Teaching and Learning - Judy Imamudeen

Press Start, Pause or Stop? 3 Ways We Can Approach Launching a Unit of Inquiry

By Judy Imamudeen | March 25, 2023 | Comments 0 Comment

Bewildered by my outburst, my sleeping dog popped up her head and twitched her ears when I giggled out a “hmmm”. But I couldn’t help it. I was so immersed in a recording of the Town Hall discussion with fellow Google Trainers. They asked a question about concept testing that made me make a connection with a recent topic that we had been discussing during our grade level meetings, the cycle of learning and teaching.

What was the question they use during their iterative process of concept design?

“What would you expect to happen ...?”

Their research shows that this puts algorithmic thinking into motion, generating potential scenarios that could be incredibly powerful in articulating the effect of our decisions.

What if we applied this same question as we approach a launching a unit of inquiry? I think this could be and effective way to start a familiar unit of inquiry, creating the impetus we may need in order to contemplate and debate alternative approaches with greatest impact for our learning and teaching.

Entry points in The Cycle of Learning and Teaching.

Where do you begin with learning? Do you launch a unit with TEACHING, picking up your PYP planner from last year and “copy and paste” what you did last time? Do your reflect on your past PYP planner and adjust the learning expectations or reinvent the unit with PLANNING provocations and activities to launch new concepts? Or do you pick up your PYP planner and think about how you might ASSESS the learners to figure out what direction you might need to go to support strong concept development and bringing out the best in the Learner Profile and Atls?

I would argue that there is no “right answer” to this because every unit of inquiry is unique and we have to look holistically at the grade level Programme of Inquiry (POI) and the whole school Programme of Inquiry (POI). It might also depend on if the UOI is a single subject or if it is transdisciplinary. That said, I do think that teachers need to sit down and re-read the planner from last year to reflect on what is relevant and meaningful to their current learners. They need to unpack the central idea and lines of inquiry before determining where they are going to jump into this cycle of learning and teaching.

Decisions, Decisions!

Press Start: Teach

There are some very valid reasons why we might just start teaching. Time may play a significant factor, especially when we know this unit will introduce never explored content in the school-wider programme of inquiry. Also, if there is a project that the students will work on during the unit and the goals of the unit are more about the process of learning so we have to focus on teaching into the Atls such as the self-management or social skills that will be developed throughout the unit. For example, collaboration or time-management may need to be developed right from the word Go so that groups can effectively do research together. A great example of that is during the PYP Exhibition. Teachers might need to start teaching into stress management or technology skills in order to ensure that students can work independently and effectively.

Teachers who are also single-subject specialists may also jump into the cycle of learning and teaching here, particularly if they have younger students who they feel can safely assume that they have no prior knowledge of the concepts. For example, a music teacher who wants to teach the concept of melody to their kindergarten students or a language acquisition teacher who works with newcomers to a language.

However, we really want to think critically about this approach because research suggests that we need to value our learners more than teaching our content, so we need to carefully consider our students when planning and assessing.

Press Pause: Plan

It is good practice to review previous planners for a familiar unit. As you re-read the planner, it’s important to read the reflections first before digging into the resources, learning activities and assessments that you created in the past. I know that this part of the planner often gets neglected, but it really can be critical to understanding how and why you might make changes to a unit, especially if there are new members of a team who may not be as familiar with a unit. It is especially for this reason why you would want to start with planning. Not everyone interprets units the same way, especially when a central idea is broad. So team members need to “unpack” the unit’s concepts and think about how it could be approached differently, particularly when considering the students you have in your class. I’ve written about the importance of this before in this blog post.I think this is the most common way that teams approach the learning and teaching cycle–Teachers getting together and discussing what might be possible during this unit.

However, you can share the central idea with students and unpack it with them in order to co-construct the unit. The questions and ideas that emerged during those discussions with students then become the fodder to re-write aspects of unit in order to develop more student interest and agency. Sometimes that means we go back are re-write lines of inquiry, change learner profiles or switch our Atls. And sometimes it means that the content shifts. It really depends on what happens during the “unpacking” with students.

For example, consider this unit:

Central Idea:

Circumstances impact opportunity and the ability to achieve.

Lines of Inquiry:

The attributes of empathy(form)
How opportunity is enabled (causation)
The measurement of achievement (perspective)

A team of 4th grade teachers were going to approach this as a “copy and paste” type of unit, in which the focus has typically been on the role of social class in creating barriers or opportunities to success in life. However, when they unpacked it with students, it became clear that they were fascinated with disabilities and inclusion. It required the team to get back to the drawing board and re-design the unit with student interests in mind. Although the key concepts might stay the same, the related concepts shift from Poverty, Social Class, and Opportunity to Diversity, Innovation and Inclusion because students were keen to learn about how disabilities and neurodivergence lead to developing new technology to help people feel capable and involved in their lives.

When teachers respond to students like this, learning is more dynamic and student action can organically evolve from their enthusiasm. I’m sure you can see how responding like this can change the trajectory of a unit.

Press Stop: Assess

Before putting the car into drive, some teachers choose to stop and assess before beginning a unit. Pre-assessment is always a good idea, but since the pandemic, this approach seems like the most sensible for many units. We just aren’t sure where the conceptual and skill gaps may be, so we may need to do some formal assessments to see where students knowledge base lies. Once we have an idea of what students know, understand and can do, teachers can sit down with the data and then examine what concepts and skills make sense before launching a unit. Again, they may need to adjust content, change Atls and/or learning expectations.

“What would you expect to happen ...?”

I think predicting and reflection are 2 key superpowers that a PYP teacher needs when we consider how we can build strong units. As I continue to mull over this question, I think this question can be an important tool to help shake up unit planning and instigate critical thinking in our approaches. Whether it is asked 2 weeks before a unit of inquiry begins or as a strategy to provoke reflective thinking, this question can help us explore new ways that we could approach the unit.

What do you think? Are there other questions that we need to consider when determining the why and how we jump into the cycle of learning and teaching?

Above and Beyond: 3 Things that Teachers Must Do to Get “Good” at the #PYP

By Judy Imamudeen | October 15, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

As a PYP Coordinator, I am involved in the recruitment of teachers and their subsequent professional development. I’m always designing and redesigning the “induction” of new teachers into the PYP, reconsidering what it is that teachers need to get “good” at in order to become successful in understanding and delivering our framework.. You see, I think becoming a PYP educator requires you to have basic teaching skills as the basis of your pedagogical prowess on top of other frames of thinking around how students learn best. You have to go above and beyond certain professional requirements in order to be effective in using the PYP framework.

Being the nerd that I am, I brainstormed a list of key teaching capabilities that I think make up the tool-kit of a PYP practitioner based upon the 2020 Programme standards and practices and this graphic from page 43 of Learning and Teaching:

Just in this graphic alone, there are 20 practices that PYP teachers need to develop competency in. But where do we begin to support the transition of thinking and planning like a PYP teacher? After reflecting on this list, I think there are 3 main skills that teachers need to get good at in order to become proficient practitioners:

unpacking standards/curriculum and developing questions to explore,
creating learning opportunities that foster content knowledge, and
listening for learning.

Although each of these areas deserves its own blog post, I will summarize what these foundational competencies mean to me.

Competency #1: Turn Objectives into Questions

I am starting with this because it is the most pragmatic skill to develop and encapsulates 2 main aspects of our framework: concept-based learning and inquiry. That being said, it isn’t necessarily easy to wrap your head around this but it is the heart of what we do when we develop students who thirst for understanding the curiosities of our world.

Whether we are looking at a “boxed” curriculum or examining our content standards, we have to be thinking about the questions that live in them. Writing these questions down and then prioritizing them helps us to create a scope and sequence for the learning. We then use these questions as the basis of our daily or weekly learning objectives.

Let’s look at an example from the Common Core Grade 3 English Language Arts Reading Standards:

Phonics and Word Recognition:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.A Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.B Decode words with common Latin suffixes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.C Decode multisyllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.D Read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Although I believe there are many ways to develop teacher questions, I always like to model how we can teach using Key Concepts by using them as the basis of brainstorming teacher questions:

Key Concept	Key Question	Teacher Question
Form	What is it like?	What is a prefix? What is a suffix?
Function	How does it work?	How do readers decode multi-syllabic words?
Change	How is it transforming?	What happens to the meaning of a word when we change the prefix?
Connection	How is it linked to other things?	How can identifying the base word help us decipher the meaning of a word?
Causation	Why is it as it is?	Why does Latin form the basis of our language?
Perspective	What are the points of view?	How are English words spelled differently in different English-speaking countries?
Responsibility	What are our obligations?	What are some ways we can remember irregular spellings of words?

As you can see, this is NOT an exhaustive list of possible questions from those standards, but it helps to start the generative process and cultivates a lot of discussion into what students need to be able to know, understand and do to acheive mastery in this standard (phonics and word analysis).

Competency #2: Teach Learning rather than Content

One can say that the Approaches to Learning (AtLs) are when we put the Learner Profile in action. So targeting this skill in our teaching craft is a vital component of our PYP practice.

Personally I think philosophically everyone agrees that we have to teach students HOW to learn, but putting the Approaches to Learning into practice feels a bit like roller skating on a dirt road at first. Moreover, this can be a really big shift for some teachers, especially for teachers in the intermediate grade levels who feel committed to covering the content in a discipline. So practitioners have to develop an understanding that the content becomes the context for learning HOW to learn, rather than merely acquiring knowledge.

We can use the example above with the 3rd grade ELA standards, extending this exercise in creating teacher questions with exploring what AtL is the focus/ could be the focus as we learn this. As we begin to ponder the AtLs, it also supports the practice of “split screen thinking”–that a lesson’s objective is a combination of the disciplinary knowledge/skill and development of the attributes of a learner.

Answering the question, what AtL is the focus/ could be the focus as we learn this? really depends on the goals of the unit of inquiry and what feels authentic during the learning engagements. Determing whether or not to target Social Skills, Thinking skills, Communication Skills, Self-Management Skills or Research Skills is also great fodder for a robust planning meeting.

Using the previous teacher question chart, here’s what this might look like:

Key Concept	Key Question	Teacher Question	What AtL can be developed?
Form	What is it like?	What is a prefix? What is a suffix?	Communication Skills: Students can define and give examples of prefixes and suffixes.
Function	How does it work?	How do readers decode multi-syllabic words?	Thinking Skills: Students can use word attack strategies to read and spell words.
Change	How is it transforming?	What happens to the meaning of a word when we change the prefix?	Thinking Skills: Students can analyze parts of words to understanding the meaning of a word.
Connection	How is it linked to other things?	How can identifying the base word help us decipher the meaning of a word?	Social Skills: Students can work in partnerships to examine words and identify the base word’s meaning.
Causation	Why is it as it is?	Why does Latin form the basis of our language?	Research Skills: Students can take notes and share their understanding of Latin’s influence on the English language.
Perspective	What are the points of view?	How are English words spelled differently in different English speaking countries?	Social Skills: Students can work in groups to generate a list of words that are spelled differently.
Responsibility	What are our obligations?	What are some ways we can remember irregular spellings of words?	Self-management skills: Students can come up with 3 ways that we can remember irregular spellings.

I’d also like to add that is excercise is a great scaffold for developing PYP assessment practices. When we consider which AtLs will be the focus, then it makes creating learning goals and success criteria more straightforward for teachers.

Competency #3: Listen More than Speak:

They say that you have to learn to walk before you can run. Well, this skill is in this same line of thinking: You can’t develop a penchant for student agency until you can be student-centered in your approach to learning, and you can’t be student-centered unless you value their voice during classroom learning.

I think developing this practice requires intention and being honest in answering this question after learning engagement:

What do we know about our learners that we didn’t know BEFORE this learning engagement?

Not only does answering this question help us to build our listening muscles, but is an essential component of teacher reflection and how we approach assessment in the PYP. We need to cultivate the skill of listening for learning in order to unearth possible misconceptions and analyze what needs to be the next step in the progression of conceptual understanding. If teachers dominate “air time” then we can’t make informed decisions. In my opinion, this is a precursor skill to documenting learning and helps PYP practitioners create structures to make thinking visible in the classroom.

In summary, I think if you want to get good at the PYP you have to develop your competencies to Question, Support, and Listen for learning.

I’m curious, if you are a seasoned PYP practitioner, what do think are the first steps and entry points for new-to-PYP or early-career PYP teachers? Share and add to this discussion!

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.

judyimamudeen.com

Post Pandemic: “New Normals” Worth Developing

By Judy Imamudeen | September 12, 2020 | Comments 2 comments

What is education?

Childcare?

Job Training?

Citizenship Development?

It seems like so many countries are grappling with the purpose of education, trying to balance the risk of bringing kids back to school. It is a critical moment in time when we really can evaluate our guiding principles in our societies. In so many ways, globally we are undergoing a “dark night of the soul”, deep in introspection as we reflect on all the incongruent “normals” in our educational systems.

I digress for a moment……

I like to explore the word education semantically for a moment. Its Latin origins, mean “to bring out; to lead forth”. The root implies that our intelligence is innate and can be developed.

When I think of this definition, I wonder what this global crisis has revealed about our educational systems?

Inequity between public and private education–YEP!

Teacher-Driven models of education are not sustainable or appropriate online–YEP!

Misguided or completely absent set of values in our systems?–YEP!

Inadequate training and professional development of our teachers, particularly in using technology in our instruction–YEP!

More care and concern are focused on our current-day economy than designing a more equitable future?–YEP!

But the most disturbing is the lack of organizational leadership and creative problem solving since the best we can do is hole ourselves up in our homes until this thing blows over. This fact right here is the absolute reason why we have to look carefully at our educational systems and make changes as we create more agile and dynamic schools. We can’t keep educating our future generations to look for answers outside of themselves–we need an “all hands on deck” approach that involves integrated and collaborative communities of problem-solvers.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you do not blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need more fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You look for reasons it is not doing well. You never blame the lettuce.

-Thich Nhat Hahn-

Now is the time to seize upon this opportunity to make constructive changes in our schools and educational systems. When we look at our current crop of “lettuce”, I feel a powerful and urgent need of changing minds and hearts when it comes to reconstructing education.

Purpose: Develop our Humanity

The International Baccalaureate is one of the few frameworks that actually defines who we want our students to become as a result of their learning. In a nutshell, we want to make “good humans”.

This shouldn’t be an exception, but should be a rule in ALL of our schools.

Yet so many schools still reflect a factory-model, industrial age approach to learning. In which when the system “spits them out” at the end, they have a conforming pattern and standardized base of knowledge. This is in direct opposition to what we know about our human design. Every aspect of who we are is unique and essential.

As educators, we must question the directives of our national and local authorities in order to change these definitions. We must demand to infuse our policies to account for improvements in our humanity, rather than look at defining our systems by creating subordinate and compliant masses who keep our economies chugging along.

But even if we can’t get change within our higher authority, we must be willing to be way-showers and make changes in our schools that move away from these vestiges of this outdated paradigm.

This graphic is from *Bold Moves for Schools*, ASCD, 2017, H.H. Jacobs and M.H. Alcoc and provides consideration of the areas in which our schools can shift from the traditional factory-model paradigm to a more fluid and contemporary model of education.

Teachers shouldn’t be waiting for leadership to make these changes. The level of complexity that it takes to make this shift is almost prohibitive. Teachers must dream and co-design with school leadership so that this is a thoughtful and collaborative grass-roots effort. Schools can’t restructure without a teamwork and ingenuity.

These shifts are not minor, these are transformational. We are providing structures that empower learners and create real-world applications that act as “training wheels” for dealing with challenges.

I hear Gandhi in my head …

It might take time but with collective and persistent patience, we can create a new future for education.

Redefine: Indicators of “performance” for evidence of learning

I remember a time when the standardized testing craze was contagious. I can recall a day when one of my Kiwi friends was lamenting that New Zealand was embracing the American antidote for education with school grading based upon students’ achievement on the general skill-based tests. As she was explaining the new direction that the NZ education system was going, her cheeks turned red with emotion. I had to sigh, remembering my own experience and stress of teaching to a test.

However, many schools get “graded” on student performance. The word performance implies some action or behavior that demonstrates a specific ability. Learning, on the other hand, is a process, an accumulation of knowledge gained through experience that changes behavior. Although there is a thread that links the two, we often confuse student data as an indicator of learning, when, in fact, it is really the other way around. Learning can only be demonstrated by actions taken by students of the skills they have acquired. Because of this, learning describes this innate capacity to “bring forth” our intelligence and creativity.

After this COVID crisis dies down and we return to our school, we must broaden our definition of performance that goes beyond knowing the “answers” to knowing the “problems” so that students can predict potential threats to our societies and create proactive solutions that innovate and address these areas of concern. It’s less about demonstrating knowledge and more about awareness.

A colleague of mine recently pointed out that there is not one standard in their national curriculum around discrimination and oppression. This is an example of how we censor reality.

Our national standards are helpful in understanding the cognitive milestones that we expect for numeracy and literacy, but they do not really reflect the “standards” we want for our humanity: kindness, resilience, cooperation, generosity, appreciation, curiosity, and joy. Content knowledge no longer holds the capacity for future success. We need “heart-based” standards and, as educators, model and facilitate the growth of emotional and situational intelligence.

Our students’ performance may not be as measurable and easy to assess when we focus on this area but I believe that we can still observe “learning” when students can manage conflict, articulate concerns, and self-manage their learning, returning home inspired and energized. Instead of knowledge, HOPE can be an indicator of performance standards.

Imagining New Normals

These are the “new normals” that I believe is worth striving for in a post-pandemic era of education: Value-based Goals for Education, Restructuring Systems of Learning, and Creating New “Performance Standards”.

When I consider the root meaning of “education”, I can’t help but contemplate what I wish to “to bring out; to lead forth” as a result of this experience. As difficult as this time is, we must lean on potential and think of the possible good that can come out of this experience.

What do you believe should become “new normals”? What do you hope to dream and scheme about as we reconsider the purpose of education?

Chaos to Clarity: PYP Practitioner Checklist for Synchronized and Asynchronized Learning

By Judy Imamudeen | August 29, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Six months. Half a year.

That’s been the length of this experience, and, as the Covid-19 numbers are not abating, the “finish line” is not in sight. Shutting ourselves up in our homes and pivoting suddenly has been quite agonizing. When schools all had to suddenly go online, we scrambled to figure out the technology to continue learning. Very few schools had the systems in place to support a smooth transition and while we trained teachers, we also had to train families and students. But here we are.

I think about the gifts that are “wrapped up in sandpaper” from this collective experience. The prize chief among this is developing resiliency, in which I can build mental and emotional strength. There is a real possibility for ‘Post-traumatic’ growth. So when I look at that graphic, I can reflect on all the domains and see how I am for the better due to this pandemic.

And, although this has been hell, there has a great opportunity to turn this into a positive experience for us professionally. This is really a powerful moment when we are being confronted with what we truly believe about student learning and the role of the teacher. So we are really grappling with how to figure out how to create self-directed learning and do online learning really, really well.

So, I feel one of the most important things I can do as a leader is to create clarity out of this confusion, provide structure despite the backdrop of turmoil and ambiguity. Thus, when our school revised our online learning plan, I really wanted to define how we can do the PYP online because what we would have done over the course of a day now must be condensed into a handful of learning experiences. I’ve developed an architecture around lesson planning for our teachers in order to support a meaningful and engaging learning experience for our students. For my new-to-the-PYP staff, I really wanted them to be able to name and notice the key areas of learning that we need to be planning for in our online learning program. Here is some of that thinking:

PYP Practitioner Checklist for Synchronized Learning

During this lesson, have I ….?

Lead with a Guiding Question so I can start with an inquiry stance
Developed a Concept
Provided opportunities to grow one or more Approaches to Learning (Atls)
Cultivated the Learner Profile (in the guiding question or as a part of self-reflection)
Taught through interaction in order to honor Social Constructivism (dialogue brings new understanding)
Embedded Assessment

Structuring our lessons intentionally to “cover” this checklist will eventually lead teachers to develop “muscle memory” with practice. It’s important that teachers can name and notice these aspects of the PYP in daily synchronized lessons, which we conduct through the Zoom platform. We continue to reflect and refine how we teach our live lessons.

But we also do a fair amount of learning through activities posted on SeeSaw. So, again, I have created another concise structure to delineate the elements that are important to cultivate self-navigating learners:

PYP Practitioner Checklist for Asynchronized Learning

Guiding Question (start with an inquiry-stance)
Concept Development
Success Criteria
Timely feedback

Here is an example of what a post looks like:

Although not stated in the checklist, teachers also have to include video, audio (translated into Portuguese), and visual instructions so that they can be successful in their learning. This is also included in our school’s online learning plan.

As we continue to reflect and review our practices, I think these structures will serve us post-pandemic because it helps to develop teacher efficacy or as it is more commonly known as “competance”. They say that Practice makes progress, so I am hopeful that these structures facilitate the process of progressing from incompetence to competence as a skillful PYP practitioner.

So, in my heart, I want to support my teachers with this clarity and design frameworks for online learning that will help all our teachers, new or experienced into refining their ability to “make the PYP happen” online. Although this is not perfect, I believe it is a step forward in helping teachers and can act as a catalyst for the mindful practice of our pedagogical principles.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

The Role of the Teacher during #RemoteLearning

By Judy Imamudeen | April 21, 2020 | Comments 1 comment

Indefinite.

That’s the word that currently describes the state of our school’s remote learning. What began as a 2-week quarantine has transformed into a vague timeline. It’s no wonder why people have now redubbed this experience as “emergency learning” since the typical planning and preparation that might have gone into this situation was stymied by the gravity of this crisis. We jumped first before we actually knew how to swim.

But as teachers, we are resilient. We can go with the punches. Flexibility. Humor. Patience. Those rarely show up on our job descriptions but are foundational skills for anyone who makes it past their third year in the classroom.

However, we aren’t the teachers any more.

Not really. It’s the parents.

But in my mind, parents are always the first and last teacher of any child. I borrow their children for a few hours. However, parents never recognized their role as teachers, until now. They may have been educating them in their values and beliefs in a passive way, whereas, we as professionals, are intentional and precise with the skills we want them to have.

When I heard these thoughts shared, I felt it summarized the juxtaposition of this moment:

What gives us energy? Not when the work is small and menial and easy. But when the work is big and important and collaborative. It adds up to something. Everything we believe in is now being put to the test.

-Lucy Calkins, Teaching and Leading in the Midst of COVID-19

So true.

I, like so many educators, am looking for wisdom. A beacon light that will guide me through this experience. But not because I don’t know how to teach. Or that the teachers I lead don’t know how to teach. No, they may struggle with the online environment but they are eager to be effective. The motivation is there. But I lean in and listen because I am seeking the insight in how we might pilot families through these stressful times.

In my mind, this is the role of the teacher during this COVID-19 crisis. It’s helping parents claim their legitimate position as their child’s teacher, despite their lack of pedagogical know-how.

We may design lessons and engage with students online but, to the families, who we are and what we do is so much more valuable than that. Our relationship has shifted. They see who were are and what we do differently……

We are trainers. We instruct them in how to set up their child’s schedule and their learning environment.

We are mentors. We build a genuine connection and share stories of their child’s learning.

We are coaches. We collect data from them. They are the eyes and ears of our student’s learning. We urge them into supporting their child’s next steps.

We encourage. We remind them that what they are doing is hard but it will get better. They can do this. Keep the faith in the capacity to figure things out.

We support. We explain what is working and why it’s helpful to do what matters, as many times as it takes. We never give up. We are there for them.

We remember. We remind them that their child was born to be curious and has a strong desire to learn, even if they don’t always show it. They are growing intellectually, mentally and spiritually during this time. It is their human nature to do so.

We acknowledge. We share our gratitude. We smile. We laugh. We give grace.

We are human.

This is the role of the teacher. Indefinitely.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

Is Agency the same as Personalized Learning?

By Judy Imamudeen | March 7, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

There are two words that are trending in education right now: Agency and Personalized Learning. It’s rather funny that these ideas have been around since the 1960’s and are now emerging as shaping forces in our educational paradigms. However, I hear them used as if they are synonymous, but are they the same thing?

Is Agency the same as Personalized Learning?

This is a question that has been tumbling in my mind for a while. Ever since the PYP introduced the new branding symbol, I kept staring at the center of it and wondering how schools were really going to be “enhanced” by the updates? enhanced pyp I also have been seeing a trend in which schools are starting to shift from a guided inquiry into an open inquiry approach, giving primary students, particularly ones in the upper grades, more say in the content of their learning. Although I have not directly visited those schools, I am given the impression that the children get to write their own units and learning is on their terms, in this way, the learning is quite personal and self-directed. I think these schools must be highly motivated to be innovative and deeply committed to this ambitious approach; from leadership to every member of staff, they focus their energy on creating a student self-directed learning approach. So is THIS personal learning? Personalized learning, by its definition, is to customize learning for each student’s strengths, needs, skills, and interests. So what can be more agentic than this?-As a student, I ultimately choose what I learn and when I learn it and teachers just coach me into my next steps.

So should we, as PYP schools be creating more personalized learning for students in order to enhance our student agency? Hmmm…..

A learning community that supports agency offers opportunities for students to develop important skills and dispositions, such as critical and creative thinking, perseverance, independence and confidence. These are vital to the learning process and the development of self-efficacy. The learning community further offers students multiple opportunities to experience the impact of their choices and opinions, which support their evolving perceptions of their identity. In return, students with a stronger sense of self-efficacy bring a stronger sense of agency to the learning community.

From The Learner – PYP, developed by the International Bacchaleurate

After reflecting on that, it seems to me that the answer is NO. Personalized Learning and Agency are not the same thing. Moreover, schools do not have to create “Studios” or “Learning Labs” in which teachers are supporting 20 different personal units of inquiry that the students have created in order for students to have agency. Of course, this is fabulous to have these structures and resources but to assume that this is the gold standard that all of our PYP schools should be doing would be missing the point of the enhancements. It’s about student empowerment, not individual inquiries or personalized learning tracks. So we don’t need a lot of tech and teachers in order to do this. How this looks may differ according to the context and budget considerations of that school. But to think that we need to recreate the wheel in order for us to cultivate student agency would build more barriers to getting started now in our classrooms. We need to think about learner agency as self-efficacy and not individualization. When you look at that excerpt, its the culture of the Learning Community is what creates learner agency, and this is more about developing competency and confidence and less about designing specialized learning spaces.

Agency is Self-directed Learning

The book, Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning by John Spencer and AJ Juliani, to me is one of the best books out there that really empower articulates how student agency can happen in our classroom. When students have the motivation and skills to explore content, they can take action that goes above and beyond our expectations for them. They can develop self-direction. THIS is the GOLD STANDARD that we should be aspiring to.

Moreover, this book helps educators to cultivate the mindset necessary to relinquish control of classroom learning so that learners can become self-directed. It contained an important question in there that I think teachers should tape to their computers (or planning books) when they are sitting down to lesson plan:

What decisions am I making for students that they could make for themselves?

I know I found myself going to my class and asking the students “How might we….”

show what we know about this concept
explore this idea
experience our learning differently

No bells or whistles were required. It was about bringing them into the planning of their learning and supporting their decisions. Sometimes students wanted to go off and do their own thing, but more often than not, it meant collaborating with peers. I think this is why we shouldn’t confuse personalized learning with agency, especially since we, as PYP educators, are social-constructivists. We shouldn’t create “learning islands” in our classrooms, rather learning hubs, in which we can connect with different people and resources because, in the real world, this is often what we do to solve problems. This is true ownership of learning. This is the essence of a true Learning Community. We need to work at getting REALLY GOOD at collaboration, so students know who and what can support them in their personal growth.

PYP Coordinator Footnote

As a leader of learning at my school, I can’t begin to express how much misunderstanding there is out there about student agency. I know I have to be careful to tread lightly on pushing student agency without being more informed about how I can support my teachers in supporting their learners. We get into vigorous conversations about this term and often teachers feel that this means that we should “kill” teacher-directed lessons or if we help students manage their decision making, we are squashing their agency. It seems that many teachers equate agency with kids having a free-for-all in classroom learning. Or, on the other hand, we should be differentiating every lesson all the time. Yikes! These are extremes.

So, I think we need to be careful about how we approach this at our schools.

I’m wondering what other terms like “personalized learning” are getting confused with Agency at your schools. Please share so we discuss and debate, arriving at greater clarity and purpose when implementing the PYP enhancements at our schools.

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com

“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

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.