The Powers of Questions

A child sits in the back of the car and looks out the window. Abruptly the child shouts out, what's that? With little awareness the child has of other conversations occurring around him, the child's curiosity has been engaged and simply wants to know what he is seeing. Of course, we answer. We think to ourselves all questions are good questions.

The child grows older and slowly becomes a preteen. The questions still come. Dad, why do I have to do this? When are we going to get this? Why are you doing that? The questions change. The curiosity is still in place but internal motivation has arrived. The child wants to do something or not do something. The question in a relative simplistic fashion provides insight into the child's intentions and interests.

As the child enters their teenage and early adult years, the technique becomes more sophisticated. Can I borrow the car keys? Can you complete the FAFSA for me? What would you do if a friend said this? The teenager/early adult learns to mask their interest by hiding it in situations others are experiencing or by simplifying the question to mask intent. The individual knows what they want, but searches for ways not to give their position.

As adults the questions continue to become more sophisticated. Each question asked in front of an audience in a certain way to provide insight and to produce a certain effect. Why do we have to administer this PARCC assessment? How are parents going to perceive this? What if we tried this, would this be ok? Sometimes adults ask questions for clarification, would it be ok if we completed the form this way? As other times we ask questions to establish a position, how will a third grader be able to sit for that length of time? At times adults ask to move a process forward, what if we tried this instead? Adults can also ask questions to impede a process or procedure, but what if this happens or but what about this? Recognizing the insight and effect of a line of questioning is important and powerful leaders, participants, coaches, and audience members. Sometimes questions adult questions are valuable and sometimes they are individuals ways of creating roadblocks. When working with adults it is ok at times not to answer every question. For some questions, there are no answers. For some questions, the answer is that they will not get their preferred outcome. The difference between "what if this happens?" and "if this happens, could we try this?" is enormous. One participant is invested in you solving the problem and one person is invested in solving the problem with you. We are all in a better place when we are solving the problem together.

How Much for the Squirrel?

I Reward Grades but Should I Reward Learning

When you are on a high school sports team, your grades are always part of the team conversation. Under the guise of "academic eligibility" coaches and peers lean into each other in order to ensure that everyone is on the right track. There are also recognitions for athletes who are also superior students. While, personally I wasn't too invested, seeing as my academic goals were to insure that I got the discount for my car insurance, others started to notice that one of the highest grade point averages on the team was from a guy who took below level academics. We were a large high school and he said, "hey, grade point counts, and a college is going to see biology and physics on the transcript. As long as I have a decent ACT and those words are there, I'm set." The reality was he was right. He didn't work hard, got his 4.0, and went to the college of his choice. He was rewarded while still taking in our eyes the easy route.

As we are moving to differentiated growth-based learning, a parent converses with one of our second grade teachers about why his/her child is getting so many more wrong on assignments. The teacher shares with the parent, that the child is no longer doing "second grade work" but actually skills from the "fourth grade level." As such, instead of the child knowing the concepts before the lesson began, the child is learning in class, growing, making mistakes, and working over the mountain to understand. 

The reality is we are changing from age-based learning environments to growth-based learning environments. In an age-based learning environment we can rank the children as they enter the system, and pretty closely identify their rank for when they leave the system. Moreover, we could probably rank them by mother's level of education and socio-economic status and pretty closely identify their rank for when they leave the system. In a growth-based learning environment, we take off the ceiling. Even the high children have places to go. Everyone has a chance to move forward, everyone has challenges, and everyone has to find it within themselves to succeed. Growth at the individual level meritocracy. It is also a roller coaster.

In order to report growth, we also need to take the ceiling off of our system. We need to show how far any child can achieve and what the next steps can be for any child. Grade level standards are not enough. So many of our children are well above and well below "grade level" that it isn't meaningful to compare. Yes we can pay for grades. We can pay for grade level standards. Are we ready to pay for children to appropriately struggle and achieve? The following picture of six children receiving the same grade has been floating around the internet:

The question is which child learned? Is it the fourth child who struggled on units 1 and 2 and achieved on units 3-5? Is a grade of C appropriate for that child? Is it the sixth child that missed almost nothing but received a zero on Unit 5? Is a grade of C appropriate for that child? How about child two who decreased evenly on every unit? The reality is that these grades tell us nothing. If we reward grades what exactly are we rewarding? We, parents, students, and educators need to learn to reward learning. We may think that we understand what grades mean, but do we? We may worry that children don't know what it means and can't find rewards without grades. However, just like in video games and sports, students are able to handle challenges, work hard, and find meaning when they "level up!" Can we level up our system to support their learning?

The Last Starfighter

Other People's Children

Each June, we take the hundred mile drive to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin to drop our son off at summer camp. It's a family tradition. A sacred trust. An experience that he is now participating in for the fourth time. One his parents, aunt, uncles, and his great uncle participated in. It is perhaps one of the few opportunities that has truly gone "l'dor va dor" from generation to generation. As we drop off this young man, we will see energetic young staff members: Seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old. They will put their arms around his shoulders. They will smile with him. They will work to get him involved in the opening day activity. We will take a picture, walk away anxiously to the medical center to drop off his medicines and then we will turn and see Paula. There she will be walking from the medical center or towards the office the same as she had been 20 years ago to take care of us as staff, perhaps 30 years ago as kids. And it will be alright.

See, the seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen year old counselors, they are great. Many of them were our former students. A generation ago, we were them. They truly are the best of the best. They are energetic. They are caring. They are well meaning. They will invest they lives into make my child's experience great. However, they haven't lived through it. I know, I was one of them. My friends were them. My wife was them. We were selected for our energy, our compassion, our skills, and our character. We charted great opportunities for kids. We made a difference in lives. But there were times when we would work with a child and say, if they only did this, or if that parent only did that.

One of the best jobs in the world is being a grandparent. You have lived through the daily grind of raising children, you have gone up the mountain, come down the other side to see the valley. You have experienced successes of raising children and the mind numbing nights of why doesn't that young man or woman get it. You have looked across the aisle and handed them in partnership off to another and now you are given this blessing to see come forward. In this blessing you see the greatness of your off spring as well as your off spring struggle with some of the same battles you went through. Challenges without answers. Situations that blew your mind a generation ago and now, with time, perspective, and having lived the journey you recognize it is simply part of the journey.

There is a sacred trust you have as a teacher, counselor, camp director, principal, administrator, priest, rabbi, or superintendent. A trust to care, raise, and support the next generation. A daily compact in which a parent hands to you their baby and asks, "please care for my child as if they were your own." A compact as well meaning as we are, we don't understand until we have rugrats of our own running through our legs at a public forum. A compact we don't understand until it's ten minutes past curfew and the door hasn't opened yet. We mean well, we care, we are passionate, but we don't get it until that moment.

I received a letter from a former parent of a school I worked at the other day. She had that child who wasn't easy to figure out. She had the child who "found trouble." When she found me, or perhaps we found each other, she found a willing ear who didn't think there was an easy answer. We shared stories of challenge and embarrassment. Stories of my childhood, stories raising my children, stories of her siblings, and her child. We brainstormed possibilities and opportunities. It was not a moment of advice, not a moment of giving answers, but rather a series dialogues for exploration. She and her husband searched, explored, and tried answers. Some failed. Some succeeded. Now several years later, her child is being recognized as being a model citizen. A tribute to him and to them. A difficult journey but an important and powerful one.

See that's the thing we don't get as teachers, parents, administrators, and clergy. Until we are there. Until we are in those moments with our kids it's hard to understand the nuanced facets of what that child could need and that the answers are not as simple as we believe. At that moment, we understand that each of us is truly trying the best we can and sometimes it works. Yep, best job in the world is being a grandparent. You've played your hand, rode the roller coaster, and come out successfully on the other side. Thank you to all my teachers, principals, and counselors who struggled through the journey with me. Thank you to my parents and in-laws who now get to laugh as we figure things out. Thank you to Paula, Jerry, and Susan who will care for my child and and hundreds of other campers as they help a new generation of energetic well meaning counselors learn the sacred trust of raising other people's children.

Parenthood

Learning Structures that Work and that Really Work

I remember classes. I was there to pass your test. I could listen, stare, interject three answers (because I couldn't sit still), and get an A on your test. I would do only enough homework to ensure that I kept the good driver's discount for my car insurance "B" average). Theoretically I was an example of a child who learned. I was a success story. I was in the top 25% of a good school, went on to college, grad school, a career. Ask me which teacher's I remember that I had. Over thirty different teachers and I can give you 6. Mrs. Lindahl, Dr. Antonoff, Mr. Mundt, Mr. Wiemerslage, Mr. Catalani, and Monsieur Totz. I can remember Ron Cey's batting average in 1983 (.275), I can remember Michael Jordan sinking 6 three-pointers in 1992 against the Portland Trailblazers, but I can't name the majority of my high school teachers that I spent over 150 hours each with.

Furthermore, lets break down who I do remember. Mrs. Lindahl was a mom of another swimmer on the swim team. I saw her for years before I saw her in class. I still remember her class vividly. It was chemistry and we did a lot of lab experiments. Dr. Antonoff was the diving coach and one of the greatest English teachers a live. He sat, he talked with you, he'd question, he'd hang out. I think I took 3 classes from him and that was not enough. Mr. Mundt, well I don't remember almost anything of his class, only that he had used bathroom English to explain the difference between articles and pronouns. I walked away one day laughing about the grammatical difference between what is written on a bathroom stall from "this sucks" and "this school sucks." Cute, humorous, stuck 20 something years later, 150+ hours and that is what I walked away with. Mr. Wiemerslage, physics teacher, I don't remember the class or anything he said, simply that I slept all of swim season in class and made sure I got an A in all the rest of it. Mr. Catalani had the sludge test. Two weeks of figuring out what's in a mystery vial. It's all your's go do it. Monsieur Totz, caught me reading the sports section in French class and made me read the sports section from a French paper in class.

Most of my classes had nearly 30 people in them. We had over 3000 students as a school. I learned. I graduated. I walked away with very little. It was a good school that I am proud to have graduated from.

This is why we are asking the wrong questions. Can we learn in a lecture? Can we learn in whole group? The answer is yes. Of course we can. Or at least a segment of our students can. Can we learn enough content to pass a test? Will they remember it 3, 5, 7, 15 years later? Try it. Conjugate the verb "ser."

What were the commonalities of the effective classes I remember? They had us doing things. It was small group conversations, discussions, contextual experiences. The teachers didn't think about the 150 students they had, but who they were going to talk with this hour. For other classes, all I have is a funny moment or a misdeed by me to remember the class. 150+ hours and here is my parting gift, me napping because I'm overtired from swim practice.

Perhaps the questions are not can they learn in whole group or will they increase from pre-test to post-test in my class. The simple answer is they will. Kids are programmed to do that. Perhaps the real questions are more difficult. Can I help them become independent learners? Can I maximize their growth? Can I help them become collaborative problem-solvers? Can I help them create situations in which they will retain information not for the moment but for a lifetime? When we ask these question, not questions of content coverage but questions of learner development, the paradigm changes. It is in these situations that we see gamification, genius-hour, problem-based learning, growth model student development step forward. It is these situations, the sludge test, the chemistry labs, the French sports section, the small group book discussions, that resonate for a lifetime. These are the instructional methods that change learners. That last a lifetime. Ask yourself, who you remember and why? You'll find it's not because you were learning in the whole group but rather you had someone personalize opportunities for you to develop.

Can we "teach" them? Yes. Will they learn for a lifetime, only if we allow them to be an active participant in the journey.

Student's Have Thoughts and Occasionally Share Them

Born On Dating or as my son would say, BANANA!

About 5 years ago, Budweiser started a campaign regarding the freshness of beer. The commercial focused on the fresher the beer the better the taste. By grouping certain bottles together, you would be more likely to get a bottle that was ready to be tasted. I would assume by the lack of companies that followed this advertising trend that people realized your beer is not a banana. There is no small window in which it is ripe than turns sour. Most often beer is bottled and ready to be consumed when we are ready to partake.

Since we moved from the one room school house to the current framework of learning, we have transitioned from helping kids learn skills & competencies they were ready for to our own version of born on dating. As Sir Ken Robinson points out in his Changing Educational Paradigms video, we use a factory model to put children through learning challenges as if they were bottles of beer or a collection of widgets. Each child being delivered certain content at certain ages, completing certain contents at certain times. Our children learn that they become just cogs in a factory wheel.

I have two children. Into them they have had the same genes, similar formative experiences, similar amounts of years of preschool, same school growing up, and similar extracurriculars. For many things they are the same. As learners, they couldn't be more opposite. Both have the ability to learn at high levels but both demonstrate readiness and learning in different ways. Providing the factory-based methodology that we often provide would most often not meet either child's needs. What if we were to change the paradigm? What would it take to create the efficiencies of the factory model yet provide for the individual nature of child's development?

Big data has come to education. We are able to ask questions that we have never been able to ask before. We can identify with relative accuracy what content skills a child knows and what learning targets they should be working on next. When we ask deeper questions about those competencies and targets we frequently discover that the assessments are accurate but our age-based learning is not. By using the factory model we often create artificial ceilings for many children and push forward some children to attempt competencies they are not ready to master.

What would happen if we truly focused on what children need to learn next. Lets we let go of traditional grades, which rank children comparatively by age and don't tell us exactly what a child knows or doesn't know. Lets also let go of traditional standards-based grade models which tell us more about what a child knows but still rely on comparative rank while not identifying what each child needs to learn next. We could develop longitudinal frameworks for learning. What are all the competencies and skills within a subject a child needs to learn? Just like a patient's chart at a doctor's office, we could mark off the status of where the child is at now and what they need to accomplish next. From here, guided grouping could meaningfully occur. Simply, we add our longitudinal data to a database that also contains our standardized assessment data and we could provide in school meaningful learning opportunities with the personnel we have.

An example of this. Lets say we are working on number sense. If I have the longitudinal classroom data and standardized data, I could create groups relatively easily for a school, providing on concept instruction for children utilizing the staff I have. I query my data base, students at Alpha School with a Winter MAP Numbers and Operation RIT between 170-190, who have not completed "Understand Place Value up to 1000." Out comes the names and I have an instructional group. That group will contain 6 year olds, 7 year olds, and 8 year olds. Or as we like to call them 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. If we schedule their math at the same time, we can have 1 teacher work with all of this group on these skills rather than 6 teachers work on or ignore these skills based on the needs of the whole group. Simply creating longitudinal frames for recording student progress allows us to create and triangulate student needs and facilitate better use of student and staff talents.

The factory model of learning creates artificial limits to student development. If we want truly appropriate learning and hope to maximize growth, we need to realize that children are more like bananas than beer. They are ripe for certain things at certain times. However, unlike bananas, they don't all ripen at the same rate. Giving the right dose of learning opportunity at the right time will us to use our staff's talents well and increase our learning growth rate for students.

Banana!!!

Banana Song

Why Does This All Matter?

This past week, I was with a leader as the "aha!" moment occurred. The leader is a recovering cog in the machine. For school had been a series of structures. You know how cogs are. In schools they see schedules, semesters, grades, courses, content to cover, and students to get in class. For cogs, student engagement is following the teachers directions, completing the assignment and making sure the grade book is up to date.

But there it was, the "aha!" moment. In explaining rumination of thoughts for the upcoming year, the leader explained that the goal for everything was student ownership. Ownership, not the usual cog like answer of responsibility, but ownership. See responsibility is me completing what others want me to do and me behaving the way others want me to behave. Ownership is me being invested in what I am doing. Me wanting to be involved in the experience and the teachers including me as an important part of the experience. The experience revolves around me just as much as it revolves around the teacher, the course, the grade, or the content.

The leader went on to explain that this would really need to involve a whole lot of staff contemplation and discussion. Ongoing conversations regarding not what this class is supposed to cover but rather where students are at and what do they need to learn next. Refocusing our learning experiences in every subject around the children's progress, goals, and gains rather than activities we've used.

We all remember the first learning experience which truly mattered to us. We all know when learning became important and when school became important. Furthermore, we all have friends who never found that moment in which learning in school became something important for them. Some who exit thinking they wasted 13 years of their lives completing the tasks of others.

Student ownership generates student growth. Learning experiences such as problem-based learning, Genius Hour/20% time, self-selected reading dialogues, student-involved choices, and gamification all seek to invest the children in making learning theirs and not ours. For in schools, if we simply train, practice, drill, and test. It is all impractical and we are doomed to failure. Only when we make connections both academic and social, apply in real life, and find ways to make it part of us, can we make learning matter.

Eye of the Tiger - Chuck

In Our Efforts to Avoid It, Have We Become A Nation at Risk?

My brothers and I are children of the "A Nation At Risk" report. The first of three children, born in the baby bust (1973 & 1974) and the baby boomlet (1981), we were the ones the report was "analyzing" and the report was preparing for. We have grown up. We are parents. We have taken on careers, families, and are about to carry the mantle handed down to us from "The Greatest Generation" and the "Baby Boomers." What is this legacy you hand us? In education, we are still grappling with that very question.

Lets see what has occurred after "A Nation At Risk." The calendar did not reform. Many schools are still as set on an agrarian calendar as if we needed to head to the fields each Memorial day. School funding hasn't equalized. We had great debates regarding equity and adequacy. We learned that we can find taxing mechanisms that seem more fair but less stable. Michigan still reels after it's "Proposal A" funding reform which while the auto industry boomed during the first 5 years was fine and has since had 15 years of cuts to the point in which if one wants to become a teacher more often one leaves the state. Professionalization and respect for the teaching profession has not increased. Teachers and administrators are pitted annually with false layers of "unwillingness to change," "lack of accountability," and "satiated by tenure." 

In the last 32 years, we have as a nation have added standards set after standards set, test after test, reduced professionalism in the classroom and added accountability. We are sending the children of No Child Left Behind onto college and into the career world discovering that that are really good at standardized having completed year after year of test prep and wondering why they are disenchanted and disconnected with greater society values. We have stressed accountability in the classroom and demonstrated a lack of accountability in other institutions. They are America's children. They have noticed the gridlock in the legislature, the huge corporate funding influencing their "representatives" and the bailouts of Wall Street. If we wonder why they don't go into teaching, look at their experiences. They want to create and have found that schools were a test prep academy.

In an era of statistical sampling, SABRmetrics, and advanced metrics in life and in sports, only through Federal mandate and state law would we create a system that required annual population data. The census is taken every ten years. Elections accurately predict winners prior not only to every vote being counted but rather most votes being even cast. Yet, each child, third to eighth grade and some high school years, will spend more time this year than any year prior taking standardized assessment. 

The funny thing is despite this journey through education reform after reform, test after test. Inside schools Generations X, the Millennials, and Generation Z have decided to create, to innovate, to grow flowers in the desert. For them, for us, we look at these mandates and ask, what can we do despite the legislature? How can we "right size" this assessment and our efforts to fulfill it? How quickly can we get back to the business of having children explore, create, dialogue, argue, and build? How soon can we be back to coding, genius hour, guided instruction, science exploration, and social-emotional learning? We have received the letters from the Illinois State Board of Education and US Department of Education. Letters from leaders of generations past, reminding us of our legal requirements and the penalties we will receive if we do not comply. And we will be compliant. But do we value the energies of your reform? Will families value these PARCC and SmarterBalanced test scores? Or is this simply an exercise until we get back to the good stuff. We are doing it. We will be compliant. But will we value it, what will it's impact be on this next generation of learners, and is it worth it? What is price tag of our journey? Have we become the Nation at Risk? 

Price Tag - Pitch Perfect