Scandinavian Student Achievement: A Discourse

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Kristy Lundström, Head of School, Scandinavian School of Brussels

How can we plan in a way that leads to better learning? How do we involve students more in their own learning? How do we stay focused on the learning goals, both the schoolwide and the specific course goals? These are the important questions we asked ourselves last spring. We knew we wanted more structure. We knew we wanted more focus. We knew we wanted our students to be empowered to take charge of their own learning.

So, we established Period Planning @ SSB. Based on the idea of focusing on fewer goals in a shorter period with frequent feedback, we broke up the school year into 6 six-week periods with a startup and end week.

Our first step was to identify schoolwide goals for each period. These are the goals that permeate our learning at all times - empathy, respect, equality, problem-solving, and more. Of course, we will not only work with these goals for five weeks and then forget about them . . . instead we focus on specific parts each period, but all are important all of the time.

Next, we created a structure for all teachers to use as they plan their courses. The planning document requires the teacher to highlight the exact curricular goals to be met each period and explain how the complicated language of the national curricula could be translated so that the students can understand. Then, together with the students, teachers are required to write down what methods they will use, how the students will be assessed, and how we will document the progress of each student.

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When thinking through this new system of schoolwide planning, we quickly realized that we would need to increase time for teachers to thoughtfully assess, document, and report the progress. The benefit of this period system would be that students and teachers would have more frequent and more accurate feedback to use when planning the next period of learning. So, we decided to establish transition weeks. Transition weeks are special weeks between each period where we can focus on assessment. Special schedules allow for project work, class trips, leadership classes, and more.

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This method of using frequent assessment to inform the next step in the learning is called formative assessment. Formative assessment is required by our Nordic curricula.

One example is in Norway, vurdering for læring.

There is a large body of research supporting formative assessment. Maybe the most impressive is John Hattie's work that cites this type of continual feedback to students and using this information to influence the next phase of learning can increase the students' results by as much as 99%!

(Youtube link to Hattie’s latest speech on visible learning - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9hAtb-o8-Q&feature=youtu.be )

We have completed 4 periods and are now evaluating the process to make improvements for next year.  It hasn’t been completely problem-free . . . students were not used to the process and were untrained in self-assessment, teachers want even more time to assess before they plan for the next period of learning, and transition weeks are totally crazy.

But, we all agree – everyone is more tuned in to “what we are learning – specifically . . . right now”.  Has student achievement improved?  Stay tuned, national exams start in two weeks!

Kristy Lundström, Head of School
Scandinavian School of Brussels
www.ssb.be

Kristy is a school leader focused on learning – where does it happen, when does it happen, how can we make it happen?  She is interested in instructional technology and varied methods – so that all students can experience real and relevant learning. She has worked as a mathematics and computer science teacher and as a school leader in the US, Sweden, and now at the Scandinavian School of Brussels in Belgium.  Follow her blog at www.everyonelearnseveryday.wordpress.com.

How to Make a Game of History

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

by Taylor Nix, World History Teacher

image courtesy of en.wikibooks.org

My 1st hour World History class was struggling at the beginning of the year. I teach in a very low income area that is plagued with utter apathy. My 1st hour was by far the worst of my classes. Getting a single student to raise their head from the desk to even look in my general direction was difficult. No lie. As I listened to them in the hallways between classes I began to hear that many of my students were gamers. I have a decent amount of experience as a gamer and so  I decided that I would turn my classroom into an adventure role playing game.

I enacted my plan at the beginning of the 3rd quarter after Christmas break. Each of my students was no longer an ordinary student at a desk, they were world explorers of their own choosing. The first stage was creating their characters. They picked a name, a class (a specific role a character fills), and even wrote short background stories that explained who they are and where they came from. We decided to split into two teams which would work to compete against each other in classroom activities.

From now on I was Mstrnix, the leader of a group of data gathering soldiers bound and determined to gather and collect information about different civilizations throughout history. Each day in class they would be given a different quest to venture on and experience. Some days both teams would work towards one goal, some days they would do solo quests, and others would be team oriented. Turning in work that was done in class would yield them experience points, also called XP. The xp would be added up in order to cause their character to “level up”.  In the gaming world leveling a character can allow you to use better items, go to new places, and learn new abilities. Each player (student) would start out at level 1 and by doing quests would increase their levels allowing them to use new items, attend parties, and learn abilities that they would not previously have.

I pointed to the back of the room where there was a brand new bulletin board with 8 sheets of paper on it. I explained that every Tuesday I would post 8 new quests on the board for them to complete. They would have from Tuesday to Tuesday to complete them and they have to complete at least 4 of them each week. Five of the quests were for individual completion, while the other three were designed to be completed with either a partner or a member of their team.

Loot, as it is called in the game-o-sphere, is what drives most players to continue to play the game, the idea that you can make your character more super awesome than it already is, and most importantly to increase your stats. All of their loot was designed to fit one of the three categories. I made it extremely simple in that students only have two stats, attack and defense. The heavy class was designed to buff up their defense stat, the medium to be an equal balance of attack and defense, while the light class was to build up the attack stat.

At the end of each chapter I would use a jeopardy type of template to create what I call a “raid”. In the gaming world the most challenging play comes from battling extremely difficult opponents in an attempt to get rare and powerful items. The same was true in my class version. To review for the test we split into teams and using my template would simulate this. I would have five categories on the board that represented different hallways for the raid. Once a group chose a hallway they would attempt to go through five doors of increasing difficulty to get to the boss at the end of the hall. They would first choose a door, I would ask them a question, if they got it right they would go through the door. On the other side of the door was a culturally or area specific creature or monster which would have its own attack and defense stat. The students would roll a dice to determine if their attacks were successful and whether or not they survived. If they defeated their foe they would receive a number of items to split up amongst their team. The day after the raid they would individually fill out a “field report” that documented their encounters in the raid. If you didn’t catch on the field report is just a standard test that covers the chapter or section that we have completed.

I would love to continue explaining some of the other workings and ideas that I have implemented in this hour, but I feel that I am getting a bit off subject a little bit. The key point that I want to drive home to you fellow educators is to embrace your student’s interests. I do not believe that what I have created is in any way a cure all for every class. That being said, I have found a way to inspire and motivate kids to do quality work by using their own creativity and interests in a positive way. They show up to my class ready to succeed and more importantly ready to play. I won’t lie and tell you that it is easy to plan because it’s not. It is almost life consuming to plan just this one class, but I can’t stop. If there was ever any evidence for why I became a teacher it is because of what I have seen in this class.

Job-Embedded Professional Development Critical for Successful Implementation of the Common Core

People can be encouraged to change, but if the structure of the system in which the individuals work does not support them or allow enough flexibility, improvement efforts will fail.”  Todnem & Warner (1994)

A guest post by Bobby Moore,  Senior Director of Effective Practices at Battelle for Kids

Recently, I co-presented to a group of about 100 administrators during an Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators’ “Hot Topics” workshop.  The hot topic was “Transitioning to the Common Core,” but the theme of our presentation was job-embedded professional development. Ohio has evolved through proficiency tests, achievement tests, and now is transitioning to the Common Core. Historically with every new set of standards and accountability measures our students, teachers, schools, and districts have struggled. Then, after a few years, many would adapt and eventually become efficient and proficient. With today’s tumultuous environment in education, we cannot afford to adjust “after” the standards become implemented. We must be ready immediately to perform tasks and answer questions at proficient levels when the new Common Core Standards take effect in 2014. Teachers and schools will only be truly prepared through job-embedded professional development. 

As a former principal, superintendent, and now in my role at Battelle for Kids, where I lead a school-improvement collaborative of 122 Ohio districts, I have found that the key to this work is not about multiple initiatives; it’s about taking a focused approach. From my personal experience and research, the three strategies with the highest impact in accelerating student progress and achievement are:

1.    Building capacity around formative instructional practices system wide;

2.    Adopting a systematic approach to struggling (and advanced) students; and

3.    Embedding purposeful collaboration or job-embedded professional development.

Job-embedded professional development is much more than hosting one-day workshops, conferences, or inviting guest speakers to meet with your staff. This should be the time in which the adults in the building come together for purposeful learning and collaboration to improve student growth. I believe there is enough talent and expertise in every school in America that can be shared and developed. We do not have to fire our way to Finland or hire only graduates who are cum laude to create excellent schools. As a new principal and a new superintendent, our district focused on these three key strategies and as a result, we created schools that produced the top 4 percent of value-added results in the state and received the highest state ranking by committing to the three previously mentioned initiates with the teachers already employed in the district.

How do teachers become better at applying effective formative instructional practices? Through job-embedded professional development.

When do teachers share information about struggling students? This is also achieved through job-embedded professional development. 

School leaders must create structures and build in time and procedures for teachers to come together during the school day to learn and grow. School leaders should also participate as active team members sharing and growing. During this time, teachers can share best practices, develop learning targets, create common assessments, participate in online learning opportunities, and support each other in their work. 

Job-embedded professional development is a critical way to not only help teachers and school leaders prepare for the Common Core, but also to create a culture of learning, collaboration, and improvement in our schools, and most importantly, prepare our students for success in college, in their careers, and in life.

Bobby Moore is the Senior Director of Effective Practices at Battelle for Kids, a not-for-profit organization that works with states and school districts and across the country to improve educator effectiveness and accelerate student growth. He can be reached at bmoore@BattelleforKids.org.

Encouraging Entrepreneurial Behaviour at an Early Age

Here's a guest post that Isaac floated my way, and I must admit, I'm not sure that I agree with him. But rather than censor articles that I don't agree with, I'd like to see what you think. Are math, science, and logic the most essential skills to develop for entrepreneurs? Do children need to develop social behavior in order to succeed? As a creative guy (I'm a writer) who is also quite quirky (I repeat, I'm a writer), I'm inclined to disagree. What do you think?

Success at being an entrepreneur is all about innovation. Being able to see things in a new light by taking a more efficient road leads to a more productive society. This is why it is important to develop entrepreneurial skills at a young age to encourage growth in this area. The more young business people we have in the world, the better off and more efficient society will be as a whole.

image courtesy of patrickdriessen.blogspot.com

People are becoming billionaires at younger ages than ever. The developers of Google were college students when they first came up with the idea for the search engine. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, was a young student at Harvard when he created his revolutionary social media site. Also young entrepreneurs were the makers of YouTube; a new platform for sharing videos online. These new ideas and developments came from minds of the youth and were successfully transformed into very profitable business ventures.

One of the biggest reasons it is possible for young people to be successful in the world of entrepreneurship is because persons are becoming competent with computers at earlier stages in life. Understanding technology is vital for many reasons. It allows for the transition of good thoughts into stellar products. Computers are one of the fastest changing technologies and innovation with software and programs allows for tailoring to fit a niche market. A young entrepreneur will need to be competent with computers to be successful. For this reason, instill a thirst for knowledge in the virtual world and a better society will rise because of it.

Similarly, it is important for young people to have a sound sense of logic. Computers are a manifestation of logic and are capable of only answering yes or no questions. However, asking the right questions enables programs to do incredible things. Math and science are also based in logic and person with good skills this area will have a leg up in the world of business. Young entrepreneurial people will need solid math and logic skills to achieve their life goals.

All of these skills must start developing as soon as possible. This starts with great teachers and instruction. Children with potential usually have early signs of their precociousness. Watch for keen insight, strength in math and science, and a willingness to learn not just for school but also for the love of knowledge. Encourage after school programs that develop logic and reason. Also, stimulating games like chess or bridge are a great way to further increase these skills.

Becoming a young entrepreneur will not be without its difficulties. One of the most priceless assets is life lessons. Many people who begin their business venture will run into situations they have not previously encountered. This is why it is also vital to have good relationships with other business minded people and mentors to encourage a person when faced with a difficult situation. Networking is the key to any successful venture. Knowing when and who to ask for help are essential.

This is why social development is also an important behaviour to develop at an early age. A closed off child who does not like to play with others may show tendencies to isolate in later stages of life. Encourage kids to have strong relationships with friends and family. Engage in conversations with children. One of the biggest mistakes parents can make is being overly dictatorial and not listening to what a child has to say. Instead of exclusively telling a child what to do, ask them what they think or what they have learned. A business person will need to lead; not to follow. Confidence will build in kids who are routinely allowed to express themselves and can do so in an interesting way.

Developing social skills later in life is also important in the world of business. Many people judge a person not only on content but also on professional appearance as well. Take speech classes to gain confidence when speaking in front of large groups. Business etiquette courses are also available. This will allow for young people to become competent and strong minded. First establishing connections and networking with other businesses requires confidence and an ability to present one's ideas not only in a logical manner but in a convincing way as well.

Isaac is a keen business blogger whose favourite writing subjects are successful entrepreneurship, automatic enrollment and social media.