Guest Teacher Blogger – Winner of the 2012 Sopris Learning Blog Contest!
By Michelle S. George
A colleague of mine was talking recently about a news story she’d heard featuring a medical clinic. It seems that this clinic is on the cutting edge of medicine because they are moving toward “transparency” with their patients. In effect, the clinicians are sharing medical information with the people most intimately affected, the patients themselves.
My response was a resounding, “Duh!” It seemed obvious to me that if you want a successful treatment plan for a person, that person needs to truly understand the prognosis, treatment options, and best practices for a successful recovery. It took me a while to realize, however, that the same truth applies to education. Yet many of us are still hesitant to share the sacred secrets of our craft.
Traditionally, America’s public education system made education something that we did to our students. Professionals designed curriculum before the students even entered the building. Teachers met with parents and guardians in the evening to discuss academic progress while the students were home in front of the TV. When the parents went home, they either rewarded the young scholars for meeting and exceeding expectations, or punished them for falling short. Teachers evaluated papers in the wee hours and delivered grades long after the work, and the mistakes, were made.
It’s a bit like the traditional protocol for Type 2 diabetes. Doctors knew what caused it, they knew how to prevent it, but treatment often didn’t begin until the disease set in. Perhaps that clinic in the news story has a good idea.
Today many schools are working toward transparency as well. Schools are instituting student-led conferences. Educators empower students to set their own goals, make specific plans to work toward those goals, and evaluate their own progress based on real data. Teachers are working hard to design inquiry learning units that allow students to choose the content of their research. Teachers are not only designing learning based on pre-assessments, but they are also sharing those results with the very people who are most affected: the students.
I know that my teaching has changed dramatically in the past decade. When I began teaching, student ownership was limited to choosing team names and picking the novel to read for a literature group. I’ve been trying to involve my students, but I’m beginning to see that I still have a long way to go. This year one of my goals is to achieve more transparency with my students. I’ve used pre-assessments for years, but now I’m explicitly sharing those results and explaining my strategies for improving learning.
For example, I teach keyboarding to my seventh graders. The first day I had them all take a timed typing test. I counted both speed and accuracy. I then shared some research on the benefits of learning touch typing. Did you know that “hunt and peck” typists reach speeds of about 27 wpm when copying text while the average touch typist reaches speeds between 50 and 70 wpm? My students do, and it helps them persevere and teach their fingers where the keys are rather than peeking under our lab keyboard covers. It’s not that it makes the learning any easier; it’s just that they see value in that learning. They see what’s in it for them. Of course they still moan a bit and take a peek now and again, but overall they are practicing correctly.
The best part is they are getting better, and they know it. Last week we took another timed typing test, and all of my students were significantly faster than when we began. What’s more, they are beginning to compose at the keyboard rather than using it simply as a means to Internet access. They are realizing that their success is directly dependent on their own efforts. What a concept!
I think I’ll continue sharing student information with my students. After all, no one wants to work on getting better if they don’t know they’re sick.
Michelle S. George is a language arts middle school teacher in Orofino, Idaho. She has a B.A. in English and secondary certification in English, reading, and journalism. Michelle has been teaching seventh and eighth grade for 20 years, and still loves going to school—as a teacher and a student. She has published a variety of lesson plans and written several award-winning grants
