to recognize that the environment is the “Third Teacher“. Students often are influenced by what they see, hear, smell and feel, and more and more in education, we are designing learning spaces with this in mind. So, in my mind, these posters, which we know were created to teach what “respect” looks, sounds and feels like are particularly confounding because the message they communicate. The children are co-constructing conceptual understanding that respect is the equivalent of silence: Children should be seen and not heard. Is that the message that they really want students to embrace as they grow as a learner?

Because I am in a state of “frustrated confusion”, I decided to go to the school’s website later on that evening and research if they espouse a compliance model of student behavior. However, this is what I found out about the demographics and the values that they want to instill:

Screen Shot 2019-06-29 at 7.09.36 AM

The Lifelong Guidelines are: Truth, Trust, Active Listening, No Put Downs, and Personal Best

The Life Skills are: Integrity, Initiative, Flexibility, Perseverance, Organization, Sense of Humor, Effort, Common Sense, Problem-Solving, Responsibility, Patience, Friendship, Curiosity, Cooperation, and Caring.

Those “Life Long Guidelines” and “Life Skills” are really lovely, right? So how do those posters support their overall aim of character development in children? In my mind, these posters are in direct opposition to the Life Guidelines and Skills they want to develop. I mean, how can we develop Trust and Truth to create Friendship, Problem-solving, and Caring, for example, without dialogue? In a lunchroom, in which conversations and discussions are not controlled by the teacher, this is a very important place to create those attributes. It is a critical communication center and a learning environment that schools should be designing with care and deep consideration.

As we prepare to open our school doors to students, we must not take lightly the role of the 3rd teacher in creating our learning community. As administrators, we need to ensure that the messages we share with children are consistent with the values we want to instill. Also, as teachers, we need to have the courage to advocate for this alignment-first with modeling it in our own classrooms and then reminding others in our learning community of the important function of our learning environment.

Judy Imamudeen

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“I Used to Think, But Now I Know” -8 Ideas about Translanguaging and Language Development

By Judy Imamudeen | July 16, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

I’ve heard this word translanguaging tossed around a lot on Twitter and among educators, but, honestly, not only does its spelling baffle me but also what it looks like in education. Recently a colleague of mine presented a workshop on it which got me curious about what this elusive term could mean in classroom practice. So, I decided to include a book on it during My Summer Professional Reading for 2019 and by the time I was halfway through Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals: Inclusive Teaching in the Linguistically Diverse Classroom by Danling Fu and Xenia Hadjioannou, I knew I had to read more books on this topic.

Why? Because as I read the case studies, I realized that I knew so very little about the language development of bilingual and multilingual children. I also realized that I had a very limited perspective of their issues. You see, I, as a Caucasian American, grew up believing that English was a preferred language and was encultured to develop a bias of elitism which made any subsequent efforts to learn other languages half-hearted. This introspection was an illuminating and humbling experience, so I began picking up more books to fill in some gaps and help me understand what it means to truly be “culturally responsive“. There was one book, Teaching in 2 Languages: A Guide for K-12 Bilingual Educators, that contained a quote which really impacted my thinking around the connection between language and identity:

Technology can make report cards more personal, not less. (1).png

As a person who grew up in an all-English-speaking home, attending a monolingual American school, I’ve never had to grapple with how my home language and culture was viewed by others. But now I can easily see how other’s view of our language can impact our self-esteem. For example, I remember when English-Only became a legislative act in the state of Arizona (a state that borders Mexico). At the time, I hadn’t seen the harm in it, but now I know that banning the use of other languages in school was like rejecting the immigrants and multi-lingual persons which populated that state, who were mostly Mexican. As a teacher, it had huge consequences in our classrooms, and bilingualism became a dirty word.

Of course, the opposite of this is also true: if you really want to show me that you care, love my language. As an international educator, I have had a unique opportunity to live and learn a variety of languages and been exposed to a myriad of cultures. When I read the poet’s words above, it hit me deeply, remembering back to moments when a simple hello in a child’s home language made them light up with a smile of recognition. Now I know that smile said, “You see me. You love me.”, which was true, but I had undervalued this gesture, thinking that it was rather superficial. Now I know it communicated a message of acceptance and care.

Technology can make report cards more personal, not less. (2) It makes sense that language is so deeply connected to self-worth because it not only reflects the values and perspectives shared with and among those language groups, but the self-expression of that child. Language communicates thinking through culture; and when we accept the use of a variety of languages being used in our classrooms, we accept that our students are woven together by a complex tapestry of experiences that can be expressed in a multitude of ways; denying them the use of their complete language repertoire is like rejecting their ideas and perspectives.

These books really stirred my heart and got me thinking about how important language is to our school’s culture and in the development of the self-esteem and personal identity of children. It’s not a small topic, but a big deal.

These are my 8 takeaways from my reading and the ideas that widened my understanding of translanguaging and the language development of children.

Different languages are not contained in different parts of the brain. Multi-lingual children have access to all components of language facility during learning. So when we think of terms of “Spanglish” or “Chinglish”, we shouldn’t associate it with a lack of English competency, but instead demonstrating how holistic the nature of language is in our brain.
Translanguaging is not the same as translation. Translanguaging is about empowering students to access language in order to grow their whole intellectual and social facilities and develop cognitively. Translation helps to serve this purpose but is not the end goal. We want students to integrate the understanding that exists in both languages, not preferring one language over the other.
Language confusion is a misnomer. Multilingualism is an enhanced way of viewing and interacting with the world. What we think of as “language confusion” is actually us observing children in the process of integrating and experimenting with language; students are building bridges of networks in their brains, rather than tangling up their neurons. In fact, code-switching (the practice of moving back and forth between two languages) serves different purposes based upon the learner. So, code-switching is a deeply personal experience, and, as educators, we should consider what is being communicated vs. how it is being communicated in order to that we understand how best to support the learning needs of our students.
Certain content areas require more skillful use of a child’s language repertoire and cultural background. I think most of us can appreciate that inquiry-based approaches utilize the scope of a child’s cognitive ability, particularly when language doesn’t create barriers during an active learning experience in which they are constructing conceptual understanding. However, social studies can be the most challenging of the content areas because it requires not only language skills to understand the abstract nature of vocabulary and concepts, but also highly influenced by the background knowledge and experience of the student. According to Sharon Adelman Reyes and Tatyana Kleyn, models such as Sheltered Immersion are more useful for students who have intermediate language capabilities; for emergent students, we need to provide learning resources in their home language in order to gain a full understanding and to bridge together their cultural dispositions with their prior knowledge and the learning within the classroom.
Content objectives are not the same as language objectives. Although learning content may also call for learning the vocabulary associated with it, there is also an opportunity for a multi-lingual to use their language repertoire which included previous experience and terminology from their home language. For example, when learning content, students can use any of their languages to access information and gain a deeper understanding. So, if it makes sense to give them a book in Korean (or whatever is their mother tongue) about lifecycles because you want them to understand how living things change over time, that is perfectly fine to do so. Learning in their home language is adding not subtracting from their intellectual reservoir. However, if the lesson is specific to language, then outcomes need to be centered around the skills associated with developing fluency in it.
Translanguaging involves the 5 Cs (communication, culture, connections with other disciplines, comparisons with students’ home language and culture, and the use of the foreign language in communities outside the classroom) for a holistic learning approach. Translanguaging encompasses more than just instructional practices, but also engaging the heart with the head of a child, in order to create an inclusive school culture and bridging the curriculum to the child’s experience.
Graphic organizers aren’t the same as worksheets. Worksheets can often have a negative connotation. However, the purpose of graphic organizers isn’t to keep them busy but to help students clarify their thinking and can be necessary for multi-lingual students to access the full range of their language repertoire. We really need to integrate semantic maps (mind-mapping and conceptual maps) within lessons to combine visual and written information to accommodate the language needs of our students.
There is a distinction between teaching a language and “special education”. Although language development could be dumped into the same category as “additional learning needs”, they are NOT the same. Moreover, an educator who is qualified in EAL (English as an Additional Language) or other second-language learning teachers, is not an expert with assessing and working with students with exceptionalities. Both are highly specialized fields and need to be treated as such.

These 8 ideas are really the beginning of getting a foothold into appreciating the complexity of language development. We need to stop this “English-only” approach in our schools because it does more harm than good when helping students to make academic progress and mature emotionally. Incorporating these ideas involves a comprehensive analysis of a school’s culture which can involve aspects such as language policies, parent education, teacher professional development and buying educational resources to create an optimal learning environment for our students. I know that I am just beginning to appreciate how connected culture and language is to our students’ identity, and plan to continue to study how it can be used at my school.

Perhaps you might consider areas in which your school can “grow the whole child” through languages other than English. Where would you start? Examining school and classroom libraries? Doing read-alouds in other languages? Auditing how and where multilingualism exists in your school? Encouraging more multilingualism, such as school and classroom displays that include other languages?

Once you start to brainstorm ideas, I’m sure you can find numerous ways in which you can employ language in the service of learning and building an inclusive culture within your school community. I hope this blog post whets your appetite and you dig deeper into the research and resources to create translanguaging in your school.

If you feel that I have forgotten some other essential aspects of translanguaging or have any resources that you wish to share, please post below. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful contribution.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

Designing for Humans: Thinking Beyond a Checklist for the Enhanced #PYP Planner

By Judy Imamudeen | June 27, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

This past year we trialed a new PYP planner, and the intentions were good with letting the students’ responses to our provocations direct and lead the unit, but we ended up having a planner that was so complex that it became cumbersome to actually fully complete. It was christened “The Big Book”, which should have clued us in that this was an exercise in paperwork. Clearly, it’s back to the drawing board.

So what are “The Basics” that have to be on the planner? As I see it, there need to be 12 components that are fundamental to the planning document:

Transdisciplinary Theme
Central Idea
Lines of Inquiry
Key Concepts
Learner Profile
Approaches to Learning (ATL)
Questions
Provocations/Engagement Activities
Resources
Assessment
Action
Reflection

As I began to wonder what is the “special sauce” that would move a planning document beyond “the basics” and make this planner “enhanced”, I decided that I needed to go back and listen to the webinar that addressed this aspect of the enhancement.

My big takeaways from the webinar were:

The document takes us through a PROCESS of CO-CONSTRUCTING learning.
It encourages COLLABORATION with staff.
It fosters REFLECTION.
It not only documents STUDENT AGENCY but reminds us that this is central to the learning. Teachers need to consider the WHO just as much, perhaps more so than the WHAT.
It influences the ROLE OF THE TEACHER and how they inspire ACTION in students to support SELF-MANAGEMENT skills.

While I considered the ideas shared, I was thinking “What would be the purpose of even re-designing the PYP planner?” I mean, they have given us a “refreshed” and updated example that we may use and other schools have already created other templates that could be integrated into our school. Truly, there is no immediate demand that schools HAVE to create their own planner. But now schools have the liberty to design their own, yet it isn’t a mandate. So, if schools were to embark on creating their own, it would only be for the sole purpose of improving their collaborative planning at their school in an effort to increase student agency.

Agency is about listening.

Sonya terBorg

As I contemplate the benefit of redesigning the PYP planner, I wouldn’t dare create a copy and paste version of the templates shared. Not because they aren’t wonderful, but because they aren’t unique to the needs of my school.–which would be the purpose of even embarking on this journey. In my past school’s pilot of the re-designed planner, it was a hard copy only. This worked well for our initial planning session, but on-going additions to the planner weren’t possible unless you were to have the hard-copy in your possession. And because it was a “big book” it took up a lot of space on one’s desk area, which became problematic since we had 6 Units of Inquiry plus 6 stand-alone Math planners. You might imagine the frustration of all those paperwork piles in one’s workspace, which created a disdain for planning since it meant that one teacher had this A3 sized booklet taking up a lot of real estate on their desk. This was an unintended consequence of going “retro” with our planning. I wouldn’t recommend this. So, with this in mind, if the planner isn’t digital, with equal-access available to all teachers, then it’s set up to fail. That’s like putting square wheels on a bike–it is taking us nowhere with collaboration.

With this in mind, I would utilize Design Thinking, focusing on human-centered design principles of really understanding what would be the needs of the users of this planning document. Also, since human-centered design considers the interaction along with the actual “product”, the experience is of vital importance. Here is the overview of the process:

Framing the Context: Understanding our Users and Their Problems

Human-Focused Design optimizes for human motivation in a system as opposed to optimizing for pure functional efficiency within the system. -Yu-Kai Chou-

What is the challenge: Let’s be honest, the main reason why teachers don’t appreciate using the PYP planner is that it seems like a time-consuming document that doesn’t seem to support their day-to-day planning of the unit of inquiry.

So how might we design a planner that is collaborative, compelling and ultimately results in better learning outcomes and increased student agency?

Hmm…..

In the first phase of design, Planning, we have to consider the audience for this document. Teachers, right? So, when we consider feasibility, we should ask ourselves what might be the biggest barrier that we will need to overcome in order for this document to work?

I’m rather practical so as a teacher, I would say TIME poses the biggest challenge to collaboration.

Thus, when we create this document we need to think about the amount of time it might take to fill out this document, especially since we might imagine that the initial planning will involve multiple teachers who represent a variety of subject areas. Trying to get all those educators in a room can seem like putting the planets in alignment. So, if we UNDERSTAND these teachers, then we must take into consideration that this document will most likely require at least 40 minutes of time to begin the planning process, with opportunities to plug into the document to give feedback and feedforward into the learning (at least another 30 minutes of individual or grade level teacher time). Lastly, there will need a final block of at least 40 minutes for teachers to get together to reflect on how students responded to this unit of inquiry. So, with that in mind, the document, from start to finish, needs to be completed in 3 planning periods; 2 of which will include multiple voices and perspectives in the room, and at least 1 planning period in which teachers or a grade level team get together to discuss how the unit is progressing and what direction it might need to take. So let’s just say, this collaborative document takes at least 2 1/2 hours to complete, give or take 1/2 hour.

Then, as we peel the layers of the onion, we know that the 2nd biggest challenge will be ensuring that this document is truly collaborative, with the opportunity for multiple voices to be present, particularly our subject area specialists, who often feel marginalized during planning.

Furthermore, this document must create a holistic process of learning about our students, so we can create learning opportunities for our students, in that we can examine what learning came from our students. It has to fuel conversation and inspiration among teachers to develop student-directed inquiries and motivate student-led action. Moreover, it should get teachers discussing how they can access the larger community, whether local or global, to tap into resources that expand the learning outside the 4 walls of the classroom.

Lastly, when teachers engage with this document, I would want them to feel excited and anticipating the best that could happen during this unit of inquiry. I wouldn’t want this to feel like “ticking a box” but instead designing learning that changes lives. (Because, truly, that is what we are doing, every day. How cool is our job, right?!)

Learning Phase: Perspective and Use by Teachers

I know that this planner has to contain the “Basics” but I’d think about the teachers first and not the “boxes” that it needs to tick. Already I’ve made some assumptions, such as identifying some barriers and challenges to using the planner. However, those are inferences and my own biased opinions. I have yet to tap into the perspectives of the teachers directly at my school, which might produce different ideas. I must put on my researcher hat and use some of the methods of Human-Centered Design to get an accurate picture of the challenge and its possible solutions.

From a design point of view, I might start from one of the PYP planner templates shared, observing teachers “in the wild”, using the document during the collaborative planning process. I would record reactions with the Empathy Map to evaluate their experience with the planner. Since I’m not just considering the physical experience with the document, I need to collate the responses of the emotional experience of the teachers when deciding how to help craft a new one. Remember, I’m not trying to devise a fancy planner, I want the planner to actually get teachers to have rich discussions that connect and extend the learning of students so that students can ultimately become self-motivated and feel a great urgency to take action. I’d need to be a fly on the wall, leaning in to listen and notice how planning is being “enhanced”.

Brainstorming Ideas

First of all, this is not me, alone, on my laptop or with a pad of paper and pen in hand, ready to sketch out ideas. It takes a team to cleave through the data and create mock-ups that will ultimately result in a prototype document. Every one of those template planners on shared on IB’s PYP resource page took a team of dedicated individuals to shape and mold the prototypes that we see today. And I use the word “prototype” very intentionally because no doubt these planners will evolve as those teams reflect on what works and what doesn’t work with its use. Just as our teachers have spent time reflecting and evaluating the “big book” planner that was created at my past school, all schools need to stand back and be critical of their work so that it can be refined and improved upon.

So when brainstorming ideas, it will require a group of diverse and interested educators who will not only ensure it contains “The Basics” of PYP principles but develops our teachers understanding of our student learning and improve collaboration among teachers. That’s a big ask. Needless to say, where we go from here is To Be Continued…….

If any brave and like-minded individuals want to share how their school is approaching this project, I’d be keen to hear more. Please post in the comments below so everyone can benefit from your learning and experimentation.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

Goodbye Report Card? The Experiment to Document and Assess Learning with #SeeSaw

By Judy Imamudeen | June 14, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Report cards! Dreaded and hated by most teachers due to the time and effort it takes to create it. Over the years, the trend from personal comments to letters or numbers has meant that children’s identities are rooted in generalized achievement scores. The tidal wave of standards-based curriculum and standardized testing that we have seen in America has just amplified this notion that students can be distilled into neat categories and ranges of “achievement”, with schools even getting graded based upon these scores and public funding of these schools determined by these ratings. However, this type of ranking of schools doesn’t differentiate the demographics and resources that are utilized in the pursuit of learning so it seems unfair to be graded against a standard that really doesn’t exist. Likewise, report cards rarely reflect the nature and ability of the individual student, which should be as unique as their fingerprint. We all know that the best report cards are the ones in which the teacher speaks to the individual because a grade just doesn’t say enough. However, it’s a time-consuming process to craft it.

It was in the spirit of customizing the documenting of progress in REAL time that it was decided that the digital portfolio app SeeSaw could be used as a replacement of the ole’ report card. Also, due to the ability to instantly post the learning, there was hope that this transparency would improve the dialogue between the school and the parents. We had high hopes as we embarked upon this experiment.

The Experiment: Hybridizing Edu-Media and Traditional Reports

During this past year, with the convention of writing report cards every 6 weeks, Technology can make report cards more personal, not less. an effort to simplify the teacher workload and create a more “user-friendly” reporting system for parents was launched. Now, in theory, the expectation of teacher comments on the report card was done away with and the learning was documented on SeeSaw, thus parents could rate and respond to the progress in real time. However, instead of ripping report cards away, we tried to transition parents by rebranding it an “Evaluation of Learning” using the ManageBac platform, still posting numerical grades minus the personal teacher comments.

Prior to the “Evaluation of Learning” being posted on ManageBac, teachers designed at least 1 conceptual rubric, primarily for the unit of inquiry, which needed to be shared with parents prior to their notification that this report was ready to view. In this way, parents could use these conceptual rubrics as a way to understand what the numbers meant on the “Evaluation of Learning” in terms of their student’s progress. If you look at the examples of these conceptual rubrics, you will see that some common language is in there, such as “meets expectations”, so that parents might know where their child stands as a learner.

During this SeeSaw trial, as a school we looked at 4 things: the quality of our grade level posts, the frequency of posting, having a variety of posts to showcase growth, developing student agency with the posts and creating systems that foster positive habits around the use of digital media. Some questions we asked were:

Quality: Do our posts really communicate the learning that is taking place. How is the sound or visual quality of our postings? How do our captions or labels communicate the learning?
Responsibility: Who is posting? Is it only the teachers or do we have students involved?
Frequency: How often are we posting? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
Diversity: Are we only uploading videos or photos? Do we only make posts about the unit of inquiry or are we representing the growth of our literacy skills and mathematical thinking?
Systems: What were the habits and routines when using this platform? (example: reading out loud a piece of writing in Grade 1 but read aloud a piece of prose in Grade 3–are these helpful exercises that develop our presentation and viewing skills?) Or should we give time in class to students to read/listen to comments that others have posted and encourage thoughtful responses to them?

What worked well

There is no doubt that the platform of SeeSaw is powerful. Students could engage with each other, as well as parents, so there was a lot of opportunity for feedback. In our class, we posted weekly to the student journals, so parents were well-informed and it made it easy to have a conversation about their child. As, with the activities feature of SeeSaw, we could save time and go paperless on assessments.

So was learning demonstrated more regularly?–Indeed!

What needed improvement

One of the reasons to move away from report cards was in order to give more timely feedback to students and families. This was a worthy goal.

But it took enormous amounts of time to listen to audio/video posts and “grade” it. I can’t speak for other teachers, but I often spent an hour a night (at home), listening to students explain their learning. This I loved–not the drain on my personal time of course, but the data. However, giving timely feedback to students?- it wasn’t possible unless I had caught them while they were actually posting because most 1st graders couldn’t see the comments I made on a post and it wasn’t easy to give them class time to go on their journals to read a post (plus, not a lot of 1st graders can read what I wrote–at least not at the beginning of the year). So the comments were mostly just for the parents’ benefit.

Also, from a whole school perspective, we did not have consistency in our using this SeeSaw platform for the documentation of learning. Needless to say, a parent with a 1st grader and another a 4th grader, the amount and quality of posting looked very different in the different grade levels. Our school didn’t have norms or expectations so reporting progress was spotty, at best. When you think about why reports cards are so prevalent in education is because there is a standard– Pretty much no matter where you go in the world, in any given grade level, you will receive a consistent reporting of grade level expectations. We really needed criteria and clarity when it came to our posting on SeeSaw, and guidance on developing informative conceptual rubrics.

So, as I reflect on this, I think the benefit from this change was that the administrators didn’t need to spell check the ManageBac comments. And, from a parent’s point of view, neither the ManageBac’s Evaluation of Learning nor the SeeSaw posts answered the question, “Yeah, but how is MY child doing?” because it burdened parents to sift through posts and cross-reference the conceptual rubrics to understand how their child was evaluated. With the Seesaw journal news feed, it made it really hard to understand what a student needed to work on in order to improve, and where they stood with grade-level expectations because a teacher rarely made comments or captions using those terms.

When we surveyed families in the spring, we had a very low response rate (less than 50%), which implied that our good-natured parents were too polite to complain, or they couldn’t read the English-only survey. So we didn’t have a lot of feedback on this experiment. This was a shame since we really needed to hear their opinion.

What was discovered?

Not every idea is a bright one so you can learn a lot from failure. If we can all agree that report cards are designed for parents, then using multiple platforms created confusion.

I understand why we didn’t completely wean them off the ManageBac Reports but, at the end of the day, with our transient population, parents needed reports to show their next school. In the end, sending a perspective school a downloaded PDF of a child’s SeeSaw journal wasn’t a viable option. These school administrators, much like our parents, lacked the time and patience to sift through these activities to determine where the child was in their learning journey.

Now that isn’t to say that we need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Using SeeSaw to document learning was fantastic and it definitely provided fodder for important conversations with parents. However, SeeSaw, in its current format, is not designed to be employed in the way that we used it. It is a form of edu-media, a Facebook of learning, and doesn’t have the capacity at this time to use it in the way we intended. So, as a school, we needed to have guidelines on how we “graded” a post and what captions we needed to put on a post so that it informed parents of their child’s progress. That is an easy fix, in my mind, to have standard criteria across grade levels.

And the ManageBac report?–ManageBac is not a flexible reporting system, so to try to innovate our report cards around this platform is impossible. We either accept this status quo or find another platform.

Our strength then was really around those conceptual rubrics, and if we wanted to simplify report cards, using those statements in the phases would make it very easy to copy to paste into the reports. However, this doesn’t make our reports personal, and it certainly doesn’t speak to the character of a child, which I know can be subjective however is the heart of what makes a report card so important. These sentences demonstrate that a teacher really strives to KNOW a child more deeply. As a parent, this is what I scan for in the comment box of those reports; and, as a teacher who receives a new student’s report card, this is what helps me to build a relationship with them as they assimilate into their new environment.

Where to go from here?

Since I am relocating to another school, I cannot say how this hybrid reporting system will be improved, but, I would personally take this trial back through the Design Thinking process:

design slide

Who is this report card for?

What are their needs?

How might we solve them?

Why this prototype might work? Why might this prototype fail?

What feedback do we need in order to improve?

When can we get this feedback and from whom?

How will we use this feedback to improve our design?

I think after embarking upon the Design process, several launching off points of prototypes would be revealed. Furthermore, a lot of clarity would come from these collaborative discussions which would help re-design reporting.

Dear Reader, I do hope that you will appreciate the risk-taking that was involved in this attempt to re-imagine reporting. And I hope it makes you reflect on how your school might consider how learning is reported to families. If your school is also underway with an innovative way of approaching reporting or perhaps you have a great idea, please share in the comments below. We ALL can benefit from this.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

My Summer Professional Reading for 2019

By Judy Imamudeen | May 26, 2019 | Comments 1 comment

With 2 weeks left of school, the reality of summer holiday feels palpable. My favorite part of summertime is sitting either by the lake or pool with a good book. I find long periods of reading to be restorative and energizing. However, there are so many good books out there that it’s not easy to create a short list. Here’s are my “must-reads” for the summer:

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger

Why I chose this book?

I found reading Berger’s last book, The Book of Beautiful Questions, problematic because I had to constantly put it down to take notes and apply it. It wasn’t a passive reading experience and it has helped me to be more creative when solving problems, both professionally and personally. Needless to say, I have high hopes for this sequel.