Old way- John Dewey called it the static cold storage theory or the brick theory (Kohn) give them many bricks and at graduation we hope they have a house.
We are all active meaning makers. Understanding cannot be reinforced- only behavior can. Groovy thought- teacher is facilitator- facil means to make easy- teacher should make things difficult by creating conflict so kids say “wait I don’t get it… then this must be true”

Collaborative- kids challenging other kids in a safe environment.

He use to be a high school teacher and planned this polished course; like saying I have this marriage now I just have to find a woman to share it with.
Syllabus is created before students are met? How?

The question is- given how many students, parents, colleagues, etc come out of a behavioristic assumption (memorize, reinforce, regurgitate on test, grade, etc) What can I do to make sure I don’t get pulled into this? The best teachers don’t give tests because they are not needed to assess.

Story of kids in the library taking beads and pipe cleaners making snowflakes. His mom responds with “great, good artist” Alfie says, “Do you like it?” Kid begins reflecting (because praise and criticism are two sides of the same toy)
Math instruction article (Mrs. O – David Cohen)
Invite students to – why don’t we have spelling tests? Why don’t we use worksheets? Why don’t we lecture?

How does a true constructivist assess? Why do we assess? If it is primarily to sort kids- that leads us in one direction. If it is to motivate them- that is another direction. If we are using it as a form of control, certains things follow. To ensure learning or moving forward- learning is not a linear progression. Kids abilities to make connections. Even groovy assessments are only assessing teaching done.

Collect information and share with kids and parents. When you give grade- kids becomes less interested, takes easiest path to get the grade, they tend to think more superficially. Have kids assess themselves, can I collect enough information from what they are doing without giving a test. Can they do a summative project to gather this information to check for learning?

What about Rubrics? The trouble with rubrics- article on website- adaptation of forward of book called Rethinking Rubrics on writing assessments. This is an attempt to standardize writing and teaching. Don’t give it to the kids- then it just standardizes it more.

How do you do this pbl with high stakes tests on the horizon??? Round peg in square hole. How does pbl increase the grades on high stakes test????? Big question.
Bad teaching will raise the test score ! It is a political issue. I cannot in good conscious give this test that is soooo bad for students.

What about the kid that refuses to work? If it is not measured, it is not real- according to kid. Maybe we can keep score with self not competition. Other possibilities- this topic is not of interest to me; not my input on this (how do we get more input); giving kids more say- less teacher control; ask the kid

What is the point? K-12 is not to get you into a college or a job. Nothing you do is valuable – it is a means to an end. Justify what we do by realizing that kids are not just future adults. They are miserable now, but it will help them later! Their excitement about learning matters; this is either worth doing or it’s not. Practical ways to make sure we teach them something valuable now-

How can you share- narrative and evaluation; conference; porfolio to replace grades; (step 1- pt conference with kid; bring in portfolio; kid runs pt conference) must replace all report cards. People and constituents who need more- programs that are designed for a double check (number) with criteria-work sampling (sam izel at U of M); Ways of saying here is why accoreding to standards and criteria but it is based on kids real learning over time in the classroom.

How do we teach kids to have freedom, set goals, success/redo/success- not failure, deal with no grades, self evaluation, portfolio, etc?
Is the learning organized by problems, projects, and questions?

Are children just future adults and future employees?

If you are helping students construct their own knowledge, is there a sequence?  far less often than we assume- even in upper level math how about integrate all?  Within a certain discipline you learn to read by reading… not with encoding and phonemes.  Within context you learn skills.  Article- What does it mean to be well-educated?  You have to define the goal!!

This was awesome and I will read these notes and continue to soak in and reblog on this!!!  Whew.  My brain hurts.  This is a good thing.